Gau Swabia

Last updated
Gau Swabia
Gau of Nazi Germany
1928–1945
Flag of German Reich (1935-1945).svg
Flag
Reichsadler.svg
Coat of arms
NS administrative Gliederung 1944.png
Map of Nazi Germany showing its administrative
subdivisions ( Gaue and Reichsgaue ).
Capital Augsburg
Population 
 17 May 1939 [1]
934,311
Government
Gauleiter  
 19281945
Karl Wahl
History 
1 October 1928
8 May 1945
Preceded by
Succeeded by
Flag of Bavaria (lozengy).svg Bavaria
Bavaria Flag of Bavaria (lozengy).svg
Today part of Germany

Gau Swabia (German: Gau Schwaben), formed on 1 October 1928, was an administrative division of Nazi Germany in Swabia, Bavaria, from 1933 to 1945. From 1928 to 1933, it was the regional subdivision of the Nazi Party in that area.

Contents

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, [2] in order to improve administration of the party structure. In the early stages, the borders and leaders of these Gaue fluctuated frequently, mainly due to internal power struggles. [3] The Gau Swabia was, for the most part, identical with today's Regierungsbezirk Swabia .

The Gau from 1926 to 1933

The Gau Swabia came under the leadership of Karl Wahl (1892–1981), later an SS-Obergruppenführer, on 1 October 1928, [4] when the Gau system in Bavaria was formalised, and remained under his control for the duration of the existence of the Gau. Until 1930, Bavaria, as the heartland of the Nazi movement in the 1920s, was seen by Hitler as his personal realm, the local Gaue commonly being called Untergaue (English: Sub-Gaue), to show their dependence on the head of the party. Only when Hitler's ambitions turned national did his interest in Bavarian affairs dwindle. [3] With the end of the internal power struggle, the following six Gaue had been established in Bavaria: [5]

The Gau from 1933 to 1945

With the ascent of the Nazis to power on 30 January 1933, the so-called Machtergreifung , the party immediately began to disassemble the power of the German states, the Länder. It was envisioned by the Nazis that the Party-Gaue would take the place of the old structure. In reality, Hitler was afraid of such a move, fearing it would upset local party leaders and could possibly result in an inner-party power struggle. [6]

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 Gauleiter (English: Gau Leader) took control over their territories, reducing the local Minister Presidents , nominally the highest office in the German states, to figureheads. As such, the development of the Gau from a form of inner-party administration to a political and administrative sub-division of the country was gradual, not sudden, but completed by 1934. [2] The process termed Gleichschaltung took care of all political opposition and the "Law on the Reconstruction of the Reich" of 30 January 1934 can possibly be seen as the final date for the transfer of power from the states to the Gaue.

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 Ludwig Siebert and, after his death in 1942, his successor, Paul Giesler. As a third authority in the still existing state, Franz Ritter von Epp held the office of Reichsstatthalter but wielded no real power. [9]

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 Jews living within the city boundaries and was home to a magnificent synagogue, destroyed during Kristallnacht on 10 November 1938. It also had 200 Jewish men sent to Dachau that day. In the following years, the Jewish population of the city was gradually deported to concentration camps, that of 3 April 1942, numbering 128 persons, being the largest deportation since the Kristallnacht. Outside of the capital, the Jewish population of Swabia was small, only Memmingen and Nördlingen having substantial numbers. [11]

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 Second World War, the power of the Gauleiters, and therefore the power of the Gaue compared to the state government, increased. Many of the Gauleiters were put in charge of the war effort in their Military District (German: Wehrkreis ). [12] Swabia, with its capital Augsburg, was a vital place for the war effort, being home to the manufacturers MAN AG and Messerschmitt. For this reason, Augsburg suffered heavily under allied bombing raids. [8] Many of the companies in Swabia and Augsburg which were in some way involved in the war effort also used slave labour to be able to continue producing. [13] A large number of those died through exhaustion, mistreatment and allied air raids on the production facilities. A monument in Augsburg remembers those victims of the Nazi regime. [14]

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 Volkssturm in a last effort to mobilise all of the male population. Near the end of the war in April 1945, Wahl and Swabia were subordinated to Paul Giesler, the Gauleiter of Gau Munich-Upper Bavaria, who was named Reich Defense Commissioner - South and, in addition to his own Gau, was placed in charge of Swabia and three of the formerly Austrian Gaue (Reichsgau Salzburg, Reichsgau Upper Danube and Reichsgau Tirol-Vorarlberg). [15]

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 American occupation zone. Lindau, at the very south-west of the Gau, became part of the French occupation zone. Political power, at first lying with the occupation authorities, was soon returned to the new Bavarian government. The Regierungsbezirk Swabia, never having formally been dissolved, took control of the civil administration of the region again. Its most pressing issue was the reconstruction of the destroyed cities and the refugee problem, nearly a quarter of the population of Augsburg after the war being refugees and displaced persons. [17]

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 SA , three sections of the SS and six sections of the Hitler Jugend . [19]

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:

Deputy Gauleiter

Second in charge were the Stellvertretende Gauleiter:

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 Holocaust.

