Julius Streicher | |
|---|---|
 Streicher in 1935 | |
| Gauleiter of Franconia | |
| In office 1 March 1929 – 16 February 1940 | |
| Leader | Adolf Hitler |
| Preceded by | Office established |
| Succeeded by | Hans Zimmermann (acting, 1940) Karl Holz (acting from 1942, permanent from 1944) |
| Gauleiter ofNuremberg-Fürth | |
| In office 1 October 1928 – 1 March 1929 | |
| Leader | Adolf Hitler |
| Preceded by | Office established |
| Succeeded by | Himself |
| Gauleiter ofNordbayern | |
| In office 2 April 1925 – 1 October 1928 | |
| Leader | Adolf Hitler |
| Preceded by | Office established |
| Succeeded by | Himself |
| Publisher ofDer Stürmer | |
| In office 20 April 1923 – 1 February 1945 | |
| Personal details | |
| Born | Julius Sebastian Streicher (1885-02-12)12 February 1885 Fleinhausen, Germany |
| Died | 16 October 1946(1946-10-16) (aged 61) Nuremberg, Germany |
| Political party | Nazi Party (1922–1945) |
| Other political affiliations | DSP (1919–1921) DWG (1921–1922) |
| Spouses | |
| Known for | Publisher of propaganda |
| Signature |  |
| Military service | |
| Allegiance | German Empire |
| Branch/service | Imperial German Army |
| Years of service | 1914–1918 |
| Rank | Leutnant |
| Unit | 6th Bavarian Reserve Infantry Regiment |
| Battles/wars | World War I |
| Awards | Iron Cross |
| Criminal information | |
| Criminal status | Executed by hanging |
| Conviction | Crimes against humanity |
| Trial | Nuremberg trials |
| Criminal penalty | Death |
Julius Sebastian Streicher (12 February 1885 – 16 October 1946) was a German publicist, politician andconvicted war criminal. A member of theNazi Party, he served as theGauleiter (regional leader) ofFranconia and a member of theReichstag, the national legislature. He was the founder and publisher of the virulentlyantisemitic newspaperDer Stürmer, which became a central element of theNazi propaganda machine. The publishing firm was financially very successful and made Streicher a multimillionaire.[1]
After the war, Streicher was convicted ofcrimes against humanity during theNuremberg trials. Specifically, he was found to have continued his vitriolic antisemitic propaganda when he was well aware that Jews were being murdered. For this, he was executed byhanging.[2] Streicher was the first member of theNazi regime held accountable forinciting genocide by the Nuremberg Tribunal.
Streicher was born inFleinhausen, in theKingdom of Bavaria, one of nine children of the teacher Friedrich Streicher and his wife Anna (née Weiss). He worked as an elementary school teacher, as his father had. In 1913, Streicher married Kunigunde Roth, a baker's daughter, inNuremberg. They had two sons, Lothar (born 1915) and Elmar (born 1918).[3]
Streicher joined theGerman Army in 1914. For his outstanding combat performance during theFirst World War, he was awarded theIron Cross 1st and 2nd Class, as well as earning a battlefield commission as an officer (lieutenant), despite having several reported instances of poor behaviour in his military record,[4] and at a time when officers were primarily from aristocratic families. Following the end of World War I, Streicher was demobilised and returned to Nuremberg.[5] Upon his return, Streicher took up another teaching position there but something unknown happened in 1919, which turned him into a "radical anti-Semite".[6]
Streicher was heavily influenced by the endemicantisemitism found in pre-war Germany, especially that ofTheodor Fritsch.[7] In February 1919, Streicher became active in the antisemiticDeutschvölkischer Schutz- und Trutzbund (German Nationalist Protection and Defense Federation), one of the various radical-nationalist organizations that sprang up in the wake of the failedGerman Communist revolution of 1918.[8] Such groups fosteredthe view that Jews and Bolsheviks were synonymous, and that they were traitors trying to subject Germany to Communist rule.[9][10] In November 1919, Streicher joined theDeutschsozialistische Partei (German Socialist Party, DSP).[11] This group's platform was close to that of theNazi Party, orNationalsozialistische Deutsche Arbeiter Partei (National Socialist German Workers' Party or NSDAP). The DSP had been created in May 1919 as an initiative ofRudolf von Sebottendorf as a child of theThule Society,[12][13] and its program was based on the ideas of the mechanical engineer Alfred Brunner (1881–1936);[14][a] in 1919, the party was officially inaugurated inHanover.[13] Its leading members included Hans Georg Müller, Max Sesselmann and Friedrich Wiesel, the first two editors of theMünchner Beobachter. Julius Streicher founded his local branch in 1919 in Nuremberg.[15]
