Gun Control in the Third Reich
Page 10
21. Journal de Genève (Switzerland), Mar. 6, 1933, 6.
22. Hsi-Huey Liang, The Berlin Police Force in the Weimar Republic (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1970), 171.
23. Ingo Müller, Hitler’s Justice: The Courts of the Third Reich, trans. Deborah Lucas Schneider (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1991), 33; Frederick T. Birchall, “Hindenburg Drops Flag of Republic,” New York Times, Mar. 13, 1933, 6.
24. To the Bayerische Staatsministerium des Innern., Bad Tölz, den 9.III.1933, BHStA, MA 105475.
25. Bella Fromm, Blood & Banquets: A Berlin Social Diary (New York: Carol Publishing Group, 1990), 84, 87.
26. “Nazis Seek Sweep of Local Offices,” New York Times, Mar. 12, 1933, 19.
27. Bayhsta ReichsstattHalter Epp, Nr. 37, München Abt. II, Der Beauftragte der Reichsregierung, München 11: III.33, BHStA.
28. “Hindenburg Drops Flag of Republic,” New York Times, Mar. 13, 1933, 6.
29. “Nazis Raid Home of President Ebert’s Widow: Hindenburg Orders Inquiry of Flag Search,” New York Times, Mar. 15, 1933, 11.
30. In German: “Straftat: wurde heute um 14.10 im Hause Nr. 17a mit einem Gewehr 98 (Nr. 250) angetroffen.” The Gestapo and SS Manual, trans. Carl Hammer (Boulder, CO: Paladin Press, 1996), 87–88.
31. “Eigentümliche Waffengeschichte” (Unusual Weapon Story), Der Bund (Bern), Mar. 15, 1933 (evening edition), 2.
32. Der Bund (Bern), Mar. 17, 1933, 2.
33. Christian Daniel Nussbaum, Der Untersuchungsrichter am Landgericht Freiburg, Freiburg i.Br., Mar. 18, 1933, Generallandesarchiv Karlsruhe (GLAK), 463-1983-20-2876.
34. “Stadtrat in der NS-Zeit: Geschichte des Freiburger Gemeinderats unter dem Nationalsozialismus” (City Council in the Nazi Period: History of Freiburg City Council Under National Socialism), http://www.freiburg.de/pb/,Lde/231027.html?QUERYSTRING=%22+Geschichte+des+Freiburger+Gemeinderats+unter+dem+Nationalsozialismus%22 (visited Feb. 9, 2013).
35. “Der SPD.-Mörder Nussbaum” (The SPD Murderer Nussbaum), Der Allemanne: Kampsblatt der Nationalsozialisten Oberbadens, Extrablatt! (Freiburg im Breisgau), Mar. 17 [?], 1933, 1, Stadtarchiv Freiburg I. Br., C4-XIII-25–5.
36. “Die Politischen Folgen der Bluttat” (The Political Consequences of the Bloody Deed), Freiburger Tagespost, Mar. 18, 1933, copy in Stadtarchiv Freiburg I. Br., C4-XIII-25-5.
37. Chr. D. Nussbaum, Abschrift, Herrn Rechtsanwalt O. Werle, May 8, 1933, GLAK 463-1983-20-7469.
38. Prof. B. Mueller-Hill—Herrn Dr. Gebhardt, Oct. 29, 1978, GLAK 463-1983-20-2876.
39. Journal de Genève, Mar. 20, 1933, 6.
40. “All News Is Censored and Opposition Press Suppressed,” New York Times, Mar. 20, 1933, 1.
41. New York Times, Mar. 21, 1933, 10. See also Ronald E. Clark, Einstein: The Life and Times (New York: Avon, 1971), 562.
42. Lion Feuchtwanger, Die Geschwister Oppenheim (Amsterdam: Querido, 1933); English translations include The Oppermanns (London: Secker, 1933) and The Oppermanns (New York: Viking Press, 1934). The 1934 translation is used for this discussion.
43. Feuchtwanger, The Oppermanns, 282, 283, 285.
44. William Sheridan Allen, The Nazi Seizure of Power: The Experience of a Single German Town 1922–1945 (New York: Franklin Watts, 1984), 19, 218, 221.
45. Allen, The Nazi Seizure of Power, 184, 186.
46. Allen, The Nazi Seizure of Power, 184–85, 191–92.
47. Gesetz zur Behebung der Not von Volk und Reich vom 24.März 1933, Reichsgesetzblatt, I S.141. See Ernst Fraenkel, The Dual State: A Contribution to the Theory of Dictatorship (New York: Oxford University Press, 1941), 3–4; “Hitler Cabinet Gets Power to Rule as a Dictatorship: Reichstag Quits sine Die,” New York Times, Mar. 24, 1933, 1.
