Darré, Richard “Ricardo” Walther, born 14-07-1895 in Belgrano, Buenos Aires,

to Richard Oscar Darré, a German with Hugenot ancestry, (born 10-03-1854, Berlin; died 20-02-1929, Wiesbaden

and the half-Swedish/half-German Emilia Berta Eleonore, born Lagergren, born 23-07-1872, Buenos Aires; died 20-07-1936, in Bad Pyrmont. His father moved to Argentina in 1888 as a partner of the German international import/export wholesaler Engelbert Hardt & Co. His parent’s marriage was not a happy one, according to Richard Walther, his father was a hard drinker and womanizer. They educated their children privately until they were forced to return to Germany as a result of worsening international relations in the years preceding World War I. As a young man in Germany, Darré initially joined the Artamans, a Volkish youth group

committed to returning to the land. The Artaman League was a German agrarian and Völkisch movement dedicated to a Blut und Boden-inspired realism.

Active during the inter-war period, the League became closely linked to and eventually absorbed by, the Nazi Party. Darré went on to become an active Nazi and in the summer of 1930 he set up an agrarian political apparatus to recruit farmers into the NSDAP

. In July 1930, after Paul Schultze-Naumburg

a German architect, painter, publicist and politician and NSDAP member, had introduced him to Adolf Hitler, Darré joined the Nazi Party and the SS. NSDAP number was 248,256 and his SS number was 6,882. Paul Schultze died Schultze-Naumburg died, age 79, in Jena on 19-05-1949. Soon after the Nazis came to power, Darré became the Reichsminister of Food and Agriculture. He played a leading part in setting up the SS Race and Resettlement Office

, a fiercely racis, anti-Semitic organization.

He developed a plan for
“Rasse und Raum” ,”race and space” or territory, which provided the ideological background for the Nazi expansive policy on behalf of the
“Drang nach Osten”, “Drive to the east” and of the “Lebensraum”, “Living space” theory expounded in Mein Kampf

. Darré strongly influenced SS-Reichsführer,
Heinrich Himmler

in his goal to create a German racial aristocracy based on selective breeding. (see
Karl Maria Willigut)

Himmler’s Rasputin. The Nazi policies of eugenics would lead to the annihilation of millions of non-Germans. Darré resigned in 1942, ostensibly on health grounds, but in reality because he disputed an order from
Adolf Hitler (
did you know)

(see
William Hitler)

to reduce rations in the labour camps.
Darré had three siblings, two sisters and a brother. In 1922 he married Alma Staadt and in 1931 Charlotte von Vietinghoff, Paul Schultze-Naumburg’s secretary.
Death and burial ground of Darré, Richard “Ricardo” Walther.
The American authorities arrested Darré in 1945 and tried him at the subsequent Nuremberg Trials. Darré was sentenced to seven years in prison.

He was released in 1950 and died in Munich on 05-09-1953 of cancer of the liver, induced by excessive drinking, like his father.


Darre is buried on the cemetery Hildesheimerstrasse in Goslar, only a few steps from the family grave of Generaloberst,
Oberbefehler B 2nd Panzer Armee,
Heinz Wilhelm Guderian and his sons. Hauptmann with the
25th Panzer Division 
,
Kurt and Major and Kommandeur 14
th Panzerbrigade,
Heinz Günter Guderian.

Some further away are the graves of the WWII Generalmajor der Infanterie,
Kommandeur Ersatz Division in Brünn,
Gustav “Iron Gustav” Wagner,

Generalmajor der Infanterie,
Kommandeur von Dniepropetrovsk,
Ernst Adolph and Generalleutnant der Infanterie,
Chef Heeresgruppe “Kurland”,
Friedrich Foertsch.
Message(s), tips or interesting graves for the webmaster: robhopmans@outlook.com
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