Willi Stöhr

Wilhelm “Willi” Stöhr (6 November 1903 – after 1994) was a Nazi Party official and politician who served as ''Gauleiter'' of Gau Westmark in the closing months of the war.

Early life

Born in Wuppertal-Elberfeld the son of a writer, Stöhr attended ''volksschule'' and ''realschule'' locally through 1922. He joined the Nazi Party in 1923 and was active in the ''Orstgruppe'' (Local Group) in Wuppertal. He remained active in the Nazi movement even after the party was banned in the aftermath of the Beer Hall Putsch. He worked as a commercial clerk during these years and formally rejoined the party in 1929, also becoming a member of the '' Sturmabteilung'' (SA). Around this time he studied economics and political science at the universities in Cologne and Frankfurt. He was a member of the National Socialist German Students' League and became a speaker for this group. In 1932 he left university without completing a degree due to his participation in student riots.

Nazi career

Turning to full-time Party work, Stöhr became the ''Ortsgruppenleiter'' (Local Group Leader) in Frankfurt and an ''Oberbannführer '' (Senior Banner Leader) in the Hitler Youth. After the Nazi seizure of power, Stöhr was made a member of the City Council in Frankfurt in March 1933. Also that year he was appointed Gau Inspector and adjutant to Jakob Sprenger, the ''Gauleiter'' of Hesse-Nassau, a position he would hold until 1937. In November 1933, Stöhr failed in his electoral bid for a seat in the '' Reichstag'' but in February 1935, he was appointed to a vacant ''Reichstag'' seat from electoral constituency 19, Hesse-Nassau. That year he also became a member of the Prussian Provincial Council for the Province of Hesse-Nassau. On 1 July 1937, he became Propaganda Leader of the Gau, head of the provincial propaganda office in Hesse-Nassau and the State Cultural Officer. He would hold these posts until 1 January 1944 when he was transferred to the Nazi Party Chancellery in the Brown House in Munich to be trained for higher party leadership assignments. In 1940 he served in the German Army, as a propaganda officer with Propaganda Company 612 in France. He was awarded the Iron Cross, 2nd class.

Gauleiter

On 8 September 1944, Stöhr was assigned as the Plenipotentiary for Defensive Construction in Gau Westmark. Upon the death of Josef Bürckel, the longtime ''Gauleiter'' of Gau Westmark, on 29 September 1944 Stöhr was promoted to Deputy ''Gauleiter'' and simultaneously installed as Acting ''Gauleiter''. As such, he also commanded the ''Volkssturm'' forces in the Gau. Then on 4 October, he was appointed Chief of Civil Administration (''Chef der Zivilverwaltung'') for German-occupied Lorraine, although the area was already being overrun by the Allied armies. At the same time, he was named both Acting '' Reichsstatthalter'' (Reich Governor) and Acting Reich Defense Commissioner for Gau Westmark. On 19 December 1944, he succeeded Bürckel as the ''Reichstag'' deputy from electoral constituency 27, Rheinpfalz-Saar. On 30 January 1945, his appointments were made permanent.

By 18 March 1945, the elements of the US 7th Army was threatening to overrun Stöhr's Gau and Hitler ordered that the entire population be immediately evacuated eastward. As no logistical contingency planning had been done and the transportation system was in a state of total collapse, evacuating hundreds of thousands of civilians was considered to be next to impossible to execute. According to the memoirs of Albert Speer, the Reich Minister of Armaments and War Production, he met with Stöhr who categorically stated that he would not implement such an order. Though Speer offered to take the blame by citing miscommunication, Stöhr insisted on taking the responsibility.

Postwar years

Stöhr's capital city, Saarbrücken, fell to the 70th Infantry Division on 20 March 1945. He fled the city with his Gau leadership staff but separated from them in Donauwörth in Bavaria. At the war's end, Stöhr disappeared, living under assumed names until a general amnesty was issued. Thus, he became one of the rare ''Gauleiters'' to survive the war and escape justice, never facing criminal prosecution or denazification courts. He emigrated to Canada, where he was still living in 1994; his date of death is unknown.

References

Sources

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External website

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Willi Stöhr
i
the Bavarian State Library

{{DEFAULTSORT:Stöhr, Willi
1903 births
Gauleiters
German emigrants to Canada
German Army personnel of World War II
Hitler Youth members
Members of the Reichstag of Nazi Germany
Nazi Party officials
Nazi Party politicians
Nazi propagandists
People from Wuppertal
Recipients of the Iron Cross (1939), 2nd class
Sturmabteilung officers
Volkssturm personnel
Year of death missing