Gustav Adolf Scheel
Gustav Adolf Scheel | |
|---|---|
Higher SS and Police Leader, Alpenland | |
| In office 1 May 1941 – 24 November 1941 | |
| Preceded by | Alfred Rodenbücher |
| Succeeded by | Erwin Rösener |
| Reich Student Leader | |
| In office 6 November 1936 – 8 May 1945 | |
| Preceded by | Position created |
| Succeeded by | Position abolished |
| Personal details | |
| Born | 21 November 1907 Second World War |
| Awards | War Merit Cross with swords, 1st and 2nd class |
Gustav Adolf Scheel (22 November 1907 – 25 March 1979) was a German
Early years
Born as a Protestant pastor's son in
Beginning in the summer semester of 1928, he studied
Nazi career
Student and academic posts
In 1930 he joined the National Socialist German Students' League (NSDStB), on 1 October 1930 the Sturmabteilung (SA) and on 1 December 1930 the Nazi Party (NSDAP). He moved for a short time to Tübingen University to begin studies in medicine. He continued his studies again in Heidelberg, where he quickly rose to become one of the main propagandists of the Nazis at the college. As NSDStB College Group Leader (Hochschulgruppenführer), he led the Nazi student rallies against the mathematics professor and pacifist Emil Julius Gumbel (1891–1966) which led to the removal of Gumbel's teaching entitlement in 1932.[2]
In 1933, Scheel became chairman of the Heidelberg General Students' Committee (
On 10 May 1933, Scheel was one of the main speakers at the Heidelberg
In April 1938, Scheel became an active Senator of Heidelberg University, and he was also elected to the
In 1943, he declared in his capacity as Reich Student Leader that the members of the White Rose (Weiße Rose) resistance group should be "executed not as students," but rather as "antisocial former Wehrmacht members." Scheel's point of view was that these "criminals" should not be allowed to stain the student body's image. From this time also came Scheel's declaration: "German student, it is not necessary for you to live, but, to be sure, to fulfill your duty to your people." In 1943, Scheel became President of the German Academic Exchange Service and in June 1944, he succeeded Walter Schultze as leader of the National Socialist German Lecturers League.[5]
SS and Security Service (SD)
On 30 July 1934 Scheel was accepted into the Sicherheitsdienst (SD), the Nazi Party security service by its head, Reinhard Heydrich. He left the SA and joined the Schutzstaffel (SS) on 15 September 1934 and became a full time SD employee in the SD Main Office. He rose swiftly in this secret Nazi intelligence service. Between September 1934 and August 1935 he headed the SD training school in Berlin. Between August 1935 and September 1939 he was Leader of the SD Oberabschnitt (Upper District) Southwest, headquartered in Stuttgart.[6]
As a former student official, he brought along with him to the SD a great many young Nazi academics who went on to become mass murderers. Among them were
Promoted to SS-
Scheel, in the spring of 1940 performed military service as a medical officer with the rank of
Scheel's further rise within the Nazi repression apparatus continued unabated. In April 1941, he rose to the rank of SS-
Gauleiter and Reichsstatthalter
Scheel was named as Gauleiter of Reichsgau Salzburg on 18 November 1941, succeeding Friedrich Rainer. Formally installed on 27 November, he also that day succeeded Rainer as Reichsstatthalter (Reich Governor) thus uniting under his control the highest party and governmental offices in his jurisdiction. Further, on 11 December he also succeeded Rainer as Reich Defense Commissioner of Wehrkreis XVIII. This entailed responsibility for civil defense and evacuation measures as well as administration of wartime rationing and suppression of black market activity. On 16 November 1942, the jurisdiction of the Reich Defense Commissioners was changed from the Wehrkreis to the Gau level, and Scheel remained Commissioner for his Reichsgau alone. After the discovery of resistance groups in Salzburg, Scheel organized a widespread wave of arrests and had a number of railwaymen put to death.[8]
