Robert Heinrich Wagner | |
|---|---|
 Wagner in 1938 | |
| Gauleiter ofGau Baden (from 22 March 1941, Gau Baden-Elsaß) | |
| In office 25 March 1925 – 8 May 1945 | |
| Deputy | Karl Lenz (1926–31) Walter Köhler (1931–33) Hermann Röhn (1934–45) |
| Preceded by | Office established |
| Succeeded by | Office abolished |
| Reichsstatthalter ofBaden | |
| In office 5 May 1933 – 8 May 1945 | |
| Preceded by | Office established |
| Succeeded by | Office abolished |
| Chief of Civil Administration forAlsace | |
| In office 2 August 1940 – 23 November 1944 | |
| Preceded by | Office established |
| Succeeded by | Office abolished |
| Personal details | |
| Born | Robert Heinrich Backfisch (1895-10-13)13 October 1895 |
| Died | 14 August 1946(1946-08-14) (aged 50) |
| Cause of death | Execution by firing squad |
| Known for | Forced reintegration of Alsace into the German Reich |
| Military service | |
| Allegiance |  German Empire Weimar Republic |
| Branch/service | Imperial German Army Reichswehr |
| Years of service | 1914–1924 |
| Rank | Oberleutnant |
| Unit | 110th Grenadier Regiment 110th Reserve Regiment 113th Defense Regiment 14th Infantry Regiment |
| Battles/wars | World War I November Revolution Beer Hall Putsch |
| Awards | Iron Cross, 1st and 2nd class |
Robert Heinrich Wagner, born asRobert Heinrich Backfisch (13 October 1895 – 14 August 1946) was a GermanNazi Party official and politician who served asGauleiter andReichsstatthalter of Baden, andChief of Civil Administration forAlsace during theGerman occupation of France in World War II.[1][2] Following the end of theSecond World War, Wagner was extradited to France where he was tried, sentenced to death and executed by firing squad.
Robert Wagner was born inLindach in theGrand Duchy of Baden in theGerman Empire. He was the second of five children of Peter Backfisch and Catherine Wagner, a farming family. After attendingvolksschule in Lindach, he enrolled in 1910 in a preparatory school inHeidelberg and later in a teacher normal school there.[3]
At the outbreak of theFirst World War, Wagner broke off his teacher training and abandoned his studies (which he never finished) and became aone-year volunteer in theImperial German Army. He was assigned to the 110th (2nd Baden)Grenadier Regiment "Emperor William I.". After being wounded and hospitalized in July 1915, he attended reserve officer candidate training courses and was commissioned as aLeutnant of thereserves in February 1916. Assigned as aplatoon leader with the 110th Reserve Regiment from July 1916 through the end of the war, he was again wounded in apoison gas attack in June 1917. He fought on thewestern front, including operations inFlanders, theBattle of Loretto, theBattle of Verdun, theBattle of the Somme, and theChampagne campaign, experiencing some of the war's bloodiest battles.[4] He was decorated for bravery with theIron Cross, 2nd and 1st class (the latter in November 1917), and also received theWound Badge in black and theKnight's Cross Second Class of the Order of the Zähringer Lion with Swords.[5]
Wagner was discharged in December 1918 after the war had ended, and remained without a completed vocational qualification for life. He later described thearmistice as a "stab in the back" by the wavering home front and, from his later perspective, said that this experience strengthened his hatred of "November criminals",leftists, anddeserters.[citation needed]
In February 1919, Wagner joined the 2nd Baden Volunteer Battalion, with whom he participated in the suppression of revolutionary unrest inMannheim andKarlsruhe. This unit was transferred toReichswehr 113th Defense Regiment in March 1920. In January 1921, he was transferred to the 14th Infantry Regiment, based inKonstanz. Also at this time, he officially had his name changed to Wagner, taking the maiden name of his mother.[6] The reason for the name change from his father's (Backfisch, which means "teenage girl" (literally "fried fish")) was probably to avoid teasing by his fellow officers.
