Walter Köhler (politician, 1897)

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Walter Koehler

Walter Friedrich Julius Köhler (born September 30, 1897 in Weinheim ; † January 9, 1989 there ) was a German politician ( NSDAP ). Köhler was Prime Minister of Baden during the National Socialist era .

Life

Youth and education

The son of a grocer attended elementary school until 1906 and left the secondary school in his hometown in 1912 with the secondary school leaving certificate. For the next two years, Köhler completed an apprenticeship at the Ladenburg advance payment association . At the beginning of the First World War he volunteered for the Reserve Regiment of the Leibgrenadier Regiment 109 and was deployed on the Western Front from October 1914 . Last sergeant, Köhler was taken prisoner by the British in July 1916, during which he was deployed to work in Rotterdam, the Netherlands, from early 1918 .

Awarded the Iron Cross Second Class, Köhler returned to Weinheim after the end of the war, where he initially worked in his parents' grocery store. Later he took over the business already run by his grandfather as owner, before leasing the shop in 1933 after his appointment as Prime Minister. In May 1925, Köhler married Emilie Reinhard; the marriage resulted in five children.

Early political activity

According to his own statements, Köhler returned from the World War “nationally oriented”. In 1918 he joined the right-wing conservative German National People's Party (DNVP) and temporarily headed the party's youth organization in Weinheim. In addition, Köhler was a member of the anti-Semitic German Volkischer Schutz- und Trutzbund . According to his own statements, Köhler turned to the National Socialists in 1923 because the DNVP was "simply too impetuous and quietly stepped" and was also unable to solve the social problems. In 1924 and 1925 he worked for the Völkisch-Soziale Block , a reception organization of the NSDAP, which was banned at the time. In October 1924 Köhler took part in the “ German Day ” in Bruchsal, where he first met Robert Wagner, a participant in the Hitler putsch and later NSDAP Gauleiter .

Köhler joined the NSDAP a few months after its re-admission in February 1925 on June 20, 1925 ( membership number 8.246). Köhler became the leader of the Weinheim local group , which initially consisted of ten to fifteen people. By May 1928, the local group grew to 250 members, making it the third largest in Baden; about 10% of the NSDAP members in Baden came from Weinheim. “The Weinheim local group, in particular, was expanded, and under the leadership of Walter Köhler it had a strong boom” , according to a report by the Baden State Police Office at the end of 1929. Köhler was an organizer for the NSDAP and also appeared as a party speaker for other local groups.

From 1925 to 1927 Köhler headed the NSDAP in the Weinheim district. At the same time he was SA leader in Weinheim; the SA members were recruited almost exclusively from the local warrior club , in which Koehler was deputy chairman. From November 1926 he represented the NSDAP in the Weinheim city council. In 1928 the local district court sentenced Köhler to a fine of 50 RM for “intellectual authorship” for an anonymous pamphlet directed against the city administration as well as local people and companies.

In elections, Weinheim developed into an early stronghold for the NSDAP, led by Köhler, in which it always achieved above-average election results. In the 1928 Reichstag election in Weinheim, for example, the NSDAP accounted for 12.7% (German Reich: 2.6%); in the election to the Baden state parliament in October 1929, the party achieved 26.7% in the city (Republic of Baden: 7.0%). Köhler received a state parliament mandate, took over the chairmanship of the six-member NSDAP parliamentary group and thus became the second most important NSDAP politician in Baden after the Gauleiter Robert Wagner. In August 1931, Köhler was promoted to deputy Gauleiter for Baden; January to March 1933, he was the Gauleiter with the perception of transactions contracted since Wagner exercised functions at Reich level at this time. After 1933 Köhler no longer appeared as a member of the Gaufführung; In 1934 Hermann Röhn became deputy Gauleiter.

As a member of the state parliament, Köhler made his rejection of parliamentarism clear: “We moved into the state parliament even though we knew it was lazy and made no sense. The only purpose of the Landtag is that the diets and free tickets are issued. ” In June 1930 he declared: “ We National Socialists have a smell of being a bit raw. I realize that whoever wants to create order in a mess cannot come with a palm frond, but will have to drive through; he has to ensure that certain festering wounds are cut out of the people's body. ” The social democratic newspaper Volkswacht , published in Freiburg, was considered to be the“ most unsympathetic and hateful ”speaker in the house. After a debate on the Treaty of Versailles , in which Köhler held the democratic parties responsible for his existence, the newspaper criticized his agitation in the state parliament and wrote about Köhler: "The chatter and the arrogance of this gentleman are the most repulsive phenomena in the state parliament."

