Kurt Mayer (historian)

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Kurt Mayer (right) with his deputy Erich Wasmannsdorff in the Reich Office for Family Research on a map with the “Race distribution in Europe and its border areas” (November 1935), recording from the Federal Archives

Kurt Mayer (born June 27, 1903 in Otterberg ; † June 8, 1945 in Bad Oldesloe ) was a German historian , SS-Standartenführer and head of the Reichssippenamt and was ultimately responsible for issuing an Aryan certificate in cases of doubt .

Professional background

Kurt Mayer was born as the second of five children to what would later become the senior church councilor Eugen Mayer. During his school days he grew up in Kaiserslautern. There he passed his Abitur in 1922 and then studied history and law in Munich, Hamburg and Würzburg. He wrote a dissertation on a genealogical - heraldic topic and received his doctorate in Munich in 1929.

Mayer tried in vain for a lectureship and a position in the Baden archive service. It was not until 1930 that he was placed in the regional church archive of the Evangelical Church of the Palatinate. In 1931 he worked for the Evangelical Union in Halle / Saale .

Political career

Mayer had already joined the NSDAP in 1923 and had been involved in acts of resistance against the Franco-Belgian occupation (see occupation of the Ruhr ). After the end of the ban on the NSDAP, he rejoined the party (membership number 161.070). In 1930 he took over the management of the Hitler Youth in the Speyer - Germersheim district . In 1931 he was active as a Gau speaker. In November 1933 Mayer became head of department at the Berlin “Race and Settlement Main Office of the SS” (SS membership number 7.115), the later “ Race and Settlement Main Office ” (RuSHA), which kept the “clan books” of the SS members and issued marriage permits. In 1934 Mayer also became chairman of the “ Herold ” association, in which leading experts in heraldry and genealogy worked. From this position, Mayer took action against Achim Gercke , who headed the Reich Office for Family Research.

At the beginning of 1935, Gercke was suspected of having engaged with homosexuals. Kurt Mayer had previously spread rumors about alleged bribery of Gercke. Gercke was dismissed and in March 1935 Mayer took over the management of the “Reichsstelle für kin research at the Reich Ministry of the Interior”, which he led in personal union with the party's own “office for kin research of the NSDAP”.

Head of Department

The area of ​​responsibility of the agency was expanded through further statutory regulations. She alone was responsible in cases of doubt for the "racial classification" according to the First Ordinance on the Reich Citizenship Law and for naturalization procedures.

This increased the number of applications. In 1936 Mayer ordered a vacation ban in order to be able to cope with the inquiries. Later up to 125 employees were employed, who issued more than 150,000 notices of parentage. Plans for a uniform “Reich clan index” and greater power for his office failed in the dispute over competences. The agency, which was renamed “ Reichssippenamt ” in 1940 , never received the status of an independent authority.

Since Mayer had made defamatory and insulting statements while drunk, including against Joseph Goebbels , several party proceedings were run against him in 1936. Nevertheless, he was promoted to the upper government council in 1937 . He was probably already in the SS at that time ; In 1941 or 1943 Mayer was given the rank of SS-Standartenführer. In 1942 Kurt Mayer wrote about his work: "Over the years I only felt like a placeholder for the Reichsführer SS".

Kurt Mayer remained director of the Reichssippenamt until the end of the war. On June 8, 1945, he and his wife committed suicide and took their children with them to their death. His wife survived and died in the British military prison in June 1946.

Fonts

  • Genealogical-heraldic research on the history of the old Kingdom of Burgundy , Speier a. Rh., H. Gilardone, 1930. (Inaugural Diss. Munich)
  • Egon Berchem ; Donald Lindsay Galbreath ; Otto Hupp ; Kurt Mayer: Contributions to the history of heraldry , Berlin: Verl. F. Registry office 1939. Series of publications of the Reichsstelle für Kippenforschung, Bd. 3 = Neustadt (an der Aisch): Bauer and Raspe, 1972 (Reprograph. Reprint of the Berlin 1939 edition)
  • Search sheet general family researcher. General search sheet for clan researchers. At the same time the news bulletin of the Office for Family Research d. NSDAP. Contains the messages d. Reich Office f. Family research (of the Reich Family Office). Ed. F. the Volksbund d. German genealogical associations <VSV> e. V. v. Kurt Mayer. Berlin: Metznerin Komm. 1937–1944
  • Karl Bamberger: Family Studies and Race Care . With e. Escort v. Kurt Mayer. Leipzig: Central Office f. German personal and Family history 1935

literature

  • Diana Schulle: The Reichssippenamt. An institution of National Socialist racial policy. Dissertation, University of Greifswald, 1999. Logos, Berlin 2001, ISBN 3-89722-672-3 .
  • Manfred Gailus : "Kinship-Mayer". A biographical sketch of the historian and head of the Reich Office for Family Research Dr. Kurt Mayer (1903-1945). In the S. (Ed.): Church administrative assistance. The Church and the persecution of the Jews in the “Third Reich”. Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, Göttingen 2008, ISBN 978-3-525-55340-4 , pp. 195 ff.
  • Jürgen Arndt (editor) with the help of Horst Hilgenberg and Marga Wehner: Biographical lexicon of heraldists as well as sphragistics, vexillologists and insignologists. Ed .: Herold, Association for Heraldry, Genealogy and Related Sciences (= J. Siebmachers Großes Wappenbuch. H). Bauer & Raspe, Neustadt an der Aisch 1992, ISBN 3-87947-109-6 , p. 346

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Day of death after Klee = June 3 / Ernst Klee : Das Personenlexikon zum Third Reich. Frankfurt 2005, ISBN 3-596-16048-0 / day of death at Schulle = June 8 / Diana Schulle: Das Reichssippenamt ..., ISBN 3-89722-672-3 , p. 383.
  2. ↑ Information from Diana Schulle: Das Reichssippenamt. An institution of National Socialist racial policy. (Diss. 1999) Berlin 2001, ISBN 3-89722-672-3 , pp. 143ff.
  3. ↑ a b List of seniority of the NSDAP Schutzstaffel. As of December 1, 1936, p. 64 f., No. 1394. (JPG; 1.05 MB) In: http://www.dws-xip.pl/reich/biografie/1936/1936.html . Retrieved November 6, 2019 .
  4. ↑ Diana Schulle: Das Reichssippenamt ..., ISBN 3-89722-672-3 , pp. 155–159.
  5. ↑ 170 employees according to the Encyclopedia of National Socialism , ISBN 3-423-33007-4 , p. 694 / Schulle, p. 168, subtracts those drafted for military service / number 151,898 to 1943 = p. 170.
  6. ↑ 1941 after Ernst Klee: Das Personenlexikon zum Third Reich. Frankfurt 2005, ISBN 3-596-16048-0 / 1943 from Diana Schulle: Das Reichssippenamt ..., ISBN 3-89722-672-3 , p. 325.
  7. ↑ Volkmar Weiss : Reichsnährstand - Reichssippenamt, accessed on January 24, 2009.
  8. ^ Diana Schulle: Das Reichssippenamt ..., ISBN 3-89722-672-3 , p. 383 with annotation 12.

Web links

personal data
SURNAME Mayer, Kurt
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German historian, head of the Reichssippenamt
DATE OF BIRTH June 27, 1903
PLACE OF BIRTH Otterberg
DATE OF DEATH June 8, 1945
Place of death Bad Oldesloe