Max Erwin von Scheubner-Richter

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Max Erwin von Scheubner-Richter (1915), photo from the Federal Archives

Ludwig Maximilian Erwin von Scheubner Judge ( Latvian : Ludvigs Rihters ; born January 9 . Jul / 21st January  1884 greg. In Riga , Russian Empire , today Latvia ; † 9. November 1923 in Munich ) was a German chemist, officer and a leading figure in the early phase of the NSDAP . The first volume of Hitler's book Mein Kampf is dedicated to him and fifteen other National Socialists who perished in the Hitler putsch .

Life and professional development

Max Erwin Richter was born the son of a German musician and a Baltic German mother. He received Scheubner's name affix in 1912 after marrying the 19 years older noblewoman Mathilde von Scheubner (* April 16, 1865, † after 1951) and being adopted by one of her relatives.

Early years

From 1904 to 1906 Max Richter studied chemistry at the Riga Polytechnic . He joined the Corps Rubonia in Riga and made the acquaintance of Otto von Kursell . After the Russian Revolution 1905–1907 he moved to Germany. From this point on he lived in Munich. Here he also continued his studies, which he completed as a doctoral engineer . On August 10, 1914, he volunteered as a war volunteer . With the beginning of the war he was assigned to the 7th Bavarian Chevauleger Regiment Straubing.

Activities in the First World War

With the 7th Bavarian Regiment, Max Scheubner-Richter was deployed on the Western Front. On the basis of his knowledge of Russian, one of his superiors arranged the command to the Russian front lines. He worked here until November 1914. During this time, senior officials of the Foreign Office in Berlin had come up with the plan to blow up the Russian oil production areas in the area behind the Russian-Turkish lines by means of a sabotage operation in order to bring rail transport and crude oil supplies to a standstill in the country. Paul Schwarz (1882–1951) was selected as a suitable commander , who, as a petroleum specialist, had knowledge of the nature of the oil fields around Baku through his job. Scheubner-Richter was selected as a partner at his side by Legation Councilor Otto Günther von Wesendonk (1885–1933), who was responsible for preparing such projects in the Foreign Office, in November 1914. While Schwarz was already on the march to Erzurum on November 8th, the organizers in Berlin were still working feverishly to get the necessary "covers", equipment and explosives. At the end of the month, Scheubner-Richter also traveled to Turkey and arrived in Erzurum shortly before December 19. In the meantime, Schwarz had made further preparations for the planned sabotage operation on site. This also included camouflaging both actors as head and deputy of the German consulate in Erzurum. When the Turkish army launched an offensive against the Russian fortress of Kar on December 19, Schwarz took the opportunity to cross the Russian front lines with a small group who had been selected for the first acts of sabotage in the shadow of this military action. When he started moving on December 21, Scheubner-Richter stayed in Erzurum as “Consulate Secretary”. The promised sabotage ended in failure because the resistance of the Russian troops could not be broken by the Turkish units and the group around Schwarz could not even reach the oil fields. In the meantime, Scheubner-Richter had established himself in the consulate as "Kunsulatsverweser" and occasionally even presented himself as an attaché to visitors. While he was in command, he had hoped to be able to deduce from this a further use in the consular service of the Foreign Office. However, the Federal Foreign Office did not comply with his request, which he had made several times, to appoint him Vice Consul, as this provisional activity in Erzurum was only agreed for the duration of the deployment and specifically only to cover the planned acts of sabotage.

Regardless of this, Scheubner-Richter behaved as if all of the consular work at the Eastern Turkish location had been transferred to him. On February 17, 1916, Schwarz, suffering from dysentery while on duty , left for Germany completely depressed due to the failure to fulfill his assignment . In the meantime Scheubner-Richter had been promoted to lieutenant. Shortly before Schwarz's departure, a Prince Emir Arslan Khan had visited the consulate and presented a plan. This envisaged the establishment of a Caucasian republic, which could be implemented through military action with the participation of a Turkish division and 2 to 3 German officers. Scheubner-Richter thought this plan was important and sent sketches and material about possible deployment areas to the Foreign Office. He promised the success of the campaign and his personal participation. He argued that the original plan to destroy the Russian oil pipelines also wanted to be implemented.

In the middle of the preparations for this next military action, information about the growing unrest in the Armenian areas arrived. Knowing that crimes had been committed against defenseless people there, Max Scheubner-Richter criticized Turkey's actions and called on the Foreign Office and the German ambassador Hans Freiherr von Wangenheim in Constantinople to do something. On May 20, 1915 he reported:

... I personally went to the expatriates camped around the city. The misery - despair and bitterness are great. The women threw themselves and their children in front of my horse and asked for help. The sight of these wailing arms was pathetic and embarrassing - but even more embarrassing for me was the feeling of not being able to help. The Armenian population currently sees the representatives of the German Reich as their only protection and expects help from him.

