Andreas Bolek (3 May 1894 in

Weinbergen Weinbergen is a former municipality in the Unstrut-Hainich-Kreis district of Thuringia, Germany. It was created on 30 June 1994 in the course of a territorial reform by the merger of the municipalities of Bollstedt, Grabe, Höngeda and S ...

near Lemberg – 5 May 1945 in

Magdeburg Magdeburg (; nds, label=Low Saxon, Meideborg ) is the capital and second-largest city of the German state Saxony-Anhalt. The city is situated at the Elbe river. Otto I, the first Holy Roman Emperor and founder of the Archdiocese of Magdebu ...

) was an Austrian politician and a leader in the

Nazi Party The Nazi Party, officially the National Socialist German Workers' Party (german: Nationalsozialistische Deutsche Arbeiterpartei or NSDAP), was a far-right political party in Germany active between 1920 and 1945 that created and supported t ...

(NSDAP). In 1914 he went as an Austrian volunteer in the First World War. In 1919 he returned to

Linz Linz ( , ; cs, Linec) is the capital of Upper Austria and third-largest city in Austria. In the north of the country, it is on the Danube south of the Czech border. In 2018, the population was 204,846. In 2009, it was a European Capital ...

, where he married and later had four daughters. In 1923 he took a job at the Linz "Electricity and Streetcar Company (ESG). In the same year he also joined the Nazi party, and as a former combat officer he could soon be promoted to a local SA leader. After the Austrian National Socialists in 1926 mainly assumed the leadership of Adolf Hitler, Bolek was designated as the Deputy "

Gauleiter A ''Gauleiter'' () was a regional leader of the Nazi Party (NSDAP) who served as the head of a '' Gau'' or '' Reichsgau''. ''Gauleiter'' was the third-highest rank in the Nazi political leadership, subordinate only to '' Reichsleiter'' and to ...

" of Upper Austria. When Alfred Proksch, the Gauleiter, was appointed in 1927 as Deputy Country Director, Bolek was promoted to the top of the regional administration. In 1932 he was Chairman of NS Group, the Council of the City of Linz, but in the following year, the Nazi party was banned by the Austrian government. Bolek set off across the German border and began working out of

Munich Munich ( ; german: München ; bar, Minga ) is the capital and most populous city of the German state of Bavaria. With a population of 1,558,395 inhabitants as of 31 July 2020, it is the third-largest city in Germany, after Berlin and Ha ...

and Passau. While Bolek first resided in Hacklberg at the Danube, he also agitated masses along the Inn River. Anna Rosmus: Hitlers Nibelungen, Samples Grafenau 2015, pp. 84f In the same year he was naturalized in the

German Reich German ''Reich'' (lit. German Realm, German Empire, from german: Deutsches Reich, ) was the constitutional name for the German nation state that existed from 1871 to 1945. The ''Reich'' became understood as deriving its authority and sovereignty ...

. In March 1936 he became a Reichstag representative for the constituency of

Hessen Hesse (, , ) or Hessia (, ; german: Hessen ), officially the State of Hessen (german: links=no, Land Hessen), is a state in Germany. Its capital city is Wiesbaden, and the largest urban area is Frankfurt. Two other major historic cities are Darms ...

. A year later he joined the SS and was a SS-Brigade leader. On 1 December 1937 he was entrusted with the management of the body of the police chief of

, a position which from 7 November 1938 fully occupied. He has been appointed yet to SS leaders in the SD main office and in 1939 he became an honorary member of the People's Court for a period of 5 years. In 1942 he was appointed to a SS-group leader with high honors from the Nazis. In April 1945, the Allies occupied Magdeburg on the western banks of the

Elbe The Elbe (; cs, Labe ; nds, Ilv or ''Elv''; Upper and dsb, Łobjo) is one of the major rivers of Central Europe. It rises in the Giant Mountains of the northern Czech Republic before traversing much of Bohemia (western half of the Czech Re ...

on 5 May 1945, Soviet troops invaded in Magdeburg on the eastern bank of the Elbe, whereupon Andreas Bolek was shot.

Literature

*NS-apologetisch: Karl Höffkes: '' Hitlers politische Generale. Die Gauleiter des 3. Reiches; ein biographisches Nachschlagewerk.''

Grabert-Verlag Grabert-Verlag together with its subsidiary Hohenrain-Verlag is one of the largest and best-known extreme-right publishing houses in the Federal Republic of Germany. It is notorious for publishing anti-Semitic works, for example those of Wilhelm S ...

, Tübingen 1997, .

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Bolek, Andreas Austro-Hungarian military personnel of World War I Austrian politicians Nazi Party officials 1894 births 1945 deaths Politicians from Lviv Austrian Nazis Austrian emigrants to Germany Nazis executed by the Soviet Union by firearm Nazi leaders assassinated by the Allies Members of the Reichstag of Nazi Germany Judges in the Nazi Party