By the end of 1919, the DSP had branches inDüsseldorf, Kiel,Frankfurt am Main,Dresden, Nuremberg andMunich.[14] Streicher sought to move the German Socialists in a more virulently antisemitic direction—an effort which aroused enough opposition that he left the group and brought his now substantial following to yet another organisation in November 1921, theDeutsche Werkgemeinschaft (German Working Community, DWG); this group hoped to unite the various antisemiticvölkisch movements.[16] Meanwhile, Streicher's rhetoric against the Jews continued to intensify to such a degree that the leadership of the DWG thought he was dangerous and criticized him for his obsessive "hatred of the Jews and foreign races."[17]
On 19 September 1922, Streicher left the DWG after less than one year and formally joined the Nazi Party on 8 October (membership number 17).[18] He brought with him enough members to almost double the size of the Nazi Party overnight.[19][20][21] He later claimed that because his political work brought him into contact withGerman Jews, he "must therefore have been fated to become later on, a writer and speaker on racial politics".[22][b] He visitedMunich in order to hearAdolf Hitler speak, an experience that he later said left him transformed. When asked about that moment, Streicher stated:
It was on a winter's day in 1922. I sat unknown in the large hall of theBürgerbräuhaus... suspense was in the air. Everyone seemed tense with excitement, with anticipation. Then suddenly a shout. "Hitler is coming!" Thousands of men and women jumped to their feet as if propelled by a mysterious power ... they shouted, "Heil Hitler! Heil Hitler!" ... And then he stood on the podium ... Then I knew that in this Adolf Hitler was someone extraordinary ... Here was one who could wrest out of the German spirit and the German heart the power to break the chains of slavery. Yes! Yes! This man spoke as a messenger from heaven at a time when the gates of hell were opening to pull down everything. And when he finally finished, and while the crowd raised the roof with the singing of the "Deutschland" song, I rushed to the stage.[24]
Nearly religiously converted by this speech, Streicher believed from this point forward that, "it was his destiny to serve Hitler".[25]
In May 1923 Streicher founded the sensationalist newspaperDer Stürmer (The Stormer, or, loosely,The Attacker).[26] From the outset, the chief aim of the paper was to promulgate antisemiticpropaganda; the first issue had an excerpt that stated, "As long as the Jew is in the German household, we will be Jewish slaves. Therefore he must go."[27] HistorianRichard J. Evans describes the newspaper:
[Der Stürmer] rapidly established itself as the place where screaming headlines introduced the most rabid attacks on Jews, full of sexual innuendo, racist caricatures, made-up accusations of ritual murder, and titillating, semi-pornographic stories of Jewish men seducing innocent German girls.[19]
In November 1923, Streicher participated in Hitler's first effort to seize power, the failedBeer Hall Putsch in Munich.[28] Streicher marched with Hitler in the front row of the would-be revolutionaries. For his part, Streicher was arrested, along with other key players that includedHermann Göring (who took a bullet),Wilhelm Frick,Ernst Pöhner,Max Amann, andErnst Röhm.[29] Streicher was also suspended from teaching.[30] However, his loyalty to the cause earned him Hitler's lifelong trust and protection; in the years that followed, Streicher would be one of the dictator's few true intimates. Streicher,Rudolf Hess,Emil Maurice, andDietrich Eckart were the only Nazis mentioned inMein Kampf;[21] in the book, Hitler praised him for subordinating the German Socialist Party to the Nazi Party, a move Hitler believed was essential to the Nazis' success.[31]
When the Nazi Party was banned in the aftermath of the failed coup attempt, Streicher in early 1924 joined theGreater German People's Community (Großdeutsche Volksgemeinschaft, GVG) a Nazifront organization established byAlfred Rosenberg. Streicher challenged Rosenberg's weak leadership and on 9 July 1924 was elected as Chairman of the GVG in his place.[32] When Hitler was released from his prison sentence atLandsberg am Lech on 20 December 1924 for his role in the Putsch, Streicher was one of the few remaining followers waiting for him at his Munich apartment.[33] Hitler – who would value loyalty and faithfulness very highly throughout his life – remained loyal to Streicher even when he landed in trouble with the Nazi hierarchy. Although Hitler would allow suppression ofDer Stürmer at times when it was politically important for the Nazis to be seen as respectable, and although he would admit that Streicher was not a very good administrator, he never withdrew his personal loyalty.[7]
