Gau Swabia (German: ''Gau Schwaben''), formed on 1 October 1928, was an
administrative division
Administrative division, administrative unit,Article 3(1). country subdivision, administrative region, subnational entity, constituent state, as well as many similar terms, are generic names for geographical areas into which a particular, ind ...
of
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 ...
in
Swabia,
Bavaria
Bavaria ( ; ), officially the Free State of Bavaria (german: Freistaat Bayern, link=no ), is a state in the south-east of Germany. With an area of , Bavaria is the largest German state by land area, comprising roughly a fifth of the total lan ...
, from 1933 to 1945. From 1928 to 1933, it was the regional subdivision of the
Nazi Party
The Nazi Party, officially the National Socialist German Workers' Party (german: Nationalsozialistische Deutsche Arbeiterpartei or NSDAP), was a far-right political party in Germany active between 1920 and 1945 that created and supported t ...
in that area.
History
Establishment of the ''Gaue'' within the party
The Nazi ''Gau'' (plural ''Gaue'') system was originally established in a party conference on 22 May 1926,
[Die NS-Gaue]
at the Deutsches Historisches Museum
The German Historical Museum (german: Deutsches Historisches Museum), known by the acronym DHM, is a museum in Berlin, Germany devoted to German history. It describes itself as a place of "enlightenment and understanding of the shared history ...
website, accessed 25 June 2008. in order to improve administration of the party structure. In the early stages, the borders and leaders of these ''Gaue'' fluctuated frequently, mainly due to internal power struggles.
[Gau (NSDAP) — Die bayrischen Gaue bis zur Machtergreifung 1933]
at the ''Historisches Lexikon Bayerns
The Historische Lexikon Bayerns (abbr: ''HLB'') or Historical Lexicon of Bavaria is a specialist, historical lexicon about the History of Bavaria, which has been published as a genuine online publication. It is the first specialised lexicon on ...
'' website, accessed 25 June 2008. The ''Gau Swabia'' was, for the most part, identical with today's ''
Regierungsbezirk
A ' () means "governmental district" and is a type of administrative division in Germany. Four of sixteen ' ( states of Germany) are split into '. Beneath these are rural and urban districts.
Saxony has ' (directorate districts) with more res ...
Swabia''.
The ''Gau'' from 1926 to 1933
The ''Gau Swabia'' came under the leadership of
Karl Wahl
Karl Wahl (24 September 1892 – 18 February 1981) was the Nazi ''Gauleiter'' of Gau Swabia from the '' Gau'' inception in 1928 until the collapse of Nazi Germany in 1945. After the war, Wahl spent 3½ years in jail before being released in ...
(1892–1981), later an
SS-Obergruppenführer, on 1 October 1928, when the ''Gau'' system in Bavaria was formalised, and remained under his control for the duration of the existence of the Gau. Until 1930, Bavaria, as the heartland of the Nazi movement in the 1920s, was seen by Hitler as his personal realm, the local ''Gaue'' commonly being called ''Untergaue'' (English: ''Sub-Gaue''), to show their dependence on the head of the party. Only when Hitler's ambitions turned national did his interest in Bavarian affairs dwindle.
With the end of the internal power struggle, the following six ''Gaue'' had been established in Bavaria:
*
Gau Bayerische Ostmark
Gau Bayreuth (until June 1942, ''Gau Bayerische Ostmark'' (English: Bavarian Eastern March)) was an administrative division of Nazi Germany formed by the 19 January 1933 merger of Gaue in Lower Bavaria, Upper Palatinate and Upper Franconia, Bavari ...
*
Gau Franken
*
Gau Mainfranken
*
Gau München-Oberbayern
*
Gau Rheinpfalz
*
Gau Schwaben
The ''Gau'' from 1933 to 1945
With the ascent of the Nazis to power on 30 January 1933, the so-called ''
Machtergreifung'', the party immediately began to disassemble the power of the German states, the ''Länder''. It was envisioned by the Nazis that the Party-Gaue would take the place of the old structure. In reality, Hitler was afraid of such a move, fearing it would upset local party leaders and could possibly result in an inner-party power struggle.
