Robert Ernst (politician)

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St. Thomas in Strasbourg 1895 (right)

Friedrich Robert Ernst (born February 4, 1897 in Hürtigheim , German Empire ; died April 14, 1980 in Rimsting ) was a German folk politician from Alsace and became Mayor of Strasbourg in 1941 . From 1945 to 1954 he was imprisoned in France.

Origin and studies

The old Alsatian father August Ernst (1868-1958) was pastor of St. Thomas in Strasbourg (August Ernst was later still pastor at the Matthäuskirche in Stuttgart ). The mother came from the Alsatian francophone urban bourgeoisie. After attending school in Strasbourg, Ernst volunteered as a war volunteer in 1914 and was deployed in Ypres and Verdun , he became an aviator and was shot down in Cambrai in November 1917 . After the end of the war and the regaining of Alsace and Lorraine by France, 140,000 German citizens were largely expelled by the beginning of 1922, mostly old Germans and their descendants who immigrated after 1871 and around 10% old Alsace-Lorraine. His parents and Ernst moved voluntarily from Alsace to the emerging Weimar Republic in 1919 . He studied law in Heidelberg and law and political science in Tübingen and graduated with a doctorate in February 1921 .

Association official

Ernst lived in Berlin from the spring of 1921 and worked there until the beginning of 1922 at the umbrella organization of the German Protection Association for Border and German Abroad as a department head for Alsace-Lorraine. He was a board member of the "Elsaß-Lothringen Institute" (ELI), which mostly also called itself "scientific", at the University of Frankfurt (Main) and the most influential figure in the ethnic German movement on the western border of the Reich. In 1921 he stated on behalf of the ELI at a ceremony in Weimar:

“ We want to fight for the German people between the Rhine, Moselle and Wasgau . The weapons for this fight are forged by the Scientific Institute of the Alsace-Lorraine in the Reich. "

- Robert Ernst 1921

1923 Ernst co-founder of the "Alt-Alsace-Lorraine Association", was released on January 5, 1923 in Berlin, the first issue of "home voice Alsace-Lorraine", the organ of after the First World War, the German Empire migrated Alsace and Lorraine. From 1924 he was employed by the “Aid Association of the Expelled Alsace-Lorraine”, which had 22,000 members at the beginning of 1922, and at the “Association of the Alsace-Lorraine Student Union”. Furthermore, in October 1924 he took part in the Heppenheim conference of the German Center for Folk and Cultural Soil Research , where the participants, mainly Rhenish historians and geographers, were introduced to the "questions of West German soil" under the chairmanship of Wilhelm Volz . Ernst was the editor of this auxiliary union magazine and also the magazine Elsaß-Lothringen . As an association functionary, he became chairman of the "German Protection Association for Border and Abroad Germans" on May 22, 1933, which had been founded on May 22, 1919.

In the meantime, Ernst left the association's employment relationship for a few years and worked as a freelancer. He received the funds for his work from a fund of the Foreign Office disguised as a “German Foundation” , Emil von Rintelen was his long-term contact person here. Mainly from the Locarno Agreements until the death of Foreign Minister Gustav Stresemann , i.e. from 1925 to 1929, Ernst received grants from the Foreign Office to support his work in Alsace, around 1,500,000 Reichsmarks for those years .

After the founding of Alsace-Lorraine home Federal Pentecost 1926, the French reacted with two Autonomistenprozessen in Colmar , where in 1928 Karl Roos to 15 years in prison was convicted and Ernst in absentia to 15 years in prison and 20 years of residence ban. This prevented him from entering Alsace. As part of his association work for the Schutzbund, Ernst also had contact with other minorities and autonomists in Europe and took part in conferences of the European Nationalities Congress and the League of Nations in Geneva .

National Socialism

Ernst joined the NSDAP on May 1, 1933 , and as Chairman of the Schutzbund, Ernst was actively involved in the voluntary self- alignment of the associations. On May 29, 1933, on the initiative of Ernst, the Bund Deutscher Westen was founded, which he led as "Führer" together with co-initiator and "President" Karl Spiewok , the National Socialist City Councilor of Berlin - according to § 3 of the statutes by Führer " Aryan descent ". He also worked in the secret umbrella organization “Volksdeutscher Rat”, which was installed in October 1933, as the person responsible for the areas west of the Reich border. Ernst, 1933–1935 deputy federal director of the Association for Germanism Abroad (VDA) , was among the VDA leaders on December 7, 1933 who were received by Adolf Hitler . Ernst represented VDA federal manager Hans Steinacher as a speaker at the mass rallies staged by the NSDAP and the VDA in 1933 in major German cities, in Aachen and Stettin .

