Dietrich Klagges (IPA /'di:trɪç 'klagəs/) (born 1 February 1891 in Herringsen, nowadays part of Bad Sassendorf, (Kreis Soest); died 12 November 1971 in Bad Harzburg) was a Nazi politician and from 1933 to 1945 the appointed premier (Ministerpräsident) of the now abolished state of Braunschweig (English sometimes Brunswick). IPA may refer to: The International Phonetic Alphabet or India Pale Ale ... February 1 is the 32nd day of the year in the Gregorian Calendar. ... 1891 (MDCCCXCI) was a common year starting on Thursday (see link for calendar). ... Soest is a Kreis (district) in the middle of North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. ... November 12 is the 316th day of the year (317th in leap years) in the Gregorian Calendar, with 49 days remaining. ... 1971 (MCMLXXI) is a common year starting on Friday (click for link to calendar). ... Location within Germany Bad Harzburg is a city in the centre of Germany, in the Goslar district. ... It has been suggested that this article or section be merged into Nazism. ... A politician is an individual involved in politics to the extent of holding or running for public office. ... A minister-president (Ministerpräsident) is the head of government of a German federal state; the office corresponds to the governorship of a state in the United States. ... The English language is a West Germanic language that originates in England. ...

Youth and early career development

Klagges was the youngest of a forester's seven children. He underwent training as a Volksschule teacher at the teaching seminary at Soest and worked as such beginning in 1911 in Harpen near Bochum. During the First World War he was badly wounded and therefore discharged from army service by 1916. In 1918 he joined the German National People's Party and stayed with the party until 1924. After the First World War he became a Realschule teacher in Wilster in Holstein. After leaving the German National People's Party, Klagge was for a short time a member of the extreme rightwing German Racialist Freedom Party (Deutschvölkische Freiheitspartei), which had been founded late in 1922. He soon left it, eventually joining the NSDAP in 1925. From 1926 until 1930 he worked as a deputy headmaster at a middle school in Benneckenstein (now in Saxony-Anhalt), where from 1928 to 1930 he also served as the local Nazi Ortsgruppe leader. Because of his membership in the Party, he was dismissed from the Prussian school service and furthermore stripped of his pension. In the same year he first rose to prominence in Braunschweig, where he busied himself as a Nazi propaganda speechmaker. Soest is the name of two localities, one in the Netherlands and one in Germany: Soest, Netherlands Soest, Germany and the district around Soest, Germany is also called Soest: Soest (district) This is a disambiguation page — a navigational aid which lists other pages that might otherwise share the same title. ... Map of Germany showing location of Bochum Bochum is a city in North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. ... Ypres, 1917, in the vicinity of the Battle of Passchendaele. ... 1924 electoral poster, using the Admiral Tirpitz as a figurehead The German National Peoples Party (German: Deutschnationale Volkspartei) (DNVP) was a right wing national-conservative party in Germany during the time of the Weimar Republic. ... In Germany, the Realschule was an outgrowth of the realistic tendencies of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. ... Holstein (Hol-shtayn) (Low German: Holsteen, Danish: Holsten, Latin and historical English: Holsatia) is the southern part of Schleswig-Holstein in Germany, between the rivers Elbe, Eider, and the Schlei firth. ... The Nazi swastika The National Socialist German Workers Party (German: Nationalsozialistische Deutsche Arbeiterpartei), better known as the NSDAP or the Nazi Party was a political party that was led to power in Germany by Adolf Hitler in 1933. ... With an area of 20,447 km² and a population of 2. ... The coat of arms of the Kingdom of Prussia, 1701-1918 The word Prussia (Old Prussian: PrÅ«sa, German: Preußen, Polish: Prusy, Lithuanian: PrÅ«sai, Latin: Borussia) has had various (often contradictory) meanings: The land of the Baltic Prussians (in what is now parts of southern Lithuania, the Kaliningrad... A pension is a steady income paid to a person (usually after retirement). ... North Korean propaganda showing a soldier destroying the United States Capitol building. ...

