Michael Lippert

The title of this article is ambiguous. For the German lawyer, see Michael Lippert (lawyer) .

Michael Hans Lippert , also Michel Hans Lippert , (born April 24, 1897 in Schönwald , Upper Franconia ; † September 1, 1969 in Wuppertal ) was a German SS member who most recently held the rank of SS standard leader . He became known through the murder of Ernst Röhm, committed jointly with Theodor Eicke .

Lippert's first name varies both in the standard literature on the SS and in the seniority lists it publishes . For example, the 1935 edition lists Lippert as “Michael” (serial no. 352) and the seniority list of the Waffen-SS for 1944 as “Michel” (serial no. 108). When comparing, one can see that the pre-war editions of the seniority lists list him as "Michael" and the war editions as "Michel". However, the leading standard work on the Schutzstaffel, Heinz Höhne's The Order under the Skull , leads him as Michael Lippert. This spelling also corresponds to the regular role of his Bavarian regiment.

Life

Lippert, a porcelain turner by trade, was born the fifth son of Johann and Margarethe Lippert, was married and had two sons. In 1914 he joined the Bavarian army as a war volunteer , took part in the First World War until 1918 and received EK II .

From 1921 to 1929 he was a member of the Bavarian police and joined the NSDAP on June 1, 1930 (membership number 246,989). On March 10, 1931, Lippert switched to the SS (SS No. 2968) and was appointed SS-Sturmführer on November 15 of the same year.

After the " seizure of power " by the National Socialists on January 30, 1933, Lippert was appointed SS-Hauptsturmführer on August 3, and received an extraordinary direct promotion to SS-Sturmbannführer on November 9 of the same year.

When the SS leadership under Heinrich Himmler began to set up armed SS units in 1933 , Michael Lippert reported to the "Special Command of the SS Brigade South" under their commandant Eicke. Eicke recognized Lippert's organizational talent and promoted it further. When the Dachau concentration camp was taken over by Eicke in June 1933 (the previous camp commandant Hilmar Wäckerle had been deposed) Lippert was promoted to deputy camp commandant. The guard team of the Dachau camp consisted of the "SS-Sturmbann D" ("D" = Dachau), over whom Lippert was in command as Sturmbannführer. Lippert's deputy in the Dachau storm was Max Koegel . As Eicke's deputy, Lippert signed a document on July 12, 1934 with the words "on behalf of the camp commandant".

Michael Lippert played an important role in the so-called Röhm Putsch of 1934: he and Eicke shot Ernst Röhm, the SA Chief of Staff at the time, on Hitler's orders . After this event, the Eicke concentration camp guards were directly subordinated as their inspectors and they were gradually converted to the SS death's head associations . Lippert also belonged to the SS inspection "KL" . Michael Lippert was appointed SS-Obersturmbannführer on September 13, 1934, and in 1937 he set up the 2nd SS death-head standard "Brandenburg" in the Sachsenhausen concentration camp . In addition to the authority over this standard, he was also in charge of the first storm of this standard.

In 1938 Michael Lippert was withdrawn from the concentration camp inspection in Oranienburg and he took over the (provisional) leadership of the I. Sturmbannes of the 49th SS Standard stationed in Braunschweig and in June 1939 he took over the provisional leadership of those stationed in Hagen ( Sauerland ) 69th SS standard commissioned, which Lippert directed until August 1st.

In May 1939 Michael Lippert was given the permanent leadership of I. Sturmbannes of the 49th SS Standard. He was also assigned to the SS Totenkopf Division in October 1939 as a "reserve officer" . At the same time he was considered a member of the Waffen SS . From August 1, 1939 to July 1, 1943 he was also in command of the 105th SS Standard stationed in Memel. But with the outbreak of war, the commands on the standards of the General SS only existed on paper, since the members of these standards were deployed as soldiers in the various theaters of war. Lippert himself took part in various war missions as a member of Himmler's command staff .

