Walter Hummelsheim

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Walter Alfons Hummelsheim (born May 26, 1904 in Bonn , † October 15, 1984 in Heilbronn ) was a German politician. Hummelsheim became known as a member of the resistance groups against National Socialism around Edgar Jung (1933–1934) and Carl Friedrich Goerdeler (1942–1944) as district administrator of Bernkastel (1946–1952) and as one of the “fathers” of the University of Mainz .

Live and act

Youth and early life

Hummelsheim was born in Bonn in 1904 as the son of a Catholic family. After graduating from high school, which he passed in his hometown, he completed an apprenticeship as a bookseller . He then worked in the international book trade for a few years and made long trips to France , Italy and the United States . During his stay in America, Hummelsheim studied a few semesters at Princeton University . It was during this time that he began his friendship with the literary siblings Erika and Klaus Mann , who described Hummelsheim - who acted as their "mediator" at Princeton University - as a "boy of remarkable qualities". Since 1926, Hummelsheim, who described himself as a “convinced European”, also belonged to Count Coudenhove-Kalergi's pan-European movement .

Nazi years

In 1933 Hummelsheim returned to Germany to fight against National Socialism as a sympathizer of political Catholicism and the right wing of the Center Party . In 1933, as an employee in the office of the Vice Chancellor in the Hitler government , Franz von Papen , he joined the circle around the writer Edgar Jung , who used the position of power of the Vice Chancellery as a starting point for extensive resistance against the still unconsolidated Hitler dictatorship.

The group essentially consisted of eight younger men from the firm's staff, namely from Jung, Hummelsheim, Fritz Günther von Tschirschky , Herbert von Bose , Hans von Kageneck , Wilhelm Freiherr von Ketteler , Kurt Josten and Friedrich-Carl von Savigny .

The group's plans essentially boiled down to using the President's position of power for a coup d'état against the Hitler government. For this purpose, Vice Chancellor Papen, who had the confidence of Reich President Hindenburg , was to be used as the lever of the coup d'état. Through his influence on Hindenburg, Papen was supposed to induce Hindenburg to use the Reichswehr - over which he was head of state - to break the power of the Hitler government, the SA and the NSDAP .

However, the implementation of the Jung Group's plans did not materialize. Instead, it was dealt with on the side on June 30, 1934, on the occasion of Hitler's actions against his opponents in his own ranks - especially in the SA (" Röhm Putsch "). On that day the SS occupied the vice chancellery and crushed the group. While Bose and Jung were shot and Kageneck, Josten and Ketteler escaped, Hummelsheim was deported to Lichtenburg concentration camp together with Tschirschky and Savigny .

During the Second World War, Hummelsheim and his brother Fritz Hummelsheim joined the group around Carl Friedrich Goerdeler . He was arrested in 1942 and held in the Buchenwald and Dachau concentration camps until 1945 . From these he was liberated by the Americans in April 1945.

In the concentration camp, Hummelsheim, who spoke French fluently, established close ties with various French fellow prisoners who belonged to the Resistance . With his “skillful behavior” he “probably saved the lives” of some of these, according to Pilsener and Mathy. In the summer of 1945, Charles de Gaulle invited Hummelsheim to Paris and awarded him the Order of Honor of the Republic.

Post-war period and career in the EC

In 1946, Hummelsheim was appointed district administrator of Bernkastel . In this capacity, and also previously as a liaison man of the Baden state government on the one hand and the French commanders in Baden and the Paris government on the other, he advocated the city of Mainz - and not Speyer or Worms - as To select the location for the first new university to be established in the French-occupied zone . In September 1945 he got in touch with Louis Théodore Kleinmann , the city commandant of Mainz and later with Raymond Schmittlein , the head of the Education Publique in Baden-Baden, director general for cultural affairs in the French occupation zone.

As district administrator between 1946 and 1952, Hummelsheim used his various relationships with Eugen Kogon and numerous other prisoners in the concentration camp to promote Franco-German reconciliation . From 1949 he also served as General Secretary of the German Council of the European Movement before moving to Luxembourg in the 1950s as Deputy General Secretary of the Joint Assembly of the European Coal and Steel Community (Montan-Union).

literature

Biographies

  • Rainer Orth : "Walter Hummelsheim", in: Ders .: "The official seat of the opposition" ?: Politics and state restructuring plans in the office of the Deputy Chancellor in the years 1933–1934 . Böhlau, Cologne 2016, pp. 239–242 and 612–617, ISBN 978-3-412-50555-4 .

Entries in reference works :

  • Claudia Schmitt: "Walter Hummelsheim", in: Heinz Monz (Ed.): Trier biographical lexicon , Koblenz 2000, p. 194 f.
  • Who is who? , Vol. 13, 1958, p. 554.

Other literature :

  • Michael Kißener , Helmut Mathy (Eds.): Ut Omnes Unum Sint. Founding personalities of the Johannes Gutenberg University , 2006.
  • Erwin Schaaf: Bernkastel and the European Movement under District Administrator Hummelsheim (1946-52) . In: 1985 year book for the Bernkastel-Wittlich district, pp. 166–179.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Otto Lenz: In the center of power the diary of State Secretary Lenz 1951-1953 , 1989, p. 111.
  2. ↑ Michael Pillower / Helmut Mathy [eds.]: Ut Omnes Unum Sint. Founding personalities of the Johannes Gutenberg University , p. 14.
  3. ↑ Erika Mann / Klaus Mann: Runderhum , 1929, p. 74.
  4. ↑ Joachim Scholtyseck : The survivors of the German resistance and their meaning , 2005, p. 124.
  5. ↑ Michael Pillower / Helmut Mathy: Ut omnes unum Sint. Founding personalities , p. 71.
  6. ↑ Michael Pillower / Helmut Mathy: Ut omnes unum Sint. Founding personalities , p. 16. On p. 14, Hummelsheim is visually described as a “tall, very handsome man, gaunt” for this time.
  7. ^ Stefan Zauner: Education and cultural mission. France's educational policy in Germany 1945 ... , 1994, p. 238. Also Joachim Scholstyeck: The survivors of the German resistance and their significance for ... , 2005, p. 124.
  8. ↑ Achim Trunk: Europe, a way out. Political elites and European identity in the ... , 2007, p. 91.
personal data
SURNAME Hummelsheim, Walter
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Hummelsheim, Walter Alfons (full name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German politician and resistance fighters
DATE OF BIRTH May 26, 1904
PLACE OF BIRTH Bonn
DATE OF DEATH October 15, 1984
Place of death Heilbronn