Franz Schwede-Coburg
| Franz Schwede Franz Schwede-Coburg |
|
|---|---|
| Oberpräsident of Pomerania | |
|
In office 28 July 1934 – 4 May 1945 |
|
| Appointed by | Adolf Hitler |
| Preceded by | Carl von Halfern |
| Succeeded by | Post abolished |
| Gauleiter of Pommerania | |
|
In office 21 July 1934 – 4 May 1945 |
|
| Appointed by | Adolf Hitler |
| Preceded by | Wilhelm Karpenstein |
| Succeeded by | Post abolished |
| Regierungspräsident of Lower Bavaria/Upper Palatinate | |
|
In office 1 July 1934 – 20 July 1934 |
|
| Oberbürgermeister of Coburg | |
|
In office 1 March 1933 – 20 July 1934 |
|
| Preceded by | Erich Unverfähr |
| Succeeded by | Otto Schmidt |
| Personal details | |
| Born | 5 March 1888 Drawöhnen, East Prussia |
| Died | 19 October 1960 (aged 72) Coburg, West Germany |
| Political party |
 NSDAP
|
| Nickname(s) | Nero |
Franz Reinhold Schwede (5 March 1888 – 19 October 1960) was a Nazi German politician, Lord Mayor of Coburg and Gauleiter of Pomerania. An early supporter of Adolf Hitler in Coburg, Schwede used intimidation and propaganda to help elect the first Nazi-majority local government in Germany. This contributed to a personality cult surrounding Schwede and he became known as "Franz Schwede-Coburg". During World War II he ordered secret executions of the infirm and mass deportations of Jews. He also played a key role in abandoning the Pomeranian civilian population to the advancing Red Army, while escaping their fate himself. In 1945 he was captured by the British Army and in 1948 he was tried and convicted of war crimes.
Franz Schwede was born in the small town of Drawöhnen near Memel, East Prussia (now Dreverna near Klaipėda, Lithuania) in 1888, when it was part of the German Empire. He trained as a millwright and in 1907 joined the Imperial German Navy as a machinist. By the end of the First World War he had risen to the rank of technical deck officer. After the Scuttling of the German fleet in Scapa Flow in 1919, Schwede wound up in British custody as a prisoner of war. Upon his release he joined the German Army in 1920, but was discharged after the 100,000-man limit imposed by the Versailles Treaty was reached in 1921. He then took a job as operations manager at a sawmill in Sankt Andreasberg, Lower Saxony before being hired as foreman at the Coburg Municipal Works in March 1922. During this period, Schwede became active in the Deutschvölkischer Schutz und Trutzbund, a "völkisch" anti-Semitic organization.
...
Wikipedia