Adolf Mahr Research Paper
“To what extent did Adolf Mahr promote Nazi Party activities in Ireland during the inter-war years; 1927-1939?”
Introduction
Adolf Mahr was born in 1887 in Austria. He was married to Maria van Bemmelen who was from Holland. Their son Gustav was born in 1922 while they lived in Germany, and also their second child Hilde who was born in 1926; they had two younger daughters also. Ingrid, and Brigit, born in 1929, and 1933, both born in Ireland. Following independence in Ireland in 1922, Irish citizens with a good education had left Ireland for Britain and continental Europe where salaries were higher. The Irish government was forced to advertise abroad for a lot of jobs, mostly in continental Europe as hiring British managers at the time …show more content…
would have been politically unwise. Gustav Mahr believes it was in a Viennese newspaper that his father read the advert for a job in Ireland. Mahr had previously worked in museums in Austria and Germany and had reorganised them. In 1927 the Mahrs moved to Ireland, as Adolf had secured the job of; ’Keeper of Irish antiquities’, at the national museum in Dublin. The Mahr children were encouraged to speak German at home, and make German friends so as not to forget their culture. At that time in Ireland there was a community of German and Austrian citizens of about 250 people, they formed the German association.
Nazism
On January 30th, 1933 Hitler was appointed German chancellor. Two months later Adolf Mahr became a member of the Nazi party. His Nazism, like a lot of Germans and Austrians and the time, was probably fuelled by the resentment of the 1919 treaty of Versailles. He also probably had pent up nationalistic feelings about not being able to fight during the Great War due to injury. He had served in the Kaiser’s army in 1906 and during his student days received an arm wound during a sword duel. He was not an extremist in his views, and it was known that he had a friendship with a Jewish man, Albert Bender, from Sanfransico who donated artefacts and art to the museum Mahr ran. The two exchanged letters (but never met) from 1931 until 1939 when the Mahr family returned to Germany. Gustav Mahr gives his view on what could have fuelled his father’s Nazism; “Coming from a nationalistic academic rearing and career in the Habsburg Empire, he was a convinced supporter of the then emerging Third Reich.”
Religious Views
Mahr was raised a Catholic, but he did not practice his religion during adulthood, Maria was a member of the Dutch Reformed Church, neither was that bothered getting the children baptized, but having no religion was enough to be suspected of being Jewish so they were converted to Protestantism. Despite Mahr’s Nazism he was not severely anti-Semitic. He was opposed to ‘International Jewry’, but he didn’t have any problem with individual Jews. A few of his contacts were Jewish, and Hilde’s Jewish friends were welcomed at the house.
The Nazi Party in Ireland
In 1934 Mahr formed the Irish branch of the Nazi party called the ’Auslandorganisation’, along with the other Dublin-based Nazis.
Their meetings were first held in in a German social club behind the court laundry in Dublin. Another place frequented by the party for meetings was the Kilmacurragh Park Hotel, in Wicklow, and was run by a fellow German, Charles Budina. The German association was now numbering about five hundred people. Mahr became the first, ’Ortensgruppenleiter’, or local group leader. Maria Mahr did not join the Nazi Party. The branch was under the leadership of Otto Bene, who was leader of the British Nazi branch, but in 1935 the Irish branch detached themselves from the British branch so as not to offend the new de Valera government. The same year Mahr joined the ’Auslandorganisation’, (AO), which promoted trade links between Germany and other countries. The function of the (AO), although it wasn’t a secret organisation, was to watch and report any political developments in the country and to monitor Germans living in the country. Every district leader including Mahr had to write a monthly report on the current political situation in the country they were in, these were sent to the foreign office in
Berlin.
Developing the Nazi Branch
The highest rank in the Irish Nazi branch was the German Legation. In 1938, Mahr became the head of it, due to the former staff either being demoted or having left. He was now Hitler’s top man in Ireland. He was also friendly with Joachim von Ribbentrop, who was a senior Nazi who later became Hitler’s foreign minister. In 1933, the Irish Nazi branch established an Irish branch of the Hitler Youth for their children. It was very different to the German branch; Gustav described it saying, “It was pre-military training in a harmless fashion”. All four Mahr children were members.
