Karl Kleikamp was the son of the physician Karl Kleikamp and his wife Anna, née Kletzin. In 1912 he passed his Abitur in Belgard an der Persante and then – like his younger brother Gustav Kleikamp – embarked on an officer's career in the Prussian army. He was wounded in World War I in 1915 and became a Russian prisoner of war at the end of the war. Kleikamp retired from the army as a captain and studied law and political science at the universities of Berlin and Greifswald. In 1925 he married Katherine Kleikamp (1897–1988), who later became a politician. In 1928 he joined the SPD and in 1931 the Reichsbanner Schwarz-Rot-Gold. After passing the Second State Examination in Law in 1929, he worked in the Prussian Ministry of the Interior.

In the course of the "seizure of power" by the National Socialists, Kleikamp was initially transferred and sent into retirement in 1934, citing the "Law for the Restoration of the Professional Civil Service". In 1939 he became a legal clerk at the C. Lorenz company in Berlin-Tempelhof and in 1942 he was conscripted to the Raw Materials Management Office.

After the Second World War, Kleikamp became a judge at the Tiergarten District Court in May 1945. Along with Erich Gniffke, Otto Grotewohl, Gustav Dahrendorf and others, he published a month later, on 15 June, the call for the founding of the "Central Committee of the SPD" in the Soviet-occupied part of Germany. From August of that year, Kleikamp was Vice President of the German Central Administration of Justice in the Soviet occupation zone. In 1947 he was elected district councillor for finance and deputy district mayor in the (West Berlin) district of Tiergarten.

In the course of the founding of the Free University of Berlin in July 1948, Kleikamp was commissioned to organize a new faculty of law and political science ("Kleikamp Committee"). He was able to win over well-known jurists, such as Siegfried Loewenthal, Gerhard Nehlert (1912–1990), Johannes Eylau, Ernst Knoll (1889–1965) and Ernst Strassmann.

In the 1950 Berlin election, Kleikamp was elected to the Berlin House of Representatives, but he resigned in March 1952 due to increasing health problems. He held the office of district councillor until his death.

The eulogy was given by the chairman of the SPD Berlin, Franz Neumann.

Johann Georg Hiedler (28 February 1792 – 9 February 1857) was a journeyman miller[1] who was officially considered to be the paternal grandfather of Adolf Hitler by Nazi Germany. However, whether Hiedler was in fact Hitler's biological paternal grandfather remains disputed by modern historians.[2]

Life[edit]

Johann Georg Hiedler was born to Martin Hiedler (11 November 1762 – 10 January 1829) and his wife Anna Maria Göschl (23 August 1760 – 7 December 1854) in Spital – a part of Weitra, Austria. He was baptized as a Roman Catholic.[3] Hiedler left his family farm and applied for an apprenticeship in milling, and he ended up successfully completing the required qualifications of the apprenticeship, becoming a journeyman miller and lived a nomadic lifestyle.[1] He married a peasant girl in Hoheneich in late 1823, but she died five months later in 1824.[1]

On 10 May 1842, Hiedler married Maria Schicklgruber and became the legal stepfather to her illegitimate five-year-old son, Alois. It was claimed later that Johann Georg had fathered Alois prior to his marriage to Maria, although Alois had been declared illegitimate on his birth certificate and baptism papers; the claim that Johann Georg was the true father of Alois was not made after the marriage of Maria and Johann Georg or during their lifetime. In June 1876, Johann's brother Johann Nepomuk Hiedler and Alois both returned to Weitra and Johann declared before a Catholic notary that Johann Georg was Alois' biological father, who had abandoned the child as he himself was living in extreme poverty and was unable to raise him, and had handed over his fatherhood responsibilities to Johann Nepomuk.[4] With the help of three close relatives, Alois was legitimized, and officially changed his name on 6 January 1877, to Alois Hitler, and the parish priest in Döllersheim where the original birth certificate of Alois resided, then changed the details on the baptismal certificate from "Catholic, Male, Illegitimate" to "Johann Georg Hitler" under his father's name.[5] He was 39 years old and was known well in the community as Alois Schicklgruber.[6]

Johann Georg Hiedler is one of two people most cited by modern historians as having possibly been the actual paternal grandfather of Adolf Hitler. The other one is Johann Nepomuk Hiedler himself, the younger brother of Johann Georg.

During the Nuremberg trials, a claim was made by Hans Frank that Hitler had commissioned him to investigate Hitler's family in 1930 after a "blackmail letter" had been received from Hitler's nephew, William Patrick Hitler, who allegedly threatened to reveal embarrassing facts about his uncle's ancestry. Frank said that the investigation uncovered evidence that Maria Schicklgruber, Hitler's paternal grandmother, had been working as a cook in the household of a Jewish man named Leopold Frankenberger before she gave birth to Hitler's father, Alois, out of wedlock. Frank claimed that he had obtained from a relative of Hitler's by marriage a collection of letters between Maria Schicklgruber and a member of the Frankenberger family that discussed a stipend for her after she left the family's employ. According to Frank, Hitler told him that the letters did not prove that the Frankenberger son was his grandfather but rather his grandmother had merely extorted money from Frankenberger by threatening to claim his paternity of her illegitimate child.[7]

Frank accepted this explanation, but added that it was still just possible that Hitler had some Jewish ancestry. But he thought it unlikely because, "from his entire demeanor, the fact that Adolf Hitler had no Jewish blood coursing through his veins seems so clearly evident that nothing more need be said on this."[8]

Given that all Jews had been expelled from the province of Styria (which includes Graz) in the 15th century and were not allowed to return until the 1860s, decades after Alois' birth, scholars such as Ian Kershaw and John Toland dismiss as baseless the Frankenberger hypothesis, which before had only Frank's speculation to support it.[9][10] There is no evidence outside of Frank's statements for the existence of a "Leopold Frankenberger" living in Graz in the 1830s, and Frank's story is inaccurate on several points such as the claim that Maria Schicklgruber came from "Leonding near Linz", when in fact she came from the hamlet of Strones near the village of Döllersheim.[11]

Alois Hitler (born Alois Schicklgruber;[1] 7 June 1837 – 3 January 1903) was an Austrian civil servant in the customs service, and the father of Adolf Hitler, dictator of Germany from 1933 to 1945.

Alois Schicklgruber was born out of wedlock. His mother was Maria Schicklgruber, but his biological father remains unknown. This uncertain parentage has led to claims that Alois's third wife, Klara (Adolf's mother), may have also been either Alois's first cousin once removed or his half-niece.

Alois married his first wife, Anna, in 1873. In 1876, Alois convinced the Austrian local authorities to acknowledge his deceased stepfather Johann Georg Hiedler as his biological father. This meant that Klara legally became Alois's first cousin once removed.[2] Alois then legally changed his last name to that of his deceased stepfather Johann, but the authorities misspelled the last name as "Hitler" for unknown reasons.

Also in 1876, while Alois was still married to his first wife, Anna, he hired his relative Klara as a household servant, and began an affair with her. Their relationship continued in secrecy until Alois's second wife, Franziska, died and Klara became pregnant, which prompted Alois to marry her in 1885. According to a close friend, Alois was "awfully rough" with his wife Klara and "hardly ever spoke a word to her at home". Alois treated his children with similar contempt and often beat them.[3][4]

Early life

Alois Hitler was born Alois Schicklgruber in the hamlet of Strones, a parish of Döllersheim in the Waldviertel of northwest Lower Austria; his mother was a 42-year-old unmarried peasant Maria Schicklgruber, whose family had lived in the area for generations. At his baptism in Döllersheim, the space for his father's name on the baptismal certificate was left blank and the priest wrote "illegitimate".[5][6][7] His mother cared for Alois in a house she shared with her elderly father, Johannes Schicklgruber.

Home of Johann Nepomuk Hiedler

Sometime later, a man named Johann Georg Hiedler moved in with the Schicklgrubers. He married Maria when Alois was five, and Maria died when Alois was nine. By the age of 10, Alois had been sent to live with Johann Georg Hiedler's younger brother, Johann Nepomuk Hiedler, who owned a farm in the nearby village of Spital (south of Weitra). Alois attended elementary school and took lessons in shoemaking from a local cobbler. Growing up in the same household with Alois was Johanna, the mother of his future wife Klara.[8]

At the age of 13, Alois left Johann Nepomuk Hiedler's farm in Spital and went to Vienna as an apprentice cobbler, working there for about five years. In response to a recruitment drive by the Austrian government offering employment in the civil service to people from rural areas, Alois joined the frontier guards (customs service) of the Austrian Finance Ministry in 1855 at the age of 18.

Uncertain identity of biological father

Historians have proposed various candidates as Alois's biological father: Johann Georg Hiedler, his younger brother Johann Nepomuk Hiedler (or Hüttler), and Leopold Frankenberger (a purportedly Jewish man, whose existence has never been found to be documented).[9] Johann Georg Hiedler became the stepfather of five-year-old Alois and many years later was posthumously declared the legal birth father of Alois.[10]

According to historian Frank McDonough, the most plausible theory is that Johann Georg Hiedler was actually the birth father. But the birth father may alternatively have been his younger brother Johann Nepomuk Hiedler. Regardless of how Nepomuk was related to Alois, if at all, Nepomuk was certainly the maternal grandfather of Alois's third wife (Adolf Hitler's mother) Klara.

Historian Werner Maser suggests that Alois's biological father was not Johann Georg Hiedler, but rather Johann Nepomuk Hiedler, who raised Alois through adolescence and later willed to Alois a considerable portion of his life savings, although he never publicly admitted to being Alois's natural father. According to Maser, Nepomuk was a married farmer who had an affair with Maria Schicklgruber and then arranged to have his single brother Johann Georg Hiedler marry Alois's mother Maria to provide a cover for Nepomuk's desire to assist and care for Alois without upsetting his wife.[11] If the theory is true, then Alois's third wife Klara was also Alois's half-niece, but Adolf Hitler biographer Joachim Fest believes that any attempts to pin down whether Johann Georg Hiedler or Johann Nepomuk Hiedler was Alois's father will "peter out in the obscurity of confused relationships marked by meanness, dullness, and rustic bigotry".[12]

In 1931 Adolf Hitler ordered the Schutzstaffel (SS) to investigate the rumors regarding his ancestry, and they found no evidence of any Jewish ancestors.[13] After the Nuremberg Laws came into effect in Nazi Germany, Hitler ordered the genealogist Rudolf Koppensteiner to publish a large illustrated genealogical tree showing his ancestry. This was published in the book Die Ahnentafel des Führers ("The Pedigree of the Leader") in 1937 and purported to show that Hitler's family were all Austrian Germans with no Jewish ancestry and that Hitler had an unblemished "Aryan" pedigree.[14][15] Alois himself had claimed Johann Georg Hiedler was his biological father, and a priest accordingly amended Alois's birth certificate in 1876, which was considered certified proof for Hitler's ancestry; thus Hitler was considered a "pure" Aryan.[14] Also in 1876, Alois hired 16-year-old Klara as a household servant.

Although Johann Georg Hiedler was considered the officially accepted paternal grandfather of Adolf Hitler by the Third Reich, the question of who his grandfather really was has caused much speculation, and the answer remains unknown.[16][17] As German historian Joachim Fest wrote:

The indulgence normally accorded to a man's origins is out of place in the case of Adolf Hitler, who made documentary proof of Aryan ancestry a matter of life and death for millions of people but himself possessed no such document. He did not know who his grandfather was. Intensive research into his origins, accounts of which have been distorted by propagandist legends and which are in any case confused and murky, has failed so far to produce a clear picture. National Socialist versions skimmed over the facts and emphasised, for example, that the population of the so-called Waldviertel, from which Hitler came, had been "tribally German since the Migration of the Peoples", or more generally, that Hitler had "absorbed the powerful forces of this German granite landscape into his blood through his father".[18]

Following the war, Adolf Hitler's former lawyer, Hans Frank, claimed that Hitler told him in 1930 that one of his relatives was trying to blackmail him by threatening to reveal his alleged Jewish ancestry.[19] Adolf Hitler asked Frank to find out the facts. Frank says he determined that at the time Maria Schicklgruber gave birth to Alois, she was working as a household cook in the town of Graz, that her employers were a Jewish family named Frankenberger, and that her child might have been conceived out of wedlock with the family's 19-year-old son, Leopold Frankenberger.[20]

Opponents of the Frankenberger hypothesis have asserted that all Jews had been expelled from the province of Styria – which includes Graz – in the 15th century by Maximilian I, and that they were not officially allowed to return until the 1860s, when Alois was around 30. Also, there is no evidence of a Frankenberger family living in Graz at that time. Scholars such as Ian Kershaw and Brigitte Hamann dismiss the Frankenberger hypothesis, which had only Frank's speculation to support it, as baseless.[21][22][23][24]

Kershaw cites several stories circulating in the 1920s about Hitler's alleged Jewish ancestry, including one about a "Baron Rothschild" in Vienna in whose household Maria Schicklgruber had worked for some time as a servant.[8] Kershaw discusses and also lists Hitler's family tree in his biography of Adolf Hitler and gives no support to the Frankenberger tale. Hans Frank himself seemed skeptical about Hitler's possible Jewish ancestry, saying "The fact that Adolf Hitler had no Jewish blood in his veins, seems, from what has been his whole manner, so blatant to me that it needs no further word".[25][22] Further, Frank's story contains several inaccuracies and contradictions, such as the statement Frank had made that Maria Schicklgruber came from "Leonding near Linz", when in fact she came from the hamlet of Strones, near the village of Döllersheim.[26]

In 2019, gender psychologist Leonard Sax published a paper title "Aus den Gemeinden von Burgenland: revisiting the question of Adolf Hitler's paternal grandfather".[27] Sax claims that Hamann, Kershaw, and other leading historians relied, either directly or indirectly, on a single source for the claim that no Jews were living in Graz prior to 1856: that source was the Austrian historian Nikolaus von Preradovich, whom Sax showed was a fervent admirer of Adolf Hitler. Sax cited primary Austrian sources from the 1800s to demonstrate that there was in fact "eine kleine, nun angesiedelte Gemeinde" – "a small, now settled community" – of Jews living in Graz prior to 1856. Sax's article has been picked up by a number of news outlets[28] and Sax was interviewed by Eric Metaxas on this topic, on Metaxas' TV show.[citation needed] Sax argued that one factor in Hitler's extreme antisemitism was "his intense need to prove" that he was not Jewish.[29] British historian Richard J. Evans dismissed Sax's arguments and claims and stated: "Even if there were Jews living in Graz in the 1830s, at the time when Adolf Hitler's father Alois was born, this does not prove anything at all about the identity of Hitler's paternal grandfather."[29] Evans argued that speculation about Hitler's ancestry persists "because some people have found his deep and murderous anti-Semitism hard to explain unless there were personal motives behind it ... This seems to be the motivation for Dr. Leonard Sax, a psychiatrist, not a historian, making his claims".[29]

Ron Rosenbaum suggests that Frank, who had turned against Nazism after 1945 but remained an anti-Semitic fanatic, made the claim that Hitler had Jewish ancestry as a way of proving that Hitler was a Jew and not an Aryan.[30]

A genetic study that collected DNA of 38 living relatives of Hitler concluded that, with high probability, Hitler's genotype included the E1b1b DNA haplogroup.[31] An author of the study stated:

I never wrote that [Adolf] Hitler was a Jew, or that he had a Jewish grandfather. I only wrote that Hitler's haplogroup is E1b1b, being more common among Afroasiatic speakers than among overall Germans.[32]

Career as customs officialAlois Hitler regularly wore his uniform even after retiring, and insisted on being addressed as Herr Oberoffizial Hitler,[33] c. 1897–1899.

