Walter Doenicke

The dead Walter Dönicke in the uniform of a Volkssturm battalion leader after his suicide in Leipzig's New Town Hall on April 19, 1945

Kurt Walter Dönicke (born July 27, 1899 in Eisenach , † April 19, 1945 in Leipzig ) was a German local politician ( NSDAP ).

biography

He was born as the son of the Eisenach master craftsman Otto Dönicke, in 1902 his family moved to Leipzig. After attending a school in Leipzig and the municipal trade school, Dönicke learned the trade of carpenter from 1914 to 1917. From 1917 to 1918 he served on the Western Front with the Saxon Infantry Regiment No. 107 and the 58th Division . He then worked as a carpenter's assistant until 1929.

In 1925 he joined the NSDAP, a year later he was entrusted with the management of the NSDAP local group in Leipzig. On April 1, 1927 he became district leader , in 1929 he was appointed to the Saxon state parliament . In 1932/33 he was a city councilor in Leipzig, in 1933 he became President of the State Parliament and State Commissioner for the Leipzig District Office . In the following years Dönicke became a member of other National Socialist organizations, e.g. B. in the Volkssturm , in the NS-Fliegerkorps , in the National Socialist People's Welfare , in the SA and in the Reichs Luftschutzbund .

From 1933 to 1937 Dönicke was Kreishauptmann in Leipzig.

After the resignation of Leipzig's Lord Mayor Carl Friedrich Goerdeler in November 1936, the position was initially advertised publicly on February 10, 1937 in accordance with the German municipal code. However, at the request of the Leipzig council, Dönicke was appointed Lord Mayor by the Reich Minister of the Interior Wilhelm Frick after consultations with the head of the Office for Local Politics in the NSDAP Gau Sachsen, Erich Kunz . On October 12, 1937, he was instructed in the office of Lord Mayor of Leipzig by the Saxon Prime Minister and Reich Governor Martin Mutschmann .

During Dönicke's tenure, Leipzig was appointed Reichsmesse city (December 20, 1937), construction began on the Leipzig harbor (May 27, 1938) and the first Leipzig trolleybus route was opened (July 29, 1938).

His provisional predecessor and successor Rudolf Haake successfully ousted Dönicke's mayor during the reign of Dönicke by reporting his inability to take office with the NSDAP leadership. In addition, Dönicke made himself personally unpopular with Adolf Hitler . In Hitler's last official visit in Leipzig on 26 March 1938 Dönicke handed him during the ceremony for the entry into the Golden Book of the city a supposedly original autograph of Tannhäuser - score of Richard Wagner , which is but merely a Dresden Steindruck - Facsimile from the first performance year 1845. In addition, Dönicke gave his celebratory speech in the deepest Saxon dialect , which Hitler later even parodied several times in a small circle. Hitler also pointed out to Mutschmann that Dönicke was overburdening the Leipzig mayor's office. On October 11, 1938, Walter Dönicke was deposed as Lord Mayor; at the same time he lost almost all state and party functions.

After the American troops marched into the city of Leipzig, the New Town Hall surrendered on April 19, 1945. In the face of this, Walter Dönicke, who was a member of the Volkssturm district staff at the time, committed in the New Town Hall together with the deputy NSDAP district leader Willy Wiederroth and his district director, SA standard leader Carl Strobel suicide.

literature

Leipzig has a new mayor again . In: Neue Leipziger Zeitung of October 8, 1937, p. 5.
Karin Kühling, Doris Mundus : Leipzig's ruling mayors from the 13th century to the present. Sax-Verlag, Beucha 2000, ISBN 3-934-54402-9 , p. 71.
Steffen Held: The Leipzig city administration and the deportation of Jews in the Nazi state , Leipzig City History Museum . Leipzig 2011.
Robert Giesel: Leipzig's National Socialist Mayor (1937-1945) , in: Leipziger Stadtgeschichte. 2011 yearbook . Sax-Verlag, Beucha 2012, ISBN 978-3-86729-118-7 , pp. 117-132.

Web links

Individual evidence

^ Ulrich von Hehl : Hitler in Leipzig. "Leader visits" in the trade fair city , in: Detlef Döring (Ed.): Leipzig's significance for the history of Saxony. Politics, economy and culture in six centuries (sources and research on the history of the city of Leipzig 7), Leipziger Universitätsverlag, Leipzig 2014, ISBN 978-3-86583-736-3 , p. 248
^ Gerhard Steinecke : Three days in April. End of the war in Leipzig. Lehmstedt Verlag, Leipzig 2005, ISBN 978-3-937146-19-5 , pp. 39, 61-63, 225 f.

personal data
SURNAME	Donicke, Walter
ALTERNATIVE NAMES	Doenicke, Kurt Walter
BRIEF DESCRIPTION	German carpenter and politician (NSDAP)
DATE OF BIRTH	July 27, 1899
PLACE OF BIRTH	Eisenach
DATE OF DEATH	April 19, 1945
Place of death	Leipzig

[1] Ulrich von Hehl : Hitler in Leipzig. "Leader visits" in the trade fair city , in: Detlef Döring (Ed.): Leipzig's significance for the history of Saxony. Politics, economy and culture in six centuries (sources and research on the history of the city of Leipzig 7), Leipziger Universitätsverlag, Leipzig 2014, ISBN 978-3-86583-736-3 , p. 248

[2] Gerhard Steinecke : Three days in April. End of the war in Leipzig. Lehmstedt Verlag, Leipzig 2005, ISBN 978-3-937146-19-5 , pp. 39, 61-63, 225 f.