University of Kentucky UKnowledge European History History 1993 The Nazi Impact on a German Village Walter Rinderle Vincennes University Bernard Norling University of Notre Dame Click here to let us know how access to this document benefits ou.y Thanks to the University of Kentucky Libraries and the University Press of Kentucky, this book is freely available to current faculty, students, and staff at the University of Kentucky. Find other University of Kentucky Books at uknowledge.uky.edu/upk. For more information, please contact UKnowledge at [email protected]. Recommended Citation Rinderle, Walter and Norling, Bernard, "The Nazi Impact on a German Village" (1993). European History. 6. https://uknowledge.uky.edu/upk_european_history/6 THE NAZI IMPACT ONA GERMAN VILLAGE This page intentionally left blank THE NAZI IMPACT ONA . GERMAN VILLAGE Walter Rinderle and Bernard Norling THE UNNERSITY PRESS OF KENTUCKY Publication of this book is made possible in part by support from the Institute for Scholarship in the Liberal Arts, College of Arts and Letters, University of Notre Dame, and by a grant from the Vincennes University Foundation. Copyright© 1993 by The University Press of Kentucky Paperback edition 2004 The University Press of Kentucky Scholarly publisher for the Commonwealth, serving Bellarmine University, Berea College, Centre College of Kentucky, Eastern Kentucky University, The Filson Historical Society, Georgetown College, Kentucky Historical Society, Kentucky State University, Morehead State University, Murray State University, Northern Kentucky University, Transylvania University, University of Kentucky, University of Louisville, and Western Kentucky University. All rights reserved. Editorial and Sales Offices: The University Press of Kentucky 663 South Limestone Street, Lexington, Kentucky 40508-4008 www.kentuckypress.com The Library of Congress has cataloged the hardcover edition as follows: Rinderle, Walter, 194Q- The Nazi impact on a German village I Walter Rinderle and Bernard Norling. p. em. Includes bibliographical references (p. ) and index. ISBN 0-8131-1794-1 (acid-free) 1. Oberschoptheim (Germany)-History. 2. National socialism-Germany­ Oberschoptheim. I. Norling, Bernard, 1924- II. Title. DD901.02397R56 1992 943'.4626-dc20 92-10030 Paper ISBN 0-8131-9103-3 This book is printed on acid-free recycled paper meeting the requirements of the American National Standard for Permanence in Paper for Printed Library Materials. §(!} Manufactured in the United States of America. ~4"4, I~ Member of the Association of 'I~ • American University Presses ____ CONTENTS ____ Acknowledgments vn Introduction 1 1. The Legacy of Centuries 7 2. The People of Oberschopfheim 23 3. Management of the Village 44 4. World War I and Its Aftermath 58 5. The Great Depression 71 6. The Rise of the Nazis 88 7. The Nazi Era in Peacetime 106 8. Offering the Nazi Carrot 138 9. The Strength of Tradition 154 10. World War II and Its Aftermath 165 11. The Breakdown of the Old Order 190 12. A New Age Emerges 205 Ruminations 225 Notes 229 Bibliography 260 Index 273 This page intentionally left blank ___ ACKNOWLEDGMENTS ___ We two writers are indebted to many for information and advice. We would especially like to thank the present and former mayors of Oberschopf­ heim, Friesenheim, Kuerzell, and Lahr as well as several members of the Baehr and Messerer families, who helped us in many ways. We are particularly grateful to an old friend and excellent critic, Professor Charles R. Poinsatte of St. Mary's College, who read the manuscript and offered a multitude of suggestions for improvement. This page intentionally left blank ____ INTRODUCTION ____ THIS STUDY CENTERS on Oberschopfueim, a village in south­ western Germany. In it we seek to indicate some quite different yet interrelated things. First and foremost, we strive to assess the impact of the Nazi era (1933-1945) on the village and its people, as similar studies have attempted to do for other German communities. Because the people ofOberschopfueim remained relatively unmoved by the blandishments of the Nazis, we devote much attention to the causes of their relative indif­ ference; to the structure of their village and to their traits, habits, at­ titudes, and expectations; to the ballast that kept their community on a relatively even keel in a tumultuous era. Finally, we seek to determine which of the many tempests of the revolutionary twentieth century did shake the village and its people most profoundly. Oberschopfueim was chosen for several reasons: some general; some quite specific, even personal. One general reason was that the dramatic upheavals of the modern age have been especially marked there. In 1900 it was still essentially a medieval community of about fifteen hundred people. It was inhabited exclusively by full-time or part-time farmers and dominated by its pastor and village officials, with its religious and social life centered about the village church. Most of its people had only an elementary formal education, limited