Herbert von Bose
Encyclopedia
Herbert von Bose was head of the press division of the Vice Chancellery (Reichsvizekanzlei) in Germany
under Vice Chancellor Franz von Papen
.
and later for the private Telegraph Union, a company owned by the politician and media mogul Alfred Hugenberg
. In 1931 Bose was summoned to the Prussian State Ministry, where he was assigned to head the Press Department. On top of that he acted as a right-hand-man of the conservative politician Otto Schmidt-Hannover (DNVP). In the autumn of 1931 von Bose organised the so-called "Harzburger Tagung" (Harzburg conference) a gathering of right-wing political forces such as the NSDAP, the DNVP, the Agrarian Federation and the paramilitary Stahlhelm
.
Although a confirmed anti-communist and skeptical about the functionality of Democracy as a form of government von Bose at that time came to reject National Socialism as a possible cure to the political ailings of Germany, not to the least due to his personal detestation of the Nazi Party's leader Hitler whom he deemed a vulgar rabble-rouser.
. Since von Papen failed in the task he had been assigned by Reichspresident von Hindenburg: to act as a "chaperon" and corrective of Hitler and the other radicals in the government, von Bose and the other leading men in Papen's staff decided to take care of that task by themselves. Together with his assistant Wilhelm von Ketteler, with Papen's speech writer and spin doctor Edgar Jung and Papen's aides Fritz Günther von Tschirschky and Hans Graf von Kageneck, von Bose formed a pocket of resistance against the National Socialist System that was later referred to as "the vanguard of conservative resistance".
In order to overthrow the yet-not fully consolidated regime von Bose and his colleagues plotted to create an atmosphere of critical political tensions in Germany that would allow them to prompt the old President von Hindenburg – who retained the position of Commander in Chief of the Germany Army – to declare a state of national emergency. As a consequence the Hitler government was to be stripped of the executive power in Germany, which Hindenburg was to take over by himself (practically exercised by von Papen's aides themselves and the Generals), by the Reichswehr. The army was to disarm the SA- and SS-troopers by force and to apprehend the major Nazi leaders, except for Hitler and Göring. Those two were to join a Reich-directorate that was to consist of von Papen, former Chancellor Heinrich Brüning
, conservative politician Friedrich Goerdeler, the two Nazi leaders and the General von Werner Freiherr or Baron von Fritsch. The ulterior motive of this motion was a tactical one: to calm the masses of Nazi-supporters to prevent them from resorting to active resistance against the conservative coup. Hitler and Göring were supposed to be jettisoned somewhere along the track as soon as the position of their conservative counterparts had consolidated.
In early June 1934 that plan was jeopardized when Hindenburg – earlier than in previous years – left for his estate of Neudeck in East Prussia and thus was getting increasingly difficult to get in touch with. On top of that it had become obvious at that time that Hindenburg had only a few more weeks to live and therefore could not be expected to return from Neudeck at all. Pressured by those turn of events von Bose and his colleagues decided to accelerate the eruption of the smouldering crisis that existed in Germany in those months due to the conflict between Hitler's SA, which demanded to be promoted to the position of Germany's regular army, and the Reichswehr, which intended to defend its own status.
While von Bose and von Tschirschky drew up a special dossier that was to be handed over to the old von Hindenburg in late June 1934, to convince him of the necessity of mobilising the Reichswehr against the SA and NSDAP, von Papen delivered his famed address
at the University of Marburg on June 17, 1934, which criticized some of the excesses of Nazi rule and called for a cessation of violence
and return of the rule of laws. This speech, which was merely delivered by von Papen and unbeknownst to the public written by Jung, was intended to serve as a fanal to all opposing forces in Germany to prepare to act up against National Socialism and simultaneously to enforce the escalation of the SA-Reichswehr tensions to underline towards Hindenburg the theses presented in the Bose-Tschirschky Dossier.
