Albert Buchmann (SS member)

Albert Buchmann (born October 17, 1888 in Wilgartswiesen ; † probably in December 1942 in the Soviet Union) was a German SS leader and police officer , most recently with the rank of lieutenant colonel of the police.

Life and activity

From 1914 to 1918 Buchmann took part in the First World War, in which he was promoted to lieutenant and awarded the Iron Cross of both classes.

On February 1, 1920, Buchmann joined the police force . During the occupation of the Rhineland by the French in 1923, he is said to have participated in the resistance against them and to have become an expert in the areas of espionage and counter-espionage. He was able to continue his career in this after 1933 thanks to the protection of the Palatinate Gauleiter Josef Bürckel . Although he did not initially become a member of the NSDAP , he was initially involved as a supporting member of the SS before he finally joined the SS in 1938 as a full member of the Schutzstaffel .

The SD agent Heinrich Pfeifer reported in his book Inside the Gestapo , published in Great Britain in 1940 , that Buchmann - whom he describes as a "small, wiry man with sharp, bird-like features" - was an expert in organizing kidnappings of political opponents: In this one In connection with this, in 1934 he had received the order to kidnap the communist propagandist Willy Münzenberg from the Saar area, which at that time did not yet belong to the German Reich: Miinzenberg was supposed to be lured by agents to a meeting in a restaurant in Saarbrücken, there, overwhelmed and secretly made across the border and to Berlin to be done. However, this project failed because Munzenberg did not get involved in such a meeting and did not give Buchmann and his agents the opportunity to seize it.

During the Nazi era, Buchmann was continuously promoted to the Schutzpolizei : in 1938 he reached the rank of Major in the Schutzpolizei and on June 1, 1942 the rank of Lieutenant Colonel of the Schutzpolizei.

Buchmann was accepted into the NSDAP on May 1, 1937 (membership no. 4,822,468).

Effective September 1, 1940, Buchmann was taken over by Heinrich Himmler as an SS man in the Schutzstaffel (SS) (SS no. 393.265) and according to the principle of rank adjustment - which stipulated that police members who were accepted into the SS were one of theirs Police rank received the corresponding SS rank - promoted to SS-Sturmbannführer as major in accordance with his police rank at the time. He was also appointed SS leader of the Spree District 75 Stammabteilung.

During the first months of the Second World War , Buchmann was employed at the Police Officer School of the Ordnungspolizei in Köpenick. In the period from July to December 1942, he was in command of the 14th Police Regiment based in Mogilew , which was entrusted with the "fight against partisans" in his area of ​​responsibility. In reality, the main focus was on the mass shooting of Jews and relatives of others from the Nazi government acted as groups of people classified as unpleasant elements. During this time he was promoted to Obersturmbannführer (April 20, 1942) and Standartenführer (November 9, 1942) in the SS.

During this time, Buchmann was relieved of his position as leader in the Spree District 75 trunk department and appointed leader in the Spree District 6 trunk department with effect from November 15, 1942, in the Allgemeine SS. On July 1, 1943, he was relieved of this position on paper by the SS Personnel Main Office and appointed leader of the staff of SS Section III.

According to Buchmann's personal file, he has been missing "in the east" since December 1942 (report from the SS Upper Spree section to the head of the SS Personnel Main Office on June 2, 1944).

estate

Personal documents on Buchmann have been preserved in the Federal Archives. In particular, the holdings of the former BDC contain a PK file (microfilm B 122, photos 1737–1772) and an SS personal file (microfilm SSO 114, photos 1079–1104).

literature

Secondary literature

• Stefan Klemp : Not determined: Police battalions and post-war justice: a manual , clear text, Essen 2005.

Other literature

• Hansjürgen Keohler (= pseudonym for Heinrich Pfeifer ): Inside the Gestapo: Hitler's shadow over the world , London 1940, pp. 46, 48, 63f., 71, 73 and 107f.

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Hans Juergen Koehler: Inside the Gestapo , 1940, p 47f.