Prime Minister of Baden

After the transfer of power to the National Socialists, Köhler, as incumbent Gauleiter, on March 6, 1933, ultimately called for the Baden government to resign. Five days later he was temporarily commissioned with the management of the Baden Ministry of Finance. After the gradual transfer of further functions, Köhler was Prime Minister of Baden from May 6, 1933 until the end of the Nazi regime, Chairman of the Baden State Ministry, Minister of Finance and Economics, President of the Baden State Council and thus head of the Köhler Cabinet .

Gauleiter Wagner was superior to the Prime Minister in his function as Reich Governor. In his memoirs, Köhler described his relationship with Wagner as "always correct and comradely" , but admitted that there had been "stresses due to the various areas of responsibility" . Up to 1942 there were supposed to have been repeated attempts by Wagner to unite the offices of Reich Governor and Prime Minister in his person and thus to overthrow Koehler. In contrast to other countries and districts, there were no power struggles between Gauleiter and Prime Minister in Baden: Koehler was loyal to Wagner; In return, the Gauleiter left the entire area of ​​economic policy to the Prime Minister for lack of his own economic competencies.

Economically, Baden was in a difficult situation because of its border location - Alsace had belonged to France since 1918 ; an upswing began relatively late in 1935 and 1936. During visits to Berlin Köhler received special support from Baden; at his suggestion, Hitler approved the reopening of the Baden-Baden casino in 1933 . Köhler advocated a stronger participation of Baden in the army deliveries in the course of the armament of the Wehrmacht . From 1934 he headed the Baden Chamber of Commerce, which was replaced by the Upper Rhine Gauwirtschaftskammer in early 1943. In 1936 he was appointed head of the raw material distribution department within the four-year plan , but left this position at his own request in 1937.

In the SA Köhler was promoted several times, so in May 1937 to Brigadführer, in November 1938 to Gruppenführer and most recently in November 1943 to Obergruppenführer. Köhler's hometown Weinheim had already made him an honorary citizen on March 21, 1933 ; Karlsruhe followed on May 9, 1933. The latter revoked his honorary citizenship on April 25, 1946. From November 1933 until the end of the war, Köhler was a member of the functionless Reichstag as a representative of constituency 32 (Baden).

From 1939 Köhler headed the Baden Armaments Command; In 1942 he was appointed military manager. Also in 1942 he was also Minister of the Interior of Baden. After the German occupation of Alsace in 1940, Gauleiter Wagner became head of the civil administration (CdZ) for Alsace; Köhler headed the finance and economic department at the CdZ. In this function he supported the Germanization policy in Alsace and contributed to putting the Alsatian economic potential at the service of the German war economy: “Now the way is free to weld the southwestern industrial area, including the French-Lorraine region, into one organic unit to expand a huge industrial center, the face of which is assigned to the Greater German Reich. ” Situation reports from the security service from September 1940 certify that Koehler contributed to improving the mood of the population in Alsace with a radio address.

At the end of the war, Köhler was in Karlsruhe and refused to leave the city on the orders of Gauleiter Wagner. The reason he cited was that as head of the authorities he had to represent the interests of the population vis-à-vis the occupying power. Wagner excluded Köhler from the NSDAP on April 6, 1945 and had a public prosecutor's investigation initiated against Köhler, which became irrelevant at the end of the war.

denazification

Walter Köhler in Allied internment

“I now have to prepare for denazification . If I want to get out, I have to go around paragraph 39 and prove that I was never a National Socialist. I don't like doing that, but I have to do it for my family. "

- Walter Koehler

Köhler was captured by French troops in Karlsruhe on April 4, 1945. He spent the following three years in internment camps in Knielingen , Seckenheim , on the Hohenasperg fortress and in the Ludwigsburg internment camp . During this time Köhler testified as a witness at the Nuremberg Krupp trial . In October 1948, the Karlsruhe Spruchkammer classified Köhler as a “minor offender” in the denazification process and sentenced him to three years in a labor camp, which were considered served due to internment, to five years of professional bans and an atonement of 1,500 DM . The Arbitration Chamber had come to the conclusion that Koehler had a number of special circumstances under Article 39 that would lead to a milder assessment. In the denazification process, Köhler was able to submit numerous exonerating statements. The Weinheim factory owner and later member of the Bundestag, Richard Freudenberg , testified that it was common knowledge in Weinheim that Köhler “remained a decent person.” The South Baden Minister of Justice Hermann Fecht confirmed that Köhler had not selected officials based on party affiliation and that they were with him this attitude had drawn criticism from Gauleiter Wagner. Nevertheless, in June 1934, Köhler had called on Baden officials to take an active part in the NSDAP and its branches. In the run-up to the denazification process, Köhler had stated that he had never served in the SA, which contradicted his actual commitment since 1925.

