Walter Stothfang

Walter Stothfang (born October 22, 1902 , † after 1961) was a German economist and the personal advisor to Fritz Sauckel, the chief representative for labor .

Stuthfang studied law and political science at the University of Münster until he received his doctorate in 1926. After joining in 1926, he rose to the position of Ministerialrat in the Reich Ministry of Labor and in 1942 became the personal assistant to State Secretary Friedrich Syrup . On April 19, 1943, he switched to Fritz Sauckel as a personal advisor , who delegated a lot to Stothfang because of his numerous tasks.

Imprisoned after the end of the war in 1945, he changed places of detention several times. In 1947 he wrote a detailed memorandum for the indictment of the Nuremberg Trials on the deployment of labor in the World War, especially on the recruitment of foreign workers. He was questioned as a witness, even exonerated as a fellow traveler. In doing so, he largely shifted responsibility for the violence to the SS . After a period as a freelance writer and at an auditing company, Stothfang was again a sub-department head in the Nuremberg Federal Employment Agency and still chief administrative director in 1953 .

In the brochure Arbeitsarbeit im Krieg, 1940, he spoke out against the contractual employment contract system. The duty to work was served by a hierarchically organized administration, from the Reich Ministry of Labor through the state labor offices down to the local labor offices and the work group (Syrup group leader) at Hermann Göring's four-year plan . In addition to restrictions on freedom of occupation, for example when changing jobs and the freedom to choose a profession, in connection with the construction of the Western Wall , all Germans were required to provide services, initially for all Germans, in 1940 for all residents of the Reich.

The free play of forces and the night watchman role on the labor market, these days of liberalist outlook are over, because they either lead to anarchy in labor or because they lack any claim to leadership in an area which, according to the National Socialist view, is an essential part of general state policy.

Coincidence should not be decisive for the operation, but the knowledge of the respective political necessities. (Walter Stothfang: The work in the war, Berlin 1940, p. 5 and 6)

Fonts

• The problem of a peripheral area as a labor market policy task, presented. using Schleswig-Holstein as an example , 1961
• To set up the Gau employment offices. In: Der Arbeitsarbeit 1, 1943, p. 11
• The employment in war (writings of the Hochschule für Politik), Berlin 1940 online
• with Gerhard Biskup: Crafts and Labor , Berlin 1939
• Introduction to unemployment assistance , Berlin 1936
• The wage policy of the Christian Metalworkers' Association in Germany in the post-war period: A contribution to the union. Wage theory u. Wage policy according to d. Wars , Duisburg 1926 [= Münster dissertation]

literature

• Eckhard Hansen, Florian Tennstedt (Eds.) U. a .: Biographical lexicon on the history of German social policy from 1871 to 1945 . Volume 2: Social politicians in the Weimar Republic and during National Socialism 1919 to 1945. Kassel University Press, Kassel 2018, ISBN 978-3-7376-0474-1 , p. 192 f. ( Online , PDF; 3.9 MB).
• Alexander Nützenadel (Ed.): The Reich Ministry of Labor in National Socialism: Administration - Politics - Crime , Wallstein, Göttingen 2017 ISBN 978-3-835330-02-3
• Dieter G. Maier (ed.): History of labor market policy and labor administration in Germany. Selected texts 1877-1952 , Brühl (Rheinland) 2008 ISBN 978-3-938407-27-1 online

Web links

• IfZ interrogation protocol 1947
• Nuremberg Trials: June 1, 1946