The Council of Ministers for the Defense of the Reich (
German
German(s) may refer to:
* Germany (of or related to)
**Germania (historical use)
* Germans, citizens of Germany, people of German ancestry, or native speakers of the German language
** For citizens of Germany, see also German nationality law
**Ger ...
: ''Ministerrat für die Reichsverteidigung'') was a six-member ministerial council created in
Nazi Germany
Nazi Germany (lit. "National Socialist State"), ' (lit. "Nazi State") for short; also ' (lit. "National Socialist Germany") (officially known as the German Reich from 1933 until 1943, and the Greater German Reich from 1943 to 1945) was ...
by
Adolf Hitler
Adolf Hitler (; 20 April 188930 April 1945) was an Austrian-born German politician who was dictator of Nazi Germany, Germany from 1933 until Death of Adolf Hitler, his death in 1945. Adolf Hitler's rise to power, He rose to power as the le ...
on 30 August 1939, in anticipation of the
invasion of Poland
The invasion of Poland (1 September – 6 October 1939) was a joint attack on the Republic of Poland by Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union which marked the beginning of World War II. The German invasion began on 1 September 1939, one week aft ...
– which provoked the beginning of
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 ...
– with the purpose of allowing the continuation of the
Nazi government
The government of Nazi Germany was totalitarian, run by the Nazi Party in Germany according to the Führerprinzip through the dictatorship of Adolf Hitler. Nazi Germany began with the fact that the Enabling Act was enacted to give Hitler's gover ...
, especially in relation to the war effort, while Hitler concentrated on prosecuting the war.
The council has been described as functioning as a "war cabinet,"
although this assessment is disputed.
This institution should not be confused with the Reich Defense Council (''Reichsverteidungsrat''), which was established in 1938 and met only two times.
Kershaw, Ian
Sir Ian Kershaw (born 29 April 1943) is an English historian whose work has chiefly focused on the social history of 20th-century Germany. He is regarded by many as one of the world's leading experts on Adolf Hitler and Nazi Germany, and is pa ...
(2000) ''Hitler: 1936-45: Nemesis'' New York: Norton. pp.311-313
Background
Immediately before his planned
Invasion of Poland
The invasion of Poland (1 September – 6 October 1939) was a joint attack on the Republic of Poland by Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union which marked the beginning of World War II. The German invasion began on 1 September 1939, one week aft ...
, Adolf Hitler, the Führer and Reich Chancellor of Nazi Germany, anticipated spending an increasing amount of time prosecuting the war, to the detriment of his domestic duties. This would be a problem because the
Enabling Act of 1933
The Enabling Act (German: ') of 1933, officially titled ' (), was a law that gave the German Cabinet – most importantly, the Chancellor – the powers to make and enforce laws without the involvement of the Reichstag or Weimar Presi ...
had transformed what had been the democratic
Weimar Republic
The Weimar Republic (german: link=no, Weimarer Republik ), officially named the German Reich, was the government of Germany from 1918 to 1933, during which it was a constitutional federal republic for the first time in history; hence it is al ...
into a
totalitarian
Totalitarianism is a form of government and a political system that prohibits all opposition parties, outlaws individual and group opposition to the state and its claims, and exercises an extremely high if not complete degree of control and regul ...
dictatorship
A dictatorship is a form of government which is characterized by a leader, or a group of leaders, which holds governmental powers with few to no limitations on them. The leader of a dictatorship is called a dictator. Politics in a dictatorship are ...
in which all "legislation" was done by decrees which required Hitler's signature. A solution was needed to allow the domestic affairs of the country – at least as far as they involved the war effort – to continue. Thus a decree was issued on 30 August 1939 creating the Council of Ministers for the Defense of the Reich to act in Hitler's stead, and setting out its membership and procedures.
The idea for the Council appears to have originated with Göring, with Hitler agreeing to it in order to get legislation needed for the war effort quickly put into action. Hitler retained the right to overrule the council. In effect, his power had been delegated to the council, which did not replace him.
Members
The members of the council were:
*
Hermann Göring
Hermann Wilhelm Göring (or Goering; ; 12 January 1893 – 15 October 1946) was a German politician, military leader and convicted war criminal. He was one of the most powerful figures in the Nazi Party, which ruled Germany from 1933 to 1 ...