The public prosecutor appealed against the classification of Köhler as a “minor offender”. In a second proceeding in April 1950, Köhler was classified as an “incriminated person” while maintaining the previous sentence. The Chamber commented on the arguments put forward by Köhler:

“The person concerned overlooks the fact that, even without participating in violence, he has assumed a leading role in the nat.soz. Promoted tyranny. The establishment of the nat.soz would be without the skeleton of the political functionaries who are devoted to the so-called Führer. Dictatorship was not possible. "

Retirement

After his release in 1948, Köhler worked briefly as a representative for cloth. Together with a former Hitler Youth leader, he founded an insurance agency in Karlsruhe. Köhler commented on the agency's success to a business partner with the words: "You, [...], 's very good that it turned out that way, but I would never have been so rich." Officially retired in the 1960s , he was still in contact with the agency in 1985. In the 1970s, Köhler was available to historians as contemporary witnesses . From mid-1976 onwards he wrote down his unpublished memoirs for several years, which comprise over 400 machine pages.

reviews

“Köhler was a communicative, cheerful person from the Palatinate, with an immovable National Socialist disposition, an impeccable lifestyle, strong ties to the family, great physical strength in the form of endurance and tenacity and a high sense of duty. As a Protestant, he tended to transfer Christian beliefs and concepts to National Socialism, which he understood as a 'new message of salvation' (and which he could not give up throughout his life). "

- Ingeborg Wiemann-Stöhr : The city of Weinheim 1925–1933.

In his memoirs, Köhler referred to the difficulties with his denazification: The Spruchkammer had to judge and condemn a man “who, on the one hand, as a committed National Socialist, paved the way for this movement before 1933 in a leading position ... took the top position in the Baden government and, according to celebrities from the state and business, was hailed as the good person of Weinheim. "

Koehler's rhetorical abilities are emphasized, which were "reinforced by the cozy Palatinate idiom" : In the state parliament he showed himself "as a skilful and also witty debate speaker - qualities that his Gauleiter completely lacked - who, as a rule, is quite capable of speaking freely was to argue powerfully. ” Köhler himself referred to his eloquence even in old age: “ Sometimes things get stuck in the head, awwer my Schnawwl still works like a charm ” , Köhler told a local newspaper in 1985. Throughout his life, Köhler remained closely connected to his hometown Weinheim and also had his main residence there during his time as Prime Minister. When contemporary witnesses were questioned about Köhler's role in Weinheim's NSDAP during the Weimar Republic around 1990 , no one commented negatively on Köhler - including the Social Democrats. In its obituary, the Weinheimer Nachrichten described the time of National Socialism as the “ time of its greatest political success” . Köhler himself showed no awareness of wrongdoing, in 1977 he stated to the American historian Johnpeter H. Grill that "if the opportunity existed, he would 'do everything all over again" " .

Two biographical sketches for Köhler appeared in 1999 and 2000. Horst Ferdinand came to the conclusion that Köhler had planned camouflage and deception maneuvers, in which the truth fell by the wayside. Ferdinand was referring to the President of Baden, Joseph Schmitt , who had called out to Köhler in April 1932 in the state parliament: "Mister Köhler, you are unmatched in disguising intentions!" Ernst Otto Bräunche, head of the Karlsruhe City Archives, came to the following assessment in 2000 Charcoal burner:

"Köhler was one of the decisive pioneers of the NSDAP in Baden and thus one of the active" grave diggers of the Weimar Republic "and democracy in Baden. In the Third Reich, Köhler ultimately "functioned" without any problems in his area of ​​responsibility and thus made a significant contribution to supporting and consolidating the Nazi rule. Even after the Federal Republic had long been established and consolidated, he was still convinced that democracy had no future. "

literature

  • Ernst Otto Bräunche: Walter Köhler: Prime Minister of Baden - a "decent" and "morally integrity" National Socialist? In: Stadt Weinheim (ed.): The city of Weinheim in the period from 1933 to 1945. (= Weinheimer Geschichtsblatt , No. 38) Weinheim 2000, ISBN 3-923652-12-7 , pp. 135–160.
  • Horst Ferdinand: Köhler, Walter Friedrich Julius, Nazi politician, businessman. In: Baden-Württemberg biographies. Volume II, Kohlhammer, Stuttgart 1999, ISBN 3-17-014117-1 , pp. 276-280 ( online )
  • Roland Peter: Arms policy in Baden. War economy and labor in a border region during World War II . Oldenbourg, Munich 1995, ISBN 3-486-56057-3 .

