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A Reichsgau (plural Reichsgaue) was an administrative subdivision created in a number of areas annexed by Nazi Germany between 1938 and 1945.
Overview
The term was formed from the words Reich (realm, empire) and Gau, the latter a deliberately medieval-sounding word with a meaning approximately equivalent to shire. The Reichsgaue were an attempt to resolve the administrative chaos resulting from the mutually overlapping jurisdictions and different boundaries of the NSDAP Party Gaue, placed under a Party Gauleiter, and the federal states, under a Reichsstatthalter responsible to the Ministry of the Interior (in the Prussian provinces, the equivalent post was that of Oberpräsident). Interior Minister Wilhelm Frick had long desired to streamline the German administration, and the Reichsgaue were the result: the borders of party Gaue and those of the federal states were to be identical, and the party Gauleiter also occupied the post of Reichsstatthalter. Rival interests and the influence the Gauleiter wielded with Hitler prevented any reform from being undertaken in the "Old Reich" (German: Altreich), which meant Germany in its borders of 1937 before the annexation of other territories like Austria, the Sudetenland, and Bohemia, and the Reichsgau scheme was therefore implemented only in newly-acquired territories.
There were several Reichsgaue:
- East March (German: Ostmark) formed from the formerly independent Austria
- Sudetenland, formed from a substantial part of the German-speaking outer rim areas of the former Czechoslovakia occupied in 1938
- Danzig-West Prussia (German: Danzig-Westpreußen) and Wartheland, formed from the Free City of Danzig and areas annexed from Poland
The East March was subsequently subdivided into seven smaller Reichsgaue, generally coterminous with the former Austrian Länder (federal provinces).
List of Reichsgaue
Reichsgaue in Austria and parts of Czechoslovakia established in 1938
| Gau name | German name | Capital | Established | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Carinthia | Kärnten | Klagenfurt | 1938 | Formed from the former Austrian federal state of Carinthia and Eastern Tyrol, included from 1941 on parts of Slovenia. |
| Lower Danube | Niederdonau | Krems (see note) | 1938 | Formed from the former Austrian federal state of Lower Austria and northern Burgenland; included from 1939 on parts of southern Moravia, southeastern Bohemia and the two Bratislava boroughs of Devín and Petržalka. In 1943, Hitler toured Reichsgau Niederdonau and assured Gauleiter Hugo Jury that the capital would be Brünn (Brno) in the near future. |
| Salzburg | Salzburg | Salzburg | 1938 | Formed from the former Austrian federal state of Salzburg. |
| Styria | Steiermark | Graz | 1938 | Formed from the former Austrian federal state of Styria and southern part of Burgenland; included from 1941 on parts of Slovenia. |
| Sudetenland | Sudetenland | Reichenberg | 1938 | Formed from the predominantly German-speaking parts of Czechoslovakia that were ceded to Germany after the Munich Agreement. |
| Tirol-Vorarlberg | Tirol-Vorarlberg | Innsbruck | 1938 | Formed from the former Austrian federal state of Vorarlberg and the northern part of Tyrol; Kleinwalsertal became part of the Gau Swabia. |
| Upper Danube | Oberdonau | Linz | 1938 | Formed from the former Austrian federal state of Upper Austria and Ausseerland, a part of Styria; included from 1939 on parts of southern Bohemia. |
| Vienna | Wien | Vienna (Wien) | 1938 | Formed from the former Austrian federal state of Vienna and surrounding parts of former Lower Austria. |
Reichsgaue established during the Second World War
| Gau name | German name | Capital | Established | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Danzig-West Prussia | Danzig-Westpreußen | Danzig | 1939 | Formed in the Free City of Danzig and the Polish region of the Pomeranian Voivodeship, which were both occupied by Germany in 1939. |
