Willy Liebel

Willy Liebel

Willy Liebel , actually Friedrich Wilhelm Liebel, (born August 31, 1897 in Nuremberg ; † April 20, 1945 there ) was a German politician ( NSDAP ) and Lord Mayor of Nuremberg from March 16, 1933 to April 20, 1945 .

Early years

After an apprenticeship in his father's print shop, Liebel took part in the First World War as a volunteer from 1914 to 1918 . He then worked again in the family business (from 1921 as a partner), which he took over as sole owner in 1926. In his "Verlag Panzerfaust", folk literature was published from 1924, partly also Der Stürmer . He was a member of the revanchist associations Reichsflagge and Tannenbergbund ( Erich Ludendorff ) and founder of the nationalist association Altreichsflagge . On November 5, 1925, he joined the NSDAP ( membership number 23.091), left on March 27, 1926, and rejoined the NSDAP in October 1928. From 1929 he was city ​​councilor (faction of the NSDAP) in Nuremberg, from 1930 faction leader of the NSDAP in the city council.

Liebel was also a member of the Sturmabteilung (SA), in which he reached the rank of SA-Obergruppenführer in August 1941 .

Lord Mayor and Head of the Central Office in the Ministry of Armaments

Hitler visit 1938, in the Hirschbachtal in the Hersbrucker Switzerland , partial model of the German stadium . Behind Hitler Albert Speer and at the end Liebel.

Two days before the arrest of the legally elected mayor Hermann Luppe on March 18, 1933 by the Nazi-led police, Liebel was illegally entrusted with the business of the first mayor of the city of Nuremberg by the Nazi state commissioner of the Bavarian Ministry of the Interior . On April 27, 1933 Liebel was confirmed in the office of mayor in the constituent session of the NSDAP-dominated city council. In 1942 Albert Speer appointed him as head of the Central Office of the Ministry of Armaments and in 1944 became a member of its staff for the reconstruction of cities destroyed by bombs . Despite his full-time job in Berlin, he retained the office of mayor.

Liebel was chairman of the administration union Nazi Party , which in 1933 held annually in Nuremberg until 1938 Nuremberg Rallies organized and conducted. Liebel's term of office was marked by a contrast to Julius Streicher , who as Gauleiter of the NSDAP and editor of the anti-Semitic propaganda paper Der Stürmer and due to the special esteem by Adolf Hitler was the de facto most powerful man on site. After Streicher's dismissal in February 1940 by an "honorary court" of other NSDAP Gauleiter, which was brought about by the Nuremberg Police Chief Benno Martin , as well as Liebel , Karl Holz was Streicher's protégé, initially Deputy Gauleiter, shortly before the end of the war, and was NSDAP Gauleiter of Franconia thus also Streicher's successor as Liebel's local opponent. While Streicher and Holz ruled in a rude, openly aggressive and brutal manner, Liebel acted more as a technocrat of power and was more sociable and conciliatory in his appearance and in some decisions. Thus, in contrast to numerous other National Socialist Lord Mayors, after his (factually illegal) appointment as Lord Mayor, he left many municipal employees in their positions who had actively campaigned for the democratic republic before 1933. For this reason, too, the contrast between Streicher and Holz on the one hand, and Liebel and Martin on the other, was a constant in local politics throughout the twelve years of the National Socialist dictatorship. The different leadership styles, however, relate to the form, not the content, of politics during the Nazi era. Because of his position, Liebel was far more involved in the crimes of the Nazi regime than Streicher, who through his incessant agitation made a significant contribution to the fact that so many Germans were ready to commit the crimes.

In 1943 he received a grant of 50,000 Reichsmarks from Hitler .

Deportation of Jews from Nuremberg

→ Main article : Deportation of Jews from Nuremberg

As Lord Mayor, together with Police Chief Benno Martin and the Secret State Police - in association with the Deutsche Reichsbahn - he played a key role in the administration and organization of the deportations.

death

In April 1945 Liebel returned to Nuremberg. In the Palmenhof bunker , the last location held by the local NSDAP leadership at the police headquarters, Liebel was shot in the head on April 20, 1945. The body was discovered on April 25, 1945 and provisionally buried at the southwest entrance of the Rochus Cemetery. Whether Liebel died as a result of suicide, killing by other bunker inmates or as a result of fighting has historically not been unequivocally determined. In the 1956 judicial process to establish death, witnesses testified that Liebel was killed by a head shot in the left ear. Since Liebel was right-handed, this would speak for stranger killing. However, the court-established cause of death was suicide.

