Wegscheid is a municipality in the district of Passau in Bavaria in Germany .
34-475: In November 1936, Fritz Wächtler visited the school. In January 1939, when the Adalbert-Stifter school was dedicated, Kreisleiter Krenn joined the guests of honor. This Passau district location article is a stub . You can help Misplaced Pages by expanding it . Fritz W%C3%A4chtler Fritz Wächtler (7 January 1891 – 19 April 1945) was a Nazi Party official and politician who served as
68-600: A federal state of the Empire . It was abolished when Alsace-Lorraine was, in turn, ceded back to France after Germany lost World War I . During the Third Reich , the Nazis re-created the office of Reichsstatthalter (Reich Governor or Reich Deputy) to gain direct control over all states (other than Prussia ) after winning the general elections of 1933. Their independent state governments and parliaments were successively abolished, and
102-675: A political intrigue. Wächtler was executed on orders from Führer Headquarters near the end of the war on 19 April 1945. Fritz Wächtler was born in 1891 in Triebes , in the Principality of Reuss-Gera (present-day Thuringia ), the son of a watchmaker. He attended volksschule in Triebes and Erfurt , and between 1905 and 1911 he attended the Weimar Lehrerseminar , a special training academy for primary school teachers. After two years working as
136-563: A teacher in Vippachedelhausen , he volunteered for military service in October 1913 as a "one-year volunteer" ( German : Einjährigfreiwilliger ) with Infantry Regiment 94, "Grand Duke of Saxony." On the outbreak of World War I he was deployed to the western front . By August 1915 he had been promoted to Leutnant and served as the commander of a machine gun company with his original regiment and, later, Landwehr Infantry Regiment 7. In
170-697: The Gauleiter of the eastern Bavarian administrative region of Gau Bayreuth . Trained as a primary school teacher, he also became head of the National Socialist Teachers League (NSLB) in 1935. During World War II he held the honorary rank of SS - Obergruppenführer and was the Reich Defense Commissioner of Gau Bayreuth. Prone to alcoholic outbursts and unpopular with the local residents, he eventually ran afoul of Martin Bormann in
204-493: The Reichsschule Feldafing , an elite Party leadership school. At the 29 March 1936 elections, Wächtler was returned as a Reichstag Deputy for electoral constituency 25, Niederbayern ( Lower Bavaria ). For a short period in 1938 he served as the acting Oberburgermeister of the city of Bayreuth. Unlike Schemm, Wächtler was an outsider to Bavarians and enjoyed no popularity among the residents of his Gau or among
238-876: The Nazi Party (membership number 35,313) on 26 April 1926. He founded the local branch of the Party in Vippachedelhausen, becoming the Ortsgruppenleiter (Local Group Leader) there for the next two years. He also joined the Sturmabteilung (SA) becoming the SA- Führer for the Weimar-North district. From 1927 to 1932 he also became the Party Kreisleiter (District Leader) for Weimar-North. From 1928 to 1932 he served as
272-599: The Passau Nibelungenhalle, the Donau-Zeitung reported an audience of 12,000. In April 1939, Wächtler purchased the Passau Haus, where Hitler had lived for two years. One year later, he donated it to the city of Passau. On 2 June 1942, Wächtler's Gau Bavarian Eastern March was renamed Gau Bayreuth , since due to Germany's territorial expansion it was no longer a borderland region . On 16 November 1942, Wächtler
306-530: The Austrian State Government) from 15 March 1938 to 30 April 1939. Also, Josef Bürckel was appointed Reichskommissar für die Wiedervereiningung Österreichs mit dem Deutschen Reich (Reich Commissioner for Reunification of Austria with the German Reich) from 23 April 1938 to 31 March 1940. At that point, each constitutive Land (with some differences in borders, e.g., Burgenland was partitioned away)
340-656: The Coordination of the States with the Reich " ( Zweites Gesetz zur Gleichschaltung der Länder mit dem Reich ) on 7 April 1933. This law deployed one Reich Governor in each of Germany's 17 states. The Reich Governors were given the task of overseeing the fulfillment of Hitler's political guidelines in the states. Indeed, the law required them to carry out "the general policy of the Chancellor." In practice, they acted with complete authority over
374-530: The Deputy Gauleiter Ludwig Ruckdeschel in an acting capacity. However, on 5 December Wachtler was appointed the permanent Gauleiter in place of Ruchdeschel. This would engender a rivalry between them that would have dire consequences for Wächtler. The Gau capital of Bayreuth was home to the family of Richard Wagner and the site of the annual Bayreuth Festival , supported and regularly attended by Adolf Hitler . As such, its Gauleiter
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#1733084701520408-572: The Reconstruction of the Reich ( Gesetz über den Neuaufbau des Reichs ) passed on 30 January 1934; it formally de-federalized the Reich for the first time in its history. However, Germany had effectively become a highly centralized state with the passage of the Enabling Act and the posting of the Reich Governors. The state parliaments were abolished, and their sovereign powers were transferred to
