Franz-Josef Röder (22 July 1909 in

Merzig Merzig (, , Moselle Franconian language, ''Moselle Franconian:'' ''Meerzisch''/''Miërzësch'') is a town in Saarland, Germany. It is the capital of the district Merzig-Wadern, with about 30,000 inhabitants in 17 municipalities on 108 km². I ...

– 26 June 1979 in

Saarbrücken Saarbrücken (; Rhenish Franconian: ''Sabrigge'' ; ; ; ; ) is the capital and largest List of cities and towns in Germany, city of the state of Saarland, Germany. Saarbrücken has 181,959 inhabitants and is Saarland's administrative, commerci ...

) was a German politician of the CDU and from 1959 to 1979 Minister President of

Saarland Saarland (, ; ) is a state of Germany in the southwest of the country. With an area of and population of 990,509 in 2018, it is the smallest German state in area apart from the city-states of Berlin, Bremen, and Hamburg, and the smallest in ...

. He had been a member of the

Nazi Party The Nazi Party, officially the National Socialist German Workers' Party ( or NSDAP), was a far-right politics, far-right political party in Germany active between 1920 and 1945 that created and supported the ideology of Nazism. Its precursor ...

from 1933 to 1945.

Affiliation to various branches of the Nazi Party

Röder was closely associated with the seven branches of the

NSDAP The Nazi Party, officially the National Socialist German Workers' Party ( or NSDAP), was a far-right political party in Germany active between 1920 and 1945 that created and supported the ideology of Nazism. Its precursor, the German Workers ...

(Nationalsozialistische Deutsche Arbeiterpartei), the NSKK (Nationalsozialistisches Kraftfahrcorps), the NS (Nationalsozialistischer Lehrerbund), DF (Deutsche Front), Ordnungsdienst (Nazi street-fighter unit under SS leadership), and the SA (Sturmabteilung, forbidden at that time by the League of Nations). According to his father, he also held an unspecified leadership function with the

Hitler Youth The Hitler Youth ( , often abbreviated as HJ, ) was the youth wing of the German Nazi Party. Its origins date back to 1922 and it received the name ("Hitler Youth, League of German Worker Youth") in July 1926. From 1936 until 1945, it was th ...

. He became a member of these militant organizations in 1933 and 1934, prior to the official Nazi takeover of the Saar region of Germany in 1935, when the Saarlanders made their decision to join with Hitler's terror regime, a decision in which Röder played an important part by luring his fellow Saarlanders to neglect any reticence against the abolition of human rights. As such, his militancy in these groups was a personal choice rather than an acquiescence to political pressure. This is further evident in an archived letter from his father dating to 1937, which described his personal and family merits in promoting Nazionalsozialismus in the Saar region. Further, there is a notice on Röder's NSDAP membership card showing his transfer from his hometown Neunkirchen NSDAP to

The Hague The Hague ( ) is the capital city of the South Holland province of the Netherlands. With a population of over half a million, it is the third-largest city in the Netherlands. Situated on the west coast facing the North Sea, The Hague is the c ...

underground branch of the NSDAP, which was illegal under international law at the time. When Röder died in 1979, the Dutch ambassador in

Bonn Bonn () is a federal city in the German state of North Rhine-Westphalia, located on the banks of the Rhine. With a population exceeding 300,000, it lies about south-southeast of Cologne, in the southernmost part of the Rhine-Ruhr region. This ...

, Baron Diederic van Lynden, wrote an official letter of condolenceErich Voltmer, Franz-Joseph Röder: Ein Leben fuer die Saar, Dillingen, 1979. which excluded the period of time between 1940 and 1944, during which Röder was working as an occupation official under the orders of convicted war criminal (at the

Nuremberg trials #REDIRECT Nuremberg trials {{redirect category shell, {{R from other capitalisation{{R from move ...

)

Arthur Seyss-Inquart Arthur Seyss-Inquart (; ; 22 July 1892 16 October 1946) was an Austrian Nazi politician who served as Chancellor of Austria in 1938 for two days before the ''Anschluss''. His positions in Nazi Germany included deputy governor to Hans Frank in t ...

, demonstrating that Röder then was a well known negative element in the Dutch-German relations. Still, in 1944, he was decorated by Nazi authorities with the ''Kriegsverdienstkreuz ohne Schwerter'' for "special merits", an "honour" which he never explained. In his denazification procedures, he was found in the first instance to be guilty, then in a later general amnesty reduced to "less guilty". During his years in power after 1955, he largely favoured the return of old NSDAP members in all government cultural and political functions of all levels and made sure that none of the group of the former opponents to Hitler could ever take an influential office again.

References

External links

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Saarland biography
(in German) {{DEFAULTSORT:Roder, Franz-Josef 1909 births 1979 deaths Presidents of the German Bundesrat Christian Democratic Union of Germany politicians Members of the Landtag of Saarland Nazi Party members People from Merzig-Wadern Politicians from the Rhine Province Minister-presidents of Saarland Sturmabteilung personnel Hitler Youth members