SS ORGANISATION-REGIONAL-HSSPF`s HOHEREN SS und POLIZEIFÜHRER-HIGHER SS and POLICE LEADERS.

The HSSPF was the supreme territorial or regional commander for all SS officers in addition to local police officers within a specific territory or region. He was responsible directly to Himmler. Each had a deputy with the title of SSPF. These HSSPF and SSPF held very powerful positions and were the most feared of all under their jurisdiction. In Germany proper, the HSSPF post was usually the same man who was the SS-Oberabschnitt Führer for that region. Outside of Germany proper, (occupied or annexed territories), where no Oberabschnitt existed, the HSSPF were given SSPF deputies to assist them.

Their titles were devised by personally by Himmler in late 1937 to group all police and security functions under his authority in the name of the Führer! The SS Oberabschnitte [Senior Division] commanders were nominated as HSSPF, and in the event of mobilisation were to assume the direction of ALL police units in their respective military districts, in other words-a direct command line authority.

Before the war in 1939, all HSSPF`s in Germany were subject to government authority, I.e., the civilian (NSDAP ) Party officials such as Gauleiters. This included Austria and the Sudetenland. The Gauleiters (see below), and their deputies had the task of keeping the civil population quiet at all costs.

In July 1940, Himmler significantly changed the position of the HSSPF`s under the guise of ensuring a better administration of law and order, and strengthened his direct control of them. In Germany proper the HSSPF`s were still subject to Gauleiter control, but in the occupied countries they were to be Himmler`s personal representatives, charged with the safe-guarding of security. Consequently they had the power to over-rule Party functionaries if the need for law and order dictated such action.

As the war progressed disputes became common, especially in the Government-General area of Poland. Govenor-General Dr. Hans Frank and other Party officials saw the HSSPF`s as Himmler`s policemen, and it soon became a battle ground between him and the HSSPF in Krakau (Crakow)-Friedrich Krüger, a close friend of Himmler.

There were some 37 appointments as HSSPF, ranging in rank from Brigadeführer [General-Major], to Obergruppenführer [General]. These were intended to equate in rank to Gauleiter or equivalent Party functionary. Each HSSPF had a chief of staff, and, if posted to a location outside of Germany proper, an SSPF with the rank of either Oberführer, Standartenführer [Oberst], or Obersturmbannführer [Oberst-Leutnant] plus their staff. When war broke out in 1939, the HSSPF`s moved into the occupied areas leaving their staff to look after things in Germany, whilst new ones were appointed to operate in the field. Most were overpromoted to equate to Wehrmacht ranks. Few had proper police training. Many were not educated unlike the commanders of the Einsatzgruppen , who were in the main, qualified lawyers!

The equivalent of the Gauleiters in the occupied lands were called "Hoheitstragers", literally "Territorial Chiefs". Like the Gauleiters they were Party men responsible to Hitler via his Secrtetary, first Rudolf Hess, then after Hess`s flight to England in May 1941, via Martin Bormann.

HSSPF and their SSPF deputies directly commanded an HQ staff structure with representatives from almost every branch of the SS whose assistance they could call upon at any time, I.e.,. Orpo, Gestapo, Sipo, Totenkopfverbände (KZ staff), W-SS, SD, and Einsatatzgruppen. In theory, an HSSPF had authority to command and commandeer any available unit, (even the Fire Service), in their jurisdiction. This was most evident in the two so-called "Warsaw Uprisings".(Refer "The Stroop Report for units' listings-which showed Wehrmacht units were also 'drafted' to assist SS).

As stated earlier, there was always friction between the HSSPF`s and the Party men. But it didn`t stop there. Disputes between the HSSPF`s and other SS groups surfaced too! E.g., Max Paully, the then Commandant of the Neuengamme KZ near Hamburg, refused to co-operate with the HSSPF there, saying that , with respect to the number of inmates in his KZ ".....he was pledged to secrecy". Then there was the commander of Nr. 8 SS-TV Standarte in Krakau, Poland, Oberführer Leo von Jena, who disputed the right of HSSPF Krüger to demand reports concerning the strength, disposition and morale of Jena's men. Jena replied that he and the W-SS would not take orders from Krüger, promptly referring Krüger to the Inspector-General of the W-SS "......who alone has the authority on such matters"!