The Reich Foreign Ministry under Konstantin von Neurath and the Reich Interior Ministry commissioned Steinacher and Ernst in mid-June to reorganize the German Foreign Institute (DAI) with a small reorganization committee. Previously, in March 1933, the managing director of the DAI, Fritz Wertheimer , who had been general secretary of the DAI since 1918, was denied access to the DAI by the local SA due to Wertheimer's Jewish descent. The chairman of the DAI, Theodor Wanner , who was also rejected by Nazi circles , was attacked in March 1933. Wanner was urged to resign on June 20, Wertheimer's name was no longer mentioned, Ernst reported to the Württemberg Prime Minister Christian Mergenthaler on June 21, 1933 the successful, only temporary transfer of the institute's management to Steinacher, Ernst and a “Dr. Krehl ".

In the organizational undergrowth of National Socialist rule, Hess and Bohle competed with his NSDAP foreign organization for influence on the almost one million members of the VDA organizations. Due to tactical differences of opinion, Ernst resigned from the VDA's deputy chairmanship in August 1935. Since autumn 1935, the VDA and Steinacher were also personally attacked by Bohle. In February 1937 Steinacher's conception was finished when the SS leadership with Werner Lorenz took over the management of the Volksdeutsche Mittelstelle .

Regardless of the tangible differences between the NSDAP and the VDA, there were some similarities. For example, with the idea of ​​the Germans striving for hegemony, in which, in contrast to the National Socialist conception, the intrinsic value of the other peoples was not questioned, but no competitive claim to leadership was tolerated.

With the start of World War II in September 1939, Ernst was established in late 1939 as a major in the reserve headquarters commander of the 1st Air Division of the Air Force used in the invasion of Poland. When he joined the SS under membership number 365141, he was given the rank of SS standard leader on August 1, 1940 .

Strasbourg

During the seat war on February 1, 1940, Ernst became an employee of the Foreign Office for special tasks, and on March 1, 1941, he stopped working there. In Berlin , the two Alsatians Otto Meissner and Ernst saw themselves as protectors of Alsace-Lorraine and studied the administrative structure of the Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia . In fact, after some wrangling, the Gauleiter Josef Bürckel and Robert Wagner were enthroned.

Immediately after the occupation of Alsace in 1940 , Ernst founded the Alsatian Aid Service (EHD) on June 20 , in order to finally enable the "local" forces to participate. At the same time, on his initiative, a commando looked for imprisoned Alsatian autonomists, the so-called " Nanziger ", in order to secure sufficient political influence in the interests of the autonomists at an early stage, which, however, was the Baden Gauleiter Robert Wagner as head of the German civil administration in Alsace and then managed to prevent his administration and political followers, which were largely imported from Baden. The next day, June 21, 1940, Robert Wagner promised Ernst a position as an honorary “general advisor” to the “head of the German civil administration” in Alsace. Wagner also wanted to appoint Ernst as the "Higher Town Commissioner" of Strasbourg. As the successor to Theodor Ellgering , who had been city commissioner in Strasbourg since June 28, 1940, Ernst was head of the city administration of Strasbourg from March 5, 1941 to November 23, 1944, with an interruption due to his military service in 1943. On January 28, 1942, Ernst also took over the business in Kehl , whose mayor Alfred Reuter became his deputy.

Ernst continued to write articles in magazines and in the magazine “Westland” regretted the influx of Eastern Jews and Poles like emigrants to Alsace in the interwar period , combined with the expectation that this would now change. After the relocation of the University of Strasbourg to Clermont-Ferrand by the French government in September 1939 at the beginning of the Second World War, after the occupation of Alsace by the Wehrmacht in June 1940, the Reich University of Strasbourg was founded with Ernst's support , and Ernst brought Ernst Anrich from Strasbourg . Ernst became an honorary senator of the university.

Ernst had supported Alsatian volunteer reports to the Wehrmacht, but rejected the forced recruitment of Alsatians . After the introduction of compulsory military service, he had Wagner submit a request to be deployed at the front, for which Wagner put Ernst on leave, since Ernst felt obliged to risk his life for the sake of credibility, like the Alsatians who had been drafted into the Wehrmacht by serving the front. From May to the beginning of September 1943, Ernst was largely deployed in the Russian campaign as a functionless bomber crew member. However, Wagner refused to extend the leave of absence for the front, especially since Strasbourg was the target of the first Allied air raid at the end of September . On his return in September 1943, Ernst took over his old duties in Strasbourg. At the beginning of 1945 he tried to build an "Alsatian Freedom Front" as the " Volkssturm -Elsaß".