Mahr under Surveillance A plebiscite was held in 1938 on the reunion of Austria and Germany. Mahr and the other adult members of the Dublin branch sailed three thousand miles from Dun Laoghaire into international waters and added their vote to the Anschluss. The same year, Hitler was on the verge of regaining the Sudetenland. International public opinion was against Nazi Germany. To avoid embarrassing his superiors by having a prominent Nazi in the civil service, Mahr resigned from being, ’Dublin Nazi No.1’, but not from the local branch or the (AO). After this surveillance on Mahr’s movements and mail were made by his employers. In October 1938, the Sudetenland seceded from Czechoslovakia to Germany. Between April and November 1938, tens of thousands of Jews were fleeing their native countries. One of Mahr’s former colleges in Austria, Dr. Alfons Barb, asked him for help in escaping the Nazis. Mahr wrote to Bender asking him to help Barb saying, “I have a very high opinion of this mans abilities and I beg of you most sincerely to think it over whether you think anything could be done for him.”
Leaving Ireland
In 1939 the Mahr family planned a trip to Ostmark (name applied to Austria following Anschluss). Mahr had been invited to be a delegate to the Sixth International Congress of Archaeology in Berlin, and he also wanted to attend the 1939 Nuremburg rally. The family left for Austria on the 19th of July 1939. In the autumn of 1939 the Irish National Museum cut Adolf off leaving the Mahr family financially unstable. In April 1940 Mahr moved to Berlin to get work, he was now working in the foreign office for the radio. He himself didn’t talk on the air as his German accent was too strong and the broadcasts were aired in Ireland and Britain. At this time Maria Mahr and her daughters were living in Bad Ischl in Germany, Gustav was living in Berlin sitting his final school exams and was then drafted into the military. He later built bridges during Operation Barbarossa. By 1941 Adolf and Maria’s marriage had broken up due to Maria disagreeing with anti-Semitism and the Nazi’s harsh ways, she had learned about the harsh treatment of Jews and told [Mahr] that “no SS man would ever enter their home again”. In May 1943, Gustav was taken into custody by the British who in turn handed him over to the Americans. He was questioned as his Irish accent suggested he was part of the British Commonwealth and so he was classed as a traitor for serving in the German army. He was put on an American troop ship and sent to a prisoner of war camp in USA until the end of the war.
Mahr’s Capture
In January 1946 Mahr was arrested by British troops at Oldenburg and sent to a former Nazi concentration camp at Fallingbostel. It was said that the British tried to kill Mahr quietly by exposing him to extreme harsh conditions such as starving him, making him sleep outside with no bedding in freezing conditions, and beating him. His health was deteriorating and so the British released him and sent him home on April 10th 1946, where his death would attract less attention. But he did not die. Gustav was also released in 1946 and returned to Germany. He was given a job as an interpreter by the British (where he worked for the next five years). Post-War Life
It was extremely difficult for Adolf Mahr to gain employment in post-war Germany due to his previous involvement in Nazi activities. He had to submit to the denazification procedure by answering a questionnaire about previous military involvement, previous and present political party involvement, religious affiliation, publications written, records of employment, journeys abroad since 1933 and written recommendations to vouch for his good qualities, Mahr collected 25 of these including one from Alfons Barb (the Austrian Jew he had helped escape from the Nazis in 1938). Barb wrote; “Although he was fully aware of my Jewish race, he gave me his unreserved assistance and throughout all the following years showed me much kindness and friendship”. Following ‘denazification’ the person in question could expect to be given one of four classifications (Category I being reserved for the most severe Nazis). Mahr was classed in category II reserved for activists, militarists, profiteers. He would not be brought to trial or have to pay fines but he couldn’t work. By 1948 he was downgraded to a category III Nazi, which allowed him to work. He left Maria and the children for Bonn, where he got a job in the museum there until the time of his death in 1951 aged sixty-four.
