Paul Pleiger

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Paul Pleiger (born September 28, 1899 in Buchholz near Witten ; † July 22, 1985 ibid) was a German entrepreneur , general director , NSDAP - district economic advisor and Prussian State Council . He was Adolf Hitler from 1941 and reports directly to Reich Commissioner for coal .

Rise in National Socialism

The son of a miner learned the trade of a locksmith and an engineer at Harpener Bergbau AG . From 1925 he was the owner of a machine factory and soon established himself as a medium-sized entrepreneur and owner of a machine factory that manufactured accessories for mining in the Buchholz district (today part of Witten). In 1945 around 500 Soviet forced laborers worked in his mining supply company in Hammertal .

In March 1932 he joined the NSDAP and became the local group leader of the NSDAP in Sprockhövel and advisor to Gauleiter Wagner ; from 1933 he was SS storm leader . For the party, Pleiger acted as a district economic advisor to the NSDAP in the Westphalia-Süd district before he was appointed to the raw materials office in Berlin in 1934 .

In 1937, Hermann Göring gave him the management of the Reichswerke AG for ore construction and ironworks "Hermann Göring" . In January 1938 he was appointed military economic leader and in 1941 appointed to the armaments council. He became chairman of the Reichsvereinigung Kohlen, which was founded in 1941, and was responsible for the mining sector in the Eastern Economic Organization. Pleiger was trustee for the ore region of Lorraine and Luxembourg, as well as head of the mining u. Hüttenwerkgesellschaft Ost mbH . He was thus Reich Commissioner for the coal supply and from 1943 in the rank of Prussian State Council "Reich Commissioner for the entire economy of the East". On May 10, 1943, he received the Knight's Cross of the War Merit Cross with Swords . As general director of the Reichswerke "Hermann Göring" , Pleiger was one of the most influential economic functionaries and state entrepreneurs of the Nazi state and as such he also worked on supervisory boards and executive boards in numerous plants with Reich participation, such as in Buchtal AG, ceramic factories of the Reichswerke "Hermann Goering ” . In his functions as Reich Commissioner for Coal , as head of the Berg- und Hüttenwerkgesellschaft Ost mbH and as head of the Hermann-Göring-Werke , he was jointly responsible for the personal and material exploitation of the occupied territories with all of their coercive and terrorist measures. After Hitler had issued his so-called " Nero order " on March 19, 1945 to destroy all infrastructure, Martin Sogemeier succeeded in convincing Pleiger of the nonsense of this order: "Two determined men had prevented a European catastrophe".

Charged as a war criminal

In the Wilhelmstrasse Trial in Nuremberg , Pleiger was charged with crimes against peace, looting and involvement in forced labor programs and sentenced on April 11, 1949 to 15 years' imprisonment from April 15, 1945. One of his defenders was Robert Servatius , who had previously defended Fritz Sauckel in the Nuremberg trial against the main war criminals , Karl Brandt in the Nuremberg medical trial and later also Adolf Eichmann .

  • I: Crimes against peace: preparing, initiating and conducting wars of aggression and wars in violation of international treaties ... (p. 6).
  • VI: War crimes and crimes against humanity: robbery and pillage
"To have committed within the meaning of Article II of the Control Council Act No. 10 by 'participating in the looting of public or private property' ..." (p. 187).
  • VII: War crimes and crimes against humanity: slave labor (p. 241).

In point I, Pleiger was acquitted:

"It has not been proven that Pleiger was aware of the wars of aggression ... rearmament is ... in and of itself not contrary to international law" (p. 61).

In point VI, Pleiger was convicted:

“It is also clear that Pleiger developed remarkable drive in carrying out the planned robbery. In this regard he ignored the limits set by the Hague Convention to the utmost ” (p. 218). The court cites Sections 53 and 55 of the Hague Land Warfare Act of 1907. (p. 188)

In point VII Pleiger was convicted:

"It is remarkable that the defendant replied on August 9, 1948, as a witness on his own behalf, to a question that he had heard for the first time in 1943 that Sauckel was recruiting forced laborers in the east" (p. 260).
“It turns out that prisoners of war are employed in the Hermann Göring factories under conditions that violate the Geneva Convention ” (p. 264).

