Ehrenbürger (honorary citizenship) document awarded to Fritz Sauckel

[dzyner]

I thought I would share this unique and well preserved Ehrenbürger document awarded by the city of Buttstadt to Fritz Sauckel in 1933. This comes from a collection of military items that I acquired recently dating back to the late 1800s. All items in the collection relate to the same WW2 veteran, his father and his father-in-law (an medic/ambulance driver in WW1), all served in the military at some point in their lives.

This Ehrenbürger was returned from the war by the WW2 veteran mentioned above. He was a graduate of West Point and served in military intelligence for a period during the war.

Most will recognize the name "Fritz Sauckel", but in case you do not, he was one of the 10 executed as a result of the Nuremberg trials. I would very much like to know if anyone can provide me any details on this town (Buttstadt) and any significance the town may have had during the war that related to Fritz and that would shed light on why he may have received this Ehrenbürger from them.





























Thanks!
Dzyner

[Larry C]

Hi Darren great provenance with high personality. Im hopeful of Andreas Hpl2008 to chime in on the city Buttstadt...and some translation of the Gothic type..and any other incidentals others may be able to contribute too.

Weird little man Fritz..and was called by Josef Goebels..the "dullest of the dull"..and gained the original title "Slave driver" from all the work he used prisoners and camp inmates to complete the tasks by order in which some organizations took advantage off. Scary stuff !!

Regards Larry

[Combat Boots]

Fantastic hand lettering by O. Dorfner. Excellent condition and historically significant. Bob

[HPL2008]

Hi Darren great provenance with high personality. Im hopeful of Andreas Hpl2008 to chime in on the city Buttstadt...and some translation of the Gothic type..and any other incidentals others may be able to contribute toor

It translates as:

In its meeting of 5 May 1933, the town council of Buttstädt has unanimously decided to make our highly revered and highly popular campaigner of the National Socialist German Workers' Party,

Reichsstatthalter Mr. Fritz Sauckel, Weimar

an

HONORARY CITIZEN
of the city of Buttstädt.

To attest this, this certificate of honorary citizenship has been issued.

Buttstädt, 20 May 1933

The Head of the Town:
[signed: Jacob]
Mayor

The Town Council:
[signed: Rammelt]
Deputy Chairman of the Town Council

Buttstädt is a town in Thuringia.

Personally, I am not aware of any special connection to Sauckel, other than him being the Reichsstatthalter of Thuringia. Since he was appointed to that office on 5 May 1933, it is very likely the actual reason for his honorary citizenship, as the town council made that decision on the same day.

(However, Sauckel had been living and working in Thuringia since the 1920s and at one point was the NSDAP Ortsgruppenleiter of Ilmenau, which is about an hour away from Buttstädt, so there may well be some other, more direct connection as well, though. )

[dzyner]

Thanks so much for all the info Andreas! I appreciate it very much. I think you are right on target regarding the 5 May 1933 date being the same as his appointment to the Reichsstatthalter of Thuringia. There is too much of a coincidence there for that not to be the reason for the honorary citizenship.

[harryamb2]

a great document to survive the owner.