World service

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Welt-Dienst is the name of an anti-Semitic news office founded by Ulrich Fleischhauer in Erfurt in 1933 and a magazine of the same name from this agency, which was published by Fleischhauer's U. Bodung-Verlag from December 1933 . The editorial staff of the magazine, which initially appeared in three languages, also organized international anti-Semite congresses . From 1937 the magazine came under the influence of Alfred Rosenberg , the leading ideologist of the NSDAP , whereby Fleischhauer initially remained editor. Under the direction of Rosenberg, the distribution increased to 21 languages. In 1939 the editorial team moved to Frankfurt am Main in the same building as the newly established Institute for Research into the Jewish Question and was named “Office for Jewish and Freemason Questions” within the Rosenberg office. From that point on, the party office was run as an institute from the municipal side . On July 15, 1939, August Schirmer took over the publication of the magazine, which from 1940 had the subtitle "International Correspondence for the Enlightenment of the Jewish Question". In 1942, the office was incorporated into the “Main Office for Supranational Powers” ​​under Hans Hagemeyer . Kurt Richter took over the publication of the magazine in September 1943. The distribution was taken over from 1944 by the Frankfurt Welt-Dienst-Verlag. The last issue of the magazine appeared in early 1945.

Preludes since the Weimar Republic

Ulrich Fleischhauer's role

Between 1929 and 1931 Ulrich Fleischhauer, former lieutenant colonel of the German army in the German Empire , an anti-Semitic publicist since the beginning of the Weimar Republic and one of the main propagandists of the Protocols of the Elders of Zion published from 1923 by the NSDAP ideologist Alfred Rosenberg , four of the planned six large-volume volumes of his programmatic reference work "Sigilla Veri". The content of these volumes, which, according to the first volume , were conceived as a “basis for the science of the counter-race ” with internationalist claims, was, according to the authors, a “Judaeology”, including the “tidings of the tricks, deceptions and pretenses with which the Jude drills into the host people ”, wanted to know. In addition, they wanted the books to be classified as secret knowledge : an attached lapel for libraries stipulated that the book "should be included in the secret department of the library" and that access "should only be allowed to Aryan personalities". Politically, the authors already pointed out in the first volume that they were calling for a compulsory resettlement of Jews to Madagascar, whereby with this Madagascar idea they consciously took into account the death of the deportees .

Role of Georg de Potteres

Another protagonist who played a significant role in the history of world service was Georg de Pottere (1875–1951), former Hungarian consul in Moscow and author of the anti-Semitic book “World Peace and Judaism”. Fleischhauer and de Pottere already knew each other in the 1920s through joint visits to anti-Semite congresses . Unlike Fleischhauer, to whom even anti-Jewish circles attested a “narrow horizon”, de Pottere had international experience and “intellectual potency”. After he unsuccessfully sent a nine-page “Strictly Confidential Memorandum” under a pseudonym to Adolf Hitler , Franz von Papen , Wilhelm Frick , Hermann Göring and Joseph Goebbels on March 15, 1933, under the impression of the National Socialists ' seizure of power , this followed only a few days later another five copies to the Reich Chancellery . In it he postulated his belief that the Nazis "for over do -national solution of the Jewish problem itself directly little 'could. Rather, the National Socialists should make this work possible for the "Alliance Chrétienne Arienne" (ACA) that he set up; also because others could not grasp the "naturally necessary development of things". In doing so, de Pottere did not allow any misunderstandings to arise in relation to the law firm: he continued without scruples that the “ radically only conceivable path”, namely “ physical extermination ”, was already “impassable”, since the spirit of the “Aryan peoples” was already so far “Judged” is that they “no longer understand the necessity of such a liberating act [...]”. His demand is therefore “full Zionism”, which means that the Jews must be forcibly assigned to a distant land under permanent “Aryan control”.

