Schulte, Alfred

Administrative official, NSDAP mayor of Wiesbaden

Born: 17.02.1872 in Iserlohn

died: 14.10.1957 in Wiesbaden

Alfred Schulte attended Iserlohn elementary school from 1878 to 1882. After graduating from the Realgymnasium Iserlohn in 1891, he worked for a year in the railroad works in Dortmund. Schulte then moved to Hanover and began studying at the Royal Technical University, which he continued in Berlin after passing his preliminary exams. He completed his studies in Berlin in 1895 with the government building supervisor examination and took up a position in the office for railroads and buildings at the Allgemeine Electricitäts-Gesellschaft (AEG) company in Berlin. Here he was chief engineer.

After two years, Schulte moved to the Berlin Railway Directorate and trained and retrained as a locomotive driver at the Potsdam railroad workshop. At the same time, he studied "electronic and commercial subjects" at the Technical University of Berlin. In 1897, he moved to Dresden, where he worked for the next five years as chief engineer at the Aktiengesellschaft Elektrizitätswerke. In 1903, Schulte applied for the position of electrical engineer and head of department at the Wiesbaden water, gas and electricity works, which he took up in 1904. Four years later, Schulte was acting head of the Wiesbaden water, gas and electricity works for almost two years.

On September 10, 1913, Schulte was elected to the Wiesbaden City Council as a salaried city councillor. He became deputy chairman "of the deputation of the water and light works". He was also appointed city treasurer. In 1915/16, he was responsible for the introduction of a new accounting system in the city administration, the so-called Wiesbaden system. On March 20, 1920, Schulte was elected Second Alderman by the city council. He also remained city treasurer.

Wiesbaden was occupied by Allied troops after the First World War as part of the occupation of the Rhineland. After the occupying administration had expelled Wiesbaden's Lord Mayor Fritz Travers (opens in a new tab) in 1923, Schulte temporarily headed the city administration until 1924. Travers was able to resume his office in November 1924. In the same year, Schulte became first deputy mayor (second mayor) and mayor in 1925. From 1925 to 1933, Schulte served as Chairman of the Nassau Association of Towns. After Travers died in 1929, he was once again temporary head of the city administration until the by-election of the liberal politician Georg Krücke (opens in a new tab) (DVP) on March 28, 1930.

After Hitler's "seizure of power" in January 1933, the National Socialists dismissed a large number of politically dissident civil servants. The "Decree for the Protection of the People and the State" issued by Reich President Hindenburg on February 28, 1933 also suspended elementary basic rights in Wiesbaden. After the NSDAP won the local elections in March 1933, Lord Mayor Georg Krücke was arrested on election day, released shortly afterwards and placed under police supervision. On June 3, 1933, Krücke resigned from the office of Lord Mayor due to the pressure exerted on him. Alfred Schulte did not actively support these events, but joined the NSDAP on May 1, 1933, having previously been a non-party member. Schulte also became a supporting member of the SS and numerous other Nazi organizations. The supporting members of the SS formed a sub-organization of the SS, which non-NSDAP members could also join and which served to collect donations for the establishment and expansion of the SS. The financial contributions, which were usually paid monthly, were not linked to any formal service in the SS.

After Kruecke's resignation, the office of Wiesbaden's Lord Mayor was initially to be filled by a long-serving member of the NSDAP. However, the National Socialists did not have a suitable candidate.

Schulte therefore came to the attention of Felix Piékarski, the district leader and faction leader of the Wiesbaden NSDAP. Piékarski supported Schulte's candidacy for Lord Mayor, which enabled him to become Mayor himself.

Schulte's appointment as Lord Mayor on October 6, 1933 was the highlight of his career. As Schulte only had a short term of office ahead of him due to his age, he can be seen as a transitional candidate for the search for a younger suitable NSDAP candidate. To further his career, Schulte also looked past the violence against political dissidents in the coming weeks and months, which particularly affected members of the KPD and SPD, and the murders of Jews by the SA in Wiesbaden. He did not become involved in NSDAP party politics.

