Ernst Schlange

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Ernst Schlange
Gauleiter of Gross-Berlin
In office
14 March 1925 – 20 June 1926
Preceded byPosition established
Succeeded byErich Schmiedicke
Gauleiter of Gau Brandenburg
In office
18 October 1930 – 16 March 1933
Preceded byEmil Holtz
Succeeded byErich Schmiedicke
Personal details
Born
Ernst Paul Hans Schlange

1 September 1888
National Socialist Freedom Party
  • Greater German People’s Community
    • ProfessionLawyer
    Military service
    Allegiance German Empire
    Branch/serviceImperial German Army
    Years of service1914–1919
    RankOberleutnant
    Unit2nd (Kaiser Franz) Garde-Grenadier Regiment
    Guards Fusilier Regiment
    Battles/warsWorld War I
    AwardsIron Cross, 1st class and 2nd class

    Ernst Schlange (1 September 1888 – 28 February 1947) was a

    National Socialist German Worker's Party. He was opposed to the Party's more extreme tactics for gaining power and was a close ally of the Strasser brothers. After their fall from power, Schlange lost his leadership posts by the mid-1930s. He died in Soviet captivity after the end of World War II
    .

    Early life

    Born in

    Darmstädter und Nationalbank in Berlin. He earned his Doctor of Law degree and passed the Great State Legal Examination (German: Große Juristische Staatsprüfung) in Prenzlau in 1914.[1]

    At the start of World War I, Schlange, due to an earlier injury to his left hand in a hunting accident, was exempted from conscription. However, he volunteered for the German Army and was deployed to the Western Front with the 2nd (Kaiser Franz) Garde-Grenadier Regiment in 1914 with the rank of Gefreiter. Promoted to Leutnant, he was transferred to the Eastern Front in April 1915 with the Guards Fusilier Regiment. He served as a platoon leader and a company commander until being severely wounded on 1 June 1915 at Stepj in Galicia, losing his right arm and right lung. He was awarded the Iron Cross, 1st and 2nd class. He spent the rest of the war recuperating in hospitals and was discharged as a Reserve Oberleutnant in May 1919. He married in 1917.[2]

    In 1919 Schlange joined the

    völkisch and anti-Semitic elements. However, in June 1922, he joined the Deutschsoziale Partei (DtSP) founded by Richard Kunze, another völkisch, anti-Semitic political group and early rival to the Nazi Party. Schlange established local chapters (Ortsgruppen) in Wilmersdorf, Zehlendorf and Steglitz.[3] Then in October 1922, Schlange joined the Nazi Party. In November 1923, the Party was banned in the wake of the Beer Hall Putsch and Schlange joined the National Socialist Freedom Movement, a Nazi front organization. In May 1924 he joined the ephemeral Großdeutsche Volksgemeinschaft (Greater German People's Community) another Nazi front organization. He served as its Gauführer in Berlin but left in favor of rejoining the Nazi Party on 27 February 1925 when it regained legal status (membership number 4,837).[4]

    Nazi career

    Adolf Hitler authorized Gregor Strasser to act on his behalf in organizing the Party in northern Germany.[5] On 14 March 1925, Strasser selected Schlange as Party Gauleiter in Gau Gross-Berlin and Hitler ratified the choice on 27 March. On 10 September 1925, Schlange joined the National Socialist Working Association, a group of northern and northwestern Gauleiters aligned with the left wing of the Party and headed by Strasser. A close confidant of Strasser and his brother Otto Strasser, Schlange was also part-owner of the Strassers’ publishing business, Kampf-Verlag.[6]

    Schlange’s tenure as Gauleiter in Berlin was marked by disputes over the course of the Party. He spoke out against the violent methods of the Sturmabteilung (SA) in Berlin but could not prevail. He wanted a more cautious course for the Party and the pursuit of power by legal means. Criticized for his weak leadership style within his own wing of the party, Schlange was placed on leave on 28 February 1926 and resigned from his post on 20 June.[7] Schlange was succeeded by his Deputy Gauleiter, Erich Schmiedicke, but the conflicts remained unresolved, and in October he, in turn, was replaced by Joseph Goebbels as the head of a new, enlarged Gau Berlin-Brandenburg.[8]

    Schlange moved to

    Prussian Landtag, serving until it was dissolved on 14 October 1933.[9]

    Schlange’s patron, Gregor Strasser, resigned from the leadership cadre of the Party on 8 December 1932 after a serious disagreement with Hitler over strategy for achieving power.

    Gau Kurmark. Leadership of the new Gau went to Wilhelm Kube, the incumbent Gauleiter of Ostmark.[11] Schlange lost political influence and held only minor posts after that: in 1934 he was elected President-General of the Prussian-South German Lottery, appointed President of the State Gazette in 1935, and Chairman of the Kösener Senioren-Convents-Verband (KSCV) in 1936. On 10 March 1937, Hitler refused Schlange the right to wear his former Gauleiter service uniform.[12]
    Further details of his life remain unknown.

    Death

    When the

    Spreewald. Another source indicates that he was killed on 28 February 1947 at NKVD special camp Nr. 7, a prison set up by the Russians to hold political detainees on the site of the previous Nazi Sachsenhausen concentration camp.[13] According to the KSCV Corps listings and his award of the Iron Cross, Schlange died in 1947.[14]

    References

    1. ISBN 3-87847-163-7
      .
    2. ISBN 978-1-781-55826-3
      .
    3. ^ Martin Schuster: Die SA in der nationalsozialistischen "Machtergreifung" in Berlin und Brandenburg 1926-1934. (pdf, 3,8 MB) Dissertation, Technische Universität Berlin 2005, p. 19.
    4. ^ Höffkes 1986, p. 304.
    5. ISBN 0-8229-3183-4
      .
    6. ^ Miller & Schulz 2021, pp. 199–200.
    7. ^ Bernhard Sauer: Goebbels "Rabauken". Zur Geschichte der SA in Berlin-Brandenburg. (pdf, 6,5 MB) In: Jahrbuch des Landesarchivs Berlin, 2006, p. 111.
    8. ISBN 978-1-932-97021-0
      .
    9. ^ Miller & Schulz 2021, pp. 200–201.
    10. ^ Orlow 1969, p. 291.
    11. ^ Miller & Schulz 2012, p. 42.
    12. ^ Helmut Heiber: "Akten der Partei-Kanzlei der NSDAP, Volume 1, Part 1", p. 312 (12669).
    13. ^ Miller & Schulz 2021, p. 198.
    14. ^ Kösener Corpslisten 1960, 53, 605

    Works cited

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