Speer reports in his Spandau diaries that Streicher told him in the dock during the Nuremberg trials that he, Streicher, had Liebel murdered in the last days of the war. However, apart from the already questionable source, such an assertion is not credible, since Streicher was not in Nuremberg but at his place of exile at Pleikershof and after 1940 no longer had any direct or indirect power; This alleged statement by Streichers to Speer is therefore, if it was made at all, to be viewed as a show of bragging rights than as historically relevant information.

According to the surviving combat commandant Wolf, Liebel shot himself to death around 00:30 on April 20, 1945 in the room of Gauleiter Holz in the Palmenhof bunker.

In Nuremberg it is generally assumed that Liebel was shot by the longstanding opponent in the local power structure, Gauleiter Karl Holz. True or not, this assessment reflects the perception of the characters by contemporaries. According to the combat commandant Wolf, Liebel committed suicide; a court called him a " balance sheet suicide ".

Liebel was married twice, first to Elisabeth Freiin Lochner, who died of blood poisoning in 1926. He then married Else Schmidt in 1928. There are two children from the first marriage and four children from the second marriage.

Historical classification

In the local history of Nuremberg, Liebel's assessment is slightly less harsh than that of the other prominent National Socialists on site, Julius Streicher, who was sidelined in February 1940 and deposed as NSDAP Gauleiter, and his successor Karl Holz. After taking the city of Nuremberg on April 20, 1945, it was speculated that Liebel had been shot by Karl Holz because he (Liebel) wanted to give up the fight against the advancing 3rd and 45th US Infantry Divisions and wanted to hand over the city. It will no longer be possible to determine whether this is true, as there was only one surviving witness from the inner leadership circle. Nevertheless, this rumor gives an insight into the perspective of contemporaries. This view is supported by the following event, among other things: On March 19, 1945, Hitler issued the Nero order . Accordingly, when the Allies approached a city, all infrastructure facilities had to be destroyed, such as gas works, water works, sewage treatment plants, power plants, bridges, telecommunications offices; It was Hitler's declared intention, on the one hand, to reduce the benefits of a captured city to the Allies and thus to stop their forward thrust; on the other hand, he declared that the most primitive needs of the German people no longer had to be taken into account:

The local release of the Nero command was incumbent on the now Gauleiter Karl Holz. Holz gave up on April 16, 1945, when the first American combat units were approaching ( 3rd Inf.-Div. Under Major General John W. O'Daniel and 45th Inf.-Div. Under Major General T. Frederic of the 7th US Army ) to Nuremberg, the order to trigger self-destruction. For this purpose, the command “Attention! Attention! Special command Z: Code 'Puma'! ”. In the tacit or explicit agreement between Liebel and the station's spokesman, Sergeant of the Flak Artillery Arthur Schöddert, this order, which would probably have claimed thousands more lives, was not sent; at the same time, Holz was inappropriately reported that it had been broadcast.

In the last few days Liebel has been following the policy of his superior in the Armaments Ministry, Albert Speer, who also undermined the Nero order. Combat commander Wolf thereupon ordered the cessation of fighting at 10:30 am on April 20, 1945 and released the units to act, but did not order surrender; At 11:00 a.m., apart from a few marauding soldiers, the remaining German troops capitulated.

See also : Battle of Nuremberg

By failing to self-destruct, the number of civilians killed on the German side in the Battle of Nuremberg remained at 371. In addition, 130 American soldiers and at least 400 German soldiers and other combatants, a total of at least 901 people, were killed.

