Gustav Staebe
Gustav Staebe | |
---|---|
Acting Gauleiter of the Saar | |
In office 21 April 1929 – 30 July 1929 | |
Preceded by | Jakob Jung |
Succeeded by | Adolf Ehrecke |
Press Chief of the Reich Youth Leadership | |
In office 1 January 1934 – 22 November 1934 | |
Regional Administrator, Reich Association of the German Press | |
In office 1937 – 8 May 1945 | |
Personal details | |
Born | 22 August 1906 Hindenburg (today, Obersturmbannfuhrer Unteroffizier |
Battles/wars | World War II |
Awards | War Merit Cross, 1st and 2nd class |
Gustav Louis Erich Staebe (22 August 1906 – 27 September 1983) was a
Early life
Staebe was born in Hindenburg in
Nazi Party official
In April 1923, Staebe joined the Nazi Party for the first time. The party was temporarily banned following the failed Beer Hall Putsch of November 1923 but, after the ban was lifted, Staebe rejoined it on 9 May 1926 (membership number 36,247). As an early Party member, he would later be awarded the Golden Party Badge. He also joined the Party's paramilitary organization, the SA, at this time. Also, from 1923 to 1926, he was a member of the Young German Order, another large paramilitary association. Soon after, he became a full-time functionary of the Party. From 1926 to 1927, Staebe served as the first Party Kreisleiter (County Leader) in the Brunswick Land area, also acting as a Parteiredner (Party speaker). In 1927, he then became Ortsgruppenleiter (Local Group Leader) of Rathenow in Brandenburg. From November 1927 to April 1929 he was the Party Bezirksleiter (District Leader) first in Barnim and then in Brunswick Land. On 21 April 1929, following the resignation of Jakob Jung as the Gauleiter of the Saar, Staebe was named Acting Gauleiter, remaining in this post through 30 July when the permanent replacement, Adolf Ehrecke, was named. In August, he took up the post of Bezirksleiter in Rhein-Lahn-Kreis.[2]
Propaganda functionary
When leading the Party in the Saar, Staebe had also served as the Editor-in-Chief of the Saardeutscher Volksstimme (Saar German Peoples' Voice). Later in 1929, he founded the first Nazi farmers' newspaper Freiheit und Scholl, which was distributed as a supplement to the Nassauer Beobachter (Nassau Observer). From here on, Staebe focused his activities on the areas of press and propaganda. Having served as a Reichsredner (national speaker) for the Party since 1928, he delivered speeches agitating against the Jews and the Weimar Republic, which he attacked as the "moneybag republic," accusing its leaders of leading "a gluttonous gourmet life."[3]
In 1930 Staebe became Gau Propaganda Leader in Gau Hesse-Nassau Süd, and also served as the Gau's first Agricultural Specialist. From April 1931 through September 1932 he was the press chief for the Party's Agricultural Policy Department headed by
From 1932 to June 1933, Staebe was a member of the editorial board of the
SS and military service
On 1 July 1933, Staebe joined the SS (membership number 36,140). He was assigned to the SD Main Office, (which in 1939 would become part of the Reich Security Main Office) and served from July through December 1933 as the SD leader in the Bremen area. He attained the rank of SS-Obersturmbannführer on 30 January 1939. In March 1936 and April 1938, he was unsuccessfully proposed for election to the Reichstag. In 1941, Staebe was called up for military service with the German Army as a Sonderführer with the rank of Unteroffizier. He became the Editor-in-Chief of a frontline newspaper, and was discharged from the service on 22 March 1943. During the war, he was awarded the War Merit Cross, 1st and 2nd class.[7]
Postwar life
At the end of the war in Europe in May 1945, Staebe was arrested by U.S. Army forces near Gelnhausen and interned in a camp in Darmstadt. He underwent denazification proceedings and received a lenient sentence. He resumed a career in journalism as an editor for the Segeberger Zeitung (Segeberg Journal).[8]
References
- ^ Miller & Schulz 2021, p. 304.
- ^ Miller & Schulz 2021, pp. 304–305.
- ^ Miller & Schulz 2021, p. 305.
- ^ a b Höffkes 1986, p. 322.
- ^ Pridham 1973, pp. 229, 231.
- ^ "Nazis Open Radio War Upon Reactionaries". New York Times. 25 May 1934. p. 15.
- ^ a b Miller & Schulz 2021, pp. 305–306.
- ^ Miller & Schulz 2021, p. 306.
Sources
- Höffkes, Karl (1986). Hitlers Politische Generale. Die Gauleiter des Dritten Reiches: ein biographisches Nachschlagewerk. Tübingen: Grabert-Verlag. ISBN 3-87847-163-7.
- Miller, Michael D.; Schulz, Andreas (2021). Gauleiter: The Regional Leaders of the Nazi Party and Their Deputies, 1925–1945. Vol. 3 (Fritz Sauckel - Hans Zimmermann). Fonthill Media. ISBN 978-1-781-55826-3.
- Pridham, Geoffrey (1973). Hitler's Rise to Power: The Nazi Movement in Bavaria, 1923-1933. New York: Harper & Row. ISBN 978-0-061-36116-6.