Alfred Rosenberg (12.1.1893 Reval/Tallin – 16.10.1946 Nuremberg)

Rosenberg was a Baltic German of Russian nationality. After studying in Riga and Moscow, he graduated in architecture from Moscow Polytechnic in January 1918. He then returned to his home town of Reval, which was occupied by German troops. Under the influence of the Bolshevik Revolution and the battles between ‘Reds’ and ‘Whites’, which also spread to the Baltic states, he developed a dogmatic and thoroughly anti-semitic world view.

He came to Munich in 1919, at that time a major hub of both Russian and Baltic German emigration. Rosenberg saw his role primarily as an intermediary between emigrant groups and the extreme right-wing ethnic-chauvinist movement that was gaining significant ground in Munich. In the fall of 1919 he joined the DAP, not least impressed by Adolf Hitler, who was starting to give his first speeches at DAP meetings. Rosenberg made contact with the right-wing extremist Thule Society, and he also met Dietrich Eckart, later writing for the latter’s magazine Auf gut deutsch. The magazine was discontinued in May 1921, but in its last six months Rosenberg was the most important contributor, writing a nine-part series on “The Crime of Freemasonry”. In August 1921 Eckart was appointed head of the Völkischer Beobachter, with Rosenberg becoming his deputy. When a warrant was issued for Eckart’s arrest for insulting Reich President Friedrich Ebert, Rosenberg took over his post in March 1923 and retained it.

In 1920 he published his first book Die Spur des Juden im Wandel der Zeiten (The Trace of the Jew through the Ages), in which he already called for all Jews to be disenfranchised and for them to emigrate to Palestine. 1923 saw the publication of Die Protokolle der Weisen von Zion und die Weltpolitik (The Protocols of the Elders of Zion and World Politics), in which he sought to provide evidence of an alleged Jewish world conspiracy, claiming that this had given rise to capitalism, Marxism and Bolshevism. The Protocols of the Elders of Zion was exposed as a fabrication as early as 1921.

Rosenberg played an active role in the Hitler coup. arriving at the Bürgerbräukeller with Hitler on the evening of November 8, 1923. After Hitler announced the coup, Rosenberg went to the offices of the Völkischer Beobachter(Nazi party newspaper) to publish the editorial. The next day he joined Hitler in the march on Feldherrnhalle, managing to escape arrest after the coup was suppressed. Hitler had previously chosen him to lead the movement in his absence: since Rosenberg was not an assertive power seeker, Hitler knew he had no need to fear him as a rival. On January 1, 1924, Rosenberg registered the ‘Greater German People’s Community’ as a substitute for the Nazi Party, while the Ethnic-Chauvinist Block formed as a rival organization. Like the latter, Rosenberg called for participation in the next elections. On July 7, 1924, Hitler announced that he was withdrawing all the powers of attorney he had issued, and on July 29, 1924 the Greater German People’s Community was taken over by Streicher and Esser, who were against standing at the elections.

After the re-establishment of the Nazi Party, Rosenberg was no longer a member of Hitler’s inner circle, though he did become editor-in-chief of the Völkischer Beobachter. He now saw himself primarily as the mastermind behind National Socialist foreign policy, as expressed in 1927 in his essay The future course of German foreign policy. In his view, France was still the arch enemy; Italy was considered a potential ally, another possibly being Great Britain. The British were to protect the white race in their colonies, and the Italians were to rule the western Mediterranean. Russia was not an option because of the Bolshevist system. Here, Rosenberg’s ideas aligned with those of Hitler in all key aspects.

In 1930 he entered the Reichstag, where he became a member of the Foreign Affairs Committee. After the Reich Party Congress in August 1927 he was commissioned to set up a new cultural organization. The ‘National Socialist Society for German Culture’ was founded on January 4 with Rosenberg as chairman, subsequently being renamed the ‘Fighting Association for German Culture’. The organization did not achieve the broad impact that was intended, however. Rosenberg’s book The Myth of the 20th Century was published in 1930, earning him the status of ‘chief ideologist’ of National Socialism. According to Rosenberg, Western culture owed its existence to Germanic tribes; he claimed that its decline had been caused by the Roman priestly caste which had gained influence through Christianity, together with the Jesuits, Freemasons and international Judaism. He claimed that the basis for a ‘racially pure Germanic empire’ would once again emerge from the ‘myth of blood’, however. The book did not become a commercial success until after 1933, selling over a million copies by the end of the war. Criticism came mainly from the two churches, and Rosenberg’s ideas were never adopted as the official party line since Hitler did not want to openly commit himself to a fight against the church.

On April 1, 1933 Rosenberg became head of the Foreign Policy Office of the Nazi Party in Berlin, obtaining the party rank of Reich Leader on June 1, 1933. His organization competed with the more influential ‘Dienststelle Ribbentrop’ and the ‘Nazi Party/Foreign Organization’. In 1934 he was assigned the position of  ‘The Führer’s representative for the supervision of the entire intellectual and ideological training and education of the Nazi Party’. In line with Hitler’s will, he declared the political revolution to be complete, but the fight against liberalism, Marxism and pacifism was to continue; yet Rosenberg regarded the ‘racial struggle’ as the true basis of this conflict. The training material for which he was responsible ensured widespread dissemination of his ideas, and journals on theater, art, books and folklore were published under his supervision. Rosenberg was rivaled by Reich Head of Organization and Training Robert Ley, who had considerable financial resources at his disposal, Formed from the ‘Fighting Association’ and the National Socialist theatre-goers’ organization ‘Deutsche Bühne’, the Nazi cultural community was eventually taken over entirely by Ley’s organization Strength through Joy, falling entirely under the latter’s control.

