Franz Seldte

Franz Seldte (29 June 1882 – 1 April 1947) was a German politician who served as the Reich Minister for Labour from 1933 to 1945.[1] Prior to his ministry, Seldte served as the Federal Leader of Der Stahlhelm World War I ex-servicemen's organisation from 1918 to 1934. Ideologically, he identified as a national conservative.

Franz Seldte
Photograph by Robert Sennecke, 1933
Reich Minister for Labour
In office
30 January 1933 – 23 May 1945
President
Chancellor
Preceded byFriedrich Syrup
Federal Leader of the Nationalsozialistischer Deutscher frontkämpfer-Bund (Stahlhelm)
In office
28 March 1934 – 7 November 1935
Federal Leader of Der Stahlhelm
In office
25 December 1918 – 28 March 1934
Personal details
Born(1882-06-29)29 June 1882
Magdeburg, Germany
Died1 April 1947(1947-04-01) (aged 64)
Fürth, Germany
Resting placeSt Laurentius Cemetery, Rottach-Egern, Germany
Political partyNational Socialist German Workers' Party (1933–1945)
Other political
affiliations		German National People's Party (until 1933)
Alma materBrunswick University of Technology
Signature
Military service
Allegiance German Empire
Branch/service German Army
Years of service1914–1918
RankHauptmann d.R.
Unit66th Infantry Regiment
Battles/warsWorld War I
Awards
  • Iron Cross First Class
  • Iron Cross Second Class
  • Wound Badge

Early life and education

Born in Magdeburg in the Prussian province of Saxony, Seldte was the son of an owner of a factory producing chemical products and soda water.[2] He attended the Wilhelm-Raabe-Gymnasium in Magdeburg and, after an apprenticeship as a salesman, studied chemistry at the universities of Braunschweig and Greifswald. In 1908 he took over the business of his early deceased father.[3] As an officer of the German Army he was wounded in World War I and lost his left arm.[4] He then became a front reporter. Awarded with the Iron Cross 2nd and 1st class,[5] Seldte also was promoted to the rank of Hauptmann d.R. in the 66th Infantry Regiment.

Der Stahlhelm
Seldte (r.) with Hugenberg and the Berlin Stahlhelm leader von Stephani at a rally against the Young-Plan, Berlin Sportpalast, 1929

As a reaction to the German Revolution of 1918–1919, Seldte founded Der Stahlhelm, Bund der Frontsoldaten on 25 December 1918, agitating against the Treaty of Versailles and German war reparations. According to Seldte, the organization was to use the spirit of the Frontsoldaten against the ‘swinish revolution’ taking place in Germany under the Weimar government.[6] While he took charge of Der Stahlhelm from 1923 onwards, he had to cope with the constant rivalry of his deputy leader, the militant Theodor Duesterberg.

Seldte became a member of the national conservative German National People's Party (DNVP) and was a member of the Magdeburg city council (Stadtrat). During the later years of the Weimar Republic Der Stahlhelm became increasingly anti-democratic and anti-republican. However, Seldte hoped that the organization could become a leading organ of a united right-wing movement. In 1929 it united its forces with the DNVP under Alfred Hugenberg, the Pan-German League and the Nazi Party to initiate a German referendum against the Young Plan on World War I reparations.[7] The common goal was to denounce the Chancellor Hermann Müller and his ministers as traitors to their country, nevertheless the plebiscite failed to reach the quorum. In 1931 Seldte helped create the short-lived Harzburg Front,[8] a right-wing alliance against the government of Müller's successor Heinrich Brüning.

Minister for Labour

During the negotiations for the Chancellorship of Germany between Franz von Papen and Hitler in mid-January 1933, Seldte threw his vote and Der Stahlhelm behind Hitler, after which, Papen acquiesced to Hitler’s demands.[9] On the day of the Machtergreifung on 30 January 1933, Seldte joined the Hitler Cabinet as Reich Minister for Labour,[10] once again outdoing his long-time rival Duesterberg. In the run-up to the elections of March 1933 Der Stahlhelm together with Hugenberg's national conservative German National People's Party (DNVP) attempted to make the Kampffront Schwarz-Weiß-Rot ("Black White Red Combat Front") into the dominant political camp on the right, but ultimately failed as it only gained 8.0% of the votes cast. Nevertheless, Seldte obtained a seat in the Reichstag parliament as a DNVP "guest".

