Rainer Schlösser

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Rainer Schlösser (* July 28, 1899 in Jena ; † August 9, 1945 in Berlin ), writer and journalist, was "Reichsdramaturg" in the Ministry of Public Enlightenment and Propaganda and from 1935 to 1938 President of the Reich Theater Chamber . He was an influential cultural politician under National Socialism .

Life

After graduating from high school in 1917, Schlösser began his officer training. Due to the war, he soon came to the front in Flanders . In September 1917 he received the rank of lieutenant . After the end of the war he studied history, philosophy, German philology and Protestant theology at the universities of Jena and Freiburg . In 1920 his father Rudolf Schlösser , a university professor in Jena and since 1917 director of the Goethe and Schiller Archive in Weimar, died . As a result, Schlösser had to interrupt his studies, worked as a banker and made it to the position of authorized signatory. In November 1927 he took in Jena studying again and was in May 1931 when Albert Leitz man with the dissertation : Johann Friedrich Struensee in German literature Dr. phil. PhD .

From 1924 his journalistic activities began, first for the Volkish and later for the National Socialist movement. From 1925 Schlösser worked for the magazine Deutsches Schrifttum , published by the anti-Semitic writer Adolf Bartels , in which he published his first literary criticism of a book by the national poet Kurt Geucke. In October 1931 he became the cultural-political editor at Völkischer Beobachter . Schlösser was a member of the NSDAP ( membership number 772.091).

After the “ takeover ” of power by the National Socialists, he worked as an influential party functionary in the transformation of German cultural life in the spirit of National Socialism. For this he was allowed to make a career. In August 1933, Joseph Goebbels gave Schlösser the newly created office of Reich Dramaturge in the Reich Ministry for Public Enlightenment and Propaganda, which was also first established in 1933 . He also rose to the position of Ministerialrat. In the following years he also took on a large number of leading positions in associations of German theater life. From January 1934, he was first vice-president of the Union of National Writers .

The implementation of National Socialist cultural policy meant first and foremost the eradication of everything Jewish in theater and opera. For this he had various means of power at his disposal. As a Reich dramaturge, he was also responsible for the approval or rejection of opera and operetta performances. On March 9, 1934, following a request from the Prussian theater committee, he prohibited the performance of works by the "Jewish composers" Giacomo Meyerbeer and Jacques Offenbach . In addition, he was responsible for the censorship of the theater projects of the Jewish Cultural Association and, among other things, made sure that no "Jew, of all people, dramatically cannibalizes Kleist". Further gambling bans were also justified by the fact that the Third Reich recognized Judaism in its eminent danger . In a letter to Goebbels dated September 12, 1934, he criticized the high proportion of Jewish composers and librettists in contemporary operettas , whereupon Goebbels instructed him to carry out a "purge".

After the death of his superior Otto Laubinger , Schlösser was appointed head of the theater department in the Propaganda Ministry and President of the Reich Theater Chamber in autumn 1935 . In April 1938 he was succeeded in the latter position by the actor Ludwig Körner .

"The theater tour is excellently managed by Schlösser on my behalf."

- Joseph Goebbels : Diary entry from August 4, 1942.

Until 1938, Schlösser belonged to the Reichskultursenat appointed by Goebbels in 1935, which in practice was of little importance . In September 1939 he became head of the cultural office of the Hitler Youth with the rank of Obergebietsführer . Schlösser, who in his role as Reich dramaturge also had to judge opera performances, joined the Nazi criticism, classifying the works of the composer and conductor Hans Ebert (1889–1952) as decadent, dissonant and “Negro music”. Two days after the Berlin premiere of Ebert's opera Hille Bobbe in the German Opera House in 1942, Schlösser publicly reprimanded the composer's “non-Aryan infiltration” and demanded that the “reputation of the Reich dramaturgy with regard to its National Socialist reliability, which had been shaken by the neglect here, should be restored” . As the acting Reich dramaturge, Schlösser was still responsible for the changes made to opera librettos by the Reich Office for Music Arrangements during the Second World War in line with National Socialism.

