Hermann Joseph Anton Maria Freiherr von Lüninck (3 May 1893 – 16 May 1975) was a German lawyer and agricultural specialist who became the ''

Oberpräsident The ''german: Oberpräsident, label=none'' (Supreme President) was the highest administrative official in the Prussian provinces. History The Oberpräsident of a Prussian province was the supreme representative of the Prussian crown, until its d ...

'' (Senior President) of the

Rhine Province The Rhine Province (german: Rheinprovinz), also known as Rhenish Prussia () or synonymous with the Rhineland (), was the westernmost province of the Kingdom of Prussia and the Free State of Prussia, within the German Reich, from 1822 to 1946. It ...

Nazi Germany Nazi Germany (lit. "National Socialist State"), ' (lit. "Nazi State") for short; also ' (lit. "National Socialist Germany") (officially known as the German Reich from 1933 until 1943, and the Greater German Reich from 1943 to 1945) was ...

. Arrested for involvement in the

20 July plot On 20 July 1944, Claus von Stauffenberg and other conspirators attempted to assassinate Adolf Hitler, Führer of Nazi Germany, inside his Wolf's Lair field headquarters near Rastenburg, East Prussia, now Kętrzyn, in present-day Poland. Th ...

, he escaped execution.

Family and early life

Lüninck was a member of an old Catholic

Lower Rhine The Lower Rhine (german: Niederrhein; kilometres 660 to 1,033 of the river Rhine) flows from Bonn, Germany, to the North Sea at Hook of Holland, Netherlands (including the Nederrijn or "Nether Rhine" within the Rhine–Meuse–Scheldt delta); ...

noble family. His father was the owner of a large estate and his elder brother

Ferdinand von Lüninck Ferdinand Joseph Meinolph Anton Maria Freiherr von Lüninck (3 August 1888 – 14 November 1944) was a German landowner and officer. Born at the family estate Haus Ostwig, in Ostwig, Province of Westphalia, Ferdinand Freiherr von Lüninck was m ...

later would become the ''Oberpräsident'' of the

Province of Westphalia The Province of Westphalia () was a province of the Kingdom of Prussia and the Free State of Prussia from 1815 to 1946. In turn, Prussia was the largest component state of the German Empire from 1871 to 1918, of the Weimar Republic and from 1 ...

. In 1925, he married Ferdinandine Bertha Countess von und zu Westerholt and Gysenberg (1897–1945). The marriage produced seven children. Lüninck studied law at universities in

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 ...

Freiburg Freiburg im Breisgau (; abbreviated as Freiburg i. Br. or Freiburg i. B.; Low Alemannic: ''Friburg im Brisgau''), commonly referred to as Freiburg, is an independent city in Baden-Württemberg, Germany. With a population of about 230,000 (as o ...

Münster Münster (; nds, Mönster) is an independent city (''Kreisfreie Stadt'') in North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. It is in the northern part of the state and is considered to be the cultural centre of the Westphalia region. It is also a state d ...

and

Göttingen Göttingen (, , ; nds, Chöttingen) is a college town, university city in Lower Saxony, central Germany, the Capital (political), capital of Göttingen (district), the eponymous district. The River Leine runs through it. At the end of 2019, t ...

. After passing the preliminary state law examination in 1914, he volunteered for service with the

Imperial German Army The Imperial German Army (1871–1919), officially referred to as the German Army (german: Deutsches Heer), was the unified ground and air force of the German Empire. It was established in 1871 with the political unification of Germany under the ...

in the

First World War World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fig ...

. He served with the elite

Guards Rifles Battalion The Guards Rifles Battalion (German: ''Garde- Schützen-Bataillon''; French: ''Bataillon des Tirailleurs de la Garde''; nicknamed: ''Neuchâteller'' in High German; ''Neffschandeller'' in Berlin German dialect) was an infantry unit of the Prussian ...

and in the ''

Luftstreitkräfte The ''Deutsche Luftstreitkräfte'' (, German Air Force)—known before October 1916 as (Flyer Troops)—was the air arm of the Imperial German Army. In English-language sources it is usually referred to as the Imperial German Air Service, alt ...

