Max Leibbrand

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Max Leibbrand (born June 15, 1882 in Sigmaringen ; died August 7, 1946 in Bielefeld ) was a German engineer and railway manager. After studying engineering, he joined the Prussian State Railways . From 1932 to 1942 he was a member of the board of the Deutsche Reichsbahn-Gesellschaft (until 1937) and the Deutsche Reichsbahn (from 1937). From June 1945 until his death he was head of the Reichsbahn general management in the British zone of occupation .

Life

During his studies in Darmstadt he became a member of the student association Gesellschaft Burg . After studying civil engineering , Leibbrand joined the Prussian State Railways as a government construction manager . In 1910 he passed the examination to become a government master builder . In 1912 he was transferred to the Prussian Ministry of Public Works responsible for the railways as an " unskilled worker " . Leibbrand did military service during the First World War . After the end of the German Empire, he was taken over as a consultant in the newly founded Reich Ministry of Transport (RVM).

For a short time from 1921 Leibbrand was head of the works office at the Reichsbahn in Elberfeld , but returned to the RVM as a consultant in 1923. As part of the implementation of the Dawes Plan , an independent Reichsbahn head office was spun off from the RVM for the newly founded Deutsche Reichsbahn-Gesellschaft in 1924, in which he took over Section 23 (Supreme Operations Management and freight train timetable). In 1930 Leibbrand became President of the Essen Reich Railway Directorate, which was important because of its coal mines . Two years later, Julius Dorpmüller , General Director of the Reichsbahn , who had also previously been President of the Board of Directors in Essen, brought him to Berlin as head of the operations and construction department of the Reichsbahn head office. At the same time he became a member of the board of the Reichsbahn-Gesellschaft when he took over this post. In his new role, he was particularly committed to the introduction of combustion railcars on the Reichsbahn. Among other things, he was responsible for the introduction of the new network of express railcars , based on the positive experience with the Flying Hamburger .

The Deutsche Reichsbahn-Gesellschaft was taken over by an independent company back into direct administration by the Reich in 1937 with the law to reorganize the relationships between the Reichsbank and the Deutsche Reichsbahn ; the main administration of the Reichsbahn was integrated into the RVM. Leibbrand received the rank of ministerial director and head of the operations and construction department E II in the RVM, his tasks as the highest operations manager of the Reichsbahn remained largely the same. In the same year he became a member of the NSDAP ( membership number 4,363,242). Part of his department was Division 21 “Mass Transportation”, which from 1940 was responsible for the organization and scheduling of the special trains ordered by the SS to deport Jews from Germany .

After the attack on the Soviet Union in June 1941, there was a serious transport crisis on the Eastern Front in late autumn 1941. Since the Soviet railroad workers were able to destroy most of their rolling stock or bring it to safety, the Reichsbahn had to retrain the rail network to the Central European standard gauge and operate it with its own locomotives in order to secure supplies . These were not designed for the climatic conditions in Russia and froze in rows. First of all, in January 1942, Adolf Hitler removed the entire railway operations behind the front from the Wehrmacht and transferred it to the RVM. This measure could not solve the transport problems. At the instigation of Albert Speer , who viewed the Reichsbahn management as outdated and inflexible, Wilhelm Kleinmann , the former State Secretary in the RVM, had to vacate his post for 37-year-old Albert Ganzenmüller in May 1942 . Two months later, Max Leibbrand also had to leave his post in favor of Gustav Dilli, who was eight years his junior . He took on tasks in the planning of Hitler's 3-meter broad-gauge railway , which was to serve the development and exploitation of the conquered eastern areas.

After the collapse of the Third Reich in May 1945, Leibbrand was initially arrested by the Allies. Transport Minister Dorpmüller had recommended him as a possible successor in his drafts for the Allies. In the period that followed, the Allies repeatedly resorted to Dorpmüller's suggestions, including with Leibbrand. He was released from internment in July 1945 and took over the position of General Director of the Reichsbahn for the British occupation zone based in Bielefeld . Almost a year later he died unexpectedly after a stroke , and was succeeded by Fritz Busch .

literature

  • Alfred Gottwaldt : The Reichsbahn and the Jews 1933–1939. Anti-Semitism on the railways in the pre-war period. Marix Verlag, Wiesbaden 2011, ISBN 978-3-86539-254-1 , pp. 437-438 (short biography).

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ The Black Ring. Membership directory. Darmstadt 1930, p. 7.
  2. ^ Alfred C. Mierzejewski: Speed ​​as a concept. Fast trains in the plans of the Reichsbahn, 1920–1945. In: Hans-Liudger Dienel (Hrsg.), Helmuth Trischler (Hrsg.): History of the future of traffic: traffic concepts from the early modern times to the 21st century (contributions to the historical traffic research of the Deutsches Museum) . Campus Verlag, Frankfurt / New York 1997, pp. 208–222, here: pp. 209 ff.
  3. ↑ Andreas Engwert, Susanne Kill (ed.): Special trains in the death: The deportations with the Deutsche Reichsbahn. Documentation by Deutsche Bahn AG , Böhlau, Cologne 2009, ISBN 978-3412203375 , p. 50
  4. ↑ Anthony James Nicholls: Collapse and Reconstruction: The Reichsbahn during the Occupation. In: Lothar Gall, Manfred Pohl (Hrsg.): The railway in Germany. From the beginning to the present . Verlag CH Beck, Munich 1999, ISBN 3-406-45817-3 , p. 246
  5. ↑ DER SPIEGEL 44/1948: Buffer days. Then the Reichsbahn is bankrupt
  6. ^ Alfred Gottwaldt: Dorpmüller's Reichsbahn - The era of the Reich Minister of Transport Julius Dorpmüller 1920-1945. EK-Verlag, Freiburg 2009, ISBN 978-3-88255-726-8 , p. 230
personal data
SURNAME Leibbrand, Max
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German railway manager
DATE OF BIRTH June 15, 1882
PLACE OF BIRTH Sigmaringen
DATE OF DEATH August 7, 1946
Place of death Bielefeld