Wilhelm Fuehrer

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Wilhelm Führer (born April 26, 1904 in Rüstringen ; † July 12, 1974 ) was a German astronomer and National Socialist science functionary. He was one of the leading figures in the field of astronomy and physics in the science policy of the National Socialist German Reich . Fuehrer intervened in numerous personnel decisions and was involved several times in the removal of politically unpopular scientists from their positions.

Life

The son of a naval pilot worked from 1923 to 1926 as a primary school teacher in Oldenburg. In 1928 he graduated from the Realgymnasium in Rüstringen and then studied astronomy at the University of Kiel .

From 1930 to 1933 he worked as an assistant in the editorial department of the Astronomische Nachrichten in Kiel and received his doctorate in 1933 with a thesis on color equivalents of 51 near-polar stars at the University of Kiel. On July 16 of the same year he was employed as an assistant at the Munich University Observatory , which was then headed by Alexander Wilkens .

As a 19-year-old he was a member of the radical right wing Wikingbund . In 1930 he joined the NSDAP ( membership number 341.707) and in 1933 the SS (membership number 208.688).

On March 1, 1934, he became a scheduled assistant and worked at the observatory until 1936, but was temporarily assigned to work in the Ministry of Culture for a longer period of time . At the observatory he was friends with Bruno Thüring , who also worked there as an assistant and who played a key role in the removal of Wilkens. In 1940 Thuringia became director of the Vienna University Observatory with the support of Führer as the successor to Kasimir Graff, who was also removed for political reasons . The two seem to have been close friends, as extremely solid language is used in the received correspondence (Leader to Thuringia: "My dear Bruno, dog-side Bazi, you gselchter! [...] But I was pleased that you wrote me wrote what I've been waiting for months. You farmer's pig, you crap. ").

From 1934 on, Führer made a steep career as a National Socialist science functionary: from April 1934 to November 1936 as head of the teaching staff at the University of Munich , since July 1935 as Lecturer Association Leader , from 1935 to March 1939 as Gaudozenten Association Leader in the Gau Munich-Upper Bavaria (provisional until August 18) . On October 1, 1936, he took over a position in the department for university affairs of the Bavarian Ministry of Education and Cultural Affairs and on November 29, 1938 he became a first class member of the government . In the SS he made it to SS-Untersturmführer in 1936 and he even made progress as an astronomer, as he received a teaching position from the University of Munich in the field of astrophysics from the summer semester of 1937 onwards . From February 1, 1939, he was already working in the Berlin Reich Ministry of Science as a consultant for natural sciences, from October as a senior government councilor and from August 1943 as a ministerial councilor .

At the same time, he was promoted to the SS: 1941 SS-Obersturmführer ( Ahnenerbe Office ), 1942 Untersturmführer of the Waffen-SS , 1943 Hauptsturmführer and Obersturmführer of the Waffen-SS. At the end of the war he was an orderly officer in the personal staff Reichsführer SS (field command staff).

After the war ended, Führer was interned (May 15, 1945 to June 22, 1948) and sentenced to four years in a labor camp in 1948 . But as early as June 1949 he was classified as a “minor offender” by the North Württemberg Chamber of Justice as part of the denazification and then in June 1950 as a “fellow traveler”. In the years after his release from internment, Führer worked as a timber broker. The company still exists today.

During the Nuremberg trials, he had to testify about his work as Heinrich Himmler's adjutant . On this occasion he stated that he had been busy looking after guests and filing files while working for Himmler. He hadn't noticed anything about war crimes because the secrecy was very strict and also: "Heinrich Himmler had a very strong tendency to do everything himself." Membership on Himmler's personal staff was also a kind of honorary position that did not imply any special use :

Example: From the end of 1938 until I was drafted into the Waffen SS in August 1942, I belonged to the [Himmler's] personal staff. During this time I was only asked to attend an SS event once. It concerned an invitation to the solstice celebration in the Charlottenburg Palace Park , which I and my wife accepted.

Fonts

  • Color equivalents of 51 near-polar stars. Normal sequence to determine effective wavelengths (dissertation, Kiel 1933)
  • Study and examination regulations for geologists (Berlin 1842)
  • Study and examination regulations for geophysicists, meteorologists and oceanographers (Berlin 1943)

literature

  • Michael Grüttner : Biographical Lexicon on National Socialist Science Policy (= Studies on Science and University History. Volume 6). Synchron, Heidelberg 2004, ISBN 3-935025-68-8 , p. 55.
  • Franz Kerschbaum, Thomas Posch, Karin Lackner: The Vienna University Observatory and Bruno Thuringia. In: Contributions to the history of astronomy, Vol. 8 (2006), pp. 185–202, online (PDF; 170 kB)
  • Freddy Litten: Astronomy in Bavaria 1914–1945. Steiner, Stuttgart 1992, p. 237.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b Ernst Klee: Das Personenlexikon zum Third Reich , Frankfurt am Main 2007, p. 171.
  2. ↑ www.dws-xip.pl
  3. ↑ Kerschbaum et al .: Die Wiener Universitätssternwarte and Bruno Thüring 2006, Appendix 2
  4. ^ Trial of the Major War Criminals. Vol. 42, Nuremberg 1949. Affidavit SS-63, pp. 539-542.
personal data
SURNAME Fuehrer, Wilhelm
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German astronomer and National Socialist science functionary
DATE OF BIRTH April 26, 1904
PLACE OF BIRTH Rüstringen
DATE OF DEATH July 12, 1974