Initially Alois Schicklgruber made steady progress in the semi-military profession of customs official. The work involved frequent reassignments and he served in a variety of places across Austria. By 1860, after five years of service, he reached the rank of Finanzwach-Oberaufseher (Revenue guard Senior warden, analogous to an Army Corporal). By 1864, after special training and examinations, Schicklgruber had advanced to provisorischer Amtsassistent (provisional Office assistant, analogous to a provisional Second lieutenant) and was serving in Linz, Austria. He later became a Zollamts-Official (Inspector of customs, i.e. (First) Lieutenant) posted at Braunau am Inn in 1875. Then his career came suddenly to a nearly dead end when it took 17 years to his last promotion. In 1892, he eventually rose to provisorischer resp., and in 1894 to definitiver Zolloberamts-Official (definite Senior inspector of customs, i.e. Army captain). Schicklgruber (from 1877 under his new surname Hitler) could go no higher because he lacked the necessary school degrees.[34][35]

Change of surname

As a rising young junior customs official, he used his birth name of Schicklgruber, but in mid-1876, 39 years old and well established in his career, he asked permission to use his stepfather's family name. He appeared before the parish priest in Döllersheim and asserted that his father was Johann Georg Hiedler, who had married his mother and now wished to legitimize him. Three relatives appeared with him as witnesses, one of whom was Johann Nepomuk, Hiedler's brother. The priest agreed to amend the birth certificate, the civil authorities automatically processed the church's decision and Alois Schicklgruber had a new name. The official change, registered at the government office in 

Johann Nepomuk Hiedler, alternatively spelled as Johann Nepomuk Hüttler (19 March 1807 – 17 September 1888), was the maternal great-grandfather[1] and possibly also the paternal grandfather of Adolf Hitler.[2][3]

His first two names are the same as the name of the Bohemian Saint Johann von Nepomuk. Some people consider this name as evidence that Nepomuk (and therefore his great-grandson Adolf Hitler) had Czech ancestry. However, Johann von Pomuk/Johann Nepomuk, was an important saint for Bohemians of both Czech and German ethnicity, and thus Nepomuk thus may only indicate an association with Bohemia in general, or to someone else named Johann Nepomuk, because there is no evidence that Hitler's ancestors were of Czech ancestry.[4]

Nepomuk became a relatively prosperous farmer and married Eva Maria Decker (16 December 1792 - 28 December 1873). The couple had three children together: Johanna Hiedler (19 January 1830 – 8 February 1906), Walburga Hüttler (11 April 1832 – ?), Josefa Hüttler (15 February 1834 – 13 May 1859).

On 15 September 1848, Johanna married Johann Baptist Pölzl, a peasant farmer. The couple would eventually have five sons and six daughters, and only three of these children would survive to adulthood. Walburga married Josef Romeder (born in 1835) on 25 January 1853, but had no children.[5] Josefa married Leopold Seiler (born 14 November 1832) on 1 March 1859, but had no children and died soon after on 13 May 1859.

Johann Nepomuk's wife, Eva Maria, died 28 December 1873, at the age 71 in Spital, Weitra. Johanna's daughter, Nepomuk's granddaughter, Klara Pölzl, would eventually become the third wife of Alois Hitler.[6] Alois was the illegitimate son of Maria Schicklgruber, who had married Johann's older brother, Johann Georg Hiedler on 10 May 1842, who may in fact have been Alois' natural father. Alois would claim in his later life that Johann Georg Hiedler was not his stepfather, but in fact his biological father, since Johann Nepomuk informally adopted Alois during Alois' childhood. In June 1876, Johann and Alois both returned to Weitra and Johann testified before a Catholic notary that Johann Georg was Alois' biological father, who had abandoned the child and handed over his fatherhood responsibilities to Johann Nepomuk.[7] On 6 January 1877, Alois was legitimized as 'Alois Hitler' and the priest then changed the details on the baptismal certificate from "Catholic, Male, Illegitimate" to "Johann Georg Hitler" under his father's name.[8] However, it is also possible that Johann Nepomuk himself was, in fact, Alois' natural father but could not acknowledge this publicly due to his marriage.[5]

Nepomuk willed Alois a considerable portion of his life savings. Nepomuk's granddaughter, Klara, had a protracted affair with Alois before marrying him on 7 January 1885 in Braunau Am Inn after Alois' second wife, Franziska Matzelsberger had died on 10 August 1884 from tuberculosis.[9][10] Klara had 6 children with Alois, and gave birth to Adolf Hitler on 20 April 1889.

George Washington Hitler (1845–1928) • FamilySearch

When George Washington Hitler was born on 29 April 1845, in Pickaway, Ohio, United States, his father, George Hitler II, was 46 and his mother, Hannah Ludwig, was 38. He married Ida May Lutz on 21 February 1878, in Pickaway, Ohio, United States. They were the parents of at least 3 sons and 2 daughters. He lived in Ohio, United States in 1928 and Circleville, Pickaway, Ohio, United States in 1928. He died on 11 March 1928, in Pickaway, Ohio, United States, at the age of 82, and was buried in Ludwig Cemetery, Circleville Township, Pickaway, Ohio, United States.  

1846

Age 1

U.S. acquires vast tracts of Mexican territory in wake of Mexican War including California and New Mexico.

1860 · Ohio supports the Union side of the Civil War

Age 15

Although divided as a state on the subject of slavery, Ohio participated in the Civil War on the Union's side, providing over 300,000 troops. Ohio provided the 3rd largest number of troops by any Union state.

1867 · Sorry Mr. President, You can't do that.
Age 22

This Act was to restrict the power of the President removing certain office holders without approval of the Senate. It denies the President the power to remove any executive officer who had been appointed by the president with the advice and consent of the Senate, unless the Senate approved the removal during the next full session of Congress. The Amendment was later repealed.

1868 · Impeach the President!

Age 23

Caused by many crimes and breaking the Tenure of Office Act, Many Senators and House Representatives became angry with President Johnson and began discussions of his Impeachment. After a special session of Congress, the Articles of Impeachment were approved by the House and then the Senate. Making Andrew Johnson the first President to be Impeached.

1890 · The Sherman Antitrust Act

Age 45

This Act tried to prevent the raising of prices by restricting trade. The purpose of the Act was to preserve a competitive marketplace to protect consumers from abuse.

1890 · Woman's Suffrage

Age 45

An organization formed in favor of women's suffrages. By combining the National Woman Suffrage Association and the American Woman Suffrage Association, the NAWSA eventually increased in membership up to two million people. It is still one of the largest voluntary organizations in the nation today and held a major role in passing the Nineteenth Amendment.

1909 · The NAACP is formed

Age 64

Organized as a civil rights organization, The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People is a bi-racial endeavor to advance justice for African Americans. It is one of the oldest civil rights organizations in the nation.

1910 · The BSA is Made

Age 65

Being modeled after the Boy Scout Association in England, The Boy Scouts of America is a program for young teens to learn traits, life and social skills, and many other things to remind the public about the general act of service and kindness to others.

George Hitler II (1798–1884) • FamilySearch

When George Hitler II was born on 27 September 1798, in Somerset, Pennsylvania, United States, his father, George Hitler, was 35 and his mother, Susannah Gay, was 25. He married Hannah Ludwig on 14 June 1829, in Circleville, Pickaway, Ohio, United States. They were the parents of at least 3 sons and 5 daughters. He lived in Circleville Township, Pickaway, Ohio, United States in 1860 and Ohio, United States in 1870. He died on 6 January 1884, in Circleville, Pickaway, Ohio, United States, at the age of 85, and was buried in Circleville, Pickaway, Ohio, United States.  

Timeline of Hitler II:

1800 Movement to Washington D.C.

Age 2

While the growth of the new nation was exponential, the United States didn’t have permanent location to house the Government. The First capital was temporary in New York City but by the second term of George Washington the Capital moved to Philadelphia for the following 10 years. Ultimately during the Presidency of John Adams, the Capital found a permanent home in the District of Columbia.

1803

Age 5

Ohio was the first state admitted to the Union from the Northwest Territory.

1821 · Financial Relief for Public Land

Age 23

A United States law to provide financial relief for the purchasers of Public Lands. It permitted the earlier buyers, that couldn't pay completely for the land, to return the land back to the government. This granted them a credit towards the debt they had on land. Congress, also, extended credit to buyer for eight more years. Still while being in economic panic and the shortage of currency made by citizens, the government hoped that with the time extension, the economy would improve.

1836 · Kirtland Temple Dedicated

Age 38

On March 27, 1836, the Kirtland Temple was dedicated.

1846

Age 48

U.S. acquires vast tracts of Mexican territory in wake of Mexican War including California and New Mexico.

1860 · Ohio supports the Union side of the Civil War

Age 62

Although divided as a state on the subject of slavery, Ohio participated in the Civil War on the Union's side, providing over 300,000 troops. Ohio provided the 3rd largest number of troops by any Union state.

1865

Age 67

Abraham Lincoln is assassinated by John Wilkes Booth.

1877 · First National Strike in U.S. Begins In Pittsburgh Against Pennsylvania Railroad

Age 79

Coming out of an economic crisis, everyone was worried when cuts started happening in the railroad. They went on what would the great railroad strike of 1877.  

Hannah Ludwig (1807–1863) • FamilySearch

When Hannah Ludwig was born on 24 April 1807, in West Hamburg, Tilden Township, Berks, Pennsylvania, United States, her father, Thomas Ludwig, was 18 and her mother, Catherine, was 18. She married George Hitler II on 14 June 1829, in Circleville, Pickaway, Ohio, United States. They were the parents of at least 3 sons and 5 daughters. She lived in Circleville, Pickaway, Ohio, United States in 1850 and Circleville Township, Pickaway, Ohio, United States in 1860. She died on 5 July 1863, in Ohio, United States, at the age of 56, and was buried in Ludwig Cemetery, Circleville Township, Pickaway, Ohio, United States.

1808

Age 1

Atlantic slave trade abolished.

1810 · Change of capital city

Age 3

Zanesville becomes the new state capital.

1825 · The Crimes Act

Age 18

The Crimes Act was made to provide a clearer punishment of certain crimes against the United States. Part of it includes: Changing the maximum sentence of imprisonment to be increased from seven to ten years and changing the maximum fine from $5,000 to $10,000.

1830 · The Second Great Awakening

Age 23

Being a second spiritual and religious awakening, like the First Great Awakening, many Churches began to spring up from other denominations. Many people began to rapidly join the Baptist and Methodist congregations. Many converts to these religions believed that the Awakening was the precursor of a new millennial age.

1836 · Remember the Alamo

Age 29

Being a monumental event in the Texas Revolution, The Battle of the Alamo was a thirteen-day battle at the Alamo Mission near San Antonio. In the early morning of the final battle, the Mexican Army advanced on the Alamo. Quickly being overrun, the Texian Soldiers quickly withdrew inside the building. The battle has often been overshadowed by events from the Mexican–American War, But the Alamo gradually became known as a national battle site and later named an official Texas State Shrine.

1836 · Kirtland Temple Dedicated

Age 29

On March 27, 1836, the Kirtland Temple was dedicated.1860 · Ohio supports the Union side of the Civil War

Age 53

Although divided as a state on the subject of slavery, Ohio participated in the Civil War on the Union's side, providing over 300,000 troops. Ohio provided the 3rd largest number of troops by any Union state.

1863

Age 56

Abraham Lincoln issues Emancipation Proclamation, declaring slaves in Confederate states to be free.  

Susanah L Hitler (1840–1928) • FamilySearch

Shepherd's Whey Creamery – Fine Artisan Goat Milk Cheese (shepherdswheycreamery.com)

Hitler Youth: Growing up in Hitler's Shadow is a non-fiction children's book written by Susan Campbell Bartoletti, and published in 2005. It received the Newbery Honor medal in 2006.[1]

The book is a study of the Hitler Youth, a paramilitary organization of children and young people dedicated to furthering the aims of the Third Reich, and was organized around interviews with 12 former members and their experiences in the organization.

One episode of the book is fleshed out into her novel The Boy Who Dared, about Helmuth Hübener, the youngest person to be sentenced to death by the Nazis during World War II.

When Susanah L Hitler was born on 29 March 1840, in Pickaway, Ohio, United States, her father, George Hitler II, was 41 and her mother, Hannah Ludwig, was 32. She married Alexander F. Ross on 25 December 1873, in Franklin, Ohio, United States. They were the parents of at least 1 son and 1 daughter. She lived in Ohio, United States in 1870 and Texas Township, Kalamazoo, Michigan, United States for about 6 years. She died on 30 May 1928, at the age of 88, and was buried in Oshtemo Township, Kalamazoo, Michigan, United States.  

Eddie Meduza - Wikipedia

Errol Leonard Norstedt (17 June 1948 – 17 January 2002), better known by his stage name Eddie Meduza, was a Swedish composer and musician working mainly in the rockabilly genre.

Music career[edit]Themes and behaviour[edit]

Many of Meduza's songs are about alcohol, women, and cars, often with obscene lyrics. Some songs are politically oriented, with many aimed against the various Swedish governments in power during his musical career.

One of Meduza's personas was the vulgar E. Hitler.[1] In this guise he generally recorded more offbeat recordings like "E.Hitler skiter" (a recording of his own bowel movements) and sexually explicit material. The E. Hitler recordings were only available on tape by mail order directly from Meduza. On tour, he urged his audience to drink vodka to become as drunk as he was during his performances, to the tune of his "Mera brännvin" ("More booze").[2]

Meduza also recorded serious rockabilly songs with a distinct 1950s flavour in his own studio, called Studio Ronka[1] (from runka, Swedish for male masturbation similar to English wank). He played most of the instruments himself. He often got bad reviews from the press, notably from Expressen journalist Mats Olsson, to which Meduza replied by writing songs such as "Kuken står på Mats Olsson" ("Mats Olsson has a hard-on"), "Mats Olsson är en jävla bög" ("Mats Olsson is a damn fag") and "Mats Olsson runkar kuken" ("Mats Olsson wanks his cock"). He reportedly said that no matter what he did it was never good enough for the critics.[3]

Meduza is also remembered for the first recorded appearance of future hair metal guitarist John Norum (Dokken, UFO, Europe), who played on two of his albums.

Albums[edit]

Errol Norstedts' first album was Errol, released in 1975 under his real name. This album consists mostly of dansband music, but also includes a humorous song called "Snus-kig Blues" about snus. He began calling himself Eddie Meduza in 1978 with the release of the single "Punkjävlar" ("Punk bastards"). His first album as Eddie Meduza was released in 1979, called Eddie Meduza & Roarin' Cadillacs, mostly consisting of rock and roll and ballads in English. In 1980, Meduza released his next album, Garagetaper, with a front cover parodying the cover of Frank Zappa's 1979 album Joe's Garage. Meduza's breakthrough came in 1981 with the album Gasen I Botten, which includes some of his more well-known songs such as "Mera Brännvin" and "Volvo".

Alcoholism and death[edit]

According to Meduza, he developed alcoholism in the early 1980s during periods of intense touring. In 1981, he was convicted of drink-driving and spent one month in prison. Nevertheless, he continued drinking heavily, and a year after his release, he suffered a nervous breakdown. In 1993 he collapsed on his way to perform at a concert and was diagnosed with ventricular hypertrophy (enlarged heart). He was warned by doctors that he would die if he drank again, and initially made major changes to his lifestyle,[4] stopped drinking and started working out. However, in the late 1990s, suffering a worsening depression, he started drinking heavily again, and this caused his health to deteriorate further. On 17 January 2002, Meduza died of a heart attack at his home in Småland in southern Sweden, aged 53. He was cremated and his ashes scattered, in the summer of 2003, outside Rossö in Kosterfjorden, Bohuslän.[5] He is survived by his wife and children.

