| Gau BayreuthGau Bayerische Ostmark | |||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Gau ofNazi Germany | |||||||||||||
| 1933–1945 | |||||||||||||
.svg) Flag  Coat of arms | |||||||||||||
 Map ofNazi Germany showing its administrative subdivisions (Gaue andReichsgaue). | |||||||||||||
| Capital | Bayreuth | ||||||||||||
| Area | |||||||||||||
• 17 May 1939[1] | 29,600 km2 (11,400 sq mi) | ||||||||||||
| Population | |||||||||||||
• 17 May 1939[1] | 2,220,873 | ||||||||||||
| Government | |||||||||||||
| Gauleiter | |||||||||||||
• 1933–1935 | Hans Schemm | ||||||||||||
• 1935–1945 | Fritz Wächtler | ||||||||||||
• 1945 | Ludwig Ruckdeschel | ||||||||||||
| History | |||||||||||||
| 19 January 1933 | |||||||||||||
| 8 May 1945 | |||||||||||||
| |||||||||||||
| Today part of | Germany Czech Republic | ||||||||||||
Gau Bayreuth (until June 1942,Gau Bayerische Ostmark, 'Bavarian Eastern March') was an administrative division ofNazi Germany formed by the 19 January 1933 merger of Gaue inLower Bavaria,Upper Palatinate andUpper Franconia,Bavaria. It was in existence from 1933 to 1945.
The NaziGau (pluralGaue) system was originally established in aparty conference on 22 May 1926, in order to improve administration of the party structure. From 1933 onwards, after theNazi seizure of power, theGaue increasingly replaced the German states as administrative subdivisions in Germany.[2]
At the head of each Gau stood aGauleiter, a position which became increasingly more powerful, especially after the outbreak of theSecond World War. Local Gauleiters were in charge of propaganda and surveillance and, from September 1944 onwards, theVolkssturm and the defence of the Gau.[2][3]
TheGau Bayerische Ostmark was formed in 1933, when Hans Schemm, the gauleiter ofOberfranken, united the threeGaue ofOberpfalz,Niederbayern andOberfranken into one in an internal power struggle. The termBayerische Ostmark was coined after theFirst World War for the region to refer to the fact that the area now bordered the newCzechoslovakia, a country perceived as hostile toGermany. The termMark (English:March) was historically used inImperial Germany for border regions to hostile neighbors.[4] It was the only one of the BavarianGaue to incorporate more than oneRegierungsbezirk, covering three of them.
Hans Schemm led theGau until his death in a plane accident in 1935; his successor, Fritz Wächtler, could not muster the same popularity with the population of the region. After the occupation of Czechoslovakia, parts of this country were incorporated in theGau. The districts (German:Kreis) ofBergreichenstein,Markt Eisenstein andPrachatitz were added to theGau.[5] From 1938, theGau was also home to theFlossenbürg concentration camp and its manysubcamps. Because theGau Bayerische Ostmark was not a border region any more, it was renamedGau Bayreuth in June 1942. Wächtler was shot on orders of Hitler, having left his capital Bayreuth in April 1945. He was replaced by Ludwig Ruckdeschel, whose reign until the surrender of Nazi Germany was very brief.[6]
The Gauleiter of Gau Bayreuth:[7][8]
Ludwig Ruckdeschel was the deputyGauleiter from 1 February 1933 to June 1941. In this position, he led theGau in an acting position from Hans Schemm's death to the appointment of Fritz Wächtler in 1935. After Wächtler's execution for defeatism by anSS squad in 1945, he becameGauleiter himself.
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