, Hitler's designated heir and head of the
Four Year Plan
The Four Year Plan was a series of economic measures initiated by Adolf Hitler in Nazi Germany in 1936. Hitler placed Hermann Göring in charge of these measures, making him a Reich Plenipotentiary (Reichsbevollmächtigter) whose jurisdiction cut a ...
which controlled the war economy who served as the council's chairman;
*
Rudolf Hess
Rudolf Walter Richard Hess (Heß in German; 26 April 1894 – 17 August 1987) was a German politician and a leading member of the Nazi Party in Nazi Germany. Appointed Deputy Führer to Adolf Hitler in 1933, Hess held that position unt ...
, the Deputy ''Fūhrer'', as the representative of the
Nazi Party
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 ...
;
*
Wilhelm Frick
Wilhelm Frick (12 March 1877 – 16 October 1946) was a prominent German politician of the Nazi Party (NSDAP), who served as Reich Minister of the Interior in Adolf Hitler's cabinet from 1933 to 1943 and as the last governor of the Protectorate ...
, the Interior Minister, as the General
Plenipotentiary
A ''plenipotentiary'' (from the Latin ''plenus'' "full" and ''potens'' "powerful") is a diplomat who has full powers—authorization to sign a treaty or convention on behalf of his or her sovereign. When used as a noun more generally, the word ...
(''Generalbevollmächtigter'') for Reich Administration;
*
Walther Funk
Walther Funk (18 August 1890 – 31 May 1960) was a German economist and Nazi official who served as Reich Minister for Economic Affairs (1938–1945) and president of Reichsbank (1939–1945). During his incumbency, he oversaw the mobili ...
the Economics Minister, as the General Plenipotentiary for the Economy;
*
Wilhelm Keitel
Wilhelm Bodewin Johann Gustav Keitel (; 22 September 188216 October 1946) was a German field marshal and war criminal who held office as chief of the '' Oberkommando der Wehrmacht'' (OKW), the high command of Nazi Germany's Armed Forces, duri ...
, the Chief of the Armed Forces High Command (''
Oberkommando der Wehrmacht'') as the representative of the military; and
*
Hans Lammers
Hans Heinrich Lammers (27 May 1879 – 4 January 1962) was a German jurist and prominent Nazi politician. From 1933 until 1945 he served as Chief of the Reich Chancellery under Adolf Hitler. During the 1948–1949 Ministries Trial, Lammers was f ...
, the Chief of the
Reich Chancellery
The Reich Chancellery (german: Reichskanzlei) was the traditional name of the office of the Chancellor of Germany (then called ''Reichskanzler'') in the period of the German Reich from 1878 to 1945. The Chancellery's seat, selected and prepared s ...
, representing Hitler.
All Council members were also members of the larger Reich Cabinet proper, which had met for the last time on 5 February 1938.
Changes in membership
After
Hess's flight to Scotland, he was replaced on the council on 29 May 1941 by his former Chief of Staff and Personal Secretary,
Martin Bormann
Martin Ludwig Bormann (17 June 1900 – 2 May 1945) was a German Nazi Party official and head of the Nazi Party Chancellery. He gained immense power by using his position as Adolf Hitler's private secretary to control the flow of information ...
. After 1 September 1939, however, Bormann was in personal attendance on Hitler in his role as Secretary to the Führer, and therefore could not represent the office of the Deputy to the Führer on the Council when Hitler was away from Berlin.
After Frick's dismissal as Interior Minister and General Plenipotentiary of the Reich Administration, he was replaced on the council on 24 August 1943 by his successor in these posts,
Heinrich Himmler
Heinrich Luitpold Himmler (; 7 October 1900 – 23 May 1945) was of the (Protection Squadron; SS), and a leading member of the Nazi Party of Germany. Himmler was one of the most powerful men in Nazi Germany and a main architect of th ...
.
Authority and actions
The council, per Hitler's decree, was given the right to issue decrees "with the force of law" for the whole period "of the current foreign policy tension".
These decrees did not have to be signed by Hitler, and were instead signed by Göring, with countersignatures by Frick or Lammers. The decrees were prepared by departments of the Reich government. Hitler was only consulted in cases where the council was uncertain of what course of action to take.
Because Hitler has confined the council to issuing decrees which were only effective within "the territory of the German Reich" – which included the
General Government
The General Government (german: Generalgouvernement, pl, Generalne Gubernatorstwo, uk, Генеральна губернія), also referred to as the General Governorate for the Occupied Polish Region (german: Generalgouvernement für die be ...