Popularity in Mexico[edit]

Meduza's song "Reaktorn läck i Barsebäck" ("The reactor leaking in Barsebäck") from the 1980 album Garagetaper has become popular in Mexico, under the title "Himno a la banda".[6]

Discography[edit]Albums[edit]1975 – Errol1979 – Eddie Meduza & Roarin' Cadillacs1980 – Garagetaper1981 – Gasen I Botten1982 – För Jævle Braa!1982 – 21 Värsta!!!1983 – Dåren É Lös1984 – West a Fool Away1985 – Ain't Got No Cadillac1986 – Collection (2 LP)1989 – Dom Dåraktigaste Dumheterna Digitalt (Röven 1)1989 – Dom Dåraktigaste Dumheterna Digitalt (Röven 2)1990 – På Begäran1990 – You Ain't My Friend1991 – Collection (CD)1995 – Harley Davidson1997 – Silver Wheels1998 – Värsting Hits1998 – Eddie Meduzas Bästa1999 – Väg 131999 – Dance Mix1999 – Alla Tiders Fyllekalas Vol. 11999 – Alla Tiders Fyllekalas Vol. 21999 – Alla Tiders Fyllekalas Vol. 32000 – Alla Tiders Fyllekalas Vol. 42000 – Alla Tiders Fyllekalas Vol. 52000 – Alla Tiders Fyllekalas Vol. 62001 – Scoop2001 – Alla Tiders Fyllekalas Vol. 72001 – Alla Tiders Fyllekalas Vol. 82001 – Alla Tiders Fyllekalas Vol. 92002 – Just Like An Eagle2002 – Alla Tiders Fyllekalas Vol. 102002 – Alla Tiders Fyllekalas Vol. 112002 – Alla Tiders Fyllekalas Vol. 122003 – Live(s)! CD+DVD2003 – 100% Eddie Meduza2003 – Live(s)! CD2004 – Rock'n Rebel2005 – Alla Tiders Fyllekalas Vol. 132005 – Alla Tiders Fyllekalas Vol. 142005 – Alla Tiders Fyllekalas Vol. 152005 – Alla Tiders Fyllekalas Vol. 162005 – Raggare2006 – Dragspelsrock2006 – Dubbelidioterna2010 – Rockabilly Rebel2014 – En Jävla Massa Hits2014 – Jag Och Min Far (with Anders Norstedt)2016 – The Lost TapeCassettes[edit]1976 – E. Hitler & Luftwaffe: Mannen Utan Hjärna1977 – E. Hilter & Luftkaffe Nr. 11977 – E. Hitler & Luftwaffe Nr. 21979 – E. Hitler & Luftwaffe Nr. 3 Del 11979 – E. Hitler & Luftwaffe Nr. 3 Del 21980 – Greatest Hits1983 – Greatest Hits I1983 – Greatest Hits II1983 – Dubbelidioterna1984 – Eddie Meduza Presenterar Lester C. Garreth1985 – Hej Hitler!1985 – Legal Bootleg (cassette box consisting of "Första Försöken", "Fortsättning Följer", "Mera Material", "Svensktoppsrulle", "Fräckisar" and "Bonnatwist")1986 – Raggare1986 – Collection Del 11986 – Collection Del 21987 – Greatest Hits1987 – Jag Blir Aldrig Riktigt Vuxen, Jag!1987 – E. Hitler På Dansrotundan1987 – Börje Lundins Julafton1988 – Radio Ronka 11988 – Börje Lundins Kräftkalas1988 – Dårarnas Julafton1989 – Idiotlåtar1989 – Dårarnas Midsommarafton1990 – Radio Ronka 21993 – Jubelidioterna1994 – Eddies Garderob1994 – Kräftkalas Två1995 – Hjärndelirium 20001996 – Radio Abonnerad1996 – Rockligan1996 – Rätt Sorts Råckenråll1996 – Scanaway1996 – God Jul Era Rövhål1997 – Di Värsta Pärvärsta Scetcherna1997 – Di Värsta Pärvärsta Låtarna1997 – Göran Persson Är En Galt1998 – Compendia Ultima (cassette box, consisting of 11 collection cassettes)Singles[edit]1975 – Tretton År / Här Hemma1978 – Punkjävlar / Oh What A Cadillac1979 – Yea Yea Yea / Honey B1979 – Såssialdemokraterna / Norwegian Boogie / Roll Over Beethoven1981 – Volvo / 34:an1981 – Gasen I Botten / Mera Brännvin1982 – Han Eller Jag, Vem Ska Du Ha / Tonight1982 – Jätteparty I Kväll / Tonight1982 – Sverige / Stupid Cupid1983 – Fruntimmer Ska En Ha...1983 – Fruntimmer Ska En Ha... / Han Eller Jag, Vem Ska Du Ha?1983 – Jag Vill Ha En Brud Med Stora Bröst / Leader of the Rockers1983 – Jag Vill Ha En Brud Med Stora Pattar / Leader of the Rockers1984 – Sveriges Kompani (Militärpolka) / Dunder Å Snus1984 – Punkar'n Å Raggar'n / Hej På Dig Evert1984 – Fisdisco / California Sun1985 – The Wanderer / It's All Over Now1988 – Småländsk Sommarnatt / Birds And Bees1990 – Sweet Linda Boogie / Heart Don't Be A Fool2015 – Julesång / Ute På Vischan2016 – Midsommarnatt / Mera BrännvinCriticism[edit]

Eddie Meduza has been criticized for making songs with themes that were inappropriate (e.g. his song "Jag bara runkar" [English "I am just jerking off"]) which led to him getting banned from big newspapers like Aftonbladet.

Reinhard Tristan Eugen Heydrich (/ˈhaɪdrɪk/ HEYE-drik; German: [ˈʁaɪnhaʁt ˈtʁɪstan ˈʔɔʏɡn̩ ˈhaɪdʁɪç] ⓘ; 7 March 1904 – 4 June 1942) was a high-ranking German SS and police official during the Nazi era and a principal architect of the Holocaust.

Heydrich was chief of the Reich Security Main Office (including the Gestapo, Kripo, and SD). He was also Stellvertretender Reichsprotektor (Deputy/Acting Reich-Protector) of Bohemia and Moravia. He served as president of the International Criminal Police Commission (ICPC, now known as Interpol) and chaired the January 1942 Wannsee Conference which formalised plans for the "Final Solution to the Jewish question"—the deportation and genocide of all Jews in German-occupied Europe.

Many historians regard Heydrich as one of the darkest figures within the Nazi regime;[5][6][7] Adolf Hitler described him as "the man with the iron heart".[4] He was the founding head of the Sicherheitsdienst (Security Service, SD), an intelligence organisation charged with seeking out and neutralising resistance to the Nazi Party via arrests, deportations, and murders. He helped organise Kristallnacht, a series of coordinated attacks against Jews throughout Nazi Germany and parts of Austria on 9–10 November 1938. The attacks were carried out by SA stormtroopers and civilians and presaged the Holocaust. Upon his arrival in Prague, Heydrich sought to eliminate opposition to the Nazi occupation by suppressing Czech culture and deporting and executing members of the Czech resistance. He was directly responsible for the Einsatzgruppen, the special task forces that travelled in the wake of the German armies and murdered more than two million people by mass shooting and gassing, including 1.3 million Jews.

Heydrich was mortally wounded in Prague on 27 May 1942 as a result of Operation Anthropoid. He was ambushed by a team of Czech and Slovak soldiers who had been sent by the Czechoslovak government-in-exile to kill him; the team was trained by the British Special Operations Executive. Heydrich died from his injuries on 4 June. Nazi intelligence falsely linked the Czech and Slovak soldiers and resistance partisans to the villages of Lidice and Ležáky. Both villages were razed; the men and boys age 14 and above were shot and most of the women and children were deported and murdered in Nazi concentration camps.

Early life[edit]

Reinhard Tristan Eugen Heydrich[8] was born in 1904 in Halle an der Saale to composer and opera singer Richard Bruno Heydrich and his wife, Elisabeth Anna Maria Amalia Heydrich (née Krantz). His father came from a Protestant family, but converted to Elisabeth's Roman Catholic faith upon marriage.[9] Reinhard was an altar boy, attending evening prayers and Mass every week with his mother as part of the Catholic minority in Halle.[10] Two of his forenames were musical references: "Reinhard" referred to the hero from his father's opera Amen, and "Tristan" stems from Richard Wagner's Tristan und Isolde. Heydrich's third name, "Eugen", was his late maternal grandfather's forename (Eugen Krantz had been the director of the Dresden Royal Conservatory).[11]

Heydrich's family held social standing and substantial financial means. Music was a part of Heydrich's everyday life; his father founded the Halle Conservatory of Music, Theatre, and Teaching and his mother taught piano there.[12] As the oldest son, Reinhard was expected to inherit his father's music conservatory and was trained in music by his father. He learned the piano and violin by the time he was six years old.[9] Heydrich developed a passion for the violin and carried that interest into adulthood; he impressed listeners with his musical talent.[13]

His father was a German nationalist with loyalties to the Kaiser, who instilled patriotic ideas in his three children but was not affiliated with any political party until after World War I.[14] The household was strict. Heydrich, initially a frail and sickly youth, was encouraged by his parents to exercise to build up his strength.[10] He engaged his younger brother, Heinz, in mock fencing duels. He excelled in his schoolwork at the secular "Reformgymnasium", especially in the sciences.[15] A talented athlete, he became an expert swimmer and fencer. He was shy, insecure, and was frequently bullied for his high-pitched voice and rumoured Jewish ancestry.[16] These rumours increased after his maternal uncle Hans Krantz married a Hungarian Jew named Iza Jarmy.[17] However, the family maintained cordial relations with the Jewish community; many Jewish students attended the Halle Conservatory, and its cellar was rented out to a Jewish salesman. Heydrich was friends with Abraham Lichtenstein, son of the cantor.[18]

In 1918, World War I ended with Germany's defeat. In late February 1919, civil unrest—including strikes and clashes between communist and anti-communist groups—took place in Heydrich's home town of Halle. Under Defense Minister Gustav Noske's directives, a right-wing paramilitary unit was formed and ordered to "recapture" Halle. [19] Heydrich, then 15 years old, joined Maercker's Volunteer Rifles (a paramilitary Freikorps unit). This was largely symbolic, as Heydrich was too young for military service. There is no evidence that he participated in the fighting, and when the skirmishes ended, he was part of the force assigned to protect private property.[20] Heydrich began to form positive opinions about the Völkisch movement and anti-communism, as well as a distaste for the Treaty of Versailles and the positioning of the German-Polish border.[21] Heydrich stated he joined the Deutschvölkischer Schutz- und Trutzbund (National German Protection and Shelter League), an antisemitic organisation.[22] However, there is very little documentation of this, beyond a single postcard he received.[23]

As a result of the conditions of the Treaty of Versailles as well as Germany's large war debt, hyperinflation spread across Germany and many lost their life savings. Halle was not spared. By 1921, few townspeople there could afford a musical education at Bruno Heydrich's conservatory. This led to a financial crisis for the Heydrich family.[24]

Naval career[edit]Heydrich as a Reichsmarine cadet in 1922

In 1922, Heydrich joined the German Navy (Reichsmarine), taking advantage of the security, structure, and pension it offered. He became a naval cadet at Kiel, Germany's primary naval base. Many of Heydrich's fellow cadets falsely regarded him as Jewish. To counteract these rumours, Heydrich told people he had joined several antisemitic and nationalist organisations, such as the Deutschvölkischer Schutz und Trutzbund. On 1 April 1924 he was promoted to senior midshipman (Oberfähnrich zur See) and sent to officer training at the Naval Academy Mürwik. In 1926 he advanced to the rank of ensign (Leutnant zur See) and was assigned as a signals officer on the battleship SMS Schleswig-Holstein, the flagship of Germany's North Sea Fleet. With the promotion came greater recognition. He received good evaluations from his superiors and had few problems with other crewmen. He was promoted on 1 July 1928 to the rank of first lieutenant.[25]

Heydrich became notorious for his countless affairs. In December 1930 he attended a rowing-club ball and met Lina von Osten. They became romantically involved and soon announced their engagement. Lina was already a Nazi Party follower and antisemite; she had attended her first rally in 1929.[26] Early in 1931 Heydrich was charged with "conduct unbecoming an officer and a gentleman" for a breach of promise, having been engaged to marry another woman he had known for six months before the Lina von Osten engagement.[27] Admiral Erich Raeder dismissed Heydrich from the navy in April. He received severance pay of 200 Reichsmarks (equivalent to €755 in 2021) a month for the next two years.[28] Heydrich married Lina in December 1931.[29]

Career in the SS[edit]

On 30 May 1931, Heydrich's discharge from the navy became legally binding,[30] and either the following day[30] or on 1 June he joined the Nazi Party in Hamburg.[31][32] Six weeks later, on 14 July, he joined the SS.[33] His party number was 544,916 and his SS number was 10,120.[34] Those who joined the party after Hitler's seizure of power in January 1933 faced suspicions from the Alte Kämpfer (Old Fighters; the earliest party members) that they had joined for reasons of career advancement rather than a true commitment to Nazi ideology. Heydrich's date of enlistment in 1931 was early enough to quell suspicion that he had joined only to further his career, but was not early enough for him to be considered an Old Fighter.[31]

In 1931, Heinrich Himmler began setting up a counterintelligence division of the SS. Acting on the advice of his associate Karl von Eberstein, who was Lina's friend and Heydrich's godbrother, Himmler agreed to interview Heydrich, but cancelled their appointment at the last minute.[35][36] Lina ignored this message, packed Heydrich's suitcase, and sent him to Munich. Eberstein met Heydrich at the railway station and took him to see Himmler.[35] Himmler asked Heydrich to convey his ideas for developing an SS intelligence service. Himmler was so impressed that he hired Heydrich immediately.[37][38]

Although the starting monthly salary of 180 Reichsmarks (equivalent to €679 in 2021) was low, Heydrich decided to take the job because Lina's family supported the Nazi movement, and the quasi-military and revolutionary nature of the post appealed to him.[39] At first he had to share an office and typewriter with a colleague, but by 1932 Heydrich was earning 290 Reichsmarks a month (equivalent to €1,191 in 2021), a salary he described

Walter Charles Langer (February 5, 1899 – July 4, 1981) was an American psychoanalyst who prepared a detailed psychological analysis of Adolf Hitler in 1943. Langer studied psychoanalysis at Harvard University, where he worked as a professor upon completion of his education. Langer was later employed by the Office of Strategic Services (OSS), where in 1943 he prepared a psychoanalysis profile of Hitler. In this analysis, Langer accurately predicted that Hitler would commit suicide as the "most plausible outcome", and the possibility of a military coup against Hitler well before the assassination attempt of 1944.

Following Langer's analysis and Hitler's subsequent death, Langer turned the report into a book about Adolf Hitler, The Mind of Adolf Hitler: A Secret Wartime Report. This book was Langer's best-known; however, he also wrote the books Psychology and Human Living, A Psychological analysis of Adolf Hitler: His Life and Legend, and Dissecting the Hitler Mind.

