Richard Korherr

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Richard Korherr (born October 30, 1903 in Regensburg ; † November 24, 1989 in Braunschweig ) was a German economist and statistician . During the time of National Socialism , he headed the statistical department in the SS main office , for which he prepared the Korherr report on the " Final Solution of the Jewish Question " in 1943 .

Origin and career

As the son of a master tailor , Korherr began to study economics and law at the Ludwig Maximilians University in Munich in 1922 . In 1923 he became active in the Corps Ratisbonia Munich . When he was inactive , he moved to the Friedrich-Alexander-Universität Erlangen , where he became a Dr. rer. pole. PhD . In his dissertation he addressed the decline in the birth rate ; it was published in 1927 under the title Geburtenfallfall - Mahnruf an das Deutschen Volk . The later edition of 1935 appeared with a preface by Heinrich Himmler . In 1928 it was published in Rome in the Italian version under the title Regresso delle nascite morte dei popoli . Benito Mussolini and Oswald Spengler wrote forewords.

Korherr worked in a department of the Reich Statistical Office and was allegedly dismissed in 1930 "for publicly presenting National Socialist ideas". He then worked as managing director of the working committee “Reich and Heimat” and from 1930 to 1933 a member of the Bavarian People's Party - only “formally and for tactical reasons”, as Korherr later assured. On January 1, 1934, it was taken over by the Bavarian State Statistical Office . From 1935 to 1940 Korherr was director of the statistical office of the city of Würzburg with teaching duties at the University of Würzburg .

In 1935 Korherr tried in vain to emphasize his political activities during his student days in order to be classified as an old fighter . Due to the membership ban of the NSDAP , he only became a member of the National Socialist German Workers' Party in 1937 . He later turned down the offer to join the Schutzstaffel . The Würzburg district office head of the NSDAP complained that Korherr never shows up at political events; he was "a little shy of people, irritable, sensitive and a fearful nature".

At a meeting with Himmler in March 1939, Korherr took on voluntary work to compile statistics in the SS apparatus. Appointed head of the statistical department in the SS main office on December 9, 1940, he was responsible for statistics in all offices of the SS. At the same time he became inspector for statistics at the Reichsführer SS and head of the German police and at the Reichskommissar for the consolidation of German nationality . He had already offered his services for the "consolidation of the German Volkstum" in October 1940:

In addition, I would see a personal task worth thanking, in which I could work in quiet scientific work for the practice, namely for the main department I (human intervention): recording the German people in German living space, especially outside the Reich, the mixed populations, the Foreign races as preliminary scientific work for the resettlement ... "

Korherr's office in the Thiergarten hunting lodge (around 1975)

In 1943 Korherr was commissioned by Himmler to prepare a comprehensive report on the final solution to the Jewish question , for which Korherr had already compiled statistics in December 1942. Himmler criticized the first version of the so-called Korherr report because it contained the term special treatment , which was known as a synonym for “killing”. Korherr should replace the word and rewrite it as "pass through". A short version of the report was made known to Adolf Hitler . At that time, in February 1943, Korherr volunteered for service on the war front ; however, his request was rejected.

On January 1, 1944, the office was relocated to the Thiergarten hunting lodge of the former Princes of Thurn and Taxis near Sulzbach an der Donau near Regensburg and renamed the "Statistical-Scientific Institute of the Reichsführer SS". Obviously a loss of meaning was connected with it; because at the same time Himmler set up a "central machine institute for optimal human recording and evaluation". Nevertheless, Korherr, who came up with sober analyzes, continued to enjoy the absolute trust of Himmler and his personal staff.

After the war

From 1945 to 1946 Korherr was in automatic arrest . The Korherr report was not yet available as evidence in the Nuremberg trial against the main war criminals . It was only discussed in the follow-up processes. Korherr remained unmolested and claimed: "I only heard about the extermination operations after the collapse in 1945."

According to Adolf Eichmann , however, Korherr had an insight into all secret Reich matters in the Reich Security Main Office and also made contact with the heads of task forces of the Security Police and the SD . His own formulations in the report, such as "the collapse of the Jewish masses ... since the evacuation measures" and Himmler's instructions to replace the term "special treatment", refute his protective claim. Jutta Wietog is of the opinion that even the information on the death rate in the concentration camps should have opened the eyes of even a person of good faith. Korherr told Gitta Sereny frankly in 1977 that everyone in Germany knew that the Jews were being gassed (see contemporary knowledge of the Holocaust ).

In the post-war period Korherr was Ministerialrat in the Federal Ministry of Finance . He was in contact with Karl Valentin Müller and from the winter semester 1959/60 to the summer semester 1962 was given a teaching position at his chair at the University of Economics and Social Sciences Erlangen-Nuremberg . When Gerald Reitlinger's book on the “Final Solution” made his report known to a wide public, Korherr was dismissed in 1961. In 1972 he also received the ribbon of the Corps Transrhenania Munich .

literature

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Georg von Mayr: General statistical archive, Volume 74. Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, 1990, p. 156. ( Limited preview on Google books )
  2. Kösener Corpslisten 1996, 124 , 320.
  3. The information on the career is based on Aly / Roth: The complete collection ... Frankfurt / M. 2005, ISBN 3-596-14767-0 , pp. 40–43 and Jutta Wietog: Censuses under National Socialism. Berlin 2002, ISBN 3-428-10384-X , pp. 209-237.
  4. ^ Rüdiger Overmans: German military losses in World War II. Munich 2000, ISBN 3-486-56531-1 , p. 47.
  5. Aly, Roth: The complete collection ... Frankfurt 2005, ISBN 3-596-14767-0 , p. 41.
  6. ^ Hans-Peter Baum : Fundamentals of the Würzburg Social History 1814-2004. In: Ulrich Wagner (Hrsg.): History of the city of Würzburg. 4 volumes, Volume I-III / 2, Theiss, Stuttgart 2001-2007; III / 1–2: From the transition to Bavaria to the 21st century. Volume 2, 2007, ISBN 978-3-8062-1478-9 , p. 1326, note 39.
  7. Jochen von Lang (ed.): The Eichmann Protocol - tape recordings of the Israeli interrogations . Severin and Siedler, Berlin 1982. ISBN 3-88680-036-9 . P. 104.
  8. Jutta Wietog: census ... . ISBN 3-428-10384-X , p. 235.
  9. Aly, Roth: The complete coverage ... Frankfurt / M. 2005, ISBN 3-596-14767-0 , p. 42 f.
  10. ^ Contrary to what Jutta Wietog claims: Volkszählungen ... ISBN 3-428-10384-X , p. 236.
  11. Ernst Klee: Personal Lexicon for the Third Reich . Frankfurt am Main 2005, ISBN 3-596-16048-0 , p. 331.
  12. "I was toying with the bombing." Eichmann describes the Grand Mufti of Jerusalem and the bombing of Berlin. In: Welt Online , September 1, 1999
  13. Jutta Wietog: Population censuses ... ISBN 3-428-10384-X , p. 232.
  14. Gitta Sereny: Albert Speer. Goldmann, Munich 2001, ISBN 3-442-15141-4 , p. 417.
  15. Kösener Corpslisten 1981, 115 , 650