442-515: The Reich government took over direct control in a process called Gleichschaltung ("coordination"). Prussia's government had already been taken over by the Reich a year earlier in the Preußenschlag under Chancellor Franz von Papen . Two weeks after the passage of the Enabling Act of 1933 , which effectively made Adolf Hitler the dictator of Germany , the Nazi government issued the " Second Law on
476-544: The Reich government. The Reich Governors were made responsible to the Reich Minister of the Interior, Wilhelm Frick . For all intents and purposes, the states were reduced to provinces. The Reich Governors Law ( Reichsstatthaltergesetz ) of 30 January 1935 formally designated the Reich Governors as the representatives of the Reich government, tasked with watching over the execution of Hitler's political guidelines. They received
510-421: The Reich leadership. He was brutal with subordinates and prone to uncontrolled alcoholic outbursts in public. One assessment of his character stated: In place of the elegant, affable Schemm, a brilliant orator, there appeared the ungainly figure of the oratorically untalented and philistine Wächtler, whose dogged adherence to the Party line soon earned him the epithet ‘megalomaniac schoolteacher’. He rigorously put
544-569: The attention and suspicion of Martin Bormann , Hitler's powerful Secretary and head of the Nazi Party Chancellery . Bormann had previously ordered the closing of the National Socialist Teachers League (NSLB) on 17 February 1943, together with all its Gau offices across Germany. Wächtler, fearing the loss of influence, complained that the NSLB was essential for the war effort in long rambling memos to Bormann, to no avail. In 1945 Hitler declared
578-466: The authority to "inform" the provincial authorities about these guidelines, as well as the measures necessary to fulfill them. In practice, the Führerprinzip meant that this "information" amounted to an order. The Reichsstatthalter were now also empowered to take over all functions of state government, and also appointed the mayors of all towns and cities with populations fewer than 100,000. This had
612-442: The city of Bayreuth to be a fortress, which led to the destruction of over one third of the city by air raids. On 1 April 1945, Bormann issued a further order that all Gauleiters , Kreisleiters , and other NSDAP political leaders were to fight to the death in their districts. A particularly heavy air raid took place on 11 April. With much of the city in ruins and only 200 irregular defenders left, Wächtler fled Bayreuth with his staff
646-613: The directive rescinded. From 1938, Wächtler's district became home to the Flossenbürg concentration camp and its many subcamps . In February 1939, the Donau-Zeitung reported about Wächtler's visit in Hauzenberg , where the Gauleiter had dedicated a party district house. After seeing the condition of the school in Wegscheid , a new building was decided. In March 1939, when Wächtler spoke at
680-669: The effect of giving the Reich Interior Ministry near-complete control over local government. The Interior Minister directly appointed the mayors of all cities with populations greater than 100,000 (though Hitler reserved the right to appoint the mayors of Berlin and Hamburg himself if he deemed it necessary), and as mentioned above, the Reich Governors were responsible to him. After Austria 's Anschluss ("union") with Germany, its last pre- Anschluss Chancellor , Arthur Seyss-Inquart , became its first Reichsstatthalter and Führer der Österreichischen Landesregierung (Leader of
714-524: The increasingly draconian new laws into effect, above all those aimed at Jews and the churches, and as an outsider he made enemies in the area … Even Winifred Wagner , daughter-in-law of Richard Wagner, complained repeatedly about his misconduct to her friend Hitler. However, she also frequently tried to intervene with Hitler on behalf of Jewish friends for clemency. This is likely why Wächtler, while not in Hitler's favor, remained untouched until 1945. Wächtler
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#1733084701520748-727: The next day as American forces approached. He reportedly left the bomb-ruined city in a convoy of “several lorries of food, spirits and cigarettes.” He set up offices at a hotel in Waldmünchen in the southern part of the Gau near the former Czechoslovakian border, some 140 kilometers from Bayreuth. On 14 April, Bayreuth surrendered to the US 3rd Army without a fight. It is unclear whether communications difficulties prevented Wächtler from informing Führer Headquarters of his location, however his Deputy Gauleiter and longtime political rival Ludwig Ruckdeschel used
782-714: The only Nazi member of the Kreisrat (District Council) in Landkreis Weimar. On 8 December 1929, Wächtler was elected as a member of the Landtag of Thuringia where he would serve until October 1933. From 1929 to 1932, he was the Business Manager and Training Officer for Gau Thuringia . Then on 15 June 1932, he was made the Organization Leader and Deputy Gauleiter there under Fritz Sauckel . On 26 August 1932, Wächtler
