Günther Claassen

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Günther Berthold Maximilian Claassen (born December 1, 1888 in Warsaw , † July 22, 1946 in Zuffenhausen ) was a German police chief and SS-Oberführer at the time of National Socialism .

Life

Günther Claassen was the son of the entrepreneur and landlord Friedrich Leopold Claassen and his Belgian Amelie Suermondt. After obtaining the upper secondary qualification at a high school in Gdańsk, Claassen completed an agricultural apprenticeship and then worked in the agricultural sector. He did his military service in 1909/10 as a one-year volunteer with the 2nd West Prussian Field Artillery Regiment No. 36 in Danzig . During the First World War he did continuous military service, most recently with the rank of first lieutenant . After the end of the war, he was a member of the Danzig Freikorps in 1918/19 and was then estate manager on the Lower Rhine. From 1930 he lived in Munich .

From 1928 to 1931 he was a member of the Stahlhelm . He became a supporting member of the SS in December 1931 and joined the General SS at the beginning of May 1932 (SS no. 31,549), in which he rose to SS-Oberführer in September 1937. The NSDAP he was also part of the beginning of May 1932 (membership. 1117432). He was also a member of Lebensborn e. V. From July 1932 he was assigned to the staff of the Reichsführer SS and adjutant to the head of the SS office. After the seizure of power by the National Socialists took over in March 1933, the management of the human resources department II, 1933 main speaker at the SS court and in November was in June 1934 Head of the SS Court Office. From 1935 he took on leading positions in SS Section XVII and from 1938 to 1942 in SS Upper Section West.

In May 1937 he was first managing police chief in Münster and from the end of June 1938 he was definitively appointed. From 1938 to 1940 he was a member of the Westphalian Provincial Council. After the beginning of the Second World War , he was police chief of Warsaw in German-occupied Poland from October 1939 to mid-October 1941. In addition, he was the leader of two SS-Totenkopf standards from September 1940 during this time . At the end of October 1941 he was appointed provisional and in mid-May 1942 as the chief of police in Karlsruhe and held this position until mid-April 1945. At the end of the war, he left Karlsruhe and became a member of the US Army a few days after the end of the war on May 12, 1945 arrested in Tyrol . First he was in the Ludwigsburg internment camp and from the end of June 1946 in internment camp 78 in the grenadier barracks in Stuttgart-Zuffenhausen. He committed in the camp on July 22, 1946 probably suicide to escape extradition to Poland.

Promotions

In the Imperial Army

In the SS

Awards

literature

  • Joachim Lilla : Senior administrative officials and functionaries in Westphalia and Lippe (1918–1945 / 46): Biographisches Handbuch . Aschendorff, Münster 2004, ISBN 978-3-402-06799-4 , p. 132

swell

  1. ↑ a b c d e f g h i j k l m seniority list of the NSDAP's Schutzstaffel. As of December 1, 1937, serial no.233 on p. 20 f. (JPG; 1.32 MB) In: http://www.dws-xip.pl/reich/biografie/1937/1937.html . Retrieved March 14, 2020 .

Web links

personal data
SURNAME Claassen, Günther
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Claassen, Günther Berthold Maximilian (full name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German police president and SS leader
DATE OF BIRTH December 1, 1888
PLACE OF BIRTH Warsaw
DATE OF DEATH July 22, 1946
Place of death Zuffenhausen