Andreas Schmidt (24 May 1912 - spring 1948) was a Transylvanian Saxon politician, ethnic group leader, and later a member of the Schutzstaffel (SS). He served as Head of the German Ethnic Group in Romania (GEGR) from November 1940 to August 1944, and was also a Volksgruppenführer (ethnic group leader) of Romania from 27 September 1940 to August 1944. In these roles, he helped lead the Nazification of the German minority in Romania, recruiting many to the SS and aligning the group with the Reich's beliefs.
Born into a powerful family Transylvanian Saxon from Mănărade, he initially studied law at Babeș-Bolyai University, but later dropped out. After studying at the Agricultural University of Berlin, he became involved with many SS members, and he was trained to Nazify the ethnic Germans in Romania. Returning to Romania the following year, he took on three positions as a member of the SD, Head of Staff of the National Labour Front, and Representative of the Volksdeutsche Mittelstelle (VoMI). In this role, he helped recruit hundreds of ethnic Germans in Romania into the Waffen-SS.
On 27 September 1940, when he was 28, he was appointed Volksgruppenführer of Romania by Werner Lorenz. He also became Head of the German Ethnic Group in Romania (GEGR), which became the sole representative of ethnic Germans in Romania in November. In this role he often collaborated with Horia Sima and his father-in-law. In May 1943, he also negotiated an agreement between Romania and Germany allowing some ethnic Germans to go on short-term leave to volunteer with German troops. However, by early 1944, he lost influence within the Reich due to his closeness with Berger during his row with Ernst Kaltenbrunner. He was then accused of sexual harassment, excessive ambition, and making derogatory statements against Kaltenbrunner, which led to him almost getting fired. After the 1944 Romanian coup d'état, Schmidt helped organize Operation Regulus to install an anti-Soviet resistance movement and organize a revolt in Romania. After being turned in, he was transferred to Vorkutlag, a Soviet gulag labor camp, where he died in the spring of 1948, likely due to the prison administration ordering prisoners to beat him to death with axes. However, there were multiple versions of his death due to the uncertainty surrounding it.
Early life Andreas Schmidt was born on 24 May 1912 in Donnersmarkt, Transylvania, Austria-Hungary (now Mănărade, Alba County, Romania). He was part of the ethnic minority of Transylvanian Saxons in Romania. His parents were Georg Schmidt and Maria Schmidt , who were both farmers. His mother descended from people who had long lived in the village of Donnersmarkt, occupying high positions.
After finishing elementary school, he attended Stephan Ludwig Roth Gymnasium in Mediasch from 1923 to 1929. However, due to his poor grades at Stephan Ludwig and his failure to graduate with his abitur, he had to attend St. Vasile Gymnasium in Blasendorf from 1929 to 1930. During his time at Vasile, he was described by a classmate as "a less talented young man with shabby clothes who had swapped the Gymnasium in Mediasch for the one in Blasendorf because he had repeatedly failed in Mediasch." After graduating from Vasile, he attended Babeș-Bolyai University in Cluj-Napoca studying law, but he did not graduate. He then volunteered for the Romanian Army. He was a cavalryman in the army together with Andreas Rührig, his later chief of staff. He also made his first political contacts during this time in 1930 when he was working at the voluntary labor camps eventually, in 1932, becoming camp commander. He spent, around 1933, some time with Richard Langer in Cincu, who was close to the Artaman League and the German People's Party in Romania.
Schmidt claimed that by 1935, three years later, he was part of the party leadership in the German People's Party. This occurred after a power struggle in 1935 when the Nazi movement around the relatively moderate fascist group, the self-help movement created by Fritz Fabritius, split creating the radical German People's Party under Alfred Bonfert and Waldemar Gust and more moderate Nazis around Fabritius, but he did not take a leading role in either.
In 1938, he decided to leave Romania to go to Germany, where he studied at the Agricultural University of Berlin. There he met many Schutzstaffel (SS) members, and he was trained in Nazi indoctrination of the ethnic Germans in Romania. In 1939 he returned to Romania as a voluntary member of the SD in Foreign Intelligence (Amt VI) and Head of Staff of the National Labour Front.
Political career Representative of the Volksdeutsche Mittelstelle (VoMI)
Returning to Romania in 1939, he then became a Representative of the Volksdeutsche Mittelstelle (VoMI), fulfilling various roles. VoMI was meant to represent the Volksdeutsche - ethnic Germans outside of the Third Reich - and implementing Lebensraum.
In this role, he recruited 1,000 Romanian Germans and 500 Hungarian Germans to the SS for his father-in-law, Gottlob Berger. They were encouraged to join in the columns of the Deutsche Zeitung, with the Zeitung publishing war letters from ethnic German SS volunteers that glorified their units. They were recruited under the pretext of being farm workers in the Reich although they were actually joining the SS, as it was illegal to border cross and it violated the volunteers' military service obligation to Romania with their desertion. Franz Anton Basch, a Volksgruppenführer, opposed this because he said it would have serious consequences for the Volksbund led by Basch, alongside most of the VoMI even though it was approved by the German government. Schmidt also met with Hans Otto Roth, a member of the Romanian Parliament, in order to carry this out.
