A Small Town In Germany: Nazi Mayor's Awards

[Guest Rick Research]

August Christian Karl Elsner was born 23 September 1888 in Hasselfelde, Kreis Blankenburg, Brunswick.

He served, very oddly and inexplicably briefly, in J?ger Regiment zu Pferde 5 only from 4 to 19 October 1910. No reason was given for his release.

This service was never mentioned again, and he was drafted as a member of the "untrained militia" (unged. Landsturmmann) on 1 November 1915 in the Ist Replacement Battalion of Brunswick's Infantry Regiment 92. He got as far as the rear of the front, 1st Company, Recruit Depot of the 20th Infantry Division, Xth Army Corps 7 to 21 April 1916. He was then sidelined for intestinal fistula (eeeeewwwwww) and eventually discharged from the military 19 August 1916.

He then became-- or returned to being-- a "B?roassistent" in the Brunswick Ministry of State. There he received his first decoration, the very rare Brunswick War Merit Cross "on the yellow-blue ribbon" for home front war effort services (unspecified):

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By 1934 he had joined the Nazi Party (apparently under the "Nazi superman" admissions section) and become the Mayor (B?rgermeister) of the small town of Eschershausen-- too small to have its own governmental administration office, as his Hindenburg Cross for War Participants (i.e. Noncombatants) shows:

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[Guest Rick Research]

It has taken me two years, two months, and eleven days to reunite his two Third Reich award documents with his First World War one, and the military paperwork he and his father had.

Although these are NOT Party Comrade Mayor Elsner's decorations, these are what the two above would have looked like being worn in 1935:

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On 5 January 1939, Party Comrade Mayor Elsner was confirmed in his status as a civil servant with lifetime appointment at his salary grade (whatever that was) retroactive to 1938.

9 January 1939 he received the cross for 25 years civil service

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and that very likely ended his decorations. Whether he or the Third Reich lasted longer, I do not know.

Just a representative sample of what the biggest frog in a very small pond had as a group of awards... and a very long voyage in time and space from ONE "1 traffic light town" to... another.

[Paul R]

Nice grouping! What other awards do you see the mayor receiving between 1935 and 1945?

Maybe some NSADP LS medals?

Edited November 21, 2005 by Paul Reck

[Guest Rick Research]

If he was also a uniformed "full time" Nazi party functionary (as opposed to a simple dues paying member) he might have received the NSDAP Long Service Awards--

I'm not sure exactly what sort of "seniority" would have been required in the struggle for personal domination in such a small place!

[Dave Danner]

Elsner was still mayor of Eschershausen in 1941, when he was quoted deciding not to decide to do anything about the stature of the town's most famous son, novelist Wilhelm Raabe.

http://literaturatlas.de/~lb22/1024/1024_raabestatue.htm

The power of the internet runs out after that point.

[Guest Rick Research]

Hmmm.... thus preserving for Future Generations a MUCH romanticized (look at PHOTOS of Herr Raabe )

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version of what appears to be a porn theater "raincoat man" hanging around a school yard looking for his misplaced nip bottles stash.

I'm amazed that ... thing... didn't end up in the 1937 "Degenerate Art" exhibit. Eeeewwwwww.

[Guest Rick Research]

"Mutti! Onkel Willi wants to 'babysit' die Kinder... AGAIN!"

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OK, how many steps to Kevin Bacon?

[Dave Danner]

There's something mildly disturbing about a statue outside a school of an author of children's books wearing a long coat with his hands stuck in his pockets.

[David Gregory]

There's something mildly disturbing about a statue outside a school of an author of children's books wearing a long coat with his hands stuck in his pockets.

At least his hands are in HIS coat pockets.

[Ulsterman]

Great thread!!

Anybody ever try and track down his denazification papers in the US National archives? It would be interesting to see his questionaire. Indeed-more interesting to talk to some of the older folks in his town about him.