Walther Schmitt (journalist)

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Walther Ernst Schmitt (born March 29, 1907 in Munich , died after 1961 ) was a German economist, journalist and National Socialist writer.

Life

Schmitt came from a family of soldiers; his father was the Bavarian lieutenant Hans Schmitt. Walther Schmitt spent his early youth in Munich , where he had started school and attended a grammar school. After his parents moved to Karlsruhe , he first switched to the grammar school in Durlach , then to the grammar school in Karlsruhe, where he received his university entrance qualification in 1925. He began studying law and political science in Heidelberg and then continued his studies in the winter semester of 1926/27 at the University of Munich . There he quickly made contact with the NSD student union and its leader and later Reich youth leader Baldur von Schirach . On June 1, 1928, he joined the NSDAP in Munich (party member number 91,011). In 1930 he received his doctorate with the dissertation topic "The class struggle theory and its refutation". oec. publ. His dissertation was published as a brochure by Franz-Eher-Verlag , the central publishing house of the NSDAP , and according to his own information it should have been sold out quickly.

Due to his talent as a writer, Schmitt was accepted into the editorial office of the Völkischer Beobachter ( VB ) in Munich in 1930 , where he was soon one of Alfred Rosenberg's close confidants . From September 15, 1930 to December 1932, he initially only edited the foreign policy section of the paper. In 1933 he moved to the foreign policy department in Berlin. In 1935 he became head of the Reich Main Office in the Foreign Policy Office of the NSDAP and a member of the German Academy in Munich (which was transferred to the Goethe Institute in 1951, at least in terms of staff continuity ). In 1936 Schmitt was appointed lecturer at the private German University for Politics in Berlin , where he was made head of the Department of Foreign Policy and Foreign Studies.

After he had moved to Vienna on March 12, 1938 as part of the annexation of Austria to the National Socialist German Reich , Schmitt acted there from March 16, 1938 to February 3, 1941 as the deputy chief editor of the VB . During this time he was appointed head of the Reich Main Office at the SS Main Office in Vienna. In 1941 he left the VB and became the chief ban leader and head of the border and foreign office of the Reich Youth Leadership of the Hitler Youth . From January 1945 belonged to the Waffen SS .

Schmitt became a member of the SS early in 1928 (SS no. 1328). After the seizure of power , he was promoted within the SS in quick succession:

Schmitt was also a member of the Lebensborn .

Schmitt was awarded the golden party badge of the NSDAP and he was the bearer of the SA sports badge , the SS skull ring and the SS honor dagger .

After the end of the Second World War , Schmitt managed to continue to publish in renowned German magazines and publishers despite his brown past.

Works (selection)

  • The class struggle theory and its refutation , Franz Eher Verlag, Munich 1930, 134 pages.
  • New German financial Bolshevism: The so-called 'reform' program of the Brüning government , in: Völkischer Beobachter , No. 235, October 30, 1930.
  • Farewell to Weimar , in: Völkischer Beobachter , No. 227, 1932.
  • Hitler's speeches for equality and peace , 1934.
  • The Party Congress of Honor from 8.-14. September 1936 , Munich, more likely 1936 [2. Edition 1937].
  • Benito Mussolini: Man and Work , in: Völkischer Beobachter , September 25, 1937.
  • Heckling from the Seine. The development of European policy and the Franco-German relationship , Stuttgart 1958.
  • Lenin and Clausewitz , Supplement from Politics and Contemporary History B7 / 61 to the weekly newspaper Das Parlament from February 15, 1961.
  • War in Germany, strategy and tactics of the Soviet Russian policy towards Germany since 1945 , Droste Verlag, Düsseldorf 1961.
  • The August 13 wall - the Maginot line of the Soviet system , in: Wehrwissenschaftliche Rundschau , Frankfurt a. M. 1962, Vol. 12, No. 4, pp. 183-195.
  • The catchphrase of "West German militarism" in communist propaganda , in: Wehrwissenschaftliche Rundschau , Frankfurt a. M. 1962, Vol. 12, No. 6, pp. 313-327.
  • Illusion and Downfall , Rita G. Fischer Verlag, Frankfurt am Main 2001.

literature

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Lars Jockheck: The "Volkischer Beobachter" Poland 1932-1934. A case study on the transition from the "Kampfblatt" to the "Government Gazette" . LIT, Hamburg 1999, p. 39
  2. ↑ a b c d e f g h List of seniority of the NSDAP Schutzstaffel. As of December 1, 1937, serial no. 690 on p. 40 f. (JPG; 1.32 MB) In: http://www.dws-xip.pl/reich/biografie/1937/1937.html . Retrieved March 14, 2020 .
personal data
SURNAME Schmitt, Walther
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Schmitt, Walther Ernst (full name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German economist, journalist and National Socialist writer
DATE OF BIRTH March 29, 1907
PLACE OF BIRTH Munich
DATE OF DEATH after 1961