Gau Cologne-Aachen
| Gau Cologne-Aachen | |||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Gau of Nazi Germany | |||||||||
| 1931–1945 | |||||||||
 Flag | |||||||||
 | |||||||||
| Capital | Cologne | ||||||||
| Area | |||||||||
• | 7,100 km2 (2,700 sq mi) | ||||||||
| Population | |||||||||
• | 2,300,000 | ||||||||
| Government | |||||||||
| Gauleiter | |||||||||
• 1931–1945 | Josef Grohé | ||||||||
| History | |||||||||
| 1 June 1931 | |||||||||
• Disestablishment | 8 May 1945 | ||||||||
| |||||||||
| Today part of |  Germany  Belgium | ||||||||
The Gau Cologne-Aachen (German: Gau Köln-Aachen) was an administrative division of Nazi Germany from 1933 to 1945 in the north-central part of the Prussian Rhine Province. Before that, from 1931 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, in order 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.[1]
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.[1][2]
The position of Gauleiter in Cologne-Aachen was held by Josef Grohé throughout the history of the Gau.[3][4] Grohé made a suicide attempt at the end of the war, escaped under a false name, was arrested in 1946 and sentenced to four and a half years in prison but never repented his views and died in 1987.[5]
The Gau had a size of 7,100 km2 (2,741 sq mi) and a population of 2,300,000, which placed it in mid-table for size and population in the list of Gaue.[6]
References[]
- ^ Jump up to: a b "Die NS-Gaue" [The Nazi Gaue]. dhm.de (in German). Deutsches Historisches Museum. Retrieved 26 March 2016.
- ^ "The Organization of the Nazi Party & State". nizkor.org. The Nizkor Project. Retrieved 26 March 2016.
- ^ "Übersicht der NSDAP-Gaue, der Gauleiter und der Stellvertretenden Gauleiter zwischen 1933 und 1945" [Overview of Nazi Gaue, the Gauleiter and assistant Gauleiter from 1933 to 1945]. zukunft-braucht-erinnerung.de (in German). . Retrieved 26 March 2016.
- ^ "Gau Köln-Aachen". verwaltungsgeschichte.de (in German). Retrieved 26 March 2016.
- ^ "Josef Grohé (1902-1987), Gauleiter der NSDAP" [Josef Grohé (1902-1987), Gauleiter of the Nazi Party]. rheinische-geschichte.lvr.de (in German). . Retrieved 26 March 2016.
- ^ "Gau Köln-Aachen" [Gau Cologne-Aachen]. rheinische-geschichte.lvr.de (in German). . Archived from the original on 22 October 2016. Retrieved 26 March 2016.
External links[]
Authority control  |
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- States and territories established in 1931
- States and territories disestablished in 1945
- Nazi Gaue
- 1931 establishments in Germany
- 1945 disestablishments in Germany
- Aachen
- History of Cologne
- Rhine Province