History
The Gau Bayerische Ostmark was formed in 1933, when Hans Schemm united the three Gaue of Oberpfalz, Niederbayern and Oberfranken into one in an internal power struggle. The term Bayerische Ostmark was coined after the First World War for the region to refer to the fact that the area now bordered the new Czechoslovakia, a country perceived as hostile to Germany. The term Mark (English: March) was historically used in Imperial Germany for border regions to hostile neighbors.
It was the only one of the Bavarian Gaue to incorporate more than one Regierungsbezirk, covering three of them.
Hans Schemm led the Gau until his death in a plane accident in 1935; his successor, Fritz Wächtler, could not muster the same popularity with the population of the region.
After the occupation of Czechoslovakia, parts of this country were incorporated in the Gau. The districts (German: Kreis) of Prachatitz (population: 38,328) and Klattau were added to the Gau.
From 1938, the Gau was also home to the Flossenbürg concentration camp and its many subcamps.
Because the Gau Bayerische Ostmark was not a border region anymore, it was renamed into Gau Bayreuth in 1942.
Wächtler was shot on orders of Hitler, having left his capital Bayreuth in April 1945. He was replaced by Ludwig Ruckdeschel, whose reign until the surrender of Nazi Germany was very brief.
Read more about this topic: Gau Bayreuth
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—Anthony Trollope (1815–1882)
“Hence poetry is something more philosophic and of graver import than history, since its statements are rather of the nature of universals, whereas those of history are singulars.”
—Aristotle (384–322 B.C.)
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—John Dos Passos (1896–1970)