Erich Müller (engineer)

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In the dock on December 22, 1947: Alfried Krupp von Bohlen and Halbach, Ewald Loeser, Eduard Houdremont, Erich Müller , Friedrich Janssen, Karl Pfirsch, Karl Eberhardt and Heinrich Korschan (from left)

Erich Müller (born November 2, 1892 in Berlin , † April 15, 1963 in Kettwig ) was a German engineer who was the head of the artillery development department at Friedrich Krupp AG (nickname Kanonen-Müller ). He was sentenced to twelve years in prison at the Nuremberg Trials .

Life

Erich Müller attended the Werner-Siemens secondary school in Berlin-Charlottenburg from 1901 to 1909 , which he left without leaving school. He attended a private educational establishment to prepare for the school leaving examination and passed it in August 1914. He joined the NSDAP in May 1933 and was a member of the SA for a few months . He hardly appeared politically; however, in connection with his professional duties, political contacts were inevitable. He was arrested on September 10, 1945, after which he was charged and convicted as a war criminal in the Nuremberg trials. After his imprisonment, which ended prematurely with a pardon, he did not return to work. He died on April 15, 1963 in Kettwig. After his death in 1964 Prof. Dr.-Ing. Erich Müller Foundation to promote education in engineering at German universities, which still exists.

academic career

In February 1919 he began to study engineering at the Technical University of Berlin-Charlottenburg , which he completed in 1922 with the main diploma examination. From October to the end of 1922 he was an assistant at the TH-Berlin. At the Technical University in Berlin-Charlottenburg he received his doctorate in 1931 as Dr.-Ing. and received his second state award in this context. On January 30, 1943, Adolf Hitler appointed him a professor as one of the “men who deserved special service in solving war tasks” .

Professional career

From 1909 to 1911 he was employed as an intern in the railway repair shop in Berlin-Grunewald . From July to September 1922 he worked as a designer at the Borsig works in Berlin. From February 1923 he began his career with the Reichsbahn . In 1934 he was appointed director of the Reichsbahn repair shop in Berlin-Tempelhof .

He started at Friedrich Krupp AG in April 1935 , where he became head of the artillery development department a year later . Among other things, he was responsible for the development of the Schwerer Gustav and Dora guns . During the development of the Dora gun, there were also personal contacts with Adolf Hitler. At the beginning of 1938 he received power of attorney and was initially a department director, and from the end of 1938 deputy director. From 1941 he was a deputy board member and from 1943 a board member of Krupp AG. He was instrumental in the development of 24 types of guns. As a board member he was also responsible for the technical management of factories at Krupp; Due to differences with the Todt Ministry , which included the slow construction of the Berthawerke in Markstädt near Breslau, he resigned at the end of 1943 and devoted himself only to artillery development.

Military and political career

Erich Müller served as a volunteer and reserve officer in the First World War. From 1940 he was head of the weapons committee in the War Ministry under Fritz Todt and Albert Speer . Due to differences with Todt, he withdrew from the weapons committee in the spring of 1942 - Müller advocated concentration of the production facilities, Todt was against it. He headed the weapons commission, with which he was entrusted by Albert Speer in 1943, until the end of the war. In 1943 he became a military economist .

Nuremberg Trials

In the Krupp trial he was sentenced to twelve years imprisonment at the end of July 1948, but released early in 1952 from the Landsberg war crimes prison .

literature

Web links

  • The Law Reports of Trials of War Criminals, Selected and prepared by The United Nations War Crimes Commission, Volume X, London, HMSO. 1948. (English). THE KRUPP TRIAL. TRIAL OF ALFRIED FELIX ALWYN KRUPP VON BOHLEN AND HALBACH AND ELEVEN OTHERS. UNITED STATES MILITARY TRIBUNAL, NUREMBERG, 17TH NOVEMBER, 1947-30TH JUNE, 1948

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Ernst Klee dictionary of persons in the Third Reich , fischer TB
  2. ↑ a b c Bibliographical data see literature Neue Deutsche Biographie
  3. ↑ Prof. Dr.-Ing. Erich Müller Foundation , German Foundation Center
  4. ↑ According to H. Voss, Neue Deutsche Biographie, pardoned by the US High Commissioner John Jay McCloy in early 1951 .
personal data
SURNAME Müller, Erich
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German engineer
DATE OF BIRTH November 2, 1892
PLACE OF BIRTH Berlin
DATE OF DEATH April 15, 1963
Place of death Kettwig