48. Zur Verordnung des kommissarischen bayer. Innenministers vom 24.3.33 über Wehrverbände, BHStA, Landsratsamt (LRA) Bad Tölz 133992, N02501c51. The referenced decree to surrender weapons was the Verordnung gesetzte Frist zur Ablieferung der Waffen.
49. Raphaël Lemkin, Axis Rule in Occupied Europe: Laws of Occupation, Analysis of Government, Proposals for Redress (Washington, DC: Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, 1944), 15–16.
50. Gisevius, To the Bitter End, 103, 148–49.
51. Gisevius, To the Bitter End, 608; William L. Shirer, The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich (New York: Simon & Schuster, 1990), 157, 226; James M. Diehl, Paramilitary Politics in Weimar Germany (Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1977), 294.
52. Völkischer Beobachter, Mar. 25, 1933, 2; Journal de Genève, Mar. 26, 1933, 12.
53. Adolf Hitler, Mein Kampf (My Struggle), trans. Ralph Manheim (Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1971), 367–68.
54. Saul Friedländer, Nazi Germany and the Jews, vol. 1: The Years of Persecution, 1933–1939 (New York: Harper Collins, 1997), 18, 26–27, 119.
55. RMI to Landesregierungen, Mar. 28, 1933, Kontrolle der Waffen-u. Waffenhandelsbücher, Bundesarchiv (BA) Lichterfelde, R 1501/125942, Gesetz über Schußwaffen und Munition Bd. 6, 1932–33, S. 267.
56. Staatsministerium des Innern an 1. die Regierungen, KdJ. [et al.], Betreff: Vollzug der Verordnung über die Ablieferung der Militärwaffen, Mar. 28, 1933, BHStA, LRA Bad Tölz 133992, No. 2501c51.
57. Id.
58. Id.
59. “Betreff: Ablieferung der Militärwaffen,” Staatsanzeiger (Official Gazette), no. 76, Mar. 29, 1933, BHStA, LRA Bad Tölz 133992, No. 572.
60. Fromm, Blood & Banquets, 98.
61. Der Bund (Bern), Apr. 3, 1933 (morning edition), 1.
62. “Raid on Jewish Quarter,” New York Times, Apr. 5, 1933, 10.
63. The Scheunenviertel, Berlin’s Jewish quarter, would become the site of the 1938 pogrom Reichskristallnacht. Dave Rimmer, Time Out Berlin (London: Time Out, 1998), 53–54. This area of Berlin has been renovated, and the Neue Synagogue on Oranienburger Street has been rebuilt since the reunification of Germany in 1989.
64. “Die Zeit des Ghetto hat sich erfüllt; Gross-Razzia im Scheunenviertel; Ünzählige Waffenfunde – Beschlagnahme hochverräterischen Zersetzungsmaterials; Zahlreiche Festnehmen ostgalizischer ‘Einwanderer,’” Völkischer Beobachter, Apr. 5, 1933, 1.
65. New York Times, Apr. 13, 1933, 8.
66. New York Times, Apr. 23, 1933, 1.
67. Reichsgesetzblatt 1928, I, 143, § 23; Reichsgesetzblatt 1931, I, 742, § 1(2).
68. Der Präsident des Landesarbeitsamts Bayern, München 1, Apr. 12, 1933, BHStA, ReichsstattHalter Epp, Nr. 37, München Abt. II, Reichsstatthalter 37.
69. John R. Angolia and Hugh Page Taylor, Uniforms, Organization, & History of the German Police (San Jose, CA: R. James Bender, 2004), 520.
70. “Wieder Mordlisten und Terrorpläne” (Another Murder List and Terror Plan), Völkischer Beobachter, April 21, 1933, 3.
71. Der Bund (Bern), April 24, 1933 (morning edition), 2.
72. Victor Klemperer, I Will Bear Witness 1933–1941, trans. Martin Chalmers (New York: Modern Library, 1999), 17 (entry for May 15, 1933).
73. Richard L. Miller, Nazi Justiz: Law of the Holocaust (Westport, CT: Praeger, 1995), 99.
74. “Der Vollzug des Volkswillens” (The Penal System of the People’s Will), Völkischer Beobachter, May 12, 1933, http://www.cyberussr.com/hcunn/volkisch.html (German and English, visited Feb. 9, 2013).
75. Gesetz gegen die Neubildung von Parteien, Reichsgesetzblatt 1933, I, 479; Müller, Hitler’s Justice, 53–55.
76. Götz Aly and Karl Heinz Roth, The Nazi Census: Identification and Control in the Third Reich, trans. Edwin Black and Assenka Oksiloff (Philadelphia: Temple University Press, 2004), 73.
