Hans Severus Ziegler

Hans Severus Ziegler
Born	13 October 1893 Eisenach, Germany
Died	1 May 1978 (aged 84) Bayreuth
Occupation	publicist, teacher
Organization	Nazi Party
Known for	Head of the Militant League for German Culture
Relatives	Gustav Schirmer (grandfather)

Hans Severus Ziegler (13 October 1893 – 1 May 1978) was a German publicist, intendant, teacher and Nazi Party official. A leading cultural director under the Nazis, he was closely associated with the censorship and cultural co-ordination of the Third Reich.

Ziegler was born on 13 October 1893 in Eisenach. He was the son of a banker and, through his mother, the grandson of Gustav Schirmer. His grandmother, the American-born Mary Francis Schirmer, was a close friend of Cosima Wagner and from an early age Ziegler was attracted to the militant nationalism in which the Wagner family were steeped. Ziegler studied German literature at university, completing his education to doctoral standard. He became a journalist, writing mostly for extreme right organs such as the Deutsche Wochen-Zeitung.

On 31 March 1925 Ziegler became a member of the Nazi Party, with his membership number being the comparatively low 1317. From 1925 to 1931 he worked under Wilhelm Frick in Thuringia, serving as deputy gauleiter from 1930 to 1931. In 1928 he was appointed head of the Militant League for German Culture. It was also Ziegler who in 1926 came up with the name Hitler-Jugend (Hitler Youth) for the Nazi youth movement. Ziegler was a close friend of the Schirach family and in 1925 he introduced Baldur von Schirach, who would go on to lead the Hitler Youth, to Adolf Hitler.

Ziegler was associated with the hard-line racialist wing of the Nazi Party, which looked to Alfred Rosenberg as its champion. In keeping with this wing he was particularly staunch in his anti-Semitism.

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