Arnold Kreklow

Arnold Kreklow (born April 18, 1879 in Landsberg an der Warthe ; † 1966 or later) was SS-Obersturmbannführer and Oberregierungsrat , head of Section IC of the Gestapo , Section II C 2 (supply and material costs) and chief in the National Socialist German Reich Office group II A (budget, salaries and accounting) of the Reich Main Security Office (RSHA).

Origin and education

Kreklow was born the son of a police sergeant. After attending elementary school and doing private studies, he was supposed to embark on the career of a postal worker. However, in 1894 he decided to serve in the Prussian Army and attended a non-commissioned preschool . Two years later he graduated from the non-commissioned school and in 1898 joined the 4th Guards Regiment on foot in Berlin . On July 1, 1900 Kreklow was admitted to training as a military administrative officer and passed the paymaster examination in October 1904 with the grade “good” . He was deployed in Jüterbog in various offices, such as the provisions office , garrison administration and foot artillery shooting school , and from 1910 was transferred to the Kaiser-Franz-Regiment Berlin as underpaid master . Here Kreklow attended the Potsdam War School and married the daughter of a Charlottenburg merchant.

In the first World War

As field paymaster he took part in World War I from August 1914 , but had to be transferred back to the accounting office for prisoner-of-war work in Berlin in 1916 because of a serious heart disease.

At the Berlin Police Headquarters and at the Gestapo

With the demobilization of the Reichswehr , Kreklow was released on April 1, 1923 and taken over as chief police inspector by the Berlin police headquarters . From 1924 to June 1933 he worked there as an auditor in the accounting office.

In 1927/28 he belonged to the Center Party , but joined the SA at the end of February 1933 and acted as a money manager for an SA storm. On March 1, 1933, he also joined the NSDAP (membership number 1,478,782).

In the course of personnel purges and new appointments in the police administration in 1933/34, the head of the Prussian Secret State Police Office (Gestapa) , Rudolf Diels , appointed Kreklow to the Gestapa in July 1933 and in January 1934 as the IC for business needs, economic affairs and administration of the Funds for the secret intelligence service. In April of the same year Kreklow was promoted to the police council, in 1937 transferred to the higher service and appointed to the government council. At the same time he received the equalization rank of SS-Untersturmführer. From 1934 to 1940 he was also a consultant for economic affairs and group leader IC (economic office) of the Gestapa. In the Reich Ministry of the Interior , Kreklow continued to work as an economic administrator of the Security Police from 1933 to 1945.

In the Reich Security Main Office

In the business distribution plan of March 1941 of the Reich Security Main Office founded in September 1939, he was named as head of Section II C 2 (supply and material costs). In this position, on April 2, 1940, he took part in a meeting chaired by Werner Best on the establishment of RSHA offices in the occupied territories ( France , Holland , Belgium ). In October 1941 he was promoted to the Oberregierungsrat or SS-Obersturmbannführer . At the time when the RSHA was already 60 years old, Kreklow could no longer rise to its top management, but instead remained in his administrative post. From October 1, 1943, he was appointed head of the office group, but only for office group II A, which was concerned with budget and accounting and which he headed until April 1945.

After the war

After moving his official group to Viechtach in the Bavarian Forest , he fled to Salzburg at the end of April 1945 . Here he was arrested on October 11, 1945 by order of the American military government. He testified as a witness in the Nuremberg trial of the major war criminals and continued to live in Nuremberg from April 21, 1947 .

Criminal proceedings were discontinued on November 23, 1966 on the grounds that "Office Group II A was responsible for 'budget and accounting' from October 1, 1943 and no longer for 'organization and law' as before."

literature

Michael Wildt : Generation of the Unconditional. The leadership corps of the Reich Security Main Office , Hamburger Edition , Hamburg 2002, ISBN 3-930908-75-1

Individual evidence

↑ Christoph Graf, Political Police Between Democracy and Dictatorship. The development of the Prussian Political Police from the protective organ of the Weimar Republic to the Secret State Police Office of the Third Reich (= publications of the Historical Commission in Berlin, vol. 34), Berlin, 1983, p. 361 f.
↑ Michael Wildt, Generation of the Unconditional. The leadership corps of the Reich Security Main Office , Hamburger Edition HIS Verlagsges. mbH, 2002, p. 507.

personal data
SURNAME	Kreklow, Arnold
BRIEF DESCRIPTION	German SS-Obersturmbannführer and senior councilor
DATE OF BIRTH	April 18, 1879
PLACE OF BIRTH	Landsberg on the Warta
DATE OF DEATH	20th century

[1] Christoph Graf, Political Police Between Democracy and Dictatorship. The development of the Prussian Political Police from the protective organ of the Weimar Republic to the Secret State Police Office of the Third Reich (= publications of the Historical Commission in Berlin, vol. 34), Berlin, 1983, p. 361 f.

[2] Michael Wildt, Generation of the Unconditional. The leadership corps of the Reich Security Main Office , Hamburger Edition HIS Verlagsges. mbH, 2002, p. 507.