After the seizure of power by the National Socialist German Workers Party (NSDAP) in the year 1933, the state borders initially remained unchanged. The state of Baden, the state of Württemberg and the Hohenzollern states (the government district of Sigmaringen) continued to exist, albeit with much less autonomy with regard to the empire. There were no state legislatures any more, either in Karlsruhe or in Stuttgart. The state governments could now issue laws without the agreement of popular representation. They themselves were just branch offices of the Reich (imperial) government in Berlin.
The NSDAP created two districts (Gaue): the Gau Baden and the
Gau Württemberg-Hohenzollern. This was basically a small step toward the
unification of the German southwest. The Gauleiters (district leaders)
(Robert Wagner in Baden and Wilhelm Murr in Württemberg) were at the same
time regents of the Reich, or plenipotentiaries of the Reich government.
They were able to giver orders to the state governments.
The Reich Autobahnen (super highways), which were envisioned as
future military roads, that appeared from 1933 on were important. They
served as the great, visible construction effort of the Third Reich, that
helped to reduce the numbers of the unemployed. The plans for them were
in fact in place long before the Hitler government.
The terror began in the shadow of the seizure of power - in the
face of genuine enthusiasm over the political new beginning by the majority
of the population, it was hardly noticed. Opponents of the National Socialists
were taken to the first concentration camps, in Baden to Kislau and Ankenbuck,
and in Württemberg to the Heuberg, to the Kuhberg near Ulm and to Welzheim
or to Dachau in Bavaria. In 1944 there appeared, as subordinate commands
of the Natzweiler, Alsace concentration camp, other labor camps by war
materiel plants, for example in the area of Balingen (shale works) and
Mosbach. Now the people could for the first time see slave laborers in
their striped suits. The death camps in the east remained unknown.
For most people it was economically better than in the previous four years.
Many got employment, and their jobs seemed to be secure. For a numerically
smaller group it got still worse: Jewish fellow citizens (in 1933 there
were 30941). In 1933 the Jews were attacked as "parasites of the
people;" in 1935 their rights were curtailed and they were no longer recognized
as citizens. In 1938 their houses of worship were burned and their shops
wrecked. In multiple waves, the Jews disappeared from Germany between
1935 and 1940, initially as "emigrants" to France, the USA and to Israel.
From 1941 on, the rulers began to murder the Jews in the death camps.
The Jewish communities that existed before 1933 were no more.
Another unwanted group of people were the mentally and physically handicapped.
They were also killed, e.g., in Grafeneck. Gypsies were also considered
racially inferior. They met the same fate as the Jews.
The growth of the economy was also preparation for war. In sight
of all, many new casernes and about 40 military airfields appeared. Along
the Rhine, the Western Rampart was built in 1938-39 (630 kilometers from
Aachen to the Swiss border).
In 1939 war broke out. There was no enthusiasm as in 1914, but the initial
successes (1939 in Poland and 1940 in France) aroused admiration. On the
Upper Rhine, the annexation of Alsace in 1940 appeared to be a wish come
true. The Gau of Baden was now called the Gau of Baden-Alsace. The Gauleiter
of Baden was concurrently the Chief of Civil Administration in Alsace.
In the war with Russia, there were severe defeats beginning in 1942. The
front was slowly pushed back even into the homeland. Because of the air
raids, people, particularly in the big cities, were in constant mortal
danger. The centers of the armaments industries were bombed, but also
the cores of cities such as Freiburg, Heilbronn and Ulm. On top of casualties
on the front from Baden and Württemberg (285,000) came the victims of
the air war (40,000). The many prisoners of war and foreign workers who
had to work in the armaments industries and in agriculture were also victims
of the war, often including fatalities.
From 1944 on, defeat was in sight. In November, American troops
pushed suddenly as far as Strassbourg and stood on the left bank of the
Rhine. Only in March and the beginning of April 1945 did American and
French troops cross the Rhine in North Baden. Heavy battles with destruction
occurred especially between Heilbronn and Crailsheim and near Freudenstadt.
Party functionaries and SS units tried in some places, by summary executions
of citizens who put up senseless defensive measures, to firm up the resistance.
In the Hohenlohe village of Brettheim for example, three citizens were
hanged at the gate of the village cemetery because they had taken anti-tank
weapons away from the Hitler Youth. By 30 April, all of Baden, Württemberg
and Hohenzollern were completely occupied.
