Friedrich Hildebrandt

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Friedrich Hildebrandt
Hildebrandt in 1933
Gauleiter of Mecklenburg-Lübeck
In office 25 March 1925 – 1 April 1937
Gauleiter of Gau Mecklenburg
In office 1 April 1937 – 8 May 1945
Reichsstatthalter of Mecklenburg-Schwerin
In office 26 May 1933 – 31 December 1933
Reichsstatthalter of Mecklenburg-Strelitz
In office 26 May 1933 – 31 December 1933
Reichsstatthalter of Mecklenburg
In office 1 January 1934 – 8 May 1945
Reichsstatthalter of the Free City of Lübeck
In office 26 May 1933 – 31 March 1937
Personal details
Born	19 September 1898 Kiekindemark (today, part of Vizefeldwebel SS-Obergruppenführer
Awards	Iron Cross, 1st and 2nd class War Merit Cross, 1st and 2nd class with Swords

Friedrich Hildebrandt (19 September 1898 – 5 November 1948) was a

Early life

Hildebrandt was born in Kiekindemark (today, part of

Hildebrandt joined the Nazi Party in February 1925 (membership number 3,653) when it was refounded and, as an early member, he later was awarded the Golden Party Badge. On 27 March 1925 he was appointed Gauleiter of Gau Mecklenburg-Lübeck. In September 1925, he became a member of the National Socialist Working Association, a short-lived group of north and northwest German Gauleiter, organized and led by Gregor Strasser, which unsuccessfully sought to amend the Party program. It was dissolved in 1926 following the Bamberg Conference. In 1927, Hildebrandt became the founder and editor of a Nazi newspaper, the Niederdeutscher Beobachter, later also serving as editor of two additional such publications, the Lübecker Beobachter and the Strelitzer Beobachter. In 1929, he was again elected to the Landtag, this time as a Nazi deputy.^[3]

Briefly suspended as Gauleiter by

Hildebrandt was involved in involuntary euthanasia for Aktion T4. In April 1941 he had the deaconess house in Lübtheen expropriated. The mentally handicapped children living there were then taken to the Lewenberg children's ward in Schwerin, where they were later murdered. During a meeting on 5 April 1941, Hildebrandt said "I had Lobetal cleaned. I had the idiots taken to where they belong."^[6]

In the winters of 1941/1942, several thousand Soviet POWs starved to death under Hildebrandt's jurisdiction in Mecklenburg.^[7] In a letter to the chancellery, he expressed his concern about the lack of slave labourers, and said the problem could be avoided if "enough Russians are delivered later." During a meeting with the Reich Defense Committee on 17 March 1942, Hildebrandt said "... for the Führer and for Adolf Hitler's cause, I pursue the law, even if it comes down to dead bodies." By the end of 1943, there were 152,148 foreign workers in Mecklenburg, most of whom were there against their will and were being exploited for slave labour.^[8]

Post-war prosecution

After the war ended, Hildebrandt was arrested by British occupation authorities and interned. In 1946, he was transferred to U.S. custody after being implicated in the issuing of orders to summarily execute downed Allied airmen in 1944.^[9] Between 1946 and 1948, Soviet military occupation authorities repeatedly demanded Hildebrandt's extradition over his involvement in the euthanasia murders in Sachsenberg. However, all of these requests were rejected by the British and Americans.^[10]

Nevertheless, in 1947, Hildebrandt and six others were found guilty of their involvement in the murders of several downed American airmen at the Dachau trials. Six of those convicted, including Hildebrandt, were sentenced to death by hanging. The other, Fritz Schröder, was sentenced to 20 years in prison due to his lesser involvement and the judges concluding that he was a reluctant participant. Schröder was released from prison in February 1954.^[11][12]

Appeals for clemency for Hildebrandt were unsuccessful. He and his condemned codefendants were executed at Landsberg Prison on 5 November 1948.^[9][13][14] In his final statement, Hildebrandt blamed Communists for his execution.^[15]

"Captain, for twenty-six years I have been fighting against the Bolsheviks out of deep conviction, as a Mecklenburg farmer. They have sentenced me to death, but American marine soldiers delivered me from them. I am a victim, not of your courts, but of Communist elements who made statements against me. Since my home is in the Russian zone, I was not able to get all the material for my defense. God, protect my family and my poor five children."

References

Bibliography

• Miller, Michael D.; Schulz, Andreas (2012). Gauleiter: The Regional Leaders of the Nazi Party and Their Deputies, 1925-1945. Vol. I (Herbert Albrecht – H. Wilhelm Huttmann). R. James Bender Publishing.
  ISBN 978-1-932970-21-0
  .
• Williams, Max (2015). SS Elite: The Senior Leaders of Hitler's Praetorian Guard. Vol. 1. Fonthill Media LLC.
  ISBN 978-1-781-55433-3
  .

• Information about Friedrich Hildebrandt in the Reichstag database
• Newspaper clippings about Friedrich Hildebrandt in the 20th Century Press Archives of the ZBW