Schulte, Alfred

Administrative official, NSDAP mayor of Wiesbaden

Born: 17.02.1872 in Iserlohn

died: 14.10.1957 in Wiesbaden

From 1878 to 1882, Alfred Schulte attended the elementary school in Iserlohn. After graduating from the Iserlohn Realgymnasium in 1891, he worked for a year at the Eisenbahnhütte in Dortmund. Schulte then moved to Hanover and began his studies at the Royal Technical University, which he continued in Berlin after passing his preliminary examination. In Berlin, he completed his studies in 1895 by passing the government-certified construction engineer exam and took a position in the Office for Railways and Construction at the Allgemeine Electricitäts-Gesellschaft (AEG) in Berlin. There, he served as chief engineer.

After two years, Schulte moved to the Berlin Railway Directorate and underwent training and further education as a locomotive engineer at the Potsdam Railway Workshop. At the same time, he pursued studies at the Technical University of Berlin in “electronics and business administration.” In 1897, he moved to Dresden, where he spent the next five years as chief engineer at the Elektrizitätswerke Aktiengesellschaft. In 1903, Schulte applied for the position of electrical engineer and department head at the Wiesbaden Water, Gas, and Electric Works, which he assumed in 1904. Four years later, Schulte served as acting director of the Wiesbaden Water, Gas, and Electric Works for just under two years.

On September 10, 1913, Schulte was elected as a salaried city councilor to the Wiesbaden City Council. He became vice chairman of “the Water and Lighting Works Committee.” In addition, he was appointed city treasurer. In 1915–16, he oversaw the introduction of a new accounting system in the city administration, known as the “Wiesbaden System.” On March 20, 1920, Schulte was elected Second Deputy Mayor by the City Council. He also remained City Treasurer.

After World War I, Wiesbaden was occupied by Allied troops as part of the occupation of the Rhineland. After the occupying administration expelled Wiesbaden’s mayor, Fritz Travers (opens in a new tab), in 1923, Schulte served as acting head of the city administration until 1924. Travers was able to resume his office in November 1924. That same year, Schulte became First Deputy Mayor (Second Mayor), and in 1925, he became mayor. From 1925 to 1933, Schulte served as chairman of the Nassau Association of Cities. After Travers’s death in 1929, Schulte once again served as acting head of the city administration until the by-election of the liberal politician Georg Krücke (opens in a new tab) (DVP) on March 28, 1930.

After Hitler’s “seizure of power” in January 1933, the National Socialists dismissed a large number of public servants who held dissenting political views. The “Decree for the Protection of the People and the State,” issued by Reich President Hindenburg on February 28, 1933, also suspended fundamental rights in Wiesbaden. After the NSDAP won the local elections in March 1933, Mayor Georg Krücke was arrested on election day itself, released shortly thereafter, and placed under police supervision. On June 3, 1933, Krücke resigned from the office of mayor due to the pressure exerted on him. Alfred Schulte did not actively support these events, but he joined the NSDAP on May 1, 1933; prior to that, he had been unaffiliated with any party. Schulte also became a supporting member of the SS and numerous other Nazi organizations. The Supporting Members of the SS formed a sub-organization of the SS that was open to non-NSDAP members and served to raise funds for the establishment and expansion of the SS. The financial contributions, which were generally due monthly, did not entail any formal service in the SS.

After Krücke’s resignation, the office of mayor of Wiesbaden was initially to be filled by a long-serving member of the NSDAP. However, the National Socialists did not have a candidate with the necessary professional qualifications.

Thus, Schulte came to the attention of Felix Piékarski, the district leader and parliamentary group chairman of the Wiesbaden NSDAP. Piékarski supported Schulte’s candidacy for mayor, which in turn enabled Piékarski himself to rise to the position of mayor.

Schulte’s appointment as mayor on October 6, 1933, marked the pinnacle of his career. Since Schulte was expected to serve only a short term due to his age, he can be viewed as a transitional candidate while the party searched for a younger, suitable NSDAP candidate. To advance his career, Schulte turned a blind eye in the weeks and months that followed to the violence against political dissidents—particularly members of the KPD and SPD—and to the murders of Jews by the SA in Wiesbaden. He did not become involved in the internal politics of the NSDAP.

