Günther Tamaschke

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Günther Tamaschke (born February 26, 1896 in Berlin , † October 14, 1959 in Uhingen ) was a German SS standard leader and camp director of the Lichtenburg and Ravensbrück concentration camps .

Life

Günther Tamaschke, son of a businessman, registered as a war volunteer for the German Army in 1914 after completing his secondary school diploma . From 1914 he was used in various units during the First World War and in 1916 he was taken prisoner by the French on the Somme . Tamaschke did not return to Berlin until March 1920 and took part in the Kapp Putsch . Then he became a member of a volunteer corps . After three semesters he broke off his studies at the Berlin commercial college for cost reasons and completed an apprenticeship as a banker. Tamaschke married and at the end of 1922 became a partner in his father-in-law's wholesale business. Tamaschke was politically active in the German National Freedom Party and was the founder of the Berlin branch of the German National Officers' Association. Tamaschke dissolved his household in 1930 and ended his work in the father-in-law's shop at the end of 1932. After a period of unemployment, Tamaschke found a job in the Berlin-Neukölln district office .

He joined the NSDAP ( membership number 36.978) in 1926 and the SS (membership number 851), as one of the first members of the Berlin SS, in 1927. Tamaschke rose to SS-Standartenführer in the SS in mid-September 1935.

Thanks to Kurt Daluege , Tamaschke became a protective custody camp leader in Dachau concentration camp in May 1934 and remained in this position until the beginning of 1935. Under Theodor Eicke , the concentration camp inspector , Tamaschke then rose to head of the political department in the concentration camp inspection . Through Eicke, who had a special relationship of trust with Tamaschke, he was appointed as camp director of the newly established women's concentration camp in Lichtenburg from December 1, 1937 . As early as December 1938, he was involved in the construction of the Ravensbrück concentration camp and stayed on the Fürstenberg construction site . After the Lichtenburg concentration camp was dissolved, Tamaschke and his staff moved to the newly established Ravensbrück concentration camp in May 1939.

Tamaschke was released from his duties as camp director of the Ravensbrück concentration camp by August 1939 at the latest and released from the SS death-head associations at the beginning of September 1939 due to the inability to use it . The reason was Tamaschke's private life. Tamaschke, who was married and had at least one child, started an affair with a female guard . Since this affair became public and Tamaschke's wife complained to Heinrich Himmler's personal staff, also about the fact that he did not pay her maintenance, Tamaschke lost Eicke's trust and was removed from his post. His marriage ended in divorce in 1940 at the latest. In September 1939 he moved to the land office in Prague . At the beginning of January 1942, at Himmler's instigation, Tamaschke was dismissed from the SS because he is said to have enriched himself as a trustee in the private sector during the " Aryanization " of Jewish assets. Himmler withdrew this dismissal order in March 1944 with retroactive effect to January 1942, since, according to his findings, the allegations against Tamaschke proved to be untenable. Tamaschke then served in the army and in October 1944 became a leader in the staff of the SS Upper Section Bohemia and Moravia.

Tamaschke, who had his last residence in Uhingen after the end of the war, died on October 14, 1959.

literature

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c d e Johannes Tuchel: Concentration camps: organizational history and function of the inspection of the concentration camps 1934-1938. 1991, p. 392.
  2. ↑ a b Karin Orth: The Concentration Camp SS. Munich 2004, p. 134f.
  3. ↑ a b c d Silke Schäfer: On the self-image of women in the concentration camp. The Ravensbrück camp. Berlin 2002, p. 169f.
  4. ^ Ernst Klee: The dictionary of persons on the Third Reich. Frankfurt am Main 2007, p. 617.
personal data
SURNAME Tamaschke, Günther
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German SS standard leader, camp director of the Lichtenburg and Ravensbrück concentration camps
DATE OF BIRTH February 26, 1896
PLACE OF BIRTH Berlin
DATE OF DEATH October 14, 1959
Place of death Uhingen