Albert Hoffmann (Nazi)

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For other uses, see Albert Hoffman (disambiguation).
Albert Hoffmann
Gauleiter of Gau Westphalia-South
(Acting Gauleiter until 17 April 1944)
In office
26 January 1943 – 13 April 1945
Appointed byAdolf Hitler
Preceded byPaul Giesler
Succeeded byPosition abolished
Deputy Gauleiter of Gau Upper Silesia
In office
10 February 1941 – 26 January 1943
Appointed byAdolf Hitler
Preceded byPosition created
Succeeded byRudolf Metzner
Personal details
Born
Adolf Johann Albert Hoffmann

(1907-10-24)24 October 1907
Polish Campaign)
AwardsIron Cross, 2nd class
War Merit Cross, 1st and 2nd class with Swords

Adolf Johann Albert Hoffmann (24 October 1907 – 26 August 1972) was a German entrepreneur, who during the

war crimes, he was acquitted for lack of evidence, but was sentenced to prison as a result of denazification
proceedings.

Early life

Hoffmann was born in

Realschule and a trade school, Hoffmann was apprenticed and took up a job as a raw tobacco salesman. In 1925 Hoffmann joined the National Socialist Worker Youth (Nationalsozialistische Arbeiterjugend), the forerunner of the Hitler Youth. He was among the founding members of both the SA and the local Nazi Party organization in Bremen, becoming the Ortsgruppenleiter (Local Group Leader), a position he would hold until 1933. He officially joined the Nazi Party on 27 July 1926 (membership number 41,165) with membership backdated to February 1925. As an early Party member, he would later be awarded the Golden Party Badge. He also served as the propaganda leader in the Oldenburg area between 1927 and 1928, at the same time working as a commercial tobacco trader in Amsterdam. For the next several years, he traveled throughout Germany as the representative of various tobacco houses.[1]

Pre-war career in Nazi Germany

Following the

Obersturmfuhrer assigned to the SS Main Office.[2]

After the

RSHA) where he served until 21 September 1942.[3]

Wartime service and Holocaust involvement

Hoffmann had undergone military reserve training in the summers of 1936, 1937 and 1939. From the outbreak of the

Nazi invasion of Poland. He served as an Unteroffizier in a Kradschützen (motorcycle) squadron of the 1st Mountain Division, was promoted to Wachtmeister and was awarded the Iron Cross, 2nd class.[4]

On 10 February 1941, while retaining his other Party offices, he became the first Deputy Gauleiter of the recently established Gau Upper Silesia where he also served as Gau chairman (Gauobmann) for the German Labour Front administration. On 3 June 1941, he also secured a seat in the Reichstag representing electoral constituency 17 (Breslau), where he replaced a deceased deputy.[5]

From 5 May to 20 September 1942 Hoffmann was detailed to serve as

Party Chancellery as well as Hitler and Joseph Goebbels. After completing his detail to the Unruh commission, Hoffmann was transferred from the RSHA to the personal staff of the Reichsführer-SS on 21 September 1942. He also returned to his post as Deputy Gauleiter in Kattowitz (today, Katowice) where he also served as Gau economics adviser.[6]

Gauleiter in South Westphalia

On 26 January 1943 Hoffmann was appointed Acting Gauleiter of

Volksturm units in his jurisdiction. In October he was named Reich Defense Commissioner for the entire Rhineland and Ruhr regions.[9]

On 26 February 1945, Hoffmann issued to the police, Party and civil officials in his jurisdiction the following order, sanctioning the

vigilante lynching of downed Allied fighter-bomber
pilots:

Jagtbomber pilots who are shot down are in principle not to be protected against the fury of the people. I expect from all police officers that they will refure to lend their protection to these gangster types. Authorities acting in contradiction to the popular sentiment will have to account to me.[10]