Himmler was at pains to try to explain that both sides had a role to play and should work together. In March 1942 he issued orders that left no doubts. From then on the HSSPF`s were given authority over all SS/SD and police units. In January 1943 another order laid down that HSSPF`s were responsible for seeing that "all officers of the SS and police act in a manner worthy of the SS and present a good appearance. From then on the HSSPF`s were entitled to claim that they alone were responsible for all that went on within the SS in their respective areas of authority.

All of the HSSPF`s were specially chosen and appointed because they had been the "tough old fighters" from the early days of the Nazi Party, and as such were entitled to wear the coveted chevron on their right sleeve. All had been commanders too of the SS-Oberabschnitte, the equivalent of the Party Gau.

HSSPF did not extend to cover any of the W-SS fighting formations, which tactically were under Wehrmacht control. It only covered those SS, SD, and police units in the security area. However, HSSPF`s, as stated earlier, did call on Wehrmacht commanders to "loan" their men, including W-SS if they were available. An example was the Warsaw uprising where Brigadeführer und General-Major of Polizei, Jürgen Stroop, called for all forces to attack the Ghetto. Another exaple was near the end of the war when utter confusion reigned and many HSSPF`s assumed command of all army, air-force, SS, Volksturm, police and even firefighters!

In December 1942, HSSPF`s had until then, worn a uniform of military style, button up neck, with no collar and tie. It was green in color with military insignia and cap and shoulder epaulettes. The new uniform was to be SS grey with open style collar and tie, SS collar insignia and cap and shoulder epaulettes. The change only applied to the rank of Brigadefuhrer and above [the lowest rank for an HSSPF]. Those below this rank, I.e. their deputies - the SSPF's, wore the police emblem on the sleeveand cap, instead of the eagle and death's head skull. The lower ranks had the military style collar "runes", as did the SS-Polizei Grenadier Division's members. They did not have SS collar ranks. Of course, all this caused the Allies no end of confusion at the end of the war in the POW camps, and it was one reason why so many slipped through the "wanted" net! HSSPF collar patches of SS rank were yellow on leaf-green with yellow piping. Their epaulettes were also leaf-green and yellow.

By creating the position of HSSPF Himmler amalgamated the SS and police into one state protection corps, and made them his representatives to supervise the SS units. He had always been haunted by the nightmare that the individual components of the SS empire might claim their independance and that the senior beurocrats of the subsidiary organisations , I.e., the heads of the various Amter, might undermine his position as the supreme autocrat. He therefore regarded the HSSPF not only to bind together the pluralist SS society but also act as a counterweight to the growing power of the SS Headquarters Staff - the RSHA and the WVHA!

Only 16 HSSPF's survived the Allied Courts and prosecution after the end of WWII. every HSSPF and SSPF, who had served in the east, was charged with war crimes, (and because they knew their fate if captured, committed suicide before capture or soon after).

NOTE: Kruger, Koppe & Hildebrandt were said to be the three most ambitious and hardest working of all the HSSPF`s!

LIST OF HSSPF's AND AREAS OF RESPONSIBILITY.

Note: Information below is incomplete.

Germany-Elbe. WOYRSCH, Udo von.

HILDEBRANDT, Richard.

Austria-Donau. KALTENBRÜNNER, Ernst..(OGf).

Yugoslavia-Corinthia. ROSENER, Erwin. (Gf). He was executed Lubljiana, Yugoslavia in Sept. 1946. (Formerly HSSPF-Alpenland).

Czcheckosovakia-Palatinate-Prague. FRANK, Karl. (Gf). He was executed in Prague in 1946.

Czchecoslovakia. HOFFLE, Hermann. (Gf) He was executed in 1948.
Poland-Warsaw.

(1) KATZMANN, Fritz. (OGf) He died from natural causes in 1957.
(2) SAMMERN-FRANKENEGG, Ferdinand von. (Bf)
(3) STROOP, Jürgen (Gf)
(4) BACH-ZEWLEWSKI, Erich von dem (OGf)

Poland-Krakau.
(1) WOYRSCH, Udo von.(OGf)
(2) KRÜGER, Friedrich Wilhelm. (OGf) He took part in the Rohm murders in June 1934. He was sacked on the 15/10/1943, and replaced by Koppe.
(3) KOPPE, Wilhelm. (OGf)

Radom. BOTTCHER, Herbert. (OGf) He was executed in 1952.

Poland-Lublin. (1) GLOBOCNIK, Odillo. (Gf) He was a former Gauleiter of Wien (Vienna), in November 1939.

