Otto Schwarzenberger

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Otto Schwarzenberger in Allied internment
Otto Schwarzenberger (left) in the RuSHA trial (December 1947)

Otto Schwarzenberger (born January 22, 1900 in Landau in the Palatinate ; † unknown) was a German SS leader who headed Office V (financial administration) in Office Group B in the Staff Main Office of the Reich Commissioner for the Consolidation of German Ethnicity (RKFDV). In the process of the Race and Settlement Main Office of the SS (RuSHA process), Schwarzenberger was sentenced to two years and ten months in prison in 1948 and released after the verdict was pronounced.

Life

Schwarzenberger attended a humanistic grammar school in his hometown after primary school . From 1914 to 1918 he was in Munich with the Bavarian Cadet Corps. From May 1918 he took part in the First World War as a member of the 7th Bavarian Artillery Regiment and from 1920 to 1921 was part of the Freikorps Epp after the end of the war . He also attended the Wittelsbacher Gymnasium in Munich until 1920. He then completed an apprenticeship as a bank clerk at the Darmstädter und Nationalbank in Bamberg until 1923 . Afterwards he was a bank representative at the Munich bank Schwarzmann & Co. From 1924 to 1934 he was managing director and auditor at Singer Sewing Machines AG, first at the Munich headquarters and later in Nuremberg .

After the handover of power to the National Socialists , Schwarzenberger was a member of the NSDAP from May 1933 ( membership number 930.298) and shortly afterwards of the SS (SS number 156.808). He also belonged to the DAF and the NSV .

When Schwarzenberger became a full-time employee in the SS administration in May 1934, he ended his employment with Singer Sewing Machines AG. Schwarzenberger served as an auditor and administrative officer in the SS auxiliary troops. When the Second World War broke out , he was a Reserve Lieutenant of the Wehrmacht on the Western Front for a short time .

From October 1940 until the end of the war, Schwarzenberger was Head of Office V in the Staff Main Office of the Reich Commissioner for the Consolidation of German Ethnicity (RKFDV). In this position, Schwarzenberger was responsible for the entire financial management of the RKFDV. In addition, he was also responsible for the financial administration of subordinate SS offices such as the Deutsche Umsiedlungs-Treuhand GmbH (DUT), the German Settlement Society (DAG), the Immigrant Central Office (EWZ) and the Umwandererzentralstelle (UWZ). In this function, he submitted budgets and financial plans from RKFDV and subordinate organizations to the Reich Ministry of Finance , received the funds from there after approval and paid them out to the organization. In June 1941 he was promoted to SS-Oberführer , the highest officer rank in the SS below the general ranks. (Is in the military equivalent of Colonel and Major General .)

Schwarzenberger was arrested on May 2, 1945 by the advancing Allies . After the end of the war, Schwarzenberger became involved in the RuSHA trial in 1947 , one of the twelve Nuremberg follow-up trials in which Hans Gawlik defended him as main defender and Gerhard Klinnert as his assistant, for (1) war crimes, (2) crimes against humanity and (3) membership in charged with a criminal organization. He was acquitted on the first two counts on March 10, 1948 and found guilty only on the third count. His pre-trial detention, which he had been serving since his internment, was set as a sentence, so he was released after the sentence was announced.

literature

  • Trials of War Criminals before the Nuernberg Military Tribunals under Control Council Law No. 10 , Vol. IV (“The RuSHA Case”). United States Government Printing Office , District of Columbia 1950, pp. 597-1185. ( Volume 4 (PDF; 56.9 MB) of the "Green Series")
  • Trials of War Criminals before the Nuernberg Military Tribunals under Control Council Law No. 10 , Vol. V ("The RuSHA Case continued."). US Government Printing Office, District of Columbia 1950, pp. 1-192. ( Volume 5 (PDF; 31.0 MB) of the "Green Series")
  • Jan Erik Schulte : Forced Labor and Extermination: The Economic Empire of the SS. Oswald Pohl and the SS Economic Administration Main Office 1933-1945. Paderborn 2001, ISBN 3-506-78245-2 .

Web links

Commons : Otto Schwarzenberger  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b SS-Personalhauptamt (Ed.): List of seniority of the NSDAP Schutzstaffel (SS-Oberst-Gruppenführer - SS-Standartenführer) , as of November 9, 1944. Berlin 1944.
  2. ^ A b Jan Erik Schulte: Forced Labor and Destruction: The Economic Empire of the SS. Oswald Pohl and the SS Economic Administration Main Office 1933-1945. Paderborn 2001, p. 476.
  3. ↑ Till Kössler, Helke Stadtland (ed.): From the functioning of functionaries: political interest representation and social integration in Germany after 1933 . Klartext, Essen 2004, p. 107.
  4. ^ A b Trials of War Criminals before the Nuernberg Military Tribunals , Vol. V. District of Columbia 1950, pp. 157-158.
  5. ^ A b Trials of War Criminals before the Nuernberg Military Tribunals , Vol. V. District of Columbia 1950, p. 165.
personal data
SURNAME Schwarzenberger, Otto
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German SS leader in the RKFDV, accused in the Nuremberg follow-up trials
DATE OF BIRTH January 22, 1900
PLACE OF BIRTH Landau in the Palatinate
DATE OF DEATH after 1948