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New book sheds light on Nazi great Adolf Wagner and his time in Gauting

2023-05-17T13:09:23.689Z

Highlights: Adolf Wagner, who lived in the villa colony from 1929 to 1931, was one of the most influential National Socialists. A biography of him will be published soon. Wagner was a pioneer in the establishment of the concentration camp system, and soon his Ministry of the Interior was helping to administer the murders of disabled people. On 24 March 1933, the Gauting municipal council granted Adolf Wagner honorary citizenship - and revoked it again on 21 July 1988. Wagner's zeal was for "leadership of people", disinhibition and maximization of performance for war.



Adolf Wagner, Gauleiter of Munich and Upper Bavaria. © BR

Adolf Wagner, who lived in the villa colony from 1929 to 1931, was one of the most influential National Socialists. A biography of him will be published soon.

Gauting – Adolf Wagner (1890-1944) was a powerful man in the Nazi state. He not only headed the NSDAP district of Munich and Upper Bavaria, but after 1933 was also Bavarian Minister of the Interior and Minister of Culture. In the next few weeks, Athena-Verlag/wbv will publish a book about him entitled "Der Gauleiter: Das Amt Willkür. Adolf Wagner, a biography." We spoke with the author Dr. Brigitte Zuber about Wagner and his time in Gauting.

Dr. Zuber, how did you come to the subject of Adolf Wagner?

Tub: The work began in 2009 as part of a collaboration in the scientific team of the Munich Documentation Centre for the History of National Socialism. We assumed that Munich was primarily to be shown as a place of perpetrators. A central role in research was always attributed to the Gauleiter and Bavarian Minister of the Interior and Culture, Adolf Wagner.

How should his role for the regime be assessed?

On 24 March 1933, the Gauting municipal council granted Adolf Wagner honorary citizenship - and revoked it again on 21 July 1988. © Tub

Tub: Adolf Wagner was not only a central figure of the Nazi state in Bavaria. In many areas he acted as a pacesetter for the "Reich". In 1933 he was a pioneer in the establishment of the concentration camp system, and soon his Ministry of the Interior was helping to administer the murders of disabled people. Wagner was a pioneer in the destruction of the economic existence of the Jewish population. Wagner intensified the preparations for war in a hitherto unparalleled aestheticization offensive. The exhibitions "The Eternal Jew" or "Degenerate Art" also served this purpose. Wagner's zeal was for "leadership of people", disinhibition and maximization of performance for war. When he lived in Gauting, he was a consultant for trade union issues and an activist in the economic policy department of the NSDAP Reich leadership.

Revocation of honorary citizenship in 1998

The documents in the municipal archives show that the Gauting municipal council decided on honorary citizenship for Adolf Wagner on 24 March 1933, as well as for Adolf Hitler and Paul von Hindenburg. Wagner accepted his award in person on 8 or 9 April 1933 as part of a rally/celebration of the NSDAP local group Gauting in the hall of the "Gasthaus zur Post" (today "Victors"). A copy of the document cannot be found in the archive. "Honorary citizenship usually expires with the death of the honoree, in this case on April 12, 1944," says archivist Regine Hilpert-Greger. Nevertheless, on July 21, 1998, the Gauting municipal council revoked the honorary citizenship of Wagner and Hitler and distanced itself from the award at that time.

What led to Adolf Wagner settling on the Gauting forest promenade in 1929?

Tub: From 1924 to 1933 Wagner was a member of the Bavarian Landtag. He had to travel to the meetings from Erbendorf in the Upper Palatinate, where he was in charge of a small mine. After Wagner filed for bankruptcy, he decided to become a full-time functionary of the NSDAP. The Reichsleitung had its headquarters in Munich, so he relocated. On May 1, 1929, the furniture was transported to Gauting. In the villa colony, he was able to buy a house with a garden for 30,000 gold marks. Perhaps he knew the salesman Dr. Fritz Anton Krück, who was a lawyer in Munich.

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How long did Wagner live in Gauting?

Tub: Wagner lived in Gauting with his wife Anna and two dogs – one of which was named Etzel and was a gift from the local administrators – until he was given an official apartment in the Prinz-Karl-Palais in Munich in 1933 as Minister of the Interior. He rented out the house in Gauting until it was sold in 1938 and was bought by Valentin Köhler, a hotel owner on Kurfürstendamm in Berlin. Initially, Gauting was only relevant as a private residence of Wagner. But Gauting became important for Wagner's career in one question: he found Otto Nippold there, who had lived in Gauting since the beginning of 1928 and was involved in the local group of the NSDAP there. Nippold quickly advanced to deputy Gauleiter.

Dr. Brigitte Zuber, private historian ©

Did Wagner have contact with the population?

Tub: Wagner probably did not have a direct effect in Gauting, except in one or two speeches. But indirectly, Wagner's influence on Gauting's Nazi development can certainly be seen. In December 65, the "Sturm 1930 Gauting" of the SA already comprised 100 men. Even Starnberg was not able to raise its own storm until the autumn of 1931. In 1929, Wagner had declared the SA to be his mainstay. Gauting was also one of those municipalities in the district of Starnberg that won above-average votes for the NSDAP in the 1932/33 state and Reichstag elections.

Between 1933 and 1945, the forest promenade was called "Adolf-Wagner-Straße". Was this kind of homage common?

Tub: This homage was quite common. The Adolf Wagner Streets and Adolf Wagner Schools also included honorary citizenships. At a so-called borderland assembly in July 1933 in Kiefersfelden, 55 municipalities awarded Wagner honorary citizenship in a collective campaign. Wagner personally received the honorary citizenship certificates issued in the district of Starnberg in March and April 1933 from 40 mayors at a "German solstice celebration on Lake Starnberg".

Source: merkur

All news articles on 2023-05-17

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