(2)SPORRENBURG, Jakob. (Bf) He was executed in 1950.

Poland-General Government. KRÜGER, Friedrich Wilhelm and KOPPE,Wilhelm.

Germany-Lemberg. STROOP, Jürgen. (Bf) before being sent to Warsaw to put down the 1944 uprising in the Ghetto.

(1) PANKE, Günther. (OGf) Later Denmark.
(2) BEST, Werner. (Gf) He was sentenced to death, later commuted to life imprisonment. He was freed in 1951.

Norway-Oslo. TERBOVEN, Josef. (OGf) He was responsible for SS/Police matters in Norway but was never appointed as HSSPF by Himmler. Knowing that he would never get this appointment, he resigned his SS Commission, but still remained Reich Commissioner for Norway. Hans Loritz, a one time Commandant of the Dachau KZ, was sent to be his deputy for all SS and police matters until the end of the war. REDIESS, Wilhelm Rediess and HUTTIG.

France-Paris. OBERG, Karl. (OGf)

France-Metz. DUNCKERN, Anton. (Bf). He was despised by the Metz Garrison Commander, Oberst Constantine Meyer, who, upon surrender, reused to sit in same vehicle!

Holland-Amsterdam. RAUTER, Hans Albin. (OGf) He was executed in Holland in 1949.

Northern France and Belgium. JUNGLAUSS, Richard. (OGf). Killed by Partisans in Yugoslavia April 1945.

Latvia-Ostland-Riga. JECKELN, Friedrich. (OGf) He was executed in Riga in 1946.

Russia-Ukraine. PRÜTZMANN, Hans. (OGf) After capture, he took poison and died 21/5/1945.

Yugoslavia-Serbia and Montenigro. BEHRENDS, Hermann.

(1) BACH-ZEWELSKI, Erich von dem. (OGf) He was HSSPF Lublin in July and August 1941.
(2) HERFF, Maximillian von. (Bf) He went to Minsk after assisting Stroop by smoking out the sewers of the the Warsaw Ghetto. At precisely 1500 hours on 14/5/1943, all 183 manhole covers were removed at the same time. At this time he was a Standartenführer. He had also been chief of SS Personnel in SS Central Office. Refer page 509 of "The Final Solution", Reiflinger.

Russia-Caucusus. KORSEMANN, Gerrett. (Gf). He assumed an HSSPF role, but was actually an SSPF to Globocnik and von dem Bach-Zewelski in Lublin only.

Italy-Trieste. GLOBOCNIK, Odillo. (OGf). He was promoted and sent from Lublin in January 1944 as the Russians got closer.

Italy-Rome. WOLFF, Karl. (OGf).

Hungary-Budapest. WINKELMANN, Otto.(OGf). He was never tried for war crimes, and became a town Councillor in Kiel after the war.

WUNNENBERG, Alfred, (OGf).

NAZI PARTY CONTROL OF GERMANY THROUGH THE GAULEITERS.

Once the Nazi's had gained power in Germany in 1933, the Leadership Corps set out to rule and maintain this power. All opposition was eliminated, first by re-education in the newly constructed "work camps", better known as "Concentration Camps" (KZ), which sprang up everywhere initially under the control of the Party's para-military arm, the SA. Until the start of WW2 in September 1939, it was the main deterrant used to 'persuade' citizens that the Nazi Party way was the ONLY way to go.

The SS organisation, through Himmler & Heydrich as part of the Leadership Corps, saw to it that their forces of SD and Gestapo operatives, ruled the lives of Germany's citizens right up until the final days of the war in April 1945.

The system was saturated with Nazi officials, agents and informers from 1933. The Party had divided the country up into Gaus (like States), each with its own leader and deputy. These Gaus were in turn broken down into districts, cells and blocks. The block was the lowest level, but it was also the most important one, for its leader kept a dossier on each of the inhabitants of the fifty or so dwellings that he was responsible for.
At the beginning of 1935 the proportion of NSDAP membership was:
Public Servants (including police) 40.0%
Teachers 30.0%
These were "white collar" people motivated with opportunism rather than with ideological loyalty. Most were in the age group 21 to 30 years, and had joined the Party after January 30th 1933. They had seen their joining up as a means of rapid advancement.

The balance of the membership at that time were shopkeepers, about 10%, tradespeople and factory workers, about 15%, and miscellaneous, 5%.
Worried about an imbalance between "White Collar" workers and "Blue Collar" workers, efforts were made to induce some 15,000 miners and 40,000 agricultural workers.

