Fritz Schleßmann

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Fritz Schleßmann

Fritz Schleßmann , actually Georg Friedrich Schleßmann , (born March 11, 1899 in Essen , † March 31, 1964 in Dortmund ) was a German police officer, SS-Obergruppenführer and politician (NSDAP) at the time of National Socialism ; including police chief in Essen and Bochum , deputy Gauleiter in Essen and member of the Reichstag .

Live and act

After attending primary and secondary school towards the end of the First World War, Schleßmann registered as a volunteer for service on a submarine with the Imperial Navy . After the end of the war, Schleßmann was a marine on a minesweeper until he was retired in 1919. Schleßmann then learned the trade of a technician and completed his training at a state mechanical engineering school in 1922.

In mid-December 1922 Schleßmann became a member of the NSDAP , which he rejoined after the party ban ( membership number 25.248). Schleßmann was also a member of the SA and was SA leader in Essen as early as the early 1920s. In the SA he reached the rank of standard leader in 1927 . In 1930 he switched to the SS (SS No. 2.480), where he was promoted to SS-Obergruppenführer until November 1944 . As an SS leader, he was in charge of the 22nd SS Standard. Schleßmann belonged to the staff of Reichsführer SS Heinrich Himmler .

From 1932 to 1933 Schleßmann was a member of the Prussian state parliament and from the 9th electoral term since November 1933 a member of the National Socialist Reichstag , to which he was a member until the end of Nazi rule in spring 1945 as a member of constituency 18 (Westphalia-South).

Schleßmann was appointed police chief in Bochum in April 1934 and was chief of police in Essen from 1937. At his request, Schleßmann was dismissed from this office in January 1940 in order to return to full-time work as a party official. A use of Schleßmann as Higher SS and Police Leader West did not come about due to a lack of qualities . As early as 1928 Schleßmann became deputy Gauleiter in Essen under Josef Terboven and remained so until the spring of 1945 after a temporary change (December 1930 to November 1939) to Gau Westfalen-Süd .

After Terboven was appointed Reich Commissioner for Norway in the spring of 1940 , Schleßmann was acting as the acting Gauleiter.

Before the end of the war, Schleßmann went into hiding in Essen, alias “Fritz Selig”, with his lover, but was arrested by the US Army on April 15, 1945 and later taken to the Staumühle internment camp . In a court proceedings in Detmold- Hiddesen , he was sentenced to five years in prison, which he served until mid-June 1950 in the Esterwegen prison. Then he was denazified in Düsseldorf as a minor offender and then lived as a merchant in Essen.

Nero command

“To the people of the districts of Duisburg, Oberhausen, Dinslaken and Rees! The enemy has set up bridgeheads on the right bank of the Lower Rhine. It must be expected that he will advance further, if only temporarily, using his heavy bombers and the heaviest artillery weapons and penetrate our big cities ... The enemy will be cut out again with the most brutal severity. No means are spared to fight our homeland on the Lower Rhine, our cities on the Ruhr and Lower Rhine, again ... Women and children are no longer allowed to be in this fighting area. Food, housing, bread, milk, water, light, etc. will fail. There will be no more life opportunities. The total evacuation is therefore an imperative! "

- Schlessmann, posters all over the Lower Rhine, with his order of March 25, 1945

Schleßmann carries out Hitler's Nero order . All civilians must be removed, all infrastructure must be destroyed in order to leave “scorched earth” behind for the enemy.

Awards

Schleßmann's SS ranks
date rank
March 1931 SS standard leader
November 1933 SS-Oberführer
January 1936 SS Brigade Leader
January 1942 SS group leader
November 1944 SS-Obergruppenführer

literature

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Fritz Schleßmann in the database of members of the Reichstag
  2. ^ Ernst Klee: Das Personenlexikon zum Third Reich , Frankfurt am Main 2007, p. 539.
  3. ^ SS Personnel Office: List of seniority of the NSDAP Schutzstaffel, as of October 1, 1934, serial number 58
  4. ↑ a b c Erich Stockhorst: 5000 heads - Who was what in the Third Reich , Kiel 2000, p. 382.
  5. ↑ Joachim Lilla : "Overview of the NSDAP Gaue, the Gauleiter and the Deputy Gauleiter between 1933 and 1945" on www.shoa.de
  6. ↑ a b Ralf Blank : Gauleiter of the NSDAP in the Ruhr area - Fritz Schleßmann (1899–1964)
  7. ↑ Fritz Schleßmann on www.dws-xip.pl
personal data
SURNAME Schleßmann, Fritz
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Schleßmann, Georg Friedrich (real name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German politician (NSDAP), MdR, MdL, police president and SS leader
DATE OF BIRTH March 11, 1899
PLACE OF BIRTH eat
DATE OF DEATH March 31, 1964
Place of death Dortmund