As of May 1940, Lippert also took command of the II. Sturmbann of the 16th skull standard. At the same time he was in command of the " SS-Unterführererschule Arnheim " from May 1940 to 1941 before he was briefly appointed to the SS leadership main office. In September 1941 Lippert took over command of the “6. SS Volunteer Grenadier Regiment Langemarck ”. On April 2, 1942, the "Langemark" was absorbed into the SS Volunteer Legion "Flanders" and there Lippert was seriously wounded in July 1942 as the commander of this legion on the Eastern Front .

From January 1, 1943, Michael Lippert took over command of the 69th SS Standard, which he relinquished on October 1, 1943. From January 8 to February 15, 1943, Lippert took over the provisional command of the 10th SS Panzer Division "Frundsberg" on behalf of the SS Leadership Main Office and became SS Standartenführer (active) on April 20 of the same year Waffen-SS appointed. On that day Michael Lippert also took over command of the 83rd regiment of the SS Volunteer Grenadier Brigade "Landstorm Nederland", which he was to lead until the end of the war in 1945.

After the end of the war, Lippert was sentenced in the Netherlands on May 12, 1950 by the Special Higher Regional Court of Arnhem to ten years imprisonment for war crimes . The subject of the proceedings was the shooting of 19 Dutch civilians in 1945; two of those killed were shot on Lippert's immediate orders. The civilians were found in a restricted area in the Rhenen area without identification papers. Initially imprisoned in Breda , Lippert was deported prematurely to the Federal Republic of Germany on April 17, 1953 . There he ran a laundry.

On July 4, 1956, the public prosecutor's office at Munich I Regional Court brought charges against Lippert and Sepp Dietrich for the murder of Ernst Röhm and other SA leaders during the "Röhm Putsch". In the main proceedings from May 6, 1957, Lippert and Dietrich were defended by Alfred Seidl . After seven days of trial, both defendants were sentenced to 18 months in prison for a "joint crime of aiding and abetting manslaughter". The Federal Court of Justice upheld the Munich judgment on May 20, 1958. Lippert had to begin his sentence on August 27, 1958 in Siegburg prison and was released on probation a year later after two thirds of the sentence.

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Otto Gritscheder: "The Führer has sentenced you to death ..." Hitler's "Röhm Putsch" murders in court. Verlag CH Beck, Munich 1993, ISBN 3-406-37651-7 , p. 139.
2. ↑ Bayerisches Hauptstaatsarchiv IV , war log roll No. 12.630. In April 1919 by the Ers. Esk./1. bayer. Chevauleger Regts. Dismissed non-commissioned officer with the last rank.
3. ↑ ^{a b c} SS Leadership Main Office: List of seniority of the NSDAP Schutzstaffel, status December 1, 1938 with amendment booklet of June 15, 1939 , serial number 702.
4. ↑ IMT Volume XX, p. 500 .
5. ↑ ^{a b} Mark C. Yerger: Allgemeine SS. The Commands, Units and Leaders of the General SS , p. 203.
6. ↑ Mark C. Yerger: Allgemeine SS. The Commands, Units and Leaders of the General SS , p. 211.
7. ↑ Ed. Brün Meyer: Seniority list of the Waffen SS. SS-Obergruppenführer to SS-Hauptsturmführer - Status July 1, 1944 , Appendix 2: Compilation of the losses of the SS divisions up to July 1, 1942 , p. 220, Biblio-Verlag 1987, ISBN 3-7648-1469-1 .
8. ↑ Ed. Brün Meyer: Seniority list of the Waffen SS. SS-Obergruppenführer to SS-Hauptsturmführer - as of July 1, 1944 , serial number 108, p. 23, Biblio-Verlag 1987, ISBN 3-7648-1469-1 .
9. ↑ Summary of the judgments in justice and Nazi crimes ( Memento of the original dated February 6, 2007 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. (No. NL222). In Gritschneder, Führer , p. 139, the statement of 20 years imprisonment differs. 
10. ^ Stanislav Zámečník: (Ed. Comité International de Dachau): That was Dachau. Luxembourg, 2002. p. 50, p. 68.
11. ↑ Gritschneder, Führer , pp. 32–36, 83–85.