Walther Schotte

Friedrich Wilhelm Walther Schotte (often also written Walter Schotte) (born October 3, 1886 in Berlin , † February 22, 1958 in Cologne ) was a German journalist, historian and writer. Schotte was best known as the longtime editor of the Prussian yearbooks .

Live and act

Origin and education (1886 to 1909)

Schotte was born in 1886 as the son of the secret government councilor Professor Dr. Friedrich Schotte and his wife Helene Dato were born. He first attended pre-school and then from Easter 1896 to the Askanische Gymnasium in Berlin, which he left with the Abitur in 1905. He then studied history for several years from the 1905 summer semester until the spring of 1910 at the Friedrich-Wilhelms-Universität Berlin , interrupted by a visit to Heidelberg University , where he completed the 1906 summer semester. There he heard lectures from Wilhelm Dilthey , Jellinek, Otto Hintze and Georg Simmel, among others . From January to the end of June 1906, Schotte worked for Professor Karl Zeumer as a scientific assistant. From August 1909 to February 1910 he then worked as a research assistant for Diltheye.

With the examination date on February 24, 1910, Schotte received his doctorate on June 15, 1910 at the Philosophical Faculty of the Friedrich-Wilhelms-Universität zu Berlin with a thesis on the "legal and political relations of the Principality and Estates in the Mark Brandenburg under the government of Joachim I." Dr. phil.

Until 1916 he worked in the administration of the Prussian State Archives . During the First World War , Schotte first attracted a broader public's attention when he appeared as co-editor of Max Weber's book Wahlrecht und Demokratie in Deutschland .

Journalistic and political activity (1916 to 1933)

Schotte once summed up his understanding of politics as “one is political”, but one “does not do politics”. Notwithstanding this, he was extremely active in political life for a long time.

From 1916 to 1917, Schotte was Friedrich Naumann's secretary . He then became editor of the weekly Central Europe . In 1917/18 he took over the editing of the series of publications "Der Deutsche Volksstaat: Writings on internal politics" published by Naumann's publishing house "Die Hilfe".

In 1919 Schotte joined the provisional main board of the left-liberal German Democratic Party (DDP). However, as he moved further and further to the right in the following years, he soon turned away from the DDP. In the same year, Schotte had the idea of ​​"transforming the German revolution [of November 1918] into a national rebirth ". This found practical expression in his work as a managing board member of the reactionary Großdeutsche Vereinigung eV in Berlin, which he began at that time. From 1918, Schotte also devoted himself to the publication of the magazine Deutsches Volkstum , which had a similar focus and which he was to oversee until 1938.

In December 1919, Schotte succeeded Hans Delbrück as the editor of the Prussian Yearbooks , which he was to oversee until 1927. Under his aegis, the yearbooks increasingly moved to the right politically in the following years. The linguistic style of the yearbooks, which as a much-cited traditional organ were an important opinion maker and multiplier, remained unchanged under Schotte. Instead, the magazine turned around, with right-wing historical ideologues being hired as employees, who filled the sheet with new ideas that were packaged in the old language. While the scientific and historical tone of the journal was retained, ideological accents were now clearly adopted from the arsenal of the conservative revolution . One of the right-wing employees who found their way into the editing of the yearbooks under Schotte was, for example, the later Goebbels employee Hans Fritzsche . Using the example of an editorial by Schottes about the British government Andrew Bonar Law , which appeared in the yearbook of November 1922 and in which Lord Derby is criticized as a "disciple" of the "Frankfurt Jew" Lord Northcliffe , Benammi makes the thesis credible that Schottes is under conservative thinking was also permeated and shaped by anti-Semitic figures of thought.

In 1924, Schotte founded the magazine Frau und Nation together with Lenore Ripke-Kühn , which soon went under. On October 1, 1927, Schotte took over the editing of the bi-monthly publication Politics and Society (or for their annual volumes), which he carried out until 1933. One magazine he worked on was Weltpolitische Korrespondenz .

In the 1920s, Schotte played a key role in the establishment of the German-Austrian Central Office in Vienna, a propaganda and news office that had the task of increasing the “appreciation of all Germans” in Austria, thus laying the groundwork for a later attempted connection to Austria to prepare the German Empire. Above all, the so-called follow-up movement should be promoted.

