Hans Hinkel | |
|---|---|
 Hans Hinkel in the uniform of an SS-Brigadefuhrer | |
| Reich Film Superintendent Reich Ministry of Propaganda | |
| In office April 1944 – 8 May 1945 | |
| General Secretary Reich Chamber of Culture | |
| In office July 1941 – April 1944 | |
| Department Head Reich Ministry of Propaganda | |
| In office April 1938 – July 1941 | |
| Reich Cultural Administrator Reich Chamber of Culture | |
| In office 8 May 1935 – April 1938 | |
| State Commissioner Prussian Ministry of Science, Culture and Public Education | |
| In office January 30 1933 – 8 May 1935 | |
| Personal details | |
| Born | (1901-06-22)June 22, 1901 Worms,Grand Duchy of Hesse,German Empire |
| Died | February 6, 1960(1960-02-06) (aged 58) Göttingen,Lower Saxony,West Germany |
| Nationality | German |
| Alma mater | University of Bonn |
| Occupation | Journalist |
| Awards | War Merit Cross, 1st class without Swords |
Johann Heinrich "Hans" Hinkel (22 June 1901 – 8 February 1960) was ajournalist,Nazi Party official and politician inNazi Germany. He mainly worked in theReich Chamber of Culture and theReich Ministry of Propaganda. He was involved in executing the policy of excluding Jews from German cultural life, and headed the Ministry's film division. He was also an SS-Gruppenführer, and was imprisoned inPoland for several years after the end of theSecond World War.
Hinkel was born inWorms, the son of a master butcher. After obtaining hisAbitur from theRealschule in Worms, he studiedpolitical science and philosophy at theUniversity of Bonn from 1919, where he joined theSugambria BonnBurschenschaft, a nationalist student association. In 1920 he joined theFreikorps Oberland and, on 4 October 1921, theNazi Party (membership number 4,686). As an early Party member, he would later be awarded theGolden Party Badge. Also in 1921, he became a member of theSturmabteilung (SA), the Party'sparamilitary organization. After a confrontation withFrench occupation soldiers, he was expelled from theRhineland in March 1923 and continued his studies inMunich, but did not complete his degree. In November 1923 he took part in theBeer Hall Putsch and then fled toLower Bavaria to avoid arrest. As a participant in the failed coup, he would later be decorated with the Party'sBlood Order. From June 1924 to November 1926 he was the editor of theVölkische Innwacht inNeuötting.[1]
In September 1926, Hinkel became the business manager ofGau Hesse-Nassau inKassel. He formally was re-approved for membership in the Party on 20 December 1926 (membership number 48,945), after the ban on it had been lifted. In 1927 he was involved in setting up theKampfverlag publishing house with the brothersGregor andOtto Strasser inBerlin and became an editor there. In the1930 German federal election, he became a deputy of theReichstag and he would continue to serve until the fall of the Nazi regime, representing electoral constituency 3 (Potsdam II, later renamed Berlin-East).[2] That year he also became the press chief forGau Berlin, working forGauleiterJoseph Goebbels. There he became editor of theDeutsche Kultur-Wacht and, from 1930 to 1932, editor for the Berlin edition of theVölkischer Beobachter, the main Nazi Party newspaper.[3] He was also active in thevölkisch andantisemiticMilitant League for German Culture, founded by Nazi ideologueAlfred Rosenberg, and would go one to become itsOrganisationsleiter (Organizational Leader). Hinkel joined theSS in 1931 (SS number 9,148).[4]
Following theNazi seizure of power on 30 January 1933,PrussianMinister PresidentHermann Göring appointed HinkelStaatskommissar (State Commissioner) in the Prussian Ministry of Science, Culture and Public Education under MinisterBernhard Rust, where he was charged with eliminating Jewish participation in German cultural life. Hinkel was soon also give oversight of theJüdischer Kulturbund (Jewish Culture Federation) which was composed of eight-thousand Jewish artists, musicians, performers and writers. Hinkel set about separating Jewish cultural life from that of the nation as a whole. He banned the Federation from performing plays by German playwrights and music by German composers. This "cultural ghettoization" resulted in the Federation being allowed to produce only Jewish works for Jewish audiences, as non-Jews were not allowed to attend these performances.[5]