Idea of ​​creating an anti-Semitic news agency

Another idea, which de Pottere mentioned in his letter, anticipated some of the main features of what would later become world service . At the same time, he called for a "Pan-Aryanism", which in practice meant the "creation of a nationally independent, Pan-Aryan, central 'Technical Aid Office'", with which the contacts among the relevant "experts and experts in all countries" can be maintained. In addition to two intelligence services, this office should also set up a “Pan-Aryan” library, translate and distribute anti-Jewish “educational material”, hold confidential meetings and convene official anti-Semitic congresses. Fleischhauer had a large specialist library, as mentioned in de Pottere's letter; it was probably filled with apocryphal anti-Jewish literature. A reaction on the part of the party chancellery to this letter did not appear to follow.

On May 24, 1933, Fleischhauer turned to the German authorities with the memorandum “Some Thoughts on the Necessity of Establishing a Propaganda Office Abroad”, as he saw good conditions for intensifying his anti-Semitic propaganda after the transfer of power to the National Socialists. A letter arrived at the expert for race research in the Reich Ministry of the Interior , who forwarded it to the Office of the Secret State Police in Berlin . Another was sent to Hitler. In the memorandum, Fleischhauer emphasized, among other things, that he considered himself capable of "penetrating scientifically into the deepest questions of Judaism". The task is to implement the idea of ​​a “'full Zionist' Jewish state” already demanded by Egon van Winghene (a pseudonym Georg de Potteres) within the framework of an international struggle .

News office and magazine World Service under Butchers

Beginning and construction

At the beginning of September 1933, Pottere and Fleischhauer jointly founded an anti-Semitic propaganda and news office in Erfurt under the name Arischer Welt-Dienst or shortly thereafter, Welt-Dienst for short . This agency should serve to network with "anti-Jewish organizations" worldwide and also to collect and evaluate the international anti-Jewish and Jewish press in order to expose the alleged "goings-on in the Jewish underworld". The most important propaganda tool was supposed to be the anti-Semitic magazine Welt-Dienst . On October 13, 1933, 58-year-old Georg de Pottere moved from Paris to Erfurt to work full-time in the emerging world service . The first edition of the bi-monthly publication of the same name in Fleischhauer's Erfurt U. Bodung-Verlag was published in early December 1933. On the cover sheet, under the title Welt-Dienst and a world map emblem, read: “These sheets are intended to be passed from hand to hand among Aryans. World Service , which appears in three languages, is not geared towards making money. Rather, he intends primarily to enlighten the poorly oriented Aryans - whatever state they may call their fatherland ”. Initially, the typewritten sheet only comprised a few pages and was initially published in German, English and French. From October 1936 the now printed sheet appeared in a more professional format in six and by 1937 in eight languages ​​(German, English, French, Russian, Hungarian, Polish, Danish and Spanish). In Czechoslovakia and Romania the import of the anti-Semitic paper was banned, which Fleischhauer tried to circumvent by selling it through middlemen. In addition, anti-Semitic brochures were published from 1935 with the series Welt-Dienst-Bücherei . B. with "The Struggle of the Dark Forces", "The Temple of the Freemasons" and "Judas Immorality" were titled. As early as 1934, Welt-Dienst drew a successful record of the introduction of this magazine in European countries and the "placement of its topics in numerous newspapers". World Service had an international network of correspondents.

According to Fleischhauer, 26 employees were employed by Welt-Dienst in 1936, but they worked under cover names or wrote articles. Fleischhauer's well-known employees included well-known right-wing extremists and anti-Semites, such as the Russian Nikolaj Evgenjewitsch Markow (1866-1945), the Austrian Hans Jonak von Freyenwald (1878-1953), the British Henry Hamilton Beamish (1873-1948), the Turk Cevat Rıfat Atilhan (1892–1967) and the Dutch Herman de Vries de Heekelingen (1880–1941).

“From 1919–1933 we quietly resumed the work that Th. Fritsch had begun in 1882 , in order for the first time in world history to oppose the Jewish International with an International of Jewish experts. On September 1, 1933, we opened our world service center in Erfurt. After a short time, the Jewish press called this city the Mecca of anti-Judaists because of our work "

- Retrospective of the beginnings of world service in an issue of the magazine of the same name from 1938

