Wilhelm Ahlmann (banker)

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Wilhelm Ahlmann (born April 17, 1895 in Kiel ; † December 7, 1944 there ) was a German banker.

Life

Wilhelm Ahlmann was the son of the banker Ludwig Ahlmann and the grandson of the politician Wilhelm Ahlmann , who founded a private bank in Kiel in 1852 . Ahlmann grew up in a conservative family and attended the Kiel School of Academics , where he graduated from high school in 1913. He went to England for an internationally oriented banking education. After the outbreak of the First World War , he returned to Germany. At the age of nineteen he volunteered as a war volunteer and was assigned to the hussar regiment in Schleswig-Holstein. Ahlmann was first used for military service in France and later on the Eastern Front in Courland . In May 1915 he was badly wounded in a battle, which ended his frontline deployment.

At the end of 1915 he was transferred to the station command in Lille . In 1916 he was shot in the head while improperly handling the weapon, which resulted in loss of vision. His life changed fundamentally. A job in banking had become impossible. He had to dictate all written statements and all texts had to be read to him. He preferred to connect with people by talking about philosophical, historical and political topics. In 1918 he received his doctorate with a legal thesis in Berlin. In 1922 he was made a partner in the bank by his father and was thus financially secure.

A second degree followed in Kiel. In 1923 he received his doctorate with a thesis on the psychology of the blind . In Kiel he made a lifelong friendship with the philosopher Hans Freyer . In 1924/25 he followed Freyer to Leipzig, where he accepted the newly established chair for sociology. In Leipzig, under the influence of Freyer, he devoted himself to political and political questions.

In 1933 Ahlmann worked as a consultant in the Prussian Ministry of Culture. Ahlmann maintained contacts with Jens Jessen , Johannes Popitz and Carl Schmitt . Ahlmann agreed with Schmitt in their critical stance on parliamentarianism in the Weimar Republic . In his opinion, the democratic-parliamentary system was unable to cope with the years of the world economic crisis and mass unemployment. The neo-Hegelianism and Hans Freyer's signature "revolution from the right" showed him the new world view. This new view, however, led to a complicated overlap between conservative and National Socialist views. In 1933 and later, however, he cannot be called a National Socialist.

Since 1938/39 Ahlmann was increasingly involved in resistance circles . With the outbreak of war, Ahlmann changed to a pessimistic way of life. Together with Peter Suhrkamp , he published a series of articles entitled “The Human Virtues” which, using letters, showed the attitude of people who, after personal strokes of fate, gave each other words of friendship and consolation and were thus able to continue their lives stronger. When Suhrkamp was arrested in 1944, Ahlmann tried in vain to maintain the publisher's independence and to get Suhrkamp out of custody.

Ahlmann was visited several times by Claus Schenk Graf von Stauffenberg . With him he held talks about the future political order after Adolf Hitler . Ahlmann had been aware of the resistance activities since 1942 at the latest. After the unsuccessful attempt to assassinate Hitler on July 20, 1944 , Ahlmann shot himself shortly before his arrest, presumably so as not to endanger others during his upcoming interrogation.

Wilhelm Ahlmann left no estate and hardly any written certificates. The legal philosopher Carl Schmitt dedicated his work Ex Captivitate Salus to him in 1950 , and the historian Hans Freyer dedicated his world history of Europe to him in 1954.

literature

Web links

Remarks

  1. ↑ Peter Wulf: From Conservative to Resistance. Wilhelm Ahlmann (1895–1944). A biographical sketch . In: Zeitschrift für Geschichtswwissenschaft, 59th volume, issue 1 (2011), pp. 5–26, here: p. 25.
  2. ↑ Peter Wulf: From Conservative to Resistance. Wilhelm Ahlmann (1895–1944). A biographical sketch . In: Zeitschrift für Geschichtswwissenschaft, 59th volume, issue 1 (2011), pp. 5–26, here: p. 23.
  3. ^ Hermann Kasack: Born in 1896. Looking back at my life. In: Herbert Heckmann, Bernhard Zeller (Ed.): Hermann Kasack to honor. A presidency in difficult times, Wallstein Verlag, Göttingen 1996, pp. 27–66, here: p. 52.
personal data
SURNAME Ahlmann, Wilhelm
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German banker
DATE OF BIRTH April 17, 1895
PLACE OF BIRTH Kiel
DATE OF DEATH December 7, 1944
Place of death Kiel