Waldemar Magunia

Waldemar Magunia
Magunia, c. 1938
Generalkommissar, Generalbezirk Kiev
Reichskommissariat Ukraine
In office
14 February 1942 – 6 October 1943
Appointed byErich Koch
Preceded byHelmut Quitzrau [de]
Succeeded byPosition abolished
Deputy and Representative of the
Chief of Civil Administration
Bezirk Bialystok
In office
August 1941 – January 1942
Appointed byErich Koch
Gauobmann in East Prussia
German Labor Front
In office
1937–1941
Appointed byRobert Ley
Deputy Gauleiter
Gau East Prussia
In office
January 1926 – 15 September 1928
Personal details
Born8 December 1902
Königsberg, East Prussia, Kingdom of Prussia, German Empire
Died16 February 1974 (1974-02-17) (aged 71)
Oldenburg in Holstein, Schleswig-Holstein, West Germany
Political partyNazi Party
ProfessionMaster baker
Military service
Allegiance German Empire
Branch/serviceImperial German Army
Freikorps
Years of service1918–1922
Unit1st (East Prussian) Foot Artillery Regiment
Battles/warsWorld War I

Waldemar Magunia (8 December 1902 - 16 February 1974) was a Nazi Party politician and an SA-Oberführer in the Nazi paramilitary organization, the Sturmabteilung (SA). During the Second World War, he worked in the occupied eastern territories, as the deputy to Erich Koch, the Chief of Civil Administration in Bezirk Bialystok, and then as the Generalkommissar for the General District of Kiev in the Reichskommissariat Ukraine.

Early life

Magunia was born in Königsberg in East Prussia. After attending middle school, he volunteered for service in the First World War with the 1st (East Prussian) Foot Artillery Regiment "von Linger" on 28 March 1918. At the end of the war, he joined a Freikorps unit and left the military on 31 December 1922. He then completed an apprenticeship as a baker, passed the journeyman's and master's examinations by 1927 and then worked as a master baker.[1]

Nazi Party career

Magunia joined the Nazi Party in June 1921 and was appointed leader of the first Sturmabteilung (SA) unit in East Prussia. He served as the deputy Gauleiter in Gau East Prussia from January 1926 to 15 September 1928.[2] He was elected as a member of the Landtag of Prussia in 1932, serving until its dissolution in October 1933. Also in 1932, he became the Party economic advisor in Gau East Prussia under Gauleiter Erich Koch. In 1933, he was briefly a member of the East Prussian provincial parliament. In April 1933, he became president of the Handwerkskammer (Chamber of Crafts) for East Prussia, serving until 1942. In 1934, he attained the status of a Landeshandwerksmeister (State Master Craftsman). In November 1933, he was elected as a deputy to the Reichstag from electoral constituency 1 (East Prussia) and was re-elected in 1936 and 1938, serving until the fall of the Nazi regime.[3] From 1937 to 1941, he also served as Gauobmann (chairman) of the German Labor Front (DAF) in Gau East Prussia.[4]

Second World War

From August 1941 to January 1942, Magunia served as the deputy and representative of Erich Koch who was the Chief of Civil Administration in Bezirk Bialystok, territory occupied after the German invasion of the Soviet Union. Finally, on 14 February 1942, Manugia was appointed the Generalkommissar (General Commissioner) for the Generalbezirk Kiev in the Reichskommissariat Ukraine, also under Koch who was the Reichskommissar. He remained in that post until just before the city fell to the Red Army in November 1943. In 1944, Magunia was promoted to the rank of SA-Oberführer.[4]

After the end of the war in 1945, Magunia worked as a manager at a firm in Oldenburg in Holstein. In 1957, he stood as a candidate for the Bundestag for the Deutsche Reichspartei, a neo-Nazi party. He died on 16 February 1974 in Oldenburg in Holstein.[5]

References

  1. ^ Das Deutsche Führerlexikon 1934-1935 p. 297
  2. ^ Miller & Schulz 2012, p. 31.
  3. ^ Waldemar Magunia biography in the Rechstag Members Database
  4. ^ a b Stockhorst 1985, p. 282.
  5. ^ Klee 2007, p. 387.

Sources

  • Klee, Ernst (2007). Das Personenlexikon zum Dritten Reich. Wer war was vor und nach 1945. Frankfurt-am-Main: Fischer-Taschenbuch-Verlag. ISBN 978-3-596-16048-8.
  • Miller, Michael D.; Schulz, Andreas (2012). Gauleiter: The Regional Leaders of the Nazi Party and Their Deputies, 1925–1945. Vol. 1 (Herbert Albrecht – H. Wilhelm Hüttmann). R. James Bender Publishing. ISBN 978-1-932-97021-0.
  • Stockhorst, Erich (1985). 5000 Köpfe: Wer War Was im 3. Reich. Arndt. ISBN 978-3-887-41116-9.