77. Edwin Black, IBM and the Holocaust: The Strategic Alliance Between Nazi Germany and America’s Most Powerful Corporation (New York: Random House, 2001), 93–100.
78. Gestapo 19.7.33 Einrichtung einer Statistik…beschlagnahmten bzw. gefundenen Waffen, Brandenburgisches Landeshauptarchiv (BrLHA), Pr. Br. Rep. 2A Reg., Potsdam I Pol/3477, Waffenangelegenheiten Bd. 3, 1928–37.
79. Klemper
er, I Will Bear Witness, 30–31 (entry for Aug. 19, 1933).
5
Disarming the Politically Unreliable
The Case of Brandenburg
IN FEBRUARY 1933, Nazi chief Hermann Göring, in his capacity as Prussian minister of the interior, ordered the regional governments of Prussia to submit registration lists of all firearm license holders. The purpose was to revoke licenses held by political enemies and to confiscate their firearms. Though records are not available from all provinces, the responses to this order in parts of the province of Brandenburg are indicative of the actions taken in general.
Throughout the accounts on records kept in Brandenburg, each individual gun owner’s political attitude and reliability was evaluated in conjunction with the “need” for a firearm. There was no presumed right to keep, much less to bear, arms and no reservation about the use of political labels in deciding whether to authorize or prohibit individual gun ownership.
Brandenburg, whose capital was Potsdam, surrounds but excludes Berlin. Unlike Berlin, Brandenburg had not required registration of all firearm owners under the decree of December 8, 1931. Thus, the National Socialist government had to rely on lists of persons to whom the police had issued licenses to acquire or to carry firearms. The result would be the revocation of licenses held by and confiscation of firearms in the possession of SPD (the German Socialist Party) members, Jews, and other so-called politically unreliable persons.
Just two weeks after Hitler came to power, on February 15, 1933, Göring ordered that all governmental heads in Prussia and the Berlin police president “immediately register the holders of firearm licenses on special lists and then send these lists to the municipal government. Rural administrative districts have 3 weeks to submit.” A form was enclosed.1
On receipt of Göring’s order, Potsdam forwarded copies to the authorities and police in its jurisdiction, requiring compliance by March 2. It directed that “if any doubts exist about the reliability of the holders of firearm licenses, immediately revoke the authorization.”2 The enclosed form to register each license holder required the license number, name, occupation, domicile, area where license was valid, expiration date, type of weapon, and the reason given for need.
Göring’s order was also received by Frankfurt an der Oder (“Frankfurt/O,” distinguished from the larger city of Frankfurt am Main), a city in Brandenburg located on the German–Polish border. Frankfurt/O then sent copies to the jurisdictions under its control. Some sample responses from the heads of the administrative districts therein reveal the political purposes of the screening.
Spremberg responded that its sixty-five firearm licensees had previously been carefully screened under the decree of December 8, 1931, which required a thorough investigation of the applicant and the “need” for the weapon.3 However, three persons were politically suspect because they were members of the SPD—the report included details on their political activities—and instructions were sought on whether their firearm licenses should be revoked for that reason.
The head of the administrative district Reppen responded with a letter and two tables listing those who were politically reliable and those suspected of not being politically reliable. It explained:
Table A includes persons who by my own knowledge and by information I personally received from the leaders of the NSDAP [Nazi Party] and the Stahlhelm are to be viewed as nationally–politically reliable. Persons further identified by the rural policemen as absolutely reliable are identified in the table with a red cross. Those in Table A are registered members of the parties and associations (N.S.D.A.P., Stahlhelm, and D.N.V.P. [National German People’s Party]) standing behind the government. Generally single persons not registered with the national parties are known to the above named leaders as absolutely nationally reliable.
Table B records holders of firearm licenses whose reliability is or may be doubtful. They either belong to the center of the SPD or the official party, or their political affiliation is uncertain or doubtful.4
Königsberg responded with a detailed list of suspect firearm license holders, including political opponents and Jews.5 This report focused on the town of Küstrin based on police intelligence. Sample findings reveal the emphasis on suspected “politically unreliable” holders of firearm licenses (those whose names are given in added bold type would have their firearm licenses revoked):
“No. 5 Lemkes, Manager, is leading member of the SPD…. His firearm license will be revoked….”
“No. 6 Dr. Blankenburg, district court judge. He probably would not like to belong to the supporters of the National Government. He needs a weapon for official purposes…. Politically he has never stepped forward. It is still to be mentioned that he is of the Jewish faith.” It was recommended that his license not be revoked.
