Gau Swabia
Gau Swabia | |||||||||
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Gau of Nazi Germany | |||||||||
1928–1945 | |||||||||
Gaue and Reichsgaue). | |||||||||
Capital | Augsburg | ||||||||
Population | |||||||||
• 17 May 1939[1] | 934,311 | ||||||||
Government | |||||||||
Gauleiter | |||||||||
• 1928–1945 | Karl Wahl | ||||||||
History | |||||||||
• Disestablishment | 8 May 1945 | ||||||||
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Today part of | Germany |
Gau Swabia (German: Gau Schwaben), formed on 1 October 1928, was an
History
Establishment of the Gaue within the party
The Nazi Gau (plural Gaue) system was originally established in a party conference on 22 May 1926,
The Gau from 1926 to 1933
The Gau Swabia came under the leadership of
- Gau Bayerische Ostmark
- Gau Franken
- Gau Mainfranken
- Gau München-Oberbayern
- Gau Rheinpfalz
- Gau Schwaben
The Gau from 1933 to 1945
With the ascent of the Nazis to power on 30 January 1933, the so-called
In Augsburg, the Swabian capital, the Nazis did not gain a strong foothold straight away, only having received 33% of the votes at the 1933 elections. Wahl even interceded with Hitler not to dismiss the mayor of Augsburg, unsuccessfully.[7] Nevertheless, their rise to power there could not be stopped either and by 1941, the party had 39,000 members in the city.[8]
Gradually, the
In Swabia, a relatively small Gau, the local Gauleiter Wahl had to initially fend off attempts by his more powerful neighbor, Adolf Wagner, Gauleiter of the Munich-Upper Bavaria region, to incooperate Swabia into his Gau.[6] Wahl was actually the only one of the Bavarian Gauleiter not to have graduated from University.[9] Unlike Wagner, who was a personal friend of Hitler's, Wahl wielded no real influence with the party leadership.
The Gauleiter was directly appointed by Hitler and only answerable to him. In practice, Hitler interfered little in the affairs of the local leaders and their power was almost absolute.[2]
Parallel to the five Bavarian Gauleiter, a Bavarian Minister President still existed during this time, the Nazi politician
Swabia did not have a concentration camp within its boundaries but its close proximity to Dachau meant, that many of its subcamps were in the Gau. Swabia was also home to the Ordensburg Sonthofen, an elite Nazi training facility.[10]
As of 1938, Augsburg had around 900
After the forced addition of Austria to the Reich in March 1938, small parts of the former country were added to the south of the Gau Schwaben, specifically the Jungholz region.
With the outbreak of the
As the war progressed and Nazi Germany grew more desperate, the Gauleiters were put in total control of the war effort in their Gau. On 16 November 1942 Wahl, along with all Gauleiters, was named a Reich Defense Commissioner (Reichsverteidigungskommissar).[15]
In September 1944, the Gauleiters were ordered to form the
In the last days of the war, Karl Wahl made no effort to prevent the hand over of Augsburg to the allies. Shortly after, he was arrested.[16]
Aftermath
Almost all of Swabia, like the rest of Bavaria, became part of the
Karl Wahl, Gauleiter of Swabia for almost 17 years, only served a light sentence after the war. He died in 1981, aged 88. Philipp Meyer, Nazi Kreisleiter for Donauwörth, was sentenced to death at end of the war for refusing to evacuate his district and prepare it for defense and, in post-war West Germany, he became the first former Kreisleiter to be elected for the West German parliament, the Bundestag.[18]
Other Nazi organisations in the region
The various departments of the Nazi organisation were by no means streamlined with the Gau system, but rather fiercely independent and competitive to each other. For example, while Bavaria was sub-divided in six Gaue, it was also divided in four sections of the
The Gau Schwaben belonged to the military district Wehrkreis VII, which had its headquarters in Munich.
Gauleiter
The highest position in the Gau, Gauleiter, was held by only one person during the history of the Gau Schwaben:
- Karl Wahl 1 October 1928 to 8 May 1945
Deputy Gauleiter
Second in charge were the Stellvertretende Gauleiter:
- Mathies Kellner — 1934
- Franz Schmid — 17 March 1935 to 10 November 1937
- Georg Traeg — 15 December 1937 to 9 September 1942
- Anton Mündler — 1942 to 1945
Jewish population of the Gau Schwaben
The Jewish population of Swabia had remained relatively stable from the turn of the 20th century to 1933. With the Nazis rise to power it declined through deportation and emigration. After 1939, few of those remaining would have had a chance to escape or even survive the
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Source: "Der Gau Schwaben der NSDAP" (in German). Verwaltungsgeschichte.de. Retrieved 2008-06-26.