The only thing I could do was - get the bishop and the residents of Erzerum to gather bread for the displaced who are without food. That happened and will continue. However, there is a prohibition against leaving the city without special permission, which is not granted to Armenians. As a result, since I regard this ban as non-existent for myself and my employees, I have this bread carried out daily up to 10 km by car of the consulate and distributed among the poor of the displaced. "

Von Scheubner-Richter did manage to save individual Armenians, but his interventions in Constantinople and Berlin were ineffective. As the marginal notes attached to his letter in the Embassy of Constantinople show, his behavior towards the Armenians was even regarded as unworldly and inappropriate to the political situation.

In addition, Max Scheubner-Richter made further efforts to advance the military and sabotage plans in the direction of the Caucasus. The Foreign Office decided at short notice to send Friedrich Werner von der Schulenburg (1875–1944) with a small group to the region to review the situation on site . Disguised as civilians, they arrived in Erzerum on August 6th. But already at the beginning of September 1915 500 soldiers under the command of the Leverkühn brothers as well as 50 Turkish horsemen and 100 infantrymen, led by Scheubner-Richter, left Erzurum southwards. Corresponding situation reports were also sent to Werner von der Schulenburg. Just a few days after leaving, Scheubner-Richter proposed the Leverküns for promotion and himself for the Rittmeister and appointment as Vice Consul. In January 1917, the group then left Mosul in the direction of Erbil. In the meantime, however, Russian attacks on Erzerum had taken place and the consulate had to be relocated to Sivas. The military situation for the group around Scheubner-Richter and the Leverkühns became more and more difficult, they ran out of financial means and their partner Arslan Khan turned out to be an impostor. In March 1916 Scheubner-Richter handed over the command to Karl Gustav Leverkühn (fallen in 1918). In July of the same year he dissolved the military association.

Returning to Berlin on January 26, 1917, the Foreign Office refrained from further services suggested by Scheubner-Richter. His secondment was also canceled. This was followed by changing assignments and a. in Straubing (Munich), in the regiment under Adolf Friedrich von Mecklenburg , and in Stockholm. Finally, from the turn of the year 1917/18 he was employed in the High Command of the 8th Army in Riga as head of the press office of the German military administration for the Baltic States. The press office was called "Pressstelle Oberost VIII". Here he worked with his corps brothers Arno Schickedanz and Otto von Kursell as well as with Max Hildebert Boehm for the German occupiers. Here he took part in the advance of the German troops in Estonia in the spring of 1918, for which he received EK  I.

In the Weimar Republic

In March 1920, Scheubner-Richter took part in the Kapp Putsch . He was planned by Wolfgang Kapp as head of the intelligence service of the new government to be brought into office by the coup, but this did not happen after the coup failed. He himself then had to flee to Munich, where, among other things, he founded the “ Economic Development Association ” as a link between German rights and Russian monarchist emigrants.

Relationship with Adolf Hitler

Max Scheubner-Richter first met Adolf Hitler in October 1920 . As a result, he became its foreign policy advisor and a financier of the party, who also knew how to identify other sources of money and make them usable. At the time, he is considered to be a decisive supporter of the early NSDAP, which he himself joined in 1921.

Financial aid

Scheubner-Richter's financial and political connections included industrialists, Prussian junkers, aristocrats like the Wittelsbachers , high church officials and wealthy emigrants from Russia. His extensive contacts with conservative and right-wing extremist circles in Germany, such as Erich Ludendorff and exiled Russian monarchists, who, through support for the NSDAP, are influencing German politics in the direction of eliminating the Soviet Union and reestablishing the Soviet Union, are particularly noteworthy Tsarism in Russia was hoped for. With extraordinary skill, he succeeded in raising considerable financial resources for the National Socialist Party. So he brought u. a. raised the funds for the purchase of the newspaper Münchener Beobachter , which then became the party organ of the NSDAP under the name of Völkischer Beobachter . Scheubner-Richter put Adolf Hitler in contact with the "steel baron" Fritz Thyssen , who then became the financial benefactor of the NSDAP when the rest of the big industry was still largely hostile to it.

To raise funds, Max Scheubner-Richter founded two "non-profit" organizations that enabled his friends to make tax-deductible donations to the NSDAP. In order to make donations more attractive to the payers, he presented them with respectable figureheads from their respective circles, whose goals are supposedly promoted by the donations: the conservative Theodor von Cramer-Klett junior. , the exiled Russian Grand Duchess Viktoria Fedorovna , whose husband made claims to the vacant Tsar's throne - and who transferred her jewels in favor of the party - and the former Russian general Vasily Biskupski . Biskupski, for his part, put Scheubner-Richter and thus the NSDAP in contact with the Paris-based Russian Commerce, Industry and Trade Association, whose members also hope that Russian conditions will be reshaped in their favor. In a letter from 1939, the general estimated the financial aid granted to the party by exiled Russians at the intercession of Scheubner-Richter at half a million gold marks .