''. He was wounded in action, earned the

Iron Cross The Iron Cross (german: link=no, Eisernes Kreuz, , abbreviated EK) was a military decoration in the Kingdom of Prussia, and later in the German Empire (1871–1918) and Nazi Germany (1933–1945). King Frederick William III of Prussia e ...

1st and 2nd class and left the military in 1919 with the rank of '' Oberleutnant''. In October 1920, Lüninck passed his '' Rechtassessor'' examination and worked from 1920 to 1922 as a lawyer in the Prussian Ministry of the Interior. From 1923 to 1925 he was deputy general secretary of the Rhenish Farmers' Association (''Rhenische Bauernvereins'') and in March 1925 he was elected president of the Rhenish Chamber of Agriculture (''Rheinische Landwirtschaftskammer''). In 1929, Lüninck also took on the office of president of the Rhenish Farmers' Association and of the Rhenish

Agricultural League The Imperial Agricultural League (german: Reichs-Landbund) or National Rural League was a German agrarian association during the Weimar Republic which was led by landowners with property east of the Elbe. It was allied with the German National Peo ...

(''Rheinischer Landbund'') and, in 1931, that of president of the Rhenish Agricultural Cooperative Association (''Rheinischer Landwirtschaftlichen Genossenschaftsverbands''). As a member of the conservative

German National People's Party The German National People's Party (german: Deutschnationale Volkspartei, DNVP) was a national-conservative party in Germany during the Weimar Republic. Before the rise of the Nazi Party, it was the major conservative and nationalist party in ...

(DNVP) and with his multiple and influential agricultural positions in the early 1930s, Lüninck was repeatedly considered for the Reich Food and Agriculture Minister in any potential right-wing conservative government. On 3 June 1932, in a personal letter to the State Secretary in the Presidential Chancellery,

Otto Meissner Otto Lebrecht Eduard Daniel Meissner (13 March 1880, Bischwiller, Alsace – 27 May 1953, Munich) was head of the Office of the President of Germany from 1920 to 1945 during nearly the entire period of the Weimar Republic under Friedrich Ebert ...

, Lüninck advocated including 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 ...

in the Reich government. However, he refused to sign the industrial petition submitted by 19 representatives of

industry Industry may refer to: Economics * Industry (economics), a generally categorized branch of economic activity * Industry (manufacturing), a specific branch of economic activity, typically in factories with machinery * The wider industrial sector ...

, finance, and

agriculture Agriculture or farming is the practice of cultivating plants and livestock. Agriculture was the key development in the rise of sedentary human civilization, whereby farming of domesticated species created food surpluses that enabled peop ...

on 19 November 1932 that urged

German President The president of Germany, officially the Federal President of the Federal Republic of Germany (german: link=no, Bundespräsident der Bundesrepublik Deutschland),The official title within Germany is ', with ' being added in international corres ...

Paul von Hindenburg Paul Ludwig Hans Anton von Beneckendorff und von Hindenburg (; abbreviated ; 2 October 1847 – 2 August 1934) was a German field marshal and statesman who led the Imperial German Army during World War I and later became President of Germany fr ...

to appoint

Adolf Hitler Adolf Hitler (; 20 April 188930 April 1945) was an Austrian-born German politician who was dictator of Nazi Germany, Germany from 1933 until Death of Adolf Hitler, his death in 1945. Adolf Hitler's rise to power, He rose to power as the le ...

German Chancellor The chancellor of Germany, officially the federal chancellor of the Federal Republic of Germany,; often shortened to ''Bundeskanzler''/''Bundeskanzlerin'', / is the head of the federal government of Germany and the commander in chief of the Ge ...

Career in Nazi Germany

In 1933 Lüninck gave up his agricultural posts when the Prussian

Minister-President A minister-president or minister president is the head of government in a number of European countries or subnational governments with a parliamentary or semi-presidential system of government where they preside over the council of ministers. I ...

Hermann Göring Hermann Wilhelm Göring (or Goering; ; 12 January 1893 – 15 October 1946) was a German politician, military leader and convicted war criminal. He was one of the most powerful figures in the Nazi Party, which ruled Germany from 1933 to 1 ...

appointed him ''Oberpräsident'' of the Rhine Province on 25 March 1933. This was a concession to the Nazis' coalition partner, the DNVP, since nearly all these posts were filled by a Nazi Party ''

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 th ...

