Page 450 - Conflitti Militari e Popolazioni Civili - Tomo I

450 XXXIV Congresso della CommIssIone InternazIonale dI storIa mIlItare • CIHm

zung) and the ethnic-Germanic education (Volksgermanische Erziehung) .
12
On 1 June 1941, Riedweg was promoted through Himmler’s personal order from the
13
rank of SS-Hauptsturmführer (Captain) to the rank of SS-Sturmbannführer (Major) of the
Waffen-SS . Equipped with this superior rank, Riedweg redoubled his efforts in the SS’
14
‘Germanic work’. As stated above, contrary to a previous article in which we have mostly
focused on the recruitment aspect of this work , in this paper we focus on the political work
15
– the enforcement of SS standards – regarding non-German ‘Germanic’ civilians.

b. Political Power
Himmler’s SS established its authority late in the so-called ‘Germanic space’. It domi-
nated, however, the last phase of the Nazi’s ‘Germanic policy’. Although the SS had in 1940
its first bases in the occupied ‘Germanic territories’ through its police function in the per-
sons of Higher SS and Police Leaders (HSSPF, Höhere SS und Polizeiführer) and recruiting
offices in Oslo, Copenhagen and The Hague, its leadership wanted more. Calling on the
Blutsgedanken (the blood thought) it wanted a greater influence in the ‘Germanic countries’
and thus tried to reinforce its position . The office which had to fulfil this policy was the
16
GFL. In January 1942 it received the necessary money and on 12 August 1942 the head of
the Party Chancellery, Martin Bormann, ordered the formal mandate to edict regulations by
extension , confirmed on 6 February 1943 by a decree signed by the head of the Reich’s
17
Chancellery, Hans Heinrich Lammers .
18
Although the Reich’s other services in the occupied ‘Germanic territories’ maintained the
responsibility in their field, the situation had changed dramatically. The Reich’s Commis-
sioners, who until now were under Hitler’s direct authority, had a new intermediary in the
person of the Reichsführer-SS (RF-SS) Himmler. The NSDAP’s staff also had to coordinate
their activities with the RF-SS rather than with the Reich’s Commissioners and the Party’s
Chancellery . Consequently, the SS came closer to its goal to become the driving force in
19
the reorganisation process, which intended to integrate the occupied ‘Germanic countries’ in
the ‘German Germanic Reich’ on the model of the German unification of 1871 . Riedweg
20
12 BA (Bundesarchiv) Berlin, NS 31/96, Gliederungsplan des SS-Hauptamtes, nur für den Dienstgebrauch,
1941/42.
13 BA Berlin, SS-Führerpersonalakte Riedweg, Chef des SS-Hauptamtes SS-Gruppenführer Berger an den
Chef des SS-Personalhauptamtes SS-Gruppenführer Schmitt, betr. des SS-Hauptsturmführers Dr. Riedweg,
30. Mai 1941.
14 BA Berlin, SS-Führerpersonalakte Riedweg, Beförderungsschreiben mit Wirkung 1. Juni 1941 an den
Hauptsturmführer Riedweg, gez. Himmler.
15 Wyss, « Un Suisse au service de la SS… », op. cit., pp. 417-440.
16 Loock, Hans-Dietrich, „Zur ‚Grossgermanischen Politik’ des Dritten Reiches“, in Vierteljahrshefte für Zeit-
geschichte, (A) 8, 1960, pp. 55-56.
17 Ibid., p. 59.
18 BA Berlin, NS 31/455, SS-Hauptamt-Amtsgruppe D, Germanische Leitstelle, An RF-SS, Pers. Stab, betr.
Verhandlungen mit den germanisch-völkischen Gruppen in den besetzten Gebieten, 12.3.1943.
19 loock, op. cit., p. 60.
20 Wegner, Bernd, Hitlers Politische Soldaten: Die Waffen-SS 1933-1945. Studien zu Leitbild, Struktur und
Funktion einer nationalsozialistischen Elite, Paderborn: Ferdinand Schöningh, 1990 (4. durchgesehene und
verbesserte Auflage), p. 297.