Dietrich, Otto

Origin. Early years

The son of a merchant. Until 1914 he attended a real gymnasium in Essen .

Member of the First World War : in March 1915 he entered the army as a volunteer, fought on the Western Front, in 1918 he was an officer of the 7th Westphalian Artillery Regiment. For military distinction, he was awarded the Iron Cross of the 1st and 2nd class.

After the war, he studied at the Munich , Frankfurt and Freiburg universities , the latter graduated in 1921 with a doctorate in political economics. After completing his studies, he worked as an assistant in trade issues at the Essen Chamber of Commerce and was editor of the sales department of the Essen Allgemeinen Zeitung . In 1928 he worked at the Munich representative office of this newspaper, then was the head of the stock exchange department of the nationalist Munich-Augsburg evening newspaper ( München-Augsburger Abendzeitung ) and at the same time was the Munich correspondent for the Leipziger Neuesten Nachrichten newspaper . In 1928, he married the daughter of the owner of the Rhine-Westphalian Newspaper ( Reinisch Westalische Zeitung ).

Career in the National Socialist Movement

Rotating among nationalists, became close to the Nazis and in 1929 joined the NSDAP (membership card No. 126727). Returning to Essen , in 1929 he became editor shortly before the Nazi party created the National Gazet ( Nationalzeitung ). Then he began to provide consulting services to the Nazi party and act as an intermediary between the Nazis and representatives of the Rhine industry. In 1931 he became deputy chief editor of the Essen National Zeitung .

On August 1, 1931, he headed the party department of the press, the so-called. The “Imperial Press Service” ( Reichspressenstelle , RPS) became the press secretary of the NSDAP ( Leiter der Pressenstelle der NSDAP ), which from February 28, 1934 became known as the Imperial Press Chief ( Reichspressenschef ). December 24, 1932 joined the SS (ticket number 101 349).

The Imperial Press Service, headed by O. Dietrich, was one of the Main Directorates in the system of the Imperial leadership of the NSDAP (the so-called Reichsleitung). She maintained public relations with the NSDAP and directed the entire party press, including Nazi public organizations. However, she had the exclusive right to issue media directives on party issues.

After Hitler came to power on January 30, 1933, O. Dietrich was tasked with coordinating the work of the entire German press.

O. Dietrich accompanied Hitler to Munich and Bad Wiessee during the “Night of Long Knives” of 1934, when the top SA leadership, headed by the Chief of Staff of the SA Ernst Roehm , was destroyed, and later published in the press a report on the suppression of the “putsch SA”, especially focusing on the moral decay of the “old comrades” (E. Röhm and his comrades were homosexuals ). In 1936 he became a deputy of the Reichstag from Leipzig . On November 26, 1937, he replaced Walter Funck as the spokesman for the Imperial Government, and in April 1938 he was appointed state secretary headed by Josef Goebbels of the Imperial Ministry of Education and Propaganda ( Staatssekretär im Reichsministerium für Volksaufklärung und Propaganda and then as president of the Imperial Press Chamber.

In these posts, the activities of O. Dietrich intersected and constantly conflicted with the activities of Joseph Goebbels as the head of the Imperial Propaganda Leadership ( Reichspropagandaleitung ) - the main directorate in the system of the Imperial leadership of the Nazi Party, supervising the entire propaganda work of the Nazi party, as well as Max Amman - the imperial press leader , Director of the Central Publishing House of the NSDAP " Eher Ferlag " ( Franz Eher Verlag GmbH ) and Chairman of the German Association of Newspaper Publishers.

Being appointed Secretary of State of the Imperial Ministry of Education and Propaganda, O. Dietrich had to obey J. Goebbels as Reichsminister , but both of them had an equal position in the NSDAP , both were Reichsleiter , and therefore O. Dietrich often pursued his policy. ignoring the Reich Minister. At the end of the war, J. Goebbels himself wrote in his diaries that he was as exhausted in the struggle with O. Dietrich as "the Fuhrer is on his generals" ^[1] .

After the outbreak of World War II, O. Dietrich daily sent directives to the media on how to interpret events at the front.

July 20, 1944 during the assassination attempt on A. Hitler was in his headquarters " Wolf's Lair " near Rastenburg ( East Prussia ). The conspirators then disconnected the connection of the rate with the rest of the world, but there was a special communication cable between O. Dietrich in the rate and J. Goebbels in Berlin , by which O. Dietrich was the first to inform J. Goebbels of the attempt by telephone. This allowed J. Goebbels, the only high-ranking Nazi boss who was in Berlin, to immediately begin to suppress the rebellion of the generals.