| Flanders | Flandern | Antwerp (Antwerpen) | 1944 | Formed in the Flemish Region of Belgium, comprising the Dutch-speaking provinces of Antwerp, Limburg, East Flanders, West Flanders, the arrondissement of Brussels (except the city of Brussels itself), and the arrondissement of Leuven in the then-province of Brabant (the present-day province of Flemish Brabant). |
| Wallonia | Wallonien | Liège (Lüttich) | 1944 | Formed in the Belgian region of Wallonia, comprising the Francophone provinces of Hainaut, Liège except the cantons of Eupen, Malmedy and Sankt Vith, Luxembourg, Namur, and the arrondissement of Nivelles in the contemporary province of Brabant (now part of the separate province of Walloon Brabant). |
| Wartheland | Wartheland | Poznań (Posen) | 1939 | Formed primarily in the Polish region of the Poznań Voivodeship as well as southern areas of Pomeranian and the western half of Łódź Voivodeship after the German occupation of Poland. |
Reichsgaue (partly) formed out of pre-existing Gaue
| Gau name | German name | Capital | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Baden | Baden | Strasbourg (Straßburg) | Formed out of the Gaue of Baden and Alsace, formerly part of Alsace-Lorraine. |
| Moselland | Moselland | Koblenz | Formed out of the pre-war Gau Koblenz-Trier and Luxembourg. |
| West March | Westmark | Saarbrücken | Formed out of the Bavarian Rhine Palatinate, the former Territory of the Saar Basin, and parts of Lorraine that were a component of Alsace-Lorraine. |
Planned Reichsgaue that were never established
| Gau name | German name | Capital | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Banat/Prince-Eugene-Land | Banat / Prinz-Eugen-Land | Belgrade (Belgrad, or to be renamed to Prinz-Eugen-Stadt) | To be formed out of the Yugoslavian territories of Bačka, Syrmia, and Banat, parts of Transylvania (Siebenbürgen) and Baranya. To be named for Prince Eugene of Savoy (1663–1736), Austrian general who had a famous victory at the Siege of Belgrade (1688). |
| Beskidland | Beskidenland | Kraków (Krakau) | To be formed out of the southern parts of conquered Poland between the area west of Kraków to the San river in the east. It was to substantially correspond to the upper Vistula river basin. It was to be almost identical in size to Weichselland and Galizien. Named for the Beskids mountain range. |
| Brabant | Brabant | Not specified. | To be formed out of central parts of Belgium. |
| Burgundy | Burgund | Nancy (Nanzig) or Geneva (Genf) or Dijon |
To be formed out of the territories of eastern France (excluding Alsace-Lorraine and Nord-Pas-de-Calais) that were to be annexed into Germany after the war. Also to be included to the Reichsgau were parts of Western Switzerland. |
| Galicia | Galizien | Lviv (Lemberg) | Corresponding to the Podolian plain. It was to be almost identical in size to Beskidenland and Weichselland. |
| Gothland | Gotenland | Simferopol (to be renamed to Gotenburg) | To be formed out of the Crimean peninsula and large parts of mainland Ukraine. Named for the Goths. |
| North March | Nordmark | Not specified. | To be formed out of Denmark. |
| Vandalland | Vandalenland | Not specified, probably Litzmannstadt (Łódź). | To be formed out of part or all of the area of the General Government. Named for the Vandals. |
| Vistulaland | Weichselland | Warsaw (Warschau) | To be formed out of the middle Vistula river basin. It was to be almost identical in size to Beskidenland and Galizien. |
| Westland/Holland | Westland / Holland | Not specified. | To be formed out of the Netherlands after its intended annexation into Germany. |
See also
References
Citations
- Bryant, C.C. (2007). Prague in black: Nazi rule and Czech nationalism, Harvard University Press, ISBN 0-674-02451-6, p. 125
- Hans Rudolf Fuhrer (1982). Spionage gegen die Schweiz. Huber. p. 68. ISBN 3-274-00003-5.
- Jeremy Noakes; Geoffrey Pridham (1995). Nazism, 1919-1945: Foreign policy, war and racial extermination. University of Exeter Press. p. 882. ISBN 0-85989-474-6.
Sources
- Der große Atlas der Weltgeschichte (in German), Historical map book, published: 1990, publisher: Orbis Verlag - Munich, ISBN 3-572-04755-2
- Shoa.de - List of Gaue and Gauleiter (in German)
- Die NS-Gaue (in German) Deutsches Historisches Museum website