Nikolaus Simmer

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Nikolaus Simmer (born November 11, 1902 in Besch ; † March 17, 1986 ibid) was a German business graduate and politician ( NSDAP ). From 1940 to 1945 he was Lord Mayor of Koblenz .

Life and work

Simmer studied at the Handelshochschule Berlin and the Johann Wolfgang Goethe University Frankfurt am Main . He took the job of diploma commercial teacher and graduate businessman before joining in 1927 the NSDAP. 1929 doctorate he attended the University of Frankfurt am Main to Dr. rer. pole. and then went to the University of Pennsylvania (USA) for a year in 1931/1932 after receiving a scholarship . He took over the office of NSDAP district leader in Trier after his return. From March to the dissolution of the corporation in autumn 1933 he was a member of the Prussian state parliament . On April 23, 1933 he became district administrator in Trier and on January 13, 1936 district administrator in Bad Kreuznach .

Acting as the Lord Mayor of Koblenz

His predecessor Theodor Habicht was called up for military service after only four months in office. On January 6, 1940, Simmer succeeded him in the office of Lord Mayor of Koblenz. In September 1943 he became responsible for the economic department in occupied Luxembourg . In 1942, 870 Jews from the region were deported via the Koblenz-Lützel train station to the National Socialist concentration and extermination camps . A year later, 149 Koblenz Sinti followed , who were deported to Auschwitz via the main train station and gassed there. Of the 800 Jews (1929) in Koblenz, only 22 had survived the Holocaust .

In the air war on German cities, Koblenz was initially spared. The first major air raid on Koblenz took place on April 22, 1944, killing 130 people and injuring 300. The heaviest air raid on November 6, 1944 completely destroyed the city, and a firestorm made any attempt to extinguish it futile. This attack resulted in 109 dead, 558 injured and 25,000 homeless. Of the former 23,700 apartments, only 1,500 remained undamaged. The city administration evacuated the Koblenz population to Thuringia by the end of 1944 , which saved many lives. Since September 24, 1944, several trains with 600 people each left the city every day. The final eviction order came on January 13, 1945. At the end of the war, Simmer still had to follow the draft for military service. On February 12, 1945 he was succeeded by Konrad Gorges in the office of Lord Mayor.

post war period

Nikolaus Simmer was in American and later Luxembourgish captivity until 1948. His denazification proceedings were discontinued on March 16, 1950, as, in the opinion of the Committee of Inquiry, he was assigned to Group III (minor offenders) .

From 1951 he tried unsuccessfully to return to civil service.

Origin and family

Nikolaus Simmer was a son of the farmer and mill owner Johann Simmer and his wife Anna, nee. Jochem. He was married to Hedwig Dujardin (born July 29, 1913), daughter of a legal advisor, since 1935. A younger brother of his was the former district administrator of the Ahrweiler district, Peter Simmer .

literature

  • Erich Stockhorst: Five thousand heads. Who was what in the Third Reich , 1967.
  • Wolfgang Schütz: Koblenz heads. People from the city's history - namesake for streets and squares. 2. revised u. exp. Edition. Publishing house for advertising papers GmbH, Mülheim-Kärlich 2005.
  • Energieversorgung Mittelrhein GmbH (ed.): History of the city of Koblenz . Overall editing: Ingrid Bátori in conjunction with Dieter Kerber and Hans Josef Schmidt.
    • Vol. 1: From the beginning to the end of the electoral era . Theiss, Stuttgart 1992, ISBN 3-8062-0876-X .
    • Vol. 2: From the French city to the present . Theiss, Stuttgart 1993, ISBN 3-8062-1036-5 .
  • Ernst Kienast (Ed.): Handbook for the Prussian Landtag , edition for the 5th electoral period, Berlin 1933, p. 384.
  • Petra Weiß: Nikolaus Simmer (1902-1986), National Socialist functionary, District Administrator and Lord Mayor of Koblenz , Koblenz 2013.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ A b Horst Romeyk : The leading state and municipal administrative officials of the Rhine Province 1816–1945 (=  publications of the Society for Rhenish History . Volume 69 ). Droste, Düsseldorf 1994, ISBN 3-7700-7585-4 , p. 747 f .
  2. ^ Racial persecution and euthanasia in Koblenz in: VVN-BdA Kaiserslautern
  3. Petra Weiß: Nikolaus Simmer. In: Internet portal Rheinische Geschichte. Retrieved March 20, 2019 .