Wilhelm von Gayl

Wilhelm Frhr. v. Gayl

Wilhelm Moritz Egon Freiherr von Gayl (born February 4, 1879 in Königsberg i. Pr. , † November 7, 1945 in Potsdam ) was a German lawyer and German national politician.

Life

by Gayl as Göttinger Sachse, 1901

After graduating from high school, Gayl studied law. In 1901 he became a member of the Corps Saxonia Göttingen and in 1906 a corps bow bearer of Borussia Bonn . From 1909 to 1932 he was director of the East Prussian Landgesellschaft . From 1916 he served as head of the political department at Ober Ost for two years . In 1918 he was appointed governor of the German military administration in Lithuania , based in Kaunas . Gayl was a member of the Prussian State Council from 1921 to 1933 and from 1921 to 1932 he was East Prussia's representative in the Reichsrat . From 1929 to 1933 he sat in the provincial parliament of the province of East Prussia .

Gayl took part in the negotiations for the Peace Treaty of Versailles for East Prussia in 1919 and was Reichskommissar in the Allenstein voting area in the 1920 referendum . From June 1st to December 3rd, 1932 he was Reich Minister of the Interior in the government led by Chancellor Franz von Papen . From 1925 to 1932 he headed the Society for the Promotion of Internal Colonization . In 1932 he became chairman of the Reich Board of Trustees for Youth Enhancement . He then withdrew from active politics.

Political orientation

Handover of the voting area on August 16, 1920

Wilhelm von Gayl was an anti-Semite and a supporter of the “people's soil doctrine”. He tightened as interior minister three months before the seizure of power of the Nazis administratively the naturalization law to foreclose to the German "living space" against foreign populations. With this regulation he wanted to make it impossible for Jewish immigrants, especially from Eastern Europe, to disguise their "blood-like descent"; they had to submit a certificate similar to the later Aryan certificate for a name change .

As Minister of the Interior, Gayl was also responsible for radio and in June 1932, at the radio "hour of the Reichsregierung", made a request to the radio operators, which also anticipated National Socialism, namely to regard the radio as a propaganda instrument. He aimed in particular at the Reichs-Rundfunk-Gesellschaft , which accepted these demands without resistance:

“The Reich government attaches importance to communicating its intentions and actions to the German people directly by using the modern radio equipment. We feel obliged to turn to the millions of German people who listen to the radio in all parts of our fatherland. From now on we will speak directly to the German people through the radio so that they know what it is about and because they have a right to hear us! "

Due to riots, Reich Interior Minister von Gayl issued a ban on meetings in the open air on July 18, 1932. However, this ban on demonstrations was disregarded by the National Socialists in Central Franconia.

Works

with Max Worgitzki , Adolf Eichler: History of the vote in East Prussia. The struggle for Warmia and Mazury . KF Koehler, Leipzig 1921.
East Prussia under foreign flags - A book of memories of the East Prussian referendum of July 11, 1920 , Königsberg 1940.

literature

Gayl, Wilhelm Moritz Egon Freiherr von. In: Robert Volz: Reich manual of the German society . The handbook of personalities in words and pictures. Volume 1: A-K. Deutscher Wirtschaftsverlag, Berlin 1930, DNB 453960286 , p. 522.
Wolfgang von der Groeben : Directory of the members of the Corps Saxonia zu Göttingen 1844 to 2006 , Düsseldorf 2006
Norbert Korfmacher: Provisional list of members of the East Prussian Provincial Parliament 1919 to 1933 , 2018, p. 18, digitized .

Web links

Literature by and about Wilhelm von Gayl in the catalog of the German National Library

Newspaper article about Wilhelm von Gayl in the 20th century press kit of the ZBW - Leibniz Information Center for Economics .

Wilhelm von Gayl in the online version of the Reich Chancellery Edition Files. Weimar Republic

Individual evidence

↑ Wilhelm Freiherr von Gayl in the Munzinger archive ( beginning of article freely available)
↑ Kösener Corpslisten 1960, 45/524; 9/888
↑ Ingo Haar: Historians in National Socialism , Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht 2000, p. 113. ISBN 3-525-35942-X . - See Ludger Heid : First World War: In the Reich Ober Ost Die Zeit , February 20, 2014.
↑ Rundfunk Jahrbuch 1933, published by the working group of publishers of official radio magazines and the Reichs-Rundfunk-Gesellschaft, Verlag JS Preuß, Berlin 1932, p. 7. The book is in the library of the Museum for Communication in Frankfurt
^ Wolfgang Mück: Nazi stronghold in Middle Franconia: The völkisch awakening in Neustadt an der Aisch 1922–1933. Verlag Philipp Schmidt, 2016 (= Streiflichter from home history. Special volume 4); ISBN 978-3-87707-990-4 , p. 125, note 400.

personal data
SURNAME	Gayl, Wilhelm von
ALTERNATIVE NAMES	Gayl, Wilhelm Moritz Egon Freiherr von (full name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION	German lawyer and politician (DNVP) in the Prussian State Council (1921–1933) and Reich Minister of the Interior (1932)
DATE OF BIRTH	February 4, 1879
PLACE OF BIRTH	Koenigsberg i. Pr.
DATE OF DEATH	November 7, 1945
Place of death	Potsdam

[1] Wilhelm Freiherr von Gayl in the Munzinger archive ( beginning of article freely available)

[2] Kösener Corpslisten 1960, 45/524; 9/888

[3] Ingo Haar: Historians in National Socialism , Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht 2000, p. 113. ISBN 3-525-35942-X . - See Ludger Heid : First World War: In the Reich Ober Ost Die Zeit , February 20, 2014.

[4] Rundfunk Jahrbuch 1933, published by the working group of publishers of official radio magazines and the Reichs-Rundfunk-Gesellschaft, Verlag JS Preuß, Berlin 1932, p. 7. The book is in the library of the Museum for Communication in Frankfurt

[5] Wolfgang Mück: Nazi stronghold in Middle Franconia: The völkisch awakening in Neustadt an der Aisch 1922–1933. Verlag Philipp Schmidt, 2016 (= Streiflichter from home history. Special volume 4); ISBN 978-3-87707-990-4 , p. 125, note 400.