Josef Wagner (Gauleiter)

Josef Wagner (12 January 1899 – 22 April or 2 May 1945) was from 1931 the Nazi ''Gauleiter'' of Gau Westphalia-South and, as of December 1934, also of Gau Silesia. In 1941 he was dismissed from his offices, then expelled from the Nazi Party (NSDAP), imprisoned by the Gestapo, and likely executed around the time of end of the war in Europe.

Early life and First World War

Wagner was born in Algringen (today, Algrange), Alsace-Lorraine, to miner Nikolaus Wagner. He went to the ''volksschule'' in Kneitlingen until 1909 and then to a preparatory school in Zeltingen. Beginning in the summer of 1913 he attended the teachers' seminary in Wittlich until 1917 when he entered military service as a one-year volunteer in the Imperial German Army. He was assigned to Reserve Infantry Regiment 65 on the western front during the First World War. On 14 May 1918, he was severely wounded and taken as a prisoner of war by the French. After five attempts, he managed to escape from a POW camp in Etampes disguised in a French officer's uniform. He returned to Germany in August 1919 by way of Switzerland, completed his last year of training at a teacher seminary in Fulda and passed his teaching examinations in October 1920. Unable to find a teaching position, he was then employed a finance official in Fulda. In July 1921 he became a clerical office worker at the Bochum Association for Cast Steel Production and worked there until April 1927.

Early Nazi career, 1922 to 1932

Wagner joined the Nazi Party quite early on, in 1922 (membership number 16,951) and co-founded the local NSDAP branch in Bochum, becoming its first ''Ortsgruppenleiter'' (Local Group Leader). As an ''Alter Kämpfer'' (Old Fighter) he eventually would be awarded the Golden Party Badge. When the Nazi Party was outlawed in the wake of the Beer Hall Putsch in November 1923, Wagner joined the Völkisch-Social Bloc, a Nazi-oriented electoral alliance, becoming its leader in the Westphalia Industrial District. When the Nazi Party was re-established in February 1925, Wagner rejoined and resumed his position as the local leader in Bochum, advancing in 1926 to the position of ''Bezirksleiter'' (District Leader). In May 1927, he found employment as a teacher at the ''Volksschule Horst-Emscher'' and then at the Gelsenkirchen branch, from which he was fired in November 1927 for political activity.

On 20 May 1928 he was elected as one of the first 12 Nazi deputies to the '' Reichstag'' in Berlin. He would continue to be elected to the ''Reichstag'' for electoral constituency 18, Westphalia-South, in every subsequent election in the Weimar and Nazi regimes. On 1 October 1928, when the large Gau Ruhr was split up, he was appointed ''Gauleiter'' of the newly formed Gau of Westphalia, and after this Gau was split in two on 1 January 1931, he remained ''Gauleiter'' of Gau Westphalia-South, whose seat was in Bochum. In 1930, he founded a weekly Nazi newspaper, ''Westfalenwacht'' (Westphalia Awakes); this was followed in 1931 by a daily paper, ''Rote Erde'' (Red Earth). In 1932 he founded the ''Hochschule für Politik'' (Academy for Politics) of the NSDAP, becoming its leader.

Height of power, 1933 to 1941

After the Nazi seizure of power in January 1933, Wagner became a City Councilor in Bochum on 12 March and was appointed to the Westphalia ''Landtag'', which on 10 April appointed him to the Prussian State Council where he was named First Vice-President until the Council was dissolved in July. He was reappointed on 14 September to the reconstituted Council, now stripped of significant legislative functions and merely an advisory body to Prussian Minister-President Hermann Göring. On 25 September 1933, Wagner joined the ''Sturmabteilung'' (SA) with the rank of SA-''Gruppenführer'' and was assigned to the SA Westphalia Group. In October 1933, he was made a member of the Academy for German Law. In 1934 he was made a member of the Prussian Provincial Council for Westphalia.

On 12 December 1934, after the removal of Helmuth Brückner, Wagner was also appointed as ''Gauleiter'' of Gau Silesia with its capital at Breslau (today Wrocław, Poland). Retaining his ''Gauleiter'' position in Westphalia-South, he was one of only a very few ''Gauleiters'' to simultaneously head two Gaue. In addition, he succeeded Brückner as ''Oberpräsident'' (High President) of the Prussian provinces of Lower Silesia and Upper Silesia. He thus united under his control the highest party and governmental offices in the two provinces. After the two provinces were united into the Province of Silesia on 1 April 1938, Wagner became its ''Oberpräsident'' until the province was split again on 27 January 1941. From 12 June 1935 he also served as the President of the Prussian Provincial Council for both Silesian provinces and, during their union, for the united Silesia.

On 29 October 1936, Wagner was appointed ''Reichskommissar'' for Pricing, an important position for managing the economy under Göring's Four Year Plan. On 9 November 1937, he was promoted to SA-''Obergruppenführer''. On the outbreak of the Second World War in Europe on 1 September 1939, he was named Reich Defense Commissioner for ''Wehrkreis'' (Military District) VIII, which included not only Gau Silesia, but the eastern sections of Reichsgau Sudetenland. It was headquartered in Breslau. In this position, he had responsibility for civil defense and evacuation measures, as well as administration of wartime rationing and suppression of black market activity.

After the conquest of Poland on 8 October 1939, Germany annexed large parts of the country, with East Upper Silesia being made part of Wagner's Gau of Silesia. Two days later, Wagner conferred with Adolf Eichmann

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