Theo Memmel

Albin Theo Memmel (born December 24, 1891 in Schweinfurt ; † September 10, 1973 in Würzburg ) was a German grammar school teacher, NSDAP district leader and from 1933 to 1945 Lord Mayor of Würzburg.

Live and act

After attending elementary school and the humanistic grammar school in Schweinfurt, Theo Memmel completed his Abitur there in 1911 and then studied ancient languages, history and German at the University of Würzburg as a trainee teacher. In 1912 he became a member of the striking student union Adelphia zu Würzburg . On August 8, 1914, he volunteered for the 2nd Royal Bavarian Field Artillery Regiment Würzburg, became a non-commissioned officer in November 1915 and an officer with the rank of lieutenant of the reserve on May 8, 1917. In 1917 he was awarded the Bavarian Order of Military Merit IV class with swords . In April 1919 he took part in street fighting during the Würzburg Soviet Republic . In October 1919 he continued his studies in Würzburg, where he passed the first state examination in 1920 and the second in April 1921 as a teacher. He then worked as a teacher at various schools in Ulm until in May 1922 he switched to the Sophienschule in Würzburg as a full-time teacher, which was supposed to lead young girls to the secondary school exams in six grades. He was accepted into the civil service there in 1926. As a grammar school teacher he worked at the humanistic grammar school Weiden and in September 1930 he went as a teacher at the Realgymnasium for boys in Würzburg, where he taught the historical-philological subjects. On January 1, 1931, he joined the National Socialist German Workers' Party and in the following September he became local group leader in Würzburg-Stadt, and in 1932 deputy district leader. On January 1, 1933, he was appointed as the successor to Hermann Griebl by Gauleiter Hellmuth and remained so until his dismissal by Hellmuth in May 1935. In addition, Memmel was parliamentary group leader of the NSDAP in the Lower Franconian district council, in April 1933 district president and 1933 to 1934 also Been district inspector. His successors as district leaders were Karl Clement, Franz Xaver Knaup and in 1944 Heinz Wahl.

Lord Mayor of Würzburg

After the forced resignation of Lord Mayor Hans Löffler on March 23, 1933, the student councilor and district leader of the NSDAP Memmel was appointed provisional First Mayor on March 24 and elected Mayor on April 27. With effect from May 1, 1933, his predecessor was officially retired. Theo Memmels' first official acts as Lord Mayor were the creation of a cultural department and the promotion of renovation and construction measures (above all the New Harbor, which began in February 1934 and was completed in December 1937 ) as well as the preservation of monuments and (from August 1933) the increased renaming of Würzburg street names in the National Socialist sense. Memmel was supported by Prime Minister Ludwig Siebert in his construction work, which in addition to social housing also included, for example, the renovation of the Marienberg Fortress .

On June 20, 1933, Memmel informed the city council of a ministerial decree, according to which the social democratic municipal councils were to be kept away from their seats, since the social democratic government had moved its headquarters to Prague . The five social democratic city councilors, like the nine city councilors of the Bavarian People's Party, which were soon forced to resign, were replaced by National Socialists. Memmel issued new rules of procedure for the city council on October 1, 1934 and May 1, 1935. His dual function as Lord Mayor and NSDAP district leader was ended in May 1935 and Karl Clement was the new district leader until 1936.

On Memmel's initiative, a college for teacher training was established in Würzburg, the lectures of which took place in a new building opened on November 3, 1936 in Luxburgstrasse and the students of which were accommodated in the former teachers' seminar on Wittelsbacherplatz. In addition, in 1938 a new adult education center named after Rudolf Berthold (as a “practice school” for student teachers) was opened.

Memmel, which was linked to the Würzburg Liedertafel, founded in 1842 by the singer Garvens , and the "German Liedgut" was named federal leader of the German Singers' Association in 1943.

After his term of office ended on April 30, 1943, Memmel was appointed mayor for life by amending the statutes. On March 6th, at Hellmuth's suggestion, he was awarded the War Merit Cross 1st Class Without Swords .

In the early morning of April 3, 1945 (one day after the arrival of the 222nd US Infantry Regiment on the banks of the Main below the Marienberg Fortress) the warning handwritten by Memmel on April 2 was: “The Würzburg city administration has been dissolved until further notice. [...] Whoever works with the enemy will be shot ” read on the“ bulletin board ”of the Mozart School . In contrast to Gauleiter Otto Hellmuth , who had already withdrawn before the decision to surrender in the direction of Nuremberg , Lord Mayor Memmel stayed in Würzburg and fought with one of three Volkssturm shock troops in Randersackerer Strasse and at the cemetery until the surrender against the US Army . His son was killed in the final phase of his defense in a Volkssturm detachment.

On April 4, 1945, the Americans marched into Würzburg. Gustav Pinkenburg was temporarily appointed Lord Mayor by the American military government on April 6th.

post war period

In January 1948 Theo Memmel was under the denazification in a denazification process first sentenced to five years of forced labor and the legal right to a pension denied him from his teaching job, but in August 1949 he was demoted as lesser-loaded and on August 25, 1950 before the Appeals Chamber only rated as a so-called fellow traveler, so that the penalty was only 500 German marks with one year probation.

literature

• Helge Dvorak: Biographical Lexicon of the German Burschenschaft. Volume I: Politicians. Sub-Volume 4: M-Q. Winter, Heidelberg 2000, ISBN 3-8253-1118-X , pp. 78-79.
• Ingrid Eyring: Theo Memmel, Lord Mayor of Würzburg 1933–1945, in: "... I am aware of the responsibility that I have taken on in my office." Aspects of the administrative, economic and cultural history of Würzburg in the 19th and 20th century , Publications of the Würzburg City Archives , Vol. 10, Würzburg 2002, pp. 59–174 (First scientific biography of the Nazi mayor of Würzburg)
• Bruno Fries, Pau Pagel, Christian Roedig, Scheidenberger (eds.): Würzburg in the Third Reich. Exhibition catalog, Würzburg 1983, ISBN 3-88479-114-1 . P. 28.
• Matthias Lermann: The Mayor of Würzburg Dr. Hans Loeffler. Civic ethics and liberalism; Ed .: Society for Franconian History. WiKomm Verlag, Stegaurach 2015, ISBN 978-3-86652-052-3 .
• Peter Weidisch: Würzburg in the »Third Reich«. 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. 2007, ISBN 978-3-8062-1478-9 , pp. 196-289 and 1271-1290; here: pp. 199-207 and 223-279.
• Kathrin Wittmann, Gereon Schäfer, Dominik Groß : The interweaving of Nazi ideology, university administration and science using the example of the Würzburg professor Max Kappis (1881–1938). In: Dominik Groß et al. (Ed.): The construction of science. Contributions to the history of medicine, literature and science. University of Kassel 2008 (= Studies of the Aachen Competence Center for the History of Science. Volume 3), ISBN 978-3-89958-418-9 , p. 239 ff.

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Abituria Wirceburgia: Girls High School in 1922 at the secondary school Würzburg . Würzburg 2016.
2. ↑ Peter Weidisch (2007), pp. 205 f., 234 and 241.
3. ^ Sybille Grübel: Timeline of the history of the city from 1814-2006. 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 , pp. 1225-1247; here: p. 1239.
4. ↑ Peter Weidisch (2007), p. 204 f.
5. ↑ Ulrich Wagner: Würzburg rulers, Bavarian minister-presidents, chairmen of the district council / district council presidents, regional presidents, bishops, lord mayors 1814–2006. 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 , pp. 1221-1224; here: p. 1224.
6. ↑ Peter Weidisch: Würzburg in the "Third Reich". 2007, pp. 228-232 and 263 f.
7. ↑ Peter Weidisch (2007), pp. 242-254.
8. ↑ Peter Weidisch (2007), pp. 280–282.
9. ↑ Peter Weidisch (2007), p. 249 f. and 252 f.
10. ↑ Peter Weidisch (2007), p. 228.
11. ↑ Peter Weidisch (2007), p. 241.
12. ↑ Peter Weidisch (2007), p. 248 f.
13. ↑ Peter Weidisch (2007), p. 263.
14. ↑ Peter Weidisch (2007), p. 206 f.
15. ↑ Ulrich Wagner: The conquest of Würzburg in April 1945. In: Ulrich Wagner (Hrsg.): History of the city of Würzburg. Volume III / 1, p. 296 f., And Volume III / 2, p. 1291, note 51.
16. ↑ Peter Weidisch: Würzburg in the "Third Reich". 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. 2007, ISBN 978-3-8062-1478-9 , pp. 277 f. and p. 1289, note 459.
17. ↑ Ulrich Wagner: The conquest of Würzburg in April 1945. In: Ulrich Wagner (Hrsg.): History of the city of Würzburg. Volume III / 2, p. 309 f. and p. 1291, note 52.
18. ↑ Peter Weidisch (2007), p. 279.
19. ↑ Ulrich Wagner: The Conquest of Würzburg in April 1945. (2007), p. 314.
20. ^ Ulrich Wagner: The conquest of Würzburg in April 1945. In: History of the city of Würzburg. (2007), pp. 294-314; here: p. 310.
21. ↑ Roland Flade: On the hunt for Nazi perpetrators. In: Main-Post. December 28, 2006.
22. ↑ Peter Weidisch (2007), p. 207.