Paul Giesler

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Paul Giesler

Paul Giesler (born June 15, 1895 in Siegen ; † May 8, 1945 in Bischofswiesen ) was Gauleiter of the NSDAP from 1941 to 1943, first of Westphalia-South , from 1942 also of Munich-Upper Bavaria . In addition, he was Bavarian Prime Minister from 1942 to 1945 and, according to Hitler's political will , he was Heinrich Himmler's successor as Reich Minister of the Interior from April 30, 1945 .

Life

Family and social context

Paul Giesler grew up in Siegen in a long-established Protestant middle-class and notable family. Like his father, Paul Giesler became an architect. In August 1914, the Unterprimaner volunteered for military service and ended the First World War as a lieutenant and company commander in the Guards Pioneer Battalion . Wounded several times, he was awarded both classes of the Iron Cross . Between 1919 and 1921 he attended the higher regional building school in Darmstadt, today's Darmstadt University . From 1922 to 1933 he worked as a freelance architect in Siegen. His younger brother Hermann also studied architecture in Munich and was appointed professor by Hitler. He planned National Socialist prestige buildings like the Ordensburg Sonthofen ; he and Albert Speer were considered to be the "court architects" of Hitler.

Political biography

In 1919 Giesler joined the paramilitary Stahlhelm , to which he belonged until 1927. From 1920 he was a member of the Young German Order . From 1925 to 1927 he was district leader of the Siegen Warrior Association. In terms of party politics, he initially organized himself in the German National People's Party (DNVP).

Giesler later claimed to have joined the NSDAP in 1922, to have co-founded the SA in Siegerland and to have been a party speaker for the NSDAP from 1924. Formally, he was only listed as a member of the NSDAP ( membership number 72.741) from 1928 through an internal mistake . With this party number he was an “ old fighter ” and holder of the “Old Guard” (“ golden party badge ”). He had been a member of the SA since at least 1929. According to an oral tradition, he was one of the leaders of the Siegen local group before 1932.

Giesler represented a particularly aggressive and actionist current within the regional NSDAP. At the same time, he liked to emphasize his close ties to Protestantism. From an election speech in 1930 in a Siegerland Evangelical People's House, the political announcement " to clean up the house [= Weimar democracy ], to root out the weeds and organized inferiority and to exterminate it" is handed down.

From 1932 Giesler was the leader of the Siegerland and Wittgensteiner SA. He was notorious for organizing and participating in serious attacks against opponents of the National Socialists: He was responsible for an SA group with the surname " Rollkommando Odendahl", which was responsible for riots before and after the transfer of power to the National Socialists. When the SA, SS and Stahlhelm were appointed auxiliary police in March 1933 , he put the members of the command at the top of the appointment list. On May 2, 1933, an SA department headed by Giesler and the leader of this rolling command raided the “House of Labor” of the General German Trade Union Federation (ADGB), the SPD and the social democratic Siegener Volkszeitung . The group jointly devastated the rooms, abusing those present before their imprisonment, among other things by "blows over the head with carbine butts and steel rods".

On July 19, 1933, Giesler arrested Gotthold Reinhardt , the director of the Princely Berleburg Rent Chamber, at the head of an SA command . Reinhardt had criticized the economic policy ideas of the National Socialists and refused to pay the SA support. In the cell, Giesler beat Reinhardt so brutally that his skull was broken. “If he leaves the cell,” Giesler ordered, “shoot!” On September 7, 1933, Reinhardt's lawyer was fetched from his house by the SA and “with a sign hanging on his neck that read: 'I have the SA. offended, I am a public pest '[...] accompanied by music through the [...] city ". Giesler marched at the head of the procession, who then gave a hate speech and mockery of his victim in front of 2,000 Berleburg residents next to the arrested man.

