Reinhard Höhn

Reinhard Höhn
Born(1904-07-29)29 July 1904
Gräfenthal, Thuringia, Germany
Died14 May 2000(2000-05-14) (aged 95)
Pöcking, Bavaria, Germany
EducationDoctorate
Alma materUniversity of Kiel
LMU Munich
University of Jena
University of Heidelberg
OccupationLawyer
Political partyNazi Party (1933–1945)
Other political
affiliations		Deutschvölkischer Schutz- und Trutzbund (1922–1924)
Young German Order (1923–1932)
AwardsWar Merit Cross, 2nd class

Reinhard Höhn (29 July 1904 – 14 May 2000) was a German administrative lawyer and an academic who became a member of the Nazi Party and an SS-Oberführer in its intelligence service, the Sicherheitsdienst (SD). After World War II, he developed the Harzburg Model of business management beginning in the 1950s, which exerted a strong influence on German management training until the 1980s. His past involvement in the Nazi regime was publicized after investigative reporting in 1971.

Early life and education

Höhn was born 29 July 1904 in Gräfenthal, the son of a public prosecutor. He studied law at the universities of Kiel, Munich and Jena, obtained a doctorate in law from Jena, and would go on to earn an habilitation from the University of Heidelberg in 1934.[1] He was an active militant nationalist, joining the Deutschvölkischer Schutz- und Trutzbund (German Nationalist Protection and Defiance Federation), an antisemitic and Völkisch movement, as early as 1922.[2][3]: 29  He agitated for Der Stahlhelm (The Steel Helmet), a German First World War veteran's organization existing from 1918 to 1935. He was arrested and spent a short while in prison. Between 1923 and 1932, Höhn was a member of the Young German Order and was a close collaborator of its founder, Artur Mahraun.

Nazi Party career

Höhn joined the Nazi Party on 1 May 1933 (membership number 2,175,900),[4] and joined the SS in December (SS number 36,229).[5] He was a member of the Sicherheitsdienst (SD) from 1932 (this is considered "early" as 80% of intellectuals in the SD joined between 1934–38),[3]: 71 . In the SD Main Office, later part of the Reich Security Main Office, he became the leader of Department II/2 that had jurisdiction over investigating all "spheres of life" including culture and the economy. His direct superior was Reinhard Heydrich, and he recruited Otto Ohlendorf into his department, later promoting him to chief of staff.[6] Höhn was promoted to SS-Standartenführer on 30 January 1939[5] and rose to the rank of SS-Oberführer on 9 November 1944.[7]

In 1936, Höhn was named the deputy chairman of the Committee on Police Law in Hans Frank's Academy for German Law.[8] He became professor of constitutional and administrative law at the Humboldt University of Berlin and chair of public law at the University of Jena from 1935 to 1945. During this time he was also director of the Institute for State Research. From 1940 to 1945, he was also a lecturer on administrative law at the Technische Universität Berlin.[9] He was one of the chief architects of National Socialist theory in the Völkisch movement.[10]: 38–9  Höhn was the editor of the journal Deutsches Recht (German Law), the official organ of the National Socialist Association of Legal Professionals.[8] He also was the co-editor of the journal Reich – Volksordnung – Lebensraum (Reich – People's Order – Living Space) from 1941 to 1943, and was the director of the International Academy for Political and Administrative Sciences from 1942.[11] In May 1942, he was awarded the War Merit Cross, 2nd class by Adolf Hitler.[12]

In 1937, Heinrich Himmler entrusted him with the organization of a festival of Nordicism to celebrate Henry the Fowler, founder of the first medieval German State.[3]: 58  During this time, he published a debate about whether soldiers should swear an oath to the constitution or to the head of state (be that prince or Führer).[13]

Post-war life

Höhn disappeared from view at the end of World War II[10]: 73  and initially worked as a naturopath in Lippstadt and Hamburg.[11] He reappeared as a director for the Akademie für Führungskräfte der Wirtschaft Bad Harzburg (AFK), a business school[14] he founded in 1956 in Bad Harzburg.[10]: 73  There, he developed the Harzburg Model of management, which exerted a strong influence on German management training until the 1980s.[15]

In December 1971, the journalist Bernt Engelmann, writing in the newspaper Vorwärts published by the Social Democratic Party of Germany (SPD), brought to light Höhn's past involvement with the Nazi regime as an expert in law, economics and national socialist politics. This caused a public outcry and Helmut Schmidt (then the defense minister) terminated the Bundeswehr's business relationship with Höhn's academy, effective March 1972.[10]: 100  In the 1980s, Höhn's management model was gradually replaced with management by objectives in the Federal Republic of Germany.