All of these leaders had a rank which equated roughly to that of the military, and a pay which was scaled accordingly.

Schoolteachers aided the system by encouraging their charges to report to them what their parents were discussing at home.

Once war broke out in 1939, the SS claimed the right to order summary executions in defiance of the courts. The legal rights of citizens shrank with each year of the war. The inmates of the KZ's were pressed into slave labor, and others from the occupied countries were forced to work in mines, quarries, factories and on farms.

Anyone, whether they were German citizens or not who refused to work were deemed to have committed a crime against defence regulations and/or against the security of the State.

Usually the dreaded "People's Courts" dealt with offenders, but other courts, including military, were also used. The decision of the "People's Court" under Roland Freisler, was always "guilty", there was no appeals process, and offenders were quickly executed by the Gestapo by hanging with piano wire, guillotine or shooting in the back of the head with small arms, and was used mainly where propaganda could profit!

The SS also "did away" with thousands of people which the Gestapo had arrested on the say-so of informers and so-called 'block leaders'. Many people were 'dobbed in' and they never saw the inside of any court-room. It was all part of the terror regime organised by the Nazi Part Leadership Corps, whose members had pledged absolute unconditional obedience to Hitler annually.

Many of this Leadership Corps like Hess, Bormann and others, held high SS rank, and although they distrusted each other, they generally worked well together in the name of the Führer! This was fine until the attempt on Hitler's life in the failed "Bomb Plot" of July 20th 1944, when a group of Wehrmacht Officers and high ranking civilians tried to kill their Führer.

After this, the industrialists like Albert Vögler of United Steelworks, and the directors of AEG, Hoesch, Bosch, MAN & DEMAG became a huge problem because many of their workers, many of whom were forced laborers, quickly read their employers' thoughts and then slackened off to an alarming degree. This in turn led to beatings by SS guards if they happened to be the worker's supervisors. This made matters worse.

The SS then resorted to public executions in Germany in an effort to increase production through fear.

Such executions had been common in the occupied countries for some time, but after the failed attempt on Hitler's life in July 1944, they became a reality in Germany too!

The SS Organisation was in deep trouble with Hitler from July 1944 on. The "German Defence Front" was collapsing, and the membership was casting about desperately for those that it felt was reponsible for the situation it was now in. Its wrath fell upon "Defeatists" & "Slackers", and it drew its net tighter and tighter.

Himmler set up roving SS Courts Martials*, comprised mainly of young fanatical SS officers and men, whose sole purpose was to sentence deserters and those who had attempted to surrender, regardless of rank, to be hanged from the nearest lamp-post or tree.

See the pictures showing one public hanging by the SS/Gestapo in the Cologne rail station yards in November 1944, and other pictures resulting from SS Roving Courts Martials.
* Himmler set up these "Fligende Feld und Standgerichte" (Flying Field Courts' Martials), in November 1944, in his capacity as Reichführer-SS und Chef der Deutsche Polizei (Chief of the German Polie), Minister of the Interior & Commander of the Home Army. They were designed to put fear into both military and civilian personnel who harbored any thoughts about desertion or surrender.

Himmler persuaded Bormann to get his Gauleiters to put posters up in every town and village in Germany during the last weeks of 1944. He had also told some senior SS officers, "I give to you the authority to seize every man who turns his back and throw him on a supply waggon. Put your best, most energetic and most brutal officers of your division in charge of these courts. They will soon round up such rabble. They will put anyone who answers back up against a wall".

Suddenly these courts were everywhere to seek out and capture deserters and others from the Wehrmacht, Volksturm and civilians who refused to shoulder arms, and then after issuing summary justice, execute them with a placard hanging around their necks stating "I'm hanging here because I left my unit without permission", or, "I'm a deserter", or "I've made a pact with the Russians".

To the SS placed in charge of these operations, with hardly a medal or decoration among them, rank meant nothing. Privates up to Colonels were shot or hanged without feeling. They were there to carry out Himmler's gruesome orders.

Some 11,700 men were executed unecessarily in this manner. Many photographs exist which show evidence of this form of terror.

One brave Corps Commander, Major-General Hans Mummert, of the Munchenberg Division, a Pz Division made up of training and replacement personnel from the Holstein/Clausewitz Pz Division, requested that there be no further visits by these courts in his division, since it contained the most highly decorated men in the Wehrmacht, which did not deserve to be prosecuted by "such youngsters". He warned that he would shoot any SS Courts Martial teams that he came across, "in person"!.

