Reiner Liessem

Reiner Josef Eduard Liessem , also Ließem (born August 23, 1890 in Metz , † April 20, 1973 in Neustadt) was a German officer, most recently lieutenant general of the police and SS group leader in World War II .

Life

Reiner Liessem was the son of the senior customs inspector of the same name. After graduating from high school , he attended a one-year course at the war school in Danzig from 1909 to 1910 . In July 1910 he joined the 5th Lorraine Infantry Regiment No. 144 , where he was promoted to lieutenant in January 1912 . After the outbreak of the First World War , he was a member of Infantry Regiment No. 144, initially as an orderly officer , company commander and adjutant . He then worked at the Deputy General Command in Münster and as a transport officer in the Railway Department of the General Staff and, from 1918, at Army High Command VII.

With the rank of captain , he was in the Reichswehr adopted and was County Council in District to build the Einwohnerwehr in Zeitz .

In June 1920 he entered the service of the security police and was employed there as a Hundschaftsführer, as a teacher and headmaster at police schools. He was then employed by the Dortmund Police Administration and in April 1928 reached the rank of Major in the Police. After the " seizure of power " he joined the NSDAP in 1933 ( membership number 2.505.789). From April 1936 he was commander of the Police Officer School in Berlin-Koepenick for two years . At the beginning of May 1938 he became commander of the police in Cologne . After the beginning of the Second World War he was employed by the commander of the Ordnungspolizei (BdO) in the Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia . From August 1940 active as commander of the protection police in Hamburg and from April 21, 1942 to September 1, 1943 as successor to Herbert Becker as BdO in military district X in Hamburg . Afterwards he was BdO in military district VIII in Breslau and in the same position from mid-September 1944 to April 1945 in military district VI in Münster . Liessem was personally admitted to the SS by Reichsführer SS Heinrich Himmler at the same time as his promotion to Lieutenant General of the Police on August 14, 1944 with the rank of group leader (without SS number).

Awards

Liessems SS and police ranks
date	rank
April 1928	Major in the security police
June 1936	Lieutenant Colonel of the Security Police
April 1938	Colonel of the security police
February 1942	Major General of the Police
August 1944	SS group leader and lieutenant general of the police

• Iron Cross (1914) 2nd class and 1st class
• War Merit Cross 1st and 2nd class with swords
• Honorary sword of the Reichsführer SS
• SS ring of honor

literature

• Joachim Lilla : Senior administrative officials and functionaries in Westphalia and Lippe (1918–1945 / 46). Biographical manual. Aschendorff, Münster 2004, ISBN 3-402-06799-4 , pp. 207 f. ( Publications of the Historical Commission for Westphalia. 22, A, 16 = historical work on Westphalian regional research. Economic and social history group. 16).
• Andreas Schulz, Günter Wegmann, Dieter Zinke: The generals of the Waffen SS and the police: Lammerding-Plesch . Biblio-Verlag, 2003, ISBN 978-3-7648-2375-7 .