intellectual horizons, and few con­ tacts with the world beyond their own community. They idealized, though they did not attain, economic self-sufficiency. Most of them had little interest in changing their mode oflife and little belief that such change was possible. Many still believed in ghosts and feared the few wolves and wild boars that lived in nearby forests. By 1988 Oberschopfueim had grown to twenty-five hundred people, a high proportion of whom worked in nearby cities and merely lived and slept in the village. Most families had radios, television sets, and auto­ mobiles. Their children rode in buses to consolidated city schools, and many of them aspired to attend universities. Everyone except the aged shared most of the interests, plans, hopes, and habits common to hundreds of millions of people throughout the Western world. Who or what was responsible for this metamorphosis? 2 The Nazi Impact on a German Village Why choose a German village? A major reason is that Germany did more than any other nation to keep the world in turmoil from 1870 to 1945. This was especially true during the Nazi era. Germany also has been racked more thoroughly by the upheavals of the twentieth century than other major European nations save Poland and Russia. Between 1914 and 1990 Germans experienced two world wars; four changes of political regime; two extended periods offoreign occupation, one of which has still not ended at this writing; two currency inflations that proceeded to total repudiation; the Great Depression of the 1930s, which hit Germany harder than any other country; domination by the Nazis, the most bizarre and reckless political adventurers of modern times; division and reunification; and the "economic miracle" that followed World War II. We selected a village because large and middle-size cities have at­ tracted the attention of far more historians and sociologists than have villages and rural areas, even though the vast majority of human beings were farmers in all societies at all times before the industrial age. Before World War II some 35 percent of the population of Germany, representing 94 percent of all the communities in the Third Reich, still lived in villages of fewer than two thousand people.l Finally, the village chosen was 99 percent Catholic, whereas most previous studies of this sort have been of Protestant or mixed communities. The selection of Oberschopfheim also owed much to the personal consideration that Walter Rinderle, one of the writers of this book, hap­ pened to be well acquainted with the place. His father, Herman Joseph Rinderle, was born in the neighboring village ofKuerzell in 1902. Numer­ ous relatives still live in Lahr and in the nearby villages of Friesenheim, Schuttern, and Ottenheim. Some of them are well known in these com­ munities and in the past have held local public offices. Thus they were ideally situated to provide information to the writer and to allow him access to county, village, and parish records. The importance of these fortuitous circumstances can hardly be overrated, for in many German villages the inhabitants distrust inquisitive strangers seeking information about some of the bitterest controversies of modern times. Finally, Oberschopfheim was chosen because its records were more extensive than those of other communities in Lahr county. In several of them many records were destroyed in World War II, either by Allied bombers or by local citizens anxious to cover their tracks. Nevertheless most of the generalizations offered about Oberschopfheim in this study are largely applicable to the other villages in Lahr county. The personal interest of Walter Rinderle was awakened when he lived intermittently in Kuerzell and Oberschopfheim from 1962 to 1967, while he was pursuing graduate study in Innsbruck. He lived there again in 1970 Introduction 3 and went back once more for six months in 1973 to do research. Both writers spent additional time in the village in 1988 and have corresponded extensively with people there since. Most of the source material for this study came from village archives. These contained copies of correspon­ dence sent and received and detailed information about such matters as agriculture, local government, the manifold endeavors and concerns of the church, the distribution of welfare, community discord, and the activities of the police. The pastor, village officials, and ordinary citizens alike were generously cooperative. They provided such materials as church records, personal and club diaries, and a draft copy of Oberschopfheim's early history. County officials and the editors of the county newspapers, Lahrer Anzeiger and Lahrer Zeitung, were also gracious and helpful. The files of the Berlin Document Center might have provided much useful material but officials in Bonn assured us that documents pertaining to Karlsruhe and Freiburg, the two cities closest to Oberschopfheim, were destroyed in the Second World War. Likewise, one might suppose that the Baden State Archives in Karlsruhe would be valuable.