In the mid-1920s, Schotte was co-founder of the German gentlemen's club alongside Heinrich von Gleichen , and he was considered to be its mouthpiece and ideologue. He had previously been a member of the June Club . With the magazine Der Ring , the journalistic organ of the gentleman's club, which was named after the symbol of the conservative Ring movement, Schotte also found another outlet for the propagation of his idea. He had tried to popularize the symbol of the ring in the Prussian yearbooks since 1920 . Via the Herrenklub and other similarly oriented networks, Schotte established connections to numerous right-wing pioneers such as the young conservative Arthur Moeller van den Bruck and to conservative politicians, among whom the center politician and later Chancellor Franz von Papen deserves special mention. Regardless of his inner distance to the democratic republic, Schotte also maintained relationships with democrats and "rational republicans" such as Gustav Stresemann , with whom he maintained semi-regular correspondence.

Around 1930, Schotte became managing director of the Catholic Action to Fight Bolshevism .

When Papen was appointed Chancellor in 1932, Schotte took over the management of an office for public relations in Berlin established by the Papen government . He also had the reputation of being Papen's most important speechwriter.

Schotte and the "New State" (1932/1933)

In the Papen government formed in May / June 1932, Schotte assumed the rank of a thinker and theoretician. He and Edgar Jung were also the "leading protagonists [...] in the journalistic circle around Papen" and in this capacity were entrusted with the linguistic formulation of the "program [s] of the New Right", as their propagandist he appeared in public .

In the research there are accordingly descriptions of Schottes as Papen's “chief ideologist”, “officious interpreter of the Chancellor” and even as the “official spokesman for the Chancellor”.

In a book published in the same year, he declared the "system of formal democracy" to be "bankrupt". In a brochure published in the run-up to the Reichstag elections in November , in which he endeavored to popularize the government's program for the establishment of a “new state”, Schotte blamed the appearance of the multi-party system for the disastrous course of domestic political development. This system falsified the meaning of the constitution and practically replaced state life with the petty conflict of interests of the parties. According to Schottes, governments should in future be founded in a front position against the parties. They should "not be formed above, but against the parties." At the latest after a series of exhaustion elections in quick succession, the institution of parliament as the control body of the government should, at least for the time being, be completely eliminated: "On confirmation by elections one could - should one [then completely] forego. "The state corrupted by the interests of the parties and associations would be replaced by the" new state ", according to Schottes will, which must be a" strong state , free of interests, just in itself. "

From this “knowledge” he concluded the postulate that “the feeling of closeness to metaphysical powers [...] must be alive in those who dare to lead a people. [But] our parliamentarians feel nothing of those forces that regulate the bloodbeat of our people. "Because from overcoming the" mechanistic, liberalist thinking of an entire century, to overcome this century itself. "

In Franz von Papen in 1932, Schotte said he had found the man who had recognized that "the turning point of time has come". Schotte's vision of the “coming upper class” was based on the view that the old nobility had proven incapable of leading the masses across Europe. This task must therefore be taken over by a newly created upper class, whose members should come together in a lengthy process. In contrast to the Italian model, Schotte also put the importance of a coming leadership class before that of a single leader: “The people are waiting for the leader! How childlike and how foolish! There will be no leadership that prevails unless it finds a reason in an upper class that supports the leader. "

With a new leadership layer alone, it was not enough for Schotte: “The people should not expect that, in their very own needs, all blessings will only come from above. The new state cannot be ordered in an emergency! The people themselves must want it, must participate in its development. A new state will, a new state attitude, a new state belief - these are the indispensable prerequisites of the new state. "

Jacques Delarue sees Schotte as the originator of a "political tactic" used by the Papen government in November 1932, which "almost ruined" the National Socialists' chances of voting. In his book about the Papen - Schleicher - Gayl government , he made the methods of the Nazi party so aptly visible "that this revelation cost Hitler [in the November elections] two million votes". Accordingly, he was unpopular in National Socialist circles.

Life under National Socialism (1933 to 1945)

After the formation of the Hitler government in the spring of 1933, in which Papen played a decisive role, Schotte congratulated Papen on his "successful maneuver" with praise for the "rare diplomatic skill" that Papen allegedly demonstrated. The Hitler cabinet saw Schotte only as an "interim solution" that was intended to stabilize the situation, although it would have the possibility of "becoming fruitful".