Organization of anti-Semite congresses

Fleischhauer organized regular congresses to intensify international cooperation between anti-Semites. On August 20, 1934, Martin Bormann informed the Foreign Office that Fleischhauer had planned to hold an anti-Semite congress with Julius Streicher shortly before the Nazi party rally in Nuremberg . However, this was banned by Rudolf Hess on behalf of Hitler - "also in camouflaged form". On October 15, 1934, the World Service disguised this background in its presentation and stated, among other things, that the German participants had decided to stay away in order to protect visitors to the congress from vilification. So the congress took place, but without German participants. Fleischhauer and de Pottere also had to forego participation. At the congress, based on the ideas of de Pottere, the Madagascar solution was put forward again, coupled with the threatening statement “a bloody solution to the Jewish question” as an alternative. Conflicts with the party regarding the congresses could, however, be avoided in the follow- up period, despite ongoing tensions with the National Socialist administration, which resulted in particular from the World Service's claim to independence in questions of “solving the Jewish question”. In May 1935, Fleischhauer's attempt to prove the authenticity of the Protocols of the Elders of Zion during the Bern Trial , which he had described in World Service as a "duel [...] between international Judaism and the Aryan world", failed . Then de Pottere left the world service and tried to set up an ideologically similar competitive institution ( Panaric Movement ).

Between 1936 and 1938, Fleischhauer and his staff took over the organization of the anti-Semite congresses. Erfurt became the venue. Between September 3 and 7, 1936 - Georg de Pottere had since left the World Service - the World Service organized another anti-Semite congress in Erfurt, in which, according to his statements, 76 people from 24 countries took part.

From September 2 to 6, 1937, the Welt-Dienst organized an anti-Semite congress as part of the Nazi Party Congress, at which the participants were given the opportunity to establish contacts with official agencies of the German Reich who were concerned with the Jewish question, including among others Adolf Eichmann , representative of the security service (SD), who met the participants. Eichmann gave the following impression shortly after the congress: “The majority of these World Service members gave the impression of more or less questionable existences, some of whom are obsessed with the fixed idea of ​​being appointed as leaders of parties and organizations in their countries be. However, they all get lost, to put it mildly, in little things that claim their entire interest and are thus nowhere near able to work out a big line and to follow it ”. In contrast to the previous conspiratorial congresses, this meeting, at which the Madagascar Plan was again propagated, was reported in detail in the Nazi press. Fleischhauer held a last anti-Semite congress from September 1st to 4th, 1938 in Erfurt.

Surveillance by Nazi police authorities and relationship with the Nazi state

In the summer of 1934, the foreign organization of the NSDAP (NSDAP / AO) first became aware of Fleischhauer and de Pottere. After they had received a document from Erfurt, the form and content of which they found suspect, they reported it to the Gestapo on August 1st . The latter, however, calmed the organization down by announcing, among other things, that Fleischhauer and de Pottere were “behind the National Socialist government” and “bitter opponents of Judaism”.

The relationship of the NS state to the world service became increasingly ambivalent, although the world service and the NS state apparatus were ideologically on the same line with regard to anti-Semitism. Fleischhauer, who was not yet a member of the NSDAP , saw the Welt-Dienst as a financially and party-independent institution consisting of like-minded people. However, he criticized the distance between the Nazi authorities involved in Jewish policy and his organization, as well as their low level of support and appreciation for world service . As a result of this independence, the internationally active world service came increasingly into the sights of the Gestapo and SD . The world service became a " foreign body in the Nazi state (Brechtken) and finally eliminated as an independent institution".

Takeover by the Rosenberg Office

In September 1937, Fleischhauer, who was preparing the touring exhibition “The Eternal Jew” for the Munich Gauleitung , got into a dispute with Wilhelm Grau , head of the “Jewish Question” department at the Reich Institute for the History of the New Germany under Walter Frank . Wilhelm Grau, who interfered heavily in the preparatory work, had some pieces that he considered ridiculous removed from the exhibition ensemble. The Reich Propaganda Ministry also opposed him. On October 7, 1937, Rosenberg issued a certificate against the offices of Goebbels and Frank for Fleischhauer, with which he was assigned to certain areas of work "for personal use". In addition, as it says there, he received “instructions” on how to deal with questions related to the fight against “ world Jewry ”. Fleischhauer seemed to have understood this paper as a kind of "letter of protection". Rosenberg, who saw Goebbels' Propaganda Ministry and Frank's Reichsinstitut as competition to the Nazi institutions subordinate to him, however, prepared the creeping takeover of Fleischhauer's world service . His colleague August Schirmer was given the task of building close relationships with Fleischhauer and his colleagues in order to push him out of his leading position at Welt-Dienst . The "editorial recording" of the Rosenberg office took place in autumn 1937. On September 24, 1938, Schirmer, head of the Rosenberg office, wrote a letter to Rosenberg. In the letter, which contains numerous information about the intended research in apocryphal anti-Semitic literature - including sources and editors - Schirmer informed him that "the archive and the library of the world service through a gift of the [...] butcher" is now in the Hands of Rosenberg "passed over".

