Walther Georg Hartmann

Walther Georg Hartmann (born July 17, 1892 in Strelitz , Mecklenburg , † October 18, 1970 in Freiburg im Breisgau ) was editor of the German Red Cross , and during the Second World War head of the DRK's foreign office . From 1950 to 1957 he was Secretary General of the DRK.

Studies and World War I

Walther Georg Hartmann, son of the Strelitz doctor Richard Hartmann, studied philosophy , German and new languages. In 1914 he volunteered for military service and left the Reichswehr in 1919 with the rank of lieutenant in the reserve . He was a bearer of the Iron Cross 2nd Class, Honor Cross for Frontline Fighters and the Wound Badge .

After "experiencing World War I", Hartmann was "a deeply distraught person who, after his early poems, dealt with the changes in consciousness of a troubled time in short stories and novels ..."

Weimar Republic

On July 18, 1922, Hartmann entered the active service of the German Red Cross as editor. In this activity he was responsible for the papers of the German Red Cross and the youth red cross magazine Deutsche Jugend .

On May 27, 1925, the German Youth Red Cross was founded under the leadership of Hartmann .

National Socialism

Hartmann was a member of the NSDAP ( membership number : 2,673,264).

In late summer 1938 Hartmann became head of Office VII, the so-called Foreign Office of the DRK . His predecessor in this office was Ernst Robert Grawitz . As part of his duties, Hartmann was an important liaison between the DRK, the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) and the League of Red Cross Societies in Geneva. Favez describes the connection between Hartmann and Geneva as follows: "He, who, with all caution, was committed to the spirit of the Red Cross, was probably one of the most reliable sources of what was going on in the Reich available to the ICRC."

Office VII was the contact point for many people who got into concentration camps or imprisonment during the war, under German rule. Hartmann also answers questions from the ICRC about Carl von Ossietzky , for example . In a letter dated June 10, 1936, he wrote to the ICRC that Ossietzky "was transferred from the concentration camp to the state hospital in Berlin in order to heal a tonsillitis and to better monitor his health."

Visit to the Theresienstadt transit camp as a showcase ghetto

In October 1943, 476 Jews from Denmark were deported to Theresienstadt. The majority of the Danish Jews was before this deportation and then planned the murder saved . In June 1944, the Danish government obtained a visit from representatives of the ICRC to the Theresienstadt concentration camp for the deportees . The concentration camp had been prepared as a showcase ghetto in order to hide the murderous reality from the international public.

In preparation for this visit, Hartmann visited Theresienstadt on about June 27 and 28, 1943, and wrote a report about it. Hartmann is said to have been "basically positive about the circumstances" at the time. Hartmann's interlocutor at the ICRC put it differently: "The gentlemen from the German Red Cross were in Theresienstadt for 48 hours and were deeply impressed, ie extremely dismayed, by the situation in Theresienstadt."

Relocation to Ettal Abbey

From 1943 Office VII of the DRK was moved from Berlin to the convent wing of the Ettal monastery . By relocating to Ettal, contact with the ICRC and the League of Red Cross Societies in Geneva could be maintained undisturbed. The foreign department was apparently able to continue working until August 1945.

Hartmann was later placed in detention.

According to his own statements, Hartmann was authorized on April 10, 1945 to continue the presidential business in the event that the DRK presidium in Babelsberg was no longer able to act.

Hartmann's unclear membership in the NSDAP

In his history of the German Red Cross , Riesenberger points out that Hartmann was "the only head of office in the Presidium of the German Red Cross who was not a member of the NSDAP".

In the seniority list of the German Red Cross (as of July 1, 1940), the NSDAP membership number 2673264 is shown in the entry on Hartmann.

After the war

1945 to 1950: At the EHIK

From May 8, 1945 to April 1, 1950, Walther Georg Hartmann was an employee of the “Central Office of the Aid Organization of the Evangelical Churches in Germany” (EHIK).

From 1950: back to the DRK

On February 4, 1950, the German Red Cross was re-established in the Federal Republic of Germany. Walther Georg Hartmann took up his new post as General Secretary of the DRK on April 1, 1950 . He held this position until 1957. The small working staff of Secretary General Hartmann set up in Bonn “should essentially only have the function of a 'coordination and central negotiating body'.” In his capacity as Secretary General, he was also responsible for bringing about bilateral Red Cross talks between the Soviet and German Red Cross involved in 1954.

Literary work

• The enthusiastic way, Dresden 1919
• We Humans: Poems, 1920
• Hand drawings in faithful reproductions (Käthe Kollwitz, Fritz Boettger (Eds.)); Foreword by Walther Georg Hartmann, Dresden 1920
• The Earth: Poems, Berlin 1921
• The animals of the island, Dresden 1923
• Fate, devotion, love: poems, Freiburg i. Br. 1924
• The German Youth Red Cross in the service of the school: Guide through d. German pedag. Look, Frankfurt a. M. [1932]
• Who is Mr. Phillipps ?, Stuttgart [1933]
• With the little train to Wild West, Stuttgart [1936]
• The Angel's Message: A Christmas Legend, Leipzig [1936]
• Friedrich Brekow: The Path into Reality, Bremen 1940
• Different me, different you: [Stories from the years 1930 to 1941], Bremen [1943]
• Winter book, Hamburg 1949
• The brother of the prodigal son, Berlin; Bielefeld; Munich 1949
• The angel's message, Frankfurt a. M. 1954
• The turned over pages, Gütersloh 1960.