On 8 May 1935, Goebbels appointed Hinkel as business manager of theReich Chamber of Culture andReichskulturwalter (Reich Cultural Administrator) in theReich Ministry of Public Enlightenment and Propaganda and, in 1938, he became the department head of the Ministry's Department II.A., the so-called "Jewish Department". In these positions, he continued to be responsible for the displacement of Jewish Germans from the cultural sector, in the process ofAryanization. This culminated in November 1938 when Jews were banned from attending German theaters, cinemas, concerts, lectures, exhibitions and all other cultural events.[5] In 1940, Goebbels was making plans to make BerlinJudenfrei by deporting all 62,000 Jews still living there. Hinkel was involved in this action, reporting that they had already worked out a removal plan with the police and that all could be deported within four weeks of the anticipated end of the war.[6] Hinkel was also given responsibility as Goebbels'Sonderbeauftragter (Special Representative) for cultural personalities, in charge of keeping such individuals under observation.[7] In this capacity, Hinkel was the driving force behind the pressure exerted on the popular theater and film actorJoachim Gottschalk to divorce his Jewish wife. Upon his refusal, she was threatened with being sent to theTheresienstadt Ghetto, and he with the end of his acting career andconscription into theWehrmacht. This resulted in their jointsuicide along with their eight-year-old son on 6 November 1941.[8]
Meanwhile, Hinkel's career continued to advance. In 1939, Göring appointed him a member of thePrussian State Council.[9] In the Propaganda Ministry bureaucracy, he was promoted toMinisterialdirigent in October 1940 and rose to Ministerial Director andGeneralsekretär (General Secretary) of the Reich Chamber of Culture in July 1941. As the hardships of the war mounted, Goebbels sought to improve public morale by introducing more entertaining material to German radio broadcasts. In February 1942, he gave Hinkel overall responsibility for artistic and entertainment programming on German radio, to mainly consist of light orchestral music.[10] On 20 April 1943, Hinkel attained his last SS promotion to the rank of SS-Gruppenführer. In April 1944, he took charge of the Ministry's film department and was appointedReichsfilmintendant (National Film Superintendent).[11] In July, he was also made Vice President of the Reich Chamber of Culture. In his new posts he was charged with continuing the politicization of the film industry and keeping up wartime production of films into the last days of the war.[7] Hinkel also organized test screenings of films beforepropaganda experts, institutions, and authorities. Since antisemitic film propaganda touched on one ofNazism's core issues, these test screenings served as a way to commit the whole propaganda apparatus to a common, radical line. He also had to ensure that during the final phase of the war more than half of the members of the German film industry fulfilled their duty to serve as soldiers in theWehrmacht or in theVolkssturm, the Nazi Party militia.[citation needed]
After the defeat of Germany in May 1945, Hinkel was firstinterned by the Americans inDachau and then transferred toPoland in 1947 to face charges for his involvement in the theft of Polish cultural treasures. In 1949, adenazification procedure was openedin absentia by the MunichHauptkammer (Main Chamber) against Hinkel, who was still incarcerated inMokotów Prison inWarsaw. It resulted in Hinkel being classified as a "main offender" and receiving a sentence of two years imprisonment in a labor camp, taking into account his previoustime served. Meanwhile, all of his works, published under the titlesManual of the National Cultural Chamber andJew Quarter of Europe, were put on the list of proscribed writings in theSoviet zone of occupation.[12] Hinkel was finally able to return from Poland to theFederal Republic of Germany in 1952 where, in a new trial by theHildesheim denazification tribunal, he was re-classified as a "lesser offender" and he served no prison time in Germany. Hinkel died inGöttingen on 8 February 1960.[1]
| SS ranks[13] | |
|---|---|
| Date | Rank |
| 15 September 1935 | SS-Sturmbannführer |
| 30 December 1935 | SS-Obersturmbannführer |
| 20 April 1936 | SS-Standartenführer |
| 30 January 1937 | SS-Oberführer |
| 9 November 1940 | SS-Brigadeführer |
| 20 April 1943 | SS-Gruppenführer |