Early life and education[edit]

Langer was born on February 5, 1899, in South Boston to Charles Rudolph and Johanna Rockenbach, recent immigrants from Germany.[1] His mother was born to a Lutheran household in Zweibrücken, Germany,[2] and his father was a member of the Moravian Brethren from Silesia, Germany.[3] Langer had an older brother named William and another brother named Rudolph Langer. The family later moved when Charles became an owner of a florist shop. After their father passed away on 1899, the family lost all their savings. To help support the family Walter worked at a grocery store while going to school. Just after two years of high school, Walter had to drop out and get a full-time job as an apprentice electrician, where he mostly wired houses for two years.[4] While the family moved to Cambridge, he was admitted to Rindge Technical High School to finish out his high school education. He was later accepted at Massachusetts Institute of Technology and during World War I, serviced in the military for 27 months. After being discharged in 1919, Walter chose to pursue the psychology field at Harvard University.[4]

Langer attended Harvard University, graduating as part of the class of 1923. Langer continued to study at Harvard until attaining his PhD in psychology in 1935. The same year, he traveled to pursue studies in psychoanalysis in Vienna, Austria, where he studied under Anna Freud, daughter of Sigmund Freud. Langer also saw the elder Freud regularly during this time and accompanied him on his trip into exile in 1938. In addition to Freud, Langer helped many Jewish scientists and Anti-Nazi activists escape, obtaining visas for many Austrian analysts and transporting small groups of refugees to the Swiss border.[5]

Career[edit]

Langer worked as a psychoanalyst at Harvard University. Following his graduation, Langer was accepted into the American Psychiatric Association (APA). However, Langer was accepted into the APA against common practice as he was the first to be admitted without obtaining an M.D.[4] It wasn't until after finishing high school late and being accepted into MIT that he discovered his interest in psychoanalysis and abandoned the route of an electrician. While attending college, World War I began and Langer enlisted, serving twenty seven months.[4] While away at war he was able to view a wide array of body language and contextual actions of those around him. This experience had led to Langers increased interest in interpreting and analyzing others. It was Langers time serving his country that sparked his interest and guided him to pursue psychology and behaviorism at Harvard University after being discharged from the service in 1919 [4]

After accumulating enough money from publishing a high school textbook titled Psychology and Human Living, Langer traveled to Germany and began working with Anna Freud.[4] Langer's time in Germany had overlapped with the historical entrance of Adolf Hitler. As Hitler gained power in Germany, Langer had first-hand experience as to the devastation that was brought to the civilians of the country. Due to his educational background and direct experience, Langer had a personal interest in Adolf Hitler and went to work for the OSS, where he later predicted Hitler's means of death (namely, that Hitler would commit suicide when he lost the war).

Langer also continued to produce multiple books in relation to Adolf Hitler after his death, the most notable being The Mind of Adolf Hitler: The Secret Wartime Report.[6]

Retirement and death[edit]

Langer retired in Florida, and died in Sarasota, Florida in 1981, aged 82.[1]

Legacy[edit]Cover of Langer's book, The Mind of Adolf Hitler, published in 1972

Langer's most popular work, The Mind of Adolf Hitler, helped put psychology on the map in American popular culture.[citation needed] Despite many controversies, the profile has been influential in the field of profiling political leaders. Langer himself offered a statement on the value of psychobiography for political means, stating: "I may be naïve in diplomatic matters, but I like to believe that if such a study of Hitler had been made years earlier, under less tension, and with more opportunity to gather first-hand information, there might not have been a Munich; a similar study of Stalin might have produced a different Yalta; one of Castro might have prevented the Cuban situation; and one of President Diem might have avoided our deep involvement in Vietnam. Studies of this type cannot solve our international problems. That would be too much to expect. They might, however, help to avoid some of the serious blunders we seemed to have made because we were ignorant of the psychological factors involved and the nature of the leaders with whom we were negotiating.”[7]

Following the Langer profile, U.S. presidents began requesting profiles of foreign diplomats before important events and meetings. John F. Kennedy requested a profile of Soviet Premier Nikita Khrushchev as part of preparing for the 1961 Vienna summit, and President Richard Nixon asked the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) for profiles of both Mao Zedong and Zhou Enlai before embarking on his first visit to China.

From 1965 to 1986, the CIA operated a Center for the Analysis of Personality and Political Behavior, directed by Gerald M. Post, who cited Langer as an influence. Although the center was closed with the dissolution of the Cold War, personality research and psychobiography of political leaders continues to be of interest to both government agencies and the general public.[8]

In popular culture[edit]The Military Channel program Inside the Mind of Adolf Hitler is based on The Mind of Adolf Hitler, and dramatized scenes connected to Langer's investigation.  

Hans Hermann Junge (11 February 1914 – 13 August 1944)[Note 1] was a German SS officer who served as aide-de-camp and valet to Adolf Hitler.[1] He was married to Traudl Junge, Hitler's last private secretary. He was killed in combat during the latter stages of the Battle of Normandy in August 1944 and is buried in Champigny-Saint-André German war cemetery.

Career[edit]

Junge was born in Preetz in Schleswig-Holstein Province in February 1914. He joined the Schutzstaffel (SS) and in 1934 volunteered for the 1st SS Division Leibstandarte SS Adolf Hitler. On 1 July 1936, he became a member of the Führerbegleitkommando, which provided security protection for Hitler.[2] In 1940, Junge became a valet and orderly to Hitler and met Traudl Humps, who was Hitler's last private secretary. Junge was considered Hitler's second valet after Heinz Linge.[3] Junge worked as a valet in the Reich Chancellery in Berlin and at Hitler's residence near Berchtesgaden. According to Traudl, although they were called valets, the two men were really managers of Hitler's household. They accompanied him wherever he went and were in charge of Hitler's daily routine, including waking him, providing newspapers and messages, and determining the daily menu/meals and wardrobe. Linge and Junge would trade shifts every two days.[4]

With the encouragement of Hitler, Junge and Humps married on 19 June 1943. On 14 July 1943, he joined the Waffen-SS.[2] About Junge's going to the front, his wife Traudl wrote in her memoirs:[5]

He was one of the few people to realise that, in the long run, Hitler's ideas would have such an effect on you that, in the end, you would not know what you had thought of yourself, and what was due to outside influence. Junge wanted his sense of objectivity back. He had applied several times to go to the front, which was the only way he could give up his job with Hitler.

The following year, he died in combat as an SS-Obersturmführer (first lieutenant) in a low flying aircraft attack in Dreux, France. According to Lehmann and Carroll, "Hitler had liked Hans Junge and was so upset by his death that he broke the news to Traudl Junge personally."[1] Traudl stated that Hitler asked her to stay on as his secretary. He promised to "look after" Traudl now that she was a widow.[6]

Notes[edit]^ Some sources give date of death as 18 August 1944. Junge, Traudl (2002). Until the Final Hour, London, Notes section #10. ISBN 0-297-84720-1.  

Josef Rudolf Mengele ([ˈjoːzɛf ˈmɛŋələ] ⓘ; 16 March 1911 – 7 February 1979) was a German Schutzstaffel (SS) officer and physician during World War II. Nicknamed the "Angel of Death" (German: Todesengel),[1] he performed deadly experiments on prisoners at the Auschwitz II (Birkenau) concentration camp, where he was a member of the team of doctors who selected victims to be murdered in the gas chambers,[a] and was one of the doctors who administered the gas.

Before the war, Mengele received doctorates in anthropology and medicine, and began a career as a researcher. He joined the Nazi Party in 1937 and the SS in 1938. He was assigned as a battalion medical officer at the start of World War II, then transferred to the Nazi concentration camps service in early 1943 and assigned to Auschwitz, where he saw the opportunity to conduct genetic research on human subjects. His experiments focused primarily on twins, with no regard for the health or safety of the victims.[3][4] With Red Army troops sweeping through German-occupied Poland, Mengele was transferred 280 kilometres (170 mi) from Auschwitz to the Gross-Rosen concentration camp on 17 January 1945, ten days before the arrival of the Soviet forces at Auschwitz.

After the war, Mengele fled to Argentina in July 1949, assisted by a network of former SS members. He initially lived in and around Buenos Aires, then fled to Paraguay in 1959 and Brazil in 1960, all while being sought by West Germany, Israel, and Nazi hunters such as Simon Wiesenthal, who wanted to bring him to trial. Mengele eluded capture in spite of extradition requests by the West German government and clandestine operations by the Israeli intelligence agency Mossad. He drowned in 1979 after suffering a stroke while swimming off the coast of Bertioga, and was buried under the false name of Wolfgang Gerhard.[2] His remains were disinterred and positively identified by forensic examination in 1985.

Early life[edit]

Mengele was born into a Catholic family[5] in Günzburg, Bavaria, on 16 March 1911, the eldest of three sons of Walburga (née Hupfauer) and Karl Mengele.[6] His two younger brothers were Karl Jr. and Alois. Their father was founder of the Karl Mengele & Sons company (later renamed as Mengele Agrartechnik [de]), which produced farming machinery.[7] Mengele was successful at school and developed an interest in music, art, and skiing.[8] He completed high school in April 1930 and went on to study philosophy in Munich,[9] where the headquarters of the Nazi Party were located.[10] He attended the University of Bonn, where he took his medical preliminary examination.[11] In 1931 he joined Der Stahlhelm, a paramilitary organization that was absorbed into the Nazi Sturmabteilung ('Storm Detachment'; SA) in 1934.[9][12] In 1935, Mengele earned a PhD in anthropology from the University of Munich.[9] In January 1937, he joined the Institute for Hereditary Biology and Racial Hygiene in Frankfurt, where he worked for Otmar Freiherr von Verschuer, a German geneticist with a particular interest in researching twins.[9]

As Von Verschuer's assistant, Mengele focused on the genetic factors that result in a cleft lip and palate, or a cleft chin.[13] His thesis on the subject earned him a cum laude doctorate in medicine (MD) from the University of Frankfurt in 1938.[14] (Both of his degrees were revoked by the issuing universities in the 1960s.)[15] In a letter of recommendation, Von Verschuer praised Mengele's reliability and his ability to verbally present complex material in a clear manner.[16] The American author Robert Jay Lifton notes that Mengele's published works were in keeping with the scientific mainstream of the time, and would probably have been viewed as valid scientific efforts even outside Nazi Germany.[16]

On 28 July 1939, Mengele married Irene Schönbein, whom he had met while working as a medical resident in Leipzig.[17] Their only son, Rolf, was born in 1944.[18]

Military service[edit]

The ideology of Nazism brought together elements of antisemitism, racial hygiene, and eugenics, and combined them with pan-Germanism and territorial expansionism with the goal of obtaining more Lebensraum (living space) for the Germanic people.[19] Nazi Germany attempted to obtain this new territory by attacking Poland and the Soviet Union, intending to deport or murder the Jews and Slavs living there, who were considered by the Nazis to be inferior to the putative "Aryan master race".[20]

Mengele joined the Nazi Party in 1937 and the Schutzstaffel (SS; 'Protection Squadron') in 1938. He received basic training in 1938 with the Gebirgsjäger ('light infantry mountain troop') and was called up for service in the Wehrmacht (Nazi armed forces) in June 1940, some months after the outbreak of World War II. He soon volunteered for medical service in the Waffen-SS, the combat arm of the SS, where he served with the rank of SS-Untersturmführer ('second lieutenant') in a medical reserve battalion until November 1940. He was next assigned to the SS-Rasse- und Siedlungshauptamt ('SS Race and Settlement Main Office') in Poznań, evaluating candidates for Germanization.[21][22]

In June 1941, Mengele was posted to Ukraine, where he was awarded the Iron Cross 2nd Class. In January 1942, he joined the 5th SS Panzer Division Wiking as a battalion medical officer. After rescuing two German soldiers from a burning tank, he was decorated with the Iron Cross 1st Class, the Wound Badge in Black, and the Medal for the Care of the German People. He was declared unfit for further active service in mid-1942, when he was seriously wounded in action near Rostov-on-Don. Following his recovery, he was transferred to the headquarters of the SS Race and Settlement Main Office in Berlin, at which point he resumed his association with Von Verschuer, who was now director of the Kaiser Wilhelm Institute of Anthropology, Human Heredity, and Eugenics. Mengele was promoted to the rank of SS-Hauptsturmführer ('captain') in April 1943.[23][24][25]

Auschwitz[edit]"Selection" of Hungarian Jews on the ramp at Birkenau, May/June 1944

In 1942, Auschwitz II (Birkenau), originally intended to house slave laborers, began to be used instead as a combined labour camp and extermination camp.[26][27] Prisoners were transported there by rail from all over Nazi-controlled Europe, arriving in daily convoys.[28] By July 1942, SS doctors were conducting "selections" where incoming Jews were segregated, and those considered able to work were admitted into the camp while those deemed unfit for labor were immediately murdered in the gas chambers.[29] Those selected to be murdered, about three-quarters of the total,[b] included almost all children, women with small children, pregnant women, all the elderly, and all of those who appeared (in a brief and superficial inspection by an SS doctor) to be not completely fit and healthy.[31][32]

In early 1943, Von Verschuer encouraged Mengele to apply for a transfer to the concentration camp service.[23][33] Mengele's application was accepted and he was posted to Auschwitz, where he was appointed by SS-Standortarzt Eduard Wirths, chief medical officer at Auschwitz, to the position of chief physician of the Zigeunerfamilienlager (Romani family camp) at Birkenau,[23][33] a subcamp located on the main Auschwitz complex. The SS doctors did not administer treatment to the Auschwitz inmates but supervised the activities of inmate doctors who had been forced to work in the camp medical service.[34] As part of his duties, Mengele made weekly visits to the hospital barracks and ordered any prisoners who had not recovered after two weeks in bed to be sent to the gas chambers.[35]

Mengele's work also involved carrying out selections, a task that he chose to perform even when he was not assigned to do so, in the hope of finding subjects for his experiments,[36] with a particular interest in locating sets of twins.[37] In contrast to most of the other SS doctors, who viewed selections as one of their most stressful and unpleasant duties, he undertook the task with a flamboyant air, often smiling or whistling.[38]

Carl Schmitt (/ʃmɪt/; 11 July 1888 – 7 April 1985) was a German jurist, political theorist, and prominent member of the Nazi Party. Schmitt wrote extensively about the effective wielding of political power. An authoritarian conservative theorist,[4][5] he is noted as a critic of parliamentary democracy, liberalism, and cosmopolitanism.[6] His work has been a major influence on subsequent political theory, legal theory, continental philosophy, and political theology, but its value and significance are controversial, mainly due to his intellectual support for and active involvement with Nazism.[7]

Schmitt's work has attracted the attention of numerous philosophers and political theorists, including Walter Benjamin, Friedrich Hayek,[8] Leo Strauss, Hannah Arendt, Reinhart Koselleck, Jürgen Habermas, Jacques Derrida, Antonio Negri, Giorgio Agamben, Chantal Mouffe, Jaime Guzmán, and Slavoj Žižek. According to the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy, "Schmitt was an acute observer and analyst of the weaknesses of liberal constitutionalism and liberal cosmopolitanism. But there can be little doubt that his preferred cure turned out to be infinitely worse than the disease."[9]

Life[edit]

Schmitt was born in Plettenberg, Westphalia, German Empire. His parents were Roman Catholics from the German Eifel region who had settled in Plettenberg. His father was a minor businessman. Schmitt studied law at the Universities of Berlin, Munich, and Strasbourg, and took his graduation and state examinations in then-German Strasbourg during 1915.[10] His 1910 doctoral thesis was titled Über Schuld und Schuldarten (On Guilt and Types of Guilt).[11]

Schmitt volunteered for the army in 1916.[10] The same year, he earned his habilitation at Strasbourg with a thesis under the title Der Wert des Staates und die Bedeutung des Einzelnen (The Value of the State and the Significance of the Individual). He then taught at various business schools and universities, namely the University of Greifswald (1921), the University of Bonn (1921), the Technische Universität München (1928), the University of Cologne (1933), and the University of Berlin (1933–45).

In 1916, Schmitt married his first wife, Pavla[a] Dorotić,[12] a Croatian woman who pretended to be a countess. They divorced, but no annulment was granted by a Catholic tribunal, so that his 1926 marriage to Duška Todorović (1903–1950), a Serbian woman, was not deemed valid under Catholic law. Schmitt was excommunicated by the Catholic Church due to his second marriage.[12]

Schmitt and Todorović had a daughter, Anima, who in 1957 married Alfonso Otero Varela (1925–2001), a Spanish law professor at the University of Santiago de Compostela and a member of the ruling Spanish Falangist Party in Francoist Spain. She translated several of her father's works into Spanish. Letters from Schmitt to his son-in-law have been published. Schmitt died on 7 April 1985 and is buried in Plettenberg.

