Karl Litzmann

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Karl Litzmann

Karl Litzmann (born January 22, 1850 in Neuglobsow ; † May 28, 1936 there ) was a Prussian infantry general in World War I , later a politician ( NSDAP ). In December 1932, he opened the last freely elected Reichstag of the Weimar Republic as senior president .

Live and act

Family and early years

The Litzmann family has been traceable in Neuruppin and the surrounding area since the mid-16th century and was one of the local councilors. From it emerged the Berlin mayors Caspar (mayor from 1695) and Johann Joachim Litzmann (mayor 1709–1712). Litzmann's father was the owner of a glassworks and forest property in Neuglobsow on the Great Stechlinsee . Theodor Fontane learned from him the legend about the Stechlinsee, which inspired him to write his late work Der Stechlin .

Karl Litzmann embarked on a military career in the Prussian army in his youth and took part in the war against France in 1870/71 . By 1895 he was promoted to colonel and in 1898 he was promoted to major general . From 1902 to 1905 he was director of the War Academy . In 1905 he was prematurely retired due to differences of opinion with the General Staff .

Like his father, Litzmann's son Karl-Siegmund became a member of the SA and rose to become General Commissioner for Estonia in 1941. His grandson Walter Lehweß-Litzmann made a career in the Air Force and NVA . His great niece Ursula Litzmann became a photographer.

First World War

At the beginning of the First World War , Litzmann was reactivated as an officer and entrusted with command of the 3rd Guard Division . For his successful service on the Eastern Front , during which he managed to break through the Russian front under the command of Reinhard von Scheffer-Boyadel at the end of November 1914 from an already cut position in the Lowitsch pocket at minus 20 degrees near the Polish town of Brzeziny , he was awarded the Pour le Mérite on November 29, 1914 . This battle near Łódź was of great importance for the overall strategic development of the Eastern Front because its outcome stopped the advance of Russian troops in the direction of Poznan and Berlin. Since then, Litzmann has held the honorary title “The Lion of Brzeziny”.

In 1915 Litzmann ran the XXXX. Reserve Corps in the winter battle in Masuria (reconquest of East Prussia ) and conquered the Kovno fortress, which was considered impregnable, by bold and strategically adept troop leadership. For this he received the oak leaves for the Pour le Mérite on August 18, 1915. He turned down the title of nobility offered by the emperor.

Opponent of the Weimar Republic

Shocked by the German defeat in 1918 and the peace conditions, Litzmann rejected the republic and stood in the camp of the German national right. In his autobiographical memoirs (published in 1927 and 1928) he declared the parliamentary system to have failed. A national rebirth requires a return to the “Bismarckian spirit”: a new leader, who has not yet appeared, will save the German people from their misery and restore the monarchy.

Karl Litzmann

Litzmann changed his views within a short period of time and joined the NSDAP in 1929 . He had previously joined the SA . He put his reputation as a general of the world war in the service of the party and appeared as a campaign speaker. In 1932 he was elected to the Prussian state parliament, which he opened as senior president. With the dissolution of the state parliament in October 1933, his mandate expired.

In the Reichstag election in November 1932 , he was elected to the Reichstag and was allowed to open it as its senior president at the age of 82. In his speech of December 6, 1932, he accused President Paul von Hindenburg of "not being clear about the situation in Germany" and called for Hitler to be appointed Chancellor . As early as December 15, 1932, Litzmann resigned his seat and limited himself to his seat in the Prussian state parliament. In the election on March 5, 1933 , he was re-elected to the Reichstag, but renounced on April 2, 1933 again due to his mandate in the state parliament. After the unfree Reichstag election in November 1933 , he was again a member of the Reichstag until his death in 1936.

From July 1933 he was a member of the Prussian State Council occupied by Hermann Göring . Litzmann was one of Hitler's loyal followers. On July 2, 1934, the day after the so-called Röhm Putsch , Litzmann was one of Hitler's followers when he again presented himself to the public.

Honored by the Nazi regime

In 1936 Litzmann's funeral in Neuglobsow was staged as a state funeral .

After the annexation of the Wartheland , the former Polish cities of Łódź and Brzeziny were given German names in honor of Karl Litzmann: Łódź was renamed “Litzmannstadt” on April 11, 1940, while Brzeziny was named “Lion City” ( Lion of Brzeziny , see above) . With the end of the German occupation , the renaming became obsolete.

Karl Litzmann was an honorary citizen of the city of Neuruppin . This honorary citizenship was revoked in 2007. The Berlin Friedrichs Realgymnasium , where Litzmann graduated from high school in 1866, bore his name from 1938 before it was named Leibniz School after the Second World War .

literature

Web links

Commons : Karl Litzmann  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Karl Litzmann: Memoirs. Vol. 2, Berlin 1928, p. 316.
  2. ↑ Joachim Lilla u. a. (Arr.): Extras in uniform. The members of the Reichstag 1933-1945 , Düsseldorf 2004, p. 378.
  3. ^ Frankfurter Zeitung , January 23, 1935.
  4. ^ Horst Kube: General Litzmann , Langensalza / Berlin / Leipzig 1935.
  5. ↑ Excerpt from the speech in: Herbert Michaelis (Ed.): The Weimar Republic. The end of the parliamentary system. (Causes and Consequences, Vol. 8), Berlin 1963, pp. 719f.
  6. ↑ A photograph shows Hitler at the window of the Reich Chancellery , Litzmann in the background. In: Walter Frank , On the History of National Socialism. Lecture given on June 14, 1934 at the University of Munich. Hanseatische Verlagsanstalt, Hamburg 1934, p. 2.
  7. ↑ Marie-Therese Nercessian: Moving story of a famous school. In: Berliner Morgenpost. May 18, 2000, p. 33.
personal data
SURNAME Litzmann, Karl
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Prussian General of the Infantry and Politicians (NSDAP), MdR, MdL
DATE OF BIRTH January 22, 1850
PLACE OF BIRTH Neuglobsow
DATE OF DEATH May 28, 1936
Place of death Neuglobsow