27 Facts About Franz Schwede

Franz Reinhold Schwede was a Nazi German politician, Oberburgermeister of Coburg and both Gauleiter and Oberprasident of Pomerania.

An early supporter of Adolf Hitler in Coburg, Schwede used intimidation and propaganda to help elect the first Nazi-majority local government in Germany.

Franz Schwede played a key role in abandoning the Pomeranian civilian population to the advancing Red Army, while escaping their fate himself.

Franz Schwede was born in the small town of Drawohnen near Memel, East Prussia in 1888, when it was part of the German Empire.

Franz Schwede served throughout the First World War aboard many warships including the battleship SMS Prinzregent Luitpold and the light cruiser SMS Dresden.

Franz Schwede then took a job as operations manager at a sawmill in Sankt Andreasberg in the Prussian Province of Hanover, before being hired as foreman at the Coburg Municipal Electrical Works in March 1922.

In November 1922 Franz Schwede joined the Nazi Party and in April 1923 co-founded a Local Group in Coburg, a historic city in northeastern Bavaria.

Shortly after the NSDAP ban lifted, Franz Schwede rejoined on 30 March 1925, becoming the Party Ortsgruppenleiter in Coburg, where there were about 800 members at that time, and the Bezirksleiter in 1928.

At the newly elected Council's opening session, Franz Schwede was promptly rehired to the Municipal Works.

Franz Schwede then managed to get himself elected, after the fifth try, as third deputy mayor on 28 August 1930, becoming the first Nazi to reach such a position.

In October 1930, Franz Schwede was elected to the Bavarian Landtag, succeeding Hans Schemm, and would go on to become the chamber's First Vice-President in March 1932.

Franz Schwede got the city to grant Hitler an honorary citizenship on 16 October 1932, the first to do so.

Franz Schwede was made an honorary citizen of Coburg, as Hitler had been, and was awarded use of the suffix "Coburg" in his name.

Franz Schwede became a holder of the Golden Party Badge.

Franz Schwede's loyalty was rewarded when Hitler appointed him to the powerful NSDAP Gauleiter position in Pomerania on 21 July 1934 and made him Oberprasident of the provincial government on 30 July.

Franz Schwede succeeded Rudolf zur Bonsen in the government post, and he became president of the Pomeranian Provincial Council.

On 8 November 1934, Franz Schwede was named to the Prussian State Council; on 9 September 1935, he was made a member of the Academy for German Law; and at the March 1936 Reichstag election, he was returned from electoral constituency 6, Pomerania.

Franz Schwede would retain all these positions until the fall of the Nazi regime.

At the outbreak of World War II, Hitler gave some Gauleiters increased power over civil defense matters and Franz Schwede was appointed Reich Defense Commissioner for Wehrkreis II, which included his Gau Pomerania in addition to neighboring Gau Mecklenburg.

Franz Schwede worked closely with the SS to make way for the resettlement of ethnic Germans arriving from the Baltic States.

On 16 November 1942, the jurisdiction of the Reich Defense Commissioners was changed from the Wehrkreis to the Gau level, and Franz Schwede remained Commissioner only for Gau Pomerania.

On 25 September 1944, Franz Schwede was made commander of the Nazi Volkssturm forces in his Gau.

Franz Schwede believed in victory up until the very end, so evacuation orders for the civilian population were issued either too late or not at all.

Franz Schwede even ordered authorities to repel any flight attempts as "defeatist".

On 13 May 1945, Franz Schwede was captured by the British Army and ended up in custody as a prisoner of war.

Franz Schwede was tried for war crimes in a Bielefeld court and on 25 November 1948 sentenced to nine years in prison for membership in the SA-Fuhrerkorps.

Franz Schwede's sentence was commuted to probation on 24 January 1956 on grounds of ill health and he died four years later at the age of 72 in Coburg.