Writings

From 1921, Klagges was busy writing völkisch, antidemocratic, and Anti-Semitic writings which appeared in likeminded newspapers and the like. He wrote for example for Die völkische Schule or Deutschlands Erneuerung and was himself the publisher of the magazine Nordlicht. His partly theological publications were moulded by radical religious racism. The hard-to-translate word völkisch has connotations of folksy, folkloric, and populist. ... The Eternal Jew: 1937 German poster. ... A collection of magazines A magazine is a periodical publication containing a variety of articles, generally financed by advertising and/or purchase by readers. ... It has been suggested that Racism in Mass Media be merged into this article or section. ...

Political office in Braunschweig

In the municipal elections in the state of Braunschweig on 1 March 1931, the Nazi party against expectation emerged as the third strongest party (10 seats) behind the SPD and KPD (18 seats between them). March 1 is the 60th day of the year in the Gregorian calendar (61st in leap years). ... 1931 (MCMXXXI) is a common year starting on Thursday. ... SPD redirects here. ... 1932 KPD poster, End This System The Communist Party of Germany (in German, Kommunistische Partei Deutschlands – KPD) was formed in December of 1918 from the Spartacist League, which originated as a small factional grouping within the Social Democratic Party (SPD), and the International Communists of Germany (IKD). ...

Appointment to government council

On 1 January 1931 Klagges was appointed by the Interior and Cult Minister of the Braunschweig Free State along with NSDAP member Anton Franzen to the Government Council in the Ministry of National Education. After long political quarrels and intrigues, however, Franzen had to step down only a few months later owing to a fellow Party member's favouritism. It was none other than Franz Groh, chairman of the NSDAP faction, who thereby had triggered an internal political crisis in the Free State, threatening a coalition breakdown. January 1 is the first day of the calendar year in both the Julian and Gregorian calendars. ... 1931 (MCMXXXI) is a common year starting on Thursday. ... A coalition is an alliance between entities, during which they cooperate in joint action, each in their own self-interest. ...

Election to State Minister

Owing to the imminent crisis in the Free State, Adolf Hitler intervened in the matter and gave the German National People's Party an ultimatum, which in the end led to Klagges's being elected by the Braunschweig Landtag to State Minister for the Interior and National Education, thereby also becoming a member of the Braunschweig State Government, on 15 September 1931. Shortly thereafter, in 1932, Klagges also became a member of the Reichstag. Already in 1931, two years before the Nazis seized power, came professional bans, through Klagges's actions, against Social Democrats and Jews, which struck, among others, many teaching staff at the Braunschweig Technical College. (help· info) (April 20, 1889 – April 30, 1945) was Chancellor of Germany from 1933 and Führer (Leader) of Germany from 1934 until his death. ... An ultimatum is a final demand made without intent of negotiation. ... In Germany, Austria and South Tyrol, a Landtag is a unicameral legislature for a federal land. ... September 15 is the 258th day of the year (259th in leap years). ... The Reichstag is both an institutional assembly and a specific building. ... Machtergreifung is a German word meaning seizure of power. ... The Technical University at Brunswick, Lower Saxony, is the oldest of Germanys technical universities. ...

Naturalizing Adolf Hitler

The City of Braunschweig unfairly bears the stigma of having been responsible for the former Austrian citizen – and since 1925, at his own instigation, stateless person – Adolf Hitler's getting fast-tracked by political scheming into a job on 25 February 1932 as government adviser at the Braunschweig State Culture and Surveying Office, which also put him in charge of the Braunschweig legation in Berlin. It was not, however, the city's fault that this "naturalization" was brought about, but rather the Free State's, in whose name this deed was done by the State Minister for the Interior and National Education, namely NSDAP member Dietrich Klagges. Braunschweig (English Brunswick) is a city of 245,500 people (as of December 31, 2004), located in Lower Saxony, Germany. ... A stateless person is someone with no state or nationality, sometimes because the state that gave their previous nationality has ceased to exist and there is no successor state. ... February 25 is the 56th day of the year in the Gregorian Calendar. ... 1932 (MCMXXXII) is a leap year starting on Friday. ... To meet Wikipedias quality standards, this article or section may require cleanup. ...

