Naturalization of Adolf Hitler

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Adolf Hitler
Dietrich Klagges
Wilhelm Frick

The naturalization of Adolf Hitler took seven years, from 1925 to February 1932,[1] when Hitler finally became a German citizen and was able to run for political office.[2][3][4][5][6]

History[edit]

Background[edit]

Adolf Hitler was born in Braunau am Inn in 1889, an Austrian citizen. Hitler served in the Imperial German army on the Western Front. . In 1919 Adolf Hitler joined the DAP (later the NSDAP). He gained national notoriety with a failed putsch (armed insurgency) in Munich in November 1923, which led to a trial for high treason and prison for nine months in 1924. The Bavarian authorities attempted several times to deport Hitler afterwards, but Austria refused to take him back.

Statelessness (1925–1932)[edit]

On April 7, 1925, Hitler applied to the High Magistrate of Linz in order to be released from the Austrian citizenship:[7]

I request that I be released from my Austrian citizenship. Reasons: I have been in Germany since 1912, served in the German army for almost 6 years, including 4½ years at the front, and now intend to acquire German citizenship.

As I currently do not know whether my Austrian citizenship has already expired, but entry to Austrian soil has been rejected by an order from the federal government, I ask for a favorable decision on my application.

Adolf Hitler

After some weeks, the request was granted and Hitler became stateless, stating it clearly and officially wherever he went.[8]

At this point Hitler begun trying to acquire German citizenship in various ways, as he was involved also into rebuilding from the ground up the Nazi Party.

The easier way to become a German citizen was to become a Beamter, a German civil servant, because it automatically resulted in naturalization, in accordance to the 1913 Reich and Nationality Act.

Naturalization attempts[edit]

Wilhelm Frick, the first Nazi minister in a local German cabinet and a member of the national Reichstag in 1924, tried to force the Bavarian government to grant citizenship to Hitler in 1929 and then to nominate him professor of art at the Bauhaus University in Weimar, but he failed, as the government was not willing to hire anyone new in that position.

Adolf Hitler registration and deregistration as subtenant in Braunschweig, 1932–1933.

Another attempt was made only a few months later, in July 1930: the Thuringian state parliament was in summer recess and Frick thus gained power over political affairs for a time, as prescribed by the parliament's rules. Frick found no objections to his plan to make Hitler a Gendarmerie commissioner in the Thuringian district town of Hildburghausen. Everything was done in secret and the task was accomplished, but Hitler ultimately refused, because that job did not suit him even from a purely formal point of view, thus canceling the naturalization process attempt.[6]

The next attempt was made at the Free State of Brunswick in 1931, where some Nazis were part of the local government: in particular the Interior Minister was the Nazi Dietrich Klagges, who received the order to naturalize Hitler quickly. Dietrich KLages had the idea of appointing him professor for Organic Social Studies and Politics, made possible by making a professorship vacant: the SPD member August Riekel [de] was fired for this purpose.[9] But these shenanigans came to be fiercely debated at the Braunschweig state parliament and thus impossible to carry out.

In January 1932, this "Köpenickiade [de] of Schildburghausen" was discovered and a parliamentary committee of inquiry was put in place, in front of which Hitler himself and several other nazi politicians had to answer (which he quite did not, not remembering most of the facts), but not carrying out further legal prosecution.

Hitler wanted to run in the 1932 presidential elections and so needed his citizenship fast in order to be able to take part. Just after the "process" in January, Klagges had to involve the DVP in order to do things in a discreet way. After some debat, which also involved the Nazi Hans Frank and Ernst Zörner [de], President of the Braunschweig State Parliament and friend of Hitler), the solution was found to place Hitler in the Brunswick legation to the Reichsrat in Berlin.

For the purpose of legal appearance, Hitler had to be a resident of Braunschweig and he became Zörner's subtenant (officially reported from February 26, 1932, to September 16, 1933).

On February 26, 1932, Hitler was sworn in at a ceremony in the Berlin Hotel Kaiserhof,[10][11] at the same time receiving the citizenship in the Free State of Braunschweig and of the entire Reich. The process of his naturalization was formally completed on March 1, 1932.

Aftermath[edit]

There was an attempt to revoke Hitler's German citizenship in 2007, but this proved to be impossible, as the Führer was no longer alive[12][13][14]

Motion pictures[edit]

See also[edit]

References[edit]

  1. ^ "Feb 25, 1932 CE: Hitler Becomes a German". National Geographic. October 19, 2023. Retrieved 2024-03-22.
  2. ^ "Wie Hitler Deutscher wurde" [How Hitler became german] (in German). Spiegel. October 19, 2010. Archived from the original on 2010-10-20.
  3. ^ "Adolf Hitler als braunschweigischer Regierungsrat". kulturerbe.niedersachsen.de (in German). 1932–1933. Retrieved 2024-03-22.
  4. ^ Meyer, Klaus (2019-08-13). "Understanding how Hitler became German helps us deal with modern-day extremists". The Conversation. Retrieved 2024-03-22.
  5. ^ Menzel, Ulrich (2013). "Professor oder Regierungsrat? Hitlers Einbürgerung in Braunschweig zwischen Provinzposse und Weichenstellung zur "Machtergreifung"" [Professor or government councilor? Hitler's naturalization in Braunschweig between provincial farce and setting the course for the "seizure of power"] (PDF). Forschungsberichte aus dem Institut für Sozialwissenschaften. Blaue Reihe (in German). 110. Braunschweig.
  6. ^ a b Overesch, Manfred (1992). "Die Einbürgerung Hitlers 1930" [Hitler's naturalization in 1930] (PDF). Vierteljahrshefte für Zeitgeschichte (in German) (4): 543–566.
  7. ^ "Hitler ersucht um Entlassung aus der österreichischen Staatsangehörigkeit [7-04-1925]" [Hitler requests release from Austrian citizenship [April 7, 1925]]. ns-archiv.de (in German).
  8. ^ Hitler, Adolf (October 6, 1927). "Meldezettel Hotel Phönix, Hamburg" [Registration form Hotel Phönix, Hamburg]. Nationality: "Stateless"
  9. ^ "Service contract between the TH Braunschweig and Hitler regarding the professorship for "Organic Social Studies and Politics"". www.vernetztes-gedaechtnis.de (in German). February 1932. Retrieved 2024-03-22.
  10. ^ "Hitler swears by the republican constitution" (in German). Die Neue Zeitung. February 27, 1932.
  11. ^ "Hitler als Regierungsrat" [Hitler as a government councilor]. www.vernetztes-gedaechtnis.de (in German). vernetztes-gedaechtnis.de. Retrieved 2024-03-22.
  12. ^ "SPD: Hitler die Staatsbürgerschaft aberkennen". newsclick.de (in German). March 3, 2007. Archived from the original on 2009-06-25. Retrieved 2024-03-22.
  13. ^ Hinrichs, Per (2007-03-10). "Hitlers Einbürgerung: Des Führers Pass". Der Spiegel (in German). ISSN 2195-1349. Retrieved 2024-03-22.
  14. ^ Bota, Alice (2007-03-14). "Berühmt wider Willen". Die Zeit (in German). ISSN 0044-2070. Retrieved 2024-03-22.
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