Portrait of Reichsminister Dr. Wilhelm Frick.
Overview
- Caption
- Portrait of Reichsminister Dr. Wilhelm Frick.
One of a collection of portraits included in a 1939 calendar of Nazi officials. - Date
-
1939
- Locale
- Germany
- Photo Credit
- United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, courtesy of Geoffrey Giles
Rights & Restrictions
- Photo Source
-
United States Holocaust Memorial Museum
Copyright: United States Holocaust Memorial MuseumProvenance: Geoffrey Giles
Keywords & Subjects
Administrative Notes
- Biography
- Wilhelm Frick (1877-1946), Reich Minister of the Interior and Reichsprotektor of Bohemia and Moravia. Frick was born in Alsenz, the son of a Protestant schoolteacher. He studied law at several German universities and received his doctorate in 1901. From 1904 to 1924 he worked as a government official in the Munich police department. An early adherent of National Socialism, Frick participated in the failed Beer Hall Putsch in November 1923, for which he was jailed for several months. In 1924 he was elected as one of the first Nazi deputies to the Reichstag. Six years later he became Minister of the Interior in Thuringia, the first Nazi minister in a provincial government. During his tenure he purged the police force of Weimar sympathizers and promoted Nazi candidates for office over all others. After the Nazi seizure of power, Frick was appointed Reich Minister of the Interior, a position he held until August 1943. His training as a jurist was put to use in the drafting of legislation that removed Jews from public life, abolished political parties, and sent dissidents to concentration camps. After helping Hitler to consolidate power, Frick steadily lost influence. In 1943 he was appointed Reichsprotektor of Bohemia and Moravia, but real authority in the Protectorate lay in the hands of his subordinate, Karl Hermann Frank. After the war Frick was tried before the International Military Tribunal at Nuremberg. Following his conviction, he was hanged on October 16, 1946 in Nuremberg.
[Source: Wistrich, Robert. "Who's Who in Nazi Germany." MacMillan, 1982; Zentner, Christian. "Encyclopedia of the Third Reich." MacMillan, 1991.]
- Record last modified:
- 2001-08-09 00:00:00
- This page:
- https://collections.ushmm.org/search/catalog/pa1133272
