Hans Erwin from Spreti-Weilbach

Hans Erwin von Spreti-Weilbach (around 1933).

Hans Erwin Karl Ernst Martin Graf von Spreti-Weilbach (born September 24, 1908 in Karlsruhe , † June 30, 1934 in Stadelheim , sometimes also Hans Joachim Graf von Spreti-Weilbach ) was a German politician ( NSDAP ) and in a leading position in the Sturmabteilung (SA).

Live and act

Youth and education

Hans Erwin von Spreti-Weilbach came from the younger house (Weilbach) of the Spreti family . His father was the merchant and Lieutenant Colonel Martin Johann Nepomuk Joseph Franz de Paula Graf von Spreti-Weilbach (born April 2, 1867 at Unterweilbach Castle; † April 18, 1950 there), his mother Anita Freiin von und zu Aufseß (born November 26, 1950) 1873 in Nuremberg; † April 17, 1962 in Unterweilbach). He was the youngest of the couple's four children: his brothers Friedrich von Spreti-Weilbach (born March 4, 1897 in Karlsruhe; † December 1, 1917 at Cambrai) and Kurt von Spreti-Weilbach (born July 4, 1899 in Bruchsal; † 17 August 1917 at Camurriere) came in the First world war to. His sister was Martina von Spreti-Weilbach (1902-1998), married Braun von Kress, widowed Baroness Kress von Kressenstein .

After the family moved to Unterweilbach in 1910 , Spreti was first taught there by a private tutor, and then attended the Theresien-Gymnasium from 1920 to 1922 and then the New Realgymnasium in Munich until 1927 . He finally passed his Abitur in March 1928 at the Dr. Harang's private school in Magdeburg . He then completed an agricultural internship at the Herrlehof in order to begin studying agriculture at the then " Royal Academy for Agriculture and Brewery " in Weihenstephan in the winter semester of 1929 , which was incorporated into the Technical University of Munich a year later . After completing his intermediate diploma, he spent two semesters of his studies at the Christian-Albrechts-Universität in Kiel before returning to Weihenstephan. There he finally finished his studies in August 1932 with the exam to become a qualified farmer .

On February 1, 1935, Spreti was to take over his father's estate Weilbach, which had been leased up until then, after an agricultural trainee managerial time.

Career in the SA

In 1930 Spreti-Weilbach joined the NSDAP ( membership number 341.877) and its combat formation, the SA. In 1931 he came into the immediate vicinity of Ernst Röhm, who had just returned from Bolivia and was appointed Chief of Staff of the SA by Hitler . On January 5, 1932, he was appointed SA Storm Leader and assigned as SA leader for the special use of SA Standard 2 (SA Group Hochland), to which he formally belonged until April 13, 1932. From July 1, 1932 to May 1, 1933 he was an SA leader for special use in the Supreme SA leadership .

According to Andreas Dornheim, Spreti-Weilbach was one of Röhm's four closest employees as early as 1932, alongside Georg Bell , Julius Uhl and Karl Leon Du Moulin-Eckart . In March 1932, Spreti-Weilbach, alongside Röhm, was the target of a - ultimately not realized - murder plan from the ranks of his own party: Walter Buch , the highest party judge of the NSDAP , and his son-in-law Martin Bormann were planning the NSDAP from the political mortgage at that time to free the public scandals related to Röhm's homosexuality by eliminating it. In addition to Röhm, some men from his immediate environment, including Spreti-Weilbach, were supposed to be murdered. The count was not only targeted by the conspirators because of his close collaboration with Röhm, but also primarily because of his homosexual relationship with his chief of staff, whose lover he was. After the murder plot became known, Spreti-Weilbach temporarily fled to Berlin with Röhm. According to the social democratic Munich Post , “the purpose of this relocation was to get rid of the most prominent 175s in the Brown House ”.

After the National Socialist " seizure of power " Spreti was raised to the rank of SA-Sturmbannführer on April 1, 1933 and was SA-Führer z. b. V. at the SA group Silesia. On November 1, 1933 Spreti returned as 1st Adjutant to the Chief of Staff of the SA, d. H. Ernst Röhms, returned to the staff of the Supreme SA Leader. In this position, which he retained until his death on June 30, 1934, he was finally promoted to SA Standartenführer on March 1, 1934. In terms of party organization, he was assigned to the NSDAP local group “Brown House” at that time.