On 27 April 1933 Seldte finally joined the Nazi Party and merged Der Stahlhelm into Ernst Röhm's Sturmabteilung (SA) militia – de facto placing it at the disposal of Hitler.[11] In August 1933, he was awarded the rank of SA-Obergruppenführer and later was appointed Reichskommissar for the Freiwilliger Arbeitsdienst employment program, but was soon superseded by his state secretary Konstantin Hierl as leader of the Reichsarbeitsdienst organization. In March 1934 Seldte was made the federal leader of the Nationalsozialistischer Deutscher frontkämpfer-Bund (Stahlhelm) (English: National Socialist German Combatants' Federation (Stahlhelm)) (NSDFBSt), a successor organization of Der Stahlhelm, which however was soon disbanded. In 1935 he requested to be released from official responsibilities, but Hitler refused.

Throughout his tenure as chief of the Labor Ministry, Seldte never enjoyed the full support of Hitler, who did not think he was worth much. As a result, members of the Nazi hierarchy began encroaching on his areas of responsibility and Seldte was marginalized accordingly.[12] For instance, Hermann Goering’s Four Year Plan which he began to implement in late 1936, ran roughshod over Seldte's Labor Ministry altogether.[13] Seldte, without substantial power, remained Reich Minister for Labour until the end of World War II and was also a member of the Prussian government under Minister president Hermann Göring as State Labour Minister. Even after Hitler’s suicide and the nomination of Grand-Admiral Dönitz as his successor, Seldte kept his post, being accordingly named Labour Minister.[14]

Death

Seldte was captured and arrested in Mondorf-les-Bains at the end of the war. During the Nuremberg trials, Seldte tried to exonerate himself by claiming that he had stood against the dictatorship of Hitler and that he advocated for a two-chamber system of parliamentary governance.[15] His story was not convincing. Seldte died in a US military hospital in April 1947 at Fürth, before the Nuremberg Tribunal had the chance to formally arraign him on charges.[16]

Legacy

During the time of Nazi Germany, streets were named after him in several German cities, among them his hometown Magdeburg and Leverkusen.[17]

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References
  1. Stackelberg (2007). The Routledge Companion to Nazi Germany, p. 243.
  2. Stackelberg (2007). The Routledge Companion to Nazi Germany, p. 243.
  3. Wistrich (2001). Who's Who In Nazi Germany, p. 232.
  4. Stackelberg (2007). The Routledge Companion to Nazi Germany, p. 243.
  5. Snyder (1976). Encyclopedia of the Third Reich, p. 320.
  6. Snyder (1976). Encyclopedia of the Third Reich, p. 320.
  7. Kershaw (2000). Hitler: 1889-1936, Hubris, p. 310, 356.
  8. Zentner & Bedürftig, eds. The Encyclopedia of the Third Reich, vol. 2, (M-Z), p. 869.
  9. Longerich (2012). Heinrich Himmler, p. 144.
  10. Shirer (1990). The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich, p. 184.
  11. Bracher (1970). The German Dictatorship: The Origins, Structure, and Effects of National Socialism, p. 222.
  12. Fischer (1995). Nazi Germany: A New History, p. 315.
  13. Evans (2006). The Third Reich in Power, p. 358.
  14. Mazower (2009). Hitler’s Empire: How the Nazis Ruled Europe, pp. 532–533.
  15. Taylor & Shaw (2002). Dictionary of the Third Reich, p. 261.
  16. Snyder (1976). Encyclopedia of the Third Reich, p. 320.
  17. Franz-Seldte-Str. (ehemalig)

Bibliography
  • Bracher, Karl D. The German Dictatorship: The Origins, Structure, and Effects of National Socialism. New York: Praeger Publishers, 1970.
  • Evans, Richard J. The Third Reich in Power. New York: Penguin, 2006.
  • Fischer, Klaus. Nazi Germany: A New History. New York: Continuum, 1995.
  • Kershaw, Ian. Hitler: 1889-1936, Hubris. New York: W. W. Norton & Company, 2000.
  • Longerich, Peter. Heinrich Himmler. Oxford and New York: Oxford University Press, 2012.
  • Mazower, Mark. Hitler’s Empire: How the Nazis Ruled Europe. New York: Penguin, 2009.
  • Shirer, William L. The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich. New York: MJF Books, 1990, [1959].
  • Snyder, Louis L. Encyclopedia of the Third Reich. London: Robert Hale, 1976
  • Stackelberg, Roderick. The Routledge Companion to Nazi Germany. New York: Routledge, 2007.
  • Taylor, James, and Warren Shaw. Dictionary of the Third Reich. New York: Penguin, 2002.
  • Wistrich, Robert S. Who's Who In Nazi Germany. New York: Routledge, 2001.
  • Zentner, Christian, and Friedemann Bedürftig, eds. The Encyclopedia of the Third Reich, vol. 2 (M-Z). New York: Macmillan Publishing, 1991.
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