- A Kreis (English: District) is a German administrative subdivision, now ranking below the Regierungsbezirk in Bavaria. During the Nazi era, it ranked below the Gau. At the head of each Kreis there stood a Kreisleiter, answerable to the Gauleiter.
See also
- List of Gaue of Nazi Germany
- List of subcamps of Dachau
References
- ^ Bayrisches Landesamt für Statistik, accessed 26 June 2008.
- ^ Deutsches Historisches Museumwebsite, accessed 25 June 2008.
- ^ a b (in German) Gau (NSDAP) — Die bayrischen Gaue bis zur Machtergreifung 1933 at the Historisches Lexikon Bayerns website, accessed 25 June 2008.
- ^ (in German) Shoa.de — Übersicht der NSDAP-Gaue, der Gauleiter und der Stellvertretenden Gauleiter 1933 bis 1945 — Schwaben by Joachim Lilla, accessed 25 June 2008.
- ^ (in German) NSDAP — Gaue und Gauleiter at the Historisches Lexikon Bayerns website, accessed 25 June 2008.
- ^ a b (in German) Gau (NSDAP) — Kontinuität der Gaugliederung nach 1933 at the Historisches Lexikon Bayerns website, accessed 25 June 2008.
- ^ Working Towards the Fuhrer: Essays in Honour of Sir Ian Kershaw, Google book review accessed 25 June 2008.
- ^ a b History of a 2000-year-old town Archived 2007-10-30 at the Wayback Machine at the city of Augsburg's website, accessed 25 June 2008.
- ^ a b (in German) Gauleiter — Die bayrischen Gauleiter nach 1933 at the Historisches Lexikon Bayerns website, accessed 25 June 2008.
- ^ (in German) Sonthofen website — Virtueller Stadtrundgang, Ehemalige Ordensburg, accessed 25 June 2008.
- ^ (in German) Stadt und Landkreis Memmingen at Verwaltungsgeschichte.de, accessed 26 June 2008.
- ^ (in German) Gauleiter — Dezentralisierungsschübe 1936 to 1939 at the Historisches Lexikon Bayerns website, accessed 25 June 2008.
- ^ German Firms That Used Slave or Forced Labor During the Nazi Era at the Jewish virtual library website, accessed 25 June 2008.
- ^ (in German) Alternativer Stadtrundgang, accessed 28 June 2008.
- ^ a b (in German) Gauleiter — Die bayrischen Gauleiter nach 1942 at the Historisches Lexikon Bayerns, accessed 25 June 2008.
- ^ (in German) Gauleiter — Die bayrischen Gauleiter vor dem Zusammenbruch 1945 at the Historisches Lexikon Bayerns website, accessed 25 June 2008.
- ^ (in German) Verwaltungsgeschichte.de — Stadt und Landkreis Augsburg, accessed 26 June 2008.
- ^ "Es ist das deutsche Herz" [It's the German heart]. spiegel.de (in German). Der Spiegel. 22 December 1954. Retrieved 26 March 2016.
- ^ (in German) Gau (NSDAP) — Regionale Organisation der Gliederungen und angeschlossenen Verbände der NSDAP at the Historisches Lexikon Bayerns website, accessed 25 June 2008.
External links
- The Nizkor Project — The Organization of the Nazi Party & State Archived 2016-11-09 at the Wayback Machine
- Pictures of Gauleiter, including Karl Wahl at the Calvin Collegewebsite.
- The descendants of the Jewish community of Augsburg, dedicated to those Augsburger Jews who died during the Holocaust.
- "The German Addressbuch" 1942 Names and addresses of the Nazi government of Bavaria with description of their tasks and duties in 1942.
- Augsburg sightseeing (in German) including pictures of places in Augsburg associated with the Nazis and Karl Wahl.
- Zwangsarbeiter in Einrichtungen der katholischen Kirche im Bistum Augsburg 1939–1945[permanent dead link] (in German) ("Slave Labour in institutions of the Catholic Church in Augsburg 1939 to 1945"), published by the Bishopric of Augsburg
- List of Gaue and Gauleiter (in German)
- Die NS Gaue (in German) at the Deutsches Historisches Museumwebsite.
- Die Gaue der NSDAP (in German)