Friedrich Panzinger

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Friedrich Panzinger (born February 1, 1903 in Munich ; † August 8, 1959 there ) was a German police officer , lawyer and SS leader . During the time of National Socialism he was head of office group IV A of the Reich Main Security Office (RSHA), from August 1943 to May 1944 leader of Einsatzgruppe A in the Baltic States and Belarus, and from August 15, 1944 head of the Reich Criminal Police Office (Office V of the Reich Main Security Office). Within the SS, he rose to become SS-Oberführer . After the Second World War he was an employee of the Federal Intelligence Service (BND).

Early years

Panzinger joined the police service of the city of Munich after graduating from secondary school in 1919. He took an employment test for the middle police force and was accepted into the civil service as a police officer. He later moved to the political police in his hometown. As an evening schoolboy, he made up his Abitur in 1927 . He then completed a law degree in addition to the police service and passed his legal traineeship in 1931 and the major state law examination in 1934. He was then accepted into the higher police service as a government assessor and was later promoted to the government council.

After the National Socialist seizure of power , Panzinger joined the SA in the summer of 1933 . Despite a favorable opinion of the NSDAP -Ortsgruppe in October 1936 application for Panzingers he could because of the general recording stops 1,937 party members are (until May membership number 5017341). The SS came Panzinger in April 1937 at (SS no. 322118).

Second World War

Since November 1939 he was SS-Sturmbannführer . He was then employed as a detective inspector in the Berlin State Police Headquarters. From August 1940 he took on the duties of a special representative of the security police at the German legation in Sofia . In September 1941 Panzinger took up his post as head of Office Group IV A (Countering Opponents) in Office IV (Researching and Combating Opponents - Gestapo : Head of SS Brigade Leader and Major General of the Police Heinrich Müller ) of the Reich Main Security Office. The Office Group IV A Panzinger consisted of the following units:

  • IV A 1 ( communism , Marxism and subsidiary organizations, war crimes, illegal and enemy propaganda): SS-Sturmbannführer and criminal director Josef Vogt , from August 1941 SS-Hauptsturmführer Günther Knobloch
  • IV A 2 ( defense against sabotage , combating sabotage, political and police officers, political counterfeiting): SS-Hauptsturmführer and detective inspector Horst Kopkow
  • IV A 3 (reaction, opposition, legitimism, liberalism , emigrants, insidious matters - if not IV A 1): SS-Sturmbannführer and criminal director Willy Litzenberg
  • IV A 4 (protection service, report of assassination, surveillance, special orders, search team): SS-Sturmbannführer and criminal director Franz Schulz .

In January 1941 he was promoted to SS-Obersturmbannführer , in April 1943 to SS-Standartenführer and in September 1943 to SS-Oberführer .

From September 4, 1943 to May 1944, Panzinger, as the successor to Humbert Achamer-Pifrader, led the Einsatzgruppe A, consisting of three Einsatzkommandos, which was responsible for security police matters in the area of ​​Army Group North in the Baltic States and Belarus as part of the Einsatzgruppen of the Security Police and SD had to carry out the liquidation of all potential opponents and the "racially inferior". During this time Panzinger was also the commander of the Security Police and the SD in the Reichskommissariat Ostland , based in Riga .

A reorganization of the Office IV of the RSHA in March 1944 led to a division of the specialist and area departments between Panzinger and Achamer-Pifrader. While Panzinger took over the management of the specialist departments with Office Group IV A, the regional departments came to Office Group IV B under Achamer-Pifrader. Panzinger's official group now presented itself as follows:

From August 15, 1944, Panzinger headed Amt V (Reichskriminalpolizeiamt) of the RSHA as the successor to Arthur Nebe , who went into hiding because of his knowledge of the Hitler attack of July 20, 1944 . For his actions loyal to the regime after the assassination attempt in the course of his participation in the crackdown and investigations, he was appointed colonel of the police in mid-October and was awarded the German silver cross at the end of November 1944 .

Panzinger was jointly responsible for the murder of the prisoner- of- war French general Gustave Mesny on January 19, 1945 near the town of Nossen (Saxony).

