Gau Thuringia
{{Short description|Administrative division of Nazi Germany}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=April 2020}}
{{Infobox Former Subdivision
| conventional_long_name = Gau Thuringia
| common_name = Gau Thüringen
| subdivision = Gau
| nation = Nazi Germany
| image_flag = Flag of German Reich (1935–1945).svg
| image_coat = Coat of Arms of Thuringia 1933.svg
| image_map = NS administrative Gliederung 1944.png
| image_map_caption = Map of Nazi Germany showing its administrative
subdivisions (Gaue and Reichsgaue).
| national_anthem =
| capital = Weimar
| p1 = Thuringia
| flag_p1 = Flag of Thuringia.svg
| s1 = Thuringia
| flag_s1 = Flag of Thuringia.svg
| s2 = Bavaria
| flag_s2 = Flag of Bavaria (lozengy).svg
| s3 = Saxony-Anhalt (1945–1952)
| flag_s3 = Flagge Preußen - Provinz Sachsen.svg
| event_start = Establishment
| year_start = 1925
| date_start = 6 April
| event_end = Disestablishment
| year_end = 1945
| date_end = 8 May
| pol_subdiv =
| title_leader = Gauleiter
| leader1 = Artur Dinter
| year_leader1 = 1925–1927
| leader2 = Fritz Sauckel
| year_leader2 = 1927–1945
| stat_year1 =
| stat_area1 =
| stat_pop1 =
| today = Germany
}}
The Gau Thuringia (German: Gau Thüringen) formed on 6 April 1925, was an administrative division of Nazi Germany in the Free State of :Thuringia from 1933 to 1945. Before that, from 1925 to 1933, it was the regional subdivision of the Nazi Party in that area.
History
The Nazi Gau (plural Gaue) system was originally established in a party conference on 22 May 1926, to improve administration of the party structure. From 1933 onwards, after the Nazi seizure of power, the Gaue increasingly replaced the German states as administrative subdivisions in Germany.{{cite web |url=https://www.dhm.de/lemo/kapitel/ns-regime/innenpolitik/gaue/ |title= Die NS-Gaue |website=dhm.de |publisher=Deutsches Historisches Museum|access-date= 24 March 2016|language=de|trans-title=The Nazi Gaue }}
At the head of each Gau stood a Gauleiter, a position which became increasingly more powerful, especially after the outbreak of the Second World War, with little interference from above. Local Gauleiters often held government positions as well as party ones and were in charge of, among other things, propaganda and surveillance and, from September 1944 onward, the Volkssturm and the defense of the Gau.{{cite web |url=http://www.nizkor.org/hweb/imt/nca/nca-01/nca-01-06-organization.html |title=The Organization of the Nazi Party & State |website=nizkor.org |publisher=The Nizkor Project |access-date=26 March 2016 |archive-date=9 November 2016 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161109221505/http://www.nizkor.org/hweb/imt/nca/nca-01/nca-01-06-organization.html |url-status=dead }}
The position of Gauleiter in Thuringia was originally held by Artur Dinter. On 30 September 1927 Fritz Sauckel, his Deputy Gauleiter, took over and held this position until the end of the war. Sauckel also served as the Reich General Plenipotentiary for Labor Allocation. He was convicted at the Nuremberg trials and executed for war crimes and crimes against humanity on 16 October 1946.{{cite web |url=http://www.verwaltungsgeschichte.de/gau_thuering.html |title= Gau Thüringen |website=verwaltungsgeschichte.de |access-date= 24 March 2016|language=de}} His deputies were Hans Severus Ziegler (1927-1931), Willy Marschler (1931–32), Fritz Wächtler (1932–35) and Heinrich Siekmeier (1936–45).Michael D. Miller & Andreas Schulz: Gauleiter: The Regional Leaders of the Nazi Party and Their Deputies, 1925-1945, Volume 1 (Herbert Albrecht - H. Wilhelm Hüttmann), R. James Bender Publishing, 2012, p. 36, {{ISBN|1-932970-21-5}}.
The Buchenwald concentration camp was located in the Gau Thuringia. Of the 238,980 prisoners that were sent to the camp 43,045 were killed.{{cite web|url=http://www.yadvashem.org/odot_pdf/Microsoft%20Word%20-%206088.pdf|title=Buchenwald|website=yadvashem.org|publisher=Yad Vashem|access-date=31 March 2016|archive-date=7 August 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190807162311/https://www.yadvashem.org/odot_pdf/Microsoft%20Word%20-%206088.pdf|url-status=dead}}
References
{{Reflist}}
External links
- [http://research.calvin.edu/german-propaganda-archive/gauleiter.htm Illustrated list of Gauleiter]
{{Nazi Gaue}}
{{Authority control}}
{{Coord missing|Thuringia}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Gau Thuringen}}
Category:1933 establishments in Germany
Category:1945 disestablishments in Germany