Hermann Walch

Hermann Ewald Robert Walch (born May 31, 1906 in Hildesheim ; † April 29, 1945 ) was a German political activist, SA leader , most recently with the rank of SA brigade leader, and honorary member of the People's Court .

Life and activity

Earlier career

Walch was the son of an architect who taught as a professor at the building trade school in Höxter an der Weser until 1912 . His great-grandfather was the composer Robert Schumann . After schooling, he with the high school graduated at a high school, he completed an apprenticeship as a carpenter. In addition, he received lessons in architecture until autumn 1923.

Walch began to be active in the circles of the extreme political right at an early age: at the age of fourteen, he joined the German-Völkischer Schutz- und Trutzbund in Höxter in 1920 . After this association was banned, he became a member of the Knappschaft and then a Jungmann in the Young German Order , which he left when it allegedly got into "anti-national waters".

Career in the Nazi movement until 1933

In the summer of 1923 Walch joined the Bismarck League and shortly afterwards he became a member of the NSDAP on October 1, 1923 - he was one of the first ten party members of the party in his hometown. After the NSDAP was banned after the events of the Hitler putsch in November 1923, he joined forces with some like-minded people in the Völkisch-Soziale Block .

In November 1928 Walch came to Berlin , where he accepted a position as a site manager in Berlin-Tempelhof . He later practiced the same profession in Berlin-Schöneberg . There he belonged to the NSDAP in the Schöneberg section, for which he initially worked as cell chairman and head of organization.

In Berlin, Walch began to work actively in the NSDAP's street combat group, the Sturmabteilung (SA), in 1928: from November 1, 1928 to July 1, 1929 he belonged to SA-Sturm 15, from October 1929 to March 1931 to Sturm 9, from March 1931 to April 1931 to Sturmbann II / 2 and from April 1931 to May 16, 1931 again to Storm 9. As a member of the SA, Walch participated in violent clashes between the SA and the organizations of the Social Democrats and Communists in Schöneberg.

In the wake of the Stennes Putsch of April 1931, Walch rose to leading positions in the SA: From May 1931 to September 15, 1931, Walch was the leader of SA Storm 9, and then from September 1931 to September 10, 1931. April 1933 to lead the Sturmbann III / 21.

According to an accusation by Spandau SA chief Gottlieb Rösner from 1935, Walch was said to have played a “leading role” in the uprising of parts of the Berlin SA against the Munich party leadership during the so-called Stennes putsch in April 1931 . After the suppression of the Stennes revolt, he is said to have withdrawn for a time, only to have received a new assignment soon afterwards from Karl Ernst , who at that time was an adjutant or staff leader of the Berlin SA. In any case, in September 1931 Walch was given command of SA-Sturmbann III / 2.

Life in the Nazi state

Shortly after coming to power of the Nazis in the spring of 1933 Walch was established in March 1933 as leader of the newly formed SA Standard 18 appointed, he de facto until the events of the Roehm putsch in the summer of 1934, formally until July 31, 1934, resulted. In this position, Walch was in direct personal contact with the Berlin Gauleiter Joseph Goebbels , who included him in his actions against his opponent Hans Reupke .

Also in 1934 Walch was appointed as one of twenty-three honorary members of the first senate of the National Socialist People's Court. After Eberhard Taubert , he was the second youngest honorary member of this body.

After the general job changes in the Berlin SA in the wake of the events of the Röhm Putsch, Walch was commissioned in August 1934 with the leadership of SA Brigade 31 (Berlin-Süd), which he led until March 31, 1935. He then led the SA Brigade 28 from April 1935 to June 14, 1936. When he was promoted to SA Brigade Leader in November 1935, he reached his highest SA rank.

In the following years Walch ran a prison camp. In the SA he had formally held the position of Fuhrer for Brigade 29 from October 1936.

From 1942 Walch took part in the Second World War as an officer . He died in combat immediately before the end of the war. His grave is on the war cemetery in Nusplingen .

Promotions

Promotions in the SA

• July 2, 1929: SA squad leader
• May 16, 1931: SA Sturmführer
• March 8, 1931: SA-Sturmbannführer
• September 16, 1931: SA Obersturmbannführer
• June 15, 1933: SA Standartenführer
• June 9, 1934: SA Oberführer
• November 9, 1935: SA Brigade Leader

estate

Personnel records on Walch have been preserved in the Federal Archives. In particular, the holdings of the former Berlin Document Center contain a file with party correspondence and an SA personnel file on Walch (SA microfilm 298-B, photos 943–954).

literature

• Bernt Engelmann: In good German! A Bernt Engelmann reading book , 1981, p. 94.
• Institute for Contemporary History (editor): files of the party chancellery of the NSDAP. Reconstruction of a lost inventory , 1983, process no.10950.

Individual evidence

1. ^ Institute for Contemporary History (editor): files of the party chancellery of the NSDAP. Reconstruction of a lost inventory , 1983, process no.10950.
2. ↑ Elke Fröhlich (Ed.): Die Tagebücher von Joseph Goebbels , Vol. 3 / I, 2005, pp. 68 and 250.
3. ↑ Bernt Engelmann: In good German! A Bernt Engelmann reading book , 1983, p. 94.
4. ↑ Horst Henrichs (editor): The organization of the Supreme SA leadership from January 5, 1931 to April 20, 1944. Including the ranking of the Obergruppenführer, Gruppenführer and Brigadführer. On the basis of the official Fuehrer Orders 2 (July 31, 1931) to 85 (April 20, 1944), the order of March 31, 1931 as well as the special orders IV, 23a and 79a , p. 178.
5. ^ Ministry of Justice NRW: Terror and normality. Judgments of the National Socialist People's Court 1934-1945. A documentation , 2004, p. 111.
6. ^ Entry at the Volksbund Kriegsgräberführsorge ( Volksbund Kriegsgräberfürsorge Online ). The data record must be determined by entering Walch's personal data in the search mask there.