Gau Bayreuth

Gau Bayreuth
Gau of Nazi Germany
←   ← 1933–1945 →   →
Flag Coat of arms
Error creating thumbnail: File with dimensions greater than 25 MP Map of Nazi Germany showing its administrative subdivisions (Gaue and Reichsgaue).
Capital		Bayreuth
Gauleiter
•	1933–1935	Hans Schemm
•	1935–1945	Fritz Wächtler
•	1945	de
History
•	Establishment	30 January 1933
•	Disestablishment	8 May 1945
Population
•	17 May 1939	2,220,873
Today part of		Germany Czech Republic

Gau Bayreuth (until 1942, Gau Bayerische Ostmark (English: Bavarian Eastern March)) was an administrative division of Nazi Germany in Lower Bavaria, Upper Palatinate and Upper Franconia, Bavaria, from 1933 to 1945. From 1926 to 1933, it was the regional subdivision of the Nazi Party for these areas.

History

The Gau Bayerische Ostmark was formed in 1933, when Hans Schemm united the three Gaue of Oberpfalz, Niederbayern and Oberfranken into one in an internal power struggle. The term Bayerische Ostmark was coined after the First World War for the region to refer to the fact that the area now bordered the new Czechoslovakia, a country perceived as hostile to Germany. The term Mark (English: March) was historically used in Imperial Germany for border regions to hostile neighbors.

It was the only one of the Bavarian Gaue to incorporate more than one Regierungsbezirk, covering three of them.

Hans Schemm led the Gau 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 the Gau. The districts (German: Kreis) of Prachatitz (population: 38,328) and Klattau were added to the Gau.

From 1938, the Gau was also home to the Flossenbürg concentration camp and its many subcamps.

Because the Gau Bayerische Ostmark was not a border region anymore, it was renamed into Gau Bayreuth in 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.

Gauleiter

• Hans Schemm - September 1928 to 5 March 1935
• Fritz Wächtler - 5 December 1935 to 19 April 1945
• de - 19 April 1945 to May 1945

Ludwig Ruckdeschel was also the deputy Gauleiter from 1 February 1933 to June 1941. In this position, he led the Gau from Hans Schemm's death to the appointment of Fritz Wächtler in 1935. After Wächtler's execution for defeatism by an SS squad in 1945, he became Gauleiter himself.

See also

• List of Gaue of Nazi Germany
• List of subcamps of Flossenbürg

Sources

• (German) List of Gaue and Gauleiter
• (German) Die NS Gaue at the Deutsches Historisches Museum website.
• (German) Die Gaue der NSDAP