Hermann Nieß – DieKarriere eines sächsischenBergbeamten vonder Kaiserzeit bis indie NS-Diktatur

Abstract

Hermann Nieß (1878-1949) – The Career of a Saxon Mining Official from the
Imperial Era to the Nazi Dictatorship

Nieß studied mining engineering at the Clausthal and Freiberg mining academies from 1898 to 1903. He then began his professional career as a mining official in Saxony. In 1910, probably at his own request, he took up a position at the Windhoek Mining Office. In 1913 Nieß took over the management of the Windhoek Mining Office and the North Water Development Column. The area of responsibility of the Windhoek Mining Office comprised the northern half of the colony and thus the fields of activity of the South West Africa Company and the Otavi Mining and Railway Company, among others. The tasks of the Mining Authority included the control of the mining concessions granted and thecollection of duties. As a result of the German mobilisation on 8 August 1914, Nieß was called up to reinforce the Schutztruppe, of which he was a member, most recently as a first lieutenant, until its surrender in 1915. From then on he had the status of a prisoner of war. In December 1919 Nieß returned to Germany. From July 1920 he worked again for the Saxon mining administration. In 1927 he wrote a booklet with three adventure stories about his time in German South West Africa. In 1921 Nieß was promoted to head of the Freiberg
Mining Office, and in 1929 he was finally promoted to head of the Saxon mining office. After the Nazis seized power, Hermann Nieß joined the NSDAP (Nationalsozialistische Deutsche Arbeiterpartei) in May 1933. Under the Nazi regime, he headed the mining authority until 1940, putting his knowledge and experience at the service of the regime. Under his aegis, the Saxon mining estate was integrated into the targeted war preparation.
After the annexation of the so-called Sudentenland belonging to the Czech Republic on 1 October 1938, the Saxon mining administration immediately incorporated the northern part of the Sudentenland into the German war economy. In 1940 Hermann Nieß retired from professional life. Even though he personally committed no crimes, he served the regime of crime from his desk, thus incurring considerable moral guilt.

Hermann Nieß erblickte am 1. Oktober 1878 als Sohn von Hermann Nieß (sen.) das Licht der Welt. Er wurde evangelisch-lutherisch getauft. Nieß hatte nachweislich eine Schwester namens Hedwig. Weitere Geschwister konnten nicht ermittelt werden. In Könnern bei Halle verbrachte Nieß seine Kindheit und Jugend.1 Nach dem Abitur nahm er 1898 ein Studium an der Bergakademie Clausthal auf. 1899 wechselte er an die Bergakademie Freiberg, wo er vom 3. Mai 1899 bis zum 23. Dezember 1903 sein weiteres Studium absolvierte. Während seiner Studienzeit sammelte er praktische Bergbauerfahrungen bei Praktika auf Steinkohlengruben in Westfalen und in Oelsnitz/Erzgebirge sowie auf Kaligruben und Braunkohlenwerken. In Freiberg trat Nieß dem Corpsverband Franconia bei. Für seine berufliche Laufbahn dürfte dieser Schritt von Vorteil gewesen sein. Außerdem wurde er in