Only at the end of the war, at a personal meeting with Hitler on March 31, 1945, J. Goebbels managed to get him to make a decision on the removal of O. Dietrich from the post of imperial press chief ^[2] .

After the war

May 18, 1945 O. Dietrich was arrested by British troops. At the trial of the American Military Tribunal in Nuremberg for the so-called. On April 11, 1949, the “Wilhelmstrasse Case” was sentenced to 7 years in prison. August 16, 1950, by decision of the High Occupation Commissioner in Germany, General John McClay was released.

Literary character

According to the functions performed by the NSDAP, Otto Dietrich served as the prototype of Gansjorg Lautenzak - the character of the Lyon Feuchtwanger novel by the Lautensack Brothers .

• Class 1 Iron Cross (1914)
• 2nd Class Iron Cross (1914)
• Chevron of the old fighter
• Honorary Cross of a War Veteran
• Golden Badge of the NSDAP
• Medal of Service in the NSDAP in bronze and silver
• Ring "Dead Head"
• Reichsfuhrer SS Honor Saber

• Mit Hitler in die Macht. München: Eher, 1933 (repeatedly reprinted in German, translated into English) .
• Neue Sinngebung der Politik. München: Eher, 1934.
• Die philosophischen Grundlagen des Nationalsozialismus. Breslau: F. Hirt, 1935 (Bulgarian version - Philosophical foundations on National Socialism. Sofia: Nova Europe, 1941) .
• Das Wirtschaftsdenken im Dritten Reich. München: Eher, 1936.
• Weltpresse ohne Maske. Dortmund: Westfalen-Verl., 1937 (repeatedly reprinted in German) .
• Nationalsozialistische Pressepolitik. Berlin: [Terramare Office], 1938 (translated into English, French, Italian, and Spanish) .
• Revolution des Denkens. Dortmund: Westfalen Verl., 1939 (translated into English, Czech, and Bulgarian) .
• Der Nationalsozialismus als Weltanschauung und Staatsgedanke. Berlin: Industrieverl. Spaeth & Linde, 1939.
• Auf den Straßen des Sieges. München: Eher, 1939 (repeatedly reprinted in German) .
• The Press and world Politics. London: Thornton Butterworth, [um 1940].
• Die geistigen Grundlagen des neuen Europa. Berlin: Eher, 1941 (translated into English, French, Italian, Spanish, Czech and Norwegian) .
• Deutschlands Sieg, der Weg in die Zukunft. Berlin-München: Zentralverl. d. NSDAP., Eher, 1944 (translated into French, Italian, Spanish, Portuguese, and Norwegian) .
• Hitler démasqué. Paris: Grasset, 1955.
• 12 Jahre mit Hitler. München: Isar Verl., 1955 (Russian version - “Twelve Years with Hitler. Memoirs of the Imperial Press Leader 1933-1945.” M., 2007) .
• The Hitler I knew. London: Methuen, 1957.

• Zalessky K.A. Leaders and military leaders of the Third Reich: Biographical Encyclopedic Dictionary .. - M .: "Veche", 2000. - P. 168-169. - 576 [16 ill.] P. - ISBN 5-7838-0550-5 .

• Zalessky K.A. Who was who in the Third Reich: Biographical Encyclopedic Dictionary .. - M .: Publishing House AST: LLC Publishing House Astrel, 2002. - S. 283-284. - 942 [2] p. - ISBN 5-17-015753-3 (LLC "Publishing house AST"); isbn 5-271-05091-2 (Astrel Publishing House LLC).

• Zalessky K.A. NSDAP. Power in the Third Reich. - M .: Eksmo , 2005 .-- S. 199-200. - 672 p. - ISBN 5-699-09780-5 .

• Zalessky K.A. SS. Security detachments of the NSDAP .. - M .: Eksmo , 2004. - S. 229-230. - 656 p. - ISBN 5-699-06944-5 .

• Ernst Klee ( Ernst Klee ) “Dictionary of the personalities of the Third Reich. Who was who before and after 1945 ”( “ Wer war was vor und nach 1945 ” ). Frankfurt am Main. 2003.
• Jana Richter : “Otto Dietrich” in Hermann Weiss’s book “Biographical Dictionary of the Third Reich” ( “Biographisches Lexikon zum Dritten Reich” ). Frankfurt am Main. 1998, S. 87-88.

Dietrich, Otto at the German National Library .

• Die philosophischen Grundlagen des Nationalsozialismus von Otto Dietrich