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Robert Ley

File:Robert_Ley_(cropped).jpg · Wikimedia Commons · See Wikimedia Commons

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Robert Ley

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Also known as Dr. Ernst Distelmeyer

German Nazi politician; indicted by the International Military Tribunal for war crimes (1890-1945)

Person · Open Library

Born
1890
Died
1945
Works
31

Top works

  • Organization book of the NSGWP
  • Unser Sozialismus--der hass der Welt
  • Autarkie oder Exportförderung?
  • Roosevelt verrät Amerika!
  • Warum wir kämpfen und siegen!

via Open Library + Wikidata

Music · MusicBrainz

Type
Person
Gender
Male
Origin
Chile
Active from
1890
Active to
1945
rock

via MusicBrainz · CC0

Listeners · Last.fm

Listeners
17
Total plays
459

<a href="https://www.last.fm/music/Robert+Ley">Read more on Last.fm</a>

via Last.fm · Robert Ley

Quotes

  • Stand us against a wall and shoot us, well and good, you are victors. But why should I be brought before a Tribunal like a c-c-c-... I can't even get the word [criminal] out!
  • When a Russian pig has to be beaten, it would be the ordinary German worker who would have to do it.
  • The Weimar system appeared to me like a father who locks his little boys in a room and stirs them up against one another and says: 'Beat each other up as much as you want.'
  • We National Socialists have monopolized all resources and all our energies during the past seven years so as to be able to be equipped for the supreme effort of battle.
  • The trade unions that were swayed by Marxist teaching did not want social peace. They calculated that their chances of acquiring political power would improve with the growing dissatisfaction of the workers. One of the first necessities with which the Hitler Government found itself faced was that of dissolving the organizations that kept alive the antagonism between employers and employees. They were replaced by the Labour Front.
  • You know we have this new poison gas - I've heard about it. The Fuehrer must do it. He must use it. Now he has to do it!

via Wikiquote · CC BY-SA

Key facts

Preceded by
Adolf Hitler
Succeeded by
Position abolished
Leader
Adolf Hitler
1940 1945
Reichskommissar for Social Housing Construction
1933 1945
Member of the Prussian State Council
June december 1932
Reichsinspecteur of the Nazi Party
1930 1933
Member of the Reichstag
Born
( 1890-02-15 ) 15 February 1890, Niederbreidenbach , Germany
Died
25 October 1945 (1945-10-25) (aged 55), Nuremberg , Germany
Cause of death
Suicide by hanging
Party
Nazi Party
Spouse s
Elisabeth Schmidt ​ ​ ( married</span>"}]]}'>m. 1921 ; divorced</span>"}]]}'>div. 1938 ) ​ , Inge Spilcker ​ ​ ( married</span>"}]]}'>m. 1938 ; died 1942 ) ​
Alma mater
University of Jena University of Bonn University of Münster
Known for
Head of the German Labour Front (1933–1945)
Allegiance
German Empire
Branch service
Imperial German Army
Years of service
1914–1920
Rank
Leutnant

via Wikipedia infobox

Wikidata facts

Image
Bundesarchiv Bild 183-2008-0922-501, Robert Ley.jpg
Show 5 more facts
Commons category
Robert Ley
date of birth
1890-02-15
date of death
1945-10-25
name in native language
Robert Ley
floruit
1942-00-00
Sources (6)

via Wikidata · CC0

~21 min read

Article

Robert Ley ( German: [ˈʁoːbɛʁt ˈlaɪ]; 15 February 1890 – 25 October 1945) was a German Nazi politician and head of the German Labour Front during its entire existence, from 1933 to 1945. He also held many other high positions in the Nazi Party, including Gauleiter, Reichsleiter and Reichsorganisationsleiter.

The son of a farmer from the Rhine Province, Ley saw action in both the eastern and western fronts of the First World War and received the Iron Cross Second Class. After the war, he resumed his studies in chemistry, obtained his doctorate, and worked for IG Farben as a food chemist. Radicalised following the French occupation of the Ruhr, Ley joined the Nazi Party in 1925 and subsequently became the Gauleiter of Southern Rhineland (later Rhineland). Steadily rising through the ranks, he was elected to the Reichstag in 1930, and replaced Gregor Strasser as Reichsorganisationsleiter in 1932.

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