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5
DAMIAN KRATZENBERG
1878: born in Clerf (L)
1902-1940: secondary school teacher for German and Greek in Diekirch, Echternach and at the Luxembourg Athenaeum
1935-1940: president of GEDELIT (Society for German Literature and Art)
1940: national leader of the Volksdeutsche Bewegung (movement of ethnic Germans)
03.1941: director of the Athenaeum
1946: death sentence and execution by firing squad
Die Absicht der VdB war rein, hätte uns nur die Partei nicht mit Beschlag belegt, wir hätten es bewiesen, wir wollten das Beste der Heimat. Deutschland hatte gerufen u. die Losung: Heim ins Reich schien uns nicht nur ein Recht, sondern eine Pflicht zu sein.
Damian Kratzenberg, interrogation, 8 June 1946
Kratzenberg hält eine Rede vor der Hitlerjugend, Luxemburg Juli/August 1942.
In the 1930s, Damian Kratzenberg was an enthusiastic supporter of German language and literature and a convinced advocate of the Deutschstämmigkeit, or ethnic German roots, of Luxembourgers. In 1936 Adolf Hitler awarded him the “Goethe Medal for Art and Science” in recognition of his services to German culture as a teacher and director of GEDELIT. After the occupation of Luxembourg by the German Reich, Kratzenberg was appointed national leader of the Volksdeutsche Bewegung (VdB, movement of ethnic Germans) in July 1940. In 1941 he was the first Luxembourger to be admitted to the NSDAP. His goal was to lead Luxembourg “home to the Reich”. In many speeches, leaflets, newspaper articles and brochures he tried to convince Luxembourgers of the importance of joining the German Reich. Even the increasingly brutal, repressive and terrorist measures of Gauleiter Gustav Simon, which claimed numerous lives, did nothing to change his views. On 1 September 1944 he managed to avoid capture by the American troops, taking refuge near Lake Constance in Germany. A year later he was arrested, extradited to Luxembourg and put on trial. Damian Kratzenberg was convicted of treason by a special court in August 1946 and executed by firing squad on 11 October 1946.
Work
Mit der Verschickung in Konzentrationslager war ich absolut nicht einverstanden. Wenn man mir gefolgt hätte, wären keine Gewalttaten begangen worden.
Damian Kratzenberg, interrogation, 8 June 1946
Caricature of Kratzenberg in the dock, artist: Albert Simon
Du bist deutsch nach allem, was du bist und hast, Abstammung, Sprache und Geschichte. Auf Deutschland bist du angewiesen in jeder Hinsicht: sprachlich, kulturell, wirtschaftlich, politisch. Du kannst gar nicht anders als deutsch sein.
Damian Kratzenberg, brochure, 1940
Damian Kratzenberg published brochures of this type to gain Luxembourgers’ acceptance for the Volksdeutsche Bewegung, Luxembourg 1940
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