Rolf Henne papers Nachlass Dr. iur. Rolf Henne (1901-1966)

Identifier
irn558457
Language of Description
English
Alt. Identifiers
  • 2017.93.1
  • RG-58.047
Dates
1 Jan 1914 - 31 Dec 1966
Level of Description
Item
Languages
  • German
Source
EHRI Partner

Extent and Medium

17,201 digital images, PDF

Creator(s)

Biographical History

Rolf Henne (1901-1966) was a Swiss attorney and politician of the National Front (NF) and pro-Nazi movements. Henne was the son of a socially prominent physician from Schaffhausen and was related to the psychiatrist Carl Jung. He studied in Great Britain, at Zürich and Heidelberg Universities, completing his academic degree in law and then briefly practicing law. As the Landesführer he headed the newly formed National Front (NF) from 1934. But because of his known Nazi ties, subsidies he received from Berlin, and his support of the Nazi movement, Rolf Henne was forced to resign from the NF, and left the party with two other extremists, Swiss journalist Hans Oehler (1888–1967), and Swiss novelist Jacob Schaffner (1875-1944). Although demoted, Henne remained the Gauführer for Schaffhausen. He supported a genuine form of Swiss National Socialism, and in 1938 was one of the founders of the Bund Treuer Eidgenossen Nationalsozialistischer Weltanschaung (BTE), a Swiss political party which belonged to the National Front movement. In 1940, Henne joined Max Leo Keller in the founding of the even more fascistic organization the Nationale Bewegung der Schweiz (NBS) [National Movement of Switzerland]. In 1944, he became the director of the press service Zeitungslupe in Zurich. He took no further role in politics after the war; instead, he headed up the Argus der Presse newsclipping agency. He died in Küsnacht in 1966.

Archival History

Eidgenössische Technische Hochschule Zürich. Archiv für Zeitgeschichte - Archivleitung

Acquisition

Source of acquisition is the Eidgenössische Technische Hochschule Zürich. Archiv für Zeitgeschichte (AfZ), Switzerland; Archival signature: NL Rolf Henne. The United States Holocaust Memorial Museum Archives received the collection via the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum’s International Archives Project in March 2017.

Scope and Content

Private papers of Rolf Henne (1901-1966), a Swiss attorney and politician of the National Front (NF) and pro-Nazi movements. The collection consists of his personal documents; diaries, 1914-1918, 1920-1924, and 1939-1945; photographs; press releases; documents on various organizations and on political opponents of the National Front and New Front; speeches and lectures, 1932-1939; preparatory work for a never-realized book project on the history of the Swiss Confederation; records on the 04 Jan. 1944 bombardment of Schaffhausen; Swiss demography; press and language policies; the Swiss-German relationship; Germany; the 1937 NSDAP rally in Nuremberg; propaganda texts and the like; photographs and individual documents on Front movements, 1933-1937; and flyers of Frontists and non-Frontist organizations, 1919-1943.

System of Arrangement

Arranged in six series: 1. Biographical materials; 2. Diaries, 1914-1918, 1920-1924, 1939-1945; 3. Publications and manuscripts; 4. Correspondence; 4. Personal files 5. Evidence files of historical events; 6. Photographs. Notes: File# 6, 86, 190, 191, 192, 193, 194, 195, 281 are not digitized.

Conditions Governing Reproduction

Copyright Holder: Eidgenössische Technische Hochschule Zürich. Archiv für Zeitgeschichte - Archivleitung

People

Corporate Bodies

Subjects

Genre

This description is derived directly from structured data provided to EHRI by a partner institution. This collection holding institution considers this description as an accurate reflection of the archival holdings to which it refers at the moment of data transfer.