In the fields of art, science, education and popular education, Goebbels was the more powerful rival. Rosenberg rejected every form of modernism in painting, fine art, architecture and music as ‘cultural Bolshevism’. For him, art had to be an expression of the ‘racial soul’, supposedly representing the strength and health of its Germanic origins in an authentic, natural way. In his condemnation of expressionism he prevailed over Goebbels, who wanted to grant more leeway in this area. But the pragmatic Goebbels had control over the most important instrument of cultural policy, namely the Reich Chamber of Culture. Here, Goebbels did not allow the rigidly dogmatic Rosenberg to gain any influence. For ideological reasons, Rosenberg rejected not only all Jewish artists but even classical artists such as Handel and Mozart – the first because of his use of texts from the Old Testament, the second because of his links to the Freemasons.

In 1938 Rosenberg managed to convince Hitler of the idea of establishing an elite National Socialist university. Hitler wanted to have this so-called ‘High School’ erected as a huge complex on Lake Chiemsee; it was planned but never built. The only such facilities to be realized were an ‘Institute for Aryan Intellectual History’ (from March 1941 onwards for ‘Indo-European Intellectual History’) in Munich, another for religious studies in Halle, and the ‘Institute for Research into the Jewish Question’ in Frankfurt am Main. The creation of the ‘Reich Leader Rosenberg Taskforce’ was linked to plans for the ‘High School’. While war was being waged against France, Rosenberg announced his intention to have scholarly libraries and private collections confiscated. His looting targeted works of art such as the famous Amber Room, and he was supported in his efforts by the Chief of the High Command of the Wehrmacht, Keitel, as well as by Göring. In the occupied territories in the east, Rosenberg had to fend off competition from the ‘Ahnenerbe’, a pseudo-scientific SS research and teaching institution.

As Party Commissioner for the Eastern Territories, he gave a speech to representatives of the state, Wehrmacht and party on June 20, 1941 in which he said that non-Russian peoples should form states independent of the Soviet Union; he also stated that he saw no obligation to provide food for the Russian people. On July 17, 1941 Hitler officially appointed Rosenberg Reich Minister of the Occupied Eastern Territories, where the civil administration was subordinate to the ministry and had legislative powers. Rosenberg was responsible for political planning and coordination in cooperation with the other Reich authorities in the eastern territories. Together with the armaments inspections carried out by the Reich Ministry of Armaments and Munitions, Rosenberg’s ministry organized economic exploitation, and was also involved in elaborating the ‘General Plan East’, which Himmler had drawn up as Reich Commissioner for the Consolidation of German Nationhood. The aim here was to resettle, enslave or exterminate undesirable peoples in the eastern region and make the territory available for German colonization. For a while there was a direct link through the appointment of the head of the SS Central Office, Gottlob Berger, as ‘Head of the Political Commando” at the Ministry in 1943.

Hitler himself reserved the right to appoint Reich Commissars and General Commissars. Each Reich Commissar was to be assigned a Higher SS and Police Leader, thereby securing Himmler’s influence. Contrary to Rosenberg’s wishes, Hitler appointed Erich Koch as Reich Commissar for Ukraine, since Koch was in favor of a policy of brutal treatment of the population as desired by Hitler. The Baltic states and the area inhabited by the White Ruthenians were under the control of Hinrich Lohse as Reich Commissar in the ‘Eastland’ region. There, too, the population suffered harsh and ruthless treatment. Rosenberg was largely powerless against the two, although he officially had the power to issue instructions to them.

The inadequate organizational structure of the ministry contributed to its lack of efficiency, which Rosenberg compensated for in particular by pursuing a radical ‘Jewish policy’. At a press reception on the occasion of the official announcement of his appointment as minister on November 18, 1941, Rosenberg openly expressed his intention to exterminate the Jews in the East. In fact his ministry was directly involved in the extermination of Jews and drew up guidelines on who was considered a Jew in the eastern territories. For this reason it was represented by two top officials at the Wannsee Conference of January 20, 1942, which was convened by the head of the Reich Security Main Office Heydrich. Here, representatives of various ministries and SS organizations discussed who was to be considered Jewish and who was to be included in the systematic mass murder operation that was already in full swing. Himmler did not feel bound by the guidelines set down by the Ministry for the East in his subsequent actions, however, instead claiming responsibility for implementation of the ‘final solution’ himself.

With the onset of retreat in the east, the ministry lost all significance from 1943 onwards: it became a territorial ministry without territories, attempting in vain to retain political influence by developing plans for scorched earth tactics, for example. Rosenberg arrived at the executive Reich government in Flensburg on April 22, 1945. He was arrested there on May 25 and finally taken to Nuremberg on August 12. The International Court of Justice sentenced him to death on October 1, 1946; he was executed two weeks later.