Erich Gritzbach

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Erich Gritzbach
Standartenfuhrer Gritzbach (1938)
Chief of the Staff Office,
Prussian State Ministry
In office
4 March 1938 – 8 May 1945
Head of the Press Office,
Prussian State Ministry
In office
7 May 1934 – 4 March 1938
Personal details
Born
Robert August Erich Gritzbach

12 July 1896
Civil servant
Military service
Allegiance German Empire
 Weimar Republic
 Nazi Germany
Branch/serviceImperial German Army
Reichswehr
Luftwaffe
Years of service1914–1918
1919–1920
1935–1945
RankLeutnant
Oberstleutnant
Battles/warsWorld War I
World War II
AwardsIron Cross, 1st and 2nd class
War Merit Cross, 1st and 2nd class without Swords
Wound Badge, in black

Erich Gritzbach (12 July 1896 – 29 March 1968) was a high-ranking German civil servant throughout the period of

Second World War
.

Early life

Gritzbach was born in

western front until 1918. He served with Reserve Infantry Regiment 8, was promoted to Leutnant of reserves in February 1917 and was awarded the Iron Cross 1st and 2nd class and the Wound Badge in black. After the end of the war, Gritzbach remained in the peacetime Reichswehr and volunteered for service with the Grenzschutz Ost (Eastern Border Guard). He took part in border battles in the first Silesian uprising. He served until May 1920 as a platoon and company commander of a machine gun company in both the 9th Rifle Regiment and the 93rd Rifle Regiment.[1]

Returning to civilian life, Gritzbach worked as an assistant manager in the Association of German Machine Tool Builders from 1920 to 1922. At the same time, he studied law and political science at the Humboldt University of Berlin and the University of Tübingen. He became a member of the Berlin fraternity "Gothia" in 1921, and he earned his doctorate in political science in February 1924 from Tübingen. Gritzbach was politically active in the conservative German National People's Party (DNVP) in the early 1920s. On 17 April 1924, he joined the Reichszentrale für Heimatdienst (Reich Center for Homeland Service) an information and education authority of the Weimar Republic. There he was appointed on 1 January 1931 as a Regierungsrat (Government Counselor). On 20 July 1932, he entered the Prussian State Ministry as the adjutant to the newly-appointed Reich Commissioner for Prussia, Franz von Papen, and he was promoted to Ministerialrat (Ministerial Counselor) on 27 September 1932.[1]

Career in Nazi Germany

On 30 January 1933, upon the

Berlin Olympic Games of 1936 in January 1936, responsible for all organizational preparations.[2] He was promoted to Ministerialdirigent on 13 September 1936. In 1938 he was given the title of Chef des Stabsamts (Chief of the Staff Office) of the Prussian Ministry and he was promoted to Ministerialdirektor on 4 March 1938. Also on 22 August 1938, Göring appointed him to the Prussian State Council. He retained both these posts until the fall of the Nazi regime.[1]

Gritzbach joined the

Second World War, he was called up into the Luftwaffe in August 1939 where he attained the rank of Oberstleutnant.[1]

Post-war life

After the end of the

Flick Trial of leading industrialists. He subsequently was employed as an office manager in the press office of the North German Iron and Steel Control in Düsseldorf, and later worked for the European Coal and Steel Community. As a former senior civil servant, he received a pension of more than 1500 DM per month, and lived for a few years in Königsfeld im Schwarzwald. He died in Erlangen on 29 March 1968.[3]

Writings

Gritzbach wrote a biography of Göring ("Hermann Göring. Work and Man") published in 1938 that appeared in more than twenty editions and sold several hundred thousand copies, with Göring claiming the majority of the royalties for himself. It is largely hagiographic in nature.[4]

  • Pricing in German Machine Tool Construction, Ph.D. dissertation, (1924)
  • Hermann Göring. Work and Man, Franz Eher Nachfolger, Munich (1938)
  • Hermann Göring. Speeches and Essays, Franz Eher Nachfolger, Munich (1938)

SS ranks

SS ranks[5]
Date Rank
25 September 1933 SS-Untersturmführer
4 July 1934 SS-Obersturmführer
1 January 1935 SS-Hauptsturmführer
20 April 1936 SS-Sturmbannführer
9 November 1936 SS-Obersturmbannführer
9 November 1937 SS-Standartenführer
20 April 1938 SS-Oberführer

References

  1. ^ a b c d Lilla 2005, pp. 205–206.
  2. ^ "Prussia Names Gritzbach Chief Commissar for 1936 Games". New York Times. 11 January 1933. p. 24.
  3. ^ a b Klee 2007, p. 201.
  4. Institute for Contemporary History Munich-Berlin on behalf of the Prussian Cultural Heritage Foundation
    , Oldenbourg Verlag, Munich 2008, p. 264. ISBN 978-3-486-58683-1.
  5. ^ SS Seniority List, 1 December 1937, pp.32–33, #493 Retrieved 15 July 2023.

Sources

External links
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