Selected written works

  • Vom Wesen der Gemeinschaft (1934)[16]
  • Die Wandlund im staatsrechtlichen Denken (1934)[16]
  • Rechtgemeinschaft und Volksgemeinschaft (1935)[16]

References

  1. ^ Das Institut für Staatsforschung in der Königstraße
  2. ^ Kershaw, Ian (1998). Hitler: 1889–1936: Hubris. Allen Lane. ISBN 978-0-713-99047-8.
  3. ^ a b c Ingrao, Christian (2013). Believe and Destroy: Intellectuals in the SS War Machine [Croire et Détruire]. Malden, MA, USA: Polity. ISBN 978-0745660264.
  4. ^ Bundesarchiv R 9361-IX KARTEI/16040687.
  5. ^ a b Schiffer Publishing Ltd. 2000, p. 33.
  6. ^ Höhne 1971, pp. 264–266.
  7. ^ List 351 – SS-Oberführerów w Allegeine SS i Waffen-SS (in Polish)
  8. ^ a b Klee 2007, p. 261.
  9. ^ Catalogus Professorium
  10. ^ a b c d Chapoutot, Johann (2023). Free to Obey How the Nazis Invented Modern Management [Libres d'obéir 2020] (Translated by Steven Rendall ed.). New York: Europa Editions. ISBN 9781609458041.
  11. ^ a b "Höhn, Reinhard". German National Library (in German). Retrieved 17 December 2025.
  12. ^ Anna-Maria von Lösch: Der nackte Geist: Die Juristische Fakultät der Berliner Universität im Umbruch von 1933. Mohr Siebeck, Tübingen 1999, p. 322.
  13. ^ Taubert, Fritz (2020). "Verfassungseid ou Führereid pour les militaires ? Une polémique de deux historiens nationaux-socialistes, Reinhard Höhn et Ernst Rudolf Huber, concernant l'assermentation des soldats". Histoire@Politique. 40 2020 (40). doi:10.4000/histoirepolitique.895.
  14. ^ Barrenscheen-Loster, Stina Rike (22 November 2023). "Vom angeborenen Talent zum geschulten mittleren Manager: Zwischen alten Vorstellungen von Führung und Zukunftserwartung". Neue Arbeitswelten, alte Führungsstile?: Das mittlere Management in westdeutschen Großunternehmen (1949–1989) (in German). Frankfurt am Main: Campus Verlag. pp. 40–41. ISBN 9783593454627. Retrieved 5 January 2025. Der Jurist Reinhard Höhn war der Gründer der AFK, in der seit 1956 vordergründig das mittlere Management in Führungsfragen weitergebildet wurde. Kern der AFK war die Delegation von Verantwortung. [...] Mit einem dezidiert biographischen Zugang zu Reinhard Höhn beschäftigte sich Alexan[d]er O. Müller, in dessen Studie auf das Wirken Höhns als deutschen Management-Guru sowie der Rolle und Wirkung der AFK in den Unternehmen gesetzt wird.
  15. ^ Yamazaki, Toshio (2013). German Business Management A Japanese Perspective on Regional Development Factors. Springer Japan. p. 122. ISBN 978-4-431-54303-9.
  16. ^ a b c Stockhorst 1985, p. 201.

Sources

  • Höhne, Heinz (1971). The Order of the Death's Head: The Story of Hitler's SS. New York: Ballantine Books. ISBN 0-345-28333-3.
  • Klee, Ernst (2007). Das Personenlexikon zum Dritten Reich. Wer war was vor und nach 1945. Frankfurt-am-Main: Fischer-Taschenbuch-Verlag. ISBN 978-3-596-16048-8.
  • Schiffer Publishing Ltd., ed. (2000). SS Officers List: SS-Standartenführer to SS-Oberstgruppenführer (As of 30 January 1942). Schiffer Military History Publishing. ISBN 0-7643-1061-5.
  • Stockhorst, Erich (1985). 5000 Köpfe: Wer War Was im 3. Reich. Arndt. ISBN 978-3-887-41116-9.
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