''. On 12 October 1933, Göring also appointed Lüninck to the newly reconstituted

Prussian State Council The Prussian State Council (german: Preußischer Staatsrat) was the upper chamber of the bicameral legislature of the Free State of Prussia between 1920 and 1933. The lower chamber was the Prussian Landtag (''Preußischer Landtag''). Implementa ...

. However, Lüninck began to withdraw his support for the regime, shocked by the murders committed during the

Röhm purge The Night of the Long Knives (German language, German: ), or the Röhm purge (German: ''Röhm-Putsch''), also called Operation Hummingbird (German: ''Unternehmen Kolibri''), was a purge that took place in Nazi Germany from 30 June to 2 July 19 ...

and by the persecution of the Catholic Church.Hermann Freiherr von Lüninck entry
in th

/ref> After constant quarrels with the local Nazi leaders, Lüninck finally was removed as ''Oberpräsident'' on 4 March 1935 and replaced by the Party ''

'' of

Gau Essen The Gau Essen was an administrative division of Nazi Germany from 1933 to 1945 in the northern parts of the Prussian Rhine Province. Before that, from 1928 to 1933, it was the regional subdivision of the Nazi Party in that area. History The Nazi ...

Josef Terboven Josef Terboven (23 May 1898 – 8 May 1945) was a Nazi Party official and politician who was the long-serving ''Gauleiter'' of Gau Essen and the ''Reichskommissar'' for Norway during the German occupation. Early life Terboven was born in Esse ...

. He also was removed from the Prussian State Council on 2 June 1937. Lüninck, together with his brother Ferdinand, eventually became involved in the plans to overthrow the Nazi regime and he was slated to potentially head the Ministry of Agriculture in the government to be established following the planned assassination of Hitler. After the failure of the plot, Lüninck was arrested on 13 October 1944 while visiting his brother, who already was in custody. Ferdinand would be tried and executed in November for his role in the plot. Brought before the People's Court on 18 January 1945, Hermann's case was continued several times and finally dismissed; he was released from the

Lehrter Straße The Lehrter Straße (also: ''Lehrter Strasse'', ''Lehrterstraße'', and ''Lehrterstrasse'') is a residential street in Moabit, a sub district of Mitte, one of Berlin's 12 boroughs of which the borders were redefined following the 1989 Fall o ...

prison on 22 April 1945.

Post-war life

From 1945 until his death, he was chairman of the ''Garde-Schützen-Bund'', an association of former members of the Prussian Guards Rifles Battalion. He ran unsuccessfully on the conservative

German Right Party The German Right Party (german: Deutsche Rechtspartei, DRP) was a far-right political party that emerged in the British zone of Allied-occupied Germany after the Second World War. Also known as the ''Deutsche Konservative Partei - Deutsche Rech ...

(DKP-DRP) list for a seat in the

West German West Germany is the colloquial term used to indicate the Federal Republic of Germany (FRG; german: Bundesrepublik Deutschland , BRD) between its formation on 23 May 1949 and the German reunification through the accession of East Germany on 3 O ...

Bundestag The Bundestag (, "Federal Diet (assembly), Diet") is the German Federalism, federal parliament. It is the only federal representative body that is directly elected by the German people. It is comparable to the United States House of Representat ...

in 1949. Hermann von Lüninck died on 16 May 1975 at on the outskirts of

Engelskirchen Engelskirchen (literally "angel’s churches") is a municipality in Oberbergischer Kreis, Germany in North Rhine-Westphalia, about east of Cologne. The neighbouring municipalities are (clockwise from the west) Overath, Lindlar, Gummersbach, W ...

References

Notes

Citations

Sources

*
Hermann Freiherr von Lüninck entry
in th

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Luninck, Hermann von 1893 births 1975 deaths 20th-century German lawyers German barons German Army personnel of World War I German monarchists in the German Resistance German National People's Party politicians German Party (1947) politicians Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich alumni Luftstreitkräfte personnel Members of the Prussian State Council (Nazi Germany) People from Hochsauerlandkreis People from the Province of Westphalia Prisoners and detainees of Germany Recipients of the Iron Cross (1914), 1st class Recipients of the Iron Cross (1914), 2nd class Roman Catholics in the German Resistance University of Freiburg alumni University of Göttingen alumni University of Münster alumni Von Lüninck family