GAUE (GAUS) & GAULEITERS.Note:Information below is not complete. Some of the HSSPF and SSPF were drawn from these Gau leader positions.
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At the time of the 1930 elections for the Reichstag, there were 37 Gaus.

Each Gauleiter had a deputy. All GL's & Deputy GL's were responsible to the StdF Office of the Deputy Führer, until May 1941 Rudolf Hess, and then to the Party Chancellery Office, Martin Bormann until the end of the war.

In October 1929 a sample survey of GL's showed that eleven had university degrees, twelve had high school diplomas, five had high school certificates. Among them were: An ex-Army Officer, two professional men, four senior public servants, a businessman, eight teachers, a farmer, nine clerical white collar workers and two laborers.

In late 1937 there were 32 Gaue.

Many of the Gauleiters and their younger deputies were drawn to Himmler's SS. Some older ones deserted the SA during early 1940.

By August 1944, Gauleiters were of no use to the Nazi cause!

GAUE (Electoral District). GAULEITER. DEPUTY GAULEITER.
*************************************************************************************************************************************************************
*ALSACE-LORRAINE. Refer PALATINATE.
BÜRCKEL, Josef.
Note: ALSACE was added to BADEN at end of 1940.

*BADEN. WAGNER, Robert.
(from August 1926-1945).

*BAYREUTH. ????? DONNEWERT, Richard.
(from ????? -1940)
RUCHDESCHEL, Ludwig.
(from 1940-?????)

*DANZIG/WESTPRÜSSEN. HÖHNFELD,?????
(from 1926-1927)
SCHWERWITZ, Bruno.
(from 1927-1933).
FORSTER, Albert.
(from 1933-1945).

MARK BRANDENBURG. SCHLANGE, ?????
(Included Berlin). (from ???? 18.2.1926).
GOEBELS, Josef.
(from 1926-1945).
Notes: Goebels was born in 1897, and was also the Reichs Propaganda Minister from 1933-1945. Schlange resigned in 1926.

OSTMARK (EAST BRANDENBURG). KUBE, Wilhelm.
(April 1928-1936).
STÜRTZ, Emil.
(1936-1945).

OSTPRÜSSEN. SCHWERITZ, Bruno.
(from March 1926-1927).
KOCH, Erich.
(from 1927-1945).

Note: Koch was born in 1896. Schweritz had been unable to balance the books in his Gau, and became heartbroken!

POMMERN. CORSWANT, Walter von.
(from ?????-?????).
KARPENSTEIN, Wilhelm.(Born 1903).
(from 1933-1934-dismissed after Röhm Putsch).
SCHWEDE-COBURG, Franz.
(from July 22nd 1934-1945).
Note: Schwede-Coburg was a Bavarian and one of the original Party members.

OBERSCHLIESIEN. BRÜCKNER, Helmuth. BRACHT, Fritz.
(from 1933-1934). (from 1933-1941).
WAGNER, Josef. HOFFMANN, Albert.
(from 1934-1940). (from 1941-1943).
BRACHT, Fritz.
(from 1941-1945).
Note: Brückner was dismissed after the Röhm purge. Wagner succeeded him and Silesia was then addes to his own Gau of Westfalen. He turned out to be ineffctive and was replaced by his then deputy Fritz Bracht.

NIEDERSCHLIESIEN. HANKE, Karl.
(from 1941-1945).

MECKLENBURG. HILDEBRANDT, Friedrich.
(from 1933-1945).
Note: Hildebrandt was a former agricultural laborer, born in 1898. He remained at his post until the end of the war.

MAGDEBURG-ANHALT. LOEPER, Wilhelm.(an ex Army Captain).
(from 1933-1945).

HALLE-MEERSEBURG. (from ???-????)

THÜRINGEN. DINTER, Arthur.
(from 1927-1933).
SAUCKEL, Fritz.
(from 1933-1945).
Note: Fritz Sauckel was an ex sailor.

WARTHELAND. GREISER, Arthur.
(from 1939-1945).