From 1944 onwards, Schlösser, who had been promoted to ministerial director in 1942, headed the culture department in the Propaganda Ministry and directed measures to transform German cultural life in total war . In the final phase of the Second World War he is said to have joined the remains of an SS tank unit during the Battle of Berlin after Adolf Hitler's death, which was shot at and blown up. Schlösser was arrested by members of the Red Army on May 15, 1945. On June 30, 1945, he was sentenced to death by shooting by a Soviet military tribunal for war crimes and executed shortly afterwards on August 9.

After the war in 1946 in which were SBZ complete works Schlössers into as part of the Nazi propaganda list of auszusondernden literature added.

Works (selection)

  • We are left with the sacred German art : Speech on the occasion. d. Culture days d. Hitler Youth d. Area of ​​Saxony on Nov. 7, 1943 in d. Dresden State Opera, NSDAP Hitler Youth Dresden 1943
  • Intoxication and Maturity: Poems , Stuttgart 1943
  • Ed .: Adolf Bartels: German poets - characteristics . Introduction by Rainer Schlösser, H. Haessel Verlag, Leipzig 1943. (A history of German literature by Adolf Bartels ).
  • On the simplicity of the heart: remarks on Eichendorff . Berlin 1942.
  • Musical and academic: keynote address d. Reich dramaturge Ministerialdirigent Dr. Rainer Schlösser on the occasion. d. 50 years Existence d. City Theater Göttingen. Göttingen City Theater 1942.
  • Speech by Obergebietsführer Dr. Palaces on the occasion of the ceremony in the German National Theater in Weimar on June 14, 1941 . NSDAP, Verlag der Reichsjugendführung 1941.
  • Poems and thoughts . In: Series of publications by the Reich Youth Leader War Care Service, No. 4., Verlag der Reichsjugendführung Berlin 1940.
  • Grabbe's legacy . University bookstore Coppenrath Münster 1937. (About the playwright Christian Dietrich Grabbe ).
  • Politics and drama . Contemporary history publishing house, Berlin 1935.
  • The people and their stage: remarks on the structure of the German theater . Theater Verlag Albert Langen / Georg Müller, Berlin 1935
  • The big round 1917/1934 . (Poems), Zeitgeschichte Verlag, Berlin 1934.
  • Struensee in German literature . In: Altonische Zeitschrift für Geschichte und Heimatkunde, Volume 1. Verlag Wachholtz, Neumünster 1931? Simultaneously Verlag Lorenzen, Altona 1931. (Schlösser's dissertation at the University of Jena).
  • Kurt Geucke - A wanderer between plaice and star. In the magazine Deutsches Schrifttum published by Adolf Bartels, year 1925, issue 8, pp. 2–3.
  • The song of the steel helmet . (Poems) Verlag Moritz Schauenburg , Lahr / Baden 1924.

literature

  • Stefan Hüpping: Rainer Schlösser - the poet-soldier . In: Rolf Düsterberg (ed.): Poets for the "Third Reich". Biographical studies on the relationship between literature and ideology , Aisthesis Verlag, Bielefeld 2009, ISBN 978-3-89528-719-0 , pp. 229-258.
  • Stefan Hüpping: Rainer Schlösser (1899 - 1945): the "Reichsdramaturg" , Bielefeld: Aisthesis-Verl., 2012, ISBN 978-3-89528-952-1
  • Boris von Haken: The "Reich Dramaturge" Rainer Schlösser and the music theater policy in the Nazi era , by Bockel Verlag, Hamburg 2007, ISBN 978-3-932696-64-0 .
  • Ernst Klee : The cultural lexicon for the Third Reich. Who was what before and after 1945. S. Fischer, Frankfurt am Main 2007, ISBN 978-3-10-039326-5 .
  • Ernst Klee: The Personal Lexicon for the Third Reich - Who Was What Before and After 1945 . Fischer Verlag, Frankfurt a. M. 2003, ISBN 3-10-039309-0 . Also published as a paperback in the following years, most recently in 2007 with ISBN 978-3-596-16048-8 .
  • Fred K. Prieberg : Handbook of German Musicians 1933-1945 . PDF on CD-ROM, Kiel 2004. (2nd edition, Kiel 2009)

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c Ernst Klee: The culture lexicon for the Third Reich. Who was what before and after 1945. S. Fischer, Frankfurt am Main 2007, p. 476.
  2. ↑ Stefan Hüpping: Rainer Schlosser - the poet-soldier . In: Rolf Düsterberg (ed.): Poets for the "Third Reich". Biographical studies on the relationship between literature and ideology , Aisthesis Verlag, Bielefeld 2009, ISBN 978-3-89528-719-0 , p. 234.
  3. ^ Nina Okrassa: Peter Raabe. Conductor, music writer and President of the Reichsmusikkammer (1872-1945) , Böhlau Verlag, 2004, p. 57.
  4. ↑ Ernst Klee: The Personal Lexicon for the Third Reich - Who Was What Before and After 1945 . Fischer Verlag, Frankfurt a. M. 2003, ISBN 3-10-039309-0 , p. 540.
  5. ^ Fred K. Prieberg: Handbook of German Musicians 1933–1945 . PDF on CD-ROM, Kiel 2004, p. 2145, with reference to the source BA R 56 I / 11.
  6. ↑ Schlösser's letter of December 5, 1933 to State Commissioner Hans Hinkel , printed in Joseph Wulf, Theater and Film in the Third Reich, Frankfurt / M. 1983, ISBN 3-548-33031-2 , p. 269 f.
  7. ↑ Schlösser's letter of October 26, 1933 to State Commissioner Hans Hinkel, reprinted in Joseph Wulf, Theater and Film in the Third Reich, Frankfurt / M. 1983, ISBN 3-548-33031-2 . Page 113ff
  8. ^ Fred K. Prieberg: Handbook of German Musicians 1933–1945 . PDF on CD-ROM, Kiel 2004, citation p. 2160–2162, source BA R 55/20169, sheets 145–147, 148–149.
  9. ^ Bogusław Drewniak: The theater in the Nazi state. Scenario of contemporary German history 1933–1945 , Droste, Düsseldorf 1983, p. 16
  10. ^ Ernst Klee: The culture lexicon for the Third Reich. Who was what before and after 1945. S. Fischer, Frankfurt am Main 2007, p. 293.
  11. ↑ Quoted in: Ernst Klee: Das Kulturlexikon zum Third Reich. Who was what before and after 1945. S. Fischer, Frankfurt am Main 2007, p. 476.
  12. ^ Bogusław Drewniak: The theater in the Nazi state. Scenario of contemporary German history 1933–1945 , Droste, Düsseldorf 1983, p. 158
  13. ^ Fred K. Prieberg: Handbook of German Musicians 1933–1945 . PDF on CD-ROM, Kiel 2004, p. 1291.
  14. ^ Fred K. Prieberg: Handbook of German Musicians 1933–1945 . PDF on CD-ROM, Kiel 2004, p. 1291.
  15. ^ Fred K. Prieberg: Handbook of German Musicians 1933–1945 . PDF on CD-ROM, Kiel 2004, p. 2357, letter dated January 4, 1943.
  16. ↑ Hüpping: Rainer locks. P. 278.
  17. ↑ Andreas Weigelt, Klaus-Dieter Müller, Thomas Schaarschmidt, Mike Schmeitzner (eds.): Death sentences of Soviet military tribunals against Germans (1944-1947). A historical-biographical study. Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, Göttingen 2015, ISBN 978-3-525-36968-5 , p. 607
  18. ^ List of literature to be sorted out 1946 .
personal data
SURNAME Locks, Rainer
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German National Socialist, Reich dramaturge, poet and cultural politician
DATE OF BIRTH July 28, 1899
PLACE OF BIRTH Jena
DATE OF DEATH August 9, 1945
Place of death Berlin