Gau Düsseldorf
Gau Düsseldorf | |||||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Gau of Nazi Germany | |||||||||
1930–1945 | |||||||||
Gau Düsseldorf on the left, bordering The Netherlands | |||||||||
Capital | Düsseldorf | ||||||||
Area | |||||||||
• | 2,700 km2 (1,000 sq mi) | ||||||||
Population | |||||||||
• | 2,200,000 | ||||||||
Government | |||||||||
Gauleiter | |||||||||
• 1930–1945 | Friedrich Karl Florian | ||||||||
History | |||||||||
1 August 1930 | |||||||||
• Allied capture of Düsseldorf and destruction of the Ruhr pocket | 18 April 1945 | ||||||||
| |||||||||
Today part of | Germany |
The Gau Düsseldorf was an administrative division of Nazi Germany from 1933 to 1945 in the Düsseldorf region of the Prussian Rhine Province. Before that, from 1930 to 1933, it was the regional subdivision of the Nazi Party in that area.
History
Establishment and government
The Nazi Gau (plural Gaue) system was originally established in a
At the head of each Gau stood a
Interwar period
The position of Gauleiter in Düsseldorf was held by Friedrich Karl Florian throughout the history of the Gau from 1930 to 1945.[4][2]
On 10 November 1938, Florian played an active part in the Kristallnacht pogrom in Düsseldorf, leading SA and Hitler Youth in attacking the home of the Regierungspräsident Carl Christian Schmid, whose wife was Jewish. In the city-wide attacks on Jewish homes and businesses, five persons were killed and hundreds were injured or left homeless.[5]
World War II
On 16 November 1942, Florian was named Reich Defense Commissioner for his Gau and in October 1944 he was made head of the Düsseldorf Volkssturm contingent. [6]
Throughout the war, the Gau's capital Düsseldorf was heavily destroyed by allied aerial bombardment. The most severe attack occurred on June 12, 1943, when a firestorm was ignited through targeted bombing by the British Royal Air Force, largely destroying the historical city center, downtown, and other adjacent neighborhoods.
At the end of February 1945, the allies invaded the Gau, with Schwalmtal and Jüchen, in the south of the Gau, being among the first settlements occupied. In early March, the allies occupied all the Gau's territories of west of the Rhine, though the river served as a natural defensive boundary and stalled further allied advance into the Gau for several weeks. After the allies secured a new bridgehead in the Battle of Remagen, further advance became possible.
On 23 March 1945, Florian and two other Gauleiters from the industrial Ruhr area (Albert Hoffmann and Fritz Schlessmann) met with Reichsminister of Armaments and War Production Albert Speer. Speer tried to convince them to ignore Adolf Hitler’s Nero Decree mandating a scorched earth policy ahead of the Allied armies’ advance. A rabid Nazi, Florian alone argued in favor of the policy. He read aloud a proclamation he intended to issue ordering the evacuation of the population of Düsseldorf and setting fire to all buildings, leaving the Allies a burned-out, deserted city. However, in the end, he did not issue the proclamation and was unable to implement these drastic actions before the Allies captured the city.[7]
The German-held territory inside the Gau would become surrounded by the allies on 1 April and form the
, and the last resistance in the pocket was finally eliminated that same day.A timeline of the allied advance is listed below.
Date of capture | Location | Reference |
---|---|---|
28 February 1945 | Schwalmtal | [8] |
28 February 1945 | Jüchen | [9] |
28 February to early March 1945 | Grevenbroich | [10] |
1 March 1945 | Kaldenkirchen | [11] |
1 March 1945 | Mönchengladbach | |
1 March 1945 | Brüggen | |
1 March 1945 | Viersen | |
1 March 1945 | Schiefbahn | |
1 March 1945 | Anrath
|
[12][13] |
1 March 1945 | Kaarst | [14] |
2 March 1945 | Kempen | [15] |
2 March 1945 | Grefrath | [16] |
2 March 1945 | Neuss | [17] |
2 March 1945 | Krefeld | [18] |
3 March 1945 | Rommerskirchen | [19] |
5 March 1945 | Dormagen | [20] |
14 April 1945 | Leverkusen | [21] |
14 April 1945 | Wermelskirchen | [22] |
15-16 April 1945 | Wuppertal | [23] |
16 April 1945 | Mettmann | [24] |
16 April 1945 | Langenberg | |
16 April 1945 | Neviges
|
|
16-17 April 1945 | Solingen | [25] |
17 April 1945 | Heiligenhaus | [26] |
17 April 1945 | Velbert | |
17 April 1945 | Ratingen | [27] |
18 April 1945 | Dusseldorf | [28] |
Aftermath
Geography and demographics
The Gau had a size of 2,700 km2 (2,741 sq mi) and a population of 2,200,000, which placed it in mid-table for size and population in the list of Gaue.[34]
References
- ^ Deutsches Historisches Museum. Retrieved 26 March 2016.
- ^ a b "Gau Düsseldorf". verwaltungsgeschichte.de (in German). Archived from the original on 23 May 2017. Retrieved 26 March 2016.
- The Nizkor Project. Retrieved 26 March 2016.
- ^ "Übersicht der NSDAP-Gaue, der Gauleiter und der Stellvertretenden Gauleiter zwischen 1933 und 1945" [Overview of Nazi Gaue, the Gauleiter and assistant Gauleiter from 1933 to 1945]. zukunft-braucht-erinnerung.de (in German). Zukunft braucht Erinnerung. Retrieved 26 March 2016.