Ernst admits in his 1954 (1955 2nd edition) "report of accounts" that after a dispute during a visit to the hairdresser in the spring of 1942 he met the wife of the salon owner at a subsequent meeting with Hans because of the use of French, which is now prohibited in Alsace Fischer reported this. The woman was - contrary to an "agreement" between Ernst and Fischer, on the basis of which Ernst had expected a business ban of perhaps eight days, as he asserts - to be sent to the Schirmeck-Vorbruck security camp .

In 1941 Ernst received the "Golden Plaque of Honor" from the German Institute Abroad .

End of war and imprisonment

After fleeing Strasbourg at the end of November 1944 and staying in Munich under a false identity as "Ernst Fischer", Ernst surrendered to the American "CIC" on August 3, 1945, which probably means the Counter Intelligence Corps , which will soon give him to the French authorities transferred. As a French citizen, they wanted to charge him with treason in favor of the German Empire . For years Ernst tried to thwart this charge by arguing that he was a German citizen . Ernst was heard as a witness in the 1946 trial against Wagner, who was then executed.

The original charges were:

  • Forced conscription of Alsatians to the German Wehrmacht (thus inciting French citizens to treason),
  • Participation in the confiscation of French property,
  • Aid for the kidnapping of French nationals and
  • Looting (funds from the City of Strasbourg from the Banque de France were transferred to a German bank).

One of his defense lawyers was Kurt Behling , who was experienced in war crimes trials .

The German Federal President Theodor Heuss (FDP) wrote a private letter to Nobel Peace Prize laureate Albert Schweitzer on November 10, 1953 , asking him, who also knew Ernst's father personally, on behalf of Ernst, whom Heuss knew personally, but who was not accused of anything "unhealthy will be able to take. Church President Hans Stempel had "submitted a record of the Ernst Affair" to the Federal President, a copy of which was now sent to Schweitzer so that he could mobilize suitable people in Paris for their release. Parallel to this " silent help ", the German Bundestag President Hermann Ehlers (CDU) went directly to the public with the demand for release.

On January 20, 1954, Ernst was released from French pre-trial detention for the first time, as the long length of pre-trial detention caused political problems for the French judiciary, but was imprisoned again for the trial. The charge was ultimately: The Alsatian Aid Service was a spy and aid organization of the party. The voluntary recruitment of Alsatians must be seen as an aid to treason, since Alsace was occupied but not annexed . Ernst is jointly responsible for the forced recruitment, imprisonment and deportation of Alsatians. On January 13, 1955, Ernst was sentenced as a war criminal by the French military court in Metz to eight years of forced labor , to surrender his property and to a 20-year residence ban. After the verdict was announced, Ernst was released and deported to Germany.

While he was still in prison, the publishing house "Bernard & Graefe. Verlag für Wehrwesen", whose co-owner was Ernst, had published his "report of an Alsatian". After his release he took part in the transformation of the "League of Alsace-Lorraine in the Reich" into the "Society of Friends and Patrons of the Erwin von Steinbach Foundation". Otherwise, until the end of his life, Ernst appeared largely only as an author of Christian publications.

Ernst's son Gerhard died as a soldier in Breslau on April 22, 1945 . His wife and daughter Liselotte, 18 years old, committed suicide there at the end of the Battle of Berlin in early May 1945 . With his second wife Dorothea Gottschlich, Ernst had a son, Peter Ernst.

