Karl Diebitsch
Karl Diebitsch | |
---|---|
SS-Oberführer | |
Unit | Personal Staff Reichsführer-SS SS-Totenkopfverbände 5th SS Panzer Division Wiking |
Karl Diebitsch (3 January 1899 – 6 August 1985) was an artist and the
Life
Diebitsch was born on 3 January 1899, in the city of Hanover, Germany. In Hanover he completed his apprenticeship as a decorating painter after the First World War, because of his enlistment in the Imperial German Navy in 1915. He earned the Iron Cross, Second Class, while with an artillery battery during World War I.[1]
After a short time being employed as a merchant, he resumed his education. Diebitsch enrolled in the Design School of the Academy of Plastic and Graphic Arts in Munich on 29 October 1919.[1]
Joining the Nazi Party
On 1 May 1920, Diebitsch joined the Nazi Party (NSDAP). His membership number was 1,436. From 1920 to 1923 he was a member of the Freikorps (Free Corps). Two years after the Beer Hall Putsch Diebitsch went on to complete his formal art training in 1925, followed by several years of living and working in Munich as a painter and graphic artist. When the Nazis came to power in 1933, Diebitsch moved his family to Berlin and there joined the Reichsverband Bildender Künstler Deutschlands (National Association of German Visual Artists). In 1932, the new all-black SS uniform was designed by Diebitsch with graphic designer Walter Heck.[2] In November 1933 he joined the SS (membership number 141,990), and in 1937 he re-joined the NSDAP, with a membership number of 4,690,956.
Artworks for Nazi Germany
Diebitsch served as the director of SS
He served on the Personal Staff Reichsführer-SS and designed a tapestry that was created by Elsie Seifert.
It was removed from Heinrich Himmler's residence in Berchtesgaden in 1945 by a member of the 506th Parachute Regiment of the American 101st Airborne Division. This piece originally hung in the Reichstag, but was removed to Himmler's residence after a fire which destroyed a similar piece. The construction is of heavy gold bullion thread on a blood red velvet backing. Bullion tassels and chord. Size is approximately 7 x 9 feet.[3]
War years and later life
Besides being an artist, Diebitsch was also a reserve officer in the
See also
- Allach (concentration camp)
- Art of the Third Reich
- List of German painters
References
- ^ a b c d e An honorary title conveyed by Hitler. Johnson, Thomas M., Collecting Edged Weapons of the Third Reich, Volume 6, 1993, pp 78–81.
- ^ McNab, Chris. Hitler's Elite: The SS 1939–45, Osprey 2013, p 90.
- ^ Johnson, Thomas M., World War II German War Booty, Volume II, p 66.
- ^ In 1976, Heinrich Porzellan GmbH in Selb, Bavaria was incorporated into the Villeroy & Boch company association.