literature

• Matthias Klaus Braun: The administration of the city of Nuremberg during National Socialism 1933–1945. Tasks and design options in the totalitarian state . In: Communications from the Association for the History of the City of Nuremberg. No. 96, 2009, pp. 293-319.
• Matthias Klaus Braun: Hitler's dearest mayor: Willy Liebel (1897–1945). (Inaugural dissertation). Neustadt an der Aisch 2012, ISBN 978-3-87707-852-5 , p. 126 (Nürnberger Werkstücke zur Stadt- und Landesgeschichte, Volume 71).
• Center for Industrial Culture Nuremberg (ed.): Under the swastika. Everyday life in Nuremberg 1933–1945 . Hugendubel, Munich 1993, ISBN 3-88034-659-3 .
• Egon Fein: Hitler's Way to Nuremberg. Seducer. Deceiver. Mass murderer . Nuremberg 2002, ISBN 3-931683-11-7 .
• Robert Fritzsch: Nuremberg under the swastika: In the Third Reich 1933–1939 . Droste, Düsseldorf 1983, ISBN 3-7700-0627-5 .
• Rainer Hambrecht: The rise of the NSDAP in Middle and Upper Franconia (1925-1933). (Nuremberg workpieces 17). Nuremberg 1976, ISBN 3-87432-039-1 .
• Karl Kunze: End of the war in Franconia and the fight for Nuremberg in April 1945 (Nürnberger Forschungen 28). Edelmann, Nuremberg 1995, ISBN 3-87191-207-7 .
• Fritz Nadler: I saw how Nuremberg went under . Franconian Publishing House , Nuremberg 1955, DNB 453528988 .
• Siegfried Zelnhefer: Willy Liebel, Lord Mayor of the "City of Nuremberg Rallies". A biographical sketch . In: Yearbook for Franconian State Research. 60 (2000), pp. 661-680.

Web links

Commons : Willy Liebel  - Collection of pictures, videos and audio files

• Literature by and about Willy Liebel in the catalog of the German National Library
• Willy Liebel in the database of members of the Reichstag

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Utho Grieser: Himmler's husband in Nuremberg. The Benno Martin case. A study on the structure of the 3rd Reich in the "City of the Nazi Party Rallies" (=  Nuremberg workpieces on city and state history, Volume 13). Nuremberg City Archives, Nuremberg 1974, ISBN 3-87432-025-1 , p. 309.
2. ↑ Quoted from: Helmut Heiber : The back of the swastika. dtv, Munich 1993, ISBN 3-423-02967-6 , p. 320 f.
3. ↑ Gerd R. Ueberschär , Winfried Vogel : Serving and earning. Hitler's gifts to his elites. Frankfurt 1999, ISBN 3-10-086002-0 .
4. ↑ Fritz Nadler: I saw how Nuremberg went under. Franconian Publishing House , Nuremberg 1955, DNB 453528988 , p. 138.
5. ↑ Fritz Nadler: I saw how Nuremberg went under. 1955, p. 138; Nadler was even present when Liebel's body was found
6. ↑ Albert Speer: Spandau Diaries. Frankfurt am Main 1975, p. 173.
7. ^ Walter Kempowski: The echo sounder - Abgesang '45. 3. Edition. Knaus, Munich 2005, ISBN 3-8135-0249-X , p. 51.
8. ^ Siegfried Zelnhefer: Willy Liebel, Lord Mayor of the “City of the Nuremberg Rally”. A biographical sketch. In: Yearbook for Franconian State Research. 60 (2000), pp. 661-680, here: p. 680.
9. ↑ Nürnberger Nachrichten: Christmas at Liebels: "Streicher shot the balls from the Christmas tree", print edition of August 8, 2018, p. 10ff.
10. ↑ The surviving combat commander Wolf stated about Liebel's death that he had shot himself; however, doubts remain about this statement, which in Zelnhefer: Willy Liebel ... 2000, p. 679 f. are published.
11. ^ The following quote from Hitler from March 19, 1945 to explain the Nero order is quoted from: Erwin Leiser: Mein Kampf (photo documentation). Fischer Bücherei, Frankfurt am Main 1961, OCLC 807874363 , p. 185.
12. ^ City of Nuremberg Online ( Memento from March 15, 2013 in the Internet Archive )
13. ^ Bombardment on Nuremberg. In: One day - contemporary history on Spiegel Online
14. ^ Martin Diefenbacher, Wiltrud Fischer-Pache: The air war against Nuremberg. Nuremberg, 2004, ISBN 3-87707-634-3 , p. 294.
15. ^ Walter Kempowski: The echo sounder - Abgesang '45. 3. Edition. Knaur, Munich 2005, ISBN 3-8135-0249-X , p. 52.
16. ^ City of Nuremberg Online ( Memento from May 25, 2007 in the Internet Archive )
17. ^ Martin Diefenbacher, Wiltrud Fischer-Pache: The air war against Nuremberg. Nuremberg 2004, ISBN 3-87707-634-3 , p. 380 ff.