Walter Korodi

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Walter Korodi (born July 8, 1902 in Sächsisch Reen , Transylvania , Austria-Hungary , † 1983 ) was a German journalist, publicist and political activist.

Life

Korodi was born as the son of the teacher Lutz Korodi and Therese Hermann in Transylvania, where he belonged to the German minority. In 1904 the family moved to Germany. Korodi became a member of the Reinhard Freikorps in 1918 and later a member of the Stahlhelm .

Mid-1920s was Korodi as a journalist in Berlin , where he for right-wing newspapers like the Berliner Börsen-Zeitung (BBZ), which the German National People's Party (DNVP) related Reich messenger , but also for the Nationalists observers of the Nazis wrote.

Since 1927, Korodi caused a great stir with his aggressive agitation on behalf of the Stahlhelm against the Reichsbanner Schwarz-Rot-Gold, which is close to the Social Democrats . The reason for this activity was the brochure Germany's Secret Armaments , published by Emil Julius Gumbel and Berthold Jacob on behalf of the German League for Human Rights , in which the secret armament of the Reichswehr was publicized and on which prominent members of the Reichsbanner's committee had also worked. Worn and supported by the Stahlhelm, a right-wing association of veterans of the First World War, Korodi toured the entire Reich over the next few years in order to stir up a mood against the Reich Banner by spreading his theses on the character of the Reich Banner as one at rallies and mass gatherings Organization of traitors and vicarious agents of the victorious powers of the First World War. In the wake of this travel activity, Korodi also published a series of diatribes against the Reichsbanner, which found great sales.

In 1932 Korodi became head of the DNVP-related "National Defense Center against Bolshevik Activities". As an anti-communist, Korodi initially viewed the rise of the National Socialists to power positively. In February 1933 he led the occupation of the apartment of the SAPD politician Max Seydewitz by the SA and on May 1, 1933 he himself joined the NSDAP ( membership number 2.644.609). Soon after, Korodi ran into trouble with the regime. In June 1934 he was struck from the NSDAP membership file again because of unknown whereabouts.

In August 1934 Korodi was imprisoned in the so-called Röhm Putsch in Berlin's Columbia House because he had exceeded his competencies. After his release he emigrated to Switzerland in 1935, where in 1936 he anonymously wrote the book I can't be silent! , a political settlement with the Nazi state. In Germany, as announced in the Reichsanzeiger , he was expatriated in July 1938. He had already been expelled from the party in the summer of 1934. In 1940 he published the book Inside the Gestapo: Hitler's shadow over the world under the pseudonym Hansjürgen Koehler in the London publisher Pallas Publication . According to the historian Rainer Orth, parts of this book are plagiarized from a manuscript that Heinrich Pfeifer submitted to Pallas Verlag in 1940 with a request for publication. Pfeifer stated this in a letter dated June 2, 1942 to the Basel public prosecutor. During the Second World War Korodi was interned in Bellechasse in the canton of Friborg . At the end of the war, Korodi was expelled from Switzerland.

After the Second World War, Korodi led an unsteady life as a freelance publicist and trader until the 1960s, where he repeatedly came into conflict with the authorities over minor offenses such as dodging. In 1953 Korodi was sentenced to six months in prison for recidivism. In the appeal hearing in May 1954, the 4th Large Criminal Chamber in Cologne rejected the appeals of the accused and the public prosecutor's office and confirmed Korodi's imprisonment of six months (but because of continued fraud instead of recidivism).

Fonts

  • Away with the imperial banner! - Enough with the Reichswehr baiting! , 1927.
  • The Reich Banner Black-Red-Gold , 1928.
  • Social Democracy's wicked propaganda through the fault of the Center , 1932.
  • I cannot be silent . Published anonymously. Foreword by the publisher. With an opinion from a. Public Prosecutor Dr. E. Zürcher. Zurich: Europa Verlag, 1936
  • under the pseudonym Hansjürgen Koehler: Inside the Gestapo - Hitler's shadow over the world. Pallas Publishing Corporation, London 1940.
  • Inside information - The truth about Germany. (With plates). Pallas Publishing Corporation, London 1940. (under the same title in Shanghai in 1941; translation: Nazi-Practijken - de waarheid omtrent Duitsland . Batavia , Unie Bibliotheek, 1940)
  • "How much longer? Germans under exceptional rights", in: The act of September 21, 1963.

literature

  • "The novel of a colorful life", in: Kölner Stadtanzeiger from May 26, 1954.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Biographical handbook of German-speaking emigration after 1933. Volume 1: Politics, economy, public life. Management and editing: Werner Röder, Herbert A. Strauss , with the assistance of Dieter Marc Schneider and Louise Forsyth. Authors: Jan Foitzik (...), Saur, Munich [ua] 1980, ISBN 0-89664-101-5 , p. 387.
  2. ^ The Abwehrstelle was founded in September 1932 at the latest, cf. the report "Anti-Republican Defense Center", in: Vossische Zeitung of September 7, 1932 ( digitized version ).
  3. ↑ Michael Hepp: The expatriation of German citizens 1933-1945 according to the lists published in the Reichsanzeiger , 1988, p. 229.
  4. ^ Rainer Orth: The SD man Johannes Schmidt - the murderer of the Reich Chancellor Kurt von Schleicher? Tectum, Marburg 2012, ISBN 978-3-8288-2872-8 , p. 38.
  5. ^ Rainer Orth: The SD man Johannes Schmidt - the murderer of the Reich Chancellor Kurt von Schleicher? Tectum, Marburg 2012, ISBN 978-3-8288-2872-8 , p. 145, note 136.
personal data
SURNAME Korodi, Walter
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Korodi, Walther; Koehler, Hansjürgen (pseudonym)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German journalist, publicist and political activist
DATE OF BIRTH July 8, 1902
PLACE OF BIRTH Saxon Reen , Transylvania
DATE OF DEATH 1983