In September 1944 Scheel, as the Reich Defense Commissioner, was made leader of the Volkssturm in Reichsgau Salzburg. On 29 April 1945, Adolf Hitler, in his political testament, named Scheel Reich Minister of Culture, in the short-lived Goebbels cabinet.[9]
As a Nazi "multifunctionary", Scheel held the following functions (in addition to those mentioned above):[10]
- Member of the Reich Labour Chamber
- Member of the Executive Board of the Reichsforschungsrat (Reich Research Council)
- Leader of the Trainee Office in the Reichsforschungrat
Postwar life
After Salzburg's peaceful surrender to the Americans on 4 May, Scheel fled with his family to Sankt Veit an der Glan and on 14 May was arrested by the US 307th Counterintelligence Corps and interned. After spending time in many camps and prisons, he was released on 24 December 1947. After once again being interned, he was transferred to Heidelberg to undergo denazification. A local court sentenced him in December 1948 to five years in a labour camp, and classified him as Category I, Hauptschuldiger (literally "main culprit"). He was however released on 24 December 1948 as a result of several testimonies in his defence stating that he had ignored Hitler's commands to defend the city of Salzburg against the approaching US forces.[11]
Afterwards, he first worked as a night worker at the Port of Hamburg, and as of summer 1949, he was a doctor in a Hamburg hospital, then an assistant doctor at Rautenberg Hospital in Hamburg. After an appeal proceeding in 1952, Scheel was reclassified to Category II as a Belasteter ("incriminated one"). From 1951 to 1953, he belonged, along with other former Nazi leaders such as Werner Naumann, Karl Kaufmann and Werner Best, to the neo-Nazi Naumann Circle that tried to infiltrate the Free Democratic Party, and so was arrested in January 1953 by British police. He was handed over to German authorities in Karlsruhe in March and released by them on 17 June 1953. On 3 December 1954, his trial was dismissed for lack of adequate evidence of wrongdoing. From February 1954 to 8 April 1977, he was the owner of a medical practice in Hamburg.[12]
Notes
- ^ Miller & Schulz 2021, p. 69.
- ^ a b Miller & Schulz 2021, p. 70.
- ^ Miller & Schulz 2021, pp. 69, 71–72.
- ^ Miller & Schulz 2021, pp. 73, 76.
- ^ Miller & Schulz 2021, p. 76.
- ^ a b c d Williams 2017, p. 163.
- ISBN 978-1-4408-5896-3.
- ^ Miller & Schulz 2021, pp. 74–75.
- ^ Miller & Schulz 2021, pp. 76–77.
- ^ Miller & Schulz 2021, pp. 73, 75.
- ^ Miller & Schulz 2021, pp. 77–78.
- ^ Miller & Schulz 2021, pp. 78, 80.
Sources
- Miller, Michael D.; Schulz, Andreus (2021). Gauleiter: The Regional Leaders of the Nazi Party and Their Deputies, 1925 – 1945. Vol. 3. Fonthill Media. ISBN 978-1-781-55826-3.
- Williams, Max (2017). SS Elite: The Senior Leaders of Hitler's Praetorian Guard. Vol. 3. Fonthill Media LLC. ISBN 978-1-78155-638-2.
Further reading
- Höffkes, Karl (1986). Hitlers Politische Generale. Die Gauleiter des Dritten Reiches: ein biographisches Nachschlagewerk. Tübingen: Grabert-Verlag. ISBN 3-87847-163-7.
- Yerger, Mark C. (1997). Algemeine-SS: The Commands, Units and Leaders of the General SS. Atglen, PA: Schiffer Military History. ISBN 978-0-76430-145-2.
External links
- Marc Zirlewagen (2005). "Scheel, Gustav Adolf". In Bautz, Traugott (ed.). Biographisch-Bibliographisches Kirchenlexikon (BBKL) (in German). Vol. 24. Nordhausen: Bautz. cols. 1270–1275. ISBN 3-88309-247-9.
- Gustav Scheel in Bavarian State Library
- Newspaper clippings about Gustav Adolf Scheel in the 20th Century Press Archives of the ZBW
- Information about Gustav Adolf Scheel in the Reichstag database
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