OBERDONAU. ?????? OPPENHOFF,
Christian,Ludwig.
(from May1940-1945).
Note: Oppendorf was born 02.10.1902. He joined the NSDAP in 1925, with the membership number 19633. He was a locksmith by trade and had a small farm on the side. He was ranked as an "Old Fighter", and in September 1933 he had been appointed head of the Gau Training School in Dessau, as well as the Gau leader in Magdeburg-Anhalt. In 1935 he had joined Hess's staff. In late 1935, he became the District Leader in Magdeburg-Anhalt. In 1936 he became a member of the Reichstag. In 1939 he became Hess's represent tative in occupied Poland. In 1940 he was appointed Deputy Gauleiter of Oberdonau, and he remained in that position until the end of the war.

NIEDERDONAU. JURY, Hugo. GERLAND, Karl.
(from 1938-1945). (from 1940-1943).

SACHSEN. MUSCHMANN, Martin
(from 1933-1945).
(Note: It was Mutschmann who had suggested to Hitler in 1940 that all Jews be made to wear the yellow Star of David as an identification mark).Muschmann had been a former lace manufacturer.

NIEDERSACHSEN.

MÜNCHEN-OBERBAYERN. WAGNER, Adolf. REINHARDT, Fritz.
(from 1933-1943). (from 1933-1943).
GIESLER, Paul.
(from November 1942-1945).
Note: Giesler was Acting GL.

FRANKEN. STREICHER, Julius. HOLZ, Karl.
(from 1933-1940). (from 1933-1940).
HOLZ, Karl.
(from 1940-1945).
Note: Hitler forced Streicher's resignation and retirement on 1st May 1940 because of flagrant violations of corruption, sexual misconduct and other eccentric behavior like walking to work in his bathers! Karl Holz too had been involved in financial dealings and was closely involved with Streicher. Both men were the subject of a report to Hitler by the Chief of the Nuremburg police-Martin in April 1940.

MAIN-FRANKEN. SCHEMM, Helmuth.
(from ??? - ???).

SCHWABEN. WAHL, Karl.
(from 1933-1945).

WÜTEMBURG-HÖHENZOLLERN.
MURR, ????(from ???? - ????).

MOSELLAND. ???????

RHEIN-RUHR-ESSEN. TERBOVEN, Josef. SCLESSMANN, Fritz.
(RHINELAND). (1933-1945). (1933-1945).
Note: Terboven was also Reich Commissioner-Norway-1940 to 1945. He committed suicide April 1945.

RHEIN-WESTMARK.
(RHINELAND). LEY, Robert.
Note: Ley was also Minister for Labor.KOBLENZ/TRIER. GUSTAV, Simon.(From 1933-1945).
LUXEMBOURG, added as part of this Gau from end of 1940-1945.
Note: Simon was nicknamed "The poisonous mushroom of Hermeskeil". He was both incompetent and arrogant and his Gau was riddled with nepotism and corruption. He got one of his brothers appointed as a deputy GL, and another as the officer in charge of Press Censorship in Luxembourg!

LÜNEBURG-STADE. ????????

HESSEN-NASSAU. SPRENGER, Jakob. STANGIER, Peter.
(from 1927-1933). (from 1937-1943).
NEEF, Hermann.
(from 1933-1945).
Notes: Sprenger was born in 1894, and was a former postal worker before being appointed GL for Hessen-Nassau-Sud in 1927. In May 1933 he was appointed as a Reichsstattshalter (a Federal Representative of the States). He committed suicide in April 1945.
Neef was born in 1904, and was a former Customs Officer and a career public servant.

KUR-HESSEN. WEINRICH, Karl.
(from 1933-1943).
GERLAND, Karl.
(from 1943-1945).
Note: Schlessmann had been an SA leader.

KÖLN/AACHEN. GRÖHE, Josef. SCHALLER, Richard.
(from ??? - 1945). (from 1940-1945).
Gröhe was appointed as Reich Commissioner in Belgium when Hitler withdrew the Military Administration from there in July 1944.

WESTFALLEN-SUD. WAGNER, Josef.
(from 1933-1940).
GIESLER, Paul.
(from 1940-November 1942).
MEYER, Alfred.
(from 1942-1945).
Notes: Wagner died from Cirrhosis of the liver in 1943. Giesler was a close friend of Martin Bormann.

WESTFALEN. WAGNER, ????
Note: Wagner was born in 1899, and was an elementary schoolteacher.

WESTFALLEN-NORD. HOFFMANN, Albert. GIESLER, Paul.
(from 1943-1945). (from 1940-1943).
STANGIER, Peter.
(from 1943-1945).

DÜSSELDORF. FLORIEN, Karl.
(from 1933-1945).