On March 30, 1939, an agreement was made with Fleischhauer to transfer ownership of the "world service" to Rosenberg, as a result of which Schirmer was named as the new editor of the magazine. Fleischhauer was successfully forced out of the world service . He presented this development as a voluntary decision because he could now devote himself to scientific issues and only wanted to organize anti-Semite congresses. In the summer of 1939, Welt-Dienst became its own institute and moved into the same building as the Institute for Research into the Jewish Question at Schwindstrasse 1 in Frankfurt am Main . In cooperation with the research institute, Welt-Dienst took on the "educational work". At the beginning of September 1939 Rosenberg noted for Hess that the Welt-Dienst was evaluating “a large number of Jewish newspapers and magazines from all over the world”. The institute functioned in particular as a newspaper clipping service and at the same time corresponded, as Rosenberg noted, “with a large number of anti-Semitic personalities in many countries”.

The memorandum from the Fiihrer's staff shows that Rosenberg had ordered that the takeover of the magazine by an office of the party “should not appear to the outside world in any way”. Around this time, the editorial staff of the World Service within the Rosenberg Office was given the name Office for Jewish and Freemason Questions . On April 19, 1941, Gotthard Urban , head of the Rosenberg office, described the office of “Jewish and Freemason Issues” as “the most backward”.

Incorporation into the "main office of supranational powers"

From 1942 the institute operated as Welt-Dienst - International Institute for the Enlightenment of the Jewish Question and was incorporated into the “Main Office of Supranational Powers” ​​headed by Hans Hagemeyer . The institute was temporarily headed by Eberhard Achterberg and officially by Kurt Richter from September 1943. During the Second World War , the institute's tasks were expanded to include the analysis of Jewish and Masonic materials from the booty of Reichsleiter Rosenberg's task force .

Welt-Dienst - Nazi propaganda magazine during World War II

The magazine Welt-Dienst , which was now under the editorial management of Erich Schwarzburg , was given the subtitle "International correspondence to clear up the Jewish question" in 1940 with a new look. The circulation of this magazine reached 300,000 copies at times and was last published in 21 languages ​​(1941: 11 languages; 1942: 16 languages; 1945: 21 languages). The last edition was published in January 1945. According to Rosenberg, the paper was also intended to educate forced laborers and prisoners of war about the Jewish question and act as propaganda abroad.

Welt-Dienst-Verlag

The Welt-Dienst-Verlag was founded in Frankfurt am Main in 1944 and published anti-Semitic publications until the end of the war. In addition to Nikolaj Markov's “The Jew is the Parasite of Peasantry”, Johannes Pohl's “A Thousand Talmud Quotes” and Erich Schwarzburg and Emil Reiffer's “Der Jew as a world parasite ”. An edition of the "Protocols of the Elders of Zion" planned in Russian and with 300,000 copies was no longer realized due to the war.