In April 1924, Streicher was elected to the BavarianLandtag (legislature),[34] a position which gave him a margin ofparliamentary immunity – a safety net that would help him resist efforts to silence hisracist message.[citation needed] In January 1925 he also joined the Nuremberg City Council. Hitler re-founded the Nazi Party on 27 February 1925 in a speech at theBürgerbräukeller in Munich. Streicher was present and pledged his loyalty; the GVG was soon formally disbanded.[35] As a reward for Streicher's loyalty and dedication, on 2 April he was appointedGauleiter ofNordbayern the Bavarian region that includedUpper,Middle andLower Franconia. He established his capital in his home town ofNuremberg. His jurisdiction would undergo several changes in the coming years. On 1 October 1928, it was significantly reduced to the area around Nuremberg-Fürth. On 1 March 1929, it again expanded, absorbing a neighboring Gau. Now encompassing all of Middle Franconia, it was renamedGau Mittelfranken. Finally, in April 1933, the districts were consolidated and became simplyGau Franken.[36] In the early years of the party's rise,Gauleiter were essentially party functionaries without real power; but in the final years of theWeimar Republic, as the Nazi Party grew, so did their power.Gauleiters such as Streicher wielded immense power and authority under the Nazi state.[37]
Beginning in 1924, Streicher usedDer Stürmer as a mouthpiece not only for general antisemitic attacks, but for calculatedsmear campaigns against specific Jews, such as theNuremberg city official Julius Fleischmann, who worked for Streicher's nemesis, mayorHermann Luppe.Der Stürmer accused Fleischmann of stealing socks from his quartermaster during combat inWorld War I.[citation needed] Fleischmann sued Streicher and disproved the allegations in court, where Streicher was fined 900marks.[c]Der Stürmer's official slogan,Die Juden sind unser Unglück (the Jews are our misfortune), was deemed non-actionable under German statutes, since it was not a direct incitement to violence.[citation needed]
Streicher's opponents complained to authorities thatDer Stürmer violated a statute against religious offense with his constant promulgation of the "blood libel" – themedieval accusation that Jews killedChristian children to use their blood to makematzoh.[citation needed] Streicher argued that his accusations were based onrace, not religion, and that his communications were political speech, and therefore protected by the German constitution.[citation needed]
Streicher orchestrated his early campaigns against Jews to make the most extreme possible claims, short of violating a law that might get the paper shut down. He insisted in the pages of his newspaper that the Jews had caused the worldwideDepression, and were responsible for the cripplingunemployment andinflation which afflicted Germany during the 1920s. He claimed that Jews werewhite-slavers responsible for Germany's prostitution rings. Real unsolved killings in Germany, especially of children or women, were often confidently explained in the pages ofDer Stürmer as cases of "Jewishritual murder".[38]
One of Streicher's constant themes was the sexual violation of ethnic German women by Jews, a subject which he used to publish semi-pornographictracts and images detailing degrading sexual acts.[39][40] The fascination with the pornographic aspects of the propaganda inDer Stürmer was an important feature for many antisemites.[41] With the help of his cartoonistPhillip "Fips" Rupprecht, Streicher published image after image of Jewishstereotypes and sexually charged encounters.[42] His portrayal of Jews as subhuman and evil is considered to have played a critical role in the dehumanization and marginalization of the Jewish minority in the eyes of common Germans – creating the necessary conditions for the later perpetration of theHolocaust.[43][44][d] To protect himself from accountability, Streicher relied on Hitler's protection. Hitler declared thatDer Stürmer was his favorite newspaper, and saw to it that each weekly issue was posted for public reading in special glassed-in display cases known as "Stürmerkasten". The newspaper reached a peak circulation of 600,000 in 1935.[46] One of the possible solutions to the Nazi's perceived problem Streicher mentioned in the pages ofDer Stürmer wastransporting Jews to Madagascar.[47]
Streicher's publishing firm also released three antisemitic books for children, including the 1938Der Giftpilz (translated into English asThe Toadstool orThe Poisonous Mushroom), one of the most widespread pieces of propaganda, which warned about the supposed dangersJews posed by using themetaphor of an attractive yet deadly mushroom. Late in 1936 Streicher also issuedTrust No Fox on his Green Heath and No Jew on his Oath, an infamously anti-Semitic children's picture book by the 18-year-old Elvira Bauer. In the book the Jews are depicted as "children of the devil" and Streicher as the great educator and a hero of all German children.[citation needed]
