Walter Kießling

Walter Siegfried Kießling (born July 24, 1892 in Tannroda ; † 1966 in Göttingen ) was a lawyer, politician ( DNVP , later NSDAP ), Lord Mayor of Gera from 1933 to 1936 and Lord Mayor of Erfurt from 1936 to 1945 .

Life

Kießling was the son of pastor Max Kießling. He attended the Wilhelm-Ernst-Gymnasium in Weimar. Then he studied political science and law in Jena and Berlin and passed his first state examination in early 1914. He took part in the First World War as a volunteer, became a battery leader and received numerous awards. In 1919 he became a trainee lawyer at the Kahla District Court , was employed by the Altenburg District Court and Jena Higher Administrative Court and, after having passed his assessor examination in 1921, was an assistant judge at the Jena District and District Court . In 1922 he was acting director of the state penal institutions in Ichtershausen and Untermaßfeld , in 1923 assistant judge in Eisenach and from 1924 as a lawyer in Weimar . Kießling was a member of the DNVP from 1920 , switched to the NSDAP in 1930 and rose within three years from the local group leader to the district and district leader and finally to the head of the yard in Weimar. He also became a Gauführer in the Association of National Socialist German Jurists founded in 1928 .

On March 24, 1933, Kießling was elected Lord Mayor by the municipal council of the city of Gera and held this office from April 1, 1933 to March 8, 1936. At the end of 1933 he began firing "nationally unreliable" officials, employees and workers. At the same time he “reorganized the city finances and eliminated the housing shortage” in Gera.

On March 11, 1936, Kießling took up the post of Lord Mayor in Erfurt , where he was considered an administrative specialist and a determined politician. He incorporated Hochheim and Melchendorf into Erfurt, promoted housing construction and had a large cold store built against the will of the Gau leadership. He was also very active in the persecution of Jewish citizens, from everyday discrimination to the deportations of Erfurt Jews. He entered into real competition with Gauleiter Sauckel in order to get his city " free of Jews " particularly quickly . The security service noted in a report:

"In the Jewish question , K. wanted to go his own way in relation to the centrally controlled measures of the Stapo, in order to be able to free Erfurt as soon as possible."

In 1939, Kießling demolished the memorial of the former Erfurt Jäger Regiment on Horseback No. 6 for the fallen soldiers of the First World War , as he saw it as a "distorted structure". During the invasion of Poland, Kiessling was temporarily acting Lord Mayor and City Commissioner in Thorn in the Gau Danzig / West Prussia from September to November 1939, before he was replaced as Lord Mayor on November 1, 1939 by NSDAP member Franz Jakob from Fürth . During Kiessling's tenure, part of the Polish and Jewish population in Thorn was murdered or taken to concentration camps. Towards the end of the Second World War, Kießling, who was also the SA Standartenführer , campaigned for the city to be handed over to the US troops without a fight in order to avoid senseless destruction. The town's combat commandant, Colonel Otto Merkel, refused and ordered Kießling to be shot, but this was not carried out. After the invasion of the Americans, he was deposed as Lord Mayor and arrested. At first he managed to escape, then he was arrested again and was sent to the US internment camp Kornwestheim near Stuttgart for two and a half years . In 1947 he was released. His denazification process was completed in 1949 with "exonerated".

Kießling went to Oldenburg, where his wife and six children from Weimar followed him. From 1951 he worked as a lawyer in Oldenburg and from 1956 in Göttingen . Here he participated in the expansion of the tenant protection association. He died in 1966 as a result of an intestinal operation.

literature

• Steffen Raßloff : The Lord Mayor of Erfurt since 1872. In: City and history. Magazine for Erfurt. Vol. 35, 2007, ISSN  1618-1964 , pp. 25-27.
• Günter Domkowsky: Lord Mayor of the City of Gera. Publishing house Dr. Frank GmbH, Gera 2007, ISBN 978-3-934805-31-6 .
• Klaus Brodale, Heidrun Friedemann: That was the 20th century in Gera. Wartberg-Verlag, Gudensberg-Gleichen 2002, ISBN 3-831-31273-7 .
• Eckart Schörle: Lord Mayor Walter Kießling. The Erfurt “Führer” in the Third Reich. In: City and History. Magazine for Erfurt. Issue 24, 2004, ISSN  1618-1964 , pp. 8-9.
• E. Schmidt: Walter Kießling 70 years old. In: Thüringer Zeitung (FRG) , July 21, 1962.

Web links

• Walter Kießling on erfurt-web.de

Individual evidence

1. ↑ ^{a b} Ernst Klee : The dictionary of persons on the Third Reich. Who was what before and after 1945 (= Fischer 16048). Updated edition. Fischer-Taschenbuch-Verlag, Frankfurt am Main 2005, ISBN 3-596-16048-0 , p. 308.
2. ^ E. Schmidt: Walter Kießling 70 years old. In: Thüringer Zeitung (FRG) , July 21, 1962.
3. ↑ Steffen Raßloff : Anti-Semitism in Thuringia (= Thuringia . Sheets for regional studies. No. 76). State Center for Political Education, Erfurt 2008, p. 7.
4. ↑ ^{a b} Erfurt-Web: Lord Mayor
5. ↑ Woj. Archiwum Państwowe Oddział Toruń / State Archives Toruń / Poland: Akta miasta Torunia 1939 - 1945, Sig. E 14, sheet 4 - Farewell Kiessling - Jakob inauguration on November 1, 1939 in the theater
6. ↑ Woj. Archiwum Państwowe Oddział Toruń / State Archives Toruń / Poland: Akta miasta Torunia 1939 - 1945, Sig.E 1, Sheet 13 - Notice and Ordinance No 25 of September 18, 1939