literature

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c d Magnus Brechtken: Madagascar for the Jews. Anti-Semitic Idea and Political Practice 1885–1945. Munich 1997, p. 43 f.
  2. ↑ The full title was: “Sigilla Veri (Ph. Stauff's Semi Kürschner II). Lexicon of Jews, comrades and opponents of all times and zones, especially Germany, the teachings, customs, tricks and statistics of the Jews as well as their rogue language, deceit, secret societies, etc. Second, many times larger and improved edition. With the participation of learned men and women from all countries in question on behalf of the 'World League Against Lies' in conjunction with the 'Alliance chrétienne arienne' ed. by E. Ekkehard, Erfurt 1929–1931. “Quoted in: Magnus Brechtken: Madagascar for the Jews. Anti-Semitic Idea and Political Practice 1885–1945. Munich 1997, p. 44 f., Note 63.
  3. ↑ Magnus Brechtken: Madagascar for the Jews. Anti-Semitic Idea and Political Practice 1885–1945. Munich 1997, p. 44 f. (Source: Sigilla Veri, Vol. I, pp. 33 and 55.)
  4. ↑ Magnus Brechtken: Madagascar for the Jews. Anti-Semitic Idea and Political Practice 1885–1945. Munich 1997, p. 45. (Source: Sigilla Veri, Vol. 1, pp. 56 and 62; Vol. IV, pp. 181-183.)
  5. ↑ Reinhard Bollmus: The office of Rosenberg and its opponents. Stuttgart 1970, p. 121. (Source: Heiber, Frank , p. 477 after interviewing Dr. Grau.)
  6. ↑ a b Magnus Brechtken: Madagascar for the Jews. Anti-Semitic Idea and Political Practice 1885–1945. Munich 1997, p. 46 f., Cf. P. 51 on the term "Pan-Arierum". (Source: BAK R 43 II / 594, letter from Ludolf Scherer [= Georg de Pottere] to Hitler and the Reich Chancellery, March 30, 1933. The Reich Chancellery confirmed the letter on April 6, 1933 to the ACA)
  7. ↑ Reinhard Bollmus: The office of Rosenberg and its opponents. Stuttgart 1970, p. 121. (on the source, note 85: Heiber, Frank , p. 1062 f.)
  8. ^ Eckart Schörle: Internationale der Antisemiten. Ulrich Fleischhauer and the “Welt-Dienst” . In: WerkstattGeschichte, Heft 51, Essen 2009, p. 59.
  9. ↑ a b Magnus Brechtken: Madagascar for the Jews. Anti-Semitic Idea and Political Practice 1885–1945. Munich 1997, p. 47. (Source: BAK R 58/988, letters dated May 24, 1933 and October 15, 1933.)
  10. ↑ Michael Hagemeister: Georg de Pottere . In: Wolfgang Benz (Hrsg.): Handbook of Antisemitism - Anti-Semitism in Past and Present. Volume 2/2: Personen L – Z , Berlin 2009, p. 649.
  11. ↑ Michael Hagemeister: World service . In: Wolfgang Benz (ed.). Handbook of Anti-Semitism. Anti-Semitism in the Past and Present , Volume 5: Organizations, Institutions, Movements. Berlin / Boston 2012, p. 644.
  12. ↑ First edition of the Welt-Dienst from December 1, 1933. In the February 1934 edition, the word “Aryans” was replaced by “Gentile” to include B. to address anti-Semitic Arabs as the target group of the paper. see. Eckart Schörle: International of the anti-Semites. Ulrich Fleischhauer and the “Welt-Dienst” . In: WerkstattGeschichte, Heft 51, Essen 2009, p. 59.
  13. ↑ a b Eckart Schörle: Internationale der Antisemiten. Ulrich Fleischhauer and the “Welt-Dienst” . In: WerkstattGeschichte, Heft 51, Essen 2009, p. 60.
  14. ↑ a b Michael Hagemeister: World Service . In: Wolfgang Benz (Hrsg.): Handbuch des Antisemitismus. Anti-Semitism in Past and Present Volume 5: Organizations, Institutions, Movements. Berlin / Boston 2012, p. 644 f.
  15. ↑ a b c d Eckart Schörle: Internationale der Antisemiten. Ulrich Fleischhauer and the “Welt-Dienst” . In: WerkstattGeschichte, Heft 51, Essen 2009, p. 66.
