Gau Main Franconia

Gau Main-Franconia
Gau of Nazi Germany
← 1933–1945 →
Flag Coat of arms
Map of Nazi Germany showing its administrative subdivisions (Gaue and Reichsgaue).
Capital		Würzburg
Gauleiter
•	1933–1945	Otto Hellmuth
History
•	Establishment	30 January 1933
•	Disestablishment	8 May 1945
Population
•	17 May 1939[1]	844,732

The Gau Main Franconia (German: Gau Mainfranken), named Gau Lower Franconia (German: Gau Unterfranken) until 1935, was an administrative division of Nazi Germany in Lower Franconia, Bavaria, from 1933 to 1945. Before that, from 1926 to 1933, it was the regional subdivision of the Nazi Party in that area.

History

The Nazi Gau (plural Gaue) system was originally established in a party conference on 22 May 1926, in order to improve administration of the party structure. From 1933 onward, after the Nazi seizure of power, the Gaue increasingly replaced the German states as administrative subdivisions in Germany.^[2]

At the head of each Gau stood a Gauleiter, a position which became increasingly more powerful, especially after the outbreak of the Second World War, with little interference from above. Local Gauleiter often held government positions as well as party ones and were in charge of, among other things, propaganda and surveillance and, from September 1944 onward, the Volkssturm and the defense of the Gau.^[2][3]

The position of Gauleiter in Main Franconia was held by Otto Hellmuth for the duration of the existence of the Gau, with Ludwig Pösl (1931–37) and Wilhelm Kühnreich (1937–45) as his deputies.^[4][5]

References

1. Bayrisches Landesamt für Statistik, accessed 26 June 2008.
2. "Die NS-Gaue" [The Nazi Gaue]. dhm.de (in German). Deutsches Historisches Museum. Retrieved 24 March 2016.
3. "The Organization of the Nazi Party & State". nizkor.org. The Nizkor Project. Retrieved 26 March 2016.
4. "Gau Mainfranken". verwaltungsgeschichte.de (in German). Retrieved 24 March 2016.
5. "Übersicht der NSDAP-Gaue, der Gauleiter und der Stellvertretenden Gauleiter zwischen 1933 und 1945" [Overview of Nazi Gaue, the Gauleiter and assistant Gauleiter from 1933 to 1945]. zukunft-braucht-erinnerung.de (in German). Zukunft braucht Erinnerung. Retrieved 24 March 2016.

External links

• Illustrated list of Gauleiter