Dietrich Klagges (; 1 February 1891 – 12 November 1971) was a German politician of the Nazi Party who from 1933 to 1945 was the Ministerpräsident of the Free State of Brunswick. He also went by the pseudonym Rudolf Berg.cited by: Manfred Seidenfuß: Geschichtsdidaktik(er) im Griff des Nationalsozialismus?, p. 161, footnote 51 Klagges is best known for obtaining German citizenship for Adolf Hitler in 1932, thereby making him eligible to run for political office. He was responsible for the persecution of Jews and Social Democratic opponents in Brunswick, resulting in imprisonments and deaths. He was also an SS-Obergruppenführer. Following the end of the Second World War, Klagges was arrested and stood trial for his crimes; he was convicted, imprisoned and released in 1957.
Youth and early career
Klagges was the youngest of a forest ranger's seven children. After attending Volksschule and a preparatory institute, he underwent training at a teachers' seminar at Soest. In April 1911, he enrolled for military service in the 15th Infantry Regiment (2nd Westphalian), headquartered in Minden, but was discharged in August with a 20 percent partial disability due to otitis media. He then worked as a Volksschule teacher in Harpen (today, a district of Bochum). After the First World War broke out, he re-enlisted in the 13th Infantry Regiment (1st Westphalian) on 15 January 1915. He saw action on the western front but was badly wounded on 1 April 1915 at Neuve Chapelle by a gunshot wound to the right thigh. He was first treated in a field hospital, then transferred to Germany and treated at military hospitals in Frankfurt and Bochum. He saw no further action and, after release from the hospital, was discharged on 31 July 1916. He returned to teaching, this time as a middle-school instructor in Wilster in Holstein.
In 1918, Klagges joined the conservative German National People's Party (DNVP) and remained a member until 1924. After leaving the DNVP, Klagge was for a short time a member of the extreme right-wing German Völkisch Freedom Party (DVFP). He soon left it, joining the Nazi Party (NSDAP) on 13 June 1925 (membership number 7,646). As an early Party member, he would later be awarded the Golden Party Badge.
From 1926 until 1930, Klagges worked as a deputy headmaster at a middle school in Benneckenstein, where he served on the city council and became its chairman. He was also a member of the Kreistag (district council) of , but he was defeated in his bid for election to the Landtag of Prussia in May 1928. Between 1928 and 1930, he was the Ortsgruppenleiter and the Bezirksleiter of the Party's local and district organizations, respectively. In the Autumn of 1930, he was dismissed from the Prussian school service and deprived of his pension rights because of his Party activities. In the same year, he first rose to prominence in Braunschweig, where he served as a Nazi Reichsredner (national speaker) and engaged in propaganda activities. From 1931 through September 1932, Klagges served in the Nazi Party Reichsleitung (national leadership) as a department head in the economics section of the Reich organization office.
Nazi political career in Brunswick In the Landtag election in the Free State of Brunswick on 14 September 1930, the Nazi Party emerged as the third strongest party, and entered into a coalition government with other conservative parties, including the German National People's Party.
Regierungsrat
On 1 January 1931, Klagges was appointed Regierungsrat (government counselor), a lower ranked government official, in the Education Ministry by Anton Franzen, the Nazi Interior and Education Minister of the Brunswick state government. After long political quarrels and intrigues, however, Franzen had to step down at the end of July 1931, and this triggered an internal political crisis, threatening a coalition breakdown.
State Minister of the Interior and Education Owing to the imminent crisis, Adolf Hitler personally intervened in the matter and gave the DNVP an ultimatum that led to Klagges succeeding Franzen as Interior and Education Minister on 15 September 1931. Klagges set about, two years before the Nazis seized national power, imposing professional bans against Social Democrats and Jews in the civil service, resulting in the dismissal of many teaching staff at the Braunschweig Technical College.
At the July 1932 parliamentary election, Klagges was elected as a deputy of the Reichstag from the Nazi Party electoral list. He would remain a Reichstag deputy until the end of the Nazi regime, representing electoral constituency 15 (East Hanover) from November 1932, and constituency 16 (South Hanover-Braunschweig) from November 1933.Dietrich Klagges entry in the Reichstag Members Database
Naturalizing Adolf Hitler The City of Braunschweig bears the stigma of being responsible for the former Austrian citizen – and since 1925, at his instigation, stateless person – Adolf Hitler's getting his first official job on 25 February 1932. He was made a Regierungsrat (low-rank government official) at the Braunschweig State Culture and Surveying Office, stationed as a staff member of the Braunschweig legation in Berlin. This had the effect of granting Hitler German citizenship. The city itself, however, played no role in his "naturalization"; rather, it was the Free State government, in whose name this deed was done by the State Minister for the Interior and Education, namely NSDAP member Dietrich Klagges.
