Kurt Detlev Möller

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Kurt Detlev Möller (born August 19, 1902 in Hamburg ; † November 21, 1957 there ) was a German archivist and historian .

Live and act

Kurt Detlev Möller was the son of a businessman from Hamburg. He spent his childhood in Eimsbüttel . From 1921 he studied history at the University of Hamburg . He finished his studies in 1925 at the University of Munich with a doctorate under Hermann Oncken . In his doctoral thesis, Möller dealt with contributions to the history of church and religious life in Hamburg in the first decades of the 19th century . He then returned to his hometown, where he trained as an archivist. Möller subsequently worked as a research assistant at the Hamburg State Archives and from 1934 as a civil servant archivist. Alongside his job, he took over the chairmanship of the Association for Hamburg History in 1937 as the successor to Hans Nirrnheim .

During the Second World War Möller did military service. From 1945 he worked again in the Hamburg State Archives, whose director he was appointed in 1948. He took over this office from Heinrich Reincke . In 1948 it became known that Möller had been a member of the NSDAP since 1937 and had made anti-Semitic statements as a speaker that same year that went beyond the wording of Adolf Hitler and Alfred Rosenberg . In the context of this so-called "Möller case", the mayor Max Brauer suspended the archivist in 1949. Möller sued the administrative courts against this decision and was given his position back in 1951. The position of archive director was reassigned to him on January 1, 1956.

Kurt Detlev Möller died in November 1957. His grave can be found in the Ohlsdorf cemetery .

Works

In addition to his work in the State Archives, Kurt Detlev Möller published. In 1933 he wrote Hamburger Männer um Wichern. A picture of the religious movement 100 years ago . In 1937 he wrote a biography of Johann Albert Fabricius , and in 1939, together with Annelise Tecke, he wrote the first volume of book studies on Hamburg's history .

In 1947 Möller wrote The Last Chapter on behalf of the Hamburg Senate . In this book, which initially received positive reviews, he described Hamburg's surrender without a fight towards the end of World War II on May 3, 1945. In the context of the Möller case, the work was increasingly criticized and was one of the decisive factors in its suspension from civil service. Möller was accused of not having criticized Gauleiter Karl Kaufmann enough.

Möller planned an extensive biography of Caspar Voght towards the end of his life , but he could no longer complete it. Annelise Tecke created a source volume from Möller's estate in 1959, which contained Voght's letters.

literature

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ See Der Spiegel : Dr. Möller's last chapter , dated: February 14, 1948; Retrieved on: May 2, 2017
personal data
SURNAME Möller, Kurt Detlev
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German historian
DATE OF BIRTH August 19, 1902
PLACE OF BIRTH Hamburg
DATE OF DEATH November 21, 1957
Place of death Hamburg