Kreis19331939
Augsburg (city)1,030551
Augsburg (land)13193
Babenhausen 5030
Dillingen an der Donau 4-
Donauwörth --
Friedberg 1-
Füssen --
Günzburg 1011
Illertissen 5030
Kempten (city)5025
Kempten (land)2-
Krumbach 6543
Kreis19331939
Lindau 124
Marktoberdorf --
Memmingen (city)16170
Memmingen (land)2621
Mindelheim 137
Neuburg an der Donau 1-
Neu-Ulm 4423
Nördlingen 18669
Schwabmünchen -3
Sonthofen 31
Wertingen 10970
Overall19481051

Source: "Der Gau Schwaben der NSDAP" (in German). Verwaltungsgeschichte.de. Retrieved 2008-06-26.

See also

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Administrative divisions of Nazi Germany</span>

The Gaue were the main administrative divisions of Nazi Germany from 1934 to 1945.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ludwig Siebert</span> Nazi politician and Bavarian Minister-President

Ludwig Siebert was a German lawyer and Nazi Party politician who served as the Minister President of Bavaria in Nazi Germany from 1933 to 1942.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Gau Munich-Upper Bavaria</span> Administrative division of Nazi Germany

The Gau Munich–Upper Bavaria was an administrative division of Nazi Germany in Upper Bavaria from 1933 to 1945. From 1930 to 1933, it was the regional subdivision of the Nazi Party in that area.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Gau Bayreuth</span> Administrative division of Nazi Germany

Gau Bayreuth was an administrative division of Nazi Germany formed by the 19 January 1933 merger of Gaue in Lower Bavaria, Upper Palatinate and Upper Franconia, Bavaria. It was in existence from 1933 to 1945.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Gau Franconia</span> Nazi subdivision

Gau Franconia was an administrative division of Nazi Germany in Middle Franconia, Bavaria, from 1933 to 1945. Before that, from 1929 to 1933, it was the regional subdivision of the Nazi Party in that area. Originally formed as Middle Franconia in 1929, it was renamed Franconia in 1936.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Gau Main Franconia</span> Administrative division of Nazi Germany

The Gau Main Franconia, formed as Gau Lower Franconia on 1 March 1929 and renamed Gau Main Franconia on 30 July 1935, was an administrative division of Nazi Germany in Lower Franconia, Bavaria, from 1933 to 1945. Before that, from 1929 to 1933, it was the regional subdivision of the Nazi Party in that area.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Gau Westmark</span> Administrative division of Nazi Germany

The Gau Westmark was an administrative division of Nazi Germany from 1933 to 1945. From 1925 to 1933, it was a regional subdivision of the Nazi Party.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Karl Wahl</span> German Nazi, Gauleiter of Swabia, SS-Obergruppenführer

Karl Wahl was the Nazi Gauleiter of Gau Swabia from the Gau inception in 1928 until the collapse of Nazi Germany in 1945. After the war, Wahl spent 3½ years in jail before being released in 1949. In 1954, he became the first former Gauleiter to publish his autobiography.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Reichsgau Steiermark</span>

The Reichsgau Styria was an administrative division of Nazi Germany consisting of areas in Styria, Lower Styria and southern parts of Burgenland. It existed from 1938 to 1945.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Reichsgau Oberdonau</span>

The Reichsgau Upper Danube was an administrative division of Nazi Germany, created after the Anschluss in 1938 and dissolved in 1945. It consisted of what is today Upper Austria, parts of Southern Bohemia, and a small part of the Salzkammergut which was annexed from Styria.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Gau Hamburg</span>

The Gau Hamburg was an administrative division of Nazi Germany from 1933 to 1945 in the German city of Hamburg. Before that, from 1925 to 1933, it was the regional subdivision of the Nazi Party in that area.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Gau Saxony</span> Administrative division of Nazi Germany

The Gau Saxony was an administrative division of Nazi Germany from 1933 to 1945 in the German state of Saxony. Before that, from 1925 to 1933, it was the regional subdivision of the Nazi Party in that area.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Gau Moselland</span> Administrative division or Nazi Germany

The Gau Moselland, formed as Gau Koblenz-Trier in June 1931, was an administrative division of Nazi Germany from 1933 to 1945 in the Prussian Rhine Province. Before that, from 1931 to 1933, it was the regional subdivision of the Nazi Party in that area. On 24 January 1941, the Gau was renamed Gau Moselland, Mosel being the German name of the river Moselle. Following the 1940 German conquest of Luxembourg, the country was subsequently annexed on 30 August 1942 and made part of Gau Moselland.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Gau Weser-Ems</span> Administrative division of Nazi Germany