In September 1923, by now anOberleutnant, he was posted to the Central School of Infantry inMunich, then the principal officer training facility in Germany. While in Munich, Wagner metAdolf Hitler andErich Ludendorff and was immediately captivated by them. The meeting came through his friendship with Ludendorff's stepson,Heinz Pernet. Wagner took part in theBeer Hall Putsch on 9 November 1923, leading his infantry students to theBürgerbräukeller.[3] On 26 February 1924 he stood trial with Hitler and eight other men for their part in the putsch. Wagner was convicted on 1 April and sentenced to 15 months incarceration, of which he served 11 weeks inLandsberg prison. He was dismissed from theReichswehr on 24 May.[3] During the time that the Nazi Party was banned, Wagner remained active as a speaker at political gatherings, and was arrested six times for political rowdyism.[7]
When theNazi Party was reestablished in February 1925, Wagner immediately joined (membership number 11,540). On 25 March 1925 he was namedGauleiter ofBaden. In 1927, he became the publisher of a Nazi propaganda newspaper,Der Führer. At one point in 1928 he was imprisoned for two months due to an offensive article he ran. In March 1929 he was charged with libel inFreiburg, but was acquitted. In October 1929, he was elected to the BadenLandtag. Another libel case in 1930 resulted in an acquittal on appeal. From December 1932 through March 1933 he was temporarily transferred to the Party headquarters at theBrown House, Munich as Deputy toRobert Ley and head of theHauptpersonalamt (Main Personnel Office).[8]
Following theNazi seizure of power, Wagner was elected on 5 March 1933 to theReichstag for electoral constituency 32,Baden and retained this seat until the fall of the Nazi regime in May 1945. Resuming hisGauleiter position, on 8 March he was sent back to take control of the Baden state government asReichskommissar. When the duly elected cabinet resigned on 11 March, Wagner assumed control asMinister-President andMinister of the Interior.[9] On 5 April he issued a decree banning all non-Aryans from public service employment. Turning over the premiership toWalter Köhler, on 5 May he assumed the new, more powerful position ofReichsstatthalter (Reich Governor) of Baden, thus uniting under his control the highest party and governmental offices in his jurisdiction.[8] On 30 January 1936, Wagner was made aGruppenführer in theNational Socialist Motor Corps (NSKK) and on 30 January 1939 was promoted to NSKK-Obergruppenführer.[10] A dedicated Nazi, Wagner carried out the Party policies regarding persecution of theJews, enforcement of theNuremberg Laws, the pogrom ofKristallnacht and persecution against the churches.[11]
Shortly after the outbreak of theSecond World War, Wagner was named to the Defense Committees ofWehrkreise (Military Districts) V and XII, in which parts of his Gau were located. After thefall of France, Germany incorporatedAlsace (Elsaß) into the Greater German Reich and on 2 August 1940 Wagner becameChief of Civil Administration for the region. On 22 March 1941, his Gau was renamed Gau Baden-Elsaß.[8] In a meeting with Hitler on 20 June 1940, also attended byJosef Bürckel, the Chief of Civil Administration forLorraine, Hitler informed them that he wanted a totalGermanization of the two occupied French areas within ten years by any means necessary. Wagner immediately embarked on an aggressive Germanization campaign in Alsace, vowing to achieve this goal in half the time. He proclaimed a ban on speaking French in public. Also, he ordered the restoration of the old German place names that existed prior to 1918, and persons with French given names were required to change them to their German equivalents. Schools were required to teach Nazi race theories, and he established mandatory units ofHitler Youth and theLeague of German Girls to indoctrinate the Alsatian youth. He also mandated compulsory membership in theReich Labor Service for working-age Alsatians. Wagner also personally established theSchirmeck-Vorbrück concentration camp, where by 1942 about 1,400 prisoners were incarcerated.[12]
On 25 August 1942, Wagner issued a decree ordering theconscription into theWehrmacht on all Alsatian men of military service age. This policy was very unpopular and had the effect of increasing opposition to the German occupation. In February 1943, Wagner ordered the execution of 12 men fromBallersdorf who tried to avoid compulsory military duty by attempting to cross into nearbySwitzerland.[13]
Wagner also embarked on a campaign to rid Alsace of Jews, earning the nicknamethe Butcher of Alsace (Schlächter vom Elsaß). On 22 October, he initiated a massive deportation of Jews to areas in unoccupied France (Vichy France) with seven trainloads of Jews being rounded up and deported from Alsace with no advance notice. Their property and possessions were confiscated.[14] On 22 October 1940 he reported to Berlin: "Baden ist als erster Gau judenfrei." — Baden is the first Gau to be free of Jews.[citation needed] The Jews expelled from both Baden and Alsace were housed under cruel conditions in theGurs internment camp at the foot of thePyrenees. Some 2,000 were deported to theMajdanek andAuschwitz concentration camps and murdered in 1942. Of the 4,464 Jews sent to the Camp Gurs, fewer than 800 survived.[3]
On 16 November 1942, the jurisdiction ofReich Defense Commissioners was changed from theWehrkreis to the Gau level, and Wagner was appointed Defense Commissioner for his Gau. He assumed responsibility forcivil defense, air defense and evacuation measures, as well as for managing wartimerationing and suppression ofblack market activity. On 25 September 1944, Wagner was made commander of the Nazi militia units (Volkssturm) in his Gau. As the invading Allied forces approached Alsace, Wagner fled fromStrasbourg across theRhine river on 23 November 1944. Allied forces invaded Baden in the spring of 1945, and Wagner continued to offer military resistance, mobilizingVolkssturm battalions and distributing leaflets calling for acts ofsabotage andpartisan uprisings byWerwolf units in areas already occupied by the Allies. He threatened the death penalty to anyone that tried to flee. Following thescorched earth policy detailed in Hitler'sNero Decree, he ordered cities in Baden to destroy their infrastructure to hinder the advance of the Allies. Karlsruhe, the capital, fell to theFirst French Army on 4 April 1945, and Wagner fled south to Konstanz. Reportedly, he tried to cross into Switzerland, but was turned back by border guards.[15]
On 29 April 1945, Wagner went into hiding, posing as a farmhand nearTuttlingen. Finally, on 29 July 1945 he turned himself in to American forces atStuttgart, who handed him over to the French authorities in early 1946. Wagner was brought to trial from 23 April to 3 May 1946, convicted andsentenced to death by the Permanent Military Tribunal in Strasbourg. The sentence was carried out byfiring squad on 14 August 1946. Wagner remained a loyal Nazi to the end, as his last words before the execution show: "Long live Greater Germany, long live Adolf Hitler, long live National Socialism."[3][16][17]
On 1 September 1950, Wagner was posthumously classified as a major offender (Category I) by thedenazification court in Baden.[18]
Presidents of the State ofBaden | ||
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| Nazi Germany |
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| Federal Republic | ||