Schotte saw the aim of the Hitler government as the resumption of Papen politics as soon as possible: “Even if the Hitler government is a parliamentary ministerial government, it has the task of clearing the way for the formation of a genuinely presidential government for implementation authoritarian government, for the great reform of the building of the empire and the constitution, through which only the German state can recover. "

In June 1934, Schotte was involved in the drafting of Papen's Marburg speech alongside Edgar Jung .

During the political cleansing of the National Socialists in the early summer of 1934, which soon became known under the propaganda name “ Röhm Putsch ”, the Schottes office was occupied and searched by members of the Gestapo . Schotte himself was arrested and, according to the memories of his friend Henry Bernhard , "just got away with it". Despite his survival, Schotte was often listed in the list of fatalities of the action in the foreign press and journalism. The false report of his murder turned out to be so persistent that the claim that Schotte had been murdered by the Gestapo in the context of the "Röhm Putsch" has even found its way into scientific literature and is still to be found again and again today as a popular "wandering error" is.

post war period

After the end of the Second World War, Schotte first lived in Gütersloh (from September 1945), Bonn (from October 1949), Bad Godesberg (from October 1951) and then in Cologne.

Schotte died of general cachexia in February 1958 in the Augustinian hospital. He was buried in a row grave on February 26, 1958 at the Cologne-Süd cemetery.

Scots in the judgment of contemporaries and posterity

Lutz Graf Schwerin von Krosigk judges Schotte that he “strongly influenced Papen” and in general: “Through his witty lectures, Dr. Walter Schotte played an important role in the men's club for a long time. The editor of the yearbooks, who was endowed with considerable intelligence, was often seduced by the tendency towards the paradox to make predictions about political developments that in no way withstood reality. When I held that against him once, of course he didn't like to hear it. "

Fritz Günther von Tschirschky , who was in constant contact with Schotte as Papen's most important employee from 1933 to 1934 and had also been in close contact with Schotte as a member of the Silesian Gentlemen's Society, later recalled Schotte as one of the most colorful figures in the political life in the capital: Schotte was a man "who knew all the rumors about what was going on on the political stage in Berlin and who had a very strong feeling for developments that were about to happen".

marriage and family

On October 30, 1947, Schotte married Maria Schau in Gütersloh, widowed Zeug (born January 21, 1910 in Arnsberg). With this he had the children Margarete (* 1948) and Walther (* 1949) as well as the stepson Michael Zeug (* 1943 in Arnsberg).

Fonts

• The legal and political relationship between the principality and the estates in the Mark Brandenburg under the government of Joachim I , 1910. (Dissertation)
• Principality and estates in the Mark Brandenburg under the government of Joachim I , Leipzig 1911. (Revised version of the dissertation for trade)
• East Germany , 1919.
• Way to legalism. The world's democratic constitutions in comparison , 1919.
• The future of the Upper Silesian economy. A Criticism of Polish Propaganda , 1921. (English translation as The Future of Upper Silesian Industry. A Criticism of Polish Propaganda , 1921)
• Struggle! About clod and one's own. To Scholle and Eigen , 1924.
• The new state , Berlin 1932. (With a foreword by Franz von Papen)
• The Papen, Schleicher, Gayl cabinet , Leipzig 1932.

Web links

• Literature by and about Walther Schotte in the catalog of the German National Library
• Walther Schotte in the files of the Reich Chancellery

