Karl Mayr

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Karl Mayr
Born(1883-01-05)5 January 1883
Mindelheim, German Empire
Died9 February 1945(1945-02-09) (aged 62)
Buchenwald concentration camp, Weimar, Nazi Germany
Allegiance German Empire
 Weimar Republic
Service/branch Imperial German Army
Reichsheer
Years of service1901–1920
RankCaptain
UnitArmy Intelligence Division
Commands held1st Bavarian Jägerbattailon
Battles/warsWorld War I

Captain Karl Mayr (5 January 1883 – 9 February 1945) was a German General Staff officer and Adolf Hitler's immediate superior in an Army Intelligence Division in the Reichswehr, 1919–1920. Mayr was particularly known as the man who introduced Hitler to politics. In 1919, Mayr directed Hitler to write the Gemlich letter, in which Hitler first expressed his anti-Semitic views in writing.[1][2]

Mayr later became Hitler's opponent, and wrote in his memoirs that General

Buchenwald Concentration Camp
in 1945.

A fact-based portrayal of Mayr is dramatized in the 2002 film Max, a fictional account of Hitler's life in Munich just prior to joining the German Workers' Party.

Life and work

Mayr was the son of a magistrate. After graduating from high school, he was enrolled on 14 July 1901 in the 1st Bavarian Infantry Regiment in Munich as a cadet. Well regarded by his superiors, he made rapid progress, becoming Leutnant in 1903 and Oberleutnant in 1911.

From August 1914 Mayr was with the 1st Bayerischen Jägerbattailon. During the

First World War he was in combat in Lorraine and Flanders and involved in early 1915 with the German Alpine Corps. On 1 June 1915 Mayr was promoted to Hauptmann
(captain). In 1917, he was named on the General Staff of the Alpine Corps. On 13 March 1918 he was appointed commander of the 1st Bavarian Jägerbattailon, with whom he served in the Eastern Army Group in Turkey from 20 July to 15 October 1918.

Shortly after the war, from 1 December 1918, Mayr acted as company commander in the 1st Bavarian Infantry Regiment in Munich. On 15 February 1919 he was on leave from the military, but returned in May as commander of the 6th Battalion of the guards regiment in Munich and from 30 May as head of the "Education and Propaganda Department" of the General Command von Oven and the Group Command No. 4 (Department Ib) under Lieutenant-General von Möhl.

In his capacity as head of the intelligence department, Mayr recruited Adolf Hitler as an undercover agent in early June 1919. Hitler's role involved informing on soldiers suspected of

anti-Marxist ideas.[5] Drexler was impressed with Hitler's oratory skills and invited him to join the DAP, which Hitler accepted on 12 September 1919.[6]
After attending a further meeting on 3 October, Hitler stated to Mayr in his report "must join this club or party, as these were the thoughts of the soldiers from the front-line".

Ritter von Greim to Berlin to observe at close range the events of the Kapp Putsch. On 8 July 1920, Mayr was released from military service as a major of the General Staff of the military district commands VII, but reappeared in September 1920 as commander of Section I b/P of army intelligence. Mayr in 1921 was a Nazi Party supporter, but later became a critic. In 1925 he joined the SPD. Subsequently, he was the leader and editor of the Reichsbanner Schwarz-Rot-Gold, an SPD paramilitary force. In the early 1930s, Mayr collected among other things, information on Georg Bell, an associate of Ernst Röhm, and other material against the Nazi Party, which he leaked in the Social Democratic press. After Adolf Hitler's rise to power in 1933, Karl Mayr fled to France. After the German invasion of France in 1940, he was arrested in Paris by the Gestapo. Mayr was taken back to Germany and was incarcerated in Sachsenhausen concentration camp until 1943, when he was transferred to Buchenwald concentration camp
and forced to work at the Gustloff ammunition plant, where on 9 February 1945 he was killed.

Notes and references

  1. ^ Ewing, Jack (2011-06-03). "Letter of Hitler's First Anti-Semitic Writing May Be the Original". The New York Times. Retrieved 2011-06-12.
  2. ^ Rawlings, Nate (2011-06-08). "The Seeds of Hitler's Hatred: Infamous 1919 Genocide Letter Unveiled to the Public". Time. Archived from the original on June 9, 2011. Retrieved 2011-06-12.
  3. ^ "THE HOLOCAUST PROJECT - Selected Biographies - M". 2007-05-19. Archived from the original on 2007-05-19. Retrieved 2020-06-04.
  4. ^ Kershaw 2008, pp. 72–74.
  5. ^ Kershaw 2008, p. 82.
  6. .

Sources