Bruno Linienbach

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Bruno Heinrich Hugo Linienbach (born February 7, 1902 in Hamburg ; † October 28, 1977 there ) was a German SS group leader and lieutenant general of the Waffen SS and police .

Straßenbach in the middle next to Heinrich Himmler (1939)

Origin and occupation

Bruno Straßenbach was born on February 7th, 1902 as the son of the customs officer Hans Linienbach and his wife Minna, née. Spenner, born in Hamburg. After attending elementary school for three years from 1908, he attended the secondary school of the Hamburg Johanneum .

From May to October 1918 he took part in the First World War as a Unterprimaner with a Jungmann-Etappen-Kommando in France . After a short further school visit until February 1919, he joined the Hermann Freikorps as senior prime minister . After the dissolution of this Freikorps, he switched to the civil Freikorps Bahrenfeld . This was founded in order to thwart attempts at political overthrow by the left. The Bahrenfelder committed an inglorious operation at a demonstration in front of the town hall in 1919. Some people were shot - including members of the Bahrenfelder.

Discharged from the Reichswehr at the end of 1919 , he took up commercial training in a Hamburg import company. During this time he was a member of the reserve department (temporary volunteer department) of the Bahrenfelder and participated with this unit in March 1920 in the Kapp - and on October 1, 1923 in the Buchrucker and Küstriner putsch . At the same time, Straßenbach was active in the North German Heimatbund and later in its successor organization Wehrwolf . However, he left the latter association immediately because of political differences. After completing his apprenticeship ,routebach worked for two years as a foreign language correspondent in various companies.

In 1925 he became the managing director of the ADAC in Hamburg, worked as a salesman at the Stöver works at the end of 1928 and then ran the business of the private car rental company “Selbstfahrer-Union”. The general downsizing as a result of the global economic crisis also cost Straßenbach his job in 1932, so that he sought a living as a self-employed advertising agent in the automotive industry. In the spring of 1933 he got a job in the advertising department of the North German Broadcasting Corporation and shortly afterwards already headed the newly formed "Zeitfunkabteilung".

Nazi career

On October 1, 1930, Straßenbach joined the NSDAP ( membership number 489,972). He became a member of the SA in December 1930 and the SS (SS no. 14.713) on September 1, 1931. From December 1932 he was in charge of Sturmbann I of the 28th SS standard and was given the rank of SS on September 2, 1933. Sturmbannführer . In this function he became well known to Gauleiter Karl Kaufmann .

Head of the Hamburg Gestapo

The desire of the Hamburg Gauleiter and Reich Governor according to Karl Kaufmann, Streckenbach took on 20 October 1933 as successor to Walter Abraham , the head of the political police in Hamburg after he had completed some training weeks in the Munich police headquarters and on October 5, 1933 Government appointed was. His appointment as SS-Obersturmbannführer took place on November 9, 1933.

On February 1, 1938, Heinrich Himmler appointed Linienbach inspector of the security police and SD (IdS) in military district X and at the same time government director . Straßenbach's successor as head of the Hamburg Gestapo, which had been the Hamburg State Police Headquarters since spring 1938 , was SS-Sturmbannführer and Government Councilor Günther Kuhl .

On April 20, 1939, Straßenbach was promoted to SS brigade leader. He stayed in Hamburg as IdS until the beginning of the Second World War .

Task Force Leader in Poland

When the attack on Poland began , Linienbach was appointed leader of Einsatzgruppe 1. The Einsatzgruppe 1 assigned to the 14th Army under Colonel General List comprised four Einsatzkommandos that were set up in Vienna in August 1939 . On September 6, 1939, Einsatzgruppe 1 left Vienna and reached Krakow the following day. Straßenbach's Einsatzgruppe 1 was disbanded on November 20, 1939 and the staff was assigned to the commander of the Security Police and the SD (KdS) Krakow.

Commander of the Security Police and SD Krakow

After the end of the Polish War, from November 1, 1939, Straßenbach was in charge of the entire (remaining) Poland, now known as the Generalgouvernement , as commander of the Security Police and the SD (BdS) in Krakow . Subordinate to him were the commanders of the security police and the SD (KdS) from

In this function, Linienbach was authorized by Governor General Hans Frank to carry out the so-called " AB-Aktion ", in the course of which around 3,500 men and a few hundred women of the Polish resistance were summarily sentenced and executed. In relation to this action, Frank explained that with the beginning of the French campaign on May 10, 1940, the interest of the world public was directed towards the new theater of war and that the moment was favorable for the liquidation of the Polish leadership. Straßenbach reported at the end of May 1940 that the “conviction under standing law” was as good as complete. Another 1,500 people recorded by the SD were also liquidated as part of the AB action. A group of around 3,000 so-called “ professional criminals ” who “unnecessarily fill the prisons” and who “because of their intellectual and moral qualities were just a burden for other people” were liquidated without further formalities (Frank's official diary).