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Date of birth according to August Ludwig Degener: Who is who? The German WHO's WHO , 1928, p. 1402.
2. ^ Rainer Orth : The SD man Johannes Schmidt. The murderer of Chancellor Kurt von Schleicher? Tectum, Marburg 2012, ISBN 978-3-8288-2872-8 , p. 166.
3. ^ Armin Mohler: The Conservative Revolution in Germany 1918-1932. Ein Handbuch , 2005, p. 118.
4. ↑ Jürgen C. Hess: It should be the whole of Germany , 1978, p. 30.
5. ↑ Benammi: Essays on Jewish Life and Thought by Benammi , 2004, p. 185. Benammi finds it significant that the worst title the Scot can give to Northcliffe, whom he "hated cruelly", who is a "Frankfurt Jew" . In summary one could say about Schotte's editorial: “The intention of Schotte is not only to show that, from his anti-semitic point of view, Lord Northcliff was a villain because he was a jew, but also to connect the Jews with a man who in his opinion, was so great a villain. "
6. ^ Alfred D. Low: The Anschluss Movement, 1918-1919, and the Paris Peace Conference , 1974, p. 158.
7. ^ Jacques Delarue: The Gestapo. A History of Horror , 1964, p. 114.
8. ^ T. Hunt Tooley: National Identity and Weimar Germany , 1997, p. 57.
9. ↑ Ulrike Hörster-Philipps: Conservative Politics in the End Phase of the Weimar Republic , 1982, p. 118. He spared no effort to present Papen and his politics to the public and to praise them.
10. ^ Daniela Kahn: The control of the economy through law in National Socialist Germany , 2006, p. 96.
11. ^ Josef Roth: Leviathan. Zeitschrift für Sozialwissenschaft , 1973, p. 182.
12. ↑ Reinhart Staats: Theologie der Reichskrone , 1976, p. 163.
13. ^ Heinrich August Winkler: Mittelstand, Demokratie und Nationalozialismus , 1972, p. 148.
14. ↑ Florida State University Research Council: Florida State University Studies , 1959, p. 78.
15. ↑ Dieter Haselbach : Authoritarian Liberalism and Social Market Economy , 1991, p. 57 also calls him the "theoretician of the strong state."
16. ^ Hans Mommsen: The Rise and Fall of Weimar Democracy , 1996, p. 477.
17. ^ Helmut Theisen: The development towards nihilistic nationalism in Germany, 1918-1933 , 1955, p. 50.
18. ↑ Kurt Pritzkoleit: The new gentlemen. The Mighty in State and Economy 1955, p. 87.
19. ↑ Stephan Malinowski: From the king to the leader , 2003, p. 310.
20. ^ Rüdiger Graf: The future of the Weimar Republic p. 277.
21. ^ Jacques Delarue: The Gestapo. A History of Horror , 1964, p. 114. "In 1932 he had worked out a political tactic which almost ruined the electoral hopes of the Nazis."
22. ^ Jacques Delarue: The Gestapo. A History of Horror , 1964, p. 114. In the original: "[Schotte] had defined the methods of the Nazi party so perfectly that this revelation had cost Hitler two million votes at the elections of November 6, 1932."
23. ↑ Berthold Petzinna : Education for the German lifestyle. Origin and development of the young conservative ring circle 1918 - 1933. Oldenbourg Academy, Berlin 2000, ISBN 3050031913 , p. 274.
24. ^ Henry Bernhard: Finis Germaniae. Notes and Observations , 1947, p. 41.
25. ↑ Ramananda Chatterjee: The Modern Review , 1934, p. 214.
26. ^ Henry Bernhard: Finis Germaniae. Notes and Observations , 1947, p. 41.
27. ↑ In the same year, Leopold Schwarzschild's exile diary : Das neue Tagebuch 1934, p. 667, Schotte was placed among the murdered; likewise 1935 Konrad Heiden in his study on the history of National Socialism, Konrad Heiden: A History of National Socialism , 1935, p. 423, as well as Otto Strasser in his study of the "Röhm Putsch", Otto Strasser: Die Deutsche Bartholomäusnacht , 1935, p 123. The error was cleared up, for example, by Wilhelm Rohr in a review of the book Everything or Nothing. Twelve years of totalitarian rule in Germany by Martin Göhring in Historische Zeitschrift , vol. 1968, p. 169: “The publicist Walter Schotte, who survived the Third Reich, is wrongly listed among the victims of June 30, 1934 (p. 115 ). "
28. ^ For example, Robert Thomson was defeated by Clark: The Fall of the German Republic. A Political Study , 1959, p. 335 to the “murder mistake” when he wrote: “One of his [Papen's] intimate associates was Walther Schotte, a journalist whose talent was too brilliant for the National Socialist leaders who murdered him in 1934. "
29. ^ Lutz Schwerin von Krosigk: Staatsbankrott , 1974, p. 114.
30. ^ Fritz Günther von Tschirschky: Memories of a high treason , 1972, p. 78.
31. ↑ Marriage register Gütersloh 1947 No. 309/1947