Andreas Pfeiffer (4.11.1882 Wassertrüdingen – 23.10.1956 Munich)

Civil servants were of great importance for the proper functioning of the Nazi regime. A key figure within the Munich city administration was the professional member of the city council and treasurer Andreas Pfeiffer. He contributed significantly to implementing local National Socialist policies correctly in terms of administration and budget. From 1941 onwards, he also acted as deputy to Nazi Party Mayor Karl Fiehler.

Andreas Pfeiffer was born the son of a postal worker in Middle Franconian Wassertrüdingen. He studied law in Erlangen and Munich between 1902 and 1906, going on to complete his training for the higher judicial and administrative service, achieving the second-best result in his year. Pfeiffer entered the service of the city administration on July 25, 1914, three days before the Habsburg monarchy declared war on Serbia. During the First World War, Pfeiffer distinguished himself in two roles that were extremely important for the ‘home front’ - initially as accommodation officer and from 1916 in the position of head of the food department.

Pfeiffer moved to the top of the finance department nine years later, in July 1925. When taking office, which, like today, was done by election, he not only received the support of the Bavarian People's Party (BVP) led by the then Mayor Karl Scharnagl, but also that of the Nazi Party faction. Like all the members of the leadership in his department, Andreas Pfeiffer also remained in office through the turning point of the year 1933. The national conservative administrator showed himself to be very adaptable. He joined the Nazi Party that same year, probably less out of inner conviction, and more to secure his position and influence.

Pfeiffer was soon indispensable to the “brown” city government because of his specialist knowledge, developing a cooperative and trusting working relationship with Mayor Fiehler. The treasurer distinguished himself not only through hard work and loyalty, but also through his ingenuity to the advantage of National Socialist-specific local politics. The departments subordinate to him - the collection office, tax office and city treasury - participated in the persecution of the Munich Jews actively and on their own initiative, for example through a particularly restrictive interpretation of tax collection.

After the end of the war, on May 14, 1945, Pfeiffer applied for early retirement. In doing so, he forestalled his dismissal by the military government, which temporarily stopped his pension payments. As part of the tribunal proceedings of April 1948, Pfeiffer was classified as a “follower” and sentenced to a fine of 2000 RM. The witness statements contain an exoneration narrative typical of the time, according to which administrative activities in the Nazi era were supposedly “apolitical”. Andreas Pfeiffer had always kept the city’s finances “absolutely spotless”, as the later Federal Minister of Finance Fritz Schäffer judged at the time. He died on October 23, 1956 and was buried in the Munich Northern Cemetery (Nordfriedhof).