Karl Fiehler
Encyclopedia
Karl Fiehler was a German
politician of the Nazi Party
(NSDAP) and Lord Mayor of Munich from 1933 until 1945. He was born in Braunschweig
, German Empire
but died in Dießen am Ammersee
, Bavaria
, West Germany
.
following this he began a merchant apprenticeship, which he continued in Schleswig-Holstein
in 1914. Fiehler took part in World War I
and was decorated with the "Eisernes Kreuz" (see "Iron Cross
"), second class ("EK II"). In 1919 he entered the local government of the City of Munich as an administration trainee and in 1922 successfully passed the examination for the administrative and clerical grade. By 1920 he had already joined the Nazi-Party with the membership number 37. In 1923, by now a convinced National Socialist, Karl Fiehler became a member of the "Stoßtrupp Hitler" (Raiding Patrol Hitler), that had been established to protect the Nazi-Führer
from encroachments of the party-owned "Sturmabteilung
" (Stormtroops), and from which the "Schutzstaffel
" (Protective Squadron) emerged in 1925. On November 8 and 9, 1923 he participated actively in the failed "Beer Hall Putsch
" (German:
"Hitlerputsch"). For his participation Fiehler was sentenced to 15 months confinement in Landsberg fortress
(German
term: "Festungshaft").
From 1924 until 1933 he was an honorary alderman
and in 1929 he outlined the principles of Nazi local politics in his 80 page booklet "National Socialist Municipal Policy" , printed by the Munich publishing house "Franz-Eher-Verlag", which was the central party publisher of the NSDAP. During the 1930s he published on several occasions concerning local politics in Germany from a National Socialist point-of-view.
Fiehler, who — as a Nazi of the first hour — was not only allowed to call himself proudly "Alter Kämpfer" (Old Combatant), which meant members who had joined the Party before the Nazi takeover on January 30, 1933, but could also call himself one of the "Alte Garde" (Old Guard) pre-eminent in the hierarchy as (party members with membership numbers under 100,000) and climbed the party career ladder rapidly. From 1927 until 1930 he was "Ortsgruppenleiter" (Local Chapter Leader) of the Nazi Party in Munich and from 1935 until the end of the "Third Reich" in 1945 he held the rank of a "Reichsleiter" of the
NSDAP (Reich Leader), at first as a secretary and afterwards as the "Head of the Main Office for Local Politics" . He also belonged to the top-level management circle of the Nazi Party and being one of the twenty most intimate co-workers of Adolf Hitler
in the NSDAP-organization moved up the ranks quickly: On July 31, 1933 he became "Standartenführer" (SS Colonel), on December 24, 1933 "Oberführer" (SS Brigadier) and finally on January 27, 1934 "SS-Gruppenführer" (SS Lieutenant General) with the exact rank designation "Ehrenführer Oberabschnitt Süd" (Leader of Honour for the Upper Sector South). On January 30, 1942 he was promoted to "SS-Obergruppenführer" (SS General) and was immediately assigned to the "Stab Reichsführer SS (RFSS)" (Staff of the SS Field Marshal) Heinrich Himmler
where he remained until November 9, 1944.
From 1933 until 1945 Karl Fiehler was also a member of the Nazi Reichstag
which existed after the Enabling Act
and the so called Gleichschaltung
.
occupied the Munich town hall and unfurled the swastika
flag. Despite the then First Mayor Karl Scharnagl, who belonged to the conservative Bavarian People's Party
(BVP) and who defied the new rulers for eleven days on the top of the old city administration, eventually however, on March 20, 1933 he "had to yield to force". On this day Adolf Wagner
, Nazi Home Secretary of the Free State of Bavaria
and "Gauleiter
" of Munich and Upper Bavaria
, appointed Karl Fiehler Provisional First Mayor and on May 20, 1933 Fiehler got the title "Oberbürgermeister" (Lord Mayor), a title that did not exist in Munich at that time.
All parties and organizations opposing the political "Gleichschaltung
" (enforced conformity) were forbidden as a result of the National Socialist takeover, in Munich as well as throughout Germany. The "Book burning
" on the "Königsplatz
" Square in front of the "Staatliche Antikensammlung" (Antiquity Collection) on May 10, 1933, the persecution of "non-folkish" (German:
"nicht-völkisch
") writers, artists and scientists caused an exodus of Munich's intellectual elite. Thomas Mann
and his family did not return from a journey abroad. On March 22, 1933 the Provisional Chief Constable of Munich, Heinrich Himmler, inaugurated the Dachau concentration camp.
In 1933 the "German Association of Cities" (German
: "Deutscher Städtetag") was forced to merge with other municipal umbrella organizations to form the "Deutscher Gemeindetag" (German Local Authorities Association). Karl Fiehler, the influential Lord Mayor of Munich, was appointed chairman of this unity organization. The administrative office was situated on Alsenstraße in Berlin
district "Tiergarten
". On August 2, 1935 a memorable conversation took place between Adolf Hitler and Karl Fiehler in the course of which Munich got a strange new epithet
: "Hauptstadt der Bewegung" (Capital of the Movement). This "title" was given to remind the Germans of the NSDAP origins in Bavaria's metropolis.
During the 1930s a number of model buildings, prime examples of megalomanic Nazi architecture, had been erected by Paul Ludwig Troost
, the predecessor of Albert Speer
as Hitler's "Court Master Builder", in Munich. A radical remodelling of Munich was intended, which Karl Fiehler wanted to illustrate as editor of the pictorial book "München baut auf. Ein Tatsachen- und Bildbericht über den nationalsozialistischen Aufbau in der Hauptstadt der Bewegung" (English
: "Munich establishes. A factual and pictorial report about the National Socialist reconstruction in the Capital of the Movement"). By amalgamations on a grand scale, particularly in the west ("Pasing" district), the Munich population figure increased considerably from 746,000 (1936) to 889,000 (1943). Nevertheless, major projects like the relocation of the Munich Central Station to "Laim" district, did not get beyond the planning stage.
or "On vacation in Dachau!". Shop windows were smashed in and their clients were intimidated, being mobbed by SA men who molested, registered and even photographed them. Later on the City of Munich hurried, in a quite exceptional manner, with the demolition of Jewish places of worship. The Minister of propaganda, Joseph Goebbels
, had already commenced the destruction of Munich's main synagogue in June 1938, just to find out, whether the "Aryan
" public's reaction would be shock or indifference. The apathetic behaviour of the population would encourage the Nazis to further new outrages.
On November 9, 1938 almost the whole Nazi Party elite convened for a social evening at the invitation of the Lord Mayor Karl Fiehler in the Great Hall of Munich's "Old Guildhall". A vicious anti-Semitic diatribe by Joseph Goebbels was, for the attendant SA- and party-leaders, the signal for a general hunt on Jews. Numerous men and women were killed, tortured and injured in this night of pogrom, which was euphemistically referred to as "Reichskristallnacht" (Night of Broken Glass) in Germany afterwards. Many Jewish institutions, synagogues and shops fell prey to this devastation.
Munich's Municipal Cemeteries Department under Karl Fiehler behaved in an absurd, strictly anti-Semitic, manner . It adamantly refused even deceased Christians of Jewish descent cremation or burials. Moreover so called "Jewish Christians
" were no longer allowed to be buried in their own family graves, which had been in existence for generations. The Department referred bureaucratically to surviving dependants as the "Israelite Community". Amongst other things it was no longer allowed to wear Protestant
vestment
s at a funeral in a Jewish-orthodox
graveyard. Johannes Zwanzger, who was appointed head of the "Munich aid office for non-Aryan Christians", formulated a letter of complaint to Lord Mayor Fiehler on behalf of the Lutheran Regional Consistory in December 1938, without any success.
During World War II
genocide
followed the disfranchisement
of Jews. On November 20, 1941 the first transport of 1,000 Jewish men and women departed from Munich for Riga
. The fictitious reason given to the scared people was that it was a matter of "evacuation
". The transport was re-routed to Kaunas
in Lithuania
, because the Riga ghetto
was overcrowded at this time. Just after their arrival there, the deportees were murdered in a mass shooting by members of the "Einsatzgruppe A" (Mission Squad A) under the command of SS Major General (German:
"SS-Brigadeführer") Dr. Walter Stahlecker
in Fort IX of Kaunas. Up to February 1945 a total of 42 transports left Munich at irregular intervals: to exterminations in Kaunas, Piaski
, (near Lublin
), Auschwitz and also at the so called "Ghetto for old and prominent people" Theresienstadt.
". With the surrender of the town hall the National Socialist dictatorship had definitely ended in Munich. Fiehler had already left the guildhall a long time before the occupation of Munich took place, without a struggle. On May 4, 1945, four days before the official end of World War II
in Europe, the victorious American Forces reinstated Karl Scharnagl as Lord Mayor of the Bavarian capital.
Following the Holocaust Munich's Jewish life was almost extinct. Of the 12,000 Munich Jews before the Holocaust, 7,500 would flee from the Nazis just in time. Approximately 3,000 had been deported to concentration camps, almost half of these to Theresienstadt. Only 430 surviving Munich Jews returned to their home town in 1945.
In May 1945 the City of Munich counted the cost of the war, with 22,346 prisoners of war, 6,632 bomb war fatalities, approximately 15,000 wounded and about 300,000 homeless persons. By death, evacuation and exodus from the city the population had declined from 824,000 in 1939 to 479,000 in 1945. Ninety percent of Munich's historic Old Town had been destroyed and taking the city as a whole, fifty percent had been destroyed
In January 1949 Karl Fiehler, who was married and had three daughters, was sentenced to two years in a labour camp, the confiscation of one-fifth of his property and a twelve-year employment ban after "Spruchkammerverfahren" (English
: "proceedings before denazification
tribunals"). However he did not have to serve the sentence because the previous three and a half years of his detention were credited to the term of his imprisonment. Fiehler died on December 8, 1969 in the village of Dießen
on the idyllic Lake Ammersee in the foothills of the Bavarian Alps.
Germany
Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...
politician of the Nazi Party
National Socialist German Workers Party
The National Socialist German Workers' Party , commonly known in English as the Nazi Party, was a political party in Germany between 1920 and 1945. Its predecessor, the German Workers' Party , existed from 1919 to 1920...
(NSDAP) and Lord Mayor of Munich from 1933 until 1945. He was born in Braunschweig
Braunschweig
Braunschweig , is a city of 247,400 people, located in the federal-state of Lower Saxony, Germany. It is located north of the Harz mountains at the farthest navigable point of the Oker river, which connects to the North Sea via the rivers Aller and Weser....
, German Empire
German Empire
The German Empire refers to Germany during the "Second Reich" period from the unification of Germany and proclamation of Wilhelm I as German Emperor on 18 January 1871, to 1918, when it became a federal republic after defeat in World War I and the abdication of the Emperor, Wilhelm II.The German...
but died in Dießen am Ammersee
Dießen am Ammersee
Dießen am Ammersee is a municipality in the district of Landsberg in Bavaria in Germany.-References:...
, Bavaria
Bavaria
Bavaria, formally the Free State of Bavaria is a state of Germany, located in the southeast of Germany. With an area of , it is the largest state by area, forming almost 20% of the total land area of Germany...
, West Germany
West Germany
West Germany is the common English, but not official, name for the Federal Republic of Germany or FRG in the period between its creation in May 1949 to German reunification on 3 October 1990....
.
Party career until the "Machtergreifung" (English: "Power takeover")
As a child Karl Fiehler attended a secondary modern school in MunichMunich
Munich The city's motto is "" . Before 2006, it was "Weltstadt mit Herz" . Its native name, , is derived from the Old High German Munichen, meaning "by the monks' place". The city's name derives from the monks of the Benedictine order who founded the city; hence the monk depicted on the city's coat...
following this he began a merchant apprenticeship, which he continued in Schleswig-Holstein
Schleswig-Holstein
Schleswig-Holstein is the northernmost of the sixteen states of Germany, comprising most of the historical duchy of Holstein and the southern part of the former Duchy of Schleswig...
in 1914. Fiehler took part in World War I
World War I
World War I , which was predominantly called the World War or the Great War from its occurrence until 1939, and the First World War or World War I thereafter, was a major war centred in Europe that began on 28 July 1914 and lasted until 11 November 1918...
and was decorated with the "Eisernes Kreuz" (see "Iron Cross
Iron Cross
The Iron Cross is a cross symbol typically in black with a white or silver outline that originated after 1219 when the Kingdom of Jerusalem granted the Teutonic Order the right to combine the Teutonic Black Cross placed above a silver Cross of Jerusalem....
"), second class ("EK II"). In 1919 he entered the local government of the City of Munich as an administration trainee and in 1922 successfully passed the examination for the administrative and clerical grade. By 1920 he had already joined the Nazi-Party with the membership number 37. In 1923, by now a convinced National Socialist, Karl Fiehler became a member of the "Stoßtrupp Hitler" (Raiding Patrol Hitler), that had been established to protect the Nazi-Führer
Führer
Führer , alternatively spelled Fuehrer in both English and German when the umlaut is not available, is a German title meaning leader or guide now most associated with Adolf Hitler, who modelled it on Benito Mussolini's title il Duce, as well as with Georg von Schönerer, whose followers also...
from encroachments of the party-owned "Sturmabteilung
Sturmabteilung
The Sturmabteilung functioned as a paramilitary organization of the National Socialist German Workers' Party . It played a key role in Adolf Hitler's rise to power in the 1920s and 1930s...
" (Stormtroops), and from which the "Schutzstaffel
Schutzstaffel
The Schutzstaffel |Sig runes]]) was a major paramilitary organization under Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party. Built upon the Nazi ideology, the SS under Heinrich Himmler's command was responsible for many of the crimes against humanity during World War II...
" (Protective Squadron) emerged in 1925. On November 8 and 9, 1923 he participated actively in the failed "Beer Hall Putsch
Beer Hall Putsch
The Beer Hall Putsch was a failed attempt at revolution that occurred between the evening of 8 November and the early afternoon of 9 November 1923, when Nazi Party leader Adolf Hitler, Generalquartiermeister Erich Ludendorff, and other heads of the Kampfbund unsuccessfully tried to seize power...
" (German:
German language
German is a West Germanic language, related to and classified alongside English and Dutch. With an estimated 90 – 98 million native speakers, German is one of the world's major languages and is the most widely-spoken first language in the European Union....
"Hitlerputsch"). For his participation Fiehler was sentenced to 15 months confinement in Landsberg fortress
Landsberg Prison
Landsberg Prison is a penal facility located in the town of Landsberg am Lech in the southwest of the German state of Bavaria, about west of Munich and south of Augsburg....
(German
German language
German is a West Germanic language, related to and classified alongside English and Dutch. With an estimated 90 – 98 million native speakers, German is one of the world's major languages and is the most widely-spoken first language in the European Union....
term: "Festungshaft").
From 1924 until 1933 he was an honorary alderman
Alderman
An alderman is a member of a municipal assembly or council in many jurisdictions founded upon English law. The term may be titular, denoting a high-ranking member of a borough or county council, a council member chosen by the elected members themselves rather than by popular vote, or a council...
and in 1929 he outlined the principles of Nazi local politics in his 80 page booklet "National Socialist Municipal Policy" , printed by the Munich publishing house "Franz-Eher-Verlag", which was the central party publisher of the NSDAP. During the 1930s he published on several occasions concerning local politics in Germany from a National Socialist point-of-view.
Fiehler, who — as a Nazi of the first hour — was not only allowed to call himself proudly "Alter Kämpfer" (Old Combatant), which meant members who had joined the Party before the Nazi takeover on January 30, 1933, but could also call himself one of the "Alte Garde" (Old Guard) pre-eminent in the hierarchy as (party members with membership numbers under 100,000) and climbed the party career ladder rapidly. From 1927 until 1930 he was "Ortsgruppenleiter" (Local Chapter Leader) of the Nazi Party in Munich and from 1935 until the end of the "Third Reich" in 1945 he held the rank of a "Reichsleiter" of the
NSDAP (Reich Leader), at first as a secretary and afterwards as the "Head of the Main Office for Local Politics" . He also belonged to the top-level management circle of the Nazi Party and being one of the twenty most intimate co-workers of Adolf Hitler
Adolf Hitler
Adolf Hitler was an Austrian-born German politician and the leader of the National Socialist German Workers Party , commonly referred to as the Nazi Party). He was Chancellor of Germany from 1933 to 1945, and head of state from 1934 to 1945...
in the NSDAP-organization moved up the ranks quickly: On July 31, 1933 he became "Standartenführer" (SS Colonel), on December 24, 1933 "Oberführer" (SS Brigadier) and finally on January 27, 1934 "SS-Gruppenführer" (SS Lieutenant General) with the exact rank designation "Ehrenführer Oberabschnitt Süd" (Leader of Honour for the Upper Sector South). On January 30, 1942 he was promoted to "SS-Obergruppenführer" (SS General) and was immediately assigned to the "Stab Reichsführer SS (RFSS)" (Staff of the SS Field Marshal) Heinrich Himmler
Heinrich Himmler
Heinrich Luitpold Himmler was Reichsführer of the SS, a military commander, and a leading member of the Nazi Party. As Chief of the German Police and the Minister of the Interior from 1943, Himmler oversaw all internal and external police and security forces, including the Gestapo...
where he remained until November 9, 1944.
From 1933 until 1945 Karl Fiehler was also a member of the Nazi Reichstag
Reichstag (Weimar Republic)
The Reichstag was the parliament of Weimar Republic .German constitution commentators consider only the Reichstag and now the Bundestag the German parliament. Another organ deals with legislation too: in 1867-1918 the Bundesrat, in 1919–1933 the Reichsrat and from 1949 on the Bundesrat...
which existed after the Enabling Act
Enabling Act
The Enabling Act was passed by Germany's Reichstag and signed by President Paul von Hindenburg on 23 March 1933. It was the second major step, after the Reichstag Fire Decree, through which Chancellor Adolf Hitler legally obtained plenary powers and established his dictatorship...
and the so called Gleichschaltung
Gleichschaltung
Gleichschaltung , meaning "coordination", "making the same", "bringing into line", is a Nazi term for the process by which the Nazi regime successively established a system of totalitarian control and tight coordination over all aspects of society. The historian Richard J...
.
Munich under the "Hakenkreuz": Fiehler as Lord Mayor
On March 9, 1933 the SASturmabteilung
The Sturmabteilung functioned as a paramilitary organization of the National Socialist German Workers' Party . It played a key role in Adolf Hitler's rise to power in the 1920s and 1930s...
occupied the Munich town hall and unfurled the swastika
Swastika
The swastika is an equilateral cross with its arms bent at right angles, in either right-facing form in counter clock motion or its mirrored left-facing form in clock motion. Earliest archaeological evidence of swastika-shaped ornaments dates back to the Indus Valley Civilization of Ancient...
flag. Despite the then First Mayor Karl Scharnagl, who belonged to the conservative Bavarian People's Party
Bavarian People's Party
The Bavarian People's Party was the Bavarian branch of the Centre Party, which broke off from the rest of the party in 1919 to pursue a more conservative, more Catholic, more Bavarian particularist course...
(BVP) and who defied the new rulers for eleven days on the top of the old city administration, eventually however, on March 20, 1933 he "had to yield to force". On this day Adolf Wagner
Adolf Wagner
Adolf Wagner was a German soldier and high-ranking Nazi Party official born in Algrange, Alsace-Lorraine.He served in World War I as an officer in the German Army...
, Nazi Home Secretary of the Free State of Bavaria
Bavaria
Bavaria, formally the Free State of Bavaria is a state of Germany, located in the southeast of Germany. With an area of , it is the largest state by area, forming almost 20% of the total land area of Germany...
and "Gauleiter
Gauleiter
A Gauleiter was the party leader of a regional branch of the NSDAP or the head of a Gau or of a Reichsgau.-Creation and Early Usage:...
" of Munich and Upper Bavaria
Upper Bavaria
Upper Bavaria is one of the seven administrative regions of Bavaria, Germany.- Geography :Upper Bavaria is located in the southern portion of Bavaria, and is centered around the city of Munich. It is subdivided into four regions : Ingolstadt, Munich, Bayerisches Oberland , and Südostoberbayern...
, appointed Karl Fiehler Provisional First Mayor and on May 20, 1933 Fiehler got the title "Oberbürgermeister" (Lord Mayor), a title that did not exist in Munich at that time.
All parties and organizations opposing the political "Gleichschaltung
Gleichschaltung
Gleichschaltung , meaning "coordination", "making the same", "bringing into line", is a Nazi term for the process by which the Nazi regime successively established a system of totalitarian control and tight coordination over all aspects of society. The historian Richard J...
" (enforced conformity) were forbidden as a result of the National Socialist takeover, in Munich as well as throughout Germany. The "Book burning
Book burning
Book burning, biblioclasm or libricide is the practice of destroying, often ceremoniously, books or other written material and media. In modern times, other forms of media, such as phonograph records, video tapes, and CDs have also been ceremoniously burned, torched, or shredded...
" on the "Königsplatz
Königsplatz
Königsplatz is a square in Munich, Germany.-Architecture:The square was designed with the creation of the Brienner Straße at the command of Crown Prince Ludwig of Bavaria by Karl von Fischer and laid out by Leo von Klenze....
" Square in front of the "Staatliche Antikensammlung" (Antiquity Collection) on May 10, 1933, the persecution of "non-folkish" (German:
German language
German is a West Germanic language, related to and classified alongside English and Dutch. With an estimated 90 – 98 million native speakers, German is one of the world's major languages and is the most widely-spoken first language in the European Union....
"nicht-völkisch
Völkisch movement
The volkisch movement is the German interpretation of the populist movement, with a romantic focus on folklore and the "organic"...
") writers, artists and scientists caused an exodus of Munich's intellectual elite. Thomas Mann
Thomas Mann
Thomas Mann was a German novelist, short story writer, social critic, philanthropist, essayist, and 1929 Nobel Prize laureate, known for his series of highly symbolic and ironic epic novels and novellas, noted for their insight into the psychology of the artist and the intellectual...
and his family did not return from a journey abroad. On March 22, 1933 the Provisional Chief Constable of Munich, Heinrich Himmler, inaugurated the Dachau concentration camp.
In 1933 the "German Association of Cities" (German
German language
German is a West Germanic language, related to and classified alongside English and Dutch. With an estimated 90 – 98 million native speakers, German is one of the world's major languages and is the most widely-spoken first language in the European Union....
: "Deutscher Städtetag") was forced to merge with other municipal umbrella organizations to form the "Deutscher Gemeindetag" (German Local Authorities Association). Karl Fiehler, the influential Lord Mayor of Munich, was appointed chairman of this unity organization. The administrative office was situated on Alsenstraße in Berlin
Berlin
Berlin is the capital city of Germany and is one of the 16 states of Germany. With a population of 3.45 million people, Berlin is Germany's largest city. It is the second most populous city proper and the seventh most populous urban area in the European Union...
district "Tiergarten
Tiergarten
Tiergarten is a locality within the borough of Mitte, in central Berlin . Notable for the great and homonymous urban park, before German reunification, it was a part of West Berlin...
". On August 2, 1935 a memorable conversation took place between Adolf Hitler and Karl Fiehler in the course of which Munich got a strange new epithet
Epithet
An epithet or byname is a descriptive term accompanying or occurring in place of a name and having entered common usage. It has various shades of meaning when applied to seemingly real or fictitious people, divinities, objects, and binomial nomenclature. It is also a descriptive title...
: "Hauptstadt der Bewegung" (Capital of the Movement). This "title" was given to remind the Germans of the NSDAP origins in Bavaria's metropolis.
During the 1930s a number of model buildings, prime examples of megalomanic Nazi architecture, had been erected by Paul Ludwig Troost
Paul Troost
Paul Ludwig Troost , born in Elberfeld, was a German architect. An extremely tall, spare-looking, reserved Westphalian with a close-shaven head, Troost belonged to a school of architects, Peter Behrens and Walter Gropius who, even before 1914, reacted sharply against the highly ornamental...
, the predecessor of Albert Speer
Albert Speer
Albert Speer, born Berthold Konrad Hermann Albert Speer, was a German architect who was, for a part of World War II, Minister of Armaments and War Production for the Third Reich. Speer was Adolf Hitler's chief architect before assuming ministerial office...
as Hitler's "Court Master Builder", in Munich. A radical remodelling of Munich was intended, which Karl Fiehler wanted to illustrate as editor of the pictorial book "München baut auf. Ein Tatsachen- und Bildbericht über den nationalsozialistischen Aufbau in der Hauptstadt der Bewegung" (English
English language
English is a West Germanic language that arose in the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms of England and spread into what was to become south-east Scotland under the influence of the Anglian medieval kingdom of Northumbria...
: "Munich establishes. A factual and pictorial report about the National Socialist reconstruction in the Capital of the Movement"). By amalgamations on a grand scale, particularly in the west ("Pasing" district), the Munich population figure increased considerably from 746,000 (1936) to 889,000 (1943). Nevertheless, major projects like the relocation of the Munich Central Station to "Laim" district, did not get beyond the planning stage.
The Anti-Semite: persecution of the Jews in Munich
Munich under Karl Fiehler became the vanguard wherever it concerned actions against Jews. In the spring of 1933 the first systematic boycott against Jewish shops was very zealously carried out by Fiehler. On March 30 he decreed this racist sanction with anticipatory obedience, as the "official" date was actually April 1. SA- and SS-gangs had been terrorising Jewish businessmen since the very beginning of March and had been taking them into "Schutzhaft" (protective custody). Fiehler proscribed - without any legal basis - municipal contracts with so called "non-German" companies. SA sentries bedaubed the fronts of Jewish shops with inscriptions like "Jew", the Star of DavidStar of David
The Star of David, known in Hebrew as the Shield of David or Magen David is a generally recognized symbol of Jewish identity and Judaism.Its shape is that of a hexagram, the compound of two equilateral triangles...
or "On vacation in Dachau!". Shop windows were smashed in and their clients were intimidated, being mobbed by SA men who molested, registered and even photographed them. Later on the City of Munich hurried, in a quite exceptional manner, with the demolition of Jewish places of worship. The Minister of propaganda, Joseph Goebbels
Joseph Goebbels
Paul Joseph Goebbels was a German politician and Reich Minister of Propaganda in Nazi Germany from 1933 to 1945. As one of Adolf Hitler's closest associates and most devout followers, he was known for his zealous oratory and anti-Semitism...
, had already commenced the destruction of Munich's main synagogue in June 1938, just to find out, whether the "Aryan
Aryan
Aryan is an English language loanword derived from Sanskrit ārya and denoting variously*In scholarly usage:**Indo-Iranian languages *in dated usage:**the Indo-European languages more generally and their speakers...
" public's reaction would be shock or indifference. The apathetic behaviour of the population would encourage the Nazis to further new outrages.
On November 9, 1938 almost the whole Nazi Party elite convened for a social evening at the invitation of the Lord Mayor Karl Fiehler in the Great Hall of Munich's "Old Guildhall". A vicious anti-Semitic diatribe by Joseph Goebbels was, for the attendant SA- and party-leaders, the signal for a general hunt on Jews. Numerous men and women were killed, tortured and injured in this night of pogrom, which was euphemistically referred to as "Reichskristallnacht" (Night of Broken Glass) in Germany afterwards. Many Jewish institutions, synagogues and shops fell prey to this devastation.
Munich's Municipal Cemeteries Department under Karl Fiehler behaved in an absurd, strictly anti-Semitic, manner . It adamantly refused even deceased Christians of Jewish descent cremation or burials. Moreover so called "Jewish Christians
Jewish Christians
Jewish Christians is a term which appears in historical texts contrasting Christians of Jewish origin with Gentile Christians, both in discussion of the New Testament church and the second and following centuries....
" were no longer allowed to be buried in their own family graves, which had been in existence for generations. The Department referred bureaucratically to surviving dependants as the "Israelite Community". Amongst other things it was no longer allowed to wear Protestant
Protestantism
Protestantism is one of the three major groupings within Christianity. It is a movement that began in Germany in the early 16th century as a reaction against medieval Roman Catholic doctrines and practices, especially in regards to salvation, justification, and ecclesiology.The doctrines of the...
vestment
Vestment
Vestments are liturgical garments and articles associated primarily with the Christian religion, especially among Latin Rite and other Catholics, Eastern Orthodox, Anglicans, and Lutherans...
s at a funeral in a Jewish-orthodox
Orthodox Judaism
Orthodox Judaism , is the approach to Judaism which adheres to the traditional interpretation and application of the laws and ethics of the Torah as legislated in the Talmudic texts by the Sanhedrin and subsequently developed and applied by the later authorities known as the Gaonim, Rishonim, and...
graveyard. Johannes Zwanzger, who was appointed head of the "Munich aid office for non-Aryan Christians", formulated a letter of complaint to Lord Mayor Fiehler on behalf of the Lutheran Regional Consistory in December 1938, without any success.
During World War II
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
genocide
Genocide
Genocide is defined as "the deliberate and systematic destruction, in whole or in part, of an ethnic, racial, religious, or national group", though what constitutes enough of a "part" to qualify as genocide has been subject to much debate by legal scholars...
followed the disfranchisement
Disfranchisement
Disfranchisement is the revocation of the right of suffrage of a person or group of people, or rendering a person's vote less effective, or ineffective...
of Jews. On November 20, 1941 the first transport of 1,000 Jewish men and women departed from Munich for Riga
Riga
Riga is the capital and largest city of Latvia. With 702,891 inhabitants Riga is the largest city of the Baltic states, one of the largest cities in Northern Europe and home to more than one third of Latvia's population. The city is an important seaport and a major industrial, commercial,...
. The fictitious reason given to the scared people was that it was a matter of "evacuation
Emergency evacuation
Emergency evacuation is the immediate and rapid movement of people away from the threat or actual occurrence of a hazard. Examples range from the small scale evacuation of a building due to a bomb threat or fire to the large scale evacuation of a district because of a flood, bombardment or...
". The transport was re-routed to Kaunas
Kaunas
Kaunas is the second-largest city in Lithuania and has historically been a leading centre of Lithuanian economic, academic, and cultural life. Kaunas was the biggest city and the center of a powiat in Trakai Voivodeship of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania since 1413. During Russian Empire occupation...
in Lithuania
Lithuania
Lithuania , officially the Republic of Lithuania is a country in Northern Europe, the biggest of the three Baltic states. It is situated along the southeastern shore of the Baltic Sea, whereby to the west lie Sweden and Denmark...
, because the Riga ghetto
Riga Ghetto
The Riga Ghetto was a small area in Maskavas Forštate, neighborhood of Riga, Latvia, designated by the Nazis where Jews from Latvia, and later from Germany, were forced to live during World War II. On October 25, 1941, the Nazis relocated all Jews from Riga and the vicinity to the ghetto while the...
was overcrowded at this time. Just after their arrival there, the deportees were murdered in a mass shooting by members of the "Einsatzgruppe A" (Mission Squad A) under the command of SS Major General (German:
German language
German is a West Germanic language, related to and classified alongside English and Dutch. With an estimated 90 – 98 million native speakers, German is one of the world's major languages and is the most widely-spoken first language in the European Union....
"SS-Brigadeführer") Dr. Walter Stahlecker
Franz Walter Stahlecker
Franz Walter Stahlecker was Commander of the Sicherheitspolizei and the Sicherheitsdienst for the Reichskommissariat Ostland in 1941/42...
in Fort IX of Kaunas. Up to February 1945 a total of 42 transports left Munich at irregular intervals: to exterminations in Kaunas, Piaski
Piaski
Piaski , formerly Piaski Luterskie, is a town in Poland at the Giełczew river. The town's population is about 2,660 . Administratively it belongs to Powiat of Świdnik of the Lublin Voivodeship. It lies 16 km Southeast of Świdnik.- History :...
, (near Lublin
Lublin
Lublin is the ninth largest city in Poland. It is the capital of Lublin Voivodeship with a population of 350,392 . Lublin is also the largest Polish city east of the Vistula river...
), Auschwitz and also at the so called "Ghetto for old and prominent people" Theresienstadt.
Fiehler's End: Munich in ruins
In the early afternoon of April 30, 1945, the first American soldiers, 27-year-old Lieutenant Wolfgang F. Robinow and his men approached Munich's central square "MarienplatzMarienplatz
Marienplatz is a central square in the city center of Munich, Germany. It has been the city's main square since 1158.-Architecture:...
". With the surrender of the town hall the National Socialist dictatorship had definitely ended in Munich. Fiehler had already left the guildhall a long time before the occupation of Munich took place, without a struggle. On May 4, 1945, four days before the official end of World War II
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
in Europe, the victorious American Forces reinstated Karl Scharnagl as Lord Mayor of the Bavarian capital.
Following the Holocaust Munich's Jewish life was almost extinct. Of the 12,000 Munich Jews before the Holocaust, 7,500 would flee from the Nazis just in time. Approximately 3,000 had been deported to concentration camps, almost half of these to Theresienstadt. Only 430 surviving Munich Jews returned to their home town in 1945.
In May 1945 the City of Munich counted the cost of the war, with 22,346 prisoners of war, 6,632 bomb war fatalities, approximately 15,000 wounded and about 300,000 homeless persons. By death, evacuation and exodus from the city the population had declined from 824,000 in 1939 to 479,000 in 1945. Ninety percent of Munich's historic Old Town had been destroyed and taking the city as a whole, fifty percent had been destroyed
In January 1949 Karl Fiehler, who was married and had three daughters, was sentenced to two years in a labour camp, the confiscation of one-fifth of his property and a twelve-year employment ban after "Spruchkammerverfahren" (English
English language
English is a West Germanic language that arose in the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms of England and spread into what was to become south-east Scotland under the influence of the Anglian medieval kingdom of Northumbria...
: "proceedings before denazification
Denazification
Denazification was an Allied initiative to rid German and Austrian society, culture, press, economy, judiciary, and politics of any remnants of the National Socialist ideology. It was carried out specifically by removing those involved from positions of influence and by disbanding or rendering...
tribunals"). However he did not have to serve the sentence because the previous three and a half years of his detention were credited to the term of his imprisonment. Fiehler died on December 8, 1969 in the village of Dießen
Dießen am Ammersee
Dießen am Ammersee is a municipality in the district of Landsberg in Bavaria in Germany.-References:...
on the idyllic Lake Ammersee in the foothills of the Bavarian Alps.
Decorations
- Eisernes Kreuz von 1914 2. Klasse (EK II) (Engl.English languageEnglish is a West Germanic language that arose in the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms of England and spread into what was to become south-east Scotland under the influence of the Anglian medieval kingdom of Northumbria...
: "Iron Cross of 1914, 2nd Class") - Verwundetenabzeichen von 1918 in Schwarz (Engl.English languageEnglish is a West Germanic language that arose in the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms of England and spread into what was to become south-east Scotland under the influence of the Anglian medieval kingdom of Northumbria...
: "Wound Badge of 1918 in Black") - Ehrenkreuz für Frontkämpfer (1935) (Engl.English languageEnglish is a West Germanic language that arose in the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms of England and spread into what was to become south-east Scotland under the influence of the Anglian medieval kingdom of Northumbria...
: "Cross of Honour for Frontline Combatants") - Kriegsverdienstkreuz (KVK) I. Klasse ohne Schwerter (Engl.English languageEnglish is a West Germanic language that arose in the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms of England and spread into what was to become south-east Scotland under the influence of the Anglian medieval kingdom of Northumbria...
: "War Merit Cross, 1st Class without Swords) - Kriegsverdienstkreuz (KVK) II. Klasse ohne Schwerter (Engl.English languageEnglish is a West Germanic language that arose in the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms of England and spread into what was to become south-east Scotland under the influence of the Anglian medieval kingdom of Northumbria...
: "War Merit Cross, 2nd Class without Swords) - Goldenes Parteiabzeichen der NSDAP (Engl.English languageEnglish is a West Germanic language that arose in the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms of England and spread into what was to become south-east Scotland under the influence of the Anglian medieval kingdom of Northumbria...
: "Golden Party Award of the NSDAP) - Medaille zur Erinnerung an den 9. November 1923 ("Blutorden") (Engl.English languageEnglish is a West Germanic language that arose in the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms of England and spread into what was to become south-east Scotland under the influence of the Anglian medieval kingdom of Northumbria...
: "Commemmorative Medal of November 9, 1923" - "Blood OrderBlood OrderThe Blood Order , officially known as the Decoration of 9 November 1923 , was one of the most prestigious decorations in the Nazi Party...
" for those involved in the "Beer Hall Putsch") - Medaille zur Erinnerung an den 13. März 1938 ("Österreichmedaille") (Engl.English languageEnglish is a West Germanic language that arose in the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms of England and spread into what was to become south-east Scotland under the influence of the Anglian medieval kingdom of Northumbria...
: "Commemmorative Medal of March 13, 1938" - annexation of Austria) - Medaille zur Erinnerung an den 1. Oktober 1938 ("Sudetenlandmedaille") (Engl.English languageEnglish is a West Germanic language that arose in the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms of England and spread into what was to become south-east Scotland under the influence of the Anglian medieval kingdom of Northumbria...
: Commemmorative Medal of October 1, 1938" - annexation of the Sudetenland) - Dienstauszeichnung der NSDAP für 25 Dienstjahre (Gold) (Engl.English languageEnglish is a West Germanic language that arose in the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms of England and spread into what was to become south-east Scotland under the influence of the Anglian medieval kingdom of Northumbria...
: "Long-Service Award in the NS-Party, 25 years, Gold") - Dienstauszeichnung der NSDAP für 15 Dienstjahre (Silber) (Engl.English languageEnglish is a West Germanic language that arose in the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms of England and spread into what was to become south-east Scotland under the influence of the Anglian medieval kingdom of Northumbria...
: "Long-Service Award in the NS-Party, 15 years, Silver") - Dienstauszeichnung der NSDAP für 10 Dienstjahre (Bronze) (Engl.English languageEnglish is a West Germanic language that arose in the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms of England and spread into what was to become south-east Scotland under the influence of the Anglian medieval kingdom of Northumbria...
: "Long-Service Award in the NS-Party, 10 years, Bronze") - SS-Ehrenring (Totenkopfring) (Engl.English languageEnglish is a West Germanic language that arose in the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms of England and spread into what was to become south-east Scotland under the influence of the Anglian medieval kingdom of Northumbria...
: "SS Honour Ring - Death's head ring") - Ehrendegen des Reichsführers-SS (Engl.English languageEnglish is a West Germanic language that arose in the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms of England and spread into what was to become south-east Scotland under the influence of the Anglian medieval kingdom of Northumbria...
: "Honor Sword of the SS Field Marshal")
Literature
- Literature by Karl Fieler in the catalogue of the "Deutsche Bibliothek" (the German National Library in Frankfurt on the river Main and Leipzig)
- Albert Anton Feiber, research associate of the Munich "Institut für ZeitgeschichteInstitut für ZeitgeschichteThe Institut für Zeitgeschichte in Munich was conceived in 1947 under the name Deutsches Institut für Geschichte der nationalsozialistischen Zeit...
" (Engl.English languageEnglish is a West Germanic language that arose in the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms of England and spread into what was to become south-east Scotland under the influence of the Anglian medieval kingdom of Northumbria...
: "Institute of Contemporary History") and curator of the "Dokumentation Obersalzberg" (a permanent exhibition at ObersalzbergObersalzbergObersalzberg is a mountainside retreat situated above the market town of Berchtesgaden in Bavaria, Germany, located about southeast of Munich, close to the border with Austria...
near Berchtesgaden on Hitler's favourite holiday resort), writes presently within the scope of a research project his dissertation on the topic: "Karl Fiehler. Eine politische Biographie" (Engl.English languageEnglish is a West Germanic language that arose in the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms of England and spread into what was to become south-east Scotland under the influence of the Anglian medieval kingdom of Northumbria...
: "Karl Fiehler. A political biography"). - Klee, Ernst: Das Personenlexikon zum Dritten Reich : Wer war was vor und nach 1945. - 3. ed. - Frankfurt a.M.: S. Fischer, 2005. - pbk, 736 p. - (Fischer-Taschenbücher ; 16048). - ISBN 3-596-16048-0. - EUR 16,95
- Large, David C.: Where ghosts walked : Munich's road to the Third Reich. - New York ; London : W.W. Norton, 1997. - xxv, 406 p : ill ; 25 cm. - Hardcover. - ISBN 0-393-03836-X. -$ 32.50, £ 23.00 (list prices) (see English Review by Raffael Scheck and German Review by Dr. Claus-Christian W. Szejnmann)
- München - "Hauptstadt der Bewegung" : Bayerns Metropole und der Nationalsozialismus / Münchner Stadtmuseum. Ed. by Richard Bauer ... 2. ed. - Wolfratshausen : Ed. Minerva, 2002. - 488 p. - ISBN 3-932353-63-3. - EUR 28,00
- Pfoertner, Helga: Mahnmale, Gedenkstätten, Erinnerungsorte für die Opfer des Nationalsozialismus in München 1933-1945. - München : Literareon im Utz-Verl. - 3 volumes, bound in boards:
- Vol. 1: A to H. - 2001. - vii, 225 p. - ISBN 3-89675-859-4. - EUR 19,80
- Vol. 2: I to P. - 2003. - 309 p. - ISBN 3-8316-1025-8. - EUR 19,80
- Vol. 3: Q to Z. - 2005. - 199 p. - ISBN 3-8316-1026-6. - EUR 19,80
- Rosenfeld, Gavriel D.: Munich and memory : architecture, monuments, and the legacy of the Third Reich . - Berkeley ; London : University of California Press, 2000. - Hardcover. - xxiii, 433 p. - (Weimar and now ; 22). - ISBN 0-520-21910-4. - $ 50.00, £ 27.50 (list price)
- Vieregg, Hildegard: Wächst Gras darüber? : München: Hochburg des Nationalsozialismus und Zentrum des Widerstands / Museumspädagogisches Zentrum München (MPZ). - München : MPZ, 1993.- 240 p. - (MPZ-Themenhefte zur Zeitgeschichte). - ISBN 3-929862-25-5. - EUR 5,11
- Wistrich, Robert S.: Who's who in Nazi Germany. - London ; New York : Routledge, 1995. - x, 296p. - (Rev. ed. Previous ed. published London: Weidenfeld and Nicolson, 1982). - ISBN 0-415-12723-8 (Hardcover, £ 35,00 list price) ; ISBN 0-415-11888-3 (pbk, $ 26,95 list price)
See also
- List of Nazi Party leaders and officials
- Nazi Germany: Nazi Party and Nazi government leaders and officials
- List of SS Personnel
- List of Munich municipal leaders since 1818 (German Wikipedia)
External links
- Short biography with a contemporary photo of Karl Fiehler on the City of Munich Website (Directorate) (in German)
- "Festungshaft" (Engl.: "fortress confinement"), Website of the City of Landsberg on the river Lech (in German)
- Informations about the Riga Ghetto (Rumbula.org - The Holocaust in Latvia) (in English)
- Homepage of Kaunas' 9th Fort Museum (in English)
- The Terezín Memorial ("Ghetto Theresienstadt"), national cultural monument of Czechia (in English)
- Hawley, Charles: The US Soldier Who Liberated Munich Recalls Confronting the Nazi Enemy (Spiegel Online, English Site, April 29, 2005)