On the other hand, by 1930, the National Socialists were already quite politically influential in the Braunschweig Free State. For Hitler, it was merely a chance to get German citizenship since the Free State was the only state in the Weimar Republic with Nazis in government who could influence and control the "Führer's" "naturalization". Flag of Weimar Republic, 1919–1933 Coat of arms The Weimar Republic (German Weimarer Republik, IPA: []) is the historical name for the republic that governed Germany from 1919 to 1933. ... Führer (Fuehrer or Fuhrer in English when umlauts are not used) is a proper noun meaning leader or guide in the German language. ...

For this reason, the Free State's government – or more precisely its State Minister, Klagges – was given the direct application by the NSDAP party leadership for Hitler's "naturalization". Joseph Goebbels referred to the matter in his diary on 4 February 1932: The intention is to appoint the Führer an extraordinary professor." Dr. Paul Joseph Goebbels (October 29, 1897 – May 1, 1945) was Adolf Hitlers Propaganda Minister (see Propagandaministerium) in Nazi Germany. ... February 4 is the 35th day of the year in the Gregorian Calendar. ... 1932 (MCMXXXII) is a leap year starting on Friday. ...

Professor Hitler

Klagges first tried to procure for Hitler an extraordinary professorship in the made-up position of "Politics and Organic Business" at the Braunschweig Technical College. This rather half-baked, slipshod plan soon leaked out to the public and then failed miserably in the face of opposition from, among others, the technical college's own leadership and educators themselves (the now renamed University of Braunschweig did not want to hire a jobless postcard painter who had never finished school). The plan had to be dropped. A professor (Latin: one who publicly professes to be an expert) (or prof for short) is a senior teacher, lecturer and researcher, usually in a college or university. ...

Without meaning to, Klagges had given the Nazi Party the very thing that they had wanted to avoid at all cost: their intentions had now been made public and Hitler had become a target of ridicule. Moreover, Hitler's reputation had been damaged – not only in Braunschweig – and Klagges would later get the "bill" for it.

Government Adviser Hitler

There followed yet another attempt to get Hitler a proper job, this time by Dr. Wessels, a German People's Party (DVP) Member of the Reichstag, who suggested that a post be procured for Hitler in the Braunschweig Legation at the Reichsrat in Berlin. The German Peoples Party (Deutsche Volkspartei, or DVP) was founded by the more right-wing elements of the old National Liberal Party in the early days of the Weimar Republic, led by Gustav Stresemann. ... The Reichstag is both an institutional assembly and a specific building. ... The Reichsrat was one of the two legislative bodies in Germany under the Weimar constitution, the other one being the Reichstag. ... To meet Wikipedias quality standards, this article or section may require cleanup. ...

This second try met with success in the end: On 26 February 1932, Hitler was successfully sworn in, thereby becoming a German citizen, and at the same time winning the right to stand as a candidate in the 1932 Reich presidential election. February 26 is the 57th day of the year in the Gregorian Calendar. ... 1932 (MCMXXXII) is a leap year starting on Friday. ...

In the Braunschweigische Landeszeitung newspaper, Klagges declared a short time later:

"If our participation in the government in Braunschweig had had no further success than procuring citizenship for our Führer Adolf Hitler, then this fact alone is enough to prove the necessity of our participation in the government."

(quoted from: Roloff: Bürgertum und Nationalsozialismus 1930-1933. Braunschweigs Weg ins Dritte Reich, p. 96)

Obviously Hitler's job at the legation did not last long. On 16 February 1933 the new Reichskanzler Adolf Hitler requested in a short telegram discharge from the Braunschweig State Service, which was promptly granted "with immediate effect". February 16 is the 47th day of the year in the Gregorian Calendar. ... 1933 (MCMXXXIII) was a common year starting on Sunday (link will take you to calendar). ... The head of government in Germany has traditionally been called Kanzler (Chancellor). ...

Some historians have brought into question whether indeed Hitler ever officially earned German citizenship – in hindsight a somewhat academic and idle question, but if it is true, then on 30 January 1933, Hitler managed to become Reichskanzler without so much as even being German. January 30 is the 30th day of the year in the Gregorian calendar. ... 1933 (MCMXXXIII) was a common year starting on Sunday (link will take you to calendar). ...