  16. ↑ Quoted by Eckart Schörle: Internationale der Antisemiten. Ulrich Fleischhauer and the “Welt-Dienst” . In: WerkstattGeschichte, Heft 51, Essen 2009, p. 60.
  17. ↑ Magnus Brechtken: Madagascar for the Jews. Munich 1997, p. 50 f. (Source: PA AA R 78669, Jewish-Political Affairs Allg., Bormann to the Foreign Office, August 20, 1934.)
  18. ↑ a b Magnus Brechtken: Madagascar for the Jews. Anti-Semitic Idea and Political Practice 1885–1945. Munich 1997, p. 49 f. (Source: Welt-Dienst of October 15, 1934, p. 2 f.)
  19. ↑ a b c d Magnus Brechtken: Madagascar for the Jews. Anti-Semitic Idea and Political Practice 1885–1945. Munich 1997, p. 50.
  20. ↑ Michael Hagemeister: World service . In: Wolfgang Benz (ed.): Handbook of Antisemitism. Anti-Semitism in Past and Present Volume 5: Organizations, Institutions, Movements. Berlin / Boston 2012, p. 645.
  21. ↑ Magnus Brechtken: Madagascar for the Jews. Munich 1997, p. 52 f. and note 103. (Source: PAAA Inland II A / B 38/1, communication from Paul Wurms to Franz Rademacher from July 31, 1940.)
  22. ^ Adolf Eichmann on September 11, 1937 in a business trip report. Quoted from: Eckart Schörle: Internationale der Antisemiten. Ulrich Fleischhauer and the “Welt-Dienst” . In: WerkstattGeschichte, Heft 51, Essen 2009, p. 68.
  23. ↑ a b Eckart Schörle: Internationale der Antisemiten. Ulrich Fleischhauer and the “Welt-Dienst” . In: WerkstattGeschichte, Heft 51, Essen 2009, p. 69.
  24. ↑ Magnus Brechtken: Madagascar for the Jews. Anti-Semitic Idea and Political Practice 1885–1945. Munich 1997, p. 53. (Source: BAK R 58/988, letter from the NSDAP Reichsleitung / Foreign Organization to the Gestapo dated August 1, 1934.)
  25. ↑ Quoted in: Michael Hagemeister: Welt-Dienst . In: Wolfgang Benz (ed.). Handbook of Anti-Semitism. Anti-Semitism in Past and Present , Volume 5: Organizations, Institutions, Movements , Berlin / Boston 2012, p. 645.
  26. ↑ Reinhard Bollmus: The office of Rosenberg and its opponents. Stuttgart 1970, p. 121. (Source: Heiber, Frank , p. 1062 according to Rosenberg's certificate of October 6, 1939, Center , CXLV-576.)
  27. ↑ a b Reinhard Bollmus: The office of Rosenberg and its opponents. Stuttgart 1970, p. 122. (Source: Rosenberg to StdF, September 8, 1939, memo 398.)
  28. ↑ Reinhard Bollmus: The office of Rosenberg and its opponents. Stuttgart 1970, p. 121. (Source: Letter from Schirmer to Rosenberg of September 24, 1938, Center, CXXXIV-22.)
  29. ↑ Reinhard Bollmus: The office of Rosenberg and its opponents. Studies on the power struggle in the National Socialist system of rule. Stuttgart 1970, p. 121 f. and 293rd DNB.
  30. ↑ Dieter Schiefelbein: The "Institute for Research on the Jewish Question Frankfurt am Main". Prehistory and foundation 1935–1939. Frankfurt a. M. 1993, p. 41 ff., ISBN 3-88270-803-4 .
  31. ↑ Dieter Schiefelbein: The "Institute for Research on the Jewish Question Frankfurt am Main" . Frankfurt a. M. 1993, p. 41. (Source: BA Koblenz, NS 8/182, memo Rosenberg to Heß, September 8, 1939.)
  32. ↑ Reinhard Bollmus: The office of Rosenberg and its opponents. Stuttgart 1970, p. 122. (Deviating from this, also in Bollmus on page 68, the “Office for Jewish and Freemason Questions” had existed since 1938.)
  33. ↑ Reinhard Bollmus: The office of Rosenberg and its opponents. Stuttgart 1970, p. 122. (Source: National Archives Washington , EAP 137.)
  34. ↑ a b c Michael Hagemeister: World service . In: Wolfgang Benz (ed.): Handbook of Antisemitism. Anti-Semitism in Past and Present Volume 5: Organizations, Institutions, Movements. Berlin / Boston 2012, p. 646.