In April 1940, he also helped a radical faction that intensely supported Nazi-ideals among the two German ethnic groups in Banat achieve power after a dispute. In August 1940 in accordance with the Second Vienna Award, Transylvania was divided, and Schmidt's territory now fell within the Romanian part. The German Ethnic Group was given the status of a "legal person" along with the competence to make "mandatory decisions" for the German minority in Romania.
Volksgruppenführer
In September 1940, Schmidt was summoned to Berlin alongside the then ethnic group leader Wolfram Bruckner, where Lorenz stated that due to "wartime circumstances," the German minority needed an "official" person rather than what he deemed was someone who was solely honorary, and indicated that Schmidt would be good for the post. Schmidt was nominated during a leadership reshuffle by the Reich, who purged moderate leaders and favored ones who were obedient and held more radical Nazi views. Bruckner immediately opposed this, nominating Nikolaus Hans Hockl to fill his post instead, which Lorenz rejected. On 27 September 1940, then 28-year-old Schmidt was appointed a Volksgruppenführer (ethnic group leader) of Romania in a formal ceremony at Brașov alongside German Consul General Wilhelm Rodde. Almost immediately after, Schmidt relocated the GEGR's headquarters from Sibiu to Brașov to increase cooperation with Rodde, who had been taken by Joachim von Ribbentrop to monitor GEGR and Schmidt.
He appointed Andreas Rührig, his friend since the army, as his deputy and staff leader. Among the first actions that Schmidt did was reorganize the leadership structures of the German minority in Romania as part of a Gleichschaltung policy that aligned the minority with the German's models. On 15 October 1940 Schmidt issued for an order for all German youths from age 10 to compulsory be conscripted to the Deutsche Jugend in Romania, and by 1944 it had some 74,000 members. He also helped reorganize the Jugend to reflect NSDAP youth hierarchies, including the offices of the Landesjugendführer for the national youth program and Landesjungenschaftsführer which used propaganda to appeal to school-age children. The NSDAP of the German Ethnic Group in Romania (GEGR) became the sole representative of ethnic Germans in November, which he was appointed in charge of. The legal formalization of this was, by Romanian law, prohibited as Ion Antonescu had prohibited the creation of organizations parties, but Schmidt justified this by saying it was instead "Nazi-inspired framework" which was approved by Decree-Law 38877, which named GEGR as a legal entity instead of a party.
Following his appointment, oriented the GEGR's intelligence ties from the Abwehr to RSHA Amt VI-SD Ausland, which was part of the SS. He also often collaborated with Horia Sima, the acting commander of the Iron Guard, with Schmidt arranging for the appointment of members of the Volksgruppe as mayors of Sibiu and Mediaș and on the appointment of gauleiters before the rebellion. Some people he recruited also went to espionage school and returned to Romania as "permissionaries", assigned to intelligence services or at Andr's disposal.
Schmidt soon proved himself as a contact person during the Legionnary Uprising of Iron Guard members, an uprising he called "racially determined" and so he recommended that the influence of the German Reich become stronger in order for there to be tranquility. He was also very willing to serve the Reich because of his need for power, describing them as a counteract to the racial inability, and so he formulated the German ethnic group to have unconditional readiness for the Reich. During a major speech in Hermannstadt in early 1941, he also defined his stances, stating that although the ethnic group had started to take over the administration of schools as part of the self-nazification of churches, he wanted to collaborate with religious institutions. He also rejected claims that he was hostile towards religious authority amid accusation of Schmidt suppressing religion. As early as summer of 1942 a rapprochement with the Romanian population occurred among the ethnic Germans due to dissatisfaction with Schmidt and his leadership, which was only heightened by the defeat at Stalingrad. It was also driven by his anti-religious and anti-Christian views, with a notable example being him renouncing the religious service at his wife's funeral. He also helped stir up anti-German resentment by promoting the rights of ethnic Germans, even among the Iron Guard.
He helped negotiate the 12 May 1943 agreement between the Reich government and the Romanian government where Romanian-Germans were allowed a short-team leave to go volunteer with German troops.
Loss of favor By early 1944 there was a split between Berger and Ernst Kaltenbrunner within the Volksgruppe leadership, which led to Schmidt having to force members of his staff to draw away from Berger because he promoted Berger's interests. This led to dissidents of Berger, Kurt Auner and Matthias Liebhardt launching a smear campaign against Schmidt, and Schmidt threatened to arrest both even though they were protected by Kaltenbrunner. He had also started to be viewed suspiciously by Romanian leadership, especially Antonescu, who believed he was aiming to turn Romanian provinces with German populations into Nazis protectorates, especially around the Danube. In addition he started to lose favor among Reich leadership because of an internal complaint later that year, as he was described as having excessive ambition by his coworkers, playing off individual Reich authorities against each other, sexual harassment, and making repeated statements against Kaltenbrunner. This led to authorities in the Reich recommending he be terminated from his office, although he was given the chance of rehabilitation during Operation Regulus. In June 1944 when many Swabians returned home from the front, they openly protested against the GEGR, stating they had been misled and lied to us when volunteering and blamed Schmidt.