Conclusion
Mahr did contribute to the German war effort in Ireland but it wouldn’t be true to say that he made any major difference to the German Branch of Nazis because he wasn’t anti-Semitic. He didn’t persecute Jewish people nor did he actively involve himself in the attempt at gaining the Third Reich, he simply kept up the spirit of the Irish Nazi’s and for that I don’t think he can be classed as a ‘war criminal’
Introduction
Adolf Mahr was born in 1887 in Austria. He was married to Maria van Bemmelen who was from Holland. Their son Gustav was born in 1922 while they lived in Germany, and also their second child Hilde who was born in 1926; they had two younger daughters also. Ingrid, and Brigit, born in 1929, and 1933, both born in Ireland. Following independence in Ireland in 1922, Irish citizens with a good education had left Ireland for Britain and continental Europe where salaries were higher. The Irish government was forced to advertise abroad for a lot of jobs, mostly in continental Europe as hiring British managers at the time …show more content…
would have been politically unwise. Gustav Mahr believes it was in a Viennese newspaper that his father read the advert for a job in Ireland. Mahr had previously worked in museums in Austria and Germany and had reorganised them. In 1927 the Mahrs moved to Ireland, as Adolf had secured the job of; ’Keeper of Irish antiquities’, at the national museum in Dublin. The Mahr children were encouraged to speak German at home, and make German friends so as not to forget their culture. At that time in Ireland there was a community of German and Austrian citizens of about 250 people, they formed the German association.
Nazism
On January 30th, 1933 Hitler was appointed German chancellor. Two months later Adolf Mahr became a member of the Nazi party. His Nazism, like a lot of Germans and Austrians and the time, was probably fuelled by the resentment of the 1919 treaty of Versailles. He also probably had pent up nationalistic feelings about not being able to fight during the Great War due to injury. He had served in the Kaiser’s army in 1906 and during his student days received an arm wound during a sword duel. He was not an extremist in his views, and it was known that he had a friendship with a Jewish man, Albert Bender, from Sanfransico who donated artefacts and art to the museum Mahr ran. The two exchanged letters (but never met) from 1931 until 1939 when the Mahr family returned to Germany. Gustav Mahr gives his view on what could have fuelled his father’s Nazism; “Coming from a nationalistic academic rearing and career in the Habsburg Empire, he was a convinced supporter of the then emerging Third Reich.”
Religious Views
Mahr was raised a Catholic, but he did not practice his religion during adulthood, Maria was a member of the Dutch Reformed Church, neither was that bothered getting the children baptized, but having no religion was enough to be suspected of being Jewish so they were converted to Protestantism. Despite Mahr’s Nazism he was not severely anti-Semitic. He was opposed to ‘International Jewry’, but he didn’t have any problem with individual Jews. A few of his contacts were Jewish, and Hilde’s Jewish friends were welcomed at the house.
The Nazi Party in Ireland
In 1934 Mahr formed the Irish branch of the Nazi party called the ’Auslandorganisation’, along with the other Dublin-based Nazis.
Their meetings were first held in in a German social club behind the court laundry in Dublin. Another place frequented by the party for meetings was the Kilmacurragh Park Hotel, in Wicklow, and was run by a fellow German, Charles Budina. The German association was now numbering about five hundred people. Mahr became the first, ’Ortensgruppenleiter’, or local group leader. Maria Mahr did not join the Nazi Party. The branch was under the leadership of Otto Bene, who was leader of the British Nazi branch, but in 1935 the Irish branch detached themselves from the British branch so as not to offend the new de Valera government. The same year Mahr joined the ’Auslandorganisation’, (AO), which promoted trade links between Germany and other countries. The function of the (AO), although it wasn’t a secret organisation, was to watch and report any political developments in the country and to monitor Germans living in the country. Every district leader including Mahr had to write a monthly report on the current political situation in the country they were in, these were sent to the foreign office in
Berlin.
Developing the Nazi Branch
The highest rank in the Irish Nazi branch was the German Legation. In 1938, Mahr became the head of it, due to the former staff either being demoted or having left. He was now Hitler’s top man in Ireland. He was also friendly with Joachim von Ribbentrop, who was a senior Nazi who later became Hitler’s foreign minister. In 1933, the Irish Nazi branch established an Irish branch of the Hitler Youth for their children. It was very different to the German branch; Gustav described it saying, “It was pre-military training in a harmless fashion”. All four Mahr children were members.