Religious beliefs[edit]

As a young man, Schmitt was "a devoted Catholic until his break with the church in the mid twenties."[13] From around the end of the First World War, he began to describe his Catholicism as "displaced" and "de-totalised".[14]

Schmitt met Mircea Eliade, a Romanian religion historian, in Berlin in the summer of 1942 and later spoke to his friend Ernst Jünger of Eliade and his interest in Eliade's works.[15]

Hitler's seizure of control[edit]

Schmitt remarked on 31 January 1933 that with Adolf Hitler's appointment as Chancellor, "one can say that 'Hegel died.'"[16] Richard Wolin observes:

it is Hegel qua philosopher of the "bureaucratic class" or Beamtenstaat that has been definitely surpassed with Hitler's triumph… this class of civil servants—which Hegel in the Rechtsphilosophie deems the "universal class"—represents an impermissible drag on the sovereignty of executive authority. For Schmitt… the very essence of the bureaucratic conduct of business is reverence for the norm, a standpoint that could not but exist in great tension with the doctrines of Carl Schmitt… Hegel had set an ignominious precedent by according this putative universal class a position of preeminence in his political thought, insofar as the primacy of the bureaucracy tends to diminish or supplant the prerogative of sovereign authority.[1]

The Nazis forced through the passage of the Enabling Act of 1933 in March, which changed the Weimar Constitution to allow the "present government" to rule by decree, bypassing both the President, Paul von Hindenburg, and the Reichstag.

Alfred Hugenberg, the leader of the German National People's Party, one of the Nazis' partners in the coalition government that was being squeezed out of existence, hoped to slow the Nazi takeover of the country by threatening to quit his ministry position in the Cabinet. Hugenberg reasoned that by doing so, the government would thereby be changed, and the Enabling Act would no longer apply, as the "present government" would no longer exist. A legal opinion by Schmitt prevented this maneuver from succeeding. At the time well known as a constitutional theorist, Schmitt declared that "present government" did not refer to the Cabinet's makeup when the act was passed, but to the "completely different kind of government"—that is, different from the democracy of the Weimar Republic—that Hitler's cabinet had brought into existence.[17]

Tombstone of Carl Schmitt, Catholic cemetery, Plettenberg-Eiringhausen — the inscription is a reference to the Odyssey, in which Odysseus's having 'seen many cities and learnt their customs' is changed to 'and learnt their laws'.Career[edit]Academic career (1921–1932)[edit]

During 1921, Schmitt became a professor at the University of Greifswald, where he published his essay Die Diktatur (on dictatorship). In 1922 he published Politische Theologie (political theology) while working as a professor at the University of Bonn. Schmitt changed universities in 1926, when he became professor of law at the Handelshochschule in Berlin, and again in 1932, when he accepted a position in Cologne. His most famous paper, "Der Begriff des Politischen" ("The Concept of the Political"), was based on lectures at the Deutsche Hochschule für Politik in Berlin.[18]

In 1932, Schmitt was counsel for the Reich government in the case Preussen contra Reich (Prussia v. Reich), in which the Social Democratic Party of Germany-controlled government of the state of Prussia disputed its dismissal by the right-wing Reich government of Franz von Papen. Papen was motivated to do so because Prussia, by far the largest state in Germany, served as a powerful base for the political left and provided it with institutional power, particularly in the form of the Prussian police. Schmitt, Carl Bilfinger and Erwin Jacobi represented the Reich[19] and one of the counsel for the Prussian government was Hermann Heller. The court ruled in October 1932 that the Prussian government had been suspended unlawfully but that the Reich had the right to install a commissar.[19] In German history, the struggle resulting in the de facto destruction of federalism in the Weimar republic is known as the Preußenschlag.

Nazi Party[edit]

Schmitt joined the Nazi Party on 1 May 1933.[20] Within days, he supported the party in the burning of books by Jewish authors, rejoiced in the burning of "un-German" and "anti-German" material, and called for a much more extensive purge, to include works by authors influenced by Jewish ideas.[21] From June 1933, he was in the leadership council of Hans Frank's Academy for German Law and served as chairman of the Committee for State and Administrative Law.[22] In July, Hermann Göring appointed him to the Prussian State Council, and in November he became the president of the Association of National Socialist German Jurists. He also replaced Heller as a professor at the University of Berlin,[23] a position he held until the end of World War II. He presented his theories as an ideological foundation of the Nazi dictatorship and a justification of the Führer state concerning legal philosophy, particularly through the concept of auctoritas.

In June 1934, Schmitt was appointed editor-in-chief of the Nazi newspaper for lawyers, the Deutsche Juristen-Zeitung  [de] ("German Jurists' Journal").[24] In July he published in it "The Leader Protects the Law (Der Führer schützt das Recht)", a justification of the political murders of the Night of the Long Knives with Hitler's authority as the "highest form of administrative justice (höchste Form administrativer Justiz)".[25] Schmitt presented himself as a radical antisemite and was the chairman of an October 1936 law teachers' convention in Berlin[26] at which he demanded that German law be cleansed of the "Jewish spirit (jüdischem Geist)" and that all Jewish scientists' publications be marked with a small symbol.

Nevertheless, in December 1936, the Schutzstaffel (SS) publication Das Schwarze Korps accused Schmitt of being an opportunist, a Hegelian state thinker, and a Catholic, and called his antisem

Ferdinand Tönnies (German: [ˈtœniːs]; 26 July 1855 – 9 April 1936) was a German sociologist, economist, and philosopher. He was a significant contributor to sociological theory and field studies, best known for distinguishing between two types of social groups, Gemeinschaft and Gesellschaft (community and society). He co-founded the German Society for Sociology together with Max Weber and Georg Simmel and many other founders. He was president of the society from 1909 to 1933,[1] after which he was ousted for having criticized the Nazis. Tönnies was regarded as the first proper German sociologist and published over 900 works, contributing to many areas of sociology and philosophy. Tönnies, Max Weber, and Georg Simmel are considered the founding fathers of classical German sociology. Though there has been a resurgence of interest in Weber and Simmel, Tönnies has not drawn as much attention.[2]

Early life

Ferdinand Tönnies was born on 26 July 1855 on the Haubarg "De Reap," Oldenswort on the Eiderstedt Peninsula into a wealthy farmer's family in North Frisia, Schleswig, then under Danish rule. Tönnies was the only sociologist of his generation who came from the countryside. He was the third child of church chief and farmer August Ferdinand Tönnies (1822–1883), and his wife Ida Frederica (born Mau, 1826–1915), came from a theological family from East Holstein. His father, of Frisian ancestry, was a successful farmer and cattle rancher, while his mother hailed from a line of Lutheran ministers. The two had seven children, four sons and three daughters. On the day he was born, Ferdinand Tönnies received the baptismal name of Ferdinand Julius and moved to Husum, on the North Sea, after his father retired in 1864.

Education and Academic Career[edit]

Tönnies enrolled at the University of Strasbourg after graduating from high school in 1872. They took the time to utilize his freedom to travel, exploring the academic fields of the University of Jena, Bonn, Leipzig, Berlin, and Tübingen. At age 22, he received a doctorate in philology at the University of Tübingen in 1877 (with a Latin thesis on the ancient Siwa Oasis).[3] However, by this time, his main interests had switched to political philosophy and social issues. After completing postdoctoral work at the University of Berlin, he traveled to London to continue his studies on the seventeenth-century English political thinker Thomas Hobbes. Tönnies earned a Privatdozent in philosophy at the University of Kiel from 1909 to 1933 after submitting a draft of his major book, Gemeinschaft und Gesellschaft, as his Habilitationsschrift in 1881. He held this post at the University of Kiel for only three years. Because he sympathized with the Hamburg dockers' strike of 1896,[4] the conservative Prussian government considered him to be a social democrat, and Tönnies would not be called to a professorial chair until 1913. He returned to Kiel as a professor emeritus in 1921 where he took on a teaching position in sociology and taught until 1933 when he was ousted by the Nazis, due to earlier publications in which he had criticized them and had endorsed the Social Democratic Party.[5][6] Remaining in Kiel, he died three years later in isolation in his home in 1936.

Sociological Contributions[edit]

Many of his writings on sociological theories furthered pure sociology, including Gemeinschaft und Gesellschaft (1887). He coined the metaphysical term Voluntarism. Tönnies also contributed to the study of social change, particularly on public opinion,[7] customs and technology, crime, and suicide.[8] He also had a vivid interest in methodology, especially statistics, and sociological research, inventing his own technique of statistical association.[9] After publishing Gemeinschaft and Gesellschaft, Tönnies focused aspects of the social life such as morals, folkways, and public opinion. However he is best known for his published work on Gemeinschaft and Gesellschaft because his later works applied the same concepts to aspects of social life.[10]

Chronological Timeline of his Life and Career[edit]1855: Born, 26 July, Oldenswort, in the Duchy of Schleswig1864: Prusso-Austrian invasion and absorption of Schleswig-Holstein into Prussia after contest with Denmark.1865: Tönnies family moved to Husum, where his father took up merchant banking.1867: Tönnies entered the local grammar school, studied Greek, Latin and German classical literature.1870: Franco-Prussian War; creation of German empire. Tönnies met Schleswegian poet and folk-hero, Theodor Storm, who became a life-long influence.1871-7: Studied at the universities of Strasbourg, Jena, Leipzig, Berlin, Kiel and Tübingen. Gained doctorate in Greek philology at Tübingen. Became a close friend of Friedrich Paulsen, an admirer of Kant, Lassalle and Hobbes.1878: First visit to England. Worked on Hobbes' manuscripts at the British Museum, Oxford and Hardwick.1879–81: Published 'Remarks on the Philosophy of Thomas Hobbes', in Vierteljahrsschrift für wissenschaftliche Philosophie (Quarterly Journal of Scientific Philosophy)1881: An early version of Gemeinschaft und Gesellschaft submitted as his Habilitationsschrift at University of Kiel.1887: First edition of Gemeinschaft und Gesellschaft: Abhandlung des Communismus und des Socialismus als empirischer Culturformen (Community and Society: An Essay on Communism and Socialism as Historical Social System).1889: After prolonged delay, Tönnies' editions of Hobbes' Elements of Law Natural and Politic and Behemoth published in English.1890: Failed to obtain a university professorship; became a Privatdozent at Kiel.1892: Helped found Society for Ethical Culture, the vehicle for his life-long involvement in various co-operative, social reform and self-improvement movements.1893: Offered a university chair, on condition that he gave up Society for Ethical Culture, which he refused.1894: Marriage to Marie Sieck, daughter of a Protestant minister from the Schleswegian town of Eutin. Five children born over the next ten years.1896: First edition of Thomas Hobbes. Leben und Lehre (Thomas Hobbes: Life and Work). Tönnies' support for Hamburg dock strike compounds his difficulties in gaining a university chair.1899–1900: Tönnies' prize essay on 'Philosophical Terminology' published in an English translation by Helen Bosanquet in Mind.1904: Visited America for International Arts and Sciences Congress at St Louis. Contacts with sociologists of the Chicago School (sociology).1908: House guest of Max and Marianne Weber during the International Philosophy Congress at Heidelberg.1909: First edition of his book on Die Sitte (Custom). With Max Weber and Georg Simmel, founding member of the German Society for Sociology. Tönnies would be president of this body for most of his life.1912: Second edition with new subtitle of Gemeinschaft und Gesellschaft: Grundbegriffe der reinen Soziologie (Community and Society: Basic Concepts in Pure Sociology) and of Tönnies' study of Hobbes.1913: Secures his first permanent chair, a professorship of 'economic political science', at the university of Kiel.1917: Publication of Der englische Staat und der deutsche Staat (The English State and the German State).1920: Third edition of Gemeinschaft und Gesellschaft.1921: Publication of Marx, Leben und Lehre (Marx, Life and Work).1922: Publication of Kritik der öffentlichen Meinung (Critique of Public Opinion).1923: Autobiographical sketch published in Die Philosophie der Gegenwart in Selbstdarstellung (The Philosophy of the Present in Self-Representation).1925: Tönnies's major writings collected in Soziologische Studien und Kritiken (Sociological Studies and Critiques). Third edition of book on Thomas Hobbes.1931: Publication of Einführung in die Soziologie (Introduction to Sociology).1932: Joined the Social Democratic party to support resistance to the rise of fascism.1933: Adolf Hitler becomes chancellor of Germany. Tönnies stripped of his honorary professorship at Kiel, academic pension and personal library by local Nazi administration.1935: A major conference at Leipzig in honour of Tönnies's eightieth birthday. Eighth edition of Gemeinschaft und Gesellschaft. Publication of his final work, Geist der Neuzeit (Spirit of Modern Times).1936: Death of Tönnies.Gemeinschaft and Gesellschaft[edit]This article is part of a series onConservatism in GermanyshowIdeologiesshowThemeshideIntellectualsGehlenvon GerlachGörresHegelJünger (Ernst)Jünger (Friedrich)Mann (early)MöserMüllerNolteNovalisvon RankeRauschningRitter (Gerhard)Ritter (Joachim)RöpkeRüstowvon SavignySchlegelSchmittSpaemannSpenglerStahlStoeckerStraussTönniesvan den BruckVoegelinWackenrodershowWorksshowPoliticiansshowPartiesshowOrganisationsshowMediashowRelated topics Conservatism portal Germany portalvteMain article: Gemeinschaft and Gesellschaft

Tönnies distinguished between two types of social groupings. Gemeinschaft—often translated as community (or left untranslated)—refers to groups based on feelings of togetherness and mutual bonds, which are felt like a goal to be kept up, their members being means for this goal. Gesellschaft—often translated as society—on the other hand, refers to groups that are sustained by it being instrumental for their members' aims and goals. The equilibrium in Gemeinschaft is achieved through means of social control, such as morals, conformism, and exclusion, while Gesellschaft keeps its balance through police, laws, tribunals, and prisons. Amish and Hasidic communities are examples of Gemeinschaft, while states are types of Gesellschaft. Rules in Gemeinschaft are implicit, while Gesellschaft has explicit rules (written laws).

Gemeinschaft may be exemplified historically by a family or a neighborhood in a pre-modern (rural) society; Gesellschaft by a joint-stock company or a state in a modern society, i.e. the society when Tönnies lived. Gesellschaft relationships arose in an urban and capitalist setting, characterized by individualism and impersonal monetary connections between people. Social ties were often instrumental and superficial, with self-interest and exploitation increasingly the norm. Examples are corporations, states, or voluntary associations. In his book Einteilung der Soziologie (Classification of Sociology) he distinguished between three disciplines of sociology, being Pure or Theoretical (reine, theoretische) Sociology, Applied (angewandte) Sociology, and Empirical (emprische) Sociology.

His distinction between social groupings is based on the assumption that there are only two primary forms of an actor's will to approve of other men. For Tönnies, such approval is by no means self-evident; he is pretty influenced by Thomas Hobbes.[2] Following his "essential will" ("Wesenwille"), an actor will see himself as a means to serve the goals of social grouping; very often, it is an underlying, 

Ernst Julius Günther Röhm (German: [ɛʁnst ˈʁøːm]; 28 November 1887 – 1 July 1934) was a German military officer and a leading member of the Nazi Party. A close friend and early ally of Adolf Hitler, Röhm was the co-founder and leader of the Sturmabteilung (SA), the Nazi Party's original paramilitary wing, which played a significant role in Adolf Hitler's rise to power. He served as chief of the SA from 1931 until his murder in 1934 during the Night of the Long Knives.

Born in Munich, Röhm joined the Imperial German Army in 1906 and fought in the First World War. He was wounded in action three times and received the Iron Cross First Class. After the war, he continued his military career as a captain in the Reichswehr and provided assistance to Franz Ritter von Epp's Freikorps. In 1919, Röhm joined the German Workers' Party, the precursor of the Nazi Party, and became a close associate of Adolf Hitler. Using his military connections, he helped build up several paramilitary groups in service of Hitler, one of which became the SA. In 1923, he took part in Hitler's failed Beer Hall Putsch to seize governmental power in Munich and was given a suspended prison sentence. After a stint as a Reichstag deputy, Röhm broke with Hitler in 1925 over the future direction of the Nazi Party. He resigned from all positions and emigrated to Bolivia, where he served as an advisor to the Bolivian Army.

