Hermann Esser (29 July 1900 – 7 February 1981) was an early member of the Nazi Party (NSDAP). A journalist, Esser was the editor of the Nazi paper, Völkischer Beobachter, a propaganda leader, and a vice president of the Reichstag. In the early days of the party, he was a de facto deputy of Adolf Hitler. As one of Hitler's earliest followers and friends, he held influential positions in the party during the Weimar Republic, but increasingly lost influence during the Nazi era.
Early life
Esser was born in Röhrmoos, Kingdom of Bavaria. The son of a civil servant, he was educated in the high school at Kempten. As a teenager, he volunteered for service in World War I and fought on the front lines in the Royal Bavarian 19th Foot Artillery Regiment. After demobilization, he joined the Swabian Freikorps, and in May 1919 took part in the suppression of the Munich Soviet Republic. Esser early on became a socialist, after he joined a left-wing provincial newspaper to train as a journalist. On 15 May 1921 he was made editor-in-chief of Völkischer Beobachter, the Party newspaper, turning out a series of posters and a book attacking the Jews.
Esser was able to use his abilities as a public speaker to rouse his audience, encouraging them to attack the political meetings of groups and parties that the NSDAP frowned upon. Esser's speeches were described by Louis Snyder as "crude, uncultured, of low moral character", featuring the kernel of future Nazi policies: extreme nationalism and anti-Semitism. On 12 August 1921 he left as editor of the Party newspaper and became the first head of propaganda (Propagandaleiter, NSDAP), serving until the party was outlawed in November 1923.
At the time of the Beer Hall Putsch on 8–9 November 1923, Esser gave a speech and drafted the Party's "proclamation to the German people", but told Hitler that he was ill and did not participate in the actual march. After the failure of the putsch, he fled to Austria. Along with Julius Streicher, he later returned to Bavaria in January 1924 and was sentenced to three months in prison. Also in March 1933, he was elected to the Reichstag from the Nazi Party electoral list. At the November 1933 election, he was returned as a deputy for electoral constituency 24, Upper Bavaria–Swabia, a seat he would retain for the duration of the Nazi regime. In December 1933 he was made 2nd Vice President of the chamber under Hermann Göring, and some time later was styled Deputy to the Reichstag President, the only person to hold this title. In May 1933, Esser returned to Passau to address a rally celebrating the dedication of the Ostmarkmuseum. He first wrote and published his book Die jüdische Weltpest (The Jewish World Plague) in 1933. After the pogroms of the Kristallnacht of 9 November 1938, he republished it in early 1939, again under the NSDAP press.
thumb|The Nazi controlled [[:en:Free State of Bavaria (Weimar Republic)|Bavarian Commissarial Government of March 1933 (German: Bayerische Kommission, Reichskommissariat für Bayern, Kabinett von Epp).
Seated from left Minister of Finance Ludwig Siebert, Prime Minister/Reich Governor of Bavaria Franz von Epp, Minister of the Interior Adolf Wagner, and Minister of Culture Hans Schemm.
Standing from left State Commissioner Ernst Röhm, Minister of Justice Hans Frank, Minister of State Hermann Esser, and Minister of Agriculture Georg Luber.
<small>Press Photo: National Digital Archives of Poland</small>]]
On 12 April 1933, he was appointed a Minister without Portfolio in the Bavarian government. He was also named head of the Bavarian Press Office and Chief of the Bavarian State Chancellery. This was followed on 1 March 1934 by his appointment as Bavaria's Minister of Economics by Bavarian Reichsstatthalter (Reich Governor) Franz Ritter von Epp.
Post-war
Arrested by the Americans after the end of the war in Europe, he was released in May 1948 after being considered an unimportant Nazi official. Esser then went into hiding only to be re-arrested in 1949 by the West German Police. Charged under the new West Germany anti-Nazification laws, he was found guilty of being a "major offender" and sentenced to five years hard labour with a loss of civil rights for life. He was released from custody in 1952.
In 1980, Bavaria's Minister President Franz Josef Strauß congratulated Esser on his 80th birthday.
Esser died in Dietramszell, Bavaria aged 80 on 7 February 1981.