(i.e. the rump of
Poland
Poland, officially the Republic of Poland, is a country in Central Europe. It is divided into 16 administrative provinces called voivodeships, covering an area of . Poland has a population of over 38 million and is the fifth-most populous ...
– any measures which the Council wished to initiate for other territories under German control had to be discussed with the administrations of those areas. These included the Reich Minister for the occupied Eastern territories, the two Reich Commissioners for Norway and the Netherlands, and six additional territorial administrators, in addition to any affected military commanders, each of whom would then decide whether they would issue the suggested decree for their area.
Within the council was an even smaller "Board of Three" (''Dreierkollegium'') which consisted of Göring, Frick and Keitel – or Frick, Funk and Keitel
– which could also issue decrees using Frick's authority as Plenipotentiary for Reich Administration or for economic matters Göring's authority as head of the war economy super-agency, the
Four Year Plan
The Four Year Plan was a series of economic measures initiated by Adolf Hitler in Nazi Germany in 1936. Hitler placed Hermann Göring in charge of these measures, making him a Reich Plenipotentiary (Reichsbevollmächtigter) whose jurisdiction cut a ...
.
According to Wilhelm Frick, in a lecture on "The Reich Administration during Wartime," delivered on 7 March 1940 at the
University of Freiburg
The University of Freiburg (colloquially german: Uni Freiburg), officially the Albert Ludwig University of Freiburg (german: Albert-Ludwigs-Universität Freiburg), is a public university, public research university located in Freiburg im Breisg ...
:
Within the organization of our state, the position of the Ministerial Council for the Defense of the Reich is characterized by the fact that for the duration of the war, it became the highest permanent organ of the Reich with comprehensive jurisdiction, responsible only to the Fuehrer. … In order to perform its duties, the Ministerial Council for the Defense of the Reich has the power to issue decree laws. This power is restricted only so far as the Fuehrer may order the passing of a law by the Reich Cabinet or the Reichstag. Otherwise the legislative power of the Ministerial Council for the Defense of the Reich is without restriction, it has the power to regulate everything by decree.
The council, upon coming into existence, immediately began issuing decrees touching on all aspects of Reich defense. Following the outbreak of the war on 1 September 1939, it appointed Nazi Party ''
Gauleiter
A ''Gauleiter'' () was a regional leader of the Nazi Party (NSDAP) who served as the head of a ''Administrative divisions of Nazi Germany, Gau'' or ''Reichsgau''. ''Gauleiter'' was the third-highest Ranks and insignia of the Nazi Party, rank in ...
s'' to the position of
Reich Defense Commissioner Reich Defense Commissioner (German: ''Reichsverteidigungskommissar'', RVK) was a governmental position created in Nazi Germany at the outbreak of World War II on 1 September 1939. Charged with overall defense of the territory of the German Reich, th ...
(''Reichsverteidigungskommissar'') in each of the 15 Military Districts (''
Wehrkreis
The military districts, also known in some English-language publications by their German name as Wehrkreise (singular: ''Wehrkreis''), were administrative territorial units in Nazi Germany before and during World War II. The task of military distr ...
'') to organize civil defense and mobilization. Later in the war (16 November 1942) the council would decree a change in jurisdiction from the ''Wehrkreis'' to the Gau level, and all 42 ''Gauleiters'' became Reich Defense Commissioners. (See image.) Another decree, issued on 5 September 1939, increased the penalties for certain criminal acts against persons or property during wartime. Another, issued on 7 September 1939, involved a ban on listening to foreign radio broadcasts.
Despite these decrees, the council had little real practical impact, aside from reducing even further the policy influence of the individual ministries, continuing the trend of turning each into a mere technical apparatus which implemented decisions from above. The Council met on only a small number of occasions, and not after mid-November 1939, Göring having essentially lost interest in it.
Historian
Martin Broszat
Martin Broszat (14 August 1926 – 14 October 1989) was a German historian specializing in modern German social history. As director of the Institut für Zeitgeschichte (Institute for Contemporary History) in Munich from 1972 until his death ...
points out that:
In theory this new War Cabinet could have become a new collegiate organ of the Reich government with Göring at the head of the cabinet. in practice, however, Göring did not make use of such possibilities. Instead, like Hitler, he soon urged that any extensive legislative schemes should be shelved during the war. On 5 June 1940, a Führer decree was also issued that ordered 'that all laws and regulations which are not directly relevant to the defense of the Reich must be postponed indefinitely.
