Gau Southern Hanover-Brunswick

Gau Südhannover–Braunschweig Gau Southern Hanover–Brunswick
Gau of Nazi Germany
←   ← 1933–1945 →   →
Flag Coat of arms
Capital		Lüneburg
Gauleiter
•	1933–1940	Bernhard Rust
•	1940–1945	Hartmann Lauterbacher
History
•	Establishment	30 January 1933
•	Disestablishment	8 May 1945

Gau Southern Hanover–Brunswick (German: Gau Südhannover–Braunschweig) was a regional district established in 1933 in Nazi Germany. Initially the gau was a territorial component of both the Free State of Prussia and the Free State of Brunswick from 1933 to 1935. However, after the German constituent states were abolished in 1935, the Gaus replaced them in their responsibilities. Gau Southern Hanover-Brunswick was dismantled after Germany's defeat in 1945. The territory after the war became part of Lower Saxony in West Germany.

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.^[1]

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.^[1][2]

The position of Gauleiter in Südhannover–Braunschweig was initially held by Bernhard Rust until 1940 and then by Hartmann Lauterbacher until the end of the war.^[3][4]

References

1. "Die NS-Gaue" [The Nazi Gaue]. dhm.de (in German). Deutsches Historisches Museum. Retrieved 24 March 2016.
2. "The Organization of the Nazi Party & State". nizkor.org. The Nizkor Project. Retrieved 26 March 2016.
3. "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.
4. "Gau Südhannover–Braunschweig". verwaltungsgeschichte.de (in German). Retrieved 24 March 2016.

External links

• Illustrated list of Gauleiter