“No. 10 Nicolai, agricultural expert. Unfortunately, it was impossible to learn anything about the political attitude of Mr. Nicolai. It is not excluded however that he is supporter of the National Government…. He needs the weapon because he must frequently travel throughout the country.” He could keep his license.
“No. 15 Raabe, seed grower, belonged to the SPD, whose firearm and firearm license were taken away a long time ago, because Raabe was involved in a shooting.”
“No. 22 Medical Doctor Asch belonged the leftist parties until now. It is not to be assumed that he is now a supporter of the National Government. He is clearly an emotional man who has also acted politically. His firearm license will be revoked. The circumstance that he travels throughout the country, especially at night, in the pursuit of his occupation is not an adequate reason for needing a firearm.”
“No. 35 Östreich, Otto, worker, Social Democrat and leading member of the Eiserne Front [Iron Front]. His firearm is to be confiscated.”
“No. 46 Leschke, driver. He is not known here, and also nothing about his political attitude can be determined. He is definitely not a member of the N.S.D.A.P. His firearms license will be revoked. The fact that he drives a truck is no reason not to do this.”
“No. 59 Kühnert, driver supervisor. This case is exactly like the previously discussed case No. 46, Leschke.”
“No. 60 Benicke, fish warden, should be Social Democrat, but he has somehow been seen as apolitical. It cannot be determined if he has altered his political attitude. In his occupation as a fish warden he needs a firearm quite desperately. For this reason and because he has never been political, I believe that he is entitled to a firearm.”
“No. 61 Müller, Ernst, merchant, son of the merchant and City Council member J.D. Müller, belongs, one must assume with confidence, like his father, to the Staatspartei [State Party]. He is of the Jewish religion, but has somehow not acted politically, and is certainly far removed from taking part in any political activities. He frequently makes motor vehicle trips throughout the country in his wholesale food business, and the need to have a firearm in this case is thus acknowledged, especially as the merchandise he transports would be particularly tempting to rob. Whether political reasons should be mainly considered is left to local discretion.”
“No. 64 Rockoff, union employee. His firearm and firearm license have recently been confiscated. This has been duly reported.”
“No. 66 Stollorcz, auditor, belonged the Staatspartei until now and would also like to retain the same political attitude. He is a quiet and level-headed man who would definitely not take part in political activities. In his status as an auditor, he must not infrequently travel over the country and feels a need to protect himself, and thus values his firearms license. Again, the issue here will be the extent to which political reasons stand to the contrary.”
“No. 67 Hoffmann, Ernst, owner of a security business (Wach-und Schliessgesellschaft [Guard and Lock Company]). He is left leaning, emphasizing quite emphatically that he is a dissident. Whether he belongs to the SPD cannot be accurately determined. He definitely needs a firearm for his security-guard occupation. If it is confiscated from him, he cannot continue his occupat
ion. Politically he has not stepped forward, and is also a quiet and intelligent person. It would perhaps be responsible to allow him to have his firearm.”
The Königsberg memorandum concluded: “I am going to revoke the firearm permits of the above Nos. 5, 6, 15, 22, 35, 61, 64, 66, and 67, if they are not already revoked. I am asking for clarification if Nos. 10, 46, 59, and 60 should also be revoked.” This was not exactly the ultimate result, but most were revoked. At any rate, these samples show how authorities in one locality, only a few weeks after Hitler came to power, decided to revoke firearm licenses and to confiscate firearms based on political sympathies.
Königsberg issued a follow-up memorandum in July reporting the revocation of the firearm licenses of the persons whose names are given in bold type.6 The license of every SPD member or sympathizer was revoked. Of the Jews, the judge kept his permit, but the merchant’s permit was revoked.
On February 22, the Reichskommissar of the Prussian minister of the interior wrote to the governmental heads and to the Berlin police president that requisitioned and confiscated firearms, in particular the army pistol Model 08 (also known as the German Luger), should be used for the arming of the local police.7 The listings were to specify whether the pistols originated from army equipment, private property, or unknown. Weimar-era decrees were cited to justify this policy.
By cover letter dated March 30, Potsdam transferred the registration lists of firearm license holders to the Prussian minister of the interior.8 Unfortunately, the actual lists submitted could not be found in the archives.
On June 8, Interior Minister Göring issued a directive concerning firearm licenses of SPD members to the governmental heads, the Berlin police president, and the Gestapo in Berlin.9 Among other authorities, Potsdam forwarded the directive to the appropriate civil and police officials. Applied to “members of the SPD and their auxiliary and fellow-traveler organizations,” it required confirmation of the revocation of every kind of firearm license—acquisition, carrying, possession, and hunting. As to members of Communist organizations and sympathizers, it was “presupposed as obvious” that such disarming had “everywhere and completely” taken place.10