Hans Paul Count of Monts

Hans Paul Graf von Monts (born April 3, 1904 in Reust (?); † 1944 in Berlin ; real name Hans Paul Kreutzer ) was an impostor and, under the protection of the Reich Ministry for Public Enlightenment and Propaganda , was a profiteer in the turmoil of World War II .

Life

Monts' parents were middle-class: Johannes Kreutzer, the father and Rosa Maria, nee Steingräber, the mother. According to his own information in the trial against Matthias Lackas , Karl Heinz Moldt and Eberhard Ritter von Riewel on April 12, 1944, he was a free corps fighter in the early twenties and was then taken over into the Reichswehr . On April 20, 1920, the IR3 Stettin released him, he remained a temporary volunteer. In 1925 he made up for the upper secondary school leaving certificate at the Realgymnasium Gera.

Attempts to be admitted to the Reichswehr as an officer candidate fail. This was followed by a study of economics as a working student ; In the winter semester of 1928 he was matriculated in Göttingen, but his studies remained short with “2 or 3 semesters”. From 1928 to 1929 he was an assistant editor in Nordheim. In 1928 or 1929 he was “adopted” as a count with which he joined the NSDAP on December 1, 1930 in Göttingen . He married on December 23, 1930. Work as a freelance editor for the Göttinger Tageblatt should have fallen during this time. From 1930 to 1934 he held the position of chief inspector at Concordia insurance. In 1935 he moved (according to information in the process) to Hanover, where he continued to work as an insurance agent, without being able to say for which insurance company in 1944.

In 1936 he moved to Berlin with the aim of completing a degree there. From 1936 to 1938 he completed a course of study at the School of Politics, graduating with a diploma and temporarily working as an assistant. At the same time he claims to have been an insurance agent for the Deutsches Ring . After completing his studies, he worked as head of the press office at the University of Politics with an employee salary of RM 300 net.

After his varied training, Mont's career began on August 7, 1939 when he was called up to the Propaganda Replacement Department in Potsdam. The rank accorded him was that of archer . From August 25, 1939, he took part as a special leader (Z) in the attack on Poland in the propaganda company 6/89 . After the attack on Poland he was stationed in Spandau . On October 20, 1939, the company was relocated to Bensberg . From October 28 to November 4, 1939, he stayed in Berlin again with permission to be with his dying wife. After her death, he was discharged from the Wehrmacht, to which he remained attached. From December 15, 1939, he worked in the special officer for troop support at the Governor General in Krakow - from December 10, 1939 to December 1, 1942, placed in the UK , that is, saved as "indispensable" from military service at the front. However, he felt entitled to wear the uniform of an SS Obersturmführer , as he claims to have been "taken over" as such on April 1, 1939 - the information suggests that he acquired a uniform during the turmoil of the first war successes and that he was using it created his own position.

In 1942 and 1943 Monts was entrusted with the troop supply on behalf of the Propaganda Ministry. In this position he maintained a multimillion-dollar warehouse of coveted items from gramophones to alcohol, which he supposedly kept in store for troop support. Splendid shops with scarce goods opened up in this activity. Monts had a fleet of several expensive limousines and a troop of prostitutes with whom he took trips between Berlin, Paris and Amsterdam.

In the spring of 1944 Monts fell in the course of investigations against Matthias Lackas in suspicion of corruption , on 12 April he was summoned to the trial as a witness to the success that the court arrested him nor from the dock of. In the spring of 1944 he committed "suicide" while in custody, like most of the others from military circles.

literature

• Hans-Eugen Bühler / Olaf Simons: The brilliant business of Matthias Lackas. Corruption investigations in the publishing world of the Third Reich. Pierre Marteau, Cologne 2004, ISBN 3-00-013343-7

Web links

• www.polunbi.de Minutes of the trial against Matthias Lackas, Karl Heinz Moldt and Eberhard Ritter von Riewel, Berlin, March 14, 1944 - April 22, 1944