After the end of the war

After the end of the war , Panzinger stayed near Linz . He was arrested in October 1946 and extradited to the Soviet Union . In Moscow on March 22, 1952, he was sentenced to three times 25 years of forced labor, which were later reduced to 25 years. As a so-called non-amnesty, he was released to the Federal Republic of Germany in September 1955.

As a government councilor for reuse (z. Wv.) Panzinger was an employee of the Federal Intelligence Service under Reinhard Gehlen and was later (1959) employed by a trust company.

When the public prosecutor brought charges against Panzinger for the murder of the French general Gustave Mesny, he evaded his arrest on August 8, 1959 by suicide in his Munich apartment.

literature

  • 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 .
  • A German career: Friedrich Panzinger ; Protocol of the interrogation of the prisoner Panzinger, Friedrich of February 12, 1947 in: "Utopie Kreativ", 1995 (Förderverein Konkrete Utopien eV Berlin) ISSN  0863-4890 .
  • Sebastian Weitkamp: "Murder with a clean slate". The murder of General Maurice Mesny in January 1945 , in: Timm C. Richter (ed.): War and crime. Situation and intention: case studies . Meidenbauer, Munich 2006, ISBN 3-89975-080-2 , pp. 31-40.
  • Sebastian Weitkamp: Brown diplomats. Horst Wagner and Eberhard von Thadden as functionaries of the “Final Solution” . JHW Dietz, Bonn 2008, ISBN 3-8012-4178-5 .
  • Daniel Stange / Ingo Wirth: Friedrich Panzinger (1903–1959): Last head of the Reich Criminal Police . In: Zeitschrift für Geschichtswwissenschaft, vol. 67, 2019, issue 11, pp. 913–933.

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Sebastian Weitkamp: "Murder with a clean slate". The murder of General Maurice Mesny in January 1945 , in: Timm C. Richter (ed.): War and crime. Situation and intention: case studies . Meidenbauer, Munich 2006, p. 33.
  2. ^ A b c Ernst Klee: Das Personenlexikon zum Third Reich , Frankfurt am Main 2007, p. 449.
  3. ↑ a b Volume of the microfiche edition: With an introduction by Angelika Ebbinghaus to the history of the process and short biographies of those involved in the process . P. 129. Karsten Linne (Ed.): The Nuremberg Medical Process 1946/47. Verbal transcripts, prosecution and defense material, sources on the environment. Published by Klaus Dörner , German edition, microfiche edition, Munich 1999 on behalf of the Hamburg Foundation for Social History of the 20th Century
  4. ↑ Sebastian Weitkamp: "Murder with a clean slate". The murder of General Maurice Mesny in January 1945 , in: Timm C. Richter (ed.): War and crime. Situation and intention: case studies . Meidenbauer, Munich 2006, p. 33f.
  5. ↑ Sebastian Weitkamp: "Murder with a clean slate". The murder of General Maurice Mesny in January 1945 , in: Timm C. Richter (ed.): War and crime. Situation and intention: case studies . Meidenbauer, Munich 2006, p. 33.
  6. ↑ Sebastian Weitkamp: "Murder with a clean slate". The murder of General Maurice Mesny in January 1945 , in: Timm C. Richter (ed.): War and crime. Situation and intention: case studies . Meidenbauer, Munich 2006 pp. 31–40, ISBN 3-89975-080-2 .
  7. ↑ Sebastian Weitkamp: "Murder with a clean slate". The murder of General Maurice Mesny in January 1945 , in: Timm C. Richter (ed.): War and crime. Situation and intention: case studies . Meidenbauer, Munich 2006, p. 38.
  8. ↑ Sebastian Weitkamp: Head Shot in the Twilight , SPIEGEL Story, November 16, 2008, accessed on June 19, 2020.
personal data
SURNAME Panzinger, Friedrich
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German chief of the Reich Criminal Police Office and employee of the Federal Intelligence Service
DATE OF BIRTH February 1, 1903
PLACE OF BIRTH Munich
DATE OF DEATH August 8, 1959
Place of death Munich