The Gau Weser-Ems, formed on 1 October 1928, was an administrative division of Nazi Germany from 1933 to 1945 in the core part of the Free State of Oldenburg, the state of Bremen and the western parts of the Prussian Province of Hanover. Before that, from 1928 to 1933, it was the regional subdivision of the Nazi Party in that area.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Gau Mecklenburg</span> Administrative division of Nazi Germany from 1933 to 1945

The Gau Mecklenburg, was formed as Gau Mecklenburg-Lübeck on 22 March 1925 and renamed Gau Mecklenburg on 31 March 1937 when Lübeck was transferred to Gau Schleswig-Holstein. It was an administrative division of Nazi Germany from 1933 to 1945 in the Free State of Mecklenburg-Strelitz and the Free State of Mecklenburg-Schwerin. Before that, from 1925 to 1933, it was the regional subdivision of the Nazi Party in that area.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Gau Magdeburg-Anhalt</span> Administrative division of Nazi Germany from 1933 to 1945

The Gau Magdeburg-Anhalt was an administrative division of Nazi Germany from 1933 to 1945. Formed in 1926 as Gau Anhalt-North Saxony Province by the merger of three smaller Gaue it comprised the German state of Anhalt and part of the Prussian province of Saxony. It was renamed Gau Magdeburg-Anhalt on 1 October 1928. From 1926 to 1933, it was the regional subdivision of the Nazi Party in that area.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Gau Westphalia-South</span> German territorial division of the Nazi Party, 1930–1945

The Gau Westphalia-South was an administrative division of Nazi Germany encompassing the Arnsberg Region in the southern part of the Prussian province of Westphalia between 1933 and 1945. From 1931 to 1933, it was the regional subdivision of the Nazi Party for these areas.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Gau Lower Silesia</span>

The Gau Lower Silesia was an administrative division of Nazi Germany from 1941 to 1945 in the Lower Silesia part of the Prussian Province of Silesia. The Gau was created when the Gau Silesia was split into Lower Silesia and Upper Silesia in 1941. The majority of the former Gau became part of Poland after the Second World War, with small parts in the far west becoming part of the future East Germany.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Gau Berlin</span> Administrative division of Nazi Germany

The Gau Berlin was an administrative division of Nazi Germany from 1933 to 1945 in the German capital Berlin. Before that, from 1928 to 1933, it was the regional subdivision of the Nazi Party in that area. From 1926 to 1928 Berlin was part of the Gau Berlin-Brandenburg which was split into two separate Gaue on 1 October 1928.

References

  1. Bayrisches Landesamt für Statistik, accessed 26 June 2008.
  2. 1 2 3 (in German) Die NS-Gaue at the Deutsches Historisches Museum website, accessed 25 June 2008.
  3. 1 2 (in German) Gau (NSDAP) Die bayrischen Gaue bis zur Machtergreifung 1933 at the Historisches Lexikon Bayerns website, accessed 25 June 2008.
  4. (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.
  5. (in German) NSDAP Gaue und Gauleiter at the Historisches Lexikon Bayerns website, accessed 25 June 2008.
  6. 1 2 (in German) Gau (NSDAP) Kontinuität der Gaugliederung nach 1933 at the Historisches Lexikon Bayerns website, accessed 25 June 2008.
  7. Working Towards the Fuhrer: Essays in Honour of Sir Ian Kershaw, Google book review accessed 25 June 2008.
  8. 1 2 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.
  9. 1 2 (in German) Gauleiter Die bayrischen Gauleiter nach 1933 at the Historisches Lexikon Bayerns website, accessed 25 June 2008.
  10. (in German) Sonthofen website Virtueller Stadtrundgang, Ehemalige Ordensburg, accessed 25 June 2008.
  11. (in German) Stadt und Landkreis Memmingen at Verwaltungsgeschichte.de, accessed 26 June 2008.
  12. (in German) Gauleiter Dezentralisierungsschübe 1936 to 1939 at the Historisches Lexikon Bayerns website, accessed 25 June 2008.
  13. German Firms That Used Slave or Forced Labor During the Nazi Era at the Jewish virtual library website, accessed 25 June 2008.
  14. (in German) Alternativer Stadtrundgang, accessed 28 June 2008.
  15. 1 2 (in German) Gauleiter Die bayrischen Gauleiter nach 1942 at the Historisches Lexikon Bayerns, accessed 25 June 2008.
  16. (in German) Gauleiter Die bayrischen Gauleiter vor dem Zusammenbruch 1945 at the Historisches Lexikon Bayerns website, accessed 25 June 2008.
  17. (in German) Verwaltungsgeschichte.de Stadt und Landkreis Augsburg, accessed 26 June 2008.
  18. "Es ist das deutsche Herz" [It's the German heart]. spiegel.de (in German). Der Spiegel. 22 December 1954. Retrieved 26 March 2016.
  19. (in German) Gau (NSDAP) Regionale Organisation der Gliederungen und angeschlossenen Verbände der NSDAP at the Historisches Lexikon Bayerns website, accessed 25 June 2008.