Professor Ferdinand Werner | |
|---|---|
 Werner at the German Hiking Day inStuttgart on 21 August 1938 | |
| Minister-President People's State of Hesse | |
| In office 15 May 1933 – 20 September 1933 | |
| Preceded by | Position created |
| Succeeded by | Philipp Wilhelm Jung |
| State President People's State of Hesse | |
| In office 13 March 1933 – 15 May 1933 | |
| Preceded by | Bernhard Adelung |
| Succeeded by | Position abolished |
| Landtag President People's State of Hesse | |
| In office 8 December 1931 – 13 March 1933 | |
| Additional positions | |
| 1921–1933 | HesseLandtag Deputy |
| 1911–1917 1924–1928 | ImperialReichstag Deputy RepublicanReichstag Deputy |
| Personal details | |
| Born | 27 October 1876 Gladenbach,Province of Hesse-Nassau,Kingdom of Prussia,German Empire |
| Died | 5 March 1961 (aged 84) Gießen,Hesse,West Germany |
| Political party | Nazi Party |
| Other political affiliations | German Social Party Deutschvölkische Partei [de] German National People's Party |
| Alma mater | University of Gießen |
| Profession | Schoolteacher |
| Awards | Golden Party Badge |
Ferdinand Friedrich Karl Werner (27 October 1876 – 5 March 1961) was a German schoolteacher and long-serving politician who held offices during theGerman Empire, theWeimar Republic andNazi Germany. Throughout his career, he belonged to several far-right andantisemitic parties. He was a deputy in theImperialReichstag from 1911 to 1917, and again in theRepublicanReichstag from 1924 to 1928. From 1921 to 1933, he served as a deputy of theLandtag of thePeople's State of Hesse. In the first year of Nazi Germany he was the firstNazi Party State President and, later,Minister-president of Hesse but was dismissed in a power struggle withReichsstatthalter (Reich Governor)Jakob Sprenger. He then worked for the Association of German Mountain and Hiking Clubs and as a Hessian state historian.
Ferdinand Werner was born the son of a masterlocksmith in Weidenhausen, a section ofGladenbach. He attended theRealschule and theGymnasium inGießen. During his studies of history, and modern languages at theUniversity of Gießen, he was a member of theGerman Student Association. After completion of his education, Werner entered the Hessian school service as a secondary school teacher in 1900. He became anOberlehrer (senior teacher) in Gießen in 1905 and, after obtaining adoctorate in 1906, became anOberlehrer inWorms. He often was transferred because of his open hostility toJews until 1910, when he took a teaching post at the Weidigschule inButzbach, where he taught until 1933. From 1914, he carried the title ofGymnasialprofessor [de].[1] During this time he campaigned in vain against the construction of the firstHeinrich-Heine monument [de] in Germany atFrankfurt, which was eventually torn down in 1933 at his instigation.[2]
Politically active from 1898, Werner'santisemitism was already evident when he joined thePan-German League and became a member of its Jewish Committee. In 1908, Werner applied for a mandate in the Hessian state parliament for the far-right and antisemiticGerman Social Party (DSP) but withdrew his candidacy. In 1909, he was elected as the DSP chairman in Hesse.[3] In 1911, he was elected to theReichstag for the Gießen constituency in a by-election, and was reelected in theReichstag election of 1912. He was exempted from military service during theFirst World War due to extremenearsightedness.[4] The DSP disbanded in 1914 and, from 1915, Werner was chairman of its successor organization, theDeutschvölkische Partei [de] (DvP), also an antisemitic andVölkisch entity. From July 1918, Werner briefly served as a member of the Second Chamber of the state parliament of theGrand Duchy of Hesse before its abolition following the overthrow of theHouse of Hesse at the end of the war. Shortly afterward, when the DvP dissolved and merged into theGerman National People's Party (DNVP) on 24 November 1918, Werner became a member of its six-member executive board.[1]
From 1919 to 1924, Werner was a member of the ButzbachStadtrat (city council). He was elected the first chairman of theDeutschvölkischer Bund (GermanVölkisch League) on 30 March 1919. At the end of the year, it merged into theDeutschvölkischer Schutz- und Trutzbund, which would become the largest and most active antisemitic organization in Germany. Werner was involved in organizing its regional association in Hesse. In April 1920, he became a deputy chairman of the organization, serving until July 1922. At theReichstag election of June 1920, he ran but failed to win a seat.[5]
