| Gau Main Franconia | |||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Gau ofNazi Germany | |||||||||
| 1929–1945 | |||||||||
.svg) Flag  Coat of arms | |||||||||
 Map ofNazi Germany showing its administrative subdivisions (Gaue andReichsgaue). | |||||||||
| Capital | Würzburg | ||||||||
| Population | |||||||||
• 17 May 1939[1] | 844,732 | ||||||||
| Government | |||||||||
| Gauleiter | |||||||||
• 1929–1945 | Otto Hellmuth | ||||||||
| History | |||||||||
| 1 March 1929 | |||||||||
| 8 May 1945 | |||||||||
| |||||||||
| Today part of | Germany | ||||||||
TheGau Main Franconia (German:Gau Mainfranken), formed asGau Lower Franconia (German:Gau Unterfranken) on 1 March 1929 and renamed Gau Main Franconia on 30 July 1935,[2] was anadministrative division ofNazi Germany inLower Franconia,Bavaria, from 1933 to 1945. Before that, from 1929 to 1933, it was the regional subdivision of theNazi Party in that area.
The Nazi Gau (plural Gaue) system was originally established in aparty conference on 22 May 1926, in order to improve administration of the party structure. From 1933 onward, after theNazi seizure of power, theGaue increasingly replaced the German states as administrative subdivisions in Germany.[3]
At the head of each Gau stood aGauleiter, a position which became increasingly more powerful, especially after the outbreak of theSecond World War, with little interference from above. Local Gauleiters often held government positions as well as party ones and were in charge of, among other things, propaganda and surveillance and, from September 1944 onward, theVolkssturm and the defense of the Gau.[3][4]
The position of Gauleiter in Main Franconia was held byOtto Hellmuth for the duration of the existence of the Gau, withLudwig Pösl (1931–37) andWilhelm Kühnreich (1937–45) as his deputies.[5][6]
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