[Gau (NSDAP) — Kontinuität der Gaugliederung nach 1933]
at the ''Historisches Lexikon Bayerns'' website, accessed 25 June 2008.
In Augsburg, the Swabian capital, the Nazis did not gain a strong foothold straight away, only having received 33% of the votes at the 1933 elections. Wahl even interceded with Hitler not to dismiss the mayor of Augsburg, unsuccessfully. Nevertheless, their rise to power there could not be stopped either and by 1941, the party had 39,000 members in the city.
[History of a 2000-year-old town](_blank)
at the city of Augsburg's website, accessed 25 June 2008.
Gradually, the ''
Gauleiter
A ''Gauleiter'' () was a regional leader of the Nazi Party (NSDAP) who served as the head of a '' Gau'' or '' Reichsgau''. ''Gauleiter'' was the third-highest rank in the Nazi political leadership, subordinate only to '' Reichsleiter'' and to ...
'' (English: ''Gau Leader'') took control over their territories, reducing the local ''
Minister President
A minister-president or minister president is the head of government in a number of European countries or subnational governments with a parliamentary or semi-presidential system of government where they preside over the council of ministers. I ...
s'', nominally the highest office in the German states, to figureheads. As such, the development of the ''Gau'' from a form of inner-party administration to a political and administrative sub-division of the country was gradual, not sudden, but completed by 1934.
The process termed ''
Gleichschaltung'' took care of all political opposition and the ''Law concerning the reconstruction of the Reich'' from 30 January 1934 can possibly be seen as the final date for the transfer of power from the states to the ''Gaue''.
In Swabia, a relatively small ''Gau'', the local ''Gauleiter'' Wahl had to initially fend off attempts by his more powerful neighbor,
Adolf Wagner
Adolf Wagner (1 October 1890 – 12 April 1944) was a Nazi Party official and politician who served as the Party's ''Gauleiter'' in Munich and as the powerful Interior Minister of Bavaria throughout most of the Third Reich.
Early years
Born in ...
, ''Gauleiter'' of the Munich-Upper Bavaria region, to incooperate Swabia into his ''Gau''.
Wahl was actually the only one of the Bavarian ''Gauleiter'' not to have graduated from University.
[Gauleiter — Die bayrischen Gauleiter nach 1933]
at the ''Historisches Lexikon Bayerns'' website, accessed 25 June 2008. Unlike Wagner, who was a personal friend of Hitler's, Wahl wielded no real influence with the party leadership.
The ''Gauleiter'' was directly appointed by Hitler and only answerable to him. In practice, Hitler interfered little in the affairs of the local leaders and their power was almost absolute.
Parallel to the five Bavarian ''Gauleiter'', a Bavarian ''Minister President'' still existed during this time, the Nazi politician
Ludwig Siebert and, after his death in 1942, his successor,
Paul Giesler
Paul Giesler (15 June 1895 – 8 May 1945) was a German Nazi Party functionary responsible for acts of brutality which included killing opponents of the regime in southern Germany. He first joined the Nazi Party (NSDAP) in 1922; he reenrolled on ...
. As a third authority in the still existing state,
Franz Ritter von Epp held the office of ''
Reichsstatthalter'' but wielded no real power.
Swabia did not have a concentration camp within its boundaries but its close proximity to
Dachau meant, that many of its
subcamps were in the ''Gau''. Swabia was also home to the ''
Ordensburg Sonthofen'', an elite Nazi training facility.