From March 1933 to April 1934 Giesler was city ​​councilor in Siegen. On November 12, 1933, he became a member of the insignificant Reichstag . From September 1, 1933 to March 14, 1934, he was the leader of SA Brigade 68, and then until June 30, 1934 to take over the Westphalia SA group based in Dortmund. On April 20, 1934, he was promoted to SA brigade leader. During the so-called Röhm Putsch , Giesler was on vacation and thus escaped arrest and possible murder. The Gauleiter of Westphalia-South , Josef Wagner , indicted him a month later on July 30, 1934 before the Supreme Party Court of the NSDAP as a suspected supporter of the meanwhile murdered SA chief of staff Ernst Röhm . On April 10, 1935, the party court acquitted Giesler for lack of evidence, but ordered him to stay away from his place of birth Siegen and his previous sphere of activity.

On May 15, 1935, Giesler took over SA Brigade 63 “Oldenburg-Ostfriesland” as leader, then moved to Munich on September 1, 1936 as staff leader of the SA group “Hochland” . On November 9, 1937, Giesler was promoted to SA group leader. After the annexation of Austria , between June 1, 1938 and September 6, 1941, he set up the SA group “Alpenland” in Linz.

In 1938 Giesler signed up as a reserve officer for the Wehrmacht and took part as a company commander in the German attack on Poland in 1939 and in the attack in the west in 1940. Wounded again, he was awarded the Iron Cross second class clasp.

In August 1941 Giesler became a favorite of Martin Bormann , head of the party chancellery and close confidante of Hitler, Gauleiter of Westphalia-South. Giesler replaced Josef Wagner (who had initiated the above-mentioned party court proceedings against Giesler in 1934) after an intrigue engineered by Bormann, Himmler and Goebbels. Giesler had other functions as Gauleiter: Prussian State Councilor , as Gau Housing Commissioner, regional representative of Reich Housing Commissioner Robert Ley and from April 6, 1942 Gau Commissioner of the “General Plenipotentiary for Labor Deployment”, Fritz Sauckel , and Reich Defense Commissioner for the Gau Westphalia-South.

On June 23, 1942, Hitler appointed Paul Giesler as the managing Gauleiter of the Munich-Upper Bavaria district . This district was of particular importance as a so-called "traditional district" because of the establishment of the NSDAP in Munich. The previous Gauleiter, Adolf Wagner, was unable to work due to a stroke . Giesler also took on Wagner's previous positions as Bavarian Minister of the Interior and Minister of Culture in the Siebert cabinet . Furthermore, he also became district housing commissioner and district commissioner for the “General Plenipotentiary for Labor Deployment” and acted as Reich Defense Commissioner for military districts VII (Munich) and XIII (Nuremberg). When the Bavarian Prime Minister Ludwig Siebert died on November 1, 1942, Giesler also took over his executive offices as Prime Minister and Minister for Finance and Economics . His Cabinet , however, consisted only of himself, as he in fact also held every four ministerial posts. After the death of the nominal Gauleiter Adolf Wagner, Giesler officially became Wagner's and Siebert's successors on April 12, 1944.

Giesler retained his previous functions in the Gau Westfalen-Süd until June 18, 1943, but on January 26, 1943 Albert Hoffmann was appointed as the Gau's managing director.

A speech by Giesler at the 470th anniversary of the Munich University on January 13, 1943 led to tumultuous protests. He berated female students for hanging around. Instead, they should “give the Führer a child,” and he would also send his aides for this purpose. The drunk was pushed out of the room by students. Protesting students were subsequently arrested. After the arrest of the members of the White Rose resistance group , he advocated particular harshness; the executions should be carried out in public.

Appointed SA-Obergruppenführer on January 30, 1943, Giesler was the organizer and leader of the Volkssturm in his Gau from September 25, 1944 . In January 1945 he issued a fanaticism-influenced slogan in the Munich field post : “Hatred must have a free path. Our hateful disposition must strike the enemy like a scorching ember ”. When Western Allied troops advanced into Bavaria in April 1945, he was appointed " Reich Defense Commissioner South " and was thus also responsible for the neighboring districts of Swabia, Salzburg, Upper Danube and Tyrol.

