Hans Rumpf (fire engineer)

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Hans Rumpf (born March 7, 1888 in Zimmer ; † November 5, 1965 in Elmshorn ) was a German fire engineer and fire protection inspector as well as SS brigade leader and major general of the police .

Life

After finishing his school career at the grammar school in Torgau, Rumpf embarked on a military career. From the beginning of June 1908 he belonged to the 4th Silesian Infantry Regiment 157 in Brieg with the rank of Fahnenjunker and, meanwhile promoted to lieutenant , took part in the First World War as a battalion adjutant of this regiment . After the end of the war he was retired from the army in February 1919 with the rank of captain . In mid-May 1919 he joined the Königsberg fire brigade , where he worked as a fire engineer and from August 1928 as a fire chief engineer. From the beginning of June 1935 he headed the Leipzig professional fire brigade as fire director and soon after became a member of the fire brigade advisory board . After the beginning of the Second World War , he was promoted to commander of the fire police in this city in early October 1939. In addition, in November 1939 he was instructed by the chief of the Ordnungspolizei Kurt Daluege to lead a fire police regiment and from mid-April 1940 he was the commander of the fire police regiment in Saxony. In May 1943 he was used as the commander of the command staff of the fire police departments (motorized).

In September 1943 Rumpf was appointed inspector general of fire fighting alongside Johannes Meyer, who was already working in this office. This measure was considered necessary due to the expansion of the borders of the German Reich and the associated expansion of the fire services, and air strikes on German cities increased. While fire schools , plant fire brigade and fire show remained in Meyer's area of ​​responsibility , Rumpf was given responsibility for fire protection and air raid protection police as well as the supervision of volunteers and professional fire brigades . Rumpf had already dealt with civilian air defense in the Weimar Republic and founded the East Prussian Air Working Group . In late October 1943 he was promoted to major general in the police. With the rank of brigade leader, he was accepted into the General SS on February 11, 1944 (SS no. 476.418).

After the end of the war he was in US captivity and was released from internment in 1948. In the Federal Republic of Germany he was still an author of topic-related publications. An article planned by Rumpf for the journal Politische Studien was rejected by the editorial team because he compared Allied bombing raids on German cities with the Holocaust . Previously, his book, published in 1961, solved Das Was der Bombardier. German cities in the firestorm controversy. Reinhard Steffler, who has dealt intensively with the person Hans Rumpf, doubts his presence during the air raids on Dresden ; However, he was an eyewitness to the air raids on Berlin and Leipzig at the end of 1943. Rumpf was a Nazi air protection specialist with organizational talent who effectively further developed air protection through technical and structural innovations. He also anticipated the bombing war and, as the German representative at the International Red Cross, helped develop the Convention for the Protection of the Civilian Population.

Fonts (selection)

  • Gas protection. A manual for provincial, district u. Local government, fire services, mining, etc. Industry with special consideration of the gas protection of the civilian population in a future war. ES Mittler & Sohn, Berlin 1928.
  • Incendiary bombs. A contribution to the air protection problem. Mittler, Berlin 1931.
  • The crimson rooster. Mittler, Darmstadt 1952.
  • That was the bombing war. German cities in a firestorm. A documentary report. Stalling, Oldenburg / Hamburg 1961.

literature

  • Andreas Schulz, Günter Wegmann: The generals of the Waffen SS and the police. Volume 4: Podzun - Schimana. Biblio-Verlag, Bissendorf 2009, ISBN 978-3-7648-2587-4 , p. 354 ff.
  • Reinhard Steffler: From the fire bombs to the strategic air war against Germany. An initial analysis of the Dresden case from the perspective of the Leipzig inspector general for the fire services, Hans Rumpf. Elbe-Dnjepr-Verlag, Mockrehna 2014, ISBN 978-3-940541-41-3 (not evaluated).

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Andreas Linhardt: Fire Brigade in Air Protection 1926–1945 , Braunschweig 2002, ISBN 3-8311-3738-2 , p. 171
  2. ^ Andreas Linhardt: Fire Brigade in Air Protection 1926–1945 , Braunschweig 2002, ISBN 3-8311-3738-2 , p. 66
  3. ↑ Mario Beck: Steffler's book illuminates the brown Leipzig fire director Hans Rumpf. In: Leipziger Volkszeitung . February 6, 2015
personal data
SURNAME Hull, Hans
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German fire engineer and fire protection inspector as well as SS brigade leader and major general of the police
DATE OF BIRTH March 7, 1888
PLACE OF BIRTH Rooms
DATE OF DEATH November 5, 1965
Place of death Elmshorn