Hermann Esser
Hermann Oskar Esser (b. 29 July 1900 in Röhrmoos near Dachau, Kingdom of Bavaria, German Empire; d. 7 February 1981 in Dietramszell, West Germany) was a German veteran of the Bavarian Army in WWI, a member of the Freikorps, a journalist, a politician and one of the earliest followers of Adolf Hitler, joining the NSDAP. He was the author of Die jüdische Weltpest (The Jewish World Plague).
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Life
Esser attended elementary school in Munich and Kempten, where he also attended the humanistic Gymnasium. Esser volunteered for the army in July 1917 and joined on 1 August, achieved his war Abitur in 1918 and was then sent to the front with the 2. Replacement Battery of the Königlich Bayerisches 9. Feldartillerie-Regiment.
In 1919, Esser began studying newspaper studies and did an internship at the social democratic newspaper "Allgäuer Volkswacht" (Kempten). He became a member of the "Danubia Munich" fraternity. In May 1919, as a member of the Schwaben Free Corps under Daniel Ritter von Pitrof (1873–1960), he took part in the suppression of the terror of the Spartacists and the Munich Soviet Republic together with the "von Epp" Free Corps. He then worked as a consultant in the press department of the Munich military district command.
In October 1919, he came across the newly founded German Workers' Party (DAP), later the NSDAP. He hoped to find greater fulfillment of his socialist longings here. He was given membership number 2 and was a continuous member of the party from that day on.
In 1920, when the "Munich Observer" was acquired by the then NSDAP and put into service as the "Völkischer Beobachter", he was editor of this paper under Dietrich Eckart and was already the NSDAP's propaganda director in 1921.
He was the propagandist for all of the large gatherings that Adolf Hitler organized in Munich and throughout Bavaria after initial failures, and he himself appeared as a speaker at many gatherings in Bavaria. It goes without saying that he was at the forefront of the March to the Feldherrnhalle on 9 November 1923.
After the collapse of the attempted uprising, he initially went to Austria for a short time, then soon returned and founded the Greater German People's Community, of which he was the first chairman. He visited the Führer several times in Landsberg Fortress (according to the recorded visitor list). At his wedding on 5 July 1923, Hitler was his best man.
In 1925, he became Reich Propaganda Director of the newly founded NSDAP, predecessor of Himmler, the later Reich Leader of the SS and Dr. Joseph Goebbels, who succeeded Himmler. In 1926, he took over the editorship of the newly founded "Illustrierte Beobachter" and kept it until 1932. In the meantime, he had become a member of the Upper Bavaria district council in 1928 and in 1929 the NSDAP faction leader in the Munich city council.
In 1932, he was a member of the Bavarian state parliament. In 1933, he became president of the Bavarian state parliament, which had reconvened in April. After the Held government was eliminated by General von Epp, he became state secretary and head of the state chancellery in Bavaria. In February 1934, he took over the economic department. In March 1933, he was also elected to the Reichstag.
In the Reichstag on 12 November 1933, after the dissolution of the state parliament, he was given the office of second vice president of the Reichstag. In 1935, he was appointed Secretary of State in the Reich Ministry for Public Enlightenment and Propaganda. Esser was responsible for the tourism department. At the same time, he was also president of the Reich Tourism Association. From 1933 to 1945, Esser was a member of the Reichstag and from 12 December 1933, he was second vice president and (since 1942 the only) deputy to the President of the Reichstag.
Memberships
- DAP
- NSDAP (8 March 1920)
- Reichstag
- Honorary member of the DLV and "Honorary Leader of German Aviation"
- Member of the administrative board of the German Reichspost
- 1933 Permanent representative of the President of the Reich Committee for Tourism and "Flying Leader in Bavaria"
- 4 March 1939 NSFK group leader
- 1 January to February 1937 Member of the administrative board of the German Reichsbahn Company, then (until 1945) member of the advisory board of the German Reichsbahn, Berlin
- 1 January 1942 to 1 January 1945 Member of the advisory board of the German Reichspost, member of the supervisory board of Deutsche Lufthansa AG, Berlin and member of the advisory board of the Reich Chamber of Commerce (Berlin)
Post-WWII
From 1945 to 1947 Esser was interned in Nuremberg and was released from US captivity on 27 December 1947. On 9 September 1949, he was arrested again (by the German police). In the denazification process in 1949, he was classified as a "main culprit" and sentenced to five years in a labor camp. On 13 March 1950, the verdict was confirmed in the appeal court (taking into account the years already spent in prison). In mid-1952, Esser was released from prison, taking into account the previous periods of imprisonment, and was able to return to his wife and children.
Family
Hermann was the son of railway director Oskar Esser (b. 1873) in Kempten and his wife Auguste, née Sörgel (b. 1876).
On 5 July 1923, Esser married his fiancée Therese Deininger with whom he had two sons (b. 1925 and 1926). The marriage was divorced on 17 March 1939. On 5 April 1939, Esser married Anna "Anny" Bacherl (b. 1911) with whom he had four children.
Awards, decorations and honours(excerpt)
- Coburg Badge (Koburger Ehrenzeichen)
- Blood Order on 9 November 1933 for his service on 9 November 1923 in the Führer's staff
- Ehrenkreuz für Frontkämpfer
- Golden Party Badge
- German Olympic Medal of Honor, 2nd and 1st Class
- 2nd Class of the German Red Cross Medal of Honor
- NSDAP Long Service Awards
- Grand Cross of the German Red Cross Medal of Honor
- Ostmark Medal
- Sudetenland Medal
- Military Order of Savoy, Grand Officer's Cross with Star
- Hungarian Order of Merit, Commander with Star
- NSFK Honour Dagger
Honours
- 1933 Honorary citizen of the cities of Kempten, Röhrmoos near Munich, Prien am Chiemsee and Neuburg an der Donau, among others
- 1933 Pilot leader in Bavaria
- 1934 Honorary Leader of Aviation
- 4 March 1939 NSFK-Gruppenführer