See also

  • Robert Paul Oszwald , next to Ernst another top functionary in the Federation of the German West

Fonts

  • Accountability report of an Alsatian. Writings against defamation and prejudice; Vol. 5. Against defamation of the defenders of German nationality. Bernard & Graefe, Berlin 1954, 2nd edition 1955 DNB
  • In memoriam August Ernst: Born on November 7th, 1868 in Allenweiler / Alsace, died on September 9th, 1958 in Stuttgart . Self-published by Robert Ernst, Stuttgart-Vaihingen 1958
  • The integration of the displaced Alsace-Lorraine into German economic life at the moment of its low point: facts and figures Politics . Association of scientific. Publisher, Berlin, Leipzig 1921
  • The reintegration of the expelled Alsace-Lorraine into the German economy , doctoral thesis
  • The Alsace-Lorraine against the French war criminals: The "liberators" of Alsace-Lorraine; Described by "Liberated" . typewritten, 1922
  • Friedrich König, Welsch or German !: Suffering and Struggle of the West Germanic Lands , Vorw .: Robert Ernst. Bernard & Graefe, Berlin 1924
  • Alsace . Runge, Berlin-Lichterfelde [approx. 1927] (Pocket Book of Border and German Abroad)
  • Land in Chains: Stolen German Land . Beenken, Berlin 1932
  • The end of Alsace-Lorraine. In: Friedrich Spieser (Ed.): Strasbourg monthly books. Magazine for the German people on the Upper Rhine . Double issue August / September 1940. Strasbourg publisher monthly, Strasbourg 1940.
  • The ethnic German movement in Alsace and Lorraine 1918–1940 . In: Otto Meissner : Alsace and Lorraine. German Land , Berlin 1941
    • The ethnic German movement in Alsace and Lorraine 1918–1940 . In: Otto Meissner (Ed.): German Alsace. German Lorraine. A cross-section of history, folklore and culture . Berlin: Otto Stolberg, 1941, pp. 49–65 [the article has been taken over]
  • Albert Bleicher: Alsace and Lorraine economically . Preface Robert Ernst. Hayn, Potsdam 1942

