Karl Saur

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Karl-Otto Saur (born February 16, 1902 in Düsseldorf , † July 28, 1966 in Pullach ) was State Secretary in the Reich Ministry for Armaments and War Production at the time of National Socialism and as Minister of Armaments in Hitler's political testament .

Life

Saur was a graduate engineer . After completing his studies, he joined Thyssen and, after his father's death, took over his parents' mechanical engineering company, which went bankrupt during the Great Depression in 1928. Saur went back to Thyssen and in 1929 became director of the business administration department of the August-Thyssen-Hütte in Duisburg. Since 1931 he was a member of the NSDAP . He joined the Todt organization and rose to become Fritz Todt's deputy . When Todt was killed in a plane crash in 1942, Saur became the head of the new armaments minister Albert Speer . Saur was considered to be particularly ruthless in asserting armaments targets, which was rewarded on April 20, 1945 with the highest level of the War Merit Cross, the golden knight's cross - an award that was only awarded twice. From March 1944 Saur was chief of staff in the Jägerstab , organized the underground relocation of armaments factories and coordinated the production of fighter aircraft . In 1943 and 1944 he was a board member of the Association of German Engineers (VDI).

At the end of April 1945, Adolf Hitler named Karl-Otto Saur as the new armaments minister and successor to Albert Speer in his political will. Karl Dönitz , however, disregarded this personnel and left Speer in office.

On May 15, 1945 he was taken prisoner by the United States . In 1948, Saur appeared as a witness for the prosecution at the Nuremberg Krupp Trial , which isolated him socially. In the denazification process , he was classified as a fellow traveler and released shortly afterwards.

In 1949, Saur founded an engineering office that also published reference works. The resulting Saur-Verlag was not economically successful until the early 1960s under his son Klaus G. Saur .

literature

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ A b c Peter Müller: Heinkel He 162 "Volksjäger - Last-Ditch Effort by the Luftwaffe" , Muller History Facts, ISBN 978-3952296813 , p. 422.
  2. ↑ Peter Müller: Heinkel He 162 “Volksjäger - Last-Ditch Effort by the Luftwaffe” , Muller History Facts, ISBN 978-3952296813 , p. 423.
  3. ^ Hitler's political will
  4. ↑ a b Süddeutsche Zeitung, District of Munich, page R2, from Sep. 15. 2007.
  5. ^ Ernst Klee : The dictionary of persons on the Third Reich . Who was what before and after 1945. Fischer, Frankfurt 2007, ISBN 3-596-16048-0 , p. 521.
  6. ^ Marie-Luise Heuser , Wolfgang König : Tabular compilations on the history of the VDI . In: Karl-Heinz Ludwig (Ed.): Technology, Engineers and Society - History of the Association of German Engineers 1856–1981 . VDI-Verlag, Düsseldorf 1981, ISBN 3-18-400510-0 , p. 590 .
personal data
SURNAME Saur, Karl
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Saur, Karl-Otto
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German State Secretary in the Nazi Armaments Ministry
DATE OF BIRTH February 16, 1902
PLACE OF BIRTH Dusseldorf
DATE OF DEATH July 28, 1966
Place of death Pullach