On 27 November 1921, Werner was elected as a DNVP deputy to theLandtag (state parliament) of thePeople's State of Hesse, where he would become the DNVP faction leader from 1924 to 1927. He would remain aLandtag deputy continuously until 1933. He was elected to theReichstag on the DNVPparty list in the elections ofMay andDecember 1924, and served until 1928.[6]
Werner left the DNVP in 1930 and joined theNazi Party. Following theHessian state election in November 1931, the Nazi Party became the largest party in theLandtag, though they lacked a majority of the seats. On 8 December, however, with the support of theCenter Party deputies, Werner was elected as President of theLandtag.[7] After theNazis seized power at the national level at the end of January 1933, they instituted a policy ofGleichschaltung (coordination) by which they sought to assert their control over all the GermanLänder.[8]
On 6 March 1933, armed members of the Nazi paramilitarySturmabteilung (SA) andSchutzstaffel (SS) took control of the streets of the Hesse capital,Darmstadt. Isolated clashes with the localsecurity police broke out as the paramilitaries raised theswastika flag over government buildings. One police squad was forcibly disarmed, and SA troops prevented the State President and the Interior Minister from leaving their homes or having any telephone communications with the outside. On 13 March 1933, theLandtag met and formally elected Werner as the State President of Hesse, replacing theSocial DemocratBernhard Adelung. At the same time, he also became Minister of Foreign Affairs and of Culture and Education. He was now at the height of his power. Hesse was one of only three states in March 1933, along withHamburg andWürttemberg, where a new Nazi government was formally and legally established by the legitimately elected parliament.[9]
However, following passage of theSecond Law on the Coordination of the States with the Reich, the post ofReichsstatthalter (Reich Governor) was created by the central government to gain additional control over the states. On 5 May,Adolf Hitler filled this post with the Nazi PartyGauleiter ofHesse-Nassau,Jakob Sprenger.[10] On 15 May, to emphasize his primacy, Sprenger abolished the post of State President. He then appointed Werner to the subordinate position ofMinister-president and, in a reduced administration, also gave him the leadership of the education, finance, interior and justice ministries. A power struggle ensued, with Werner resisting Sprenger's attempts to subordinate Hesse to Hesse-Nassau. After a dispute over the merger of their respective chambers of commerce, Sprenger dismissed Werner on 20 September 1933 and replaced him withPhilipp Wilhelm Jung.[1]
In 1936, Werner was appointed byOberpräsidentJosef Wagner as aRegierungsdirektor (government director) in Breslau (todayWrocław), where he worked as acting head of the department for higher education for theProvince of Lower Silesia until 1938. Werner also held the office of president of theVerband Deutscher Gebirgs- und Wandervereine (Association of German Mountain and Hiking Clubs), from 1933 to 1942.[11] In this position, he was a member of the Reich Leadership Council of German Sports. During Werner's tenure, he ordered the exclusion of all non-Aryans from the association's member organizations. Only Nazi Party members were permitted to be chairmen of the member clubs, and its youth groups were forcibly transferred to either theHitler Youth or theLeague of German Girls.[12] When Werner retired as president of the association in 1942, he received a pension payment and, in 1943, theGolden Party Badge. He was succeeded byHeinrich Haake, theLandeshauptmann ofPrussia'sRhine Province.
After the end of theSecond World War, Werner underwentdenazification proceedings in 1949 and was classified as Category III, a "lesser offender". On appeal in 1950, this was downgraded to Category IV, a "follower". Werner worked as a historian for the State of Hesse and remained a leading member of the Hessian Historical Commission in Darmstadt. He died in March 1961 at Gießen.[1]
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