March to the Feldherrnhalle

For the Hitler putsch - the violent coup to abolish Weimar democracy in November 1923 - Scheubner-Richter had the main control and initially drafted a putsch plan together with Alfred Rosenberg, which was not pursued any further. On the evening of November 8, 1923, he personally picked Erich Ludendorff (1856–1937) from Ludwigshöhe by car and took him to the waiting insurgents in Munich's Bürgerbräukeller . The next morning he marched alongside Hitler, Ludendorff and Hermann Göring at the head of the putschists' demonstration march to the Feldherrnhalle in Munich . After the train of the insurgents had already broken through a chain of police posts, it met another cordon of armed state police on Odeonsplatz . For reasons that have not yet been fully clarified, there was an exchange of fire, as a result of which twelve putschists (later two more in front of the Bavarian War Ministry ) and four police officers died. Scheubner-Richter was the first to fall to the ground, fatally hit. Hitler had hooked himself under him and was dragged to the ground by the dying man. Adolf Hitler dislocated his arm, but remained on the ground during the exchange of fire that followed, so that the bullets passed over his head and he was largely uninjured.

"Martyrs of the Movement"

The putschists killed on November 9, 1923 were honored between 1933 and 1945 as " martyrs of the movement " and at the same time instrumentalized by Nazi propaganda ; v. Scheubner-Richter 3rd row from the top, 3rd from the left.

Hitler not only dedicated the first part of his book Mein Kampf to his follower - like the fifteen other dead followers of the failed coup - but also said: "All are replaceable, only one is not: Scheubner judges!"

After the National Socialists came to power in 1933, a plaque with the names of these people was attached to the Feldherrnhalle in Munich, which was honored by an SS honor guard . Every passer-by had to honor this plaque with the Hitler salute. In 1935, two "Temples of Honor" were erected on Königsplatz as a common grave for this group of people. In the same year Scheubner-Richter was exhumed , taken there together with the other dead and reburied in bronze sarcophagi . Until 1945 they were included in the National Socialist cult of the "martyrs of the movement" . Streets were also named after Scheubner-Richter, for example in Leslau (in the Wartheland ).

literature

  • Johannes Baur: The Russian Colony in Munich 1900–1945. German-Russian Relations in the 20th Century (Publications by the Eastern European Institute in Munich; History Series, Vol. 65). Harrassowitz, Wiesbaden 1998, ISBN 3-447-04023-8 .
  • Martin Kröger: In wild Kurdistan. The military expedition in Eastern Turkey 1914–1916. In: Wilfried Loth, Marc Hanisch (Hrsg.): First World War and Jihad. The Germans and the revolutionization of the Orient. Oldenbourg, Munich, 2014, pp. 145ff.
  • Otto von Kursell : Memories of Max von Scheubner-Richter. o. O. 1967.
  • Paul Leverkuehn : Post on perpetual watch. From the adventurous life of Max Erwin von Scheubner-Richter. Essen publishing house, Essen, 1938 (editor Erik Reger ).

Web links

Commons : Max Erwin von Scheubner-Richter  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

supporting documents

  1. ↑ Michael Kellogg: The Russian roots of Nazism: White Émigrés and the Making of National Socialism, 1917-1945. Cambridge, ISBN 978-0-521-84512-0 .
  2. ↑ note Arthur Zimmermann from 09.24.1914, PA AA R 21008, page 27, in: Martin Kroeger: In the wild Kurdistan. The military expedition in Eastern Turkey 1914–1916. Oldenbourg, Munich 2014, p. 145.
  3. ↑ Martin Kröger: Revolution as a program. Goals and Realities of German Orient Policy. In: Wolfgang Michalka (Ed.): The First World War. Piper, Munich / Zurich 1994.
  4. ^ From Scheubner-Richter to the Ambassador, May 20, 1915 .
  5. ↑ His real name was Hassan Bey; he was a well-known petty criminal in the Turkish region. In these troubled times it was not uncommon to be taken aback by such impostors who were in need of recognition; see. on this: Martin Kröger: Revolution as a program. In: Wolfgang Michalka (Ed.): The First World War. Piper, Munich / Zurich 1994.
  6. ↑ Martin Kröger: In the wild Kurdistan. The military expedition in Eastern Turkey 1914–1916. In: Wilfried Loth, Marc Hanisch (Hrsg.): First World War and Jihad. Oldenbourg, Munich 2014, p. 151.
  7. ^ Ernst Piper: Alfred Rosenberg - Hitler's chief ideologist. Munich 2005, ISBN 3-89667-148-0 , p. 62.
  8. ↑ Archived copy ( memento of the original from February 27, 2016 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.mapywig.org
personal data
SURNAME Scheubner-Richter, Max Erwin von
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Scheubner-Richter, Ludwig Maximilian Erwin von
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German diplomat and a leading figure in the early phase of the NSDAP
DATE OF BIRTH January 21, 1884
PLACE OF BIRTH Riga
DATE OF DEATH November 9, 1923
Place of death Munich