Two Prime Ministers with a Nazi Past | State Gazette BW

Stuttgart/Mannheim. Both men were lawyers and had different Nazi pasts, which particularly caused problems for Hans Filbinger and forced him to resign in 1978 amid scandal. But more on that later.

When Kurt Georg Kiesinger, born in Ebingen on the Swabian Alb, first took over the office of Prime Minister in 1958, he ruled in different coalitions: until 1960 with his CDU as the election winner, together with the SPD, the FDP and the Association of Expellees and Disenfranchised People. The latter was a party active in the Federal Republic of Germany from 1950 to 1961, which campaigned for Germans expelled from their homeland after the end of the Second World War.

Before becoming Prime Minister, Kiesinger was a member of the Bundestag for many years and was also President of the Bundestag during this time.

However, Kiesinger previously underwent a denazification process because of his Nazi past. On April 30, 1945, he was arrested by the American occupying forces and was then imprisoned in various internment camps for a year and a half. As a former NSDAP member, he was “only” classified as a follower; in 1948, a tribunal exonerated him completely.

“King Silvertongue” was also German Chancellor

Kiesinger was not only a gifted speaker, which is why he was nicknamed “King Silvertongue”, but after his time as Prime Minister he became Chancellor, the first and so far only Swabian politician to hold this high office. Previously, he governed Baden-Württemberg from 1960 to 1964, initially in a three-way coalition with the FDP and the Association of Expellees, and from 1964 to 1966 only together with the FDP.

As Prime Minister, he was also President of the Federal Council from November 1, 1962 to October 31, 1963. After Kiesinger’s election as Chancellor in 1966, the previous Interior Minister Hans Filbinger became the new head of government in Baden-Württemberg. The Mannheim-born Catholic was also CDU state chairman from 1971 to 1979 and deputy federal chairman of the Christian Democrats from 1973 to 1979.

From 1966 to 1972 he governed in a grand coalition with the Social Democrats; from 1972 until his resignation in 1978, his Christian Democrats held sole leadership.

There were two major administrative reforms

Two major administrative reforms took place during his reign: the regional reform, with which the number of independent municipalities was reduced by two thirds to 1,111, the number of districts from 63 to 35 and nine urban districts in twelve regional associations. With the district reform in 1973, the districts were again reorganized.

The scandal: Filbinger was a member of the National Socialist German Student Association from 1933 to 1936 and applied for membership in the NSDAP after Hitler came to power in 1933. This was initially rejected due to a ban on admission, which is why Filbinger only officially joined the NSDAP in 1937. In 1940 he enlisted in the Navy and became a naval judge.

The playwright Rolf Hochhuth brought Filbinger’s scandalous Nazi past to light: four death sentences were revealed that he had applied for or passed as a naval judge. When this became known, the CDU politician came under so much pressure that he resigned as Prime Minister on August 7, 1978.

Series of electoral successes

Baden-Württemberg, which was founded in 1952, has had nine prime ministers so far and the incumbent Winfried Kretschmann ruled the longest. His predecessors were Stefan Mappus, Günther Oettinger, Erwin Teufel, Lothar Späth, Hans Filbinger, Kurt Georg Kiesinger, Gebhard Müller and Reinhold Maier, who we present in a short series.