Josef Gerum

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Josef Gerum (born September 22, 1888 in Munich , † July 14, 1963 in Hohenschäftlarn near Munich) was an early NSDAP member, participant in the Hitler putsch in 1923 and a senior police officer in the Nazi state .

Life

Until 1933

The trained butcher Gerum came from Munich . In 1917 he joined the Bavarian police service as a criminal police trainee , where he achieved the rank of criminal assistant.

Party member since January 1, 1920 (later party number 659.283), Gerum became one of the first employees of the National Socialist Wilhelm Frick , who was then head of the security service of the Munich Criminal Police in the early 1920s . From 1923 he was part of the Adolf Hitler raid and took part with this troop as a kind of "bodyguard" of Hitler in the attempted coup on 8/9. November 1923: "Gerum was the first with the pistol in hand to pave a way for the following Hitler and during the further proceedings always stayed at Hitler's side in order to protect him against possible attacks." Because of his participation in the coup, Gerum was retired from the police force dismissed and to 15 months imprisonment sentenced, of which he 4 months along with Hitler, Rudolf Hess , Hermann Kriebel and others in the Landsberg was serving.

In the following years he was employed, among other things, in Martin Bormann's auxiliary fund of the NSDAP and in the NSDAP propaganda department under Joseph Goebbels and Gregor Strasser . On September 15, 1932, he joined the SS .

In the Nazi state

In 1933 Heinrich Himmler took him back to the police force and worked for the Bavarian Political Police in Munich and in the security service of the Reichsführer-SS . According to a study by the Institute for Contemporary History , Gerum had contacts with Catholic political circles during this time, to which he secretly worked to protect himself.

In April 1934, the now for acquired SS lieutenant ascended Gerum the rank of superintendent of the management of the service of the Bavarian Political Police in Wuerzburg in "on October 1, 1936 Gestapo - State Police Wuerzburg" was renamed. The background for the transfer seems to have been his involvement in an intrigue against Reinhard Heydrich . After the end of the war, the Spruchkammer judged Gerum to be “one of the most feared, violent and ruthless Gestapo chiefs in Würzburg. He was feared and hated all over the city, also by party comrades ”and tried to make amends for his misconduct in Munich through“ energetic action ”.

Gerum's energy was directed against, among others, the Schweinheim chaplain Franz Krug (* December 24, 1904 in Würzburg ; † December 11, 1993 in Bad Kissingen ) and the doctorate lawyer and Swiss citizen Leopold Obermayer , who took control of him in October 1934 complained to his mail. On October 18, 1938, Krug was transferred to the "province" in Dorfprozelten as a punishment and thus escaped deportation to the concentration camp. Gerum, who was considered to be “particularly homophobic ”, had Obermayer , who was openly gay , immediately taken into “ protective custody ”. During his interrogations, Obermayer pointed out in his defense of homosexuals in the vicinity of the Main Franconian Gauleiter Otto Hellmuth , whereupon Gerum investigated and reported on May 5, 1935 in a twelve-page report to the Bavarian Ministry of the Interior, "Events at the Gauleitung Mainfranken". Gauleiter Hellmuth then called for Gerum to be replaced, describing him as "absolutely unsuitable for use in the political police".

In January 1935 Obermayer von Gerum was personally admitted to the Dachau concentration camp , and in September 1935 he was transferred to pre-trial detention. A handwritten report he found about his imprisonment in the concentration camp ended up in the hands of Gerum, who then demanded that Obermayer be transferred to the concentration camp again and also achieved: "The risk of an uninhibited debate in the court of Dachau is too great." More than a year later, in December 1936, a trial was opened against Obermayer before the Würzburg Regional Court for violating Section 175 . On December 13, 1936, he was sentenced to ten years in prison , loss of honor and subsequent preventive detention. Obermayer died on February 22, 1943 in Mauthausen concentration camp .

In 1937 Gerum was replaced and was used by the Stapo control center in Munich. In 1939 he volunteered for the army and took part in the raid on Poland in a unit of the secret field police . Due to illness, he was on vacation in Munich, and on November 8, 1939 he was responsible for securing the Bürgerbräukeller during the Hitler speech, during which Georg Elser's unsuccessful assassination attempt on Hitler took place. In the subsequent investigation, Gerum was accused of significant deficiencies in securing the event, and he was even arrested for a time because of the risk of blackout .

In 1940, Gerum, who had returned to Field Police Group 627, took part in the French campaign. His "Special Group Gerum" had the task of "selecting and securing art treasures on behalf of the Führer", whereby the troops plundered art collections and private apartments according to mostly prepared lists. In the following years Gerum was wounded in France. This was followed by hospital stays. From 1942 he was back at the Stapo control center in Munich.

Gerum had an extremely bad reputation among his party comrades and police superiors. As early as the 1920s, he was considered headstrong and daring and had attracted attention through repeated arbitrariness. Heinrich Himmler noted on October 3, 1942, that he was the “type of the dissatisfied and forever criticizing old fighter. In this direction he exercises an almost ominous influence in Munich ”. When Gerum, who made it up to the SS-Sturmbannführer , became conspicuous again in 1942 when he failed to comply with a transfer order, he was forced into retirement. Then he was economic manager at BMW .

After 1945

After three years of automatic arrest in an American internment camp, Gerum was denazified in 1948 . For his work as Gestapo chief in Würzburg he received one year in prison. By 1957, a number of further proceedings against Gerum were initiated in Würzburg and Munich without a conviction. He died on July 14, 1963 in Hohenschäftlarn near Munich and was buried there.

literature

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b Ulf Uweson (arr.): With Adolf Hitler at Landsberg Fortress. According to the records of fellow prisoner Lieutenant a. D. Hans Kallenbach. Munich: Parcus & Co. 1933, p. 19.
  2. ↑ a b c d e f g h i j Elke Fröhlich: The challenge of the individual. Munich / Vienna 1983, p. 77.
  3. ^ A b Robert Gellately: The Gestapo and German Society. Oxford 1991, p. 59.
  4. ↑ a b c d e f Anton Hoch: The assassination attempt on Hitler in the Münchner Bürgerbräu 1939, p. 164, note 103.
  5. ↑ Ulf Uweson (arr.): With Adolf Hitler at Landsberg Fortress. Munich 1933, p. 23.
  6. ^ A b Robert Gellately: The Gestapo and German Society. Oxford 1991, p. 76.
  7. ↑ Cf. Josef Müller : Up to the last consequence. A life for peace and freedom. Munich: Süddeutscher Verlag 1975, p. 57f.
  8. ↑ Burkhard Jellonnek: homosexuals under the swastika. The persecution of homosexuals in the Third Reich. Paderborn: Schöningh 1990, p. 221.
  9. ↑ Quoted from Elke Fröhlich: The challenge of the individual. Munich / Vienna 1983, p. 78.
  10. ↑ See Heimat- und Geschichtsverein Aschaffenburg-Schweinheim eV: Chaplain Franz Krug under Hitler's terror .
  11. ↑ so Burkhard Jellonnek: Homosexuals under the swastika. Paderborn 1990, p. 223.
  12. ↑ Burkhard Jellonnek: homosexuals under the swastika. Paderborn 1990, p. 267.
  13. ↑ Telex from Gerum to SS-Standartenführer Stepp v. October 12, 1935 , quoted from Elke Fröhlich: The challenge of the individual. Munich / Vienna 1983, p. 90.
  14. ↑ Elke Fröhlich: The challenge of the individual. Munich / Vienna 1983, p. 109.
  15. ↑ a b c Anton Hoch: The assassination attempt on Hitler in the Münchner Bürgerbräu 1939, p. 33.
  16. ↑ See Roland Ray: Approaching France in the Service of Hitler? Otto Abetz and the German policy on France 1930–1942. (Studies on Contemporary History, 59). Munich: Oldenbourg Verlag 2000, p. 345ff. ( Google Books )
  17. ↑ See Klaus D. Patzwall : The Badge of Honor from November 9, 1923 (Blood Order). 2nd Edition. Militair-Verlag Patzwall, Norderstedt 1986.
  18. ^ Paul Hoser: Schutzstaffel (SS), 1925-1945 . In: Historical Lexicon of Bavaria
  19. ↑ Elke Fröhlich: The challenge of the individual. Munich / Vienna 1983, p. 110.
  20. ^ Robert Gellately: The Gestapo and German Society. Oxford 1991, p. 263.
personal data
SURNAME Gerum, Josef
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Participant of the Hitler putsch and senior police officer
DATE OF BIRTH September 22, 1888
PLACE OF BIRTH Munich
DATE OF DEATH July 14, 1963
Place of death Hohenschäftlarn near Munich