Richard Baltzer (Police Commander)

Richard Robert Karl Baltzer (born June 1, 1886 in Danzig ; † May 10, 1945 in Prague ) was a German officer , most recently lieutenant general of the Wehrmacht in World War II and major general of the state police.

Life

In his childhood, Baltzer attended pre-school in Danzig from October 1, 1892 to April 1, 1893 and then the Schwetz grammar school (April 1, 1893 to December 25, 1897) and the Marienwerder grammar school (January 1, 1898 to April 1 1904), where he obtained his secondary school leaving certificate. On April 6, 1904, Baltzer was a sea ​​cadet in the Imperial Navy , before he joined the field artillery regiment "Prince August of Prussia" (1st Lithuanian) No. 1 on April 1, 1905 . On June 18, 1906, he was promoted to lieutenant with a patent dated February 15, 1905 . From June 1, 1913 to June 30, 1914, Baltzer was assigned to the war academy to deepen his training . During this time he was promoted to lieutenant on February 17, 1914 . He was then commanded from July 1 to August 1, 1914 for the Fusilier Regiment "Queen" (Schleswig-Holstein) No. 86 .

During the First World War , Baltzer was initially deployed from August 2, 1914 to July 4, 1915 as a regimental adjutant in the Reserve Field Artillery Regiment No. 1. On June 18, 1915, he was promoted to captain to take over from July 5, 1915 to November 23, 1916 as a leader of the 6th battery of his regiment. He then worked from November 24, 1916 to March 4, 1917 at the General Staff of the Namur Governorate. From March 5, 1917 to June 1, 1917, he worked at the second general staff position in the staff of the 45th Reserve Division . From June 2 to 10, 1917, he then acted as deputy Ia in the division staff. Most recently he was used from June 14, 1917 to March 15, 1919 in a general staff position at the field railway chief in the main headquarters , with the focus of his activity since 1918 being in the Eastern Railway Transport Department.

In the post-war period, Baltzer initially remained loyal to his field of activity: From March 16 to November 30, 1919, he worked as a consultant for the railway department of the Great General Staff. On March 31, 1920, Baltzer officially resigned from the army with the character of a major .

Police career (1919 to 1936)

Simultaneously with his resignation from the army, Baltzer was taken over as an officer in the security police, in which he received the rank of police major on December 1, 1919 (to be distinguished from his major rank in the army, which was awarded a little later). In the security police, from December 1, 1919 to November 30, 1920, he headed Central Department 2 at the Police Group South (Berlin).

In the period from December 1, 1920 to March 4, 1922, Baltzer headed the Hallisches Tor police department in Berlin, and since July 25, 1921 with the rank of commander. From February 15 to March 28, 1922 he was assigned to the higher police school Potsdam-Eiche for advanced training for higher management tasks. After that, from March 5, 1922 to March 20, 1933, Baltzer served for more than eleven years as the commander of the Linden police station in the government district in Berlin. In this capacity he was promoted to police lieutenant colonel on April 1, 1930 and to police colonel on March 21, 1933.

A few weeks after the National Socialists came to power in the spring of 1933, on March 21, 1933, the newly appointed Prussian Minister of the Interior, Hermann Göring, appointed him commander of the Berlin police force (or responsible for running the business). In addition to the police chief Magnus von Levetzow , the chief of the secret state police Rudolf Diels and the head of the state police group z. b. V. Walther Wake was he making it one of the four main police commander in the capital in the phase of the DC circuit of the German state apparatus and the entire public - particularly the political - life by the Nazis in Berlin in the spring and summer of 1933. The commanded by Baltzer police was responsible thereby safeguarding and, if necessary, enforcing the harmonization process by force, in the course of which he was responsible, among other things, for the mass arrests of actual and potential or suspected opposition and unpopular people carried out in Berlin at the time.

After his resignation as commander of the Berlin Police Department on August 14, 1933, Baltzer concentrated on managing the Brandenburg State Police Inspectorate (LPI), which he has also been under the title of commander since April 1, 1933, in accordance with a Göring decree of March 26, 1933 held by LPI Brandenburg. As the commander of the LPI Brandenburg, Baltzer was one of five police commanders who had been entrusted by Göring with the supervision of large areas of the state of Prussia, and to whom the entire state police in these areas was subordinate. Similar to the four other police inspections, the main function of his inspection after the completion of the synchronization was officially the "preparation and implementation of the defense against internal unrest", i.e. the protection and, if necessary, the defense of the existing state against uprisings, coup attempts and the like. like in the case of a communist uprising. On August 15, 1933, he was promoted to police general in this position.

On June 21, 1934, Baltzer resigned as head of LPI Brandenburg to take over the management of LPI West in Düsseldorf on June 22, 1934 as the successor to Hans Stieler von Heydekampf . He was to hold this post until March 15, 1936. During this time he was promoted to major general of the police on June 22, 1934.

Wehrmacht and World War II (1936 to 1945)

After leaving the state police, Baltzer returned to the army . In this he was initially active from March 6 to May 31, 1936 with the staff of the 26th Infantry Division in Cologne. On the occasion of his conversion, he was promoted to the RDA from June 1, 1934 to March 16, 1936 as a colonel .

In the period from June 1, 1936 to February 28, 1938, Baltzer acted as commander of the 25th Infantry Regiment and then from March 1, 1938 to August 25, 1939 as Landwehr commander in Allenstein. On September 30, 1937 he was promoted to major general according to the RDA of October 19, 1937 retrospectively to March 16, 1936 .

In the initial phase of the Second World War , Baltzer was from August 26, 1939 to April 14, 1942 commander of the 217th Infantry Division , since October 1, 1939 with the rank of Lieutenant General. On January 31, 1942, he was awarded the German Cross in Gold. He was then assigned to the Führerreserve from April 15 to August 14, 1942 , before taking over the leadership of the 156th Reserve Division from August 15, 1942 to November 30, 1943 . From December 1, 1943 to March 24, 1944, Balzer was again assigned to the Führerreserve, in order to command the 182nd Reserve Division from March 25, 1944 to May 10, 1945 (since March 1, 1945: 182nd Infantry Division). respectively. Baltzer died on May 10, 1945 - two days after his capture - under unexplained circumstances near Prague.

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 , p. 112f. ( Publications of the Historical Commission for Westphalia. 22, A, 16 = historical work on Westphalian regional research. Economic and social history group. 16).
• Dermot Bradley (ed.), Andreas Schulz , Günter Wegmann: The generals of the Waffen-SS and the police. The military careers of the generals, as well as the doctors, veterinarians, intendants, judges and ministerial officials with the rank of general. Volume 1: Abraham – Gutenberger. Biblio Publishing House. Bissendorf 2003. ISBