August Schirmer (born 16 June 1905 in

Celle Celle () is a town and capital of the district of Celle, in Lower Saxony, Germany. The town is situated on the banks of the river Aller, a tributary of the Weser, and has a population of about 71,000. Celle is the southern gateway to the Lü ...

; died 30 October 1948 in Celle) was a German architect, engineer, elected member of the Reichstag, Central Office Manager in the

Amt Rosenberg Amt Rosenberg (ARo, Rosenberg Office) was an official body for cultural policy and surveillance within the Nazi party, headed by Alfred Rosenberg. It was established in 1934 under the name of ''Dienststelle Rosenberg'' (''DRbg'', Rosenberg Depar ...

. From 1939 until 1943 he was head of an

antisemitic Antisemitism (also spelled anti-semitism or anti-Semitism) is hostility to, prejudice towards, or discrimination against Jews. A person who holds such positions is called an antisemite. Antisemitism is considered to be a form of racism. Antis ...

propaganda Propaganda is communication that is primarily used to influence or persuade an audience to further an agenda, which may not be objective and may be selectively presenting facts to encourage a particular synthesis or perception, or using loaded ...

publication service and

news agency A news agency is an organization that gathers news reports and sells them to subscribing news organizations, such as newspapers, magazines and All-news radio, radio and News broadcasting, television Broadcasting, broadcasters. A news agency may ...

called ''Welt-Dienst'' / ''World-Service'' / ''Service Mondial''.

Life and work

Schirmer attended a Gymnasium in Celle and studied architecture at the Technische Hochschule Hannover. After 1929, he worked as a foreman at the Prussian Hochbauamt in

Torgau Torgau () is a town on the banks of the Elbe in northwestern Saxony, Germany. It is the capital of the district Nordsachsen. Outside Germany, the town is best known as where on 25 April 1945, the United States and Soviet Armies forces first ...

. From 1930 to 1933 he was a research assistant at the Hanover University in Hanover and from the winter semester 1935/36 on he served there as a political education lecturer.

Political activism

In May 1929 he joined the National Socialist German Students' League (NSDStB) and in February 1930 the

NSDAP The Nazi Party, officially the National Socialist German Workers' Party (german: Nationalsozialistische Deutsche Arbeiterpartei or NSDAP), was a far-right politics, far-right political party in Germany active between 1920 and 1945 that crea ...

at Hanover. From July 1933 he acted within the party as Gauschulungsleiter and Gaukulturwart in South Hanover Brunswick. In July 1934 he became a member of the Reichstag for the constituency of Schirmer 6 (Pomerania). For most of his career Schirmer was a functionary in the

(Rosenberg Bureau), a collection of offices under the direction of Reichsleiter Alfred Rosenberg. Beginning on 1 November 1935 he went to work in the ''Welt-Dienst'' organization, overseeing its American Section. When Rosenberg reorganized

operations in 1939, wresting full control of the ''Welt-Dienst'' / ''World-Service'' / ''Service Mondial'' news service from its founder Ulrich Fleischhauer, Schirmer became its head in July 1939. Shortly afterwards he announced the relocation of the offices to Frankfurt am Main, where all anti-Jewish 'research establishments' under Alfred Rosenberg's direction were concentrated. In addition, Schirmer continued to be involved in

Nazi Nazism ( ; german: Nazismus), the common name in English for National Socialism (german: Nationalsozialismus, ), is the far-right totalitarian political ideology and practices associated with Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party (NSDAP) in ...

cultural plunder activities for the vast Amt Rosenberg operation once

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

began. Schirmer was Oberreichsleiter (general director) of the Netherlands Task Force (AG Niederlande; later HAG) from September 1940 until May 1941. Schirmer resigned from ''Welt-Dienst'' in August 1943, at which time it was published in 18 languages. His replacement as editor of ''World-Service'' in September 1943 occurred after Schirmer came under suspicion of fraud because he had allegedly taken a valuable

postage stamp A postage stamp is a small piece of paper issued by a post office, postal administration, or other authorized vendors to customers who pay postage (the cost involved in moving, insuring, or registering mail), who then affix the stamp to the fa ...

collection seized in

Paris Paris () is the capital and most populous city of France, with an estimated population of 2,165,423 residents in 2019 in an area of more than 105 km² (41 sq mi), making it the 30th most densely populated city in the world in 2020. S ...

from

Jewish Jews ( he, יְהוּדִים, , ) or Jewish people are an ethnoreligious group and nation originating from the Israelites Israelite origins and kingdom: "The first act in the long drama of Jewish history is the age of the Israelites""The ...

owners for his own private purposes rather than those of the German state. Schirmer died 30 October 1948 in the St. Josef-Stift hospital in

and is buried there in the city cemetery.

References

* :de:August Schirmer * :de:Amt Rosenberg * ugust Schirmer "Bericht über die Tätigkeit des Einsatzstabes der Dienststelle des Reichleiters Rosenberg in des westlichen besetzten Gebieten und den Niederlanden: Arbeitsgruppe Niederlande," in ''Trial of the Major War Criminals before the International Military Tribunal, Nuremberg, 14 November 1945–1 October 1946'' (Nuremberg, 1947–1949), Documents in Evidence, vol. 25, pp. 247–55 (Exhibit USA–707; 176–PS). English translation: "Report on the Activities of the Einsatzstab of the Bureau of the Reichsleiter Rosenberg in the Occupied Western Territories and the Netherlands, Working Group Netherlands," in ''Nazi Conspiracy and Aggression'', Office of United States Chief of Counsel for Prosecution of Axis Criminality (Washington, DC: U.S. GPO, 1946), vol. 3, pp. 200–09. The list probably dates from April or May 1941. The published version incorrectly gave "Schimmer" as his name. * ugust Schirmer voice recording, in ''Deutsche National-Discographie'', Series 6, ''Discographie der Judaica-Aufnahmen'', Volume 1, edited by Rainer E. Lotz und Axel Weggen. Bonn: Birgit Lotz Verlag, 2006; . "An annotated 78rpm discography of sound documents relating to Jewish life in

Germany Germany,, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It is the second most populous country in Europe after Russia, and the most populous member state of the European Union. Germany is situated betwe ...

, or in German language, or recorded in German speaking countries, covering Jewish life, humour, music and religion, Zionism, anti-Semitism, and the

Holocaust The Holocaust, also known as the Shoah, was the genocide of European Jews during World War II. Between 1941 and 1945, Nazi Germany and its collaborators systematically murdered some six million Jews across German-occupied Europe; a ...

." {{DEFAULTSORT:Schirmer, August 1905 births 1948 deaths People from Celle People from the Province of Hanover Engineers from Lower Saxony Nazi Party politicians Militant League for German Culture members Members of the Reichstag of Nazi Germany 20th-century German architects