The problems of the process are also evident in the fact that Pleiger is not on the point

  • VIII: Membership in criminal organizations (p. 270)

is charged because he was able to hide his membership in the SS. In the open criticism from within the court, in the "Deviating Opinion of Judge Leon W. Powers" (p. 280ff), one of the three judges of the American Military Tribunal, Pleiger questions point VI, but also expressly confirms point VII (p . 318). On December 12, 1949, the “application for the correction ... of legal and factual errors contained in the judgment” is rejected for Pleiger (p. 321f).

Entrepreneur in the Federal Republic

Pleiger was released early from the Landsberg War Crimes Prison in March 1951 and returned to the management board of his company in Witten, which is still a supplier to the plastics industry today.

His son Paul Pleiger (1930–1983) was also an entrepreneur. From 1970 to 1983, he was chairman of the Märkischer employers 'association of the metal industry in North Rhine-Westphalia and was also president of the state association of employers' associations in North Rhine-Westphalia from 1982 until his accidental death in 1983.

literature

  • Ernst Klee : The person lexicon for the Third Reich: Who was what before and after 1945. Fischer-Taschenbuch-Verlag, Frankfurt am Main 2007. ISBN 978-3-596-16048-8
  • The verdict in the Wilhelmstrasse trial : Official wording of the decision in case no. 11 of the Nuremberg Military Tribunal against von Weizsäcker and others, with different reasons for the verdict, rectification decisions, d. basic legal provisions, e. Delay d. Court persons u. Witnesses and Introductions by Robert MW Kempner u. Carl Haensel . Edited with the assistance of CH Tuerck. (officially recognized. Translated from the English), Bürger, Schwäbisch Gmünd 1950 DNB
  • Matthias Riedel: Iron and coal for the Third Reich. Paul Pleiger's position in the Nazi economy. Musterschmidt, Göttingen 1973
  • Tanja Penter : Coal for Hitler. The Donbass under German occupation. In Einsicht, Issue 6. Bulletin of the Fritz Bauer Institute , 2011 ISSN  1868-4211 pp. 40–47 (with photos, including: Gruppe Göring, Pleiger, Keitel)
  • Tanja Penter: Coal for Stalin and Hitler. Working and living in Donbass 1929–1953. Klartext, Essen 2010
  • Ralf Stremmel:  Pleiger, Paul. In: New German Biography (NDB). Volume 20, Duncker & Humblot, Berlin 2001, ISBN 3-428-00201-6 , p. 526 f. ( Digitized version ).

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b Klee: Personenlexikon , p. 464
  2. ^ August Meyer: Hitler's Holding. The Reichswerke "Hermann Göring" , Europa-Verlag, Munich 1999, p. 375.
  3. ^ August Meyer: Hitler's Holding. The Reichswerke "Hermann Göring" , Europa-Verlag, Munich 1999, p. 328.
  4. ↑ Louis P. Lochner: The Mighty and the Tyrann , Darmstadt 1955, p. 289, quoted. after Wilhelm Hermann, Gertrude Hermann: The old mines on the Ruhr . Königstein im Taunus, 6th edition 2008, ISBN 978-3-7845-6994-9 , p. 86f.
  5. ↑ The Judgment, p. 278
  6. ^ The judgment, p. XXI
  7. ^ New German Biography , Vol .: 20, Berlin, 2001, p. 526f
  8. ↑ Review see web links
personal data
SURNAME Pleiger, Paul
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German entrepreneur and military leader
DATE OF BIRTH September 28, 1899
PLACE OF BIRTH Buchholz
DATE OF DEATH July 22, 1985
Place of death Buchholz