Streicher did not limit his vituperative attacks to Jews themselves but also launched them against those he perceived as insufficiently hostile towards Jews. For example, he dismissedMussolini as a Jewish lackey for not being anti-Semitic enough.[48] Between 1935 and the end of the Second World War, upwards of 6,500 people were identified and denounced inDer Stürmer for not being sufficiently anti-Semitic.[49]
In July 1932, Streicher was elected as a deputy of theReichstag from electoral constituency 26,Franconia, a seat that he would hold throughout the Nazi regime.[50] In April 1933, after Nazi control of the German state apparatus gave theGauleiters enormous power, Streicher organised a one-dayboycott of Jewish businesses which was used as a dress-rehearsal for other antisemitic commercial measures. As he consolidated his hold on power, he came to more or less rule the city of Nuremberg and hisGau Franken, and boasted that every Jew had been removed fromHersbruck. Among the nicknames provided by his enemies were "King of Nuremberg" and the "Beast of Franconia." Because of his role asGauleiter of Franconia, he also gained the nickname ofFrankenführer.[51][21] Streicher became a member of theSA on 27 January 1934 with the rank of SA-Gruppenführer and was promoted to SA-Obergruppenführer on 9 November 1937.[52] On 6 September 1935, Hitler named him to theAcademy for German Law. TheNew York Times decried this action with the headline: "Reich Honors Streicher. Anti-Semitic Leader is Named to Academy for German Law."[53]
Streicher later claimed that he was only "indirectly responsible" for passage of the anti-JewishNuremberg Laws of 1935, and that he felt slighted because he was not directly consulted. Perhaps epitomizing the "profound anti-intellectualism" of the Nazi Party, Streicher once opined that, "If the brains of all university professors were put at one end of the scale, and the brains of theFührer at the other, which end do you think would tip?"[54]
Streicher was ordered to take part in the establishment of theInstitute for the Study and Elimination of Jewish Influence on German Church Life, that was to be organized together with theGerman Christians, theMinistry of Public Enlightenment and Propaganda, theReich Ministry of Education and the Reich Ministry of the Churches. A surgical operation prevented Streicher from participating fully in this endeavor.[55] This antisemitic standpoint concerning the Bible can be traced back to the earliest time of the Nazi movement, for instanceDietrich Eckart's (Hitler's early mentor) bookBolshevism from Moses to Lenin: A Dialogue Between Adolf Hitler and Me, where it was claimed that "Jewish forgeries" had beenadded to theNew Testament.[56]
In August 1938, Streicher ordered that theGrand Synagogue of Nuremberg be destroyed as part of his contribution toKristallnacht. Streicher later claimed that his decision was based on his disapproval of its architectural design, which in his opinion "disfigured the beautiful German townscape."[57]
Author and journalistJohn Gunther described Streicher as "the worst of the anti-Semites",[58] and his excesses brought condemnation even from other Nazis. Streicher's behaviour was viewed as so irresponsible that he was embarrassing the party leadership;[59] chief among his enemies in Hitler's hierarchy wasReichsmarschallHermann Göring, who loathed him and later claimed that he forbade his own staff to readDer Stürmer.[60]
Despite his special relationship with Hitler, after 1938 Streicher's position began to unravel. He was accused of keeping Jewish property seized afterKristallnacht in November 1938; he was charged with spreading untrue stories about Göring – such as alleging that he was impotent and that his daughter Edda was conceived byartificial insemination; and he was confronted with his excessive personal behaviour, including unconcealed adultery, several furious verbal attacks on otherGauleiters and striding through the streets of Nuremberg cracking a bullwhip.[61][e] He was brought before theSupreme Party Court and judged to be "unsuitable for leadership."[62] On 16 February 1940, he was stripped of his party offices and withdrew from the public eye, although he was permitted to retain the title of aGauleiter, and to continue publishingDer Stürmer. Hitler remained committed to Streicher, whom he considered a loyal friend, despite his unsavory reputation.[63][f] Streicher's wife, Kunigunde Streicher, died in 1943 after 30 years of marriage.[64]