In 1930, at Hitler's request, Röhm returned to Germany and was officially appointed chief of staff of the SA in 1931. He reorganised the SA, which numbered over a million members, and continued its campaign of political violence against communists, rival political parties, Jews and other groups deemed hostile to the Nazi agenda. At the same time, opposition to Röhm intensified as his homosexuality gradually became public knowledge. Nevertheless, he retained the trust of Hitler for a time. After Hitler became Chancellor of Germany in 1933, Röhm was named a Reichsleiter, the second highest political rank in the Nazi Party, and appointed to the Reich cabinet as a Reichsminister without portfolio.

As the Nazi government began to consolidate its rule, the tension between Röhm and Hitler escalated. Throughout 1933 and 1934, Röhm's rhetoric became increasingly radical as he called for a "second revolution" that would transform German society, alarming Hitler's powerful industrial allies. He also demanded more power for the SA, which the Reichswehr saw as a growing threat to its position. Hitler came to see his long-time ally as a rival and liability, and made the decision to eliminate him with the assistance of SS leaders Heinrich Himmler and Reinhard Heydrich. On 30 June 1934, the entire SA leadership were purged by the SS during an event known as the Night of the Long Knives. Röhm was taken to Stadelheim Prison and shot on 1 July.

Family background[edit]

Ernst Röhm was born in 1887 in Munich, Bavaria, German Empire as the youngest of three children—he had an elder sister and brother—of Emilie and Julius Röhm. Ernst Röhm described his father Julius, a railway official, as strict, but once Julius realized that his son responded better without exhortation, he allowed him significant freedom to pursue his interests.[1]

In 1906, Röhm entered the 10th Bavarian Infantry Division "King Ludwig" at Ingolstadt as a cadet,[2] even though his family had no military tradition. He was commissioned as a lieutenant on 12 March 1908.[3][4]

Career[edit]Röhm, standing fifth from left, as member of "the staff of the Führer taken on the day of his appointment as Reich Chancellor" on January 30, 1933.

At the outbreak of World War I in August 1914, he was adjutant of the 1st Battalion, 10th Infantry Regiment König. The following month, he was seriously wounded in the face at Chanot Wood in Lorraine and carried the scars for the rest of his life.[5] He was promoted to first lieutenant (Oberleutnant) in April 1915.[6] During an attack on the fortification at Thiaumont, Verdun, on 23 June 1916, he sustained a serious chest wound and spent the remainder of the war in France and Romania as a staff officer.[7] He was awarded the Iron Cross First Class before being wounded at Verdun, and was promoted to captain (Hauptmann) in April 1917.[8][9] Among his comrades, Röhm was considered a "fanatical, simple-minded swashbuckler" who frequently displayed contempt for danger.[10] In his memoirs, Röhm reported that during the autumn of 1918, he contracted the deadly Spanish influenza and was not expected to live, but recovered after a lengthy convalescence.[11]

Following the Armistice of 11 November 1918 that ended the war, Röhm continued his military career as a captain in the Reichswehr.[10] He was one of the senior members in Franz Ritter von Epp's Bayerisches Freikorps für den Grenzschutz Ost ("Bavarian Free Corps for Border Patrol East"), formed in Ohrdruf in April 1919, which finally overturned the Munich Soviet Republic by force of arms on 3 May 1919. In 1919 he joined the German Workers' Party (DAP), which the following year became the National Socialist German Workers Party (NSDAP).[12] Not long afterward he met Adolf Hitler, and they became political allies and close friends.[13] Throughout the early 1920s, Röhm remained an important intermediary between Germany's right-wing paramilitary organizations and the Reichswehr.[14] Additionally, it was Röhm who persuaded his former army commander, Franz Ritter von Epp, to join the Nazis, an important development, since Epp helped raise the sixty-thousand marks needed to purchase the Nazi periodical, the Völkischer Beobachter.[15] In early 1923, he took part in the establishment of a federation of paramilitary organizations that was titled Arbeitsgemeinschaft and aimed at strengthening the army and combating Marxist influences.[16]

During early September 1923, when the Nazi Party held its "German Day" celebration at Nuremberg, it was Röhm who helped bring together some 100,000 participants drawn from right-wing militant groups, veterans' associations, and other paramilitary formations—which included the Bund Oberland, Reichskriegsflagge, the SA, and the Kampfbund—all of them subordinate to Hitler as "political leader" of the collective alliance.[17] Röhm resigned or retired from the Reichswehr on 26 September 1923.[12]

In November 1923, Röhm led the Reichskriegsflagge militia at the time of the Munich Beer Hall Putsch.[a] He rented the cavernous main hall of the Löwenbräukeller, supposedly for a reunion and festive comradeship. Meanwhile, Hitler and his entourage were at the Bürgerbräukeller.[19] Röhm planned to start the revolution and use the units at his disposal to obtain weapons from secret caches with which to occupy crucial points in the centre of the city.[20] When the call came, he announced to those assembled in the Löwenbräukeller that the Kahr government had been deposed and Hitler had declared a "national revolution" which elicited wild cheering. Röhm then led his force of nearly 2,000 men to the War Ministry,[21] which they occupied for sixteen hours.[b] Once in control of the Reichswehr headquarters, Röhm awaited news, barricaded inside.[22] The subsequent march into the city center led by Hitler, Hermann Göring, and General Erich Ludendorff with banners flying high, was ostensibly undertaken to "free" Röhm and his forces.[23]

While crowds cheered, egged on by Gregor Strasser shouting "Heil", Hitler's armed assembly, wearing red swastika armbands, encountered Bavarian State Policemen, who were prepared to counter the Putsch.[24] Around the time the marchers reached the Feldherrnhalle near the city center, shots were fired, scattering the participants. By the end of the gunfire, fourteen Nazis and four policemen had been killed; the putsch had failed and the Nazis' first bid for power had lasted less than twenty-four hours.[25]

Defendants in the Beer Hall Putsch trial. From left to right: Pernet, Weber, Frick, Kriebel, Ludendorff, Hitler, Bruckner, Röhm, and Wagner.

In February 1924, following the failed putsch, Röhm, Hitler, General Ludendorff, Lieutenant Colonel Hermann Kriebel and six others were tried for high treason. Röhm was found guilty and sentenced to fifteen months in prison, but the sentence was suspended and he was placed on probation.[12] Hitler was found guilty and sentenced to five years' imprisonment, but served only nine months at Landsberg Prison (under permissively lenient conditions).[26][27]

In April 1924, Röhm became a Reichstag deputy for the völkisch (racial-national) National Socialist Freedom Party.[28] He made only one speech, urging the release of Lieutenant Colonel Kriebel. In the December 1924 election the seats won by his party were much reduced, and his name was too far down the list to return him to the Reichstag. While Hitler was in prison, Röhm helped to create the Frontbann as a legal alternative to the then-outlawed Sturmabteilung (SA). Hitler did not fully support Röhm´s ambitious plans for this organization, which proved problematic. Hitler was distrustful of these paramilitary organizations because competing groups like the Bund Wiking, the Bund Bayern und Reich, and the Blücherbund were all vying for membership and he realized from the failed putsch that these groups could not be legitimated so long as the police and Reichswehr stayed loyal to the government.[28]

When in April 1925 Hitler and Ludendorff disapproved of the proposals under which Röhm was prepared to integrate the 30,000-strong Frontbann into the SA, Röhm resigned from all political groups and military brigades on 1 May 1925. He felt great contempt for the "legalistic" path the party leaders wanted to follow and sought seclusion from public life.[12]

Klara Hitler (née Pölzl; 12 August 1860 – 21 December 1907) was the mother of Adolf Hitler, dictator of Nazi Germany.

Family background and marriage[edit]

Born in the Austrian village of Spital, Weitra, Waldviertel, Austrian Empire, her father was Johann Baptist Pölzl and her mother was Johanna Hiedler. Klara came from old peasant stock, was hard-working, energetic, pious, and conscientious. According to the family physician, Dr. Eduard Bloch, she was a very quiet, sweet, and affectionate woman.[1]

In 1876, 16-year-old Klara was hired as a household servant by her relative Alois Hitler, three years after his first marriage to Anna Glasl-Hörer. Although Alois' biological father is unknown, after his mother, Maria Schicklgruber, married Johann Georg Hiedler, Alois was officially designated as Hiedler's son. Klara's mother was Hiedler's niece Johanna Hiedler, who married Johann Baptist Pölzl, making Klara and Alois first cousins once removed.

Following the death of Alois's second wife Franziska Matzelsberger in 1884, Klara and Alois married on 7 January 1885 in a brief ceremony held early in the morning at Hitler's rented rooms on the top floor of the Pommer Inn in Braunau am Inn.[2][3] Alois then went to work for the day at his job as a customs official.

Their first son, Gustav, was born four months later, on 17 May 1885. Ida followed on 23 September 1886. Both infants died of diphtheria during the winter of 1887–88. A third child, Otto, was born and died in 1887. A fourth son, Adolf, was born 20 April 1889.[4]

In 1892, Klara Hitler and her family took the train to Passau, where they settled down for the next two years.[5] Edmund was born there on 24 March 1894. Paula followed on 21 January 1896. Edmund died of measles on 28 February 1900, at the age of five.[6] Of her six children with Alois, only Adolf and Paula survived to adulthood.

Klara Hitler's adult life was spent keeping house and raising children, for whom, according to Smith, Alois had little understanding or interest. She was very devoted to her children and, according to William Patrick Hitler, was a typical stepmother to her stepchildren, Alois, Jr. and Angela.[1]

She was a devout Roman Catholic and attended church regularly with her children.[7]

Later life and death[edit]Klara Hitler, c. 1880s

When Alois died in 1903, he left a government pension. Klara sold the house in Leonding and moved with young Adolf and Paula to an apartment in Linz, where they lived frugally.

In 1906, Klara Hitler discovered a lump in her breast but initially ignored it. After experiencing chest pains that were keeping her awake at night, she finally consulted the family doctor, Eduard Bloch, in January 1907. She had been busy with her household, she said, so had neglected to seek medical aid. Bloch chose not to inform Klara that she had breast cancer and left it to her son Adolf to inform her. Bloch told Adolf that his mother had a small chance of surviving and recommended that she undergo a radical mastectomy. The Hitlers were devastated by the news. According to Bloch, Klara Hitler "accepted the verdict as I was sure she would – with fortitude. Deeply religious, she assumed that her fate was God's will. It would never occur to her to complain."[8] She underwent the mastectomy at Sisters of St. Mercy in Linz whereupon the surgeon, Karl Urban, discovered that the cancer had already metastasized to the pleural tissue in her chest. Bloch informed Klara's children that her condition was terminal. Adolf, who had been in Vienna ostensibly to study art, moved back home to tend to his mother, as did his siblings. By October, Klara Hitler's condition had rapidly declined and her son Adolf begged Bloch to try a new treatment. For the next 46 days (from November to early December), Bloch performed daily treatments of iodoform, a then experimental form of chemotherapy. Klara Hitler's mastectomy incisions were reopened and massive doses of iodoform-soaked gauze were applied directly to the tissue to "burn" the cancer cells. The treatments were incredibly painful and caused Klara's throat to paralyze, leaving her unable to swallow.[8]

The treatments proved to be futile and Klara Hitler died at home in Linz from the toxic medical side-effects of iodoform on 21 December 1907.[9] Klara was buried in Leonding near Linz.

Adolf Hitler, who had a close relationship with his mother, was devastated by her death and carried the grief for the rest of his life. Bloch later recalled that, "In all my career, I have never seen anyone so prostrate with grief as Adolf Hitler."[10][11] In his autobiography Mein Kampf, Hitler wrote that he had "honoured my father but loved my mother"[12] and said that his mother's death was a "dreadful blow".[10] Decades later, in 1940, Hitler showed gratitude to Bloch, who was Jewish, for treating his mother, by allowing him to emigrate with his wife from Austria to the United States, a privilege allowed to few other Jews in Austria.[13][14]

In 1941 and 1943, Bloch was interviewed by the Office of Strategic Services (a predecessor of the Central Intelligence Agency) to gain information about Hitler's childhood. He said that Hitler's most striking feature was his love for his mother:

While Hitler was not a mother's boy in the usual sense, I never witnessed a closer attachment. Their love had been mutual. Klara Hitler adored her son. She allowed him his own way whenever possible. For example, she admired his watercolor paintings and drawings and supported his artistic ambitions in opposition to his father at what cost to herself one may guess.

Bloch expressly denied the claim that Hitler's love for his mother was pathological.[15]

Alois and Klara's gravestone was removed in 2012.

Bloch remembered Hitler as the "saddest man I had ever seen" when he was informed about his mother's imminent death, while Klara was viewed as a very "pious and kind" woman who "would turn in her grave if she knew what became of him."[16]

In 1934, Hitler honored Klara by naming a street in Passau after her.[17]

Removal of tombstone[edit]

On 28 March 2012, the tombstone marking Alois Hitler's grave and that of his wife Klara in Town Cemetery in Leonding was removed, without ceremony, by a descendant, according to Kurt Pittertschatscher, the pastor of the parish. The descendant is said to be an elderly female relative of Alois Hitler's first wife, Anna, who has also given up any rights to the rented burial plot. It is not known what happened to the remains in the grave.[18]

In popular culture[edit]

In the "I Ain't No Holodeck Boy" episode of the animated TV series American Dad! (season 10, episode 13, first broadcast March 23, 2014), a main plot point revolves around a video game called Nazi Natal Nightmare, in which the players try to kill Adolf Hitler while he is still unborn in Klara Hitler's womb.

The short story "Genesis and Catastrophe: A True Story", written by Roald Dahl, is a fictional account of Klara Hitler immediately after giving birth to Adolf, in which she worries over her new son's health and laments the deaths of her three previous children. Although the story stays true to Klara's biography, including the names of her late children, her identity as "Frau Hitler" is not revealed for several pages, providing a macabre twist ending typical of Dahl's adult stories.

Emil Maurice (German pronunciation: [ˈeːmiːl moˈʁiːs]; 19 January 1897 – 6 February 1972) was an early member of the National Socialist German Workers' Party (Nazi Party) and a founding member of the Schutzstaffel (SS). He was Hitler's first personal chauffeur, and was one of the few persons of mixed Jewish and ethnic German ancestry to serve in the SS, being declared an honorary Aryan by Adolf Hitler in 1935.