However, even though the Marburg Speech turned out to be a success – as the American Ambassador to Berlin William Dodd
noted in those days the provocative greeting "Heil Marburg" was omnipresent in Germany – the plan by Bose, Jung and Tschirschky did not come to fruition: The tentative attitude of von Papen, who could not bring himself to travel to Hindenburg immediately after the success of the speech became obvious, and the clumsiness of Hindenburg's son – who undexterously spilled the beans about the Bose-Tschirschky Plan to Army Minister von Blomberg and his Chief of Staff von Reichenau, who was in league with Heinrich Himmler
and Reinhard Heydrich
– squandered the opportunity of the situation.
In the morning of June 30, between 10.00 AM and 11.00 AM, hours before Papen was to finally fly to Neudeck, the Vice-Chancellery was occupied by an SS-squad and a few Gestapo inspectors. Bose was complemented into a conference room – allegedly to be interrogated – and shot from behind ten times as he took a seat. Von Tschirschky was arrested and later released, while von Jung – who had already been arrested on June 25 – was shot later that day. The whole event took place as a part of the Blood Purge
on June 30, 1934.
In his memoirs Inside the Third Reich
, Albert Speer
relates how he was ordered to rebuild the Borsig Palace and transfer the Sturmabteilung
(SA) leadership in and have Papen's staff out within twenty-four hours. Speer writes:
"Twenty-four hours later they moved out. In one of the rooms I saw a large pool of dried blood on the floor. There, on June 30, Herbert von Bose, one of Papen's assistants, had been shot. I looked away and from then on avoided the room. But the incident did not affect me any more deeply than that."
Germany
Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...
under Vice Chancellor Franz von Papen
Franz von Papen
Lieutenant-Colonel Franz Joseph Hermann Michael Maria von Papen zu Köningen was a German nobleman, Roman Catholic monarchist politician, General Staff officer, and diplomat, who served as Chancellor of Germany in 1932 and as Vice-Chancellor under Adolf Hitler in 1933–1934...
.
Imperial Germany and Weimar Republic (1893–1933)
During the First World War Bose served as an Intelligence Officer in the Imperial German Army. After the war he continued to work in the field of intelligence gathering and espionage, first for the Black ReichswehrBlack Reichswehr
Black Reichswehr was the name for the illegal paramilitary formations created by the Germans during the Weimar Republic, raised despite restrictions imposed by the Versailles Treaty.-Restrictions on German Military Forces after World War I:...
and later for the private Telegraph Union, a company owned by the politician and media mogul Alfred Hugenberg
Alfred Hugenberg
Alfred Ernst Christian Alexander Hugenberg was an influential German businessman and politician. Hugenberg, a leading figure within nationalist politics in Germany for the first few decades of the twentieth century, became the country's leading media proprietor within the inter-war period...
. In 1931 Bose was summoned to the Prussian State Ministry, where he was assigned to head the Press Department. On top of that he acted as a right-hand-man of the conservative politician Otto Schmidt-Hannover (DNVP). In the autumn of 1931 von Bose organised the so-called "Harzburger Tagung" (Harzburg conference) a gathering of right-wing political forces such as the NSDAP, the DNVP, the Agrarian Federation and the paramilitary Stahlhelm
Stahlhelm
Stahlhelm is German for "steel helmet". The Imperial German Army began to replace the traditional boiled-leather Pickelhaube with the Stahlhelm during World War I in 1916...
.
Although a confirmed anti-communist and skeptical about the functionality of Democracy as a form of government von Bose at that time came to reject National Socialism as a possible cure to the political ailings of Germany, not to the least due to his personal detestation of the Nazi Party's leader Hitler whom he deemed a vulgar rabble-rouser.
Oppositional activities (1933–1934)
In early 1933 von Bose was appointed Chief of the Press Division in the office of Hitler's Vice-Chancellor Franz von PapenFranz von Papen
Lieutenant-Colonel Franz Joseph Hermann Michael Maria von Papen zu Köningen was a German nobleman, Roman Catholic monarchist politician, General Staff officer, and diplomat, who served as Chancellor of Germany in 1932 and as Vice-Chancellor under Adolf Hitler in 1933–1934...
