Johann Beck (SS member)

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Johann "Hans" Georg Beck as a witness at the Nuremberg trials.

Johann Georg Beck (born July 22, 1888 in Nuremberg , † January 7, 1967 in Vaihingen ) was a German SS leader, most recently with the rank of SS Oberführer .

Life and activity

Youth and First World War

After attending elementary school from 1894 to 1902, Beck completed an apprenticeship as a sculptor with the sculptor Karl Lehmann in Nuremberg, which he completed in July 1906. He then went to Düsseldorf, where he worked as a sculptor's assistant and attended art school in the evenings. In 1907 he went on a journey that took him to Hamburg , Hanover and Stade - where he learned from the master sculptor Wilpert - and then returned to his home in Nuremberg. A second wandering took him to Stuttgart, Heidelberg and Worms.

On October 7, 1909, Beck joined the 3rd train battalion of the Bavarian Army in Fürth . After retiring from the army in 1911, he got a job at Metzger & Co., a gingerbread factory in Nuremberg, for which he modeled exhibition gingerbread. In November 1911 he moved to Munich. After a short stay in Zurich he worked for the Munich professor Morgenroth. In the years up to 1914 he lived alternately in Nuremberg and Munich and worked as a sculptor or was temporarily unemployed due to the poor employment situation for sculptors at that time.

On the occasion of the mobilization of the Bavarian Army on July 28, 1914, Beck moved into the 21st Bavarian Infantry Regiment. He took part in the First World War from August 1914 to 1918, at last he reached the rank of sergeant.

Interwar period

After the war, Beck returned to Nuremberg, where he initially found work as a wood sculptor at the Ficht and Gast (wood factory) companies, before setting up his own business with his friend Lorenz Müller. Together they both specialized in furniture and figure carving before they separated again in the wake of the inflation of 1923. Beck then worked as a sculptor for tombstones , which he made temporarily in his own workshop and in the business of an uncle. From around 1925 Beck also ran a small vegetable shop in addition to his sculptures on Henleinstrasse in Nuremberg.

In 1925 Beck joined the newly founded NSDAP in Nuremberg ( membership number 6,911). On August 1, 1926 (according to other information on July 14, 1926) he also became a member of the SS (SS No. 179). From October 1, 1927 to April 1, 1934, he led the Nuremberg SS: This initially operated as SS-Standarte II (Nuremberg-Fürth) until June 30, 1930, then as SS-Brigade Franken, and then as the 3rd SS -Standards. According to his own statements, the standard was still referred to as a relay in the first years of its existence. Beck finally gave up his position in Nuremberg due to conflicts with the Nuremberg Gauleiter Julius Streicher .

After Beck had sold his vegetable business in autumn 1933 and also given up his sculpting workshop in spring 1934, he moved to Stuttgart . As a full-time SS leader, he was assigned to the SS Upper Section Southwest under Hans-Adolf Prützmann , which was then being established . In this he held the function of inspector of the main department until 1939. Internally he was alternately SS leader z. b. V. on the staff of the upper section (April 1, 1934 to June 15, 1934, September 10, 1934 and February 11, 1937 to May 18, 1937), officer F3 on the staff of the upper section (June 15, 1934 to September 10, 1934 and March 13, 1935 to April 1, 1936), leader of the staff of the upper section (May 18, 1937 to March 1, 1938) and inspector of the SS Stammabteilung Südwest (April 1, 1936 to February 11, 1937 and March 1, 1938 to May 1945).

Second World War

On October 1, 1939, Beck was appointed as the deputy of the sick Oberführer Friedrich as staff commander of the SS main office in Berlin. He retained this position until Friedrich returned on February 7, 1940. In April 1940 he was transferred to the Oranienburg concentration camp . Up until the end of May he was responsible for putting together guard detachments made up of members of the Kyffhäuserbund (veterans of the First World War), who had been called up to Oranienburg as a collection camp for the purpose of being divided into groups from there and sent to various concentration camps as guards . Then he returned home.

Beck was called up again in October 1941. He first came to Buchenwald concentration camp , where he was to be trained as a camp leader. After confrontations with SS leaders there or because he was drunk, he was placed under house arrest and finally transferred to Mauthausen concentration camp in February 1942 . There he was held from January 10, 1942 (according to other information already since January 28, 1942) to February 1943 (according to other information October 28, 1942) - allegedly on Himmler's instructions - as a special inmate for indiscipline away from the actual camp operations.

On March 1, 1943, Beck was sent to the Gusen concentration camp (twin camp complex of KL Mauthausen) in Upper Austria as the deputy protective custody camp leader and stable master . At the end of the war, Beck handed over the Gusen camp complex to the US Army in May 1945.

At the end of the war Beck was captured by the US and interned. In the following years he was interrogated as a witness during the Nuremberg trials .

Promotions

In the general SS:

  • December 1, 1927: SS-Sturmbannführer
  • July 1, 1930: SS Standartenführer
  • September 13, 1936: SS-Oberführer

In the Waffen SS:

  • August 16, 1940 (with effect from February 8, 1940): SS-Obersturmführer of the reserve of the Waffen-SS
  • June 21, 1944: SS-Hauptsturmführer in the reserve of the Waffen-SS

Awards

literature

  • Bastian Hein: Elite for people and leaders? The General SS and its Members 1925-1945 , 2012, p. 84.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ State Archives Ludwigsburg , inventory EL 902/4 (American internment index ) , index card no.3320 .
  2. ^ Records of the United States Nuernberg War Crimes trials Interrogations, 1946-1949
personal data
SURNAME Beck, Johann
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Beck, Johann Georg (full name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German SS leader
DATE OF BIRTH July 22, 1888
PLACE OF BIRTH Nuremberg
DATE OF DEATH 7th January 1967
Place of death Vaihingen (Stuttgart)