As a BdS in Kraków, Straßenbach was also involved in the “depolonization and de-Jewification of the German eastern provinces”. As part of this resettlement program, about 88,000 people were deported from the former western Polish provinces to the General Government by December 17, 1939 .

Head of Office in the Reich Security Main Office

In June 1940 he was appointed head of Office I (organization, administration and law) of the Reich Main Security Office (RSHA) as the successor to Werner Best , who left the RSHA after disputes with Reinhard Heydrich . Stretch brook was initially appointed by letter of June 12, 1940 as a representative of Best, who was on leave until further notice, as head of Office I, but remained in his function as BdS in Krakow. After half a year of commuting back and forth between Krakow and Berlin, SS-Standartenführer Karl Eberhard Schöngarth took over from Linienbach as BdS on January 30, 1941, so that he could take over the official business in Berlin. On January 1, 1941, Straßenbach had already been promoted to SS-Brigadführer and Major General of the Police. After the restructuring of the RSHA according to the business distribution plan of March 1941, Amt I was now exclusively responsible for personnel matters. As head of the office, Straßenbach personally took on the tasks of the Office Group ID (criminal matters). On November 9, 1941, he was promoted to SS group leader and lieutenant general of the police.

As head of Office I of the RSHA, Straßenbach was essentially responsible for putting together the personnel of the Einsatzgruppen of the Security Police and the SD that were set up for the planned war against the USSR . Heydrich did not approve of a voluntary report from Sendenbach to take over a task force again here. However, Straßenbach instructed the leaders of the task forces alongside Müller and Heydrich about their tasks. In contrast to the statements of the defendants in the Nuremberg Einsatzgruppen trial against Otto Ohlendorf u. a. (Case 9) 1947/48, however, Straßenbach was not the bearer of a general order to kill all Jews in the occupied eastern territories. Rather, it can be assumed with certainty today that Himmler himself, on an inspection trip in July / August 1941, ordered the expansion of the mass murder to include women and children personally to the higher SS and police leaders. These then passed the order on to the leaders of the Einsatzgruppen.

On July 11, 1942, Himmler appointed Straßenbach as his deputy as court lord of the RSHA. Thus, Straßenbach had the ultimate decision-making authority in all disciplinary and criminal matters for RSHA members.

Division commander in the Waffen SS

At his own request (letter of December 14, 1942 to Himmler), Straßenbach was transferred to the Waffen-SS in December 1942 / January 1943 , although he was already scheduled as Higher SS and Police Leader in the Alpine region in Salzburg. The reason is probably his defeat against his competitor SS-Gruppenführer and Lieutenant General of the Police Ernst Kaltenbrunner for the successor of the killed RSHA chief Reinhard Heydrich . While Kaltenbrunner succeeded Heydrich on January 30, 1943, Linienbach was replaced by Erwin Schulz , who until then had been head of the IB office group (education, training and education).

From January 15, 1943, Straßenbach was trained as an SS-Untersturmführer of the reserve (military rank) at a tank destroyer replacement division in Hilversum, Holland . In his military career, too, Straßenbach had a lightning career. On March 11, 1943 to SS-Sturmbannführer d. Res. Promoted, he was commissioned on March 15, 1943 with the leadership of the tank destroyer division of the 8th SS Cavalry Division "Florian Geyer" . After taking part in a training course at the armored forces school in Wünsdorf, he was appointed commander of this division on January 10, 1944. On January 30, 1944, he was promoted to SS-Oberführer and then took over the leadership of the 19th Waffen Grenadier Division of the SS "Latvia" (Latvian No. 2) in the USSR on April 1, 1944 . He was promoted to SS Brigade Leader and Major General of the Waffen SS on July 1, 1944, and to SS Group Leader and Lieutenant General of the Waffen SS in November 1944.

On May 10, 1945 he was taken prisoner by the Red Army in Courland .

After the war

On February 18, 1952, a military tribunal in Moscow sentenced Meilenbach to 25 years in a correctional and labor camp. He was then taken to the Vladimir prison , from which he was released as an "amnestee" without any special conditions as part of the last prisoner release on October 10, 1955 in the Federal Republic of Germany . Afterwards, Straßenbach lived again in Hamburg and worked as a commercial clerk and authorized signatory in the Ottensener Eisenwerk . He retired on June 30, 1969.

