Author on Nazi conspiracy: “Naumann was never held responsible”

taz: Hans-Peter de Lorent, who was “Goebbels’ Shadow”?

Hans-Peter de Lorent: That was Werner Naumann, Joseph Goebbels' deputy. As the second man in the propaganda ministry, Naumann lived in the Führerbunker in Berlin for the last 20 days of Nazi rule. This meant he was informed about everything that happened there. With skill and dissimulation, he lived illegally in the post-Nazi era and managed to never be held responsible.

77, was a member of the Green Party and senior school councilor of the Hamburg school authority. He was banned from working in 1974 and wrote the novel “The Witch Hunt” about it in 1980. He was awarded the Federal Cross of Merit in 2025 for his series “Perpetrator Profiles: Those responsible in Hamburg’s education system under the swastika”.

de Lorent: During his illegality he was supported by Kurt Georg Kiesinger, with whom he had already had close contact during the Nazi era. While Naumann worked in the Propaganda Ministry, Kiesinger had been working as a NSDAP member in the Foreign Ministry since 1933. Whenever there were difficulties between the two ministers Goebbels and Ribbentrop, Naumann and Kiesinger tried to smooth things over. After 1945, Kiesinger advised Naumann as a lawyer on how he could get through the clutches of denazification.

taz: And then he tried to get back into politics.

de Lorent: In 1950, Naumann deliberately brought together former Nazis. The specific goal was to run for the Bundestag in 1953. To do this, he teamed up with old Nazi cronies who had positions in the FDP.

Reading “Goebbels Shadow” with Hans-Peter de Lorent: Wed, October 28th, 7 p.m., Serrahn Eins, Serrahnstrasse 1, Hamburg; as part of the Weeks of Remembrance in Bergedorf

de Lorent: When the English occupying power realized what was going on, the British High Commissioner in Germany had the Naumann group arrested. There were seven or eight people who lived in Hamburg and North Rhine-Westphalia. They were interned for a while, and that caused quite a stir in Germany because the British prevented those arrested from having contact with their lawyers. It was then argued that the Allies were now doing things themselves that they had criticized the Nazis for.

taz: The conspirators were not punished.

de Lorent: When the Germans took over the case, the group was released from custody. In the end, it was at least possible to prevent Naumann from being elected to the Bundestag for the German Reich Party. In 1953, the Interior Minister of North Rhine-Westphalia ensured that Naumann lost the right to stand as a candidate.

de Lorent: Naumann withdrew from politics and went into business because he had received an offer from Harald Quandt, the son of Joseph Goebbels' wife, to work as managing director in his company.

taz: One of those arrested in 1953 was Heinrich Haselmayer, who lived in Hamburg-Bergedorf. What did you find out about him?

de Lorent: Haselmayer was a school friend of Naumann. The two studied together in Berlin - one law and political science and the other medicine. Haselmayer wrote his dissertation on the sterilization of the “imbecilic.” At the age of 26, he was appointed head of the Hamburg adult education center.

taz: How did the two of them get back together after the war?

de Lorent: After 1945, Haselmayer was taken into custody for a short time. Contact was then re-established when Naumann emerged from illegality. The two then brought together a group of former Nazis in Hamburg for the conspiracy. One of these was Karl Kaufmann, the former Gauleiter of Hamburg.

taz: How did Haselmayer fare after the conspiracy in Hamburg-Bergedorf was uncovered?

de Lorent: Haselmayer was very popular as a family doctor in Bergedorf until the 1960s and died in 1978.