Paul von Eltz-Rübenach

Press conference by Minister Paul Eltz von Rübenach in the Ministry of Transport (approx. 1935/36), photo from the Federal Archives

Burial place at Wahn Castle

Peter Paul Freiherr von Eltz-Rübenach (born February 9, 1875 in Wahn , Mülheim am Rhein district ; † August 25, 1943 in Linz am Rhein ) was a German railway official , non-party politician and in the Weimar Republic and in the National Socialist German Reich from June 1932 to February 1937 Reich Minister of Transport and Reich Minister of Post .

Life

Born as the son of the entails owner and Rittmeister a. D. Kuno Freiherr von Eltz-Rübenach and his wife Hugoline, b. Countess von Eltz, Paul Freiherr von Eltz-Rübenach attended the Humanist High School in Siegburg , where he passed his Abitur in 1894, and studied mechanical engineering at the technical universities in Aachen and Berlin-Charlottenburg . After a year of technical internship in the railway workshops of the Cologne Railway Directorate, he was trained as a government construction manager at the Münster Railway Directorate from 1903 . From 1909 he was employed in the Central Railway Office in Berlin . From 1911 to 1914 he was a technical expert at the German Consulate General in New York .

During the First World War , Eltz-Rübenach served with the railway troops . In 1916/17 he stayed in the Balkans to reorganize the Bulgarian railways. From 1917 he was on the staff of the chief of the field railways.

After the war he was involved in the handling of the railroad and transport sector, and in July 1924 he was appointed President of the Reichsbahndirektion Karlsruhe . On June 1, 1932 named him Franz von Papen to traffic and Postmaster General . He kept this position in Kurt von Schleicher's government and after the National Socialists came to power .

Due to his Catholic character, he kept an inner distance from the NSDAP and its exponents. Nevertheless, he took part in anti-Semitic measures of the Nazi government . In May 1933, in conjunction with the National Socialist policy of ousting "Jews" from influential positions in the economy, he tried to remove Georg Solmssen and the Jewish banker Max Warburg from the supervisory board of the German-Atlantic Telegraph Company . He did not succeed because the Reichsbank opposed it, which was concerned about Germany's international reputation.

In the cabinet meeting on January 30, 1937, Hitler announced the subordination of the Reichsbahn to the sovereignty of the Reich. At the same meeting, on the occasion of the 4th anniversary of the seizure of power , he wanted to award all cabinet members who had not been party to the party with the NSDAP's golden party badge . There was a scandal when Eltz-Rübenach, the only one of those honored by Hitler, did not accept the award without contradiction, but mentioned attacks by the National Socialists on the Roman Catholic Church and set the condition for acceptance of the badge and the associated party membership Not having to support party line towards the church. Hitler took this as an affront and left the room. Eltz-Rübenach then had to submit his resignation immediately and was replaced on February 2 by Julius Dorpmüller as Reichsverkehrs- and Wilhelm Ohnesorge as Reichspostminister, which according to some of those involved was already planned. He was later rigorously monitored by the Gestapo . His pension was cut for a short time after his wife refused the mother's cross .

Paul von Eltz-Rübenach was buried in the family vault of the grave chapel at Schloss Wahn .

family

Paul von Eltz-Rübenach was married to Marion von Hutier (1893–1980), the daughter of the Prussian general Oskar von Hutier ; the marriage resulted in six children.

See also: Cabinet Papen , Cabinet Schleicher , Cabinet Hitler

literature

• Robert Volz: Reich manual of the German society . The handbook of personalities in words and pictures. Volume 1: A-K. Deutscher Wirtschaftsverlag, Berlin 1930, DNB 453960286 , p. 391.
• Walter Linden:  Eltz-Rübenach, Peter Paul Raimund Maria Josef Hubert Freiherr von. In: New German Biography (NDB). Volume 4, Duncker & Humblot, Berlin 1959, ISBN 3-428-00185-0 , p. 470 f. ( Digitized version ).
• Hermann Weiß (Ed.): Biographical Lexicon for the Third Reich . S. Fischer, Frankfurt am Main 1998, ISBN 3-10-091052-4 . , P. 111.

Web links

• Literature by and about Paul von Eltz-Rübenach in the catalog of the German National Library
• Newspaper article about Paul von Eltz-Rübenach in the 20th century press kit of the ZBW - Leibniz Information Center for Economics .
• Paul von Eltz-Rübenach in the online version of the Reich Chancellery Edition Files. Weimar Republic

Individual evidence

1. ^ Martin Münzel: The displacement of Jewish executive and supervisory board members from large Berlin companies in the Nazi state . In: Christof Biggeleben, Beate Schreiber, Kilian JL Steiner (ed.): "Aryanization" in Berlin . Metropol Verlag, Berlin 2007, ISBN 978-3938690-55-0 , pp. 95-120 (104).
2. ^ 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. 115;
   Michael Grüttner : arsonists and honest men. Germany 1933–1939. Klett-Cotta Verlag, Stuttgart 2015, ISBN 978-3-608-10782-1 , p. 461.
3. ^ Anna Budde: Peter Paul Raimund Freiherr von Eltz-Rübenach (1875–1943), Reich Minister . In: rheinische-geschichte.lvr.de; Retrieved September 1, 2012
4. ^ Anna Budde: Peter Paul Raimund Freiherr von Eltz-Rübenach (1875–1943), Reich Minister . In: rheinische-geschichte.lvr.de; Retrieved September 1, 2012