Jakob Sprenger

Source: Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.

For the 15th-century German priest associated with the Malleus Maleficarum, see Jacob Sprenger.
Jakob Sprenger
Minister-President of the People's State of Hesse
In office
1 March 1935 – 25 March 1945
Preceded byPhilipp Wilhelm Jung
Succeeded byHeinrich Reiner (acting)
Oberpräsident of the Province of Nassau
In office
1 July 1944 – 24 April 1945
Preceded byPosition created
Succeeded byHans Bredow
Personal details
Born27 July 1884
National Socialist Freedom Party
OccupationPostal official
Military service
Allegiance German Empire
Branch/service Imperial German Army
Years of service1914–1919
RankLeutnant
Unit
  • 18th Royal Bavarian Infantry Regiment
  • 1st Royal Bavarian Landsturm Regiment
Battles/warsWorld War I
AwardsIron Cross, 2nd class

Jakob Sprenger (24 July 1884 – 7 May 1945) was a

Minister-President of the People's State of Hesse, the Oberpräsident of the Prussian Province of Nassau and an SA-Obergruppenführer
.

Early life

Sprenger, the son of a farmer, was born in Oberhausen in the Rhenish Palatinate. He attended volksschule there and after graduating from the gymnasium in Bad Bergzabern in 1901, he served as a one-year volunteer with the 18th Royal Bavarian Infantry Regiment “Prince Ludwig Ferdinand,” headquartered in Landau. From 1902 he was employed in the administrative service of the Imperial Postal Service, first in Mannheim, then in Hamburg and from October 1912 in Frankfurt.[1]

Sprenger volunteered for service in the

Offizierstellvertreter (Officer Deputy) training volunteers and reservists. He was then deployed to the western front and was wounded in action in November 1914, losing a toe on his right foot. He was decorated for valor and awarded the Iron Cross 2nd Class. After discharge from the hospital in January 1915, he was assigned as a zugführer (platoon leader) with a machine gun company. Promoted to Leutnant in April 1916, he was deployed to the eastern front in June 1916 with the 1st Royal Bavarian Landsturm Regiment. He subsequently served as a deputy company commander and a poison gas defense officer (gasschutzoffizier) in Pinsk and Rivne in the Ukraine. After the war ended, he returned to Germany in December 1918. Discharged from the service in July 1919, he resumed his career as a postal official in Frankfurt in December.[2]

Nazi career

In 1922, Sprenger became a member of the

anti-Semitic, and rose quickly through the ranks. He immediately was made Ortsgruppenleiter (Local Group Leader) and SA leader of Frankfurt and became a Bezirksleiter in Hesse-Nassau South on 31 October 1926. He was appointed Gauleiter of Hesse-Nassau South on 1 April 1927, succeeding Karl Linder. On 17 November 1929, he became a member of the municipal Landtag of Wiesbaden and the provincial Landtag of Hesse-Nassau. In January 1930 he became the Nazi faction leader in both bodies and, in addition, was made a member of the Prussian State Council.[3]

In September 1930 Sprenger was elected a member of the Reichstag for electoral constituency 19, Hesse-Nassau. He would become the Nazi faction's specialist on civil service issues and was given a seat on the Reichstag Committee on Civil Service Matters. The same year, he founded a Nazi newspaper in Frankfurt called Frankfurter Volksblatt. From 1930 to 1933 he also sat on the Board of Directors of the German Postal Service, though leaving his employment with the postal service in November 1932. In early 1931, Sprenger joined the National Socialist Motor Corps with membership number 5. In April 1931, Sprenger became the Reich Specialist for Civil Service Questions in the Party Reichsleitung (National Leadership). He would become head of its Civil Service Department from September 1931 through July 1933. Sprenger became the leader of the German Civil Servants Association from April to June 1933, and then continued as the Honorary President of the German Civil Service through the end of the Nazi regime. He was also made a member of the Academy for German Law.[4]

On 15 July 1932 came his appointment as

Hesse-Nassau North & Württemberg-Hohenzollern). This was a short-lived initiative by Gregor Strasser to centralize control over the Gaue. However, it was unpopular with the Gauleiters and was repealed on Strasser's fall from power in December 1932. Sprenger then returned to his Gauleiter position in Hesse-Nassau South.[5]

Jakob Sprenger (center) with Adolf Hitler at the ceremonial groundbreaking for the Frankfurt-Darmstadt Reichsautobahn, 23 September 1933.

