Gunter d'Alquen (24 October 1910 – 15 May 1998) was chief editor of the weekly ''

Das Schwarze Korps ''Das Schwarze Korps'' (; German for "The Black Corps") was the official newspaper of the ''Schutzstaffel'' (SS). This newspaper was published on Wednesdays and distributed free of charge. All SS members were encouraged to read it. The chief edi ...

'' ("The Black Corps"), the official newspaper of the

Schutzstaffel The ''Schutzstaffel'' (; ; SS; also stylised with SS runes as ''ᛋᛋ'') was a major paramilitary organisation under Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party in Nazi Germany, and later throughout German-occupied Europe during World War II. It beg ...

(SS), and commander of the

SS-Standarte Kurt Eggers The SS-Standarte "Kurt Eggers" was an SS propaganda formation (Standarte (Nazi Germany), SS-Standarte) of Nazi Germany during World War II. It publicised the actions of Waffen-SS combat units. The "Berichter" (literally: reporters) of the Standarte ...

Early life

Gunter d'Alquen was born to a

Catholic The Catholic Church (), also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the List of Christian denominations by number of members, largest Christian church, with 1.27 to 1.41 billion baptized Catholics Catholic Church by country, worldwid ...

Freemason Freemasonry (sometimes spelled Free-Masonry) consists of fraternal groups that trace their origins to the medieval guilds of stonemasons. Freemasonry is the oldest secular fraternity in the world and among the oldest still-existing organizati ...

wool merchant and reserve officer named Carl d'Alquen, in Essen on 24 October 1910. He attended grammar school in Essen and joined the

Hitler Youth The Hitler Youth ( , often abbreviated as HJ, ) was the youth wing of the German Nazi Party. Its origins date back to 1922 and it received the name ("Hitler Youth, League of German Worker Youth") in July 1926. From 1936 until 1945, it was th ...

in 1925. In 1927, d'Alquen became a member of the SA and as a 16-year-old joined the

NSDAP The Nazi Party, officially the National Socialist German Workers' Party ( or NSDAP), was a far-right political party in Germany active between 1920 and 1945 that created and supported the ideology of Nazism. Its precursor, the German Workers ...

. D'Alquen was active in the National Socialist

German Student Union The German Student Union (, abbreviated ''DSt'') from 1919 until 1945, was the merger of the general student committees of all German universities, including Danzig, Austria and the former German universities in Czechoslovakia. The DSt was ...

. He became a member of the SS on 10 April 1931. He did not complete his studies in history and philology and instead turned to a journalistic career. From 1932, he was a political correspondent to the editorial board of the ''

Völkischer Beobachter The ''Völkischer Beobachter'' (; "'' Völkisch'' Observer") was the newspaper of the Nazi Party (NSDAP) from 25 December 1920. It first appeared weekly, then daily from 8 February 1923. For twenty-four years it formed part of the official pub ...

'' ("Völkisch Observer"). It was here he aroused the attention of

Heinrich Himmler Heinrich Luitpold Himmler (; 7 October 1900 – 23 May 1945) was a German Nazism, Nazi politician and military leader who was the 4th of the (Protection Squadron; SS), a leading member of the Nazi Party, and one of the most powerful p ...

, who appointed him chief editor of ''Das Schwarze Korps'' in March 1935.

As chief editor

D'Alquen's newspaper often attacked intellectuals, students, Freemasons, certain scientists, rebellious businessmen, traffickers, clerics and other representatives of German society that had aroused Himmler's anger. With its notorious

anti-Semitism Antisemitism or Jew-hatred is hostility to, prejudice towards, or discrimination against Jews. A person who harbours it is called an antisemite. Whether antisemitism is considered a form of racism depends on the school of thought. Antisemi ...

, ''Das Schwarze Korps'' established itself as a moral spokesperson of

Nazi Nazism (), formally named National Socialism (NS; , ), is the far-right politics, far-right Totalitarianism, totalitarian socio-political ideology and practices associated with Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party (NSDAP) in Germany. During H ...

beliefs. From September 1939, d'Alquen became a prominent SS war correspondent. He was appointed head of the propaganda formation

named after

Kurt Eggers Kurt Eggers (10 November 1905 – 12 August 1943) was a German writer, poet, songwriter, and playwright with close links to the Nazi Party. He served as both a member of a propaganda company ( Propagandakompanie) and as a Waffen-SS soldier at the ...

, a friend of d'Alquen, an SS war correspondent and editor of ''Das Schwarze Korps'' who was killed in action in 1943.

As a prisoner of war

In May 1945, d'Alquen was taken as a prisoner of war by the

British Army The British Army is the principal Army, land warfare force of the United Kingdom. the British Army comprises 73,847 regular full-time personnel, 4,127 Brigade of Gurkhas, Gurkhas, 25,742 Army Reserve (United Kingdom), volunteer reserve perso ...

. He was held at ''Camp 18'', a

prisoner-of-war camp A prisoner-of-war camp (often abbreviated as POW camp) is a site for the containment of enemy fighters captured as Prisoner of war, prisoners of war by a belligerent power in time of war. There are significant differences among POW camps, inte ...

on the grounds of

Featherstone Castle Featherstone Castle, a Grade I listed building, is a large Gothic style country mansion situated on the bank of the River South Tyne about southwest of the town of Haltwhistle in Northumberland, England. Medieval origins In the 11th century t ...

Northumberland Northumberland ( ) is a ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in North East England, on the Anglo-Scottish border, border with Scotland. It is bordered by the North Sea to the east, Tyne and Wear and County Durham to the south, Cumb ...

England England is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is located on the island of Great Britain, of which it covers about 62%, and List of islands of England, more than 100 smaller adjacent islands. It ...

. D'Alquen was released from custody in 1948.

