Hartmann Lauterbacher

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Hartmann Lauterbacher
Hartmann Lauterbacher, June 1940
Oberpräsident of the Province of Hanover
In office
1 April 1941 – 8 May 1945
Preceded byViktor Lutze
Succeeded byOffice abolished
Gauleiter of Southern Hanover-Brunswick
In office
8 December 1940 – 8 May 1945
Preceded byBernhard Rust
Succeeded byOffice abolished
Deputy Gauleiter of Gau Southern Hanover-Brunswick
In office
8 August 1940 – 8 December 1940
Preceded byKurt Schmalz [de]
Succeeded byAugust Knop [de]
Deputy Reichsjugendführer and
Stabsführer of the Hitler Youth
In office
18 May 1934 – 8 August 1940
LeaderBaldur von Schirach
Preceded byKarl Nabersberg
Succeeded byHelmut Möckel
Personal details
Born(1909-05-24)24 May 1909
SS-Leibstandarte Adolf Hitler
Battles/warsWorld War II
Military awardsWar Merit Cross, 1st and 2nd class, with Swords

Hartmann Paul Johann Lauterbacher (24 May 1909 – 12 April 1988) was the German

West German
spy agency and was involved in many underground intelligence operations.

Early life in Austria

Lauterbacher was born the son of a

Tyrol when it was part of Austria-Hungary. He attended Volksschule in Reutte and Kufstein and the Kufstein Reform-Gymnasium. From ages 16 to 18, he served an apprenticeship as a druggist in a pharmacy and photo development shop in Kufstein. After passing his state examination in 1928, he was employed by the Chamber of Industry and Commerce in Kufstein until March 1929.[1]

While still in school, he had joined the National Socialist Youth organization of the German National Socialist Workers' Party in 1922. The next year in Kufstein, the then 14-year-old Lauterbacher co-founded the first Ortsgruppe (Local Group) of the Deutschen Jugend (German Youth) in Austria.[2] In that year, he became the Deputy Führer of the entire organization and served in that capacity until moving up to Führer in 1925. He first met Adolf Hitler during a visit to Rosenheim on 19 April 1925. Lauterbacher was a member of the Sturmabteilung (SA) in Kufstein from 1926 to 1927. In April 1927, he joined the Hitler Youth (HJ) as member number 4,709, merging the Deutschen Jugend organization in Austria with it and becoming the HJ-Unterführer (subleader) in the Tyrol. On 13 September 1927, he formally joined the Nazi Party (membership number 86,837). As an Alter Kämpfer, he would later be awarded the Golden Party Badge.[3]

Move to Germany and Hitler Youth career

Lauterbacher moved to

Nuremberg Rally and an official visit to Italy in September 1936. Lauterbacher also became the first recipient of the Golden Hitler Youth Badge.[4]

In addition to his HJ responsibilities, on 29 March 1936, Lauterbacher was elected as a deputy to the Reichstag from electoral constituency 16, Southern Hanover-Brunswick, a seat he would retain until the fall of the Nazi regime. In April 1937, he was appointed a Ministerial Councilor (Ministerialrat) and, on 9 November of that year, he rejoined the SA with the rank of SA-Gruppenführer. He was appointed to the staff of its national leadership, and would be promoted to SA-Obergruppenführer on 20 April 1944. In 1939, he helped to establish the Academy for Youth Leadership in Braunschweig, a facility for the training and political indoctrination of HJ leaders.[5]

Military and SS service

While Schirach was on active military service with the

Allgemeine-SS (SS number 382,406) on 2 August 1940 with the rank of SS-Brigadeführer, and was assigned to the staff of Reichsführer-SS Heinrich Himmler. He would subsequently receive promotions to SS-Gruppenführer (20 April 1941) and SS-Obergruppenführer (30 January 1944).[6]

Gauleiter of Southern Hanover-Brunswick

After discharge from the hospital in June 1940, Lauterbacher reported to the branch office of the Party Deputy Führer

Wehrkreis (military district) XI, as well as the honorary leadership of the Academy for Youth Leadership.[8] Lauterbacher, as a youthful and energetic 31-year-old HJ veteran, was considered an ideal prototype for the new breed of Gauleiter. In addition, he was a fanatic opponent of the churches and an avid proponent of the Party's dominant role in national affairs. Finally, he was a particular favorite of Martin Bormann, then the chief-of-staff in Hess' office.[9]