When his Gau was merged with the neighboring Gau of Hesse-Darmstadt (comprising the federal

Minister-President and took over leadership of the state government from Philipp Wilhelm Jung on 1 March 1935. Sprenger was promoted to SA-Obergruppenführer on 9 November 1938. He was a holder of the Golden Party Badge.[6]

Involvement in euthanasia and the holocaust

In the Hessian town of

Hadamar Killing Facility where over 14,000 mentally and physically disabled men, women and children were murdered with either poisonous gas or lethal injection as part of the Aktion T4 program between January 1941 and March 1945. This certainly was done with the knowledge of Sprenger, the chief Party and government official in the region.[7]

It is estimated that some 7,000 Jews emigrated from Frankfurt in the time between

ghettos and extermination camps in the east. It is estimated that over 10,600 Jews were deported and that only about 600 Frankfurt Jews survived the war. In May 1943, Sprenger declared Frankfurt to be "Judenfrei".[9]

War years

When the

Hesse-Nassau, Philipp von Hessen, fell out of favor and was removed from office. Subsequently, the province was partitioned in two, effective 1 July 1944, and Sprenger was appointed Oberpräsident of the new Prussian Province of Nassau. He thus united under his control the highest party and governmental offices in the province, as he had already done in the State of Hesse. On 25 September 1944, Sprenger became commander of the Volkssturm forces in his Gau.[10]

On 15 March 1945, with U.S. Army forces already across the

Kreisleiters on the need to keep the German population “in check” by having the Gestapo
arrest “rumor mongers” and send them to concentration camps. He also ordered the destruction of secret documents relating to concentration camps and the “extermination of some families.” The memo also stated:

Germans who do not defend themselves on the approach of the enemy or who wish to flee, are to be shot down ruthlessly, or, where suitable, hanged to frighten the population.[11]

As American armed forces approached Frankfurt, Sprenger issued further orders on 23 March 1945 prohibiting any able-bodied man or woman from leaving the city. Despite this, on the night of 25 to 26 March just before the start of the

Austria where the Russians and U.S. Army were executing a pincer maneuver to envelop the whole country. Trapped, Sprenger and his wife committed suicide by ingesting poison on 7 May 1945.[12]

See also

References

  1. ^ Höffkes 1986, pp. 318–319.
  2. ^ Miller & Schulz 2021, pp. 278–280.
  3. ^ Miller & Schulz 2021, pp. 280, 283.
  4. ^ Miller & Schulz 2021, pp. 284–285.
  5. ^ Orlow 1969, pp. 273, 295.
  6. ^ Miller & Schulz 2021, p. 284-286; 290.
  7. ^ Miller & Schulz 2021, p. 286.
  8. ^ https://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/order-banning-the-emigration-of-jews-from-the-reich
  9. ^ Miller & Schulz 2021, pp. 286–287.
  10. ^ Miller & Schulz 2021, pp. 286–288.
  11. ^ Nazi Conspiracy and Aggression, Volume VII, Document D-728, pp.174-175 Retrieved 7 December 2021
  12. ^ Goeschel 2009, p. 152.

Sources

  • Goeschel, Christian (2009). Suicide in Nazi Germany. OUP Oxford.
    ISBN 978-0191567568
    .
  • 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
    .
  • Orlow, Dietrich (1969). The History of the Nazi Party: 1919–1933. University of Pittsburgh Press.
    ISBN 0-8229-3183-4
    .

External links
Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Jakob_Sprenger&oldid=1218858862"