On August 8, 1933, Schulte was elected Lord Mayor at the 7th session of the city council. On this occasion, he gave a short speech in which he emphasized that he had not only worked well with the NSDAP since the "seizure of power", but that a close relationship had already existed beforehand.
The minutes of the town council and councillors' meetings contain statements made by Schulte in support of the Nazi regime and Adolf Hitler. In March 1933, at the first meeting of the town council after the "seizure of power", Schulte began by praising Adolf Hitler and the new political conditions.

Between 1933 and 1937, Schulte's political office helped to establish and consolidate the Nazi regime and its structures at municipal level. Although Schulte was not directly involved in crimes or the disenfranchisement of the Jewish population or the Sinti and Roma, for example, he was informed about them and supported them. The suppression and persecution of political opponents of the National Socialists also took place with the knowledge and passive consent of the Lord Mayor.

When swearing in new councillors in 1935, Schulte thanked the Nazi government and Hitler.

During Alfred Schulte's term of office as Lord Mayor, Wiesbaden's economy recovered in the context of the general economic upswing. Visible results of this upswing were the opening of the Opelbad on the Neroberg in 1934 and the so-called brown trade fair in the Paulinenschlösschen in October 1933, where crafts considered to be "Aryan" were presented. The National Socialists also set new accents in the cultural field during Schulte's time in office, for example the 2000th anniversary, a fictitious date, was celebrated with a large parade. In March 1937, the anti-Jewish and anti-social exhibition "Degenerate Art" was shown in the Landesmuseum.

As the highest representative of the city, Schulte also received the Führer and Reich Chancellor Adolf Hitler in Wiesbaden in March 1935, in whose honour a festive concert was held in the Wiesbaden Kurhaus.

Alfred Schulte retired from the office of Lord Mayor of the City of Wiesbaden on March 31, 1937 for reasons of age. He was succeeded by the former NSDAP mayor of Tilsit, Erich Mix. From then on, Schulte lived as a pensioner in Wiesbaden and no longer appeared in public. A refuge inaugurated in 1937, probably on the occasion of his retirement, is named after him.
After 1945, Schulte attempted to justify his actions to the responsible Wiesbaden court. He declared that he had never been a "Nazi activist or beneficiary". Rather, he had been "an unwavering fighter for a clean mind in all matters of life, for justice, for humanity and for freedom of spirit". Schulte clarified his actions as an NSDAP politician by referring to the difficult economic situation of the city of Wiesbaden at the beginning of the 1930s. At the same time, he claimed that it was only thanks to his authority that there had been no radical, violent upheaval with riots in Wiesbaden in 1933.

In his denazification proceedings, Schulte also stated that he had resisted the National Socialist personnel policy and had protected five or six civil servants in key positions. Furthermore, Schulte claimed after 1945 that he had prevented the dismissal of disagreeable employees, civil servants and workers in the course of the "Law for the Restoration of the Professional Civil Service" in April 1933. Schulte's work in these personnel matters can be seen as a form of personal support for long-time companions, not as a form of opposition or even resistance to Nazi policies. On March 22, 1948, the Spruchkammer finally classified Schulte in Group 4 ("fellow travelers"). He had to pay 1,000 RM as "atonement".

Schulte lived as a pensioner in Wiesbaden after the war. The city of Wiesbaden awarded him its Golden Badge of Honor and after his death he was given an honorary grave, which has since been removed but not revoked.

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 Alfred-Schulte-Hütte because of Schulte's membership in various National Socialist organizations (NSDAP, supporting member of the SS, RDB, NSV, RKB, NS-Rechtswahrerbund, NS-Altherrenbund and NS-Bund Deutscher Technik) or National Socialist aligned organizations (Volksbund für das Deutschtum im Ausland). As Lord Mayor of Wiesbaden, he was an official within the Nazi state and thus actively supported the National Socialist state. Schulte publicly articulated the National Socialist ideology through his speeches in the Wiesbaden City Council and Councilmen's Assembly.

[This text was prepared by Dr. Rolf Faber for the 2017 printed version of the Wiesbaden City Dictionary and revised and supplemented by Dr. Katherine Lukat in 2024].