Otto Wacker (politician)

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Otto Wacker before 1934

Otto Wacker (born August 6, 1899 in Offenburg , † February 14, 1940 in Karlsruhe ) was a German politician ( NSDAP ), literary scholar, editor, SS-Oberführer and Nazi functionary, who at the time of National Socialism among other things as a judicial as well Minister of Culture in Baden and member of the Reichstag worked.

Life

Wacker, the son of an architect, attended a humanistic grammar school and graduated from high school there. From 1917 he still took part in the First World War as a soldier in the German Army and was deployed on the Western Front in Flanders . Wacker left the army with the rank of lieutenant in the reserve. From 1919 Wacker studied architecture and passed his pre-exam in Karlsruhe in 1921. Then he was a student trainee and from 1924 studied philosophy , German , literature and art history . After finishing his studies in 1926 his doctorate he in 1927 with studies on the grotesque satire with Johann species to Dr. phil. in literary history at the University of Freiburg .

Wacker joined the NSDAP in 1925 (membership number 22,948) and became a member of the SA in 1929 , from which he switched to the SS in 1933 . From 1928 he was chief editor of the National Socialist newspaper Führer and also headed the Nazi press department of the Gau Baden in Karlsruhe from 1931 to 1933 .

On March 11, 1933, Wacker took over the office of Minister for Culture and Education and also took over the office of Justice Minister in Baden on April 18, 1933. From May 6, 1933 he was the ordinary minister for culture and education on the one hand and justice on the other. On June 17, 1933, he appeared as a speaker at the book burning in Karlsruhe.

He held the post of Justice Minister until December 31, 1934, after which the State Justice Administration was subordinated to the Reich Ministry of Justice . Until his death in mid-February 1940, Wacker was Minister of Education and Education and also Deputy Prime Minister under Walter Köhler . From May 6, 1933 until its abolition in mid-February 1934, he was a member of the Reichsrat . From the 9th electoral term in November 1933, Wacker was a member of the Reichstag for constituency 32 (Baden) . He was also Vice President of the Reich Research Council and the Kaiser Wilhelm Society . From January 1, 1937 to 1939, he was deputy head of the Science Office in the Reich Ministry of Education . Wacker, a fanatical National Socialist, had a decisive influence on Nazi university policy. So he asked the law students to attend lectures in " Racial Studies" and "Defense Science". Wacker died of heart failure in Karlsruhe on February 14, 1940. From 1937 until his death in 1940 he was a member of the Senate of the Kaiser Wilhelm Society.

literature

  • Michael Grüttner : Biographical Lexicon on National Socialist Science Policy (= Studies on Science and University History. Volume 6). Synchron, Heidelberg 2004, ISBN 3-935025-68-8 , pp. 178-179.
  • Ernst Klee : The dictionary of persons on the Third Reich . Who was what before and after 1945 . 2nd Edition. Fischer-Taschenbuch-Verlag, Frankfurt am Main 2007, ISBN 978-3-596-16048-8 .
  • Joachim Lilla u. a. (Arr.): Extras in uniform. The members of the Reichstag 1933–1945. A biographical manual . Düsseldorf 2004, pp. 693-694.
  • Katja Schrecke: Between homeland and imperial service. Otto Wacker, Baden Minister of Culture, Education and Justice . In: The leaders of the province. Nazi biographies from Baden and Württemberg . Edited by Michael Kißener and Joachim Scholtyseck , Konstanz 1999, pp. 705–732.
  • Eugen Fehrle : Otto Wacker , in: Oberdeutsche Zeitschrift für Volkskunde , 14th year, issue 1/2, 1940, p. 1/2 (obituary).

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ A b Otto Wacker - Officials of National Socialist Reich Ministries . In: Officials of National Socialist Reich Ministries . March 23, 2018 ( ns-reichsministerien.de [accessed March 30, 2018]).
  2. ↑ Fehrle 1940, p. 1.
  3. ^ Otto Wacker in the database of the members of the Reichstag
  4. ↑ a b Cf. Ernst Klee: Das Personenlexikon zum Third Reich , Frankfurt am Main 2007, p. 647.
  5. ^ Lutz Hachmeister : Schleyer. A German story . CH Beck, 2004, ISBN 978-3-406-51863-8 , pp. 80 .
personal data
SURNAME Wacker, Otto
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German politician (NSDAP), MdR, Minister of Education in Baden, SS-Oberführer and literary scholar
DATE OF BIRTH August 6, 1899
PLACE OF BIRTH Offenburg
DATE OF DEATH February 14, 1940
Place of death Karlsruhe