Break between Hitler and Klagges

Hitler's naturalization was supposed to be dealt with quickly and above all, inconspicuously, without the public getting any knowledge of it. However, with Klagges's clumsy way of doing things, the whole business grew into a farce for the later "Führer", for at the first try, he failed miserably, and publicly. Only on the second try was the coup successful.

Hitler never forgave Klagges this public exposure and personal humiliation and settled the score with him on 17 July 1935 on his last visit to Braunschweig, which resulted in Klagges's de facto disempowerment. Henceforth, Klagges was to submit all plans to Reichsstatthalter Wilhelm Loeper in Dessau as well as Reichsminister Hanns Kerrl for approval, thereby being degraded to provincial politician and being thrust off the stage of higher NSDAP politics. It is also likely that Klagges had only Hermann Göring's pull in these matters to thank for not being dismissed by Hitler on the spot (which did not last much beyond 1940 anyway). July 17 is the 198th day (199th in leap years) of the year in the Gregorian calendar, with 167 days remaining. ... 1935 (MCMXXXV) was a common year starting on Tuesday (link will take you to calendar). ... Dessau is a town in Germany on the junction of the rivers Mulde and Elbe, in the Bundesland (Federal State) of Saxony-Anhalt. ... Hanns Kerrl (December 11, 1887 - December 12, 1941) was a German Nazi politician. ... Hermann Göring Hermann Wilhelm Göring (also Goering in English) (January 12, 1893 – October 15, 1946) was an early member of the Nazi party, leader of the Gestapo, and one of the main leaders of Nazi Germany. ...

The Braunschweig Free State after the Nazis' seizure of power

Almost immediately after 30 January 1933 came acts of terror in Braunschweig against those who disagreed with the Nazis, followed by more such acts as the year wore on. January 30 is the 30th day of the year in the Gregorian calendar. ... 1933 (MCMXXXIII) was a common year starting on Sunday (link will take you to calendar). ...

Appointment as Premier of the Braunschweig Free State

On 6 May 1933, Klagges was appointed Ministerpräsident of the Braunschweig Free State by Reichsstatthalter Wilhelm Loeper. Klagges's clearly formulated goal was the creation of a National Socialist model province. Only a few days later, the first book burnings took place in Braunschweig at the Schlossplatz. May 6 is the 126th day of the year in the Gregorian Calendar (127th in leap years). ... 1933 (MCMXXXIII) was a common year starting on Sunday (link will take you to calendar). ... Book burning is the practice of ceremoniously destroying by fire one or more copies of a book or other written material. ...

National Socialist model province

Klagges's plans for a National Socialist model province entailed the goal of further keeping Braunschweig as independent as possible from Berlin's overlordship so that he could go on running his little "Reich" as he deemed fit, doing whatever he liked to do. Klagges would not hear of his province being integrated into Prussia – as this would have put an end to the faction that he led – despite Hitler's assurances that Braunschweig would still be a cultural centre, and not merely part of a new "Reichsgau Hannover". The province was also to remain in place after the foreseen war. To hold onto – and broaden – his own power, Klagges next tried to bring into being a new Gau – one that would also be independent of Hanover. It would be called "Gau Ostfalen", its capital would be Braunschweig and the Gauleiter would be, of course, himself. Klagges found support for his idea among Braunschweig educators, from the middle class, the chamber of commerce, and even the Evangelical Church. Gau can denote Gau, the German term for shire. ... Hanover (German: Hannover []), on the river Leine, is the capital of the federal state of Lower Saxony (Niedersachsen), Germany. ... A Gauleiter was the party leader of a regional branch of the NSDAP (more commonly known as the Nazi Party) or the head of a Gau or of a Reichsgau. ... The middle class (or middle classes) comprises a social group once defined by exception as an intermediate social class between the nobility and the peasantry. ...

To this end, Klagges undertook a number of things to strengthen Braunschweig's political and economic position in Germany: As of June 1933, "Dietrich Klagges Garden City" (Gartenstadt Dietrich Klagges) began in earnest. Furthermore, he brought many important Nazi institutions to the city, such as the Academy for Youth Leadership (Akademie für Jugendführung), The German Research Centre for Aviation (Deutsche Versuchsanstalt für Luftfahrt), the Führer School for German Handicraft (Führerschule des deutschen Handwerks), the Regional Führer School of the Hitler Youth (Gebietsführerschule der Hitler-Jugend), the Luftwaffe Command 2, the Reich Hunting Lodge (Reichsjägerhof), the SS Ensigns' School (SS-Junkerschule), the SS Upper Division "Middle", and also the Bernhard Rust College for Teacher Training. Flag of the Hitler Youth (General flag) The Hitler Youth (German: Hitler-Jugend, abbreviated HJ) was a paramilitary organization of the Nazi Party that existed from 1922 to 1945. ...

