Karl Lapper

Karl Lapper

Karl Lapper (born February 6, 1907 in Schneeberg near Rabenstein , South Tyrol, † October 27, 1996 in Cologne ) was an Austrian press officer, propagandist and politician ( NSDAP ). He was active in the press and propaganda work of the Hitler Youth and the NSDAP.

Live and act

After attending elementary school in Jachymov studied Lapper 1927 Law in Innsbruck , where he in 1932 to Dr. jur. PhD . During his studies in 1927 he became a member of the Suevia Innsbruck fraternity . He then worked as a trainee lawyer in Austria . From 1932 to 1933 he had a law practice in Kufstein .

In 1923, Lapper and Hartmann Lauterbacher founded the first National Socialist youth organization in the Austrian Alpine countries. On November 1, 1927, Lapper joined the NSDAP ( membership number 81.602). In 1928 he also became a member of the SA . In the party he took on various functionaries from 1930: in 1930 he became a local group leader , 1931 district propaganda leader and 1933 district leader of the NSDAP in Kufstein. After being sentenced to prison for his political activities, he fled to Germany in autumn 1933 . In autumn 1933 he was expatriated.

Lapper initially found a livelihood from October 1933 as a press officer in the upper area of ​​the West of the Hitler Youth in Cologne , where he became editor and in December 1934 chief editor of the HJ newspaper Die Fanfare . In February 1935 he was appointed to the Reich Youth Leadership and in May 1935 took over as deputy head of the local press and propaganda office. In January 1937 he was promoted to head of the office as the successor to Erich Fischer . Until July 1939 he was also the press officer of the Reich Youth Leader .

After the "Anschluss" of Austria , Lapper was responsible for press propaganda in the Wahlgau Tyrol in March and April 1938 as the special representative of Gauleiter Josef Bürckel . From April 1938 until the end of Nazi rule in spring 1945, Lapper was a member of the National Socialist Reichstag for Austria . In October 1938 he became a Reich speaker for the NSDAP.

In February 1939, Lapper was appointed head of the “Youth and Book Working Group”. At his own request, he was relieved of his duties as head of the press and propaganda office in July 1939. At the request of Joseph Goebbels , he moved to the Reich Ministry for Public Enlightenment and Propaganda , where he was to take on a "special assignment in the field of film". Between the beginning of September 1939 and the beginning of April 1941, Lapper was Gau propaganda leader and headed the Reich Propaganda Office of the NSDAP in the Tyrol-Vorarlberg district . At the same time he officiated there as state cultural administrator of the Reich Chamber of Culture.

Lapper joined the SS in November 1939 (SS no. 351.373), in which he was promoted to SS-Obersturmbannführer in January 1940 . From August 1944 he was a leader in the staff of the SS Upper Section Alpenland. After a brief assignment in a propaganda company in June 1940, he was made indispensable and thus released from military service. From April 1941 he headed the office for lectures and meetings at the Reich leadership of the NSDAP and the office of speakers of the NSDAP in the Reich propaganda administration . From March 1, 1943, he also acted as the head of the main office of the Gau, and later the head of the department, as the acting head of the main office of propaganda of the Nazi party leadership. In November 1943 he also took over the provisional management of the Reich and Gaupropaganda offices of the NSDAP in the NSDAP district of Carinthia.

Fonts

• Born in 1926. One year of work in the Deutsche Jungvolk , 1936.
• Jungmädel, Your Service , 1937.
• The Organizations of the Hitler Youth , 1937.
• Pimpf what you need to know about your ministry , 1937.
• Creates homes for the Hitler Youth , 1937.

literature

• Michael Buddrus : Total education for total war. Hitler Youth and National Socialist Youth Policy. Saur, Munich 2003, ISBN 3598116152 .
• Helge Dvorak: Biographical Lexicon of the German Burschenschaft. Volume I: Politicians. Volume 8: Supplement L – Z. Winter, Heidelberg 2014, ISBN 978-3-8253-6051-1 , pp. 8–9.

Web links

• Karl Lapper in the database of members of the Reichstag
• Literature by and about Karl Lapper in the catalog of the German National Library