Rudolf Weydenhammer

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Rudolf Weydenhammer (born May 1, 1890 in Wilhelmshaven ; † 1972 ) was a German industrialist, economic functionary and National Socialist who played a leading role in the 1934 July coup in Vienna .

Life

Weydenhammer was born into an old Prussian officer family. His parents were Georg Weydenhammer and his wife Luise, née von Schauß-Kempfenhausen. He finished his school career in 1908 at the secondary school in Worms with the Abitur . He then completed an apprenticeship in banking and began studying law and political science at the University of Munich .

Weydenhammer joined the Bavarian Army in 1910 and completed an officer career. First he served with the 1st Heavy Rider Regiment "Prince Karl of Bavaria" and switched to the 3rd Field Artillery Regiment "Prince Leopold" as a lieutenant shortly before the start of the First World War . He was promoted to first lieutenant in 1915 and to captain in 1918 . During the First World War, he was initially employed as a regimental and brigade adjutant and from 1918 in the War Ministry .

Weydenhammer was married to Elisabeth, nee Küstermann, from 1916. The couple had two daughters and a son. After the war he left the army. He completed a trainee program at Bayerische Vereinsbank , continued his studies and graduated in 1920 at the University of Würzburg with promotion to Dr. rer. pole. from. From the end of 1920 he was in Dusseldorf in the Deutsche Bank employs and was there in May 1921 authorized signatory of the same year in December authorized . Then he joined the management of Deutsche Bank and was director of the bank branch in Duisburg from 1922 and of the bank branch in Munich from the beginning of 1925 . He was also a member of the board of directors of the main bank for Tyrol and Vorarlberg . From 1926 to 1930 he was a member of the BMW AG Supervisory Board .

Politically, Weydenhammer initially belonged to the BVP and later joined the NSDAP , for which he initially acted legally under the guise of his economic interests and illegally under the code name "Rudolph Williams" after the NSDAP ban in Austria. As a result of the imprisonment of the NSDAP Gauleiter of Tirol-Vorarlberg Franz Hofer for National Socialist activities, he temporarily took over Hofer's post from June 1933. At the beginning of the 1930s, Weydenhammer became the head of the national leadership of the NSDAP Austria in Munich under Theodor Habicht . In the course of preparations for the July coup in 1934 to overthrow the Austrian government , Habicht brought his deputy guard and staff leader Weydenhammer together with the Austrian SS leader Fridolin Glass . The division of tasks for this company stipulated that Wächter would take over political leadership and Glass would take over military leadership; Weydenhammer was to be the liaison officer. In addition to organizing weapons, Weydenhammer was particularly responsible for “winning” the political adversary of Engelbert Dollfuss and Austrian envoy in Rome, Anton Rintelen, as counter-chancellor for the putschists. He successfully established contact with Rintelen in Rome. Weydenhammer, who stayed in Vienna during the July coup and took an active part in it, left after the failure of the overthrow over Czechoslovakia into the German Empire . He wrote reports on the events of the July coup in 1934 and 1938 and also provided information after the war.

From 1936 Weydenhammer was director of American Magnesium Metals ( Pittsburgh ) and from 1938 general director of Deutsche Magnesit AG in Munich and American-Austrian Magnesit AG in Radenthein . After joining Austria , he also became President of International Accident and Damage AG in Vienna . He was one of the representatives of the Reich Protector of Bohemia and Moravia . During the Second World War , from the end of 1941 he was also a military economic leader and was a member of the military economic council.

After the end of the war he was interned in America in Bavaria , from which he was transferred to Austria to the Vienna Regional Court in 1949 . It is not known whether he was convicted after a trial in Austria. From 1953 he was President and Director of the Oberrheinische Handels-AG in Zurich . He was a member of the supervisory board. a. of Schwabenbräu AG and as chairman of the supervisory board of Brauhaus Amberg AG. He lived in Starnberg . He was made an honorary senator of the University of Munich. A short vita of him is listed in the GDR Brown Book .

Awards

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c d e f g August Ludwig Degener, Walter Habel: Who is who ?: The German Who's Who. Volume 16. Arani. 1970. p. 1432.
  2. ^ A b Georg Wenzel: German business leader . Life courses of German business personalities. A reference book on 13,000 business figures of our time. Hanseatische Verlagsanstalt, Hamburg / Berlin / Leipzig 1929, DNB 948663294 , p. 79.
  3. ^ Till Lorenzen: BMW as an aircraft engine manufacturer 1926–1940. State control measures and entrepreneurial freedom of action. Oldenbourg 2008, ISBN 3-486-58155-4 , p. 120.
  4. ^ A b Heinrich Drimmel : From Chancellor murder to connection. Austria 1934–1938. Amalthea, Vienna 1987, ISBN 3-85002-241-2 , p. 471.
  5. ↑ Hans Schafranek : Mercenaries for the connection. The Austrian Legion 1933-1938. Czernin Verlag, Vienna 2010, ISBN 978-3-7076-0331-6 , p. 232.
  6. ↑ Heinz Höhne : The Order under the Skull - The History of the SS , Weltbild-Verlag, Augsburg 1998, ISBN 3-89350-549-0 , p. 248f.
  7. ^ Gerhard Schreiber: The Interunfall Versicherung and the Riunione Adriatica di Sicurtà in Vienna. (1890 - 2004) (PDF; 3.9 MB), Vienna 2007 (dissertation), p. 237.
  8. ↑ Braunbuch (PDF; 1.7 MB), State Publishing House of the German Democratic Republic, Berlin 1968, p. 66.
personal data
SURNAME Weydenhammer, Rudolf
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Williams, Rudolph (nickname)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German industrialist and National Socialist
DATE OF BIRTH May 1, 1890
PLACE OF BIRTH Wilhelmshaven
DATE OF DEATH 1972