Rudolf Bartels (politician)

Rudolf Bartels (born March 9, 1878 in Wesel ; † November 26, 1948 in Osterath ) was a German politician and mayor of Osterath from 1918 until his ousting from office by the Nazi regime in October 1933 and the first post-war mayor of Osterath April 1945.

Life

education and profession

Rudolf Bartels signed up for the Navy in 1895 after completing his schooling. In 1905 he retired from active naval service. He then completed a law degree and administrative training. He was a member of the DVP .

Public offices until 1933

As a democrat and Protestant, after the end of the First World War in 1918 in the almost entirely Catholic village of Osterath in the Lower Rhine region , he was unanimously elected mayor by the local council and the Kreistag Krefeld .

Despite occupation by Belgian troops, Osterath continued to develop under the mayor of Rudolf Bartels. As in all municipalities, the global economic crisis that began in 1929 led to increasing debt for the municipality of Osterath.

After January 30, 1933, Rudolf Bartels did not convert to the NSDAP . Nor does he submit to the claim formulated against him by the Osterath representatives of the Nazi regime.

On April 15, 1933, the Osterath investigative committee allegedly found inconsistencies in the review of the administration. This “committee of inquiry” consisted exclusively of NSDAP members. On June 2, 1933, the report of the committee of inquiry was sent by post to the district administrator in Kempen. In the accompanying letter it is stated: "The investigative committee set up by the municipal council hereby applies for disciplinary proceedings to be initiated against Mayor Bartels, Osterath, based on the findings made in the enclosed minutes."

As a result, it is sidelined in the town hall. The local leadership of the NSDAP takes on administrative tasks in communication etc. from its party office in the town hall without formal involvement of the responsible mayor. a. true with the district administration. The mayor cannot do anything about it - because all of his superior levels are already "synchronized".

On August 1, 1933, the district administrator in Kempen wrote a first - and last - note on Rudolf Bartels and the allegations made against him: “The head of the Osterath local group of the NSDAP Panzer has announced that, after consulting with his party members, the mayor will not remain Bartels have no concerns in office. In this statement, however, it is expected that Mayor Bartels would leave office in about two years because of his illness. ” Hugo Recken and his Catholic network - including Catholic National Socialists - didn't want to wait that long. They continue to intrigue and on October 3, 1933, Mayor Rudolf Bartels wrote to the district administrator in Kempen: "... I feel compelled to ask for my retirement." - Which then happened immediately.

After his dismissal as mayor, Rudolf Bartels worked as a lawyer and legal advisor. When the doctor Eduard Langenbach was to be abducted with his Jewish wife and children in 1944, he hid the family in his hunting lodge until the end of the war. The entire Langenbach family survived there as so-called "submarines" .

First post-war mayor

Police protocol: collection of signatures initiated by the former Nazi mayor against Mayor Bartels in November 1945

In April 1945 Rudolf Bartels was reinstated as mayor by the American liberators. This met with resistance from the local representatives of the Catholic Church, who campaigned heavily for the Nazi mayor. Just a few months later, according to a single source, Bartels was convicted by an English court martial.

death

On December 30, 1945, Mayor Rudolf Bartels wrote to the district administrator in Kempen: (40) “... for my rehabilitation I must attach importance to taking up office again at least for a short period of time ... I have been state and government official for 52 years Municipal officials and do not want to disappear with this blob on my vest. "

Rehabilitation was not granted to Rudolf Bartels. He disappeared in the Osterath sinking and died in 1948. A short time later Eduard Langenbach, whom Bartels had hidden before the end of the war, also died. In 2012 it became known that the Osterath community inspector, Johannes Herbrandt, a former SA man and " NSDAP block leader " made "home visits" in SA uniforms to Langenbach and Rudolf Bartels shortly before their deaths.

Rudolf Bartels is buried in the cemetery in Osterath. The grave is marked by a striking relief that symbolizes his ties to his homeland with Osterath and his help to escape the Langenbach family in autumn 1944.

In the Rheinische Post of August 7, 1953, Hugo Recken's last path stated: “The crypt is opposite the tomb of one of his predecessors, Mayor Rudolf Bartels, who, of a completely different kind, also went down in Osterath's history as a striking personality is. "

Honor

After Rudolf Bartels had been forgotten for over 30 years until after the term of office of Mayor Rudolf Lensing 1946–1969 and the term of office of Johannes Herbrandt and the founding of the city of Meerbusch in 1970, a square in the center of Osterath was named after him: “Rudolf- Bartels Square. "

Individual evidence

1. ^ State archive North Rhine-Westphalia Düsseldorf. LAV NRW R, 0007 No. 32365. Rudolf Bartels personnel file
2. ↑ Lothar Klouten: Persecution and Resistance in Meerbusch 1933-1945. , Meerbusch 1983. (unpublished thesis)
3. ^ Karl Emsbach: Empire and Weimar Republic (1870–1933) . in: Peter Dohms (Ed.): Meerbusch. The history of the city and the old communities from the origins to the present , Meerbusch 1991, pp. 405, 407, 409 and 434.
4. ↑ Lothar Klouten: Death was a master from Osterath. A Catholic elite from the Lower Rhine community from the Weimar Republic to the Federal Republic of Germany: Remembrance versus historical politics in Meerbusch-Osterath. Krefeld 2012, ISBN 3000385703
5. ↑ Düsseldorf City Archives. Ebel estate: Gauamt für Kommunalpolitik Düsseldorf.
6. ^ Horst Klemt: From the chronicle of the St. Nicholas parish in Osterath. In: Meerbuscher Geschichtshefte 27 (2010), p. 110–116, p. 115: “The mayor Hugo Recken was pushed aside in a very strange way. His predecessor and colleague behaved very unfairly in this matter, so that it took about a full year before Mr. Recken could take up his post again. "
7. ↑ “... Johannes Herbrandt on broad day in his black SA uniform z. B. 1948 "Home visits" to the Dr. Langenbach did. Dr. Langenbach was dead a short time later ”. P. 64 (also P. 101, P. 112), Lothar Klouten: Death was a master from Osterath. A Catholic elite from the Lower Rhine community from the Weimar Republic to the Federal Republic of Germany: Remembrance versus History Policy in Meerbusch-Osterath , Krefeld 2012, ISBN 3-00-038570-3