Berthold Hell

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Berthold Hell

Adolf Emil Berthold Hell (born October 23, 1901 in Berlin ; † April 26, 1945 there ) was a German politician ( NSDAP ) and SA leader.

Live and act

Hell was the son of the photographer Emil Hell (1857–1904) and his wife Emilie, b. Cool (* 1866). In his youth he attended elementary school and secondary school . As a youth he was drawn into the patriotic relief service during the First World War.

After the German defeat in the war and the outbreak of revolutionary unrest in the German Reich, Hell began to work in right-wing organizations: He became a volunteer with the Reinhard Battalion and then with the replacement formation of the 1st Guards Regiment in the Baltic States. In 1920 he took part in the Kapp Putsch and then went to the Escherich organization as a temporary volunteer (1920 to 1922). In Upper Silesia he was used in the German-Polish border battles near Rosenberg and Kneja . For his participation in numerous patrol battles during this time he was awarded the Silesian Eagle.

Hell earned his living as a businessman in the oil and construction industry since 1920. From 1924 he was the commercial and technical manager of a large construction company, whose authorized signatory he remained until at least 1934. Hell has been politically active in circles of the extreme political right since 1920: He initially belonged to the German Social Party . He then worked from 1923 to the end of 1925 in the German-Völkische Freedom Party, for which he a. a. committed to propaganda. After military associations were banned, Hell also became a member of the Frisch social club, which was the camouflaged continuation of a military association, and later of the Ulrich Hutten gymnastics club.

Around 1924 Hell joined the Frontbann Nord, the Berlin branch of the Frontbann military association founded by Ernst Röhm , in which he worked as platoon leader and deputy company commander. After this was transferred to the Sturmabteilung (SA), the task force of the NSDAP, in 1926 , Hell was taken over into this organization. In March 1926 he also joined the party itself.

In the SA, Hell was initially a member of the Berliner Sturm 33 from 1926 to 1930 (from 1929 as a squad leader). On April 27, 1931, he took over the leadership of the storm in 1930. At the Nazi Party Congress in June 1926, Hell, along with Karl Belding and Grüneberg, was given the first standard of the Berlin SA by Hitler. From September 4, 1931 to January 1932, he led Sturmbann II / 1. Then from February 2, 1932 to May 25, 1935 the standard 1.

In the following years, Hell organized parades and meetings, propaganda campaigns and advertising preparations for the frequent elections in Charlottenburg . He took part in the 1929 Nazi Party Congress as leader of the Charlottenburg SA. At the time of the SA march in Braunschweig in 1931, Hell was already in command of SA Standard 1 (Charlottenburg) as Sturmbannführer. The leadership of this standard 1 - which was allowed to use the designation "Hans Eberhard Maikowski Standard 1" since January 31, 1934 in memory of the leader of the storm 33 belonging to the standard, Hans Eberhard Maikowski , who was allegedly murdered by communists in 1933 - he kept at least until to the events of the Röhm Putsch in summer 1934. In the SA Hell reached the rank of standard leader in 1932 and that of brigade leader in 1934.

A few weeks after the National Socialist seizure of power in the spring of 1933, Hell set up his headquarters as leader of the SA Standard 1 in the former Volkshaus of the SPD at Rosinenstrasse 4 (today: Loschmidtstrasse), which he moved to "Maikowski House" in memory of the dead SA Storm Leader “Renamed. Hell had the basement of the building converted into a prison, whose use as an early concentration camp can be proven for a period of ten months, April 1933 to January 1934. Former detainees describe in commemorative courts that torture was also carried out by order of Hell and his deputy Helmuth Kuhn, leader of Sturm 6 / I.

On August 30, 1932, Hell became a member of the Prussian state parliament , to which he belonged until this body was dissolved in autumn 1933. From November 1933 to March 1936, Hell was also a member of the National Socialist Reichstag for constituency 3 (Potsdam II) . Hell was also an associate member of the DAF's court of honor for the Berlin district.

From May 25, 1935 to October 15, 1936, Hell was formally a member of Brigade 28 as Standartenführer zV.

Hell died in April 1945 in the course of fighting during the Battle of Berlin .

marriage and family

Hell was married twice. First marriage to Elsa Gerke and second to Ilse Schulz (born February 14, 1910). The son Heinz Joachim (born September 11, 1937) emerged from the first marriage.

Promotions

  • 1929: SA squad leader
  • 1930: SA troop leader
  • April 27, 1931: SA Sturmführer
  • September 4, 1931: SA-Sturmbannführer
  • September 9, 1932: SA Standartenführer
  • November 9, 1938: SA-Oberführer (according to Führer order 68)

estate

Personnel documents on Hell have been preserved in the Federal Archives: For example, an SA personnel file on Hell can be found in the former Berlin Document Center (microfilm SA 19-A, photos 163–180).

literature

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Wolfgang Benz , Barbara Distel (ed.): The place of terror . History of the National Socialist Concentration Camps , p. 40.
personal data
SURNAME Hell, Berthold
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German politician (NSDAP), MdR
DATE OF BIRTH October 23, 1901
PLACE OF BIRTH Berlin
DATE OF DEATH April 26, 1945
Place of death Berlin