Early life and association with Hitler[edit]

A watchmaker by trade, Maurice was a close early associate of Adolf Hitler; their personal friendship dated back to 1919 when they were both members of the German Workers' Party (DAP).[1] Maurice officially joined the DAP on 1 December 1919 and his party number was 594 (the count began at 501).[2][3] With the founding of the Sturmabteilung in 1920, Maurice became the first Oberster SA-Führer (Supreme SA Leader).[3] Maurice led the SA stormtroopers in fights that were known to break out with other groups during those early days. Hitler later in his book Mein Kampf mentions one fight in particular from November 1921 where Maurice was at the forefront of the SA unit during the fighting.[2]

Early photo of Hitler's bodyguard: left to right: Julius Schaub; Julius Schreck; Adolf Hitler; Hans Georg Maurer; Gerhard Schneider

In July 1921, Maurice became a personal chauffeur for Adolf Hitler.[3] In March 1923, Maurice also became a member of the Stabswache (Staff Guard), a small separate bodyguard dedicated to Hitler's service rather than "a suspect mass" of the party, such as the SA.[4][5] It was given the task of guarding Hitler at Nazi parties and rallies. In May 1923, the unit was renamed Stoßtrupp (Shock Troop) 'Adolf Hitler'.[6][7] Maurice, Julius Schreck, Joseph Berchtold, and Erhard Heiden, were all members of the Stoßtrupp.[8] On 9 November 1923, the Stoßtrupp, along with the SA and several other paramilitary units, took part in the abortive Beer Hall Putsch in Munich. In the aftermath of the putsch, Hitler, Rudolf Hess, Maurice and other Nazi leaders were incarcerated at Landsberg Prison for high treason.[9] The Nazi Party and all associated formations, including the Stoßtrupp, were officially disbanded.[10]

From left to right; Hitler, Maurice, Kriebel, Hess and Weber in Landsberg Prison, 1924

After Hitler's release from prison, the Nazi Party was officially refounded. In 1925, Hitler ordered the formation of a new bodyguard unit, the Schutzkommando (protection command).[11] It was formed by Julius Schreck and included old Stoßtrupp members, Maurice and Heiden.[8][12] That same year, the Schutzkommando was expanded to a national level. It was renamed successively the Sturmstaffel (storm squadron), and finally on 9 November the Schutzstaffel (SS).[13] Hitler became SS member No. 1 and Emil Maurice became SS member No. 2.[1][3] At that time, Maurice became an SS-Führer in the new organization, although the leadership of the SS was assumed by Schreck, the first Reichsführer-SS.[14] Maurice became Hitler's permanent chauffeur in 1925.[3] Later when Maurice informed Hitler in December 1927 that he was having a relationship with Hitler's half-niece Geli Raubal, Hitler forced an end to the affair. Maurice was dismissed from Hitler's personal service in 1928, but allowed to remain a member of the SS.[15][16][3] As chauffeur, he was succeeded first by Julius Schreck and then Erich Kempka.

When the SS was reorganized and expanded in 1932, Maurice became a senior SS officer and would eventually be promoted to the rank SS-Oberführer. While Maurice never became a top commander of the SS, his status as SS member #2 effectively credited him as an actual founder of the organization. Heinrich Himmler, who ultimately would become the most recognized leader of the SS, was SS member #168.[17]

Conflict with Himmler over Jewish heritage[edit]

After Himmler had become Reichsführer-SS, Maurice fell afoul of Himmler's racial purity rules for SS officers when he had to submit details of his family history before he was allowed to marry in 1935. Himmler stated, "without question...Maurice is, according to his ancestral table, not of Aryan descent".[18] All SS officers had to prove racial purity back to 1750,[19] and it turned out that Maurice had one-eighth Jewish ancestry: Charles Maurice Schwartzenberger (Chéri Maurice [de] 1805–1896), the founder of the Thalia Theater in Hamburg, was his great-grandfather.[20]

Even though Maurice had been a party member since 1919, taken part in the abortive Beer Hall Putsch (for which he was awarded the prestigious Blood Order), and been a bodyguard for Hitler, Himmler considered him to be a serious security risk given his "Jewish ancestry".[2][21] Himmler recommended that Maurice be expelled from the SS, along with other members of his family. To Himmler's annoyance, Hitler stood by his old friend.[18] In a secret letter written on 31 August 1935, Hitler compelled Himmler to make an exception for Maurice and his brothers, who were informally declared "Honorary Aryans" and allowed to stay in the SS.[22]

Later life[edit]

Maurice became engaged on 31 March 1935 to the medical student – later doctor – Hedwig Maria Anna Ploetz, the daughter of Colonel Rudolf Ploetz. They married on 5 November 1935 in Munich.[23] In 1936, he became a Reichstag deputy for Leipzig and from 1937 was the chairman of the Munich Chamber of Commerce. From 1940 to 1942, he served in the Luftwaffe as an officer.[18]

On 25 May 1945, American forces captured Maurice in Starnberg. In 1948, he was tried and sentenced to four years in a labour camp as a "Class II Nazi" (Offender). He returned to his life as a watchmaker and in 1951 owned a watch shop in Munich. He died in Starnberg on 6 February 1972.[3][18]

Decorations and awards[edit]Coburg Badge, October 1932[3]Golden Party Badge, 1933[3]Blood Order #495, 1933[3]SS-Ehrenring, 1933[3]SS-Ehrendegen, 1933[3]Honour Chevron for the Old Guard, February 1934[3]SS Ehrendolch (SS honor dagger)[3]War Merit Cross without swords[3]Nazi Party Long Service Award in Bronze, Silver and Gold[3]

Johannes 'Hans' Baur (19 June 1897 – 17 February 1993) was Adolf Hitler's pilot during the political campaigns of the early 1930s. He began his aviation career as a flying ace in World War I. He later became Hitler's personal pilot and leader of the Reichsregierung squadron. Apprehended by the Soviet Union at the end of World War II in Europe, he was imprisoned in the Soviet Union for ten years before he was extradited to France on 10 October 1955, where he was imprisoned until 1957. He died in Herrsching, Bavaria, in 1993.

World War I and interwar period[edit]

Baur was born in Ampfing, Kingdom of Bavaria. He was called up to the Bavarian Army in 1915, and trained in field artillery. He then joined the Luftstreitkräfte (air force) as an artillery spotter.[1] In 1918, Baur served in FA 295 as an Unteroffizier pilot of two-seater Hannover CL.III ground attack aircraft. His observer was Leutnant Georg Ritter von Hengl. Baur was credited with six confirmed and three unconfirmed victories against French aircraft beginning 17 July 1918. Vizefeldwebel Baur was awarded the Iron Cross First Class and the Bavarian Silver Bravery Medal for attacking a French formation of seven and downing two of the Spads that day. Baur would score his last victories on 29 October 1918.[2]

After the war, he joined the Freikorps under Franz von Epp. He went on to become a courier flier for the Bavarian airmail service.[1] Beginning in 1922, he was a pilot for Bayrische Luftlloyd, and then Junkers Luftverkehr.[1] In 1926, Baur became a pilot of Deutsche Luft Hansa.[1] In the same year, he also became a member of the NSDAP (Nazi Party No. 48,113).[3] On 1 April 1931, he flew the opening flight of the Berlin-Munich-Rome route, known as the Alpine flight, whose passengers included Nuntius Eugenio Pacelli, Arturo Toscanini and Tsar Boris III of Bulgaria.

Hitler's personal pilot[edit]

Hitler was the first politician to campaign by air travel, deciding that travel by plane was more efficient than travel by railway. Baur first served as his pilot during the 1932 General Election.[1][3]

Adolf Hitler's personal Ju 52

Hitler obtained his first private aeroplane, a Junkers Ju 52/3m with registration number D-2600 (Werk Nr. 4021), in 1933, after becoming German Chancellor.[4] The same registration number continued to be used for all aircraft used by Hitler, even during the war years. The Ju 52 was named Immelmann II after the First World War pilot Max Immelmann.[4] Baur was personally selected by Hitler to be his official pilot in 1933 and was consequently released from service by Luft Hansa.[1]

Fliegerstaffel des Führers[edit]Adolf Hitler's personal Fw 200 Condor.

Baur was appointed head of Hitler's personal squadron, initially based at Oberwiesenfeld, Munich. As the Luftwaffe was not yet officially established, Hitler wanted Baur to be able to command sufficient power and respect to assure his security, therefore, Baur was commissioned a Standartenführer (colonel) in the Schutzstaffel (SS No. 171,865) by Heinrich Himmler in October, 1933.[1][3]

Baur was given the task of expanding and organising Hitler's personal squadron and the government "flying group".[1][5] In 1934, Baur was promoted to the rank of SS-Oberführer.[1] Hitler allowed Baur to fill his squadron with experienced Luft Hansa pilots, including Georg Betz who became co-pilot for Hitler's aircraft and Hans Baur's substitute.[6] By 1937, Hitler had three Ju 52 airplanes for flight use. Then in 1937, Hitler obtained a new aircraft, the Focke-Wulf Fw 200 Condor which was named, "Immelmann III".[4] The Condor had a much greater range and was faster than the Ju 52.[7] In 1942, an improved model of the Condor was put into use for Hitler's travels and Baur continued to be his primary pilot.[8] A Ju 290 was assigned to Hitler's renamed squadron, Fliegerstaffel des Führers (FdF) in late 1944. Modifications were completed by February 1945 at the FdF's base at Pocking, Bavaria. Baur tested the aircraft, but Hitler never flew in it.[9] Still by the end of the war, Baur commanded a total of 40 different aircraft, including Ju 52, Condors, Ju 290 and the little Fieseler Fi 156 Storch.[10]

Although he tried to convert Baur to vegetarianism, Hitler also invited him to the Reich Chancellery for his favourite meal of pork and dumplings for his 40th birthday, and gave him a Mercedes-Benz to replace his personal Ford.[11]

On 10 March 1943, Hitler flew in to Army Group South's HQ at Zaporizhzhia, Ukraine. Erich von Manstein is greeting Hitler; on the right are Wolfram von Richthofen and Baur.Führerbunker and Soviet detention[edit]

On 31 January 1944, Baur was promoted to SS-Brigadeführer (brigadier general) and major general of the police; and on 24 February 1945, he became an SS-Gruppenführer (major general) and Generalleutnant of the Police.[3]

During the last days of the war, Baur was with Hitler in the Führerbunker. Baur had devised a plan to allow Hitler to escape from the Battle of Berlin; a Fieseler Fi 156 Storch was held on standby which could take off from an improvised airstrip in the Tiergarten, near the Brandenburg Gate. However, Hitler refused to leave Berlin. On 26 April 1945, the improvised landing strip was used by Hanna Reitsch to fly in Colonel-General Robert Ritter von Greim, appointed by Hitler as head of the Luftwaffe after Hermann Göring's dismissal.[12] During the evening of 28 April, Reitsch flew von Greim out on the same road-strip to Plön.[13]

On 29 April 1945, the Soviet Red Army launched an all-out attack on the centre of Berlin. The Soviet artillery opened up with intense fire in and around the Reich Chancellery area. That evening in the bunker complex below the Chancellery garden, Hitler said his farewell to his personal pilots, Baur and Betz. Baur pleaded with Hitler to leave Berlin. The men volunteered to fly Hitler out of Germany in a Ju 390 and to safety. It was in vain as Hitler turned Baur down, stating he had to stay in Berlin.[14]

Baur stayed in the bunker complex until Hitler killed himself on the afternoon of 30 April.[1][15] After Hitler's suicide, Baur found the improvised road-strip too pot-holed for use and overrun by the Soviet 3rd Shock Army. A plan was devised to escape out from Berlin to the Allies on the western side of the Elbe or to the German Army to the North. SS-Brigadeführer Wilhelm Mohnke split up the Reich Chancellery and Führerbunker soldiers and personnel into ten main groups.[16] Baur, Betz and Martin Bormann left the Reich Chancellery as part of one of the groups. During the escape attempt, Baur was shot in the legs, and the wound was so serious that his right lower leg was later amputated in Posen on 10 June 1945, while a Soviet prisoner-of-war.[17]

Baur was of great interest to his captors, who believed he might have flown Hitler to safety before the fall of Berlin. They also believed he had information concerning stolen art, specifically about the plundering of the Amber Room (Bernsteinzimmer) in Leningrad. He was taken to the Soviet Union and imprisoned there for ten years before being released on 10 October 1955.[1] The French then imprisoned him until 1957.[citation needed]

Later life and book[edit]

Baur returned to West Germany and in 1957 wrote his autobiography Ich flog die Mächtigen der Erde (literally "I flew the mighty of the Earth"). Later, a lengthened version was published as Mit Mächtigen zwischen Himmel und Erde ("Between Heaven and Earth with the Mighty"). The French translation is titled J'étais pilote de Hitler: Le sort du monde était entre mes mains ("I was Hitler's pilot: The fate of the world was in my hands.").

The book is a collection of Baur's eyewitness accounts of Hitler's daily activities and conversations. It is unique because Hans Baur, as his private pilot and personal friend, was in Hitler's presence practically every day from 1933 to 1945. The book also includes an account of the events surrounding the arrest of Ernst Röhm, by Hitler himself, on 30 June 1934 at Bad Wiessee in which Baur took part. The book tells of Baur's dislike for Hermann Göring (whom Baur describes as a "thick-headed glutton"). Baur was one of the few people who was truly close to Hitler and was one of the last people to see him alive in the Berlin bunker. The book has since been translated into English – with the title "I was Hitler's Pilot" – and is an insider's account of Hitler's life and doings as leader of the German Reich.[18]

Baur died in Germany on 17 February 1993.[1]

Personal life[edit]

Hans Baur married Elfriede Baur in 1923. Their only daughter, Ingeborg, was born the following year. After Elfriede Baur's death from cancer in 1935, Baur married again, with Hitler as his best man. His second wife, Maria, by whom he had two daughters, died while he was in captivity in the Soviet Union. His third wife, Cresentia, survived him.[11]

Martin Ludwig Bormann[1] (17 June 1900 – 2 May 1945) was a German Nazi Party official and head of the Nazi Party Chancellery. He gained immense power by using his position as Adolf Hitler's private secretary to control the flow of information and access to Hitler. He used his position to create an extensive bureaucracy and involve himself as much as possible in the decision making.

Bormann joined a paramilitary Freikorps organisation in 1922 while working as manager of a large estate. He served nearly a year in prison as an accomplice to his friend Rudolf Höss (later commandant of Auschwitz concentration camp) in the murder of Walther Kadow. Bormann joined the Nazi Party in 1927 and the Schutzstaffel (SS) in 1937. He initially worked in the party's insurance service, and transferred in July 1933 to the office of Deputy Führer Rudolf Hess, where he served as chief of staff.

Bormann gained acceptance into Hitler's inner circle and accompanied him everywhere, providing briefings and summaries of events and requests. He was appointed as Hitler's personal secretary on 12 April 1943.[2] After Hess's solo flight to Britain on 10 May 1941 to seek peace negotiations with the British government, Bormann assumed Hess's former duties, with the title of Head of the Parteikanzlei (Party Chancellery). He had final approval over civil service appointments, reviewed and approved legislation, and by 1943 had de facto control over all domestic matters. Bormann was one of the leading proponents of the ongoing persecution of the Christian churches and favoured harsh treatment of Jews and Slavs in the areas conquered by Germany during World War II.

Bormann returned with Hitler to the Führerbunker in Berlin on 16 January 1945 as the Red Army approached the city. After Hitler committed suicide, Bormann and others attempted to flee Berlin on 2 May to avoid capture by the Soviets. Bormann probably committed suicide on a bridge near Lehrter station. His body was buried nearby on 8 May 1945, but was not found and confirmed as Bormann's until 1973; the identification was reaffirmed in 1998 by DNA tests. The missing Bormann was tried in absentia by the International Military Tribunal in the Nuremberg trials of 1945 and 1946. He was convicted of war crimes and crimes against humanity and sentenced to death by hanging.