literature

  • Lothar Kettenacker: National Socialist Volkstumsppolitik in Alsace . Deutsche Verlagsanstalt, Stuttgart 1973, ISBN 3-421-01621-6
  • Karl-Heinz Rothenberger: The Alsace-Lorraine home and autonomy movement between the two world wars . Peter Lang, Frankfurt 1976 (Europäische Hochschulschriften, 42), ISBN 3-261-01485-7
  • Hans-Adolf Jacobsen (Ed.): Hans Steinacher, Federal Director of the VDA 1933–1937. Memories and documents . (= Writings of the Federal Archives, Volume 19) Boldt, Boppard am Rhein 1970, ISBN 3-7646-1545-1
  • Ingo Haar , Michael Fahlbusch (ed.): Handbook of the völkisch sciences. People - institutions - research programs - foundations. Saur, Munich 2008, ISBN 978-3-598-11778-7
  • Tammo Luther: Volkstumsppolitik of the German Reich 1933-1938. The Germans abroad in the field of tension between traditionalists and National Socialists . Franz Steiner, Stuttgart 2004
  • Image by Jacobsen and on website, by Gerd Simon (PDF; 904 kB)
  • Léon Strauss: Ernst, Robert Frédéric . In: Nouveau dictionnaire de biographie alsacienne . Faszikel 10, Strasbourg 1987, pp. 844-847.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Maximilian Schwalb: Alsace-Lorraine emigration to Germany since 1918 . In: Concise Political Dictionary . With the editorial assistance of Kurt Jagow ed. by Paul Herre. Leipzig, KF Koehler 1923, 2 volumes. DNB , p. 499f.
  2. ^ Rober Ernst: Accountability report of an Alsatian . Bernard & Graefe publishing house, Berlin 1955. S. 118, S. 129.
  3. ↑ Ernst, accountability report, p. 141.
  4. ^ Ernst, report of an Alsatian , pp. 142-143, p. 146.
  5. ↑ Political Archive Foreign Office PA-AA, R 60323, Bl. K657079f.
  6. ↑ Source: University Archives Frankfurt, Curator 15/16, p. 23. Speech of Ernst, in: Elsaß-Lothringische Mitteilungen Vol. 4, March 11, 1921, No. 10 (= fixed number of the Scientific Institute of the Alsace-Lorraine in the Reich) P. 149.
  7. ^ Foundation for German Folk and Cultural Soil Research Leipzig: The conferences of the years 1923 - 1929 . Beltz, Langensalza 1930. p. 78, p. 533; Michael Fahlbusch : "Where the German ... is, is Germany!". The Foundation for German Folk and Cultural Soil Research in Leipzig 1920-1933 . University Press Dr. N. Brockmeyer, Bochum 1994. p. 272 ​​(list of conferences).
  8. ^ Tammo Luther: Volkstumsppolitik des Deutschen Reiches 1933-1938 . Franz Steiner, Stuttgart 2004, p. 45. 74.
  9. ^ Lothar Kettenacker: National Socialist Volkstumsppolitik in Alsace . Deutsche Verlags-Anstalt, Stuttgart 1973, p. 81.
  10. ^ Karl-Heinz Rothenberger: The Alsace-Lorraine homeland and autonomy movement between the two world wars . Peter Lang, Frankfurt 1976. pp. 140-141.
  11. ^ Ernst, accountability report , pp. 164–165.
  12. ↑ a b c d e f Maria Keipert (Red.): Biographical manual of the German Foreign Service 1871–1945. Published by the Foreign Office, Historical Service. Volume 1: Johannes Hürter : A – F. Schöningh, Paderborn et al. 2000, ISBN 3-506-71840-1 , p. 523.
  13. ↑ Bund Deutscher Westen (BDW) 1933–1937 , in: Lexicon for the history of parties. The bourgeois and petty bourgeois parties and associations in Germany (1789-1945) , Vol. 1, Leipzig: VEB Bibliographisches Institut 1983, p. 316 f .; Ernst, report , p. 208; Frank G. Becker: 'German the Saar, immerdar'. The Saar propaganda of the Bund der Saarvereine 1919-1935. Dissertation, Saarland University, Saarbrücken 2004, p. 587 and note 2827. The abridged version of the dissertation was published in 2007 as a book under the same title as part of the series of publications by the Commission for Saarland State History and Folk Research , Vol. 40 '.
  14. ↑ Luther, Volkstumsppolitik , p. 87, pp. 89–90.
  15. ↑ Fritz Wertheimer in the Munzinger archive ( beginning of article freely available)
  16. ↑ Luther, Volkstumsppolitik des Deutschen Reiches 1933-1938 , pp. 74–75; Ernst Ritter: The German Foreign Institute in Stuttgart: 1917 - 1945; an example of German nationality work between the world wars . Steiner, Wiesbaden 1976, ISBN 3-515-02361-5 .
  17. ^ Document in Jacobsen, Hans Steinacher , p. 100.
  18. ^ Jacobsen: Introduction , SL In: Hans Steinacher, Federal Director of the VDA 1933-1937 .
  19. ↑ Ernst, pp. 220-221.
  20. ↑ Kettenacker, p. 305.
  21. ↑ Kettenacker, p. 48f.
  22. ↑ Kettenacker, pp. 88-89, pp. 115-116.
  23. ^ Robert Wagner dissolved the "Alsatian Aid Service" at the beginning of April 1941 after the establishment of an Alsatian NSDAP in March 1941.
  24. ^ Wolfgang Voigt: German architects in Alsace 1940-1944 . Ernst Wasmuth Verlag, Tübingen 2012. p. 32, p. 179 note 94. Ellgering had been Deputy Mayor of Duisburg since April 1934 . He then became an advisor for local government issues at the German embassy in Bucharest, was again in Duisburg from April 1942 and from January 1943 in the Reich Ministry for Public Enlightenment and Propaganda for a "special task" - the Interministerial Air War Damage Committee.
  25. ↑ Ralf Bernd Herden: Strasbourg, Siege 1870: Europe's capital and Alsace in the area of ​​tension in the Franco-German conflict . Norderstedt 2006, p. 7 Google Books .
  26. ↑ Burkhard Dietz, Helmut Gabel, Ulrich Tiedau: Reach for the West: The " West Research " of the ethnic-national sciences on the north-western European area (1919-1960) . Münster 2003, ISBN 3-8309-1144-0 , p. 666. Google Books (see also: Westraum ).
  27. ↑ Herwig Schäfer: Legal teaching and research at the University of Strasbourg 1941–1944. Mohr Siebeck, Tübingen 1999. pp. 17-18.
  28. ↑ Ernst, accountability report , p. 363, p. 365–366, p. 373–374; Kettenacker, National Socialist Volkstumsppolitik , p. 92.
  29. ↑ Ernst, pp. 340–342.
  30. ↑ Ernst, pp. 418-419.
  31. ^ Letter exchange Albert Schweitzer
  32. ↑ A cheap judgment . In: Die Zeit , No. 3, 1955.
personal data
SURNAME Seriously, Robert
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Ernst, Friedrich Robert (full name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German-Alsatian folk politician, 1941 National Socialist Lord Mayor of Strasbourg
DATE OF BIRTH February 4, 1897
PLACE OF BIRTH Huertigheim
DATE OF DEATH April 14, 1980
Place of death Rimsting