On August 8, 1933, Schulte was elected mayor at the 7th session of the city council. On this occasion, he gave a short speech in which he emphasized that he had not only worked well with the NSDAP since the “seizure of power,” but that a close relationship had existed even before that.
The minutes of the City Council and the Council of Elders preserve Schulte’s expressions of support for the Nazi regime and Adolf Hitler. In March 1933, at the first City Council meeting following the “seizure of power,” Schulte began by praising Adolf Hitler and the new political circumstances.

From 1933 to 1937, through his political office, Schulte played a part in establishing and consolidating the Nazi regime and its structures at the local level. Although Schulte was not directly involved in crimes or in the deprivation of rights—for example, of the Jewish population or of Sinti and Roma—he was aware of them and supported them. The suppression and persecution of the Nazis’ political opponents also took place with the mayor’s knowledge and passive consent.

During the swearing-in ceremony for new city council members in 1935, Schulte thanked the Nazi government and Hitler.

During Alfred Schulte’s tenure as mayor, Wiesbaden’s economy recovered amid a general economic upswing. Visible results of this upswing included the opening of the Opelbad on the Neroberg in 1934, as well as the so-called “Brown Fair” at the Paulinenschlösschen in October 1933, where crafts considered “Aryan” were showcased. The National Socialists also set new priorities in the cultural sphere during Schulte’s tenure; for example, the 2,000th anniversary—a fictitiously established date—was celebrated with a grand parade. In March 1937, the anti-Jewish and anti-social exhibition “Degenerate Art” was shown at the Landesmuseum.

As the city’s highest-ranking official, Schulte also welcomed Führer and Reich Chancellor Adolf Hitler to Wiesbaden in March 1935, in whose honor a gala concert was held at the Wiesbaden Kurhaus.

Alfred Schulte stepped down from the office of mayor of Wiesbaden on March 31, 1937, due to his age. He was succeeded by Erich Mix, the former NSDAP mayor of Tilsit. Schulte lived out his retirement in Wiesbaden and no longer appeared in public. A mountain shelter, inaugurated in 1937—presumably to mark his retirement—is named after him.
After 1945, Schulte attempted to justify his actions to the relevant Wiesbaden denazification tribunal. He declared that he had never been a “Nazi activist or beneficiary.” Rather, he claimed to have been “an unwavering champion of integrity in all matters of life, of justice, of humanity, and of freedom of spirit.” Schulte explained his actions as an NSDAP politician by citing the difficult economic situation in the city of Wiesbaden in the early 1930s. At the same time, he claimed that it was solely thanks to his authority that there had been no radical, violent upheaval accompanied by riots in Wiesbaden in 1933.

During his denazification proceedings, Schulte also stated that he had opposed Nazi personnel policies and protected five or six civil servants in key positions. Furthermore, after 1945, Schulte claimed that, in the wake of the “Law for the Restoration of the Professional Civil Service” in April 1933, he had prevented the dismissal of undesirable employees, civil servants, and workers. Schulte’s actions in these personnel matters can be viewed as a form of personal support for long-time colleagues, not as a form of opposition or even resistance to Nazi policy. On March 22, 1948, the denazification tribunal finally classified Schulte in Group 4 (“Followers”). As “atonement,” he was required to pay 1,000 RM.

After the war, Schulte lived as a retiree in Wiesbaden. The city of Wiesbaden awarded him its Golden Medal of Honor, and after his death, he was granted a grave of honor, which has since been removed but not revoked.

The Historical Expert Commission—appointed in 2020 by resolution of the City Council to review public spaces, buildings, and facilities in the state capital of Wiesbaden named after individuals—recommended renaming the Alfred-Schulte-Hütte due to Schulte’s membership in various National Socialist organizations (NSDAP, supporting member of the SS, RDB, NSV, RKB, NS-Rechtswahrerbund, NS-Altherrenbund, and NS-Bund Deutscher Technik) or organizations aligned with National Socialist ideology (Volksbund für das Deutschtum im Ausland). As mayor of Wiesbaden, he held office within the Nazi state and thus actively supported the Nazi regime. Through his speeches in the Wiesbaden City Council and City Assembly, Schulte publicly articulated Nazi ideology.

Following a resolution by the Wiesbaden-Nordost Local Advisory Council on September 4, 2024, the mountain shelter named after Alfred Schulte was renamed “Schutzhütte Dambachtal” by a resolution of the municipal administration on March 24, 2026.

[This text was written by Dr. Rolf Faber for the 2017 printed edition of the Wiesbaden City Encyclopedia and revised and expanded by Dr. Katherine Lukat in 2024.]