Richard Blankenhorn

Richard Blankenhorn (born April 4, 1886 in Fronhofen , † January 10, 1968 in Ehingen ) was a German politician ( NSDAP ) and from 1931 district leader of the NSDAP in the district of Ehingen . From April 1932 to October 1933 he was also a member of the state parliament of Württemberg . In 1946 he was classified as incriminated as part of his denazification process .

Life

Richard Blankenhorn was born in 1886 as the son of elementary school teacher Matthäus Blankenhorn and his wife Mathilde Blankenhorn, nee. Ensinger, born in Fronhofen. After attending the two-class Catholic elementary school in Fronhofen, the father's family moved to Ehingen for professional reasons, where he attended the local grammar school. Due to a handicap , he was released from military service and for this reason could not start studying Catholic theology in Tübingen and consequently could not fulfill his dream of being a pastor . He therefore decided to start studying classical philology . He then worked as a study assessor in Ehingen, Rottweil and Ellwangen . In 1918 he was appointed Senior Preceptor at the Realgymnasium and the Oberrealanstalt in Schwäbisch Hall . He was then transferred to the grammar school in Ehingen as a teacher, where he began to be politically active.

In 1924 Blankenhorn joined the Center Party , but quickly switched to the German National People's Party (in Württemberg "Citizens' Party") because he was opposed to the democratic state, and in 1931 finally to the NSDAP . For this he founded or built up the local group Ehingen and was appointed part-time district leader of Ehingen as a reward.

In the state elections on April 24, 1932, he ran on the district proposal list of the Ehingen-Laupheim-Biberach-Münsingen districts and was able to win a mandate. With 23 MPs, the NSDAP now constituted the strongest parliamentary group in the state parliament in Stuttgart and was able to very quickly paralyze the parliament's ability to work. Blankenhorn himself was elected a member of the finance committee. Sharp criticism of parliamentarism and democracy shaped his speeches in plenary. However, on March 15, 1933, he was the only member of the NSDAP who did not appear in party uniform for the election of Gauleiter Wilhelm Murr as President of Württemberg .

The district leadership of the NSDAP in Ehingen resided in the Oberschaffnei there, where he ruled with a hard hand and also interfered in communal matters.

After the previous headmaster at the Ehingen grammar school retired in 1934 , Blankenhorn was able to succeed him. In 1936 he got into an intra-party conflict because he had signed his marriage with a church blessing, which many anti-church representatives of the NSDAP did not like. In addition, they were dissatisfied with the way they were in office, as they wanted a sharper district leader.

Blankenhorn was accused of failing to carry out an order from Gauleiter Murr, and so a party court case was initiated against him in 1937, but these were suppressed. In June of the same year he was replaced as district leader and replaced by the district leader of Laupheim, Josef Hörmann. In December he left the church and was thanked by the deputy of the Führer Rudolf Hess for his services.

After that he stayed with the Reichslehrerbund, the NS-Volkswohlfahrt and the Red Cross . From the beginning of 1942 until the end of the war he was also used again as a party speaker.

After the end of the war

He was not imprisoned immediately, but was able to live relatively unmolested in Ehingen until 1946. However, the French occupying forces noticed the headmaster's past and had him arrested. After he was admitted to the Balingen internment camp , the Ehingen Cleanup Investigation Committee classified him as incriminated. This judgment was confirmed in 1948 by the State Commissariat for Political Cleansing Württemberg-Hohenzollern in Tübingen. It provided for a dismissal without pay and a refusal of any political activity for a period of five years. Furthermore, he was only allowed to do ordinary work and no longer work as a teacher. He also had to leave the Ehingen district.

On July 12, 1949, the state government of Württemberg-Hohenzollern granted him hardship allowance. In 1950 he was classified as a follower by an appeal notice. He died on January 10, 1968 in Ehingen.

literature

• Wolfgang Proske (Ed.): Perpetrators - helpers - free riders. Nazi victims from Upper Swabia. (=  Perpetrator - helper - free rider . Tape 4 ). 4th edition. Kugelberg, Gerstetten 2015, ISBN 978-3-945893-00-5 , pp. 18th ff .
• Frank Raberg : Biographical handbook of the Württemberg state parliament members 1815-1933 . On behalf of the Commission for Historical Regional Studies in Baden-Württemberg. Kohlhammer, Stuttgart 2001, ISBN 3-17-016604-2 .

Web links

• On the Wolfsgurgel they dug their own graves from Südwest Presse (Ehinger Tagblatt) on June 19, 2012
• The beginning of Nazi rule in Ehingen
• Denazification Richard Blankenhorn