When Germany surrendered to theAllied armies in May 1945, Streicher said later, he decided not to commitsuicide. Instead, he married his former secretary, Adele Tappe.[65] Days later, on 23 May 1945, Streicher was captured in the town ofWaidring,Austria, by a group of American officers led by MajorHenry Plitt of the101st Airborne Division.[66][g]
During his trial, Streicher claimed that he had been mistreated by Allied soldiers after his capture.[68] He was examined by Chief Medical OfficerLt. Col. Rene Juchli who reported that Streicher had partial paralysis of his left leg as a result of an old skiing injury.[69] When the German version of theWechsler-BellevueIQ test was administered byGustave Gilbert, Streicher had an above average IQ (106), yet still the lowest among the defendants.[70] Streicher was not a member of the military and did not take part in planning the Holocaust, or the invasion of other nations. Yet his actions during the war were significant enough, in the prosecutors' judgment, to include him in the trial of Major War Criminals before theInternational Military Tribunal – which sat in Nuremberg, where Streicher had once been an unchallenged authority. He complained throughout the process that all his judges were Jews.[71]
Most of the evidence against Streicher came from his numerous speeches and articles over the years.[72] In essence, prosecutors contended that Streicher's articles and speeches were so incendiary that he was anaccessory to murder, and therefore as culpable as those who actually ordered the mass extermination of Jews. They further argued that he kept up his antisemitic propaganda even after he was aware that Jews were being slaughtered.[73]
Streicher was acquitted ofcrimes against peace, but found guilty ofcrimes against humanity, andsentenced to death on 1 October 1946. The judgment against him read, in part:
For his 25 years of speaking, writing and preaching hatred of the Jews, Streicher was widely known as "Jew-Baiter Number One." In his speeches and articles, week after week, month after month, he infected the German mind with thevirus of anti-Semitism, and incited the German people to active persecution. [...] Streicher's incitement to murder and extermination at the time when Jews in the East were being killed under horrible conditions clearly constitutes persecution on political and racial grounds in connection with war crimes, as defined by the Charter, and constitutes a crime against humanity.[2]
He, along withHans Fritzsche, were the first people to be indicted for what would later be classified asincitement to genocide,[74] though Fritzsche was acquitted at trial.
During his trial, Streicher displayed for the last time the flair for courtroom theatrics that had made him famous in the 1920s. He answered questions from his own defense attorney with diatribes against Jews, the Allies, and the court itself, and was frequently silenced by the court officers. He cited the works ofTheodore Kaufman,who called for the genocide of Germans by mass sterilization, as justification for his claims about the Jewry's aggression against Germany.[75] He also peppered his testimony with references to passages of Jewish texts that he also cited in the pages ofDer Stürmer.[76]
Streicher washanged at Nuremberg Prison in the early hours of 16 October 1946, along with the nine other condemned defendants from the first Nuremberg trial. Göring, Streicher's nemesis, had committedsuicide only hours earlier. Streicher's was the most melodramatic of the hangings carried out that night. At the bottom of the scaffold he cried out "Heil Hitler!". When he mounted the platform, he delivered his last sneering reference to Jewish scripture, snapping "Purimfest!"[77] Streicher's final declaration before the hood went over his head was, "TheBolsheviks will hang you one day!"[78] Joseph Kingsbury-Smith, a journalist for theInternational News Service who covered the executions,[h] said in his filed report that after the hood descended over Streicher's head, he said "Adele, meine liebe Frau!" ("Adele, my dear wife!").[79]
The consensus among eyewitnesses was that Streicher did not receive a quick death fromspinal severing. As with at least several others, the bungled hanging was caused by the hangman,Master SergeantJohn C. Woods.[80]
Streicher's body, along with those of the other nine executed men and the corpse of Hermann Göring, was cremated atOstfriedhof (Munich) and the ashes were scattered in the Isar River.[81]
Streicher is portrayed in detail as a criminal psychopath inPhilip Kerr's detective novelThe Pale Criminal (1990).[82]
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