Vincenz’s Traumatic Experience with the Gestapo
Mülbert, by no means a resistance fighter, denied having made any of the defamatory remarks and rejected any additional accusations that had made been made against him. For example, he was accused of having said in his own home, “Adolf Hitler is the protector of prostitutes.” During the investigation Vincenz made his wife appear in an unfavourable light, whom he describes as a notorious liar and whom he made responsible for cooking up all these intrigues. He claimed that she was pursuing an irregular lifestyle, was unfaithful, was not looking after the children and had offered herself to whoredom and to ‘free love’. Amalie, having become more cautious, spoke only of a hopelessly shattered marriage and of her husband’s jealousy. “I am going through a divorce with my husband and have been badly treated by him. Nevertheless, I must say that my husband has never said anything bad about Adolf Hitler. As much as I know, he has a positive attitude about Hitler.”
Vincenz also provided the Gestapo a similar statement as recorded in his files, “I would like to remark that before 19 August 1934 (plebiscite on Adolf Hitler’s Title ‘Führer of the Reich’) Loni Bitsch had asked me what she should vote. And I replied, ‘Loni, you vote for Adolf Hitler, just as we do.” With this emphatic declaration – what else could he have done before the Gestapo? – Mülbert smoothly slipped out of the trap that had been set to catch him.
During the on-going marital crisis, his Amalie, incessantly agitating against her husband, was swinging like a pendulum back and forth between the SA-Office, the SA-Organization ‘Mother and Child’, and the NS-Teachers’ Association. Through these agencies, which could not deal with her case, she hoped to gain access to Mülbert’s salary, thus securing her own apartment in the city. The NS-trustee was following via the office of the NS-Teachers’ Association the run-afoul machinations of a colleague’s wife. Of course, Mülbert’s marital problems and the sticky criminalization at the NSDAP and Gestapo were making the rounds in the school’s rumour mills. The personal and academic reputation of the until now impeccable Mülbert threatened to head towards total ruin.
The evil machinations of the triple constellation Friedrich-Bitsch-Mülbert appeared in the end too banal even to the Gestapo. The facts just did not jive. On 26 October 1934, the Mannheim Gestapo came to the succinct conclusion to return the entire file without comment to the Minister of Culture and Education and to the court in Karlsruhe. The minister did nothing. No disciplinary measures, no letter of warning and no reprimand have been recorded in his file.
On 1 March 1935, the couple was officially divorced. Amalie moved to her brother or her parents Schmitt in Würzburg.
To be continued …
a terrible story
What machinations!
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This culture of denunciations must have been terrible. It continued in the GDR after the war … my grandfather was several times victim of it, although not unjustified … 😉
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It is amazing to what links they went to try to defame and control people!
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Wow, that is one bitter relationship. I can’t imagine what created such a terrible degree of hatred and anger that they would have denounced each other that way. But those were awful times, and people did not behave well.
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Excellent. And a new theme as well.
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Wow…whenever I begin to feel sorry for myself for living through this epidemic and having to cope with State and National leaders who seem more than prepared to use it for their own political gain, I just have to think of how hard it must have been to endure Nazi rule. Thank you for providing that perspective!
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Sure, such stories teach us to count our blessings in spite of our struggle with the pandemic. Happy Mother’s Day, Ann!
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Terrorise and control have been the objectives of all totalitarian regimes. Anything can be made to happen if you even remotely appear to be a naysayer.
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We need to be on guard that we don’t slip into a form of dictatorship in the name of an national or international emergency.
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Definitely. Unfortunately, people have short memories. If someone today is promising a bright future for me, that is all that matters. People can be sweet talked into slavery. 😦
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Sad, but true!
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