As of 1938, Augsburg had around 900
Jew
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""T ...
s living within the city boundaries and was home to a magnificent
synagogue, destroyed during
Kristallnacht
() or the Night of Broken Glass, also called the November pogrom(s) (german: Novemberpogrome, ), was a pogrom against Jews carried out by the Nazi Party's (SA) paramilitary and (SS) paramilitary forces along with some participation fro ...
on 10 November 1938. It also had 200 Jewish men sent to Dachau that day. In the following years, the Jewish population of the city was gradually deported to
concentration camp
Internment is the imprisonment of people, commonly in large groups, without charges or intent to file charges. The term is especially used for the confinement "of enemy citizens in wartime or of terrorism suspects". Thus, while it can simpl ...
s, that of 3 April 1942, numbering 128 persons, being the largest deportation since the Kristallnacht. Outside of the capital, the Jewish population of Swabia was small, only
Memmingen
Memmingen (; Swabian: ''Memmenge'') is a town in Swabia, Bavaria, Germany. It is the economic, educational and administrative centre of the Danube-Iller region. To the west the town is flanked by the Iller, the river that marks the Baden-W ...
and
Nördlingen
Nördlingen (; Swabian: ''Nearle'' or ''Nearleng'') is a town in the Donau-Ries district, in Swabia, Bavaria, Germany, with a population of approximately 20,674. It is located approximately east of Stuttgart, and northwest of Munich. It was b ...
having substantial numbers.
After the forced addition of
Austria
Austria, , bar, Östareich officially the Republic of Austria, is a country in the southern part of Central Europe, lying in the Eastern Alps. It is a federation of nine states, one of which is the capital, Vienna, the most populous ...
to the ''Reich'' in March 1938, small parts of the former country were added to the south of the ''Gau Schwaben'', specifically the
Jungholz
Jungholz () is a village in the district of Reutte in the Austrian state of Tyrol that is accessible only via Germany. The lack of a road connection to anywhere else in Austria led to Jungholz being included in the German customs area until Austr ...
region.
With the outbreak of the
Second World War
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 opposi ...
, the power of the ''Gauleiters'', and therefore the power of the ''Gaue'' compared to the state government, increased. Many of the ''Gauleiters'' were put in charge of the war effort in their
Military District
Military districts (also called military regions) are formations of a state's armed forces (often of the Army) which are responsible for a certain area of territory. They are often more responsible for administrative than operational matters, and ...
(German: ''
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 ...
''). Swabia, with its capital
Augsburg
Augsburg (; bar , Augschburg , links=https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Swabian_German , label=Swabian German, , ) is a city in Swabia, Bavaria, Germany, around west of Bavarian capital Munich. It is a university town and regional seat of the ...
, was a vital place for the war effort, being home to the manufacturers
MAN AG
MAN Truck & Bus SE (formerly MAN Nutzfahrzeuge AG, ) is a subsidiary of Traton, and one of the leading international providers of commercial vehicles. Headquartered in Munich, Germany, MAN Truck & Bus produces vans in the range from 3.0 to 5.5 t ...
and
Messerschmitt. For this reason, Augsburg suffered heavily under allied bombing raids.
Many of the companies in Swabia and Augsburg which were in some way involved in the war effort also used
slave labour
Slavery and enslavement are both the state and the condition of being a slave—someone forbidden to quit one's service for an enslaver, and who is treated by the enslaver as property. Slavery typically involves slaves being made to perf ...
to be able to continue producing. A large number of those died through exhaustion, mistreatment and allied air raids on the production facilities. A monument in Augsburg remembers those victims of the Nazi regime.
As the war progressed and Nazi Germany grew more desperate, the ''Gauleiters'' were put in total control of the war effort in their ''Gau''. On 16 November 1942 Wahl, along with all ''Gauleiters'', was named a
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'').
[Gauleiter — Die bayrischen Gauleiter nach 1942]
at the ''Historisches Lexikon Bayerns'', accessed 25 June 2008.
In September 1944, the ''Gauleiters'' were ordered to form the ''
Volkssturm
The (; "people's storm") was a levée en masse national militia established by Nazi Germany during the last months of World War II. It was not set up by the German Army, the ground component of the combined German ''Wehrmacht'' armed forces, ...
