Konstantin Hierl

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Konstantin Hierl
Konstantin Hierl.jpg
Konstantin Hierl in 1941
Director of the Reich Labour Service
In office
26 June 1935 – May 1945
Leader Adolf Hitler
Preceded by Position Established
Succeeded by Position Abolished
Personal details
Born (1875-02-24)24 February 1875
Parsberg, Bavaria,
German Empire
Died Script error: The function "death_date_and_age" does not exist.
Heidelberg,
West Germany
Nationality German
Political party National Socialist German Workers Party
Occupation Military officer
Religion Roman Catholic

Konstantin Hierl (24 February 1875 – 23 September 1955) was a major figure in the administration of Nazi Germany. He was the head of the Reichsarbeitsdienst (RAD) and an associate of Adolf Hitler before he came to national power.

Life

Hierl was born in Parsberg near Neumarkt in the Bavarian Upper Palatinate region, and attended secondary school (Gymnasium) in Burghausen and Regensburg. In 1893 he joined the Bavarian Army as a cadet.[1] He obtained the rank of lieutenant in 1895 and graduated from the Bavarian War Academy in 1902. He was promoted to captain (Hauptmann) in 1909. He served as a company commander in the Bavarian infantry. In World War I Hierl served as a member of the general staff of the I Royal Bavarian Reserve Corps, part of the German 6th Army fighting on the Western Front, where he achieved the rank of a lieutenant colonel.

Upon the German defeat and the November Revolution of 1918, Hierl became head of a paramilitary Freikorps unit that took part in putting down the January 1919 Spartacist uprising around Augsburg and enforced the rule of the Council of the People's Deputies under Friedrich Ebert.[citation needed]

Hierl played a role in organizing the "Black Reichswehr" paramilitary forces in the early years of the Weimar Republic, until in September 1924 when he was released from the army after he had supported the failed Beer Hall Putsch by Hitler and General Erich Ludendorff in November 1923. His role in the revolt has not been conclusively established, nevertheless he had fallen out with Reichswehr Chief Hans von Seeckt over the suppression. In 1925, he joined Ludendorff's far-right Tannenbergbund political society, which Hierl left two years later in conflict with Ludendorff's wife Mathilde.[citation needed]

Nazi Party

In 1929 he joined the National Socialist German Workers Party (NSDAP) and became head of Organization Department II that same year.[1] In the federal election of 1930, he became a member of the Reichstag parliament. On 5 June 1931, two years before the National Socialists ascended to power, Hierl became head of the FAD (Freiwilliger Arbeitsdienst), a state sponsored voluntary labour organization that provided services to civic and agricultural construction projects. There were many such organizations in Europe at the time, founded to provide much-needed employment during the Great Depression.

Hierl, on the right, with Alfred Rosenberg and Hans Frank at a diplomatic reception, Berlin, February 1939

At the time, Hierl was already a high-ranking member of the NSDAP and when the Party took power in 1933, he remained the head of the labour organization - now called the Nationalsozialistischer Arbeitsdienst, or NSAD. Adolf Hitler named him as State Secretary in the Reich Ministry of Labour under Franz Seldte, with the order to build up a powerful labour service organization.[1] Facing Minister Seldte's resistance, Hierl in 1934 switched to the Reich Ministry of the Interior under Wilhelm Frick in the rank of a Reichskommissar. On 11 July 1934, the NSAD was renamed the Reichsarbeitsdienst or RAD (State Labor Service) which Hierl would control as its chief until the end of World War II. The RAD was divided into two major sections, the Reichsarbeitsdienst Männer (RAD/M) for men and the Reichsarbeitdienst der weiblichen Jugend (RAD/wJ) for women. The RAD was composed of 40 districts each called an Arbeitsgau (lit. Work District). In 1936 the model village of Hierlshagen (present-day Ostaszów in Poland) built by the RAD was named after him. Hierl was named Reich Labor Leader (Reichsarbeitsführer) in 1935 and a Reichsleiter in 1936.[1] Also in 1936, he was awarded the Golden Party Badge for having shown outstanding service to the Nazi Party or state. Hierl was further appointed a Minister Without Portfolio (Reichsminister) in 1943.[1]

During World War II, hundreds of Hierl's RAD units were engaged in supplying frontline troops with food and ammunition, repairing damaged roads and constructing and repairing airstrips. The RAD units constructed coastal fortifications (many RAD men worked on the Atlantic Wall), laid minefields, manned fortifications, and even helped guard vital locations and prisoners of war. The role of the RAD was not limited to combat support functions. Hundreds of RAD units received training as anti-aircraft units and were deployed as RAD Flak Batteries.[2]

On 24 February 1945, Hierl was awarded the German Order, the highest decoration that the Nazi Party could bestow on an individual, for his services to the Reich.[3] Hierl and Artur Axmann were the only recipients of the German Order who survived World War II. After the war, he was tried and found guilty of "major offenses".[1] Hierl was sentenced to five years in a labour camp. Following his early release, he lived in Heidelberg until his death on 23 September 1955.[1]

Writings

  • Operative und taktische Aufgaben zum Studium des Marnefeldzuges 1914 [Operational and Tactical Problems for the Study of the Marne Campaign, 1914] 4 Volumes, E.S. Mittler, Berlin 1927
  • Ausgewählte Schriften und Reden [Selected Writings and Speeches] Herbert von Stetten-Erb (Editor), 2 Volumes, Eher, München 1941. (2. Auflage 1942/43)
  • Schuld oder Schicksal? Studie über Entstehung und Ausgang des 2. Weltkrieges [Guilt or Fate? Studies in the Origin and Conduct of the Second World War] Kurt Vowinckel Verlag, Heidelberg 1954.
  • Gedanken hinter Stacheldraht. Eine Lebensschau [Thoughts Behind Barbed Wire: A Reflection on a Life] Kurt Kurt Vowinckel Verlag, Heidelberg 1953.
  • Im Dienst für Deutschland 1918–1945 [In the Service of Germany] Kurt Vowinckel Verlag, Heidelberg 1954.

Notes

  1. 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 1.4 1.5 1.6 Hamilton 1984, p. 227.
  2. McNab 2009, p. 55.
  3. Angolia 1989, pp. 223, 224.

References

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External links