816-491: The opportunity to contact Bormann and accuse Wächtler of desertion . On 19 April, Wächtler was relieved of all his posts and expelled from the Party for cowardice and desertion. On orders from Führer Headquarters, Ruckdeschel appeared at the hotel with 35 SS troops, pronounced a death sentence and summarily executed Wächtler by firing squad . Ruckdeschel immediately replaced Wächtler as acting Gauleiter and Reich Defense Commissioner. A posthumous denazification proceeding
850-559: The powerful interior minister, he had control over all the police and security apparatus of the State. Wächtler was elected a member of the Reichstag for electoral constituency 12, Thuringia, on 12 November 1933, and would remain a Reichstag deputy until his death. In November 1934, Wächtler joined the Schutzstaffel (SS-Number 209,058) as an SS- Oberführer . By the end of January 1936 he
884-607: The spring of 1916 he was twice wounded in action and classified as unfit for front-line duty. However, in January 1918 he was returned to the front, serving there until discharged at the end of the war in November. During the war he received many decorations , including the Iron Cross , 2nd class. After discharge from the service, Wächtler returned to his teaching position in Vippachedelhausen, working as an educator until 1932. Wächtler joined
918-484: The state governments. The governors' main authorities lay in: In Prussia , the largest of the German states, Hitler took direct control by appointing himself as Reichsstatthalter . However, he delegated his authority to Hermann Göring , who had been installed as Minister President of Prussia without an election. The Prussian provinces were administered by an Oberpräsident , usually the local Gauleiter . The Law on
952-640: Was a title used in the German Empire and later in Nazi Germany . The office of Statthalter des Reiches (otherwise known as Reichsstatthalter ) was instituted in 1879 by the German Empire for the areas of Alsace ( Elsaß ) and Lorraine ( Lothringen ) that France had ceded to Germany following the Franco-Prussian War . It was a form of governorship intended to exist while Alsace-Lorraine became
986-604: Was appointed Reich Defense Commissioner ( Reichsverteidigungskommissar ) for his Gau, and in September 1944 he became the commander of the Volkssturm units in the Gau. It was in these positions that he came to realize the war would be lost. This attitude became apparent to his superiors when he prevented the seizure of the historic Bayreuth Festspielhaus for use in defense of the city. By 1945 his additional failure to send daily situation reports to Führer Headquarters brought him to
1020-529: Was appointed Education Minister in the cabinet formed by Sauckel when he became Minister President of Thuringia. Following the Nazi Seizure of Power in 1933, Sauckel was made Reichsstatthalter (Reich Governor) of Thuringia. Wächtler remained as education minister and, on 8 May 1933, was also named interior minister ; on 13 May he was also made deputy to the new minister president, Willy Marschler . Wächtler retained all these posts until 22 January 1936. As
1054-609: Was considered a high-profile posting. Wächtler at the same time also succeeded Schemm as head of the National Socialist Teachers League (NSLB) and head ( Hauptamtsleiter ) of the Main Office for Education in the Party Reichsleitung (National Leadership). From January 1936 he also was the Expert on All School Questions on the Party headquarters staff of Deputy Führer Rudolf Hess . In this position he had supervisory authority over
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1088-448: Was held in Ansbach , and on 17 February 1949, Wächtler was classified into Group I (Major Offender) resulting in the confiscation of his entire estate. Ruckdeschel was sentenced to 13 years in prison for several executions after the war, albeit not for that of Wächtler. Reichsstatthalter The Reichsstatthalter ( German: [ˈʁaɪçsˌʃtathaltɐ] , Reich lieutenant )
1122-548: Was involved in organizing the anti-Jewish Kristallnacht riots of 9–10 November 1938 in his Gau. The next day, the Reich leadership in Berlin ordered cessation of further property destruction because they feared the riots they had instigated would lead to more radical actions not under their control. Wächtler tried to use the opportunity to force public school teachers to sign a personal oath that they would no longer teach any religious subjects. Highly unpopular, Rudolf Hess had to order
1156-571: Was promoted to the rank of SS- Brigadeführer , in April 1937 to SS- Gruppenführer and, finally, on 1 August 1944 to SS - Obergruppenführer . He was assigned to the staff of the Reichsführer-SS from April 1937 until his death. On 5 March 1935 the first Gauleiter of the Gau Bavarian Eastern March , Hans Schemm , died in an airplane crash. For an interim period the Gau was run by
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