Klagges also further developed Braunschweig's infrastructure by connecting it to the newly built Autobahn and the Mittellandkanal. In the end, thanks to Klagges, Braunschweig also became a centre of the National Socialist armament industry, since important industrial hubs were growing right nearby, namely the Reichswerke Hermann Göring (on whose board of directors Klagges was as of 1937), and the Volkswagen Works in Fallersleben (now part of Wolfsburg). The German and Austrian autobahn sign The Swiss autobahn sign Autobahn (pronounced in IPA) is the German word for a major high-speed road confined to motor vehicles and having full control of access, similar to a motorway or freeway in English-speaking countries. ... The Mittellandkanal is, at 320 km, the longest artificial waterway in Germany. ... Volkswagen, [literally: peoples car] (also known as VW) is an automobile manufacturer based in Wolfsburg, Germany. ... Weser watershed Wolfsburg is a city in Lower Saxony, Germany. ...

Persecuting political dissenters

What follows is a few examples of how and by what means Dietrich Klagges persecuted politically undesirable persons (or had them persecuted), sometimes to death (see also "Klagge trials" below).

The Rieseberg Murders

The "AOK Building", the Hilfspolizei's "protective custody" prison

The SPD's Volksfreundhaus

A short time after the Nazis' seizure of power, the first acts of terror were seen in both the City and Province of Braunschweig in which the so-called "Hilfspolizei" ("Auxiliary Police") stood out. This force was directly answerable to Klagges and consisted of SA, SS and "Stahlhelm" men. Their actions were aimed mainly at members of various labour organizations, the SPD, the KPD, and also against Jews. They were carried out with extraordinary brutality. Klagges was therefore responsible for at least 25 Nazi régime opponents' deaths. There was to have been a judicial inquiry into the circumstances surrounding eleven arrestees' deaths after they were allegedly murdered on 4 July 1933 by members of the SS, but Klagges assisted in blocking and suppressing it. Machtergreifung is a German word meaning seizure of power. ... The seal of SA The â–¶ (help· info) (SA, German for Storm Division and is usually translated as stormtroops or stormtroopers) functioned as a paramilitary organisation of the NSDAP – the German Nazi party. ... The infamous double-sig rune SS insignia. ... The Stahlhelm, Bund der Frontsoldaten (German: Steel Helmet, League of Frontline Soldiers) was one of the many paramilitary Freikorps organizations that arose after the defeat of World War I in the Weimar Republic. ... July 4 is the 185th day of the year (186th in leap years) in the Gregorian Calendar, with 180 days remaining. ... 1933 (MCMXXXIII) was a common year starting on Sunday (link will take you to calendar). ...

Ernst Böhme

Lawyer and SPD member Ernst Böhme (1892-1968) was from 1929 until 1933 the democratically elected Mayor of the City of Braunschweig.

After the Nazis had risen to power, however, he found himself the target of growing repressive measures and ever greater persecution by Klagges, who on 13 March 1933 ordered Böhme's ouster and had him taken to the disused AOK Building, which was being used by the Nazis as a "protective custody" prison, as they called it. Böhme had the dedication of former Braunschweig Ministerpräsident Heinrich Jasper (who had likewise been persecuted by Klagges) to thank for the return of his freedom a short time later. March 13 is the 72nd day of the year in the Gregorian calendar (73rd in leap years). ...

Shortly thereafter, however, Böhme was once again arrested and this time taken to the SPD's own, but now disused, Volksfreundhaus where he was mishandled. He was forced to sign a document declaring that he had given up his mandate. After he was let go, Böhme left Braunschweig and only came back in 1945.

