Herbert, Adam

Pharmacist, patron

born: 14.07.1887 in Groß-Gerau

died: 02.09.1976 in Selters-Eisenbach

After attending secondary school in Groß-Gerau, where he was born, and grammar school in Darmstadt, Herbert studied pharmacology in Munich. He survived his war service with a serious wound. Herbert worked as a pharmacist in Wallau from 1915. He founded his own laboratory in 1918 and moved his company to Bierstadt (opens in a new tab) in 1927, which was incorporated into Wiesbaden in 1928. In Wiesbaden, Herbert produced a nerve remedy, which he soon also sold in several European countries and in South America. The business flourished so well that he founded a branch plant in Argentina in 1932.

On May 1, 1933, Herbert joined the NSDAP, and a year later the National Socialist People's Welfare Organization. Herbert was also a member of the Nazi Altherrenbund, the Reichsbund Deutsche Jägerschaft, the Reichskolonialbund, the Verein für das Deutschtum im Ausland and the Reichsluftschutzbund. Adam Herbert left the Protestant Church in 1938 and from then on described himself as a "believer in God", the religious identification formula preferred by the National Socialists. Herbert himself justified his departure from the church after the Second World War with tax reasons.

Herbert supported the Nazi regime with financial donations. Only the donations that could be attributed to Herbert after the war in his denazification proceedings are tangible, mainly donations to the NSV winter relief organization amounting to 78,937 RM. In addition, there was a donation of RM 10,000 to the NSDAP, which was intended for the purchase of a sports plane for Gauleiter Jakob Sprenger. He made further monetary donations to the SS and other Nazi organizations, among others. Herbert estimated these amounts to total between 5,000 and 6,000 RM.

Adam Herbert also donated a park to the city of Wiesbaden in 1937, which bore his name until 2024. Following the Reisinger grounds in front of the main railway station (opens in a new tab) on the derelict site of the former Taunus railway station, the horticultural architect Wilhelm Hirsch (1887-1957) created a park, the Herbert grounds, in 1937(Reisinger grounds (opens in a new tab)).

Herbert donated a total of 152,000 RM for the construction of the gardens. According to him, the park was intended as a place of recreation for the working population of Wiesbaden. It was also intended to be an attraction for spa guests. Together with the Reisinger grounds, the Herbert grounds formed a direct north-south link between Wiesbaden's city center and the main railway station.

The park was inaugurated in 1937 by Wiesbaden's NSDAP mayor Erich Mix to great public acclaim. The event was a social occasion. In addition to the most important municipal representatives, high-ranking representatives of the NSDAP, the SS, the SA, the NSKK, the Hitler Youth and the BDM also took part in the event. High-ranking military officers and personalities from city society, such as Wilhelm von Opel (opens in a new tab), were also invited.

On this occasion, the NSDAP mayor Mix emphasized the local propaganda significance of the newly constructed green space. After the mayor's speech, the spa orchestra in attendance played the "Horst Wessel Song", the party anthem of the NSDAP.

Adam Herbert not only socialized socially, but also privately with mostly local and regional functionaries of the Nazi state. For example, Herbert was closely associated with the state governor Wilhelm Traupel. Traupel, a member of the NSDAP since 1930, was governor of the Wiesbaden district association from September 1933 and also governor of the Kassel district association from 1936. He held the rank of Oberführer in the SS from 1939. From 1940, Traupel worked in the SD Main Office of the SS, in the occupation administration in France and in the Reich Security Main Office of the SS in Berlin.
Regular hunting guests at Herbert's estate near Limburg included the State Secretary in the Reich Ministry of Propaganda and Hitler confidant Herrmann Esser, the NSDAP district leader of Hesse-Nassau Jakob Sprenger, the NSDAP mayor of Wiesbaden Felix Piékarski, the SS standard bearer and head of the Nassau District Association's Department of Institutional Affairs Fritz Bernotat, who was significantly involved in the murder of the sick in Hadamar, the General Labor Leader of the RAD Wilhelm Faatz, the President of the Chamber of Agriculture Georg Hermann Sauerbier and SS Group Leader Richard Hildebrandt, who was later sentenced to death in the Nuremberg succession trials.

In 1936, Adam Herbert expanded his pharmacy with a branch - the Einhorn Pharmacy in Bamberg. Herbert took over the pharmacy from the previous Jewish owner, Dr. Otto Holzinger, for RM 260,000. The Holzinger family lost a considerable part of their assets due to the Reich flight tax that had to be paid on emigration. Jewish pharmacists had to sell their businesses or lease them to an "Aryan" pharmacist on the basis of the "Law on the Leasing and Management of Public Pharmacies" of March 26, 1936. The beneficiaries of these "Aryanizations" in the pharmacy sector were often Nazi functionaries or people close to the regime.

The purchase of the Bamberg pharmacy was also the subject of the Spruchkammer proceedings against Herbert after the end of Nazi rule. Herbert tried to present the forced sale as part of the "Aryanization" as a benefit for his Jewish colleague and received support from the professional interest groups also involved in the "Aryanization" of pharmacies. Adam Herbert initially refused, but finally agreed to a settlement with the Holzinger family in 1951. This enabled him to reopen the pharmacy shortly afterwards and lease it to his nephew Otto Herbert, who was also a pharmacist.

Adam Herbert employed forced laborers on his farm in Hausen in the village of Eisbach (Taunus) during the Second World War. In his court case, the pharmacist stated that he used two Polish families with ten children to work on his farm until 1945 in exchange for conscripted personnel. The background and circumstances of the use of forced labor on Herbert's farm remain unclear.

Initially, Herbert was classified as Group 1 ("main culprit") by the Spruchkammer in 1946. In appeal proceedings on March 3, 1948, Herbert's lawyers finally succeeded in having the case dismissed in exchange for a payment of 2,000 RM. Herbert continued his business activities after the Second World War.

In 1957, Adam Herbert was awarded the Federal Cross of Merit 1st Class and in 1962 was made an honorary citizen of the state capital of Wiesbaden.

In addition to the Kochbrunnen jumper, which Adam Herbert financed, the entrepreneur also donated the Diana Fountain in front of the Rhein-Main-Hallen (1958), for which his granddaughter Ursula Altenheimer was the model. After completion of the new Rhein-Main-Hallen, the "Diana" will be given a new place nearby.

Herbert was buried in the cemetery in Wiesbaden-Bierstadt and was given a grave of honor by the state capital of Wiesbaden.

The Historical Expert Commission appointed by the City Council in 2020 to review traffic areas, buildings and facilities named after people in the state capital of Wiesbaden recommended renaming the Herbert complex because of Adam Herbert's memberships in various National Socialist organizations (NSDAP, NSV, NS-Altherrenbund, Reichsbund Deutsche Jägerschaft, RKB, RLSB) or National Socialist aligned organizations (Volksbund für das Deutschtum im Ausland). He also supported the Nazi movement materially through large donations to the NSDAP, SS and other Nazi organizations. Adam Herbert thus made a visible commitment to National Socialism as a political movement and to the Nazi regime. Adam Herbert also actively participated in the discrimination, exclusion and persecution of individuals or groups of people during the "Third Reich" by purchasing a pharmacy for less than its value from a previous Jewish owner ("Aryanization") and through the exploitative employment of forced labourers on his private estate. On February 1, 2024, the Wiesbaden-Mitte local council decided that the Herbert estate should be merged into the Reisinger estate.