Later life

After the war, d'Alquen denied any knowledge of

Nazi extermination camps Nazi Germany used six extermination camps (), also called death camps (), or killing centers (), in Central Europe, primarily in occupied Poland, during World War II to systematically murder over 2.7 million peoplemostly Jewsin the Holocau ...

. He was sentenced to 10 years in prison. According to de-classified

Central Intelligence Agency The Central Intelligence Agency (CIA; ) is a civilian foreign intelligence service of the federal government of the United States tasked with advancing national security through collecting and analyzing intelligence from around the world and ...

documents, as part of

Operation Paperclip The Operation Paperclip was a secret United States intelligence program in which more than 1,600 German scientists, engineers, and technicians were taken from former Nazi Germany to the US for government employment after the end of World War I ...

; d'Alquen was employed by the

Counterintelligence Corps The Counter Intelligence Corps (Army CIC) was a World War II and early Cold War intelligence agency within the United States Army consisting of highly trained special agents. Its role was taken over by the U.S. Army Intelligence Corps in 1961 and ...

and was widely believed to have later been on a CIA payroll during the Cold War. In July 1955, d'Alquen was sentenced by a Berlin

Denazification Denazification () was an Allied initiative to rid German and Austrian society, culture, press, economy, judiciary, and politics of the Nazi ideology following the Second World War. It was carried out by removing those who had been Nazi Par ...

court to pay a fine of 60,000 DM, followed by a loss of pension rights for three years. He was then found guilty of having played a significant role in wartime propaganda and incitement against churches, Jews, and foreigners in the Nazi state. After further investigation of d'Alquen's income from this activity, he was sentenced to pay another fine of 28,000 DM in January 1958. According to British intelligence, he was a member of the

Naumann Circle The Naumann Circle (), also sometimes referred to as the Circle or the Naumann Affair, was an organization of former German adherents of the Nazi Party that was formed in the German Federal Republic (West Germany) several years after the end o ...

, headed by former State Secretary

Werner Naumann Werner Naumann (16 June 1909 – 25 October 1982) was a German civil servant and politician. He was State Secretary in Joseph Goebbels' Ministry of Public Enlightenment and Propaganda during the Nazi Germany era. He was appointed head of th ...

, which attempted to infiltrate the Free Democratic Party. In the late 1950s, d'Alquen became a shareholder of a weaving mill in

Mönchengladbach Mönchengladbach (, ) is a List of cities and towns in Germany, city in North Rhine-Westphalia, western Germany, west of the Rhine, halfway between Düsseldorf and the Netherlands, Dutch border. Geography Municipal subdivisions Since 2009, th ...

. He died on 15 May 1998 in Mönchengladbach.

Dates of rank

* SS-Anwärter - 10 April 1931Tixier 2019, p.SS STAF d'ALQUEN. * SS-Mann - 10 April 1931 * SS-Sturmführer - 1 October 1932 * SS-Obersturmführer - 9 November 1933 * SS-Hauptsturmführer - 1 June 1934 * SS-Sturmbannführer - 30 January 1935 * SS-Obersturmbannführer - 16 October 1935 * SS-Standartenführer - 1 January 1937 * SS-Untersturmführer '' der Reserve'' - 1 March 1940 * SS-Obersturmbannführer '' der Reserve'' - 30 April 1940 * SS-Hauptsturmführer '' der Reserve'' - 1 August 1940 * SS-Sturmbannführer '' der Reserve'' - 9 November 1941 * SS-Obersturmbannführer '' der Reserve'' - 10 August 1943 * SS-Standartenführer '' der Reserve'' - 1943Hitlers Pressechef, p. 302

Awards

Iron Cross The Iron Cross (, , abbreviated EK) was a military decoration in the Kingdom of Prussia, the German Empire (1871–1918), and Nazi Germany (1933–1945). The design, a black cross pattée with a white or silver outline, was derived from the in ...

, 2nd class *

War Merit Cross The War Merit Cross () was a state decoration of Nazi Germany during World War II. By the end of the conflict it was issued in four degrees and had an equivalent civil award. A " de-Nazified" version of the War Merit Cross was reissued in 1957 ...

, 2nd class *

General Assault Badge The General Assault Badge () was a military decoration awarded during World War II to personnel of the German Army (Wehrmacht), German Army, Waffen-SS and ''Ordnungspolizei'' (order police) who supported an infantry attack but were not part of sp ...

Golden Party Badge of the NSDAP __NOTOC__ The Golden Party Badge () was an award authorised by Adolf Hitler in a decree in October 1933. It was a special award given to all Nazi Party members who had, as of 9 November 1933, registered numbers from 1 to 100,000 (issued on 1 Oc ...

SS-Ehrenring The ''SS-Ehrenring'' (German language, German for "SS honour ring"), unofficially called ''Totenkopfring'' ("Totenkopf, Death's Head ring" or "skull ring"), was an award of the ''Schutzstaffel'' (SS). The ring was not a Orders, decorations, and me ...

and SS-Ehrendegen

References

External links

Books by Gunter d’Alquen
(in German)

(in German) {{DEFAULTSORT:Alquen, Gunter d' 1910 births 1998 deaths Nazi Party officials SS-Standartenführer Writers from Essen Sturmabteilung personnel German people of Spanish descent German people of Flemish descent Military personnel from Essen Hitler Youth members Anti-Masonry in Germany Antisemitism in Germany People from the Rhine Province Prisoners and detainees of Germany German war correspondents Fascist writers Recipients of the War Merit Cross Recipients of the Iron Cross, 2nd class German non-fiction writers German people of World War II SS-Standarte Kurt Eggers personnel German prisoners of war in World War II held by the United Kingdom Nazis convicted of crimes Naumann Circle members Operation Paperclip