. Since von Papen failed in the task he had been assigned by Reichspresident von Hindenburg: to act as a "chaperon" and corrective of Hitler and the other radicals in the government, von Bose and the other leading men in Papen's staff decided to take care of that task by themselves. Together with his assistant Wilhelm von Ketteler, with Papen's speech writer and spin doctor Edgar Jung and Papen's aides Fritz Günther von Tschirschky and Hans Graf von Kageneck, von Bose formed a pocket of resistance against the National Socialist System that was later referred to as "the vanguard of conservative resistance".
In order to overthrow the yet-not fully consolidated regime von Bose and his colleagues plotted to create an atmosphere of critical political tensions in Germany that would allow them to prompt the old President von Hindenburg – who retained the position of Commander in Chief of the Germany Army – to declare a state of national emergency. As a consequence the Hitler government was to be stripped of the executive power in Germany, which Hindenburg was to take over by himself (practically exercised by von Papen's aides themselves and the Generals), by the Reichswehr. The army was to disarm the SA- and SS-troopers by force and to apprehend the major Nazi leaders, except for Hitler and Göring. Those two were to join a Reich-directorate that was to consist of von Papen, former Chancellor Heinrich Brüning
Heinrich Brüning
Heinrich Brüning was Chancellor of Germany from 1930 to 1932, during the Weimar Republic. He was the longest serving Chancellor of the Weimar Republic, and remains a controversial figure in German politics....
, conservative politician Friedrich Goerdeler, the two Nazi leaders and the General von Werner Freiherr or Baron von Fritsch. The ulterior motive of this motion was a tactical one: to calm the masses of Nazi-supporters to prevent them from resorting to active resistance against the conservative coup. Hitler and Göring were supposed to be jettisoned somewhere along the track as soon as the position of their conservative counterparts had consolidated.
In early June 1934 that plan was jeopardized when Hindenburg – earlier than in previous years – left for his estate of Neudeck in East Prussia and thus was getting increasingly difficult to get in touch with. On top of that it had become obvious at that time that Hindenburg had only a few more weeks to live and therefore could not be expected to return from Neudeck at all. Pressured by those turn of events von Bose and his colleagues decided to accelerate the eruption of the smouldering crisis that existed in Germany in those months due to the conflict between Hitler's SA, which demanded to be promoted to the position of Germany's regular army, and the Reichswehr, which intended to defend its own status.
While von Bose and von Tschirschky drew up a special dossier that was to be handed over to the old von Hindenburg in late June 1934, to convince him of the necessity of mobilising the Reichswehr against the SA and NSDAP, von Papen delivered his famed address
Marburg speech
The Marburg speech was an address given by German vice chancellor Franz von Papen at the University of Marburg on June 17, 1934. It is said to be the last speech made publicly, and on a high level, in Germany against Nazism....
at the University of Marburg on June 17, 1934, which criticized some of the excesses of Nazi rule and called for a cessation of violence
Political violence
Political violence is a common means used by people and governments around the world to achieve political goals. Many groups and individuals believe that their political systems will never respond to their political demands. As a result they believe that violence is not only justified but also...
and return of the rule of laws. This speech, which was merely delivered by von Papen and unbeknownst to the public written by Jung, was intended to serve as a fanal to all opposing forces in Germany to prepare to act up against National Socialism and simultaneously to enforce the escalation of the SA-Reichswehr tensions to underline towards Hindenburg the theses presented in the Bose-Tschirschky Dossier.
However, even though the Marburg Speech turned out to be a success – as the American Ambassador to Berlin William Dodd
William Dodd (ambassador)
William Edward Dodd was an American historian who served as the United States Ambassador to Germany from 1933 to 1937, during the Nazi era.-Early years and academic career:...
noted in those days the provocative greeting "Heil Marburg" was omnipresent in Germany – the plan by Bose, Jung and Tschirschky did not come to fruition: The tentative attitude of von Papen, who could not bring himself to travel to Hindenburg immediately after the success of the speech became obvious, and the clumsiness of Hindenburg's son – who undexterously spilled the beans about the Bose-Tschirschky Plan to Army Minister von Blomberg and his Chief of Staff von Reichenau, who was in league with Heinrich Himmler
Heinrich Himmler
Heinrich Luitpold Himmler was Reichsführer of the SS, a military commander, and a leading member of the Nazi Party. As Chief of the German Police and the Minister of the Interior from 1943, Himmler oversaw all internal and external police and security forces, including the Gestapo...