Mahr under Surveillance A plebiscite was held in 1938 on the reunion of Austria and Germany. Mahr and the other adult members of the Dublin branch sailed three thousand miles from Dun Laoghaire into international waters and added their vote to the Anschluss. The same year, Hitler was on the verge of regaining the Sudetenland. International public opinion was against Nazi Germany. To avoid embarrassing his superiors by having a prominent Nazi in the civil service, Mahr resigned from being, ’Dublin Nazi No.1’, but not from the local branch or the (AO). After this surveillance on Mahr’s movements and mail were made by his employers. In October 1938, the Sudetenland seceded from Czechoslovakia to Germany. Between April and November 1938, tens of thousands of Jews were fleeing their native countries. One of Mahr’s former colleges in Austria, Dr. Alfons Barb, asked him for help in escaping the Nazis. Mahr wrote to Bender asking him to help Barb saying, “I have a very high opinion of this mans abilities and I beg of you most sincerely to think it over whether you think anything could be done for him.”
Leaving Ireland
In 1939 the Mahr family planned a trip to Ostmark (name applied to Austria following Anschluss). Mahr had been invited to be a delegate to the Sixth International Congress of Archaeology in Berlin, and he also wanted to attend the 1939 Nuremburg rally. The family left for Austria on the 19th of July 1939. In the autumn of 1939 the Irish National Museum cut Adolf off leaving the Mahr family financially unstable. In April 1940 Mahr moved to Berlin to get work, he was now working in the foreign office for the radio. He himself didn’t talk on the air as his German accent was too strong and the broadcasts were aired in Ireland and Britain. At this time Maria Mahr and her daughters were living in Bad Ischl in Germany, Gustav was living in Berlin sitting his final school exams and was then drafted into the military. He later built bridges during Operation Barbarossa. By 1941 Adolf and Maria’s marriage had broken up due to Maria disagreeing with anti-Semitism and the Nazi’s harsh ways, she had learned about the harsh treatment of Jews and told [Mahr] that “no SS man would ever enter their home again”. In May 1943, Gustav was taken into custody by the British who in turn handed him over to the Americans. He was questioned as his Irish accent suggested he was part of the British Commonwealth and so he was classed as a traitor for serving in the German army. He was put on an American troop ship and sent to a prisoner of war camp in USA until the end of the war.
Mahr’s Capture
In January 1946 Mahr was arrested by British troops at Oldenburg and sent to a former Nazi concentration camp at Fallingbostel. It was said that the British tried to kill Mahr quietly by exposing him to extreme harsh conditions such as starving him, making him sleep outside with no bedding in freezing conditions, and beating him. His health was deteriorating and so the British released him and sent him home on April 10th 1946, where his death would attract less attention. But he did not die. Gustav was also released in 1946 and returned to Germany. He was given a job as an interpreter by the British (where he worked for the next five years). Post-War Life
It was extremely difficult for Adolf Mahr to gain employment in post-war Germany due to his previous involvement in Nazi activities. He had to submit to the denazification procedure by answering a questionnaire about previous military involvement, previous and present political party involvement, religious affiliation, publications written, records of employment, journeys abroad since 1933 and written recommendations to vouch for his good qualities, Mahr collected 25 of these including one from Alfons Barb (the Austrian Jew he had helped escape from the Nazis in 1938). Barb wrote; “Although he was fully aware of my Jewish race, he gave me his unreserved assistance and throughout all the following years showed me much kindness and friendship”. Following ‘denazification’ the person in question could expect to be given one of four classifications (Category I being reserved for the most severe Nazis). Mahr was classed in category II reserved for activists, militarists, profiteers. He would not be brought to trial or have to pay fines but he couldn’t work. By 1948 he was downgraded to a category III Nazi, which allowed him to work. He left Maria and the children for Bonn, where he got a job in the museum there until the time of his death in 1951 aged sixty-four.
Conclusion
Mahr did contribute to the German war effort in Ireland but it wouldn’t be true to say that he made any major difference to the German Branch of Nazis because he wasn’t anti-Semitic. He didn’t persecute Jewish people nor did he actively involve himself in the attempt at gaining the Third Reich, he simply kept up the spirit of the Irish Nazi’s and for that I don’t think he can be classed as a ‘war criminal’