Unlike in the City of Braunschweig, by 1930, the Nazis were already quite politically influential in the Brunswick Free State. For Hitler, an appointment to a government office in Braunschweig was the only opportunity to obtain German citizenship, since the Free State was the only state in the Weimar Republic with Nazis in government who could influence and control the Führer's naturalization.
For this reason, the Free State's government – or more precisely its State Minister, Klagges – was given the direct request by the NSDAP party leadership for Hitler's naturalization. Joseph Goebbels referred to the matter in his diary on 4 February 1932: "The intention is to appoint the Führer an associate professor."
Professor Hitler Klagges first tried to procure for Hitler an associate professorship in the made-up discipline of "Politics and Organic Sociology" at the Braunschweig Technical College. This plan soon leaked out to the public and then failed miserably in the face of opposition from, among others, the technical college's own leadership and educators themselves. (The now-renamed University of Braunschweig did not want someone who had never finished school.) The plan had to be dropped.
Without meaning to, Klagges had given the Nazi Party the very thing that they had wanted to avoid at all costs: their intentions had now been made public and Hitler had become a target of ridicule. Moreover, Hitler's reputation had been damaged – and not only in Braunschweig – and Klagges would later get the "bill" for it.
Regierungsrat Hitler There followed yet another attempt to get Hitler a government job, this time by Dr. Wessels, a German People's Party (DVP) Member of the Reichstag, who suggested that a post be procured for Hitler in the Brunswick Legation at the Reichsrat in Berlin. This second try met with success in the end: On 25 February 1932, Hitler was successfully sworn in, making Hitler a citizen of Brunswick, and thus of Germany. At the same time, he won the right to stand as a candidate in the 1932 Reich presidential election.
In the Braunschweigische Landeszeitung newspaper, Klagges declared a short time later: "If our participation in the government in Braunschweig had had no further success than procuring citizenship for our Führer Adolf Hitler, then this fact alone is enough to prove the necessity of our participation in the government."
Hitler's job at the legation did not last long. On 16 February 1933 the new Reichskanzler requested in a short telegram discharge from the Brunswick State Service, which was promptly granted "effective immediately".
Break between Hitler and Klagges Hitler's naturalization was supposed to be dealt with quickly and above all, inconspicuously, without the public getting any knowledge of it. However, with Klagges's clumsy way of doing things, the whole business grew into a farce for the later "Führer", since the first attempt failed miserably, and publicly. Only on the second try was it successful.
Hitler never forgave Klagges this public exposure and personal humiliation and settled the score with him on 17 July 1935 on his last visit to Braunschweig, which resulted in Klagges's de facto disempowerment. Henceforth, Klagges was to submit all plans to Reichsstatthalter Wilhelm Loeper in Dessau as well as Reichsminister Hanns Kerrl for approval, thereby being degraded to provincial politician and thrust off the stage of higher NSDAP politics. It is also likely that Klagges had only Hermann Göring's backing to thank for not being dismissed by Hitler on the spot.
Ministerpräsident and SS officer On 6 May 1933, Klagges was appointed Ministerpräsident of the Free State of Brunswick by Reichsstatthalter Loeper. He also secured a seat in the reconstituted Landtag of Brunswick. Only a few days later, the first book burnings took place in Braunschweig at the Schlossplatz. On 2 October 1933, Klagges was named to Hans Frank's Academy for German Law at its inaugural meeting.Hans Frank (ed.): Jahrbuch der Akademie für Deutsches Recht, 1st Edition, 1933–1934. Schweitzer Verlag, München/Berlin/Leipzig, p. 254. Klagges joined the Schutzstaffel (SS) on 27 January 1934 with the rank of SS-Gruppenführer and was posted to the staff of the 49th Standarte in Braunschweig. On 1 October 1934, he was attached to the staff of SS-Oberabschnitt (main district) Nordwest, based in Hamburg. On 1 April 1936, he was assigned to the staff of the Reichsführer-SS, and he was promoted to SS-Obergruppenführer on 30 January 1942.
Nazi state model Klagges's goal was the creation of a Nazi model state, which entailed keeping Brunswick as independent as possible from Berlin's overlordship, so that he could go on running his little "Reich" as he deemed fit. For Brunswick was a small state, and part of Gau Southern Hanover-Brunswick, composed largely of the Prussian Province of Hanover and controlled by powerful Gauleiter Bernhard Rust. Klagges would not hear of his state being integrated into Prussia – as this would have put an end to his independence – despite Hitler's assurances that Brunswick would still be a cultural centre, and not merely part of a new proposed "Reichsgau Hannover." To hold onto – and broaden – his own power, Klagges next tried to bring into being a new Gau – one that would be independent of Hanover. It would include not only Brunswick but also the two Regierungsbezirks of Lüneburg and Hildesheim and would be called "Gau Ostfalen." Its capital would be Braunschweig and the Gauleiter would be, of course, himself. Klagges found support for his idea among Braunschweig educators, from the middle class, the chamber of commerce, and even the Protestant Church. Despite his efforts, his plan came to nothing and the administrative status quo remained.