and Reinhard Heydrich
Reinhard Heydrich
Reinhard Tristan Eugen Heydrich , also known as The Hangman, was a high-ranking German Nazi official.He was SS-Obergruppenführer and General der Polizei, chief of the Reich Main Security Office and Stellvertretender Reichsprotektor of Bohemia and Moravia...
– squandered the opportunity of the situation.
In the morning of June 30, between 10.00 AM and 11.00 AM, hours before Papen was to finally fly to Neudeck, the Vice-Chancellery was occupied by an SS-squad and a few Gestapo inspectors. Bose was complemented into a conference room – allegedly to be interrogated – and shot from behind ten times as he took a seat. Von Tschirschky was arrested and later released, while von Jung – who had already been arrested on June 25 – was shot later that day. The whole event took place as a part of the Blood Purge
Night of the Long Knives
The Night of the Long Knives , sometimes called "Operation Hummingbird " or in Germany the "Röhm-Putsch," was a purge that took place in Nazi Germany between June 30 and July 2, 1934, when the Nazi regime carried out a series of political murders...
on June 30, 1934.
In his memoirs Inside the Third Reich
Inside the Third Reich
Inside the Third Reich is a memoir written by Albert Speer, the Nazi Minister of Armaments from 1942 to 1945, serving as Hitler's main architect before this period...
, Albert Speer
Albert Speer
Albert Speer, born Berthold Konrad Hermann Albert Speer, was a German architect who was, for a part of World War II, Minister of Armaments and War Production for the Third Reich. Speer was Adolf Hitler's chief architect before assuming ministerial office...
relates how he was ordered to rebuild the Borsig Palace and transfer the Sturmabteilung
Sturmabteilung
The Sturmabteilung functioned as a paramilitary organization of the National Socialist German Workers' Party . It played a key role in Adolf Hitler's rise to power in the 1920s and 1930s...
(SA) leadership in and have Papen's staff out within twenty-four hours. Speer writes:
"Twenty-four hours later they moved out. In one of the rooms I saw a large pool of dried blood on the floor. There, on June 30, Herbert von Bose, one of Papen's assistants, had been shot. I looked away and from then on avoided the room. But the incident did not affect me any more deeply than that."
Literature
- Larry Eugene Jones: "The Limits of Collaboration. Edgar Jung, Herbert von Bose, and the Origins of the Conservative Resistance to Hitler, 1933-34", in: Larry Eugene Jones/ James Retallack [Eds.]: Between Reform, Reaction, and Resistance. Studies in the History of German Conservatism from 1789 to 1945, Providence 1993, pp. 465-501.
See also
- Edgar Julius JungEdgar Julius JungEdgar Julius Jung was a German lawyer born in Ludwigshafen, in Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany. He was a leader of the Conservative Revolutionary movement in Germany, which stood not only in opposition to the Weimar Republic, whose parliamentarian system he considered decadent and foreign-imposed,...
- Erich KlausenerErich KlausenerErich Klausener was a German Catholic politician who was murdered in the Night of the Long Knives as the Nazis purged their opponents.- Biography :...
- Franz von PapenFranz von PapenLieutenant-Colonel Franz Joseph Hermann Michael Maria von Papen zu Köningen was a German nobleman, Roman Catholic monarchist politician, General Staff officer, and diplomat, who served as Chancellor of Germany in 1932 and as Vice-Chancellor under Adolf Hitler in 1933–1934...
- Night of the Long KnivesNight of the Long KnivesThe Night of the Long Knives , sometimes called "Operation Hummingbird " or in Germany the "Röhm-Putsch," was a purge that took place in Nazi Germany between June 30 and July 2, 1934, when the Nazi regime carried out a series of political murders...