Adolf Wagner

Five months after the Nazi Party was re-established, he re-joined it on 20 July 1925. On 1 October 1928 he was appointed Gauleiter of the Upper Palatinate. On 1 November 1929 he was switched to the prestigious post of Gauleiter of Greater Munich, the seat of the Nazi movement. Finally, on 16 November 1930 his Gau absorbed the neighboring Gau of Upper Bavaria and he became Gauleiter of Gau Munich-Upper Bavaria, which was given the special designation Traditionsgau.[5][6] As Gauleiter of Munich, Wagner served as the master of ceremonies for the annual commemorations of the 1923 Beer Hall Putsch every 9 November. Also, Wagner was given the honorary title of Speaker of the Party, a special designation that entitled him to read the Führer's proclamations at public events such as the annual Nazi Party rally held in Nuremberg. Wagner's pitch, intonation and speaking style were considered very similar to Adolf Hitler's.[7]

On 10 March 1933, when the Nazis seized control of the Bavarian state government, Wagner was sent by Hitler to take charge of the Bavarian police apparatus as the State Commissioner (Staatskommissar) for the Bavarian Interior Ministry. In this post, he controlled all the security apparatus of the state. He advocated the establishment of special protective custody facilities that resulted in Heinrich Himmler, then Acting Police President in Munich, soon setting up the first Nazi concentration camp in Dachau.[8] At the same time, he also was appointed one of the state's representatives to the Reichsrat until its abolition on 14 February 1934.[9] On 23 March, Wagner was made a member of the Sturmabteilung (SA) with the rank of SA-Gruppenführer and he would be promoted to SA-Obergruppenführer on 9 November 1937.[2] On 12 April 1933, he was formally appointed interior minister and also Deputy Minister-President of Bavaria. He thus wielded enormous power in both the party and the government, despite nominally reporting to Reichsstatthalter (Reich Governor) Franz Ritter von Epp. He was elected a deputy to the Reichstag in November 1933 for electoral constituency 24, Upper Bavaria-Swabia. On 28 November 1936, he was also made Bavarian Minister for Education and Culture.[10]

In May 1934, Wagner secured an appointment on the staff of Deputy Führer, Rudolf Hess to head a task force charged with reform of the Reich structure. An opponent of federalism, Wagner advocated for more centralized control by the Party. By February 1935, Wagner produced a lengthy report titled "Reconstruction of the Reich" calling for the placement of all legislative and executive decision-making power in the hands of Party officials, leaving the State authorities as mere administrative entities. It envisioned new territorial divisions called Reichsgaue which cut across traditional federal boundaries. The Party heads of the new areas would be undisputed viceroys of their jurisdictions. However, Wagner's Reichsreform never got beyond the planning stage for Germany proper because, due to the competing interests involved and significant push-back from the State organs, Hitler soon lost interest.[11] However, it eventually would serve, more or less, as the model when foreign territories were absorbed into the Reich.

Wagner played a key role during the purge of the SA leaders known as the Night of the Long Knives on 30 June 1934. When Hitler arrived in Munich, he found that Wagner had already arrested the leaders of the Munich SA.[12] He had also set up patrols at the Munich railway station to check for wanted SA leaders as they arrived in the city. Later that day, when the governor of the Stadelheim prison refused to hand over six SA leaders to the SS execution squad because the list of names he received was unsigned, Wagner signed the document in his capacity as Bavarian Interior Minister, and the six were turned over to the SS and summarily executed.[7]

In carrying out the Nazi Party's antisemitic policies, Wagner instigated and organized violent anti-Jewish demonstrations in the city center of Munich in May 1935 that were carried out by a mob of about 200 members of the SA and the SS. Additionally, on 9 July 1938, the main synagogue in Munich near the Marienplatz was destroyed on Wagner's orders.[13] A few months later, during the Kristallnacht pogrom of 9-10 November 1938, rampaging Nazis also destroyed other historic synagogues throughout the city and looted Jewish shops.[14] Then on 12 November, following a speech in which Wagner denounced Roman Catholics as allies of the Jews, a violent mob stoned the residence of Archbishop Michael Faulhaber who had been at times critical of the Nazis.[15]

As Bavarian Education Minister, on 23 April 1941 Wagner ordered that school prayer be replaced by Nazi songs and that crucifixes and religious pictures be removed from Bavarian classrooms, which outraged the Roman Catholic Church and the heavily Catholic general public.[16] The opposition to this move was so strong that Wagner was forced to rescind the order on 28 August, one of the rare circumstances of successful public opposition in Nazi Germany.[17]

Despite this setback, Hitler apparently remained on good terms with Wagner, one of the Alter Kämpfer and holder of the Golden Party Badge. Confident of his close ties with Hitler, Wagner openly boasted that he often ignored directives from Reichsministers, and that if they wanted to consult with him on issues, they would have to schedule a visit to Munich.[18] At other times, Hitler made his airplane available to Wagner for trips to Berlin. Wagner generally had access to Hitler, and could appeal directly to him for support when conflicts arose with other officials, as he was often among the circle of intimates invited to Hitler's residence on the Obersalzberg.[19] Rare 8 mm colour film of Wagner appears in home movies (c. 1938) filmed by Hitler's companion, Eva Braun. He can be seen talking with Hitler on the terrace of Hitler's Bavarian residence the Berghof, near Berchtesgaden.[20]