Gustav Adolf Lehnert

Gustav Adolf Lehnert (born July 6, 1896 in Gelsenkirchen ; † April 27, 1976 in Essen - Werden ) was a German police officer. He was head of the criminal police in the Düsseldorf administrative region and played a key role in building the police in the Ruhr area after the Second World War .

First World War, occupation of the Ruhr and emigration

He was a soldier in the First World War . During the occupation of the Ruhr in 1923 he was a member of the local auxiliary police, which was led by the trade unions. The regular police had to leave the occupied area on the instructions of the Belgian and French military. Afterwards he was accepted into the ranks of the criminal police with the rank of criminal assistant.

According to his own statements, he had also passed a course to become a criminal secretary. Before the Nazi takeover of power, he worked in the police headquarters of the Political Police in Essen in Department IA. At times he was head of the protective detention center. As of July 19, 1933, he was suspended from duty. In an official assessment by the police chief of Essen on August 11, 1933, he was accused of publishing articles in newspapers as an anonymous writer that were related to the SPD . Lehnert was a long-time member of the SPD and the Reich Banner .

Escape to Saarland and France

Towards the end of October 1933 he was released from police service. The order was based on Section 4 of the Professional Civil Service Act . Since he was concerned about his safety, he went to Saarland as early as June 1933 , which was not yet part of the Nazi regime. There he first worked as a special commissioner for the institution of the League of Nations . On November 8, 1933, he was appointed detective inspector.

Before the Saar area came to the German Reich on March 1, 1935 , Lehnert fled to France. There he worked as a miner in the Lorraine coalfield. His family has now followed him here. On December 3, 1936, he and his family were released from their German citizenship. In a letter dated June 21, 1938 , the West Tax Office informed the Düsseldorf Regional Council that the Lehnert family's assets had been confiscated.

When the Second World War broke out in 1939, Lehnert was temporarily interned in a camp in France. According to his information, he was employed in the labor service in the zone not occupied by German troops. Then he went underground and worked in a company in Brittany . In 1942 he became a member of the Resistance .

US service and new hires in the police force

After he enlisted in the US military in 1944, he was taken to Paris . He was interrogated there for a few weeks. They finally trusted him and hired him in August 1944 as a member of the Strategic Services Unit (War Department Mission to Germany, US Forces, European Theater, Field Base C).

In this function, he said he informed US officers about the conditions under the Nazi regime. Furthermore, he wrote study reports on the conditions of the German police forces and acted as a consultant in the selection of incriminated police officers. The head of the police department Wolfgang Schmidt in the upper presidium of the North Rhine-Province hired him in September 1945 as an assistant to the criminal police.

In October 1945 he took over the management of the criminal police department in the Düsseldorf administrative region . Lehnert wrote a report dated December 2, 1945 in which he sharply commented on the lack of denazification in the ranks of the police:

"Police officers declared that Gestapo officers and members of the SS were still on duty"

.

In those areas where a democratic beginning in the police force is called for, there is general dissatisfaction with these conditions. He later took on a further position as a criminal adviser at the Essen police headquarters.

Gustav Adolf Lehnert was married to Emmi Brosch, who was born in 1901. In 1972 he received the Federal Cross of Merit.

credentials

• Biographical handbook of German-speaking emigration after 1933 , Volume I., Munich 1980.
• DBE Volume 6, Munich 1997.
• Stefan Noethen: Old comrades and new colleagues - police in North Rhine-Westphalia 1945-1953 . Essen 2003.
• Erwin Dickhoff: Essen heads . Ed .: City of Essen - Historical Association for City and Monastery of Essen. Klartext-Verlag, Essen 2015, ISBN 978-3-8375-1231-1 .