- ^ Miller & Schulz 2012, pp. 176–178.
- ^ Miller & Schulz 2012, p. 179.
- ^ Speer 1970, pp. 565–566.
- ^ Hans Kaiser: Vom Rathaus aus den GIs entgegen. In: Rheinische Post (Lokalteil Viersen), 21. Februar 2015, Seite C6. Ihr Vormarsch war Teil der Operation Grenade.
- ^ ONLINE, RP (2010-02-26). "Jüchen: Als der Amerikaner kam". RP ONLINE (in German). Retrieved 2023-09-01.
- ^ Sommerfeld, Carsten (2020-02-07). "1945 in Grevenbroich: Die letzten Schrecken des Krieges". RP ONLINE (in German). Retrieved 2023-09-01.
- ^ Peters, Leo (2020-02-28). "Serie Vor 75 Jahren: Als die Amerikaner Kaldenkirchen besetzten". RP ONLINE (in German). Retrieved 2023-09-01.
- ^ Die letzten Kämpfe in der Region
- ^ U.S. Library of Congress March 1, 1945: HQ Twelfth Army Group situation map
- ^ Seeger, Stephan (2019-01-19). "Geschichtsforschung in Kaarst: Als die USA in Kaarst einmarschierten". RP ONLINE (in German). Retrieved 2023-09-01.
- ^ Zeitung, Westdeutsche (2020-02-28). "2. März 1945 - vor 75 Jahren: Tag der Befreiung in Kempen". Westdeutsche Zeitung (in German). Retrieved 2023-09-01.
- ^ Zeitung, Westdeutsche (2020-03-01). "75 Jahre Kriegsende: "Friedliche Panzer" kamen in Grefrath an". Westdeutsche Zeitung (in German). Retrieved 2023-09-01.
- ^ Buchbauer, Andreas (2020-02-29). "Ende des Zweiten Weltkriegs: Als die Alliierten nach Neuss kamen". RP ONLINE (in German). Retrieved 2023-09-01.
- ^ "Als der Zweite Weltkrieg in Krefeld endete | Stadt Krefeld". www.krefeld.de. Retrieved 2023-09-01.
- ^ ONLINE, RP (2007-02-28). "Rommerskirchen: Viele Tote kurz vor Kriegsende". RP ONLINE (in German). Retrieved 2023-09-01.
- ^ Schumilas, Klaus-Dieter (2020-02-25). "Einmarsch der US-Armee 1945: Dormagen gedenkt der Befreiung der Stadt". RP ONLINE (in German). Retrieved 2023-09-01.
- ^ "Kämpfe bei Leverkusen-Schlebusch | Das Kriegsende in der Heimat". www.das-kriegsende.de. Retrieved 2023-09-01.
- ^ Demski, Theresa (2020-05-08). "Das Kriegsende vor 75 Jahren: "Wir waren froh, dass der Spuk aufhörte"". RP ONLINE (in German). Retrieved 2023-09-01.
- ^ "Wuppertal | Das Jahr 1945" (in German). Retrieved 2023-09-01.
- ^ Ludwig, Marie (2020-04-16). "75 Jahre Kriegsende in Mettmann: Der Tag, an dem die Amerikaner kamen". RP ONLINE (in German). Retrieved 2023-09-01.
- ^ "Vor 75 Jahren endete der Krieg in Solingen". solinger-tageblatt.de (in German). 2020-04-16. Retrieved 2023-09-01.
- ^ Köhnes, Paul (2020-04-05). "Gedenken: Wie der Krieg in der Stadt zu Ende ging". RP ONLINE (in German). Retrieved 2023-09-02.
- ^ https://www.stadt-ratingen.de/bilder/41/stadtarchiv/e-books/1945_Seiten_aus_RB_Heft_2_2015.pdf
- ISBN 978-1-5267-4191-2.
- ^ Miller & Schulz 2012, p. 180.
- ^ "Brauner im Bunker" [Brown man in the bunker]. zeit.de (in German). Die Zeit. 7 May 1971. Retrieved 26 March 2016.
- ^ Miller & Schulz 2012, pp. 180–181.
- ^ "ZEITGESCHICHTE / NATIONALSOZIALISTEN" [History/Nazis]. spiegel.de (in German). Der Spiegel. 8 May 1967. Retrieved 26 March 2016.
- ^ Klee 2007, p. 156.
- ^ "Gau Köln-Aachen" [Gau Cologne-Aix-la-Chapelle]. rheinische-geschichte.lvr.de (in German). Landschaftsverband Rheinland. Archived from the original on 22 October 2016. Retrieved 26 March 2016.
Sources
- Klee, Ernst (2007). Das Personenlexikon zum Dritten Reich. Wer war was vor und nach 1945. Frankfurt-am-Main: Fischer-Taschenbuch-Verlag. ISBN 978-3-596-16048-8.
- Miller, Michael; Schulz, Andreas (2012). Gauleiter: The Regional Leaders of the Nazi Party and Their Deputies, 1925-1945, Vol. 1. R. James Bender Publishing. ISBN 978-1-932970-21-0.
- Speer, Albert (1970). Inside the Third Reich. New York: Avon Books. ISBN 978-0-380-00071-5.
External links