'' in a last effort to mobilise all of the male population. Near the end of the war in April 1945, Wahl and Swabia were subordinated to
Paul Giesler
Paul Giesler (15 June 1895 – 8 May 1945) was a German Nazi Party functionary responsible for acts of brutality which included killing opponents of the regime in southern Germany. He first joined the Nazi Party (NSDAP) in 1922; he reenrolled on ...
, the ''Gauleiter'' of
Gau Munich-Upper Bavaria
The Gau Munich–Upper Bavaria (German: ''Gau München–Oberbayern'') was an administrative division of Nazi Germany in Upper Bavaria from 1933 to 1945. From 1930 to 1933, it was the regional subdivision of the Nazi Party in that area.
H ...
, who was named Reich Defense Commissioner - South and, in addition to his own ''Gau'', was placed in charge of Swabia and three of the formerly Austrian ''Gaue'' (
Reichsgau Salzburg
The Reichsgau Salzburg was an administrative division of Nazi Germany in Salzburg, Austria. It existed between 1938 and 1945.
History
The Nazi Gau (plural Gaue) system was originally established in a party conference on 22 May 1926, in order to im ...
,
Reichsgau Upper Danube and
Reichsgau Tirol-Vorarlberg
The Reichsgau Tyrol-Vorarlberg (German: ''Reichsgau Tirol-Vorarlberg'') was an administrative division of Nazi Germany consisting of Vorarlberg and North Tyrol (both in Austria). It existed from 1938 to 1945. It did not include East Tyrol (Lienz), ...
).
In the last days of the war, Karl Wahl made no effort to prevent the hand over of Augsburg to the allies. Shortly after, he was arrested.
Aftermath
Almost all of Swabia, like the rest of Bavaria, became part of the
American occupation zone.
Lindau
Lindau (german: Lindau (Bodensee), ''Lindau am Bodensee''; ; Low Alemannic: ''Lindou'') is a major town and island on the eastern side of Lake Constance (''Bodensee'' in German) in Bavaria, Germany. It is the capital of the county (''Landkreis' ...
, at the very south-west of the ''Gau'', became part of the
French occupation zone. Political power, at first lying with the occupation authorities, was soon returned to the new Bavarian government. The ''Regierungsbezirk Swabia'', never having formally been dissolved, took control of the civil administration of the region again. Its most pressing issue was the reconstruction of the destroyed cities and the refugee problem, nearly a quarter of the population of Augsburg after the war being
refugees and
displaced persons
Forced displacement (also forced migration) is an involuntary or coerced movement of a person or people away from their home or home region. The UNHCR defines 'forced displacement' as follows: displaced "as a result of persecution, conflict, g ...
.
Karl Wahl, ''Gauleiter'' of Swabia for almost 17 years, only served a light sentence after the war. He died in 1981, aged 88.
Philipp Meyer
Philipp Meyer is an American fiction writer, and is the author of the novels '' American Rust'' and '' The Son'', as well as short stories published in The New Yorker and other places. Meyer also created and produced the AMC television show b ...
, Nazi
Kreisleiter
''Kreisleiter'' (; "District Leader") was a Nazi Party political rank and title which existed as a political rank between 1930 and 1945 and as a Nazi Party title from as early as 1928. The position of ''Kreisleiter'' was first formed to provide ...
for
Donauwörth
Donauwörth () is a town and the capital of the Donau-Ries district in Swabia, Bavaria, Germany. It is said to have been founded by two fishermen where the rivers Danube (Donau) and Wörnitz meet. The city is part of the scenic route called "Roman ...
, was sentenced to death at end of the war for refusing to evacuate his district and prepare it for defense and, in post-war
West Germany
West Germany is the colloquial term used to indicate the Federal Republic of Germany (FRG; german: Bundesrepublik Deutschland , BRD) between its formation on 23 May 1949 and the German reunification through the accession of East Germany on 3 O ...
, he became the first former Kreisleiter to be elected for the West German parliament, the
Bundestag
The Bundestag (, "Federal Diet") is the German federal parliament. It is the only federal representative body that is directly elected by the German people. It is comparable to the United States House of Representatives or the House of Common ...