Literature on Hartmann's activities at the DRK

• Birgitt Morgenbrod, Stephanie Merkenich: The German Red Cross under the Nazi dictatorship 1933 to 1945. Verlag Schoeningh, 2008. ISBN 3-506-76529-9
• Dieter Riesenberger : The German Red Cross. A story 1864-1990. Verlag Ferdinand Schöningh, Paderborn 2002, ISBN 3-506-77260-0
• Markus Wicke: SS and DRK: The Presidium of the German Red Cross in the National Socialist system of rule 1937-1945. Books on Demand, 2002. ISBN 3-8311-4125-8
• Jean-Claude Favez: The International Red Cross and the Third Reich: Could the Holocaust be Stopped? Verlag Neue Zürcher Zeitung, Zurich 1989, ISBN 3-85823-196-7 (and Bertelsmann, Munich 1989, ISBN 3-570-09324-7 )
• German Red Cross: Spirit and figure of the Red Cross: A selection of speeches and essays by Anton Schlögel . German Red Cross, Bonn 1988
• Dr. Jürgen Axer: We - the Youth Red Cross 1925-1985. Bonn 1985
• Friedrich Forrer: Winner without weapons: The German Red Cross in World War II. Sponholtz Verlag, Hanover 1962
• HG Adler: The hidden truth. JCB Mohr (Paul Siebeck), Tübingen 1958

Pictures by Hartmann

• Birgitt Morgenbrod, Stephanie Merkenich: The German Red Cross under the Nazi dictatorship 1933 to 1945. Verlag Schoeningh, 2008, page 431. ISBN 3-506-76529-9
• Dr. Anton Schlögel : Spirit and figure of the Red Cross: A selection of speeches and essays by Anton Schlögel. German Red Cross, Bonn 1988, page 290
• Friedrich Forrer: Winner without weapons: The German Red Cross in World War II. Sponholtz Verlag, Hanover 1962, inside

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Horst Seithe, Frauke Hagemann: The German Red Cross in the Third Reich (1933-1939). With an outline of its history in the Weimar Republic. Mabuse-Verlag, Frankfurt am Main 2001, page 126, ISBN 3-925499-69-5
2. ^ Mecklenburg: home magazine for compatriots and friends of Mecklenburg. Schwerin 2005, Vol. 47, ISSN  0177-8625
3. ↑ ^{a b} German Red Cross, Personnel Office (edit.): List of seniority of the German Red Cross . As of July 1, 1940. Berlin 1940, page 13
4. ↑ Birgitt Morgenbrod, Stephanie Merkenich: The German Red Cross under the Nazi dictatorship 1933 to 1945. Verlag Schoeningh, 2008. ISBN 3-506-76529-9
5. ^ Jean-Claude Favez: The International Red Cross and the Third Reich: Could the Holocaust be Stopped? Verlag Neue Zürcher Zeitung, Zurich 1989, ISBN 3-85823-196-7 (and Bertelsmann, Munich 1989, ISBN 3-570-09324-7 )
6. ^ Message from those deported to the Theresienstadt concentration camp via the German Red Cross, Presidium / Foreign Service Berlin SW / 61 Blücherplatz 2, application to L'Agence centrale des prisonniers de guerre des CICR [1]
7. ^ Jean-Claude Favez: The International Red Cross and the Third Reich: Could the Holocaust be Stopped? Verlag Neue Zürcher Zeitung, Zurich 1989, ISBN 3-85823-196-7 , page 75
8. ^ HG Adler: The Hidden Truth . Tübingen 1958, page 306
9. ↑ quoted from: Birgitt Morgenbrod, Stephanie Merkenich: The German Red Cross under the Nazi dictatorship 1933 to 1945. Verlag Schoeningh, 2008. ISBN 3-506-76529-9 , page 388
10. ↑ Hans Günther Adler: The hidden truth. Theresienstadt documents . Mohr, Tübingen 1958, page 304 f.
11. ^ Dieter Riesenberger: The German Red Cross. A story 1864-1990. Verlag Ferdinand Schöningh, Paderborn 2002, ISBN 3-506-77260-0 , page 372 ff.
12. ↑ Birgitt Morgenbrod, Stephanie Merkenich: The German Red Cross under the Nazi dictatorship 1933 to 1945. Verlag Schoeningh, 2008. ISBN 3-506-76529-9 , page 420, 427
13. ^ Dieter Riesenberger: The German Red Cross. A story 1864-1990. Verlag Ferdinand Schöningh, Paderborn 2002, ISBN 3-506-77260-0 , page 373
14. ↑ Source of this information unknown
15. ↑ Anton Schlögel: Spirit and figure of the Red Cross: A selection of speeches and essays by Anton Schlögel. 1988, page 277 ff.
16. ^ Dieter Riesenberger: The German Red Cross. A story 1864-1990. Verlag Ferdinand Schöningh, Paderborn 2002, ISBN 3-506-77260-0 , page 452

Web links

• Literature by and about Walther Georg Hartmann in the catalog of the German National Library
• Literature about Walther Georg Hartmann in the state bibliography MV