Description
During the First World War he worked at a military epidemic hospital in Bayreuth where he became infected with tuberculosis. In 1919 he belonged to the Freikorps Bayreuth, which took part in the street fighting that was common at the time among opposing political groups in Munich. Schemm’s interactions with Nazi groups had begun by 1923. On September 30 of that year he first met Adolf Hitler. With Hitler’s quick confidence, Shemm became an assessor in the Bayreuth Völkischer Bund in 1924; and in the following year he organized the Bayreuth Nazi Ortsgruppe (“Local Group”) and the Nazi Gau of Upper Franconia (Oberfranken). Schemm built the organization up with determination. His political positions were clearly antidemocratic, anti-Semitic and anti-Communist, as can be seen in some of his quotations: “We are revolutionary, we want to overthrow the present state … On our enemies, we shall take revenge, and indeed bloody revenge.” “We are not objective – we are German!” ” … that a Jew should dangle from every lamppost.” In 1927, Schemm founded the National Socialist Teachers’ Federation. In 1928, he became a member of the Bavarian Landtag. As party leader for Bavaria, Schemm was responsible for preparing the party members and candidates for the election campaigns. In 1929 under Schemm’s management the Munich Nazis won 9 seats, and Schemm became the faction leader. The presence of the Nazi representatives in the parliament was controversial. Schemm also took on the role of publicist in the late 20s: for a brief period he took over the leadership of several Nazi newspapers (Streiter, Weckruf and Nationale Zeitung). In April 1929, Schemm founded his own newspaper; and in August of the same year appeared in the Nationalsozialistische Lehrerzeitung (“National Socialist Teachers’ Newspaper”), the National Socialist Teachers League’s (NSLB) journalistic organ. On 1 October 1930 came the first edition of the weekly newspaper Kampf für deutsche Freiheit und Kultur (“Struggle for German Freedom and Culture”), which was published by Schemm, and whose circulation rose from 3,000 in the beginning to 20,000 by 1932. In 1931, Schemm founded the Bayreuth National Socialist Cultural Publishing House (Nationalsozialistischer Kulturverlag Bayreuth), which beginning on 1 October 1932 published the daily newspaper Das Fränkische Volk (circulation: 10,000). In 1930, Schemm became a member of the German national parliament, the Reichstag. In 1933, the Gau of Upper Franconia, led by Schlemm, was united with the Gau of Upper Palatinate-Lower Bavaria (Oberpfalz-Niederbayern) to form the Gau Bayerische Ostmark. Schemm kept his job as Gauleiter. Furthermore, he became an SA Gruppenführer. On 16 March 1933, the Reich Governor (Reichsstatthalter) Franz Ritter von Epp appointed Schemm to be the provisional Culture Minister. Hitler then appointed him on 13 April 1933 the “Leader of Cultural and Educational Affairs of Bavaria”. In 1933, Schemm became an honorary citizen of Bayreuth. In April 1933, when Schemm arrived in Passau to attend the laying of the corner stone for the Hall of the Nibelungs, he also addressed the masses. Passau honored Schemm by dedicating a street and a school to him. In March 1935 Schemm was seriously injured in an aircraft crash. Although Hitler personally ordered Berlin Professor Ferdinand Sauerbruch to fly to Bayreuth, Schemm, however, succumbed to his injuries on March 5 before the professor’s arrival. His successor as Gauleiter was Fritz Wächtler. The Nazis posthumously honored Schemm as a publicist and educator by naming multiple schools, streets, and halls after him. Max Schemm (1891 – 1935) was a public propagandist, as a member of the NSDAP. A tough signature to locate, he has signed a very dramatic original photo print, and inscribed the following: Heil Hitler H. Schemm Staatsm. f., Unt. and Culture Munich on 20.12.1933 100% ORIGINAL, it comes complete in the original period frame. Would make for an EXCELLENT display!
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