Robert Ley
|
Reichsorganisationsleiter Robert Ley |
|
|---|---|
Robert Ley, Head of German Labour Front
|
|
| Head of the German Labour Front | |
|
In office April 1933 – 23 May 1945 |
|
| Leader | Adolf Hitler |
| Preceded by | Gregor Strasser |
| Reich Commissioner for Social House-Building | |
|
In office 1941–1945 |
|
| Personal details | |
| Born |
15 February 1890 Niederbreidenbach, Rhine Province, German Empire |
| Died | 25 October 1945 (aged 55) Nuremberg, Germany |
| Nationality | German |
| Political party | National Socialist German Workers' Party (NSDAP) |
| Spouse(s) | Elisabeth Schmidt (1921 – 1938) Inge Spilcker (1938–1942) Madeleine Wanderer (mistress) |
| Children | Renate Wald (29 July 1922 – 2004) Lore (25 October 1938) Wolf (14 May 1940) Gloria (27 June 1941) Rolf Robert (28 July 1944) |
| Parents | Friedrich and Emilie (née Wald) Ley |
| Alma mater | Jena, Bonn, Münster |
| Known for | Head of the German Labour Front (1933–1945) |
Robert Ley (German: [ˈlaɪ]; 15 February 1890 – 25 October 1945) was a Nazi politician and head of the German Labour Front from 1933 to 1945. He committed suicide while awaiting trial at Nuremberg for war crimes.
Ley was born in Niederbreidenbach (now a part of Nümbrecht) in the Rhine Province, the seventh of 11 children of a heavily indebted farmer, Friedrich Ley, and his wife Emilie (née Wald). He studied chemistry at the universities of Jena, Bonn, and Münster. He volunteered for the army on the outbreak of World War I in 1914 and spent two years in the artillery before training as an aerial artillery spotter with Field Artillery Detachment 202. In July 1917 his aircraft was shot down over France and he was taken prisoner. It has been suggested that he suffered a traumatic brain injury in the crash; for the rest of his life he spoke with a stammer and suffered bouts of erratic behaviour, aggravated by heavy drinking.
After the war Ley returned to university, gaining a doctorate in 1920. He was employed as a food chemist by a branch of the giant IG Farben company, based in Leverkusen in the Ruhr. Enraged by the French occupation of the Ruhr in 1924, Ley became an ultra-nationalist and joined the Nazi Party soon after reading Adolf Hitler's speech at his trial following the Beer Hall Putsch in Munich. By 1925 he was Gauleiter of the Southern Rhineland district and editor of a virulently anti-Semitic Nazi newspaper, the Westdeutsche Beobachter. Ley proved unswervingly loyal to Hitler, which led the party leader to ignore complaints about his arrogance, incompetence and drunkenness.
...
Wikipedia