.
Other Nazi organisations in the region
The various departments of the Nazi organisation were by no means streamlined with the ''Gau'' system, but rather fiercely independent and competitive to each other. For example, while Bavaria was sub-divided in six ''Gaue'', it was also divided in four sections of the ''
SA'', three sections of the ''
SS'' and six sections of the ''
Hitler Jugend
The Hitler Youth (german: Hitlerjugend , often abbreviated as HJ, ) was the youth organisation of the Nazi Party in Germany. Its origins date back to 1922 and it received the name ("Hitler Youth, League of German Worker Youth") in July 1926 ...
''.
[Gau (NSDAP) — Regionale Organisation der Gliederungen und angeschlossenen Verbände der NSDAP]
at the ''Historisches Lexikon Bayerns'' website, accessed 25 June 2008.
The ''Gau Schwaben'' belonged to the military district ''Wehrkreis VII'', which had its headquarters in Munich.
Gauleiter
The highest position in the ''Gau'', ''Gauleiter'', was held by only one person during the history of the ''Gau Schwaben'':
*
Karl Wahl
Karl Wahl (24 September 1892 – 18 February 1981) was the Nazi ''Gauleiter'' of Gau Swabia from the '' Gau'' inception in 1928 until the collapse of Nazi Germany in 1945. After the war, Wahl spent 3½ years in jail before being released in ...
1 October 1928 to 8 May 1945
Deputy Gauleiter
Second in charge were the ''Stellvertretende Gauleiter'':
*
Mathies Kellner — 1934
*
Franz Schmid — 17 March 1935 to 10 November 1937
*
Georg Traeg — 15 December 1937 to 9 September 1942
*
Anton Mündler — 1942 to 1945
Jewish population of the ''Gau Schwaben''
The Jewish population of Swabia had remained relatively stable from the turn of the 20th century to 1933. With the Nazis rise to power it declined through deportation and emigration. After 1939, few of those remaining would have had a chance to escape or even survive 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; ...
.
Source:
* A ''
Kreis'' (English: ''District'') is a German administrative subdivision, now ranking below the ''Regierungsbezirk'' in Bavaria. During the Nazi era, it ranked below the ''Gau''. At the head of each ''Kreis'' there stood a ''Kreisleiter'', answerable to the ''Gauleiter''.
See also
*
List of Gaue of Nazi Germany
The ''Gaue'' (Singular: ''Gau'') were the main administrative divisions of Nazi Germany from 1934 to 1945.
The ''Gaue'' were formed in 1926 as Nazi Party regional districts in Weimar Germany based on the territorial changes after the First ...
*
List of subcamps of Dachau
Below is the list of subcamps of the Dachau complex of Nazi concentration camps.
See also
* List of Nazi-German concentration camps
* List of subcamps of Mauthausen, other extensive net of camps operating in Austria and southern GermanyWeb ...
References
External links
The Nizkor Project — The Organization of the Nazi Party & State
at the
Calvin College website.
The descendants of the Jewish community of Augsburg dedicated to those Augsburger Jews who died during the Holocaust.
"The German Addressbuch" 1942Names and addresses of the Nazi government of Bavaria with description of their tasks and duties in 1942.
including pictures of places in Augsburg associated with the Nazis and Karl Wahl.
''Zwangsarbeiter in Einrichtungen der katholischen Kirche im Bistum Augsburg 1939–1945'' ("Slave Labour in institutions of the Catholic Church in Augsburg 1939 to 1945"), published by the
Bishopric of Augsburg
List of Gaue and Gauleiter
Die NS Gaue at the
Deutsches Historisches Museum
The German Historical Museum (german: Deutsches Historisches Museum), known by the acronym DHM, is a museum in Berlin, Germany devoted to German history. It describes itself as a place of "enlightenment and understanding of the shared history ...
website.
Die Gaue der NSDAP
{{Coord missing, Bavaria
Swabia
Former states and territories of Bavaria
1933 establishments in Germany
1945 disestablishments in Germany