HANNOVER-OST. HOMANN, ??? SCHMALZ, Kurt.
(from 1927-1940).
RUST, ?????
(from ????? to end 1940)
LAUTERBACHER, Hartmann.
(from end 1940-1945).

HANNOVER-SÜD/ TELSCHOW, Otto. PEPER, Heinrich.
BRAUNSCHWEIG. (In 1944).
Note: Peper was made an SS Brigadeführer on 27 May 1937.He had been recommended to Himmler by SS Brigadeführer Panke of Hamburg.

HAMBURG. KLANT, Josef. HENNINGSON, Harry.
(????? until 1926). (1933-1945).
KREBS, Dr. Albert.
(from 1926-1928).
KAUFMANN, Karl.
(from May 1st 1929-1945).

WESER-EMS. WEGENER, Paul.
(from 1942-1945).

SCHLESWIG-HOLSTEIN. LÖHSE, Hinrich.
(from 1933-1945).

OLDENBURG-BREMEN. RÖVER, Karl.
(from 1933-1942).

PALATINATE. BÜRCKEL, Josef.
(from 1933-1934).
Note: Bürckel joined the SS and was given the rank of Obergruppenführer. He committed suicide in August 1944.

WIEN (AUSTRIA). GLOBOCNIK, Odillo.
(from 1938-1939).

BÜRCKEL, Josef.
(from 1939-August 1940).
von SHIRACH, Baldur.
(from 1940-
Note: Globocnik was an Austrian, who was also an SS Obergruppenführer.In February 1939 he resigned his GL position because of financial irregularities. He was relaced by Bürckel. Globocnik later became Himmler's HSSPF in Lublin, Poland. Bürckel was a radical who wanted to change Austria's old conservative way to Hitler's "new order". Because of this he was to clash with Seyss-Inquart, another Austrian, who was then sent as Hitler's Reichsleiter in Holland. Bürckel returned to his Gau PALATINATE, and added LORRAINE to it! He remained there until he committed suicide in August 1944. Shirach's appointment was a disaster. He was the son of a theatre director, and at the age of 40 he was made the HJ (Hitler Youth) leader. Hitler ordered his dismissal, but since another post could not be found for him, he remained as GL of Vienna until the end of the war.

SALZBURG (AUSTRIA). RAINER, Friedrich.
(from 1938-1941).
SCHEEL, Gustav.
(from November 1941-?????).
Note: Rainer was an Austrian.

TIROL-VORALBERG KLAUSNER, Hubert.
(AUSTRIA). (from ???? - ????).

STIERMARK UIBERREITHER, Siegfried.
(AUSTRIA). (from 1939-1945).

KARNTEN (WHITE RUTHENIA). KUBE, Wilhelm. HOLZ, Karl.
(from 1933-1936). (from 1933-1940).
STÜRZ, Emil.
(from 1936-1945).

REICHENBERG (SUDETENLAND).
HENLEIN, Konrad. DONNEWERT, Richard.
(from 1938-1945).
Note: Hitler sent Donnewert to specifically control Henlein in 1940!

CARININTHIA (YUGOSLAVIA). RAINER, Karl.
(from 1941-1945).

FURTHER NOTES: Hitler had declared on the 1st September 1939, that the Gauleiters primary task was to keep the population quiet at all costs, and joyous if possible, and to control any disatisfaction, I.e., "idealogical guardianship"!

They were also to propagandadise the NSDAP's services to the people, (much like a Union does to the labour workforce).

He warned: "Let no Gauleiter dare report that morale might be low in his Gau, district, local group or cell".

Each Gauleiter had a deputy.

In May 1942, A Gauleiter (E.g., Fritz Bracht - Upper Silesia, was paid RM's 4070 per month, plus expenses of RM's of 800 per month. These salaries were well above comparable rates in the German Public Service.

At the same time, a District Leaders pay was RM's 1120 per month. Refer to pages 361 & 362 of "History of the Nazi Party - Vol.II".

When Himmler was deputy Gauleiter of München-OBB in April 1927, he was paid RM's 120 per month. At the time a comparable Public Servant got RM's 266 per month as a starting salary!!

For a full history of the NSDAP from cradle to grave, refer to the two-volume edition of "The History of the Nazi Party". Part 1 deals with the period 1919-1933, and Part 2 with the period 1933-1945. These Dietrich Orlow volumes are the most authoritive on the subject.

Ian Dixon.
June 1990.