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Re: Sta 31 Niederbayern portrait.
Last edited by Friedrich-Berthold; 03-11-2012 at 09:02 PM.
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03-11-2012 08:06 PM
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Re: Sta 31 Niederbayern portrait.
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Re: Sta 31 Niederbayern portrait.
Some more of the Reiter material. This is the question form that formed the basis for the Dienstalterliste entry.
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On the occasion of the resurfacing of Josef Reiter's photograph on another thread (see what unit ) I revisited this one here and, making good on my promise from post # 18, dug around a bit more to see whether new data on Reiter could be found. Indeed I did come up with a few more bits of information, which I would like to add here to round out the picture.
We have already seen that Reiter became the mayor of Straubing in Lower Bavaria. He left at least two marks that live on into the present:
It was Reiter who was responsible for the transformation of Straubing's city park into what is still the only zoo in Eastern Bavaria today. The zoo's website memorializes this, describing him as "a great friend of animals" and mentions the enthusiasm with which the local population met their mayor's idea when the zoo was established in 1937/1938. It goes on to say that Reiter's friendly relationship with an unnamed person on the staff of the famous Hagenbeck zoo in Hamburg led to the gift of three lion cubs to the Straubing zoo in 1940. Later on, the zoos of much larger cities like Nuremberg temporarily sent some of their live stock to Straubing to protect them from air raids. Reiter also managed to hire Hans Lange, a well-known lion tamer at the time, as the zoo's first director, a position which Lange held until his death in 1955.*)
Straubing is also the site of the Gäubodenvolksfest, which is one of the largest funfairs in Bavaria. (The largest being, of course, Munich's Oktoberfest. The second and third places are held by the ones at Nuremberg and Straubing, the sequence depending on which criteria are used.) Once known as Niederbayerisches Volksfest [Lower Bavarian Folk Festival], Straubing's leading Nazi functionaries - in particular Reiter and the NS-Kulturwart Eugen Hubrich - saw to it that it was instrumentalized for Nazi propaganda purposes and placed under the banner of "blood and soil" ideology. In 1938, it was re-named as Gäubodenvolksfest (after the fertile Gäuboden region of which Straubing is the center) and also known as Fest der Ostmark. After a hiatus, the first major post-war funfair was held again in 1949, with the name Gäubodenvolksfest re-activated and retained until today.**)
Reiter's term in office also saw the opening of Straubing's public library. With his professional background as a teacher, this project may well have been dear to his heart. Reiter and the head of the library, Oskar Döring, held the festive opening ceremony in November 1937.***)
But let us now move away from the fun and games: During the Reichskristallnacht pogroms of 9th/10th Nov. 1938, Kreisleiter Putz visited Reiter in his appartment at the Stetthaimerplatz. Having been alerted by the Gauleitung in Bayreuth, an agitated Putz called for action: "Now listen, you have heard about the Rath murder; something must happen against the Jews, this has to be a big thing, we'll smash up their stuff, the synagogue must be destroyed etc." Reiter allegedly was opposed to this, but this is according to his own post-war statements and thus has to be taken with more than just a grain of salt. Following the night of appalling violence and vandalism that ensued anyway, he certainly followed his party's official line and, in a non-public monthly report to the district president, described the events as the population's "spontaneous demonstrations and actions against Jews, Jewish property, synagogue and Jewish residences", even though he must have known full well that the actions had been organized and carried out by the party apparatus.****)
Sources (all German language):
*) Tiergarten Straubing
**) „A Trumm vom Paradies“ - idowa mediendienste
***) https://www.bibliotheksforum-bayern...._Fisch_V04.pdf
****) 9. November 1938.
Last edited by HPL2008; 08-25-2014 at 10:00 PM.
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I am happy to say thus every day: Andreas is a genius.
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This is a fine thread. I ask that the authorities pin it, because it has such specialized and focused knowledge of a kind not so readily found anywhere else.
My thanks to you all.
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More than another year has passed since the last post in this thread, but Josef Reiter has just made a guest appeareance in our ongoing "death cards" thread. (see Post your death notices)
On 18th January 1940, he attended the funeral of Rudolf Beutlhauser, a young Luftwaffe pilot from Straubing.
Reiter, acting both as the mayor and for the SS-Sturm "Andreas Zinkl", laid down a wreath and gave a eulogy to the fallen:
(He is mentioned in the newspaper article at bottom left and in the family's expression of thanks at bottom right.)
Admittedly just a tiny snippet of information, but I felt it appropriate to add it here.
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Thank for all your fine work for the benefit of so many. Others can emulate Andreas' example of wit and knowledge.
My thanks to you all for the collegial aid and knowledge. The standard references need to be revised, actually. This particular hobby horse of mine has held prominence because I now own only F O U R uniforms on which this insignia exists, which none of the secondary literature describes. When I first encountered a uniform of this type a long time ago, I thought it was put together. Such is the danger of collector group think that relies on an unsound foundation.by HPL2008
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