On 1 June 1945, Ernst Böhme was given back his mayoralty by the United States military administration. He stayed on as mayor until 17 December 1948. June 1 is the 152nd day of the year in the Gregorian calendar (153rd in leap years), with 213 days remaining. ... 1945 (MCMXLV) was a common year starting on Monday (link will take you to calendar). ... December 17 is the 351st day of the year (352nd in leap years) in the Gregorian Calendar. ... 1948 (MCMXLVIII) is a leap year starting on Thursday (link will take you to calendar). ...

Heinrich Jasper

Heinrich Jasper

Lawyer and SPD member Heinrich Jasper (1875-1945) was, among other things, a city councillor since 1903, an SPD factional chairman in Braunschweig's Landtag, member of the Weimar National Assembly as well as Braunschweig Provincial Minister between 1919 and 1930 and several times the Braunschweig Free State's premier.

Jasper was, at Klagges's instigation, taken into "protective custody" on false pretenses on 17 March 1933, and taken to the AOK Building, where he was severely beaten in an attempt to force him to resign his political mandate, which Jasper, however, would not do. He was next taken to the Volksfreundhaus where he faced further mishandling until his temporary release on 19 April. March 17 is the 76th day of the year in the Gregorian Calendar (77th in Leap years). ... 1933 (MCMXXXIII) was a common year starting on Sunday (link will take you to calendar). ... April 19 is the 109th day of the year in the Gregorian calendar (110th in leap years). ...

On 26 June 1933, Jasper was once again arrested and taken to Dachau concentration camp, from which he was released in 1939 under circumstances that have yet to be explained. Jasper then returned to Braunschweig where he was placed under constant surveillance and had to report daily to the Gestapo. June 26 is the 177th day of the year (178th in leap years) in the Gregorian Calendar, with 188 days remaining. ... The Dachau concentration camp was a Nazi concentration camp near the city of Dachau, north of Munich, in Bavaria (southern Germany). ... The Deaths Head emblem similar to Skull and crossbones, often used as the insignia of the Gestapo The ▶ (help· info) (acronym of Geheime Staatspolizei; secret state police) was the official secret police of Nazi Germany. ...

The failed attempt on Hitler's life at the Wolf's Lair in East Prussia on 20 July 1944 furnished another pretense on which to arrest Jasper yet again on 22 August 1944. After spending time in various concentration camps, he ended up at Bergen-Belsen where he is believed to have died on 19 February 1945 of typhus. Claus von Stauffenberg The July 20 Plot was a failed coup détat and attempt to assassinate Adolf Hitler. ... One of larger bunkers in Wolfsschanze complex. ... East Prussia (German: Ostpreu en; Polish: Prusy Wschodnie; Russian: Восточная Пруссия — Vostochnaya Prussiya) was a province of Kingdom of Prussia, situated on the territory of former Ducal Prussia. ... July 20 is the 201st day (202nd in leap years) of the year in the Gregorian Calendar, with 164 days remaining. ... 1944 (MCMXLIV) was a leap year starting on Saturday (link will take you to calendar). ... August 22 is the 234th day of the year in the Gregorian Calendar (235th in leap years), with 131 days remaining. ... A concentration camp is a large detention center created for political opponents, enemy aliens, specific ethnic or religious groups, civilians of a critical war-zone, or other groups of people, often during a war. ... Bergen-Belsen, sometimes referred to as just Belsen, was a German concentration camp in the Nazi era. ... February 19 is the 50th day of the year in the Gregorian Calendar. ... 1945 (MCMXLV) was a common year starting on Monday (link will take you to calendar). ... This is about the disease Typhus. ...

August Merges

August Merges (1870-1945) belonged to various leftwing parties, was one of the leaders of the November Revolution in Braunschweig and was President of the Socialist Republic of Braunschweig. After 1933 he moved out of active party work and joined the resistance against the Nazi régime. This article describes the November 1918 revolution in Germany. ... Widerstand (German: resistance) is the name given to the resistance movements in Nazi Germany. ...

In April 1935, he was arrested together with other resistance fighters and severely beaten. He was sentenced for high treason but was released early, in 1937, owing to problems caused by his age (he was 67 by this time). On Klagges's instructions he was arrested once more and taken into "protective custody". Under English, and later British law, high treason is the crime of disloyalty to the Sovereign. ...