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Biographical information in Bräunche, Koehler , passim; Ferdinand, Köhler , passim and Joachim Lilla , Martin Döring, Andreas Schulz: extras in uniform. The members of the Reichstag 1933–1945. A biographical manual. Including the national and national socialist members of the Reichstag from May 1924. Droste, Düsseldorf 2004, ISBN 3-7700-5254-4 , pp. 322–323.
  2. ↑ Köhler in unpublished memoirs from 1976, cited in Bräunche, Köhler , p. 142.
  3. ↑ On Köhler's role in the rise of the NSDAP in Weinheim see Ingeborg Wiemann-Stöhr: Die Stadt Weinheim 1925-1933. Research into their economic, social and political profile. (= Weinheimer Geschichtsblatt No. 37), Weinheim 1991, ISBN 3-923652-10-0 , pp. 81-92.
  4. ^ Report of the Baden State Police Office of November 29, 1929, quoted in Bräunche, Köhler , p. 144.
  5. ^ Wiemann-Stöhr, Stadt , p. 85.
  6. ↑ Peter, Armaments Policy , p. 11.
  7. ↑ Köhler in a meeting on May 25, 1930, quoted in Bräunche, Köhler , p. 147.
  8. ↑ Köhler in Pforzheim on June 5, 1930. The quote contained in: Report of the Badisches Landespolizeiamt: National Socialist German Workers' Party. Development and activities of the Baden district since the state elections of October 15, 1929. Quoted in Bräunche, Köhler , p. 144.
  9. ↑ Volkswacht of February 12, 1931, quoted in Bräunche, Köhler , p. 148.
  10. ↑ Köhler in unpublished memoirs from 1976, quoted in Bräunche, Köhler , p. 149.
  11. ↑ This representation in Bräunche, Köhler , p. 149.
  12. ↑ This representation in Peter, armaments policy , p. 16.
  13. ↑ Ferdinand, Köhler , p. 278; Bräunche, Koehler , p. 148 f.
  14. ↑ quoted in Ferdinand, Köhler , p. 278. See also Bräunche, Köhler , p. 150.
  15. ↑ Ferdinand, Köhler , p. 278.
  16. ↑ a b c Ferdinand, Köhler , p. 279.
  17. ^ Köhler in the internment camp in Ludwigsburg to a fellow prisoner, quoted in Bräunche, Köhler , p. 138.
  18. ↑ Bräunche, Köhler , p. 153.
  19. ↑ Quoted in Bräunche, Köhler , p. 139.
  20. ↑ a b Bräunche, Köhler , p. 149.
  21. ↑ Quoted in Bräunche, Köhler , p. 153.
  22. ↑ Quoted in Ferdinand, Köhler , p. 278.
  23. ↑ a b -ell: In good and in bad days. The house on Petersbrücke was the focus of the family. Emilie and Walter Köhler celebrate the diamond wedding today. In: Weinheimer Nachrichten , May 2, 1985, p. 4.
  24. ↑ Wiemann-Stöhr, Stadt , p. 81.
  25. ↑ Köhler in unpublished memoirs from 1976, quoted in Bräunche, Köhler , p. 153.
  26. ↑ Ferdinand, Köhler , p. 277.
  27. ↑ Wiemann-Stöhr, Stadt , p. 138.
  28. ↑ -ell: On Walter Köhler's death: A life full of ups and downs came to an end. The National Socialist Prime Minister and honorary citizen of Baden died at the age of 92 from 1933 to 1945. In: Weinheimer Nachrichten, January 10, 1989, p. 5. See also Ferdinand, Koehler , p. 278 f.
  29. ^ "WK, the former deputy Gau leader and minister president of Baden after 1933, admitted frankly that given the opportunity he would 'do it all over again'". Quoted in Ferdinand, Köhler , p. 280. Translation by Ferdinand.
  30. ↑ Joseph Schmitt in the Baden state parliament on April 8, 1932, quoted in Ferdinand, Köhler , p. 279.
  31. ↑ Bräunche, Köhler , S. 154th
personal data
SURNAME Koehler, Walter
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Köhler, Walter Friedrich Julius (full name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German politician (NSDAP), MdR and Prime Minister of Baden
DATE OF BIRTH September 30, 1897
PLACE OF BIRTH Weinheim
DATE OF DEATH January 9, 1989
Place of death Weinheim