A first German preliminary investigation was closed in September 1956 by the Hamburg public prosecutor's office on the grounds that "the further investigations also failed to provide evidence that the accused had committed criminal acts under the rule of National Socialism, the prosecution of which had not yet expired".

A new preliminary investigation resulted in an indictment dated June 30, 1973, in which Linienbach was accused of murdering at least one million people. On September 20, 1974 , the Hanseatic Higher Regional Court refused to open the main proceedings on the basis of a final report by the forensic medical service of the Hamburg health authority .

Awards

Sipo promotions

Promotions reserve commander of the Waffen SS

  • SS-Untersturmführer, January 18, 1943
  • SS-Obersturmführer, March 1, 1943
  • SS-Hauptsturmführer, March 10, 1943
  • SS-Sturmbannführer, March 11, 1943
  • SS-Obersturmbannführer, July 1, 1943
  • SS-Standartenführer, August 28, 1943
  • SS-Oberführer, January 30, 1944
  • SS Brigadefuhrer and Major General of the Waffen SS, July 1, 1944
  • SS-Gruppenführer and Lieutenant General of the Waffen-SS, November 9, 1944

literature

  • Institute of Documentation Israel Tuviah Friedman special collection 167 documents.
  • Helmut Krausnick , Hans-Heinrich Wilhelm: The troop of the Weltanschauung war. The Einsatzgruppen of the Security Police and SD 1938–1942. Deutsche Verlags-Anstalt, Stuttgart 1981, ISBN 3-421-01987-8 ( Sources and representations on contemporary history 22), (Later as: Helmut Krausnick: Hitler's Einsatzgruppen. The Troops of the Weltanschauung War 1938–1942. Revised edition. Licensed edition. Fischer- Taschenbuch-Verlag, Frankfurt am Main 1985, ISBN 3-596-24344-0 ( Fischer 4344)).
  • Detlef Garbe : Institutions of Terror and the Resistance of the Few. In: Research Center for Contemporary History in Hamburg (ed.): Hamburg in the Third Reich. Wallstein Verlag, Göttingen 2005, ISBN 3-89244-903-1 .
  • Werner Präg, Wolfgang Jacobmeyer (Ed.): The service diary of the German Governor General in Poland. 1939-1945. Deutsche Verlags-Anstalt, Stuttgart 1975, ISBN 3-421-01700-X ( sources and representations on contemporary history 20).
  • Reinhard Rürup (Ed.): Topography of Terror. Gestapo, SS and Reich Security Main Office on the "Prince Albrecht site". A documentation. Arenhövel, Berlin 1987, ISBN 3-922912-21-4 .
  • Gerd R. Ueberschär (Ed.): The National Socialism in front of the court. The allied trials of war criminals and soldiers 1943–1952. Fischer Taschenbuch Verlag, Frankfurt am Main 1999, ISBN 3-596-13589-3 ( Fischer Taschenbuch 13589 Die Zeit des Nationalozialismus ).
  • Michael Wildt : The Hamburg Gestapo chief Bruno Linienbach. In: Frank Bajohr, Joachim Szodrzynski (Ed.): Hamburg in the Nazi era. Results of recent research. Results-Verlag, Hamburg 1995, ISBN 3-87916-030-9 , pp. 93-123 ( Forum Zeitgeschichte 5).
  • Michael Wildt: Generation of the Unconditional. The leadership corps of the Reich Security Main Office. Hamburger Edition HIS Verlagsges. mbH, Hamburg 2002, ISBN 3-930908-75-1 (also: Hannover, Univ., Habil.-Schr., 2001).
  • Denazification - using Hamburg as an example

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b Veit Scherzer : Knight's Cross bearer 1939–1945. The holders of the Iron Cross of the Army, Air Force, Navy, Waffen-SS, Volkssturm and armed forces allied with Germany according to the documents of the Federal Archives. 2nd Edition. Scherzers Militaer-Verlag, Ranis / Jena 2007, ISBN 978-3-938845-17-2 , p. 730.
personal data
SURNAME Straßenbach, Bruno
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Straßenbach, Bruno Heinrich Hugo (full name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German SS group leader and lieutenant general of the Waffen SS
DATE OF BIRTH February 7, 1902
PLACE OF BIRTH Hamburg
DATE OF DEATH October 28, 1977
Place of death Hamburg