Early life and education

Born in Wegeleben (now in Saxony-Anhalt) in the Kingdom of Prussia in the German Empire, Bormann was the son of Theodor Bormann (1862–1903), a post office employee, and his second wife, Antonie Bernhardine Mennong. The family was Lutheran. He had two half-siblings (Else and Walter Bormann) from his father's earlier marriage to Louise Grobler, who died in 1898. Antonie Bormann gave birth to three sons, one of whom died in infancy. Martin and Albert (1902–89) survived to adulthood. Theodor died when Bormann was three, and his mother soon remarried.[3]

Bormann's studies at an agricultural trade high school were interrupted when he joined the 55th Field Artillery Regiment as a gunner in June 1918, in the final months of World War I. He never saw action, but served garrison duty until February 1919. After working a short time in a cattle feed mill, Bormann became estate manager of a large farm in Mecklenburg.[4][5] Shortly after starting work at the estate, Bormann joined an antisemitic landowners association.[6] While hyperinflation in the Weimar Republic meant that money was worthless, foodstuffs stored on farms and estates became ever more valuable. Many estates, including Bormann's, had Freikorps units stationed on site to guard the crops from pillaging.[7] Bormann joined the Freikorps organisation headed by Gerhard Roßbach in 1922, acting as section leader and treasurer.[8]

On 17 March 1924 Bormann was sentenced to a year in Elisabethstrasse Prison as an accomplice to his friend Rudolf Höss in the murder of Walther Kadow.[9][10] The perpetrators believed Kadow had tipped off the French occupation authorities in the Ruhr District that fellow Freikorps member Albert Leo Schlageter was carrying out sabotage operations against French industries. Schlageter was arrested and was executed on 26 May 1923. On the night of 31 May, Höss, Bormann and several others took Kadow into a meadow out of town, where he was beaten and had his throat cut.[11] After one of the perpetrators confessed, police dug up the body and laid charges in July.[12] Bormann was released from prison in February 1925.[9][a] He joined the Frontbann, a short-lived Nazi Party paramilitary organisation created to replace the Sturmabteilung (SA; storm detachment or assault division), which had been banned in the aftermath of the failed Munich Putsch. Bormann returned to his job at Mecklenburg and remained there until May 1926, when he moved in with his mother in Oberweimar.[14]

Career in the Nazi Party

In 1927, Bormann joined the Nazi Party. His membership number was 60,508.[15] He joined the Schutzstaffel (SS) on 1 January 1937 with number 278,267.[16] By special order of Heinrich Himmler in 1938, Bormann was granted SS number 555 to reflect his Alter Kämpfer (Old Fighter) status.[17]

Early careerRudolf Höss (c.1933)

Bormann took a job with Der Nationalsozialist, a weekly paper edited by Nazi Party member Hans Severus Ziegler, who was deputy Gauleiter (party leader) for Thuringia. After joining the Nazi Party in 1927, Bormann began duties as regional press officer, but his lack of public-speaking skills made him ill-suited to this position. He soon put his organisational skills to use as business manager for the Gau (region).[18] He moved to Munich in October 1928, where he worked in the SA insurance office. Initially the Nazi Party provided coverage through insurance companies for members who were hurt or killed in the frequent violent skirmishes with members of other political parties. As insurance companies were unwilling to pay out claims for such activities, in 1930 Bormann set up the Hilfskasse der NSDAP (Nazi Party Auxiliary Fund), a benefits and relief fund directly administered by the party. Each party member was required to pay premiums and might receive compensation for injuries sustained while conducting party business. Payments out of the fund were made solely at Bormann's discretion. He began to gain a reputation as a financial expert, and many party members felt personally indebted to him after receiving benefits from the fund.[19] In addition to its stated purpose, the fund was used as a last-resort source of funding for the Nazi Party, which was chronically short of money at that time.[20][21] After the Nazi Party's success in the 1930 general election, where they won 107 seats, party membership grew dramatically.[22] By 1932 the fund was collecting 3 million ℛ︁ℳ︁ per year.[23]

Bormann also worked on the staff of the SA from 1928 to 1930, and while there he founded the National Socialist Automobile Corps, precursor to the National Socialist Motor Corps. The organisation was responsible for co-ordinating the donated use of motor vehicles belonging to party members, and later expanded to training members in automotive skills.[24]

Reichsleiter and head of the party chancellery

After the Machtergreifung (Nazi Party seizure of power) in January 1933, the relief fund was repurposed to provide general accident and property insurance, so Bormann resigned from its administration. He applied for a transfer and was accepted as chief of staff in the office of Rudolf Hess, the Deputy Führer, on 1 July 1933.[25][26] Bormann also served as personal secretary to Hess from July 1933 until 12 May 1941.[27] Hess's department was responsible for settling disputes within the party and acted as an intermediary between the party and the state regarding policy decisions and legislation.[28][b] Bormann used his position to create an extensive bureaucracy and involve himself in as much of the decision-making as possible.[25][28] On 10 October 1933 Hitler named Bormann Reichsleiter (national leader – the second highest political rank) of the Nazi Party, and in November he was named Reichstag deputy.[30] By June 1934, Bormann was gaining acceptance into Hitler's inner circle and accompanied him everywhere, providing briefings and summaries of events and requests.[31]

Bormann in 1939

In 1935, Bormann was appointed as overseer of renovations at the Berghof, Hitler's property at Obersalzberg. In the early 1930s, Hitler bought the property, which he had been renting since 1925 as a vacation retreat. After he became chancellor, Hitler drew up plans for expansion and remodelling of the main house and put Bormann in charge of construction. Bormann commissioned the construction of barracks for the SS guards, roads and footpaths, garages for motor vehicles, a guesthouse, accommodation for staff, and other amenities. Retaining title in his own name, Bormann bought up adjacent farms until the entire complex covered 10 square kilometres (3.9 sq mi). Members of the inner circle built houses within the perimeter, beginning with Hermann Göring, Albert Speer, and Bormann himself.[32][33][c] Bormann commissioned the building of the Kehlsteinhaus (Eagle's Nest), a tea house high above the Berghof, as a gift to Hitler on his fiftieth birthday (20 April 1939). Hitler seldom used the building, but Bormann liked to impress guests by taking them there.[35]

While Hitler was in residence at the Berghof, Bormann was constantly in attendance and acted as Hitler's personal secretary. In this capacity, he began to control the flow of information and access to Hitler.[25][36] During this period, Hitler gave Bormann control of his personal finances. In addition to salaries as chancellor and president, Hitler's income included money raised through royalties collected on his book Mein Kampf and the use of his image on postage stamps. Bormann set up the Adolf Hitler Fund of German Trade and Industry, which collected money from German industrialists on Hitler's behalf. Some of the funds received through this programme were disbursed to various party leaders, but Bormann retained most of it for Hitler's personal use.[37] Bormann and others took notes of Hitler's thoughts expressed over dinner and in monologues late into the night and preserved them. The material was published after the war as Hitler's Table Talk.[38][39]

The office of the Deputy Führer had final approval over civil service appointments, and Bormann reviewed the personnel files and made the decisions regarding appointments. This power impinged on the purview of Minister of the Interior Wilhelm Frick, and was an example of the overlapping responsibilities typical of the Nazi regime.

Walter Buch (24 October 1883 – 12 September 1949) was a German jurist as well as an SA and SS official during the Nazi era. He was Martin Bormann's father-in-law. As head of the Supreme Party Court, he was an important Party official. However, due to his insistence on prosecuting major Party figures on moral issues, he alienated Adolf Hitler, and his power and influence gradually diminished into insignificance. After the end of the Second World War in Europe, Buch was classified as a major regime functionary or Hauptschuldiger in the denazification proceedings in 1948. On 12 September of 1949, he committed suicide.

Early life and career[edit]

Born in Bruchsal, the son of a Senate President at the Baden High Court, Buch graduated from the gymnasium in Konstanz and entered military service in 1902 as an officer cadet. He became a career officer in the Imperial German Army and served in the First World War as a training officer and a company commander, earning the Iron Cross 1st and 2nd class. In 1918, he was released from the army as a Major when he refused to swear allegiance to the new Weimar Republic. He was then active in the Baden Veterans' League. From 1919 to 1922 he was a member of the German National People's Party (DNVP/Deutschnationale Volkspartei). During these years he was also a member of the Deutschvölkischer Schutz- und Trutzbund, the largest, most active, and most influential anti-Semitic federation in Germany [1]

By December 1922, he had become a member of the Nazi Party (NSDAP), attracted by its virulent anti-semitism. He became the Ortsgruppenleiter (Local Group Leader) in Karlsruhe and joined the Sturmabteilung (SA) in January 1923. By August of that year he was leader of the SA in Franconia.[2] In mid-1923, the Stoßtrupp-Hitler (Shock Troop-Hitler) which consisted of eight SA members was formed for Hitler's personal protection. Buch was recruited as a member of this SS-forerunner organization.

Buch participated in the Beer Hall Putsch on 9 November 1923 and eluded capture as many other SA leaders fled the country. Buch came back to Munich as early as 13 November, sent by Hermann Göring – who had fled to Innsbruck – to ensure that the shaken Party troops' cohesion would not weaken. He built up ties with the now outlawed SA groups, which could now only operate undercover, and briefly was charged with the leadership of the outlawed SA until arrested in February 1924. Buch maintained regular contact between Hitler, who was incarcerated in Landsberg Prison, and the illegal Party leadership in Austria. In the time that followed, when the NSDAP was banned, Göring's fears began to come true as the party broke up. After Hitler was released from Landsberg in December 1924, he reestablished the Party on 27 February 1925. Buch soon rejoined, becoming the SA leader in Munich and serving in that capacity until November 1927.[2]

Chairman of the Supreme Party Court[edit]

The Inquiry and Mediation Committee (Untersuchungs- und Schlichtungs-Ausschuss or USCHLA), had been established in December 1925 by Hitler to settle intra-party problems and disputes. On 27 November 1927, Hitler named Buch Acting Chairman of this body (permanent Chairman as of 1 January 1928). The USCHLA's headquarters were at the Brown House, Munich.[3] In addition to the national organization, there were lower level USCHLA components at the Local and Gau levels. Their decisions could be appealed to the national USCHLA which specifically had the right to cite “higher Party reasons” as the sole justification for refusing to accept a lower level decision. Hitler used this to wield almost total control over intra-Party disputes.[4] Buch did not have any formal legal training and tried to avoid choosing professional lawyers as Party judges, preferring to rely on old Party stalwarts (Alter Kämpfer) because he trusted them to share his outlook for the Party.[5] The two other USCHLA members at the time of Buch's becoming chairman were Hans Frank and Ulrich Graf. [6]

Following the Nazi seizure of power, the USCHLA was renamed the Supreme Party Court (Oberste Parteigericht) on 1 January 1934. Buch was retained as its Chairman and also given the title of Oberster Parteirichter (Supreme Party Judge). The Court was empowered to conduct investigations, render judgments and take disciplinary actions against Party members. It could only impose sanctions that affected the accused’s relationship with the Party. The punishments could range from reprimand, to dismissal from Party offices and to the most extreme punishment, expulsion from the Party. If a case involved any criminal activity, the Court would refer the case to the criminal courts for action. However, any pronouncements of the Court were not binding on the criminal courts. The Court needed the concurrence of Hitler to effectuate its decisions, which at times he refused to grant.[7]

In 1934, Buch described the importance of Party tribunals thus:

The Party tribunals always have themselves to consider as the iron fasteners that hold together the proud building of the Nazi Party, which political leaders and SA leaders have built up. Saving it from cracks and shocks is the Party tribunals' grandest task. The Party magistrates are bound only to their National Socialist conscience, and are no political leader's subordinates, and they are subject only to the Führer.

Buch acted in accordance with this belief in the purge of the SA leadership following the Night of the Long Knives in June 1934. Having amassed evidence against SA-Stabschef Ernst Röhm and his colleagues by gathering complaints about homosexual activities among SA members, Buch traveled at Hitler's behest to Bad Wiessee and was present at Röhm's arrest.[8] Buch felt that Röhm and his fellow SA leaders should have faced the Supreme Party Court and was not informed of their summary executions until after the fact.[9] However, Buch’s courts at all levels were very active in the subsequent extensive purge of SA personnel throughout the Reich. Buch reminded the tribunals that it was their duty to serve the Party, not “objective truth.”[10] There are no accurate figures on the numbers of those expelled from the Party in the widespread purge, but they included members of the political organization as well as the SA.[11]

Buch believed that National Socialism should foster a revolution in morality as well as in politics, and he sought to use his position to spearhead a crusade against vice and corruption. Buch did not confine himself merely to ruling in internal Party disputes, but also had Party members investigated or sanctioned for personal moral failings. Buch felt that marital fidelity and family stability were cornerstones of National Socialism. He often demanded punishment for moral offenses by senior Party leaders. These moral crusades earned him many enemies among his Party colleagues, including powerful Gauleiters such as Joseph Goebbels, Julius Streicher and Wilhelm Kube. In addition, Hitler had no strong reservations about leaders’ private lives so long as they remained personally loyal and avoided open scandal.[12] As a consequence, Buch’s influence in the Party began to ebb, as can be demonstrated by several high profile cases against leading Party figures:

• In late 1935, the Gauleiter of Kurmark, Wilhelm Kube, began an affair with his secretary, impregnated her and began divorce proceedings against his wife. Buch was outraged by these actions and scolded the Gauleiter in writing for his adulterous affair and for tolerating similar behavior by his subordinates. The Party Court began an investigation into allegations of corruption, favoritism and nepotism in his management of the Gau and issued a stern reprimand.[13] However, Hitler was reluctant to remove one of his old comrades and summoned Buch to the Reich Chancellery for a personal rebuke on 14 November.[14] Then in April 1936, an anonymous letter charged that Buch's wife was half-Jewish. In the course of a Gestapo investigation, it came to light that the letter had been written by Kube, in an attempt to get revenge on Buch. The Supreme Party Court issued an official reprimand in August 1936 and removed Kube from all his posts. Only on Hitler's orders was Kube allowed to retain the rank and uniform of an “honorary” Gauleiter. This whole sordid affair did nothing to restore Buch to Hitler’s good graces.[15]

• Buch was also responsible for the whitewashing of Party members' excesses during the nationwide Kristallnacht pogrom of 9 November 1938. Only 30 Party members were charged and most all had their cases dismissed or were given mild punishments. Buch's report, issued in February 1939, declared that the killings that had taken place were "committed on the basis of a vague or presumed order … but motivated by hatred against Jews … [or] motivated by a resolution suddenly formed in the excitement of the moment." He refused to hold the defendants responsible for following orders. However, his naming of Reichsminister of Propaganda Joseph Goebbels as the instigator of the "vague order" further alienated Buch from the Nazi leadership.[16]

• In early 1940, Buch began proceedings against Julius Streicher, the Gauleiter of Gau Franconia for behavior viewed as so irresponsible that he was embarrassing the party leadership. He was accused of keeping Jewish property seized after Kristallnacht; of spreading untrue stories about Hermann Göring – alleging that he was impotent and that his daughter Edda was conceived by artificial insemination; and of immoral personal behavior, including open adultery. He was brought before the Supreme Party Court and on 16 February 1940 was judged to be "unsuitable for leadership" and stripped of his party offices.[17] However, Hitler considered Streicher one of his oldest and most loyal comrades. He considered overturning the verdict and removing “the old fool” Buch but, in the end, he settled for permitting Streicher to retain the title of Gauleiter and to continue as the publisher of Der Stürmer. This episode further strained Buch’s relationship with Hitler.[18]

• In November 1941, Hitler dismissed the Gauleiter of Gau Westphalia-South, Josef Wagner, from his position and ordered that he face the Supreme Party Court. Wagner was charged with ideological deviation, by remaining in the Catholic Church and sending his children to convent school. In addition, his wife objected to the marriage of their daughter to an SS member. Wagner defended himself ably and, in February 1942, the Court exonerated him.[19] Hitler angrily refused to ratify the Court’s decision and, responding to this high level rebuke, the Court was finally compelled to expel Wagner from the Party in October 1942.[20]

After this latest episode Hitler resolved to act against Buch and, at the end of November 1942, Buch lost what powers still remained to him. Hitler decreed that the Court could no longer try cases involving ideological issues. In addition, Gauleiters were authorized to serve as courts of appeal for Party courts at the Gau level and Hitler delegated the power of confirming the Supreme Party Court’s decisions to the Chief of the Nazi Party Chancellery, Martin Bormann.[20] Bormann incidentally was married to Buch's daughter Gerda, but was not on good terms with Buch. Bormann from then on at times nullified sentences pronounced by the Court and at other times interfered with its deliberations, indicating what decision he expected of it. Buch tried to maintain his independence of action but eventually refused to preside over Court sessions and effectively withdrew from his position.[21] In post-war interrogations, he claimed to have offered to resign and join the army several times during the Second World War but that his offers were never accepted.