Final phase

With the help of SS units, Giesler put down the " Bavarian Freedom Action " under Captain Rupprecht Gerngross on April 28 and 29, 1945 in Munich . A few hours and days before the US troops marched in, more than 100 people were murdered on Giesler's orders (“end- phase crime ”). The “ Penzberger Murder Night ” has meaning in the collective memory : In Penzberg , Upper Bavaria , the National Socialist mayor was deposed under the leadership of the former SPD mayor Hans Rummer . At Giesler's behest - "Rummer and his people will be killed" - 16 people were shot or hanged on April 28, 1945 in Penzberg .

In his political will on April 29, 1945, Hitler named Giesler as successor to Himmler as the new Reich Minister of the Interior. Since the government was in the process of dissolution, the appointment had no practical significance. Giesler himself fled on April 29 with the Gaustab and relatives from the approaching US troops from Munich.

Giesler's death is documented in the death register of the Catholic parish in Berchtesgaden for May 8, 1945. The information about Giesler's death circumstances is contradictory and uncertain: on May 1, 1945, he and his wife and mother-in-law attempted suicide with the help of sleeping pills , which failed. The following day Giesler shot his wife in a wooded area near the Hintersee . A possibly second suicide attempt was successful after some time: seriously wounded by a shot in the head, Giesler was taken to a hospital in the Bischofswieser district of Stanggaß, near Berchtesgaden , where he died a few days later.

His refugee with him from Munich brother Hermann Giesler was for killing crimes by a US - military court in the concentration camp Mühldorf-trial in Dachau in 1947 to life in prison convicted. In 1952 he was released early. He remained an avowed National Socialist until his death (1987).

Unprinted and Printed Sources

  • Bad Berleburg City Archives, No. 151 new, Report Gotthold Reinhardt, July 6, 1946.
  • Institute for Contemporary History Munich: "Dossier Paul Giesler, newspaper clippings collection".
  • The people , February 10, 1925.
  • Wittgensteiner National-Zeitung , September 8, 1933.
  • Siegerländer National-Zeitung , April 3, 1934.
  • Ready for extreme in the raging battle. Gauleiter Paul Giesler on leadership of the traditional district. In: Völkischer Beobachter . March 14, 1945.
  • Paul Giesler: "We have to learn to hate." In: Völkischer Beobachter. March 24, 1945.

literature

  • Richard Hanser: For Germany's sake. Life and death of the Scholl siblings. The story of the white rose. Kindler, Munich 1980, ISBN 3-463-00794-0 .
  • Dieter Helmes: Structure and development of the NSDAP in the Siegerland before the takeover of power. Siegen 1974, Masch.
  • Beatrix Herlemann , Helga Schatz: Biographical Lexicon of Lower Saxony Parliamentarians, 1919–1945 , Verlag Hahnsche Buchhandlung, Hanover 2004, pp. 123/124.
  • Peter Hüttenberger : The Gauleiter. Study on the change in the power structure in the NSDAP (= writings of the quarterly books for contemporary history . No. 19). Stuttgart 1969.
  • Ernst Keßler: Giesler's blood farewell to Munich. An authentic report. In: Süddeutsche Zeitung . October 19, 1945.
  • Joachim Lilla , Martin Döring, Andreas Schulz: extras in uniform. The members of the Reichstag 1933–1945. A biographical manual. Including the ethnic and National Socialist members of the Reichstag from May 1924. Droste, Düsseldorf 2004, ISBN 3-7700-5254-4 .
  • Georg Lorenz (ed.): The Penzberg murder night on April 28, 1945 before the judge. Garmisch-Partenkirchen 1948.
  • Dieter Pfau: May 2, 1933 - smashing of the labor movement and trade unions (= contributions to the history of the Siegerland labor movement. Volume 4). Wins 2003.
  • Ulrich Friedrich Opfermann : Siegerland and Wittgenstein under National Socialism. People, data, literature. A handbook on regional contemporary history (= Siegen contributions. Special volume 2001). Siegen 2001, 2nd edition.
  • Adelheid L. Rüter-Ehlermann, Christiaan F. Rüter : Justice and Nazi crimes . Collection of German convictions for Nazi homicidal crimes 1945–1966.
    • Volume III, Amsterdam 1969, pp. 65-128.
    • Volume VIII, Amsterdam 1972, pp. 559-657.
  • Markus Grebe, Joachim Mertens: Traces of violence - crimes by members of the SA and the FAD in Siegerland in the 1930s. In: National Socialism in Siegerland. Ed. U. edit v. Armin Flender and Sebastian Schmidt in collaboration with a student project seminar. Siegen 2000 (= Siegen contributions. Special volume 2000). Pp. 9–35: Ill.
  • Daniel Rittenauer: The office of the Bavarian Prime Minister in the Nazi era (=  series of publications on Bavarian national history . Volume 169 ). CH Beck, Munich 2018, ISBN 978-3-406-10784-9 ( limited preview in Google book search).

