Adolf Wagner

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For the German weightlifter, see Adolf Wagner (weightlifter). For the German economist, see Adolph Wagner. For the Austrian sculptor, see Adolf Wagner von der Mühl.
Adolf Wagner
Minister-President of Bavaria
In office
12 April 1933 – 12 April 1944
Preceded byOffice created
Succeeded byOffice abolished
Gauleiter of Greater Munich
In office
1 November 1929 – 16 November 1930
Preceded byOffice created
Succeeded byOffice abolished
Gauleiter of Gau Upper Palatinate
In office
1 October 1928 – 1 November 1929
Preceded byOffice created
Succeeded byFranz Maierhofer
Personal details
Born(1890-10-01)1 October 1890
German Order
Blood Order
Military service
Allegiance German Empire
Branch/serviceImperial German Army
Years of service1909–1910
1914–1918
RankLeutnant
UnitInfantry Regiment 143
Infantry Regiment 135
Battles/warsWorld War I
Military awardsIron Cross, 1st and 2nd class

Adolf Wagner (1 October 1890 – 12 April 1944) was a

Third Reich
.

Early years

Born in Algringen (today,

First World War broke out he volunteered for service with the Imperial German Army. He was assigned to Infantry Regiment 135 as a non-commissioned officer on the western front, was commissioned a Leutnant in 1917 and served as a company commander and as an orderly officer at regimental headquarters. He was twice wounded, first by poison gas and in 1918 he lost his right leg below the knee. He was awarded the Iron Cross, 1st and 2nd class, and was discharged at the end of the war in 1918.[1][2]

Wagner returned to

Versailles Treaty. He moved to Bavaria and found employment as a manager at the United Coal and Ore Mining Union in Erbendorf. He later worked as a business manager at the Pinzgau Mining Company across the Bavarian border in Austria. He was employed at these companies from 1919 to 1929.[3]

Nazi career

Wagner joined the Nazi Party in 1923 (membership number 11,330) and became the

Bavarian Landtag in the April 1924 election, serving there until October 1933. In an incident in January 1932, Wagner was sentenced by a court to a fine of 250 ℛ︁ℳ︁ or ten days in jail for assaulting a journalist on the floor of the Landtag.[4]

Gauleiter

Five months after the Nazi Party was re-established, he re-joined it on 20 July 1925. On 1 October 1928 he was appointed

Nazi Party rally held in Nuremberg. Wagner's pitch, intonation and speaking style were considered very similar to Adolf Hitler's.[7]

On 10 March 1933, when the Nazis seized control of the Bavarian state government, Wagner was sent by Hitler to take charge of the Bavarian police apparatus as the State Commissioner (Staatskommissar) for the Bavarian Interior Ministry. In this post, he controlled all the security apparatus of the state. He advocated the establishment of special

Minister-President of Bavaria. He thus wielded enormous power in both the party and the government, despite nominally reporting to Reichsstatthalter (Reich Governor) Franz Ritter von Epp. He was elected a deputy to the Reichstag in November 1933 for electoral constituency 24, Upper Bavaria-Swabia. On 28 November 1936, he was also made Bavarian Minister for Education and Culture.[10]

In May 1934, Wagner secured an appointment on the staff of Deputy Führer, Rudolf Hess to head a task force charged with reform of the Reich structure. An opponent of federalism, Wagner advocated for more centralized control by the Party. By February 1935, Wagner produced a lengthy report titled "Reconstruction of the Reich" calling for the placement of all legislative and executive decision-making power in the hands of Party officials, leaving the State authorities as mere administrative entities. It envisioned new territorial divisions called Reichsgaue which cut across traditional federal boundaries. The Party heads of the new areas would be undisputed viceroys of their jurisdictions. However, Wagner's Reichsreform never got beyond the planning stage for Germany proper because, due to the competing interests involved and significant push-back from the State organs, Hitler soon lost interest.[11] However, it eventually would serve, more or less, as the model when foreign territories were absorbed into the Reich.

Role in the SA purge, Jewish pogroms and religious persecution

Wagner played a key role during the purge of the SA leaders known as the

Stadelheim prison refused to hand over six SA leaders to the SS execution squad because the list of names he received was unsigned, Wagner signed the document in his capacity as Bavarian Interior Minister, and the six were turned over to the SS and summarily executed.[7]

In carrying out the Nazi Party's

Michael Faulhaber who had been at times critical of the Nazis.[15]

As Bavarian Education Minister, on 23 April 1941 Wagner ordered that school prayer be replaced by

The opposition to this move was so strong that Wagner was forced to rescind the order on 28 August, one of the rare circumstances of successful public opposition in Nazi Germany.[17]

Relationship with Hitler

Despite this setback, Hitler apparently remained on good terms with Wagner, one of the

Berghof, near Berchtesgaden.[20]

War years, illness and death

At the outbreak of the

air defense and evacuation activities, as well as for managing the local war economy by administering wartime rationing and suppressing black market activities. On 15 November 1940, he became the Housing Commissioner for his Gau and, on 6 April 1942, he was named the Representative in Gau Munich-Upper Bavaria for Fritz Sauckel in his capacity as General Plenipotentiary for Labor Deployment. In this role, Wagner assisted in procuring forced civilian labor for Germany's wartime industries.[17]

Wagner for many years suffered from the effects of chronic

German Order, the Nazi Party's highest decoration.[22] He was buried near the Ehrentempel
(Honor Temples) which housed the remains of those killed in the Beer Hall Putsch.

References

  1. ^ Pope, Ernest R (January 13, 2014). Munich Playground: (Expanded, Annotated) (Kindle ed.). Big Byte Books. p. 58.
  2. ^ a b Miller & Schulz 2021, p. 528.
  3. ^ Miller & Schulz 2021, p. 529.
  4. ^ Miller & Schulz 2021, pp. 529–531.
  5. ^ Höffkes 1986, pp. 364–365.
  6. ^ Winfried Müller: Gauleiter als Minister. Die Gauleiter Hans Schemm, Adolf Wagner, Paul Giesler und das Bayerische Staatsministerium für Unterricht und Kultus 1933–1945, 1997.
  7. ^ a b Miller & Schulz 2021, p. 533.
  8. ^ Miller & Schulz 2021, p. 531.
  9. ^ "Joachim Lilla: Ministers of State, senior administrative officials and (NS) officials in Bavaria from 1918 to 1945". Retrieved 7 April 2023.
  10. ^ Miller & Schulz 2021, pp. 532, 535.
  11. ^ Orlow 1973, pp. 144–145.
  12. ^ Bullock 1962, p. 302.
  13. ^ Miller & Schulz 2021, pp. 534, 538.
  14. ^ Kershaw 2008, p. 457.
  15. ^ "Munich Mob Smashes Windows in an Outbreak Against Catholics". New York. 13 November 1938. pp. 1 & 38.
  16. ISBN 978-1-101-02230-6
    . Retrieved 13 January 2013.
  17. ^ a b Miller & Schulz 2021, p. 538.
  18. ^ Orlow 1973, p. 341.
  19. ^ Zentner & Bedürftig 1997, p. 1013.
  20. ^ "Eva Braun Home Movies, part 1 Hitler, Nazis in color (Wagner appears at 4:20)". YouTube. Archived from the original on 2 July 2016. Retrieved 8 June 2013.
  21. ^ Höffkes 1986, p. 365.
  22. ^ Miller & Schulz 2021, pp. 528, 539.

Sources

External links
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