After Merges had once more been set free, he was nevertheless repeatedly picked up by the Gestapo and detained for a short time. He died as a result of mishandling suffered at the Gestapo's hands.

Forced labour and concentration camps

Beginning on 21 January 1941, Klagges started having Braunschweig's Jews deported to the concentration camps. In 1944, there were 91,000 forced labourers in the Watenstedt-Salzgitter, Braunschweig and Helmstedt area. This was far and away the highest density at labour camps anywhere in the Reich. When US troops occupied Braunschweig on 12 April 1945, there were still 61,000 prisoners in the camps. January 21 is the 21st day of the year in the Gregorian calendar. ... For the movie, see 1941 (film) 1941 (MCMXLI) was a common year starting on Wednesday. ... Categories: Germany geography stubs | Cities in Germany | Towns in Lower Saxony ... Helmstedt is a city located at the eastern edge of the German state of Lower Saxony. ... A labor camp is a simplified detention facility where inmates are engaged in forced labor. ... Motto: Official (Latin): E pluribus unum (1789 to 1956) (Translated: Out of Many, One) In God We Trust (1956 to present) Anthem: The Star-Spangled Banner Capital Washington, D.C. Largest city New York City Official language(s) None at federal level; English de facto Government  â€¢ President  â€¢ Vice President Federal... April 12 is the 102nd day of the year in the Gregorian calendar (103rd in leap years). ...

War's end and postwar developments

On 12 April 1945, Klagges was taken prisoner by the American troops thronging into Braunschweig, and in 1946, a military court in Bielfeld sentenced him to six years in labour prison (Zuchthaus) for crimes committed in his function as SS Gruppenführer (the highest rank that he reached in the SS, in 1942, was actually Obergruppenführer; he was furthermore "Honorary Leader" of the 49th SS Standard). SS-Gruppenführer collar patch SA-Gruppenführer rank insignia Volkssturm Gruppenführer insignia Gruppenführer was an early paramilitary rank of the Nazi Party, first created in 1925 as a senior rank of the SA. SA Rank Translated as “Group Leader”, a Gruppenführer was typically in charge of... SS-Obergruppenführer Erich von dem Bach-Zalewski SS-Obergruppenführer patch SA-Obergruppenführer insignia Obergruppenführer was a Nazi Party paramilitary rank that was first created in 1932 as a rank of the SA. Translated as Senior Group Leader, the rank of SA-Obergruppenführer was held by...

The Klagges Trials

The new General Prosecutor Fritz Bauer, who had come to Braunschweig in 1950, and who was later active in the 1960s, likewise as a prosecutor, in the Auschwitz Trials, contributed to a great extent to getting Klagges sentenced in a normal criminal trial on 4 April 1950 to a life term in labour prison for crimes committed by him as Braunschweig State Minister and Premier, including, among others, the Rieseberg murders. Fritz Bauer, born on July 16, 1903 in Stuttgart, Germany -- died on July 1, 1968 in Frankfurt am Main, was a German judge and prosecutor. ... The 1960s decade refers to the years from 1960 to 1969, inclusive. ... The examples and perspective in this article do not represent a worldwide view. ... The Frankfurt Auschwitz Trials, known in German as der Auschwitz-Prozess or der zweite Auschwitz-Prozess, was a series of trials running from December 20, 1963 to August 10, 1965, charging twenty-two defendants under German penal law for their roles in the Shoah as mid- to lower-level officials... April 4 is the 94th day of the year in the Gregorian calendar (95th in leap years). ... 1950 (MCML) was a common year starting on Sunday (link will take you to calendar). ...

The Bundesgerichtshof, however, overturned this sentence in 1952. In a second trial in which it could be proved that Klagges had taken part in murders, torture, false imprisonment, and so on, and that he had planned (by himself or with others) these deeds, his prison term was reduced to 15 years. The Bundesgerichtshof or BGH (German for federal court) is the highest appeals court in Germany for cases of civil and criminal law. ... The Iron Maiden of Nuremberg is an infamous and rarely used torture device. ... False Imprisonment is a common law tort, and possibly a misdemeanor crime, wherein a person is intentionally confined without legal authority. ...