Hoffmann, who did not enjoy widespread popularity even within the Nazi Party's top ranks owing to his arrogance and bossy manner, was said to have been a staunch Nazi right through to the

war's end. Shortly before the war ended, as Allied troops were invading his jurisdiction, he ordered the destruction of numerous bridges and other infrastructure in accordance with Hitler's Nero Decree. Leaving Bochum on 10 April 1945, he retreated first to Harkortberg near Wetter and then to Haßlinghausen (today, part of Sprockhövel). Finally, on 13 April 1945, Hoffmann discussed setting up a Werwolf operation before dissolving his Gau staff and the Volkssturm organization in Westphalia-South. He and his staff went into hiding with false papers and civilian clothes.[10]

Post-war trial, conviction, and sentence

After fleeing and hiding out for several months, Hoffmann was finally discovered and arrested by

Nuremberg Trials against the main Nazi war criminals. He later was himself charged in two British military criminal cases in Recklinghausen (October 1946) and Hamburg (December 1948) in connection with the murders of Allied airmen and foreign forced laborers. However, he was acquitted for lack of evidence. He was then tried by a German denazification tribunal at Benefeld-Bomlitz and received a prison sentence of 4 years and 9 months in December 1948. He only served part of his sentence, in consideration of time served and was pardoned by the Minister President of Lower Saxony.[5]

Later life and family

After his release from prison at

fringe party in Germany whose main policy is to campaign for the reintroduction of the Deutsche Mark.[11]

SS ranks

SS ranks[12]
Date Rank
9 November 1936 SS-Obersturmführer
30 January 1937 SS-Hauptsturmführer
30 January 1938 SS-Sturmbannführer
1 April 1939 SS-Obersturmbannführer
20 April 1939 SS-Standartenführer
21 September 1942 SS-Oberführer
19 June 1943 SS-Brigadeführer
9 November 1943 SS-Gruppenführer

References

  1. ^ Höffkes 1986, p. 147.
  2. ^ Miller & Schulz 2012, p. 514.
  3. ^ Miller & Schulz 2012, pp. 514–515.
  4. ^ Miller & Schulz 2012, pp. 514–515, 520.
  5. ^ a b Höffkes 1986, p. 148.
  6. ^ Miller & Schulz 2012, pp. 514–517.
  7. ^ Lilla 2005, pp. 210, 297.
  8. ^ Longerich 2015, pp. 616–617.
  9. ^ Miller & Schulz 2012, pp. 517–518.
  10. ^ a b Miller & Schulz 2012, p. 519.
  11. ^ Miller & Schulz 2012, p. 520.
  12. ^ Höffkes 1986, pp. 147–148.

Sources

  • Blank, Ralf: Albert Hoffmann, in: Westfälische Lebensbilder 17, Münster 2005 [= Veröffentlichungen der Historischen Kommission für Westfalen XXVII A, 17].
  • Blank, Ralf: Albert Hoffmann als Reichsverteidigungskommissar im Gau Westfalen-Süd, 1943-1945. Eine biografische Skizze, in: Beiträge zur Geschichte des Nationalsozialismus 17 (2001), S. 189-210.
  • Blank, Ralf: "... der Volksempörung nicht zu entziehen". Gauleiter Albert Hoffmann und der "Fliegerbefehl", in: Märkisches Jahrbuch 98 (1998), S. 255-296.
  • Höffkes, Karl (1986). Hitlers Politische Generale. Die Gauleiter des Dritten Reiches: ein biographisches Nachschlagewerk. Tübingen: Grabert-Verlag.
    ISBN 3-87847-163-7
    .
  • Lilla, Joachim (2005). Der Prußische Staatsrat 1921–1933: Ein biographisches Handbuch. Düsseldorf: Droste Verlag.
    ISBN 978-3-770-05271-4
    .
  • Longerich, Peter (2015). Goebbels: A Biography. Vintage.
    ISBN 978-0-099-52369-7
    .
  • Miller, Michael D.; Schulz, Andreas (2012). Gauleiter: The Regional Leaders of the Nazi Party and Their Deputies, 1925–1945. Vol. 1 (Herbert Albrecht - H. Wilhelm Hüttmann). R. James Bender Publishing.
    ISBN 978-1-932-97021-0
    .

External links
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