Arrest and death

On June 30, 1934 Spreti-Weilbach was arrested and shot in the course of the SA's disempowerment by the National Socialists. There are two different versions of the process:

The popular version says that Spreti-Weilbach had been Röhm's companion in the Bavarian spa town of Bad Wiessee since the end of June 1934 . He was arrested there in the early morning of June 30th together with other assembled members of the SA leadership around Röhm by a contingent of the Bavarian Political Police under the personal leadership of Hitler, transported to Munich and taken there to the Stadelheim prison . An unusual detail in some reports of this version is the claim that Spreti-Weilbach was "arrested" by Hitler himself and attacked with a hippopotamus whip and badly beaten.

According to Wolfram Selig, who relied on information from Spreti-Weilbach's sister, he was not arrested in Wiessee, but rather taken into custody when he arrived at Munich train station on June 30 after returning from his vacation on the way to Wiessee . Emil Maurice is said to have ordered his arrest .

Irrespective of the circumstances of the arrest, Spreti-Weilbach finally came to Stadelheim, where he was found together with five other SA leaders ( Hans Hayn , Edmund Heines , Hans Peter von Heydebreck , Wilhelm Schmid and August Schneidhuber ) in the early evening of June 30th personal order of Hitler was shot by an SS commando.

The law enforcement officer Zink, who witnessed the executions , described them to the imprisoned journalist Erwein von Aretin in Stadelheim, who later published it as a report:

“Next came the young Count Spreti, who excitedly tried to protest against the incident and was harshly put to rest by the SS leader. He, too, received his judgment read out loud, but died, like all the following, with the cry: I am dying for Germany, Heil Hitler! "

Shortly before he was shot, he managed to write a farewell greeting to his family on a business card:

"Do not forget me! I too fell for the fatherland. Hans Erwin "

Spreti's body was first buried in the Perlach cemetery , but then exhumed and cremated on July 21, 1934 and handed over to his parents in an urn . This urn was then sunk in the family grave in Weilbach, closed to the public. Attempts by the father to clarify the reasons for the shooting of his son - for what purpose he turned to Hess and Himmler - were unsuccessful.

Promotions

• April 1, 1933: SA-Sturmbannführer
• March 1, 1934: SA Standartenführer (Führer order 23)

Archival material

• Party correspondence (Bundesarchiv PK Film L 373 "Sprenger, Gustav - Spriessler, Hermann", pictures 2163–2168)

literature

• Wolfram Selig : “The Victims of the Röhm Putsch in Munich”, in: Winfried Becker / Werner Chrobak (ed.): State, Culture, Politics. Contributions to the history of Bavaria and Catholicism, Kallmünz 1992, pp. 341–356.
• Heinrich von Spreti: The Spreti. History of the noble house of Spreti , 1995.

Individual evidence

1. ^ Andreas Dornheim: Röhms Mann fürs Ausland , p. 231, footnote 206; See also: Heinrich von Spreti: The Spreti. History of the old noble house Spreti , private printing, Munich 1995, p. 178 ff.
2. ↑ Andreas Dornheim: Röhm's man for abroad , p. 231.
3. ↑ Andreas Dornheim: Röhm's man for abroad , p. 119.
4. ^ Andreas Dornheim: Röhm's man for abroad , p. 71f.
5. ^ Moritz Pirol: Hahnenschreie , Vol. 2, 2000, p. 285. ISBN 3-8311-0823-4 ; In Ernst Röhm: Geschichte eines Hochverräters , 1933, p. 20 it also suggests: "In the cozy rooms of the cavalier Spreti, over the years we have repeatedly recovered from work and some anger."
6. ↑ Münchner Post of April 13, 1932; see also Burkhard Jellonnek: Homosexuelle unterm Hakenkreuz , 1990, p. 72.
7. ^ Rudolf Olden: Hitler , Hildesheim 1981, ISBN 3-8067-0873-8 , p. 318. See also Gerald Reitlinger: The SS, Alibi of a Nation. 1922-1945 , New York 1957, p. 64.
8. ↑ Wolfram Selig: “Murdered in the name of the Führer. The Victims of the Röhm Putsch in Munich ”, in: State, Culture, Politics. Contributions to the history of Bavaria and Catholicism , p. 344f.
9. ↑ John W. Wheeler-Bennett, Hans Steinsdorff: The nemesis of power. A German Army in Politics, 1918-1945 ; Droste, 1954; P. 345.
10. ↑ Michaelis: Causes and Consequences, Vol. X, p. 176.
11. ^ Spreti: Die Spreti , p. 182.
12. ↑ Leader's order of the Supreme SA Leadership No. 13 of April 30, 1933.