Karl Weinrich
Karl Weinrich | |
---|---|
Gau Kurhessen | |
Acting from 1 September 1927 | |
In office 1 February 1928 – 6 November 1943 | |
Preceded by | Walter Schultz (Gauleiter) |
Succeeded by | Karl Gerland |
Deputy Gauleiter of Gau Hesse-Nassau North | |
In office 1925 – 1 February 1928 | |
Personal details | |
Born | 2 December 1887 |
Died | 22 July 1973 Hausen, Hesse, West Germany |
Political party | Nazi Party (NSDAP) |
Occupation |
|
Military service | |
Allegiance | German Empire |
Branch/service | Imperial German Army |
Years of service | 1906–1920 |
Unit | 28th Infantry Regiment, "von Goeben" |
Battles/wars | World War I |
Karl Otto Paul Weinrich (2 December 1887 – 22 July 1973) was a
Early life
Weinrich was born in Molmeck (today, Hettstedt) the son of a shoe manufacturer. After attending volksschule and a mining vocational school there, he worked briefly as a mining trainee of copper, silver and iron ore. He then volunteered for the Prussian army in 1906, assigned to the 28th Infantry Regiment, "von Goeben," working as an administrative clerk and attaining the rank of Sergeant by 1912.[1]
During the
In February 1922 Weinrich joined the Nazi Party and founded local groups (Ortsgruppen) in Landau and other towns in the Palatinate. At this time he was active in opposition to the French occupation of the Rhineland. In May 1923, Weinrich was sentenced by a French military court to four months imprisonment due to his nationalist activities and anti-French agitation. However, Weinrich fled across the Rhine, settled in Kassel and found employment as a laborer. In 1924 he joined the Reich Compensation Office as a tax secretary.[1]
Nazi Party career
Meanwhile, the Party had been banned in the wake of the failed Beer Hall Putsch in November 1923. After the ban was lifted, Weinrich immediately rejoined it in February 1925 (membership number 24,291). He co-founded the Ortsgruppe in Kassel, becoming the Ortsgruppenleiter (Local Group Leader). He also served from 1925 to 1927 as Treasurer and Deputy Gauleiter of Gau Hesse-Nassau North. On 1 September 1927 he became Acting Gauleiter, when Walter Schultz was placed on leave of absence, and was named permanent Gauleiter on 1 February 1928. The Gau was renamed Gau Kurhessen on 1 January 1934.[3]
Weinrich failed in his bid to be elected to the
A member of the paramilitary National Socialist Motor Corps (Nationalsozialistisches Kraftfahrkorps, NSKK), he reached the rank of NSKK-Obergruppenführer on 30 January 1939. He was a holder of the Golden Party Badge.[5]
The war years
After the outbreak of
Reichsminister of Propaganda, Joseph Goebbels, wrote a scathing report to Hitler and commented in his diary:
”Weinrich has in no way proven equal to the demands made on him by the recent air raid. The entire center of the city and most of the outlying sections have been destroyed. A gruesome picture strikes the eye … Much may have been prevented or at least mitigated if suitable preparations had been taken by the Gau leadership … Weinrich played a very sorry role … I shall certainly report to the Führer the pitiful role he played as Gauleiter and urge that he be quickly replaced.”[7]
Weinrich was placed on extended leave from his posts on 6 November 1943 and was retired to his farming estate in Trendelburg for the remainder of the war. His successor was Karl Gerland, then the Deputy Gauleiter in Reichsgau Lower Danube. Gerland was made the permanent Gauleiter on 13 December 1944.[6]
Postwar life
After the war ended, Weinrich was interned in the Eselheide internment camp from 1945 to 1950. He underwent denazification proceedings and was adjudged to be in Category I, Major Offenders. On 6 July 1949, he was sentenced to ten years imprisonment in a labor camp by the Kassel Chamber of Justice. In November 1950 he was released, in consideration of time served. He returned to Trendelburg, then to Hausen (today, Obertshausen) and finally back to Kassel at the beginning of the 1960s. In 1960, the court in Kassel denied his request for compensation for loss of property during the wartime air raid. He died on 22 July 1973.[8]
References
- ^ a b Miller & Schulz 2021, p. 639.
- ^ Höffkes 1986, p. 383.
- ^ Dirx, Carsten. "Rheinland-Pfälzische Bibliographie". rpb.lbz-rlp.de.
- ^ Höffkes 1986, p. 384.
- ^ Miller & Schulz 2021, pp. 640, 643.
- ^ a b Miller & Schulz 2021, p. 641.
- ^ Miller & Schulz 2021, p. 642.
- ^ Miller & Schulz 2021, pp. 642–643.
Sources
- Höffkes, Karl (1986). Hitlers Politische Generale. Die Gauleiter des Dritten Reiches: ein biographisches Nachschlagewerk. Tübingen: Grabert-Verlag. ISBN 3-87847-163-7.
- Lengemann, Jochen: MdL Hessen. 1808–1996. Biographischer Index (= Politische und parlamentarische Geschichte des Landes Hessen. Bd. 14 = Veröffentlichungen der Historischen Kommission für Hessen. Bd. 48, 7). Elwert, Marburg 1996, ISBN 3-7708-1071-6.
- Miller, Michael D.; Schulz, Andreas (2021). Gauleiter: The Regional Leaders of the Nazi Party and Their Deputies, 1925 - 1945. Vol. 3 (Fritz Sauckel - Hans Zimmermann). Fonthill Media. ISBN 978-1-781-55826-3.
- Weinrich, Karl Otto Paul. Hessische Biografie. In: Landesgeschichtliches Informationssystem Hessen (LAGIS).
- Karl Weinrich in the Rheinland-Pfälzische Personendatenbank
External links
- Information about Karl Weinrich in the Reichstag database
- Media related to Karl Weinrich at Wikimedia Commons
- "Goebbels: „Der gute Weinrich ist keine Leuchte“ – vor 80 Jahren wurde Karl Weinrich Gauleiter der NSDAP von Kurhessen", by Thomas Schattner