Walter Granzow (13 August 1887 – 3 December 1952) was a German landowner, bank official, Nazi Party politician and Schutzstaffel- Brigadeführer. He served as the Minister-president of the Free State of Mecklenburg-Schwerin from 1932 to 1933. He was also the president and chairman of the board of several large German banks, and the great-grandfather of former German Vice Chancellor Robert Habeck.
Early life
Granzow was born the son of a farmer in the Schönhagen district of the town of
Pritzwalk. After attending the
Volksschule there and the higher agricultural school in Dahme, he underwent further training at the agricultural institute of the Martin Luther University Halle-Wittenberg. He then worked in agriculture, taking over the management of his parents' estate in
Geestgottberg in 1910. Between 1914 and 1918 he fought with the 4th (Magdeburg) Foot Artillery Regiment of the Imperial German Army in the First World War.
[ Walter Granzow entry, pp. 152–153 in Das Deutsche Führerlexikon] He was awarded the
Iron Cross, 2nd class and was discharged with the rank of
Oberleutnant of reserves at the end of the war.
Agricultural and business career
Granzow was a supporter the
Artaman League, an agrarian and völkisch movement that was active in the
Weimar Republic. During these years, he worked as the Deichhauptmann () for a cooperative dike association from 1919 to 1922 and then as an estate manager in Severin from 1922 to 1932. Granzow was also a council member on the Kreistag () in the Osterburg district of the Prussian Province of Saxony. On 1 November 1933, he became president of the Deutsche Rentenbank-Kreditanstalt (RKA), based in
Berlin. He subsequently served as chairman of the supervisory board of various Berlin banks, including RKA, Deutsche Pachtbank and Getreide-Kreditbank. He was also chairman of the management board of the Deutsche Siedlungsbank ().
[ Walter Granzow entry in the Acts of the Reich Chancellery (Weimar Republic)]
Nazi Party political and paramilitary involvement
Granzow joined the
Nazi Party on 1 March 1931 (membership number 482,923) and was its agricultural district advisor for
Mecklenburg and Lübeck from 1931 to 1933. He was also the
Landesbauernführer (state farmers leader) for these areas. In the June 1932 state election, he was elected to the provincial
Landtag of Mecklenburg-Schwerin. The Nazi Party won a majority of the seats, and Granzow became the minister president and foreign minister of the state of Mecklenburg-Schwerin from 13 July 1932 to 9 August 1933. In addition, from 13 July 1932 to 5 July 1933 he held the ministries of finance and agriculture, and from 5 July to 9 August 1933 he held the portfolio of minister of education. In October 1933, he became a member of
Hans Frank's Academy for German Law in
Munich and chairman of its Committee on Cooperative Law. From 1933 to 1943, Granzow sat as a member of the
Reichstag. From November 1933, he was a deputy from electoral constituency 35 (Mecklenburg) and, from March 1936, he represented constituency 10 (Magdeburg).
[ Walter Granzow entry in the Reichstag Database] From 1935, he also worked closely with
Reichsminister of Agriculture Richard Walther Darré in the Party's Office of Agricultural Policy.
On 2 October 1933, Granzow joined the Schutzstaffel (SS number 128,801) as an SS- Sturmbannführer. He worked in the SS Race and Settlement Main Office, was promoted to SS- Obersturmbannführer on 20 April 1934 and to SS- Standartenführer on 9 September 1934.
After the end of the Second World War, Granzow was arrested and internment from 1945 to 1948. After his release, he worked as an economic consultant and as a representative for a margarine factory in Holstein. He died in Bad Schwartau in December 1952.
Sources
Further reading
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Bei der Wieden, Helge: (1978) Die mecklenburgischen Regierungen und Minister. 1918–1952 ( Schriften zur Mecklenburgischen Geschichte, Kultur und Landeskunde, Band 1), 2nd edition, Böhlau, Köln, pp. 47–48, ISBN 3-412-05578-6.
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Buddrus, Michael, Fritzlar, Sigrid: (2012) Landesregierungen und Minister in Mecklenburg 1871-1952: Ein biographisches Lexikon, Vol. 1, Edition Temmen, Bremen, ISBN 978-3-8378-4044-5.
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Landesbauernschaft Kurmark (Bearb.): (1936) Die Ahnen deutscher Bauernführer. Band 32, Reichsnährstand Verlags-Gesellschaft, Berlin.
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