Lorenz Zahneisen

Lorenz Zahneisen

Lorenz Zahneisen (born August 31, 1897 in Bamberg , † October 20, 1950 in Erlangen ) was a German politician ( NSDAP ), Lord Mayor of Bamberg and SA leader.

Live and act

Youth and First World War

After attending primary school, Zahneisen learned the lathe trade . At the same time he attended the vocational training school. On August 3, 1914, he volunteered for the First World War , in which he fought with the Royal Bavarian Reserve Field Artillery Regiment No. 9 until October 1917 . Zahneisen was wounded in the war and was awarded the Iron Cross II. Class and the Bavarian Military Merit Cross.

Weimar Republic

In 1923, Zahneisen joined the NSDAP for the first time. After the party was temporarily banned from November 1923 to January 1925, he rejoined it ( membership number 3,915) and quickly made a career as a party official. As a leading National Socialist in Bamberg, Zahneisen took over the office of district leader in his home country. Joseph Goebbels , who met him at this time, judged after his first encounter with Zahneisen in 1926:

“I get to know great people. Especially tooth irons. A breed type. "

In the Sturmabteilung (SA), the paramilitary formation of the NSDAP, Zahneisen also took on leadership tasks and rose to the rank of SA chief.

As a local politician, Zahneisen became a city ​​councilor in Bamberg in 1929 , and in 1932 he received a mandate for the Bavarian state parliament . In June 1932 he was expelled from the state parliament for several months because he had appeared at a meeting in party uniform.

time of the nationalsocialism

After the National Socialist " seizure of power " in the spring of 1933, Zahneisen was appointed honorary first mayor of Bamberg in April, and after Luitpold Weegmann was deposed on March 31, 1934, he became mayor. At the same time he was district leader of the NSDAP. In this capacity he was responsible, among other things, for the destruction of the city's synagogue during the Reichspogromnacht in 1938.

In November 1933, Zahneisen moved into the Reichstag as a member of parliament for constituency 26 ( Franconia ) , to which he belonged until the end of Nazi rule in spring 1945.

post war period

In 1948, during the denazification process , Zahneisen was classified as a “follower” by a ruling chamber , whereas he turned against with the note: “I do not wish to be classified as a follower. I was always an active member of the Nazi party. ”After his internment in 1948, he was taken into custody because he was being investigated for breaking the peace and arson in connection with the destruction of the Bamberg synagogue. On April 11, 1949, Zahneisen was sentenced to four years in prison for these offenses . However, this sentence was reduced to three years on June 3, 1950, mainly because of his poor health. In September 1950 Zahneisen was released early from prison. He died of a serious illness a month later.

literature

• Joachim Lilla , Martin Döring, Andreas Schulz: extras in uniform. The members of the Reichstag 1933–1945. A biographical manual. Including the ethnic and National Socialist members of the Reichstag from May 1924. Droste, Düsseldorf 2004, ISBN 3-7700-5254-4 .
• Erich Stockhorst : 5000 people. Who was what in the 3rd Reich . 2nd Edition. Arndt, Kiel 2000, ISBN 3-88741-116-1 .
• Rudolf Albart: The middle of the century: From the swastika to the stars and stripes: a Bamberg report . R. Albart, Bamberg 1979.

Web links

• Lorenz Zahneisen in the database of members of the Reichstag
• Lorenz Zahneisen in the parliamentary database at the House of Bavarian History

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Elke Fröhlich (Ed.): The Diaries of Joseph Goebbels , Part I, Vol. 1 / II. Munich 2005, p. 82 (entry from May 8, 1926).
2. ↑ Negotiations of the Bavarian Parliament 1932-1933 .
3. ↑ Lorenz Zahneisen . In: Der Spiegel . No. 40 , 1948, pp. 18 ( online ).