Karl Michel von Tüßling

In the foreground, v. l. to right: Philipp Bouhler, Karl Freiherr Michel von Tüßling, Robert Ley , Inga Ley ; Munich, July 1939

Karl Richard Freiherr Michel von Tüßling (born July 27, 1907 in Tüßling ; † October 30, 1991 there ) was a German SS-Sturmbannführer and a functionary in the Reich leadership of the NSDAP . He served in the Fuehrer's office , on the staff of the Reichsführer SS and on the staff of the SS main office . From 1936 on he was also the personal adjutant of the Reichsleiter of the NSDAP, head of the Führer’s office and SS-Obergruppenführer Philipp Bouhler , Adolf Hitler’s agent for Action T4 .

Life

origin

Tüßling Castle (around 1900)

Karl Freiherr Michel von Tüßling was born on July 27, 1907 in Tüßling. He was the son of Alfred Michel (1870–1957), who on December 21, 1905 (matriculated January 11, 1906) as "Alfred Freiherr Michel von Tüßling" was raised to the Bavarian nobility and baron class , and the Hertha (1877– 1948) born Freiin, later Countess Wolffskeel von Reichenberg .

Michel von Tüßling grew up in the Upper Bavarian Tüßling Castle , which his father bought in 1905. After the First World War , he graduated from high school and studied forest sciences in Munich at the Ludwig Maximilians University , which he graduated with a degree in forestry.

Michel von Tüßling came from a nationally conservative family. His father had served as the Royal Bavarian Major in the Reserve. His uncle Eberhard Wolffskeel von Reichenberg (1875-1954) served as a major in the German Army and was actively involved in the genocide of the Armenians as the deputy commander of the 4th Ottoman Army . His uncle Richard von Michel-Raulino (1864–1926) was a committed member of the German National People's Party and publisher and owner of the national conservative Bamberger Tagblatt . His older sister Freda (1905–1936) married the "old fighter" Henning von Nordeck (1895–1978 ) in 1928 , who had served as SS-Standartenführer in the staff of the SS Upper Section South , based in Munich, as early as 1934 .

Member of the NSDAP and the SS

v. l. To right : Heinrich Himmler , Robert Ley with his wife Inga, Karl Freiherr Michel von Tüßling (as SS-Hauptsturmführer , right), Munich, 1939

Michel von Tüßling was a member of the NSDAP ( membership no. 1.726.624 ) and at the beginning of 1933 he joined a motorized unit of the 1st SS standard in Munich (SS no. 56.074), which was commanded by Viktor Brack , who was also the chief of staff for the Reich manager of the NSDAP Philipp Bouhler worked in the Brown House . After Adolf Hitler commissioned Bouhler to set up the Fuehrer's Chancellery (KdF) in Berlin in 1934, he took Brack and Michel von Tüßling with him to Berlin. Both served under Bouhler in the Fuehrer's office. In 1936, Brack became Bouhler's deputy and head of service at Hauptamt II of the KdF, and Michel von Tüßling became Bouhler's personal adjutant. This relatively small office was directly subordinate to Hitler, handled his private affairs, processed petitions sent to him and issued pardons. From around April 1939 the law firm headed by Bouhler played a central role in the planning and organization of the so-called child euthanasia and the T4 campaign , and from 1941 on in the 14f13 campaign and the Reinhardt campaign initiated by Bouhler and Reichsführer SS Himmler . Bouhler largely transferred the management of Aktion T4 and Aktion 14f13 to Viktor Brack.

Michel von Tüßling belonged to the leadership corps of the Reich Leadership SS in Berlin. From 1935 on he served as SS leader in Himmler's staff ( RFSS ) and from 1937 to 1945 also in the staff of the SS main office and was regularly promoted. He was an early member of the Lebensborn organization founded by Himmler . In May 1945 Bouhler was arrested near Zell am See and committed suicide . Brack and other members of the KdF managed to flee to Bavaria by plane. There he was arrested on May 20, 1946, was imprisoned in Traunstein and then interned in the Moosburg camp.

In 1947 Michel von Tüßling wrote an affidavit in the Regensburg internment camp to defend Viktor Brack , who was accused of war crimes and crimes against humanity , among other things , found guilty in the Nuremberg medical trials , and was executed in 1948 . In this he also described, among other things, their (Bracks, Bouhlers, Michel von Tüßlings) relationships with Hitler's private secretary Martin Bormann :

“Brack was an outspoken opponent of Bormann's policy, especially the demands of the NSDAP totality represented by Bormann. I know that very well, because Brack has repeatedly asked me to use my personal influence to induce Reichsleiter Bouhler to take a more active stance against Bormann's efforts. Bouhler undoubtedly shared Bracks and my opinion about Bormann, but, despite his protests, did nothing to change his passive attitude towards Bormann. ... I am convinced that he [Brack] did not see the SS as an organization for the perpetration of crimes. His attitude towards the Jewish question did not correspond to the usual SS conception. He was on good terms with several mixed Jews and in his capacity acted repeatedly on behalf of Jews who applied for help. "

- Karl Freiherr Michel von Tüßling, Regensburg, March 31, 1947

Michel von Tüßling managed to hide his KdF and SS activity, which continued until 1945, from the American prosecutors, and thus evade Allied justice. In the Nuremberg medical trials, he affirmed that he had been drafted into the Air Force in September 1939 and served there at the front until the end of the war. After his release from the internment camp in 1948, he returned to Tüßling and worked as a farmer and forester. In addition to Brack and Bouhler, Albert Speer , who visited him regularly on his property after his release from the Spandau war crimes prison in 1966 , belonged to his circle of friends from the Reich leadership . Karl Michel von Tüßling died in 1991 at Schloss Tüßling.

family

Tomb of Karl Freiherr Michel von Tüßling and his wife Ulrike, at the pilgrimage church of innocent children , Heiligenstatt (Tüßling)

Michel von Tüßling was married twice. On May 16, 1938, he married Elisabeth (1918–1996), the daughter of the diplomat Wilhelm von Stumm , in Berlin. This marriage was divorced on December 22, 1948 in Traunstein . On November 14, 1960, he married Ulrike (1925–1999), the daughter of the hop trader Heinrich T. Barth , in Munich. He had three children. His daughter Stephanie (* 1961), who inherited Gut and Schloss Tüßling as well as the forest estate Mamhofen near Starnberg from her father in 1991 , was Mayor of Tüßling from May 1, 2014 to April 30, 2020. Her first marriage was to Count Benedikt Batthyány (* 1960), whose aunt Margit von Batthyány maintained a recreation area for the Waffen SS in her castle during the Second World War (the Rechnitz massacre ). In her third marriage she was married to Christian Graf Bruges-von Pfuel (* 1942), grandson of the general of the armored troop Leo Geyr von Schweppenburg . His daughter Ulrike (* 1962) married Eckbert von Bohlen und Halbach (* 1956), son of Berthold and nephew of the last sole owner of Friedrich Krupp AG , Alfried Krupp von Bohlen and Halbach ( Krupp trial ). This marriage ended in divorce in 1995. His cousin Lilly (1892–1973) married Willy Messerschmitt (1898–1978) for the second time . The second husband of his cousin Marie (1893-1978), Karl Freiherr von Thüngen (1893-1944) was a resistance fighter of 20 July 1944 . He was executed by the Nazi regime on October 24, 1944.

Officer ranks

SS

• 1935: SS-Untersturmführer
• 1936: SS-Obersturmführer
• 1938: SS-Hauptsturmführer
• 1941: SS-Sturmbannführer

Wehrmacht

• until 1942: Lieutenant in the reserve
• 1943: First lieutenant in the reserve

Awards

• Honorary sword Reichsführer SS
• Iron Cross
  • II class
  • I. class
• SA sports badge in bronze
• SS civil badge No. 106.983.

literature

• Angelika Ebbinghaus , The Nuremberg Medical Trial 1946/47 , Walter de Gruyter , ISBN 978-31-109-5007-6 .
• Genealogical handbook of the nobility , Freiherrliche Häuser, Volume XV, Limburg ad Lahn 1989
• Dr. Robert Ley, (Ed.), National Socialist Yearbook 1942 , Franz Eher Nachsteiger , Munich , 1941
• Michael D. Miller, Leaders of the SS and German Police, Vol. 1 , R. James Bender Publishing, 2006, ISBN 978-93-297-0037-2 .
• Reichsleitung of the NSDAP, Main Organization Office Munich, (Ed.), Reichsband. Address book of the NSDAP and the affiliated associations, the state, the Reich government and authorities and professional organizations in culture, Reich nutritional status, commercial economy, ed. under the supervision of the Reichsleitung of the NSDAP, main organization office Munich with cooperation of the Gauorganisationsämter with Lexikon-Wegweiser from AZ , Berlin, 1939
• SS-Personalhauptamt , (Ed.), Lists of seniority of the NSDAP Schutzstaffel, SS-Obersturmbannführer to SS-Sturmbannführer, as of October 1, 1942 , Berlin, 1942
• SS-Personalhauptamt (publisher), seniority lists of the NSDAP Schutzstaffel, SS-Obersturmbannführer to SS-Sturmbannführer, status from October 1, 1943 , Berlin, 1943
• Stephanie von Pfuel , if so, then already. Autobiography. Editor: Cornelia von Schelling. LangenMüller, Munich, 2007, ISBN 978-3-7844-3115-4 .

Web links

• Institute for Nobility Research - Noble functionaries in the NSDAP in 1939
• United States Holocaust Memorial Museum - The numbers of members of the SS: "SS membership number 56074 - Karl Michel Frhr. Von Tuessling"
• Harvard Law School Library - Nuremberg Trials Project
• Tüßling (story)

Individual evidence

1. ^ Genealogical handbook of the nobility, Freiherrliche Häuser, Volume XV, Limburg ad Lahn 1989, p. 359 ff.
2. ↑ Rich Germans: Michel, barons . Retrieved April 26, 2018.
3. ^ University of Munich: Directory of people and lectures, 1928.
4. ↑ Jürgen Gottschlich: Aiding and abetting genocide: Germany's role in the annihilation of the Armenians . Ch. Links Verlag, 2015, ISBN 978-3-86153-817-2 , p. 17 ff.
5. ^ Bamberger Tagblatt (1834-1945) - Historical Lexicon of Bavaria . April 29, 2018. Retrieved April 29, 2018.
6. ^ SS-Personalhauptamt (ed.), Lists of seniority of the NSDAP Schutzstaffel, status from October 1, 1934 , Munich, 1934, p. 8.
7. ↑ Numery członków SS od 56 000 do 56 999. ( pl ) Accessed August 19, 2016.
8. ^ National Socialist Yearbook 1942 . July 28, 2016. Retrieved August 19, 2016.
9. ^ Noble functionaries in the NSDAP in 1939 . Retrieved August 21, 2016.
10. ↑ SS-Personalhauptamt (Ed.), Lists of seniority of the NSDAP's Schutzstaffel, as of July 1, 1935 , Berlin, 1935, p. 103.
11. ↑ SS-Personalhauptamt (Ed.), Seniority lists of the NSDAP Schutzstaffel, SS-Obersturmbannführer to SS-Sturmbannführer, as of October 1, 1942 , Berlin, 1942, p. 66.
12. ↑ SS-Personalhauptamt (Ed.), Lists of seniority of the NSDAP Schutzstaffel, SS-Obersturmbannführer and SS-Sturmbannführer, as of October 1, 1944 , Berlin, 1944, p. 51.
13. ↑ SS-Personalhauptamt (Ed.), Lists of seniority of the NSDAP Schutzstaffel, as of December 1, 1937 , Berlin, 1937, p. 166.
14. ↑ Ernst Klee: What they did , p. 67.
15. ^ Affidavit: Karl Freiherr Michel von Tuessling, page 3-4 . Retrieved November 3, 2016.
16. ↑ Stephanie von Pfuel, If already, because already , autobiography, LangenMüller, Munich, 2007, p. 116.
17. ↑ Ronald Elward: BOHLEN AND HALBACH . February 24, 2004. Retrieved September 15, 2016.
18. ↑ Mayor of Marktgemeinde Tüßling ( de ) April 4, 2019. Accessed on May 16, 2019.
19. ↑ STEPHANIE V. PFUEL . Retrieved April 7, 2018.
20. ^ Rp Online: Kamp-Lintfort: Made money instead of coal . December 27, 2006. Retrieved April 7, 2018.
21. ↑ Batthyány 3 ( hu ) May 30, 2008. Accessed May 1, 2018.
22. ↑ BOHLEN UND HALBACH ( br ) February 24, 2004. Accessed April 8, 2018.
23. ↑ Numery członków SS . October 7, 2016. Retrieved April 10, 2018.
24. ↑ SS-Personalhauptamt (Ed.), Lists of seniority of the NSDAP Schutzstaffel, SS-Obersturmbannführer to SS-Sturmbannführer, status from October 1, 1943 , Berlin, 1943, p. 50.
25. ↑ by Michel-Tüßling Karl . Retrieved April 10, 2018.