Walter Ernst (Gauleiter)

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Walter Ernst (born April 6, 1899 in Quedlinburg , † March 1945 south of Pelplin ) was a German lawyer, Gauleiter of the NSDAP and later mayor of Schneidemühl and Bromberg .

At the beginning of 1925, the Gau leadership of Halle-Merseburg was largely unclear within the NSDAP . The local group in Halle under its chairman Großclaus submitted directly to the Reich leadership, but other smaller groups elected Walter Ernst as Gauleiter. Together with the SA leader from Halle, Wolf-Heinrich Graf von Helldorff , he was able to consolidate his position to a large extent, mainly because the two succeeded in excluding Großclaus from the party. Still, there was no calm in this Gau . On July 30, 1926, Ernst himself was expelled from the NSDAP as part of the Halle local group committee . His successor was then Paul Hinkler .

From October 1927 to November 1931 Ernst studied law at the University of Halle and passed the second state examination in 1935. From 1936 to 1939 he was City Syndic in Quedlinburg , from 1939 to 1942 he was mayor of Schneidemühl , then until 1945 mayor of Bromberg, now Bydgoszcz .

Ernst resisted the order that civilians should defend the city of Bromberg for better or for worse. He gave the city in January 1945 without a fight, went to Gdansk and was in the prison camp Gdansk Matzkau together with the chief of police of the city of Bydgoszcz, from Salisch, as well as the district president of the district Bromberg, Walther Kühn , sentenced to death . The police chief was immediately shot dead . Ernst and Kühn were placed in a punitive battalion . Ernst fell in defense of the greater Danzig area. Kühn survived and later became MP for the FDP .

literature

  • Nazi apologetic: Karl Höffkes : Hitler's political generals. The Gauleiter of the 3rd Reich; a biographical reference work. Grabert-Verlag, Tübingen 1997, ISBN 3-87847-163-7 .