In his defence, Klagges put it to the court that he had known nothing about all that, as he had only worked from a desk and he was deceived by his underlings as to the true extent of the Nazi terror that was being perpetrated.

In 1955, Klagges's wife applied for her husband's early release from prison without further probationary conditions. This first application was rejected, as was another one made the next year. In 1957, however, Klagges was released after having served about 80% of his prison term, and moved with his wife to Bad Harzburg, where he busied himself mainly with editing rightwing writings and maintaining contacts with neo-Nazi groups in Lower Saxony until his death in 1971. Probation is the suspension of a prison or jail sentence - the criminal who is on probation has been convicted of a crime, but instead of serving prison time, has been found by the Court to be amenable to probation and will be returned to the community for a period in... Location within Germany Bad Harzburg is a city in the centre of Germany, in the Goslar district. ... The terms Neo-Nazism and Neo-Fascism refer to any social or political movement to revive Nazism or Fascism, respectively, and postdates the Second World War. ... With an area of 47,618 km and nearly eight million inhabitants, Lower Saxony (German Niedersachsen) lies in north-western Germany and is second in area and fourth in population among the countrys sixteen Bundesl nder (federal states). ...

In 1970, Klagges received from the Bundesverwaltungsgericht an amount accumulated from his pension as premier (Ministerpräsident), judged to be about DM 100,000. The Federal Administrative Court (Bundesverwaltungsgericht) is one of the five federal supreme courts of Germany. ... The Deutsche Mark (DEM, DM) or German mark was the official currency of West and, from 1990 onwards, unified Germany. ...

Bibliography (selected)

• Der Glaube (1926)
• Kampf dem Marxismus (1930)
• Die Weltwirtschaftskrise (1930)
• Reichtum und soziale Gerechtigkeit: Grundfragen einer nationalsozialistischen Volkswirtschaftslehre (1933)
• Geschichtsunterricht als nationalpolitische Erziehung (1936)
• An alle Völker der Erde: Die Zukunft der Nationen (1972)

Quotations

• "He wants to remain king of an enlarged Braunschweig" (entry in Goebbels's diary from 5 February 1941 about Klagges)
• "The hundreds of thousands of foreigners, above all Jews, were impartially acknowledged as having equal rights … Behind everything stood the parasitic Jews' will … to rule the world." (from Klagges's book Geschichtsunterricht als nationalpolitische Erziehung)

Literature

• Richard Bein: Im deutschen Land marschieren wir. Freistaat Braunschweig 1930 – 1945. Braunschweig 1984
• Braunschweiger Zeitung (publisher): "Wie braun war Braunschweig? Hitler und der Freistaat Braunschweig" Braunschweig 2003
• Horst-Rüdiger Jarck, Günter Scheel (publishers): Braunschweigisches Biographisches Lexikon. 19. und 20. Jahrhundert, Hanover 1996
• Horst-Rüdiger Jarck, Gerhard Schildt (publishers): Braunschweigische Landesgeschichte. Jahrtausendrückblick einer Region, Braunschweig 2000, ISBN 3930292289
• Helmut Kramer (publisher): Braunschweig unterm Hakenkreuz. Braunschweig 1981
• Karl-Joachim Krause: Braunschweig zwischen Krieg und Frieden. Die Ereignisse vor und nach der Kapitulation der Stadt am 12. April 1945. Braunschweig 1994
• Hans Johann Reinowski: Terror in Braunschweig. Aus dem ersten Quartal der Hitlerherrschaft. Bericht herausgegeben von der Kommission zur Untersuchung der Lage der politischen Gefangenen. Zurich 1933
• Ernst-August Roloff: Braunschweig und der Staat von Weimar. Politik, Wirtschaft und Gesellschaft 1918-1933. In: Braunschweiger Werkstücke, Band 31, Braunschweig 1964
• Ernst-August Roloff: Bürgertum und Nationalsozialismus 1930-1933. Braunschweigs Weg ins Dritte Reich. Hanover 1961
• Gunhild Ruben: Bitte mich als Untermieter bei Ihnen anzumelden – Hitler und Braunschweig 1932 – 1935. Norderstedt 2004

External links

• Works of and about Dietrich Klagges in the DDB catalogue
• Likeness of Klagges