Although Broszat refers to the council as a "war cabinet", Hitler biographer, historian
Ian Kershaw
Sir Ian Kershaw (born 29 April 1943) is an English historian whose work has chiefly focused on the social history of 20th-century Germany. He is regarded by many as one of the world's leading experts on Adolf Hitler and Nazi Germany, and is pa ...
, points out that a true war cabinet would have included
Joseph Goebbels
Paul Joseph Goebbels (; 29 October 1897 – 1 May 1945) was a German Nazi politician who was the ''Gauleiter'' (district leader) of Berlin, chief propagandist for the Nazi Party, and then Reich Minister of Propaganda from 1933 to 19 ...
, the Minister of Propaganda, and the Foreign Minister,
Joachim von Ribbentrop
Ulrich Friedrich Wilhelm Joachim von Ribbentrop (; 30 April 1893 – 16 October 1946) was a German politician and diplomat who served as Minister of Foreign Affairs of Nazi Germany from 1938 to 1945.
Ribbentrop first came to Adolf Hitler's not ...
.
In Kershaw's assessment:
...Hitler's own sharp antennae towards any restriction on his power, any limitation to the principles of his untrammeled personalized rule, vitiated from the outset the possibility of a true delegation of the head of government's role to Göring and the erection of a genuine 'war cabinet'. Such was Hitler's sensitivity to anything which might impose limits on his own freedom of action, or constitute a possible internal threat to his position, that he would block Lammer's feeble attempts to reinstate cabinet meetings in 1942, and even refuse permission for ministers to gather occasionally for an evening around a beer table.
Postwar indictment
The Council ceased to exist with the fall of the Nazi regime on 8 May 1945. As part of the ''Reichsregierung'' (Reich Government) the council, along with the broader Reich Cabinet, was indicted as a criminal organization by the
International Military Tribunal
International is an adjective (also used as a noun) meaning "between nations".
International may also refer to:
Music Albums
* ''International'' (Kevin Michael album), 2011
* ''International'' (New Order album), 2002
* ''International'' (The T ...
(IMT). Although it was ultimately adjudged at the conclusion of the
Nuremberg trials
The Nuremberg trials were held by the Allies of World War II, Allies against representatives of the defeated Nazi Germany, for plotting and carrying out invasions of other countries, and other crimes, in World War II.
Between 1939 and 1945 ...
to not be a criminal organization, all surviving members of the council were individually indicted by the IMT.
Fate of Council members
Bormann died by committing suicide during the
Battle of Berlin
The Battle of Berlin, designated as the Berlin Strategic Offensive Operation by the Soviet Union, and also known as the Fall of Berlin, was one of the last major offensives of the European theatre of World War II.
After the Vistula– ...
on 2 May 1945.
Himmler committed suicide on 23 May 1945 while in British custody. Göring, Frick, and Keitel were condemned to death at the
Nuremberg trials
The Nuremberg trials were held by the Allies of World War II, Allies against representatives of the defeated Nazi Germany, for plotting and carrying out invasions of other countries, and other crimes, in World War II.
Between 1939 and 1945 ...
in October 1946. Göring committed suicide the night before his scheduled execution, but the other two were hanged on 16 October. Hess and Funk received sentences of life imprisonment. Funk was released in 1957 due to ill health and died in 1960; Hess committed suicide in 1987 while still incarcerated at
Spandau prison
Spandau Prison was located in the borough of Spandau in West Berlin. It was originally a military prison, built in 1876, but became a proto-concentration camp under the Nazis. After the war, it held seven top Nazi leaders convicted in the Nurem ...
. Lammers received a sentence of 20 years in the
Ministries Trial
__NOTOC__
The Ministries Trial (or, officially, the ''United States of America vs. Ernst von Weizsäcker, et al.'') was the eleventh of the twelve trials for war crimes the U.S. authorities held in their occupation zone in Germany in Nuremberg af ...
in 1949, with the term later commuted to 10 years. He was released from prison in 1951 and died in 1962.
References
External links
Decree of 30 August 1939i
The Avalon ProjectMinutes of Selected Council Meetingsi
Nazi Conspiracy and Aggression, Volume V, Document 2852-PS
{{Authority control
1939 establishments in Germany
1945 disestablishments in Germany