Web links

Commons : Paul Giesler  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Remarks

  1. a b c bayerische-landesbibliothek-online.de
  2. Dieter Helmes: Structure and development of the NSDAP in Siegerland before the takeover of power. Siegen 1974, Masch., P. 30.
  3. ^ Siegener Zeitung , September 11, 1930.
  4. ^ Regional personal encyclopedia on National Socialism in the old districts of Siegen and Wittgenstein , article Odendahl, Richard and further information on the activities of the group in further articles.
  5. Dieter Pfau: May 2, 1933 - smashing of the labor movement and trade unions (= contributions to the history of the Siegerland labor movement. Volume 4). Siegen 2003, p. 18.
  6. Dieter Pfau: May 2, 1933 - smashing of the labor movement and trade unions (= contributions to the history of the Siegerland labor movement. Volume 4). Siegen 2003, p. 26 f.
  7. Stadtarchiv Bad Berleburg, No. 151 new, Report Gotthold Reinhardt, July 6, 1946.
  8. ^ Siegerländer National-Zeitung , April 3, 1934.
  9. ^ Internet portal Westphalian history ; "White Rose" discovered. In: www.judentum.net; Ernst Keßler: Giesler's blood farewell to Munich. An authentic report. In: Süddeutsche Zeitung . October 19, 1945.
  10. ^ Quotation from Ernst Klee : Das Personenlexikon zum Third Reich. Who was what before and after 1945. Fischer Taschenbuch Verlag, second updated edition, Frankfurt am Main 2005, p. 184.
  11. ^ Adelheid L. Rüter-Ehlermann, Christiaan F. Rüter : Justice and Nazi crimes. Collection of German convictions for Nazi homicidal crimes 1945–1966. Volume III, Amsterdam 1969, pp. 73 f.
  12. ^ The circumstances of Giesler's death after: Karl Höffkes : Hitler's political generals. The Gauleiter of the Third Reich. 2nd edition, Grabert-Verlag, Tübingen 1997, ISBN 3-87847-163-7 , p. 95 ff. There also the death book in facsimile. The portrayal of Höffkes is - despite the euphemistic character of his book published by the radical right-wing Grabert Verlag at Lilla: Extras in Uniform. 2004, and on the Internet portal Westphalian History - referenced. Nevertheless, it must be considered unsecured.
  13. See the autobiographical memoirs published by two right-wing publishers: Hermann Giesler: Another Hitler - Memories by Hitler's architect Hermann Giesler. Druffel-Verlag , Berg am Starnberger See 1977, as well as: Hermann Giesler: supplement. From unpublished writings. Publishing house Heitz & Höffkes, Essen 1988.