Reich Defense Commissioner
The office of the Reich Defense Commissioner was created by decree on September 1, 1939 on the instructions of Adolf Hitler at the outbreak of World War II . Only Gauleiter were entrusted with the new office, even if in the case of Nuremberg it was not the locally responsible one, but a different Gauleiter.
Ordered in 1939
The entire civil defense was entrusted to the Reich Defense Commissioners. Each Reich Defense Commissioner was responsible for one of the 18 military districts. In close coordination with the military district commanders, the Reich Defense Commissioner was to ensure uniform management of all civil administration branches. So they had the authority to issue instructions to all civil authorities in their military district in matters of Reich defense. They were responsible for the preparation and deployment of air protection or were responsible for evacuating the endangered areas. The Reich Defense Commissioners were under the supervision of the Reich Minister of the Interior and at the same time were organs of the Council of Ministers for the Reich Defense . The authorized representative for the Reich administration and for the economy as well as the highest Reich authorities were authorized to issue instructions.
On September 1, 1939, the following NSDAP Gauleiter were appointed Reich Defense Commissioners:
| Military district | Reich Defense Commissioner |
|---|---|
| WW I Koenigsberg | Erich Koch , Upper President of East Prussia |
| WW II Szczecin | Franz Schwede , Upper President of Pomerania |
| WW III Berlin | Emil Stürtz , Upper President of Brandenburg |
| WW IV Dresden | Martin Mutschmann , Reich Governor of Saxony |
| WK V Stuttgart | Wilhelm Murr , Reich Governor of Württemberg |
| WK VI Münster | Josef Terboven , Upper President of the Rhine Province |
| WW VII Munich | Adolf Wagner , Bavarian Minister of the Interior |
| WW VIII Breslau | Josef Wagner , Upper President of Silesia |
| WW IX Kassel | Fritz Sauckel , Reich Governor of Thuringia |
| WK X Hamburg | Karl Kaufmann , Reich Governor of Hamburg |
| WK XI Hanover | Rudolf Jordan , Reich Governor of Braunschweig and Anhalt |
| WK XII Wiesbaden | Jakob Sprenger , Reich Governor of Hesse |
| WK XIII Nuremberg | Adolf Wagner , Bavarian Interior Minister, Gauleiter of Munich |
| WK XVII Vienna | Josef Bürckel , Gauleiter of Vienna |
| WK XVIII Salzburg | Friedrich Rainer , Reich Governor of Salzburg and Carinthia |
Reorganization in 1942
The ordinance of September 1, 1939 was revised several times because the military districts overlapped with various districts, countries and provinces. Conflicts of competence with power-conscious Gauleiter who had not been appointed Reich Defense Commissioner were therefore inevitable. In order to defuse these increasingly sharp conflicts during the course of the war, the “Ordinance on the Reich Defense Commissioners and the Unification of Economic Administration” of November 16, 1942, made the party areas to Reich Defense Districts (RVB). Each Gauleiter was now automatically a Reich Defense Commissioner and 18 RVB suddenly became 42 and 43 RVB.
Final phase of the war
Especially in the final phase of the war, the office of the Reich Defense Commissioner contributed significantly to the expansion of power of the Gauleiter and the NSDAP vis-à-vis the state authorities. The autonomy and power of the Reich Defense Commissioners vis-à-vis the state was increased by their involvement in the total war , which Joseph Goebbels demanded on July 25, 1944 as "Reich plenipotentiary for total war effort". The Reich Defense Commissioner thus finally became a political-ideological instrument that aimed to maximize the mobilization of all internal resources in the face of impending defeat.
See also
literature
- Wilhelm Stuckart , Harry von Rosen: The defense of the empire (military law). (= Reorganization of Law and Economy 40, Issue 1), 2nd ext. Edition. Leipzig 1943.
- Peter Hüttenberger : The Gauleiter. Study on the change in the power structure in the NSDAP. (= Series of the quarterly books for contemporary history, number 19), DVA, Stuttgart 1969, pp. 152–172.
- Peter Diehl-Thiele: Party and State in the Third Reich. Munich 1969. (2nd edition. Munich 1971, ISBN 3-406-02887-X .)
- Dieter Rebentisch , Karl Teppe: Administration versus leadership in Hitler's state . Göttingen 1986, ISBN 3-525-36190-4 .
- Manfred Wolf: Upper Presidium of the Province of Westphalia. Vol. 4: Police, Justice, Military, Chief of Civil Administration, Reich Defense Commissioner. Münster 1991, DNB 948048840
- Ralf Blank : Albert Hoffmann as Reich Defense Commissioner in Gau Westfalen-Süd, 1943-1945. A biographical sketch. In: Wolf Gruner , Armin Nolzen (Ed.): Bureaucracies. Initiative and efficiency. (= BGNS , Volume 17), Berlin 2001, pp. 189-205.
Remarks
- ↑ The numbers XIV to XVI were not used for military districts, see article military district .
Individual evidence
- ↑ RGBl. I 1939, p. 1565f. (“Ordinance on the appointment of Reich Defense Commissioners” of September 1, 1939).