Karl Waldmann (politician)

Karl Wilhelm Waldmann (born June 20, 1889 in Tiefenbach , † November 7, 1969 in Stuttgart ) was a German politician of the NSDAP . From 1932 to 1933 he was a member of the Württemberg state parliament , 1933 state parliament president and 1942 to 1945 acting head of the Württemberg finance ministry during the Nazi era .

Personal

Karl Wilhelm Waldmann came from a Protestant farming family. His parents Georg Friedrich Waldmann and Eva Maria, née Kochendörfer, ran agriculture in Tiefenbach near Crailsheim . Karl Waldmann married Else Greiner on May 29, 1917. The couple had a son. In 1935 Waldmann resigned from the Evangelical Church.

Professional background

Karl Waldmann went to the elementary school in Tiefenbach from 1898 secondary school in Crailsheim where he acquired in 1904 the average maturity . In August 1904 he joined the local city administration. Later he moved to the administration in Ebersbach and passed the service examination for the upper middle administrative service in 1911. In the Württemberg civil service he was deployed in the senior offices of Herrenberg , Gmünd , Waldsee , Ravensburg and Urach . During the First World War he was not called up for military service. In the war year 1917 he was appointed inspector. From 1919 to 1921 he worked at the state grain department and was promoted to chief inspector in 1921. From 1921 to 1933 Waldmann worked in the state trade office.

Political activities

Waldmann allowed himself to be influenced anti-Semitically in his early adult years through appropriate reading and contacts . In 1919 he joined the DDP for a short time , which he quickly left because he could not bring his anti-Semitism to bear there. Waldmann became a member of the NSDAP as early as October 1925, although, as a non-war participant, he said he was reluctant to take this step for a long time.

After working as a secretary in the Gau leadership and as Gau business manager in the Gau Württemberg - Hohenzollern , he initially left the NSDAP again in January 1928 and rejoined the party almost exactly three years later. In the course of 1931, Waldmann briefly became head of the Nazi civil service in the Württemberg-Hohenzollern district. In the Württemberg state elections on April 24, 1932 and March 5, 1933 (actually the election to the 8th Reichstag) he won a mandate for the NSDAP and in 1933 he succeeded Jonathan Schmid as president of the state parliament. The last state parliament in Württemberg met only once, on June 8, 1933. With the SPD abstaining, an enabling law was passed for Württemberg, which formally legitimized the Nazi dictatorship in Württemberg.

As early as March 30, 1933, Waldmann was appointed honorary advisory board member of the Württemberg State Ministry, on May 12, 1933 as State Councilor, and on July 13, 1933 as State Secretary . In these positions he was personal advisor to Reich Governor Wilhelm Murr . This made Waldmann one of the most influential politicians in Württemberg during the Nazi era. Some of his topics included, for example, the promotion of peasantry and the development of the Neckar as a waterway, and later also the demonstrative suppression of the churches. In his key position in the Württemberg State Ministry, Waldmann had to have precise knowledge of the crimes planned and committed by the regime.

Karl Waldmann belonged to that type of National Socialists who attracted attention less for fanaticism than for factual work and calm, level-headed appearance. Waldmann made National Socialism socially acceptable, especially in the Württemberg professional civil service. In November 1936 he joined the SA and was SA Standartenführer from May 1937 and SA Oberführer from January 1942. From 1939 to 1940 he was head of the economic department at the head of civil administration in the 7th Army . Then from June 1940 to April 1941 he was head of the war administration in the north-west French military district of the Wehrmacht . In April 1941 Waldmann returned to his old position at the Stuttgart Reich Governor Murr.

From February 17, 1942 to May 1945, Waldmann headed the Württemberg Ministry of Finance as Alfred Dehlinger's successor . Since, according to a directive, new state ministers were no longer to be appointed, Waldmann officially led the ministry under his old title of State Secretary. In April 1945, Waldmann, together with Interior Minister Jonathan Schmid and Lord Mayor Karl Strölin, prevented the complete execution of the so-called Nero order in Stuttgart, according to which the bridges, the water supply and the electricity works should have been destroyed shortly before the city was taken by the Allies . However, the demolition of the Stuttgart Neckar bridges by the retreating German troops could not be averted.

Life after 1945

With the collapse of the National Socialist German Reich in May 1945, Waldmann's career as a civil servant came to an end, which included 14 years in the Kingdom of Württemberg , 15 years in the People's State of Württemberg and 12 years as an active National Socialist. After his arrest by the United States' armed forces in Schwäbisch Gmünd on June 22, 1945, Waldmann was interned in Ludwigsburg from August 1945 to December 1947 . Released from internment custody for health reasons , he succeeded in a de-Nazification process to skilfully downplay his role during the National Socialist era . On September 4, 1948, the Spruchkammer decided to classify Waldmann as a “minor offender”, although people in his category were usually to be regarded as the “main culprits”. The verdict was linked to six months' probation and the obligation to bear the costs of the proceedings. On 10 October 1949, when he was appealed to the Central Judicial Chamber in North-Württemberg, Waldmann was only classified as a “fellow traveler”. Even the legal costs were waived on October 20, 1950 by the Ministry of the Interior of the State of Württemberg-Baden . During the years 1948-1950 was Waldmann employee at Richard Boorberg publishing before he in on January 31, 1950 pension went.

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Paul Sauer: Württemberg in the time of National Socialism. In: Meinrad Schaab , Hansmartin Schwarzmaier (ed.) U. a .: Handbook of Baden-Württemberg History . Volume 4: Die Länder since 1918. Edited on behalf of the Commission for Historical Regional Studies in Baden-Württemberg . Klett-Cotta, Stuttgart 2003, ISBN 3-608-91468-4 , p. 318.

literature

• Annette Roser: Civil servant by appointment. Karl Wilhelm Waldmann, State Secretary of Württemberg. In: M. Kißener, J. Scholtyseck (Ed.): The leaders of the province. Nazi biographies from Baden and Württemberg. Universitätsverlag Konstanz, Konstanz, 1997, pp. 781–803.
• Frank Raberg : Biographical handbook of the Württemberg state parliament members 1815-1933 . On behalf of the Commission for Historical Regional Studies in Baden-Württemberg. Kohlhammer, Stuttgart 2001, ISBN 3-17-016604-2 , p. 981 f .
• Hubert Roser / Annette Roser: Karl Waldmann (1889–1969). In: R. Smiling, J. Thierfelder (Ed.), We could not withdraw. 30 portraits on the Church and National Socialism in Württemberg, Stuttgart 1998, pp. 227–250.
• Hubert Roser: Karl Waldmann, In: Baden-Württembergische Biographien, Volume 3, Stuttgart 2002, pp. 434–437.

Web links

• Karl Waldmann, State Secretary and Head of the Ministry of Finance Waldmann's biography on the online portal History of the State Ministries in Baden and Württemberg during the National Socialist era