On 1 January 1941, Prussian

hydroelectric plant at Magdeburg, ironically while traveling to the Reich Ministry of Propaganda in Berlin to discuss air raid protection measures. This again necessitated his hospitalization at the Hohenlychen Sanatorium where he underwent surgery by Dr. Karl Gebhardt on 3 January 1945. He was then transferred to the hospital in Einbeck in February for recuperation.[7]

Holocaust involvement

In March 1941, Lauterbacher issued orders to the district

death camps.[13] In March and July 1942, additional deportations reduced the Jewish population to around 300. It is estimated that at least 2,200 Jews from Hanover died in the Holocaust and only around 100 survived the war in the city.[14]

Flight and capture

Headline of the Braunschweiger Tageszeitung [de] of 6 April 1945 with an article by Gauleiter Lauterbacher entitled: "Better Dead than a Slave"

The

Carinthia.[16]

Post war life

Internment, acquittals and escape

On 27 May 1946, Lauterbacher appeared as a defense witness for Schirach at the

Nuremberg Trials. On 5 July 1946, the High British Military Court in Hanover acquitted Lauterbacher of the charge of having ordered the murder of German and Allied detainees early in April 1945 at the prison in Hamelin. In August 1947, new proceedings against Lauterbacher began at the Dachau trials. At issue this time was an order allegedly given by him in September 1944 for the shooting of twelve American airmen who had been shot down over Goslar. In October 1947, this trial, too, ended in an acquittal. He was then charged in December 1947 by the German court in Hanover in connection with his role in establishing the Jewish houses. Lauterbacher, who since the end of the war had been interned in the Sandbostel camp near Bremervörde, on 25 February 1948 managed to flee detention in circumstances that are still unclear. The German charges were dismissed in 1949.[17]

Reappearance, intelligence activities and last years

Based on American intelligence documents, Lauterbacher is alleged to have made connections with the

Joseph Mengele, Klaus Barbie and many others utilized in escaping to South America or Middle Eastern states with the help of human smugglers. Lauterbacher was identified and attacked by the Italian Communist Party newspaper l'Unità in April 1950 as a former Nazi leader being assisted by the Church. As a result, he was arrested by Italian authorities that month and was interned in the Campo di internamento di Fraschette [it] near Rome.[18] The Italian government declared him an undesirable alien and sought to deport him. However, he purportedly escaped and fled to Argentina in December 1950.[19]

For many years, Lauterbacher's activities were shrouded in mystery and many conflicting narratives were developed. However, on 14 December 2014,

Neo-Nazi organization headed by Werner Naumann known as the Naumann Circle, or the Gauleiter Circle, that attempted to infiltrate political parties in West Germany.[17]

Lauterbacher was retained as an operative of the Gehlen Organization's successor, the

Kingdom of Morocco.[20]

Lauterbacher returned to Germany in 1983 and spent the rest of his life as a recluse but published his memoirs in 1984. He died in April 1988 at Seeon-Seebruck, near the border with his native Austria, without ever having been held accountable for his crimes during the Nazi dictatorship.

Published works

  • Baldur von Schirach (1935)
  • Erlebt und mitgestaltet (1984)

See also

References

  1. ^ Miller & Schulz 2017, pp. 161–163.
  2. ^ Klee 2007, p. 359.
  3. ^ Miller & Schulz 2017, p. 162, 175.
  4. ^ Miller & Schulz 2017, pp. 163–164, 175.
  5. ^ Miller & Schulz 2017, pp. 164, 166.
  6. ^ Miller & Schulz 2017, p. 166.
  7. ^ a b Williams 2017, p. 201.
  8. ^ Miller & Schulz 2017, pp. 166–167.
  9. ^ Orlow 1973, p. 317.
  10. ^ Lilla 2005, pp. 219, 298.
  11. ^ Höffkes 1986, p. 204.
  12. ^ Miller & Schulz 2017, pp. 168–172.
  13. ^ Miller & Schulz 2017, pp. 168, 170.
  14. ^ "Hanover". Jewish Virtual Library. Retrieved 10 November 2023.
  15. ^ Miller & Schulz 2017, p. 172.
  16. ^ Williams 2017, p. 202.
  17. ^ a b Miller & Schulz 2017, p. 173.
  18. ^ a b Declassified CIA Report on Hartmann Lauterbacher, (PDF)
  19. ^ a b c Zimmermann, Elisabeth (8 January 2015). "Leading Nazi worked for Germany's post-war intelligence service for 13 years". World Socialist Web Site. Retrieved 10 November 2023.
  20. ^ Höffkes 1986, p. 206.

Sources

Further reading

External links

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