Karl Rühmer

Karl Rühmer as a witness at the Nuremberg trials.

Karl Eduard Stefan Rühmer (born December 18, 1883 in Bayreuth , † after 1954) was a German publisher, fish farmer and SS functionary.

Live and act

Youth and education

In his youth, Rühmer attended elementary school from 1889 to 1893 and then secondary schools in Weissenburg, Kulmbach and Nuremberg. He was then trained at the Royal Bavarian Industrial School, where he acquired the right to attend the Technical University.

From 1905 Rühmer studied cultural construction at the Technical University of Munich , where in 1911 he graduated as a qualified engineer by passing the main diploma examination. The studies were interrupted from 1907 to 1908 by one year of compulsory military service with the 11th Infantry Regiment in Nuremberg.

From 1914 to 1918 Rühmer took part in the First World War as platoon leader in the 14th Bavarian Infantry Regiment , in which he was promoted to lieutenant in the reserve.

Weimar Republic and the early Nazi era

After the end of the First World War, Rühmer belonged to a free corps . Professionally, he initially worked as a technical assistant at the Bavarian State Ministry for Demobilization, and then moved to the Bavarian State Ministry of the Interior as head of the leather department for the state clothing department for the less well-off.

In 1921 he received his doctorate in civil engineering (doctor of technical sciences) from the TH Munich . He then joined the Burg technical office in Munich as a partner and then founded the Munich Motor Vehicle Limited Company based on his motorcycle designs. He also founded Stockdorfer-Motoren-Werke AG in Stockdorf near Munich, where he became technical director. Finally he founded the machine works Dr. ing. Karl Boast and co . In 1925 Rühmer suffered a nervous breakdown due to overwork and possibly a skull injury during the war, which is why he retired until 1930.

In 1930 Rühmer was appointed public fishing expert for the Wolfratshausen district after he had successfully completed the fishing school in Starnberg. He later worked as an appraiser.

He had been active in the Stahlhelm since 1930, and advocated its integration into Nazi organizations in 1933. He became a member of the NSDAP in October 1934.

In 1930/1932 Rühmer founded the Germanenverlag to publish poetic combat works and fishing literature. In 1939 he acquired larger ponds for breeding fish.

Second World War

From August 1939 to October 1941, Rühmer headed a motor vehicle division of the Air Force . From this activity he was occasionally on leave to visit the ponds of the German Research Institute for Nutrition and Food.

In connection with this activity, Rühmer was appointed full-time and permanently to the research institute by the Wehrbezirkskommando IV in 1941. From there, at the suggestion of Heinrich Himmler - who had become aware of Rühmer through his writings - Oswald Pohl took him to the SS Main Office for Administration and Economics , which later became the SS Economic and Administrative Main Office (WVHA), as a fishery expert . On November 1, 1941, he was entrusted with the establishment and management of the main department “Fisheries” in Office W 5 of the Main Office for Administration and Economics of the SS. In this position he was responsible in particular for the fishing school near Unterfahlheim near Biberhaken. So that Rühmer could continue his own nutritionally important business - a fish farm with 60 ponds - in addition to his work for the WVHA, his WVHA office was moved to his place of residence in Ebenhausen near Munich.

On the occasion of his entry into the WVHA, Rühmer was accepted into the Waffen-SS, in which he received the rank of SS-Sturmbannführer of the reserve on February 2, 1942, based on his Luftwaffe rank as Major of the Reserve .

On April 20, 1944, on the occasion of the liquidation of the German Research Institute for Nutrition and Food, Rühmer was dismissed from the Waffen-SS due to lack of use and at the same time promoted to Obersturmbannführer of the Waffen-SS of the reserve.

At the end of the war, Rühmer was arrested by the Allies. As a result, he was heard as a witness at the Nuremberg Trials .

After the end of the war

Rühmer continued to farm fish in Unterfahlheim until the 1960s. The ponds are located in today's Biberhacken nature reserve and are called Rühmer ponds .

Fonts

• The economic importance of fishing in the watercourses of Bavaria . 1921 (Dissertation approved to obtain the title of Dr. of technical science (Dr. ing.)).
• We want to be free! , 1932.
• Inland water fishing , 1932.
• The freshwater fish of our German homeland, their occurrence, appearance, way of life, minimum catch, catch, meat value, closed season, table time and method of preparation , 1934.
• Fish and fishermen. Stories from the Fish Kingdom , 1944.
• Wonders of the fish world. Tales from nature , 1949.
• The freshwater fish and crabs , 1952.
• The freshwater fish and crabs, their natural-colored and lifelike depiction, occurrence, locations, way of life , 1952.
• Fish and farm animals of the sea. Their catch and recovery , 1954.

literature

• Hermann Kaienburg : The SS economy , 2003.

Web links

• Minutes of an interrogation of Rühmer from 1947 at the IFZ (PDF; 2.9 MB)
• Unterfahlheim: an SS fish farm as a Dachau satellite camp during World War II