Walter from Medem

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Otto-Heinrich Drechsler , Hinrich Lohse , Alfred Rosenberg and Walter-Eberhard von Medem (from left to right) at an event in the ruins of the Ordensburg von Doblen , 1942

Walter-Eberhard Alexander Albert Freiherr von Medem (born May 4, 1887 in Liegnitz ; † May 9, 1945 in Prague ) was a German officer, free corps leader, journalist and SA leader who came from a branch of the Baltic German aristocratic family von Medem .

Live and act

From 1914 to 1918 Medem took part as an officer with the 3rd Guards Field Artillery Regiment in the First World War, in which he made it up to captain .

After the war he became leader of the Medem Freikorps named after him , which fought against the expansion of the Soviet or revolutionary sphere of influence in the Baltic States and was involved in the liberation of Riga from the control of revolutionary forces in May 1919.

During the Weimar Republic , Medem was politically active in the German National People's Party and, since 1924, in the Frontsoldatenbund Stahlhelm , of which he was a member of the Federal Office (board of directors): During these years he focused on the journalistic field. So he initially worked as an editor for the Ostpreussische Zeitung and the Allensteiner Zeitung , in 1922 he switched to the Telegraphen Union . From 1926 to 1940 he was editor-in-chief of the newspaper Tag in Berlin.

On May 1, 1933 , Medem joined the NSDAP and at the same time the SA , in which he received the rank of SA standard leader on December 1, 1933. On January 30, 1942, he was promoted to SA Oberführer.

Medem was sponsored by Alfred Rosenberg . When he became Reich Minister for the Occupied Eastern Territories , Medem was considered to be one of the few "harmless" because "Baltic Germans were educated by National Socialism" and were allowed to return to their homeland for a higher position in the administration of the Reich Commissioner Get Ostland . Rosenberg appointed Medem on July 25, 1941 as district commissioner for Mitau . Medems efforts to win the Latvian population to participate in the economic field, found in the reports Albert Hoffmann at Martin Bormann honorable mention, however, met Medems resettlement plans for the Baltic states, which resulted in a settlement of former Free Corps fighters, in the strongest rejection Himmler . Medem expected the transfer of mansions to the free corps fighters, as promised as a reward by the Latvian government at the time. Rosenberg's adjutant, Werner Koeppen , also refused because the Baltic population should not be alarmed by the return of the German-Baltic barons. He died under unexplained circumstances on May 9, 1945 in Prague during the invasion of the Red Army.

As a publicist, Medem published the books Stürmer von Riga (1935) and Fliegende Front (1942), among others . He wrote books for boys like the one about Werner Franz, who as a 14-year-old crew member survived the disaster of the Hindenburg airship .

After the end of the Second World War, many of his writings were placed on the list of literature to be sorted out in the Soviet zone of occupation .

literature

  • Herbert Michaelis: Causes and Consequences. From the German collapse in 1918 and 1945 to the state reorganization of Germany in the present; a collection of certificates and documents on contemporary history , Vol. 2, 1979, p. 476.
  • Alexander Kruglov: Jelgava. In: Geoffrey Megargee (ed.): The United States Holocaust Memorial Museum Encyclopedia of Camps and Ghettos. Vol. II: Ghettos in German Occupied Eastern Europe , Part B. Bloomington 2012, pp. 1006–1007
  • Philipp Osten: "Combat the System" Concrete 7/2012

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Quotation from Kārlis Kangeris: The return and deployment of Baltic Germans in the general district of Latvia. In: Michael Garleff (Ed.): Baltic Germans, Weimar Republic and Third Reich. Volume 2 (= The Baltic States in Past and Present, 1/2). Böhlau, Cologne 2008, ISBN 978-3-412-12299-7 , pp. 385-428, here p. 395; in the text also the following information, passim
  2. ↑ Andreas Zellhuber: "Our administration is driving towards a catastrophe ...": the Reich Ministry for the Occupied Eastern Territories and the German occupation in the Soviet Union 1941–1945 . Vögel, Munich 2006, ISBN 3-89650-213-1 , pp. 175, 186f.
  3. ^ Letter M, list of literature to be discarded. Published by the German Administration for Public Education in the Soviet Occupation Zone. Preliminary edition as of April 1, 1946 (Berlin: Zentralverlag, 1946). .
  4. ^ Letter M, list of literature to be discarded. Published by the German Administration for Public Education in the Soviet Occupation Zone. Second addendum as of September 1, 1948 (Berlin: Deutscher Zentralverlag, 1948). .
personal data
SURNAME Medem, Walter von
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Medem, Walter Eberhard Alexander Albert Freiherr von (full name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German officer, journalist and SA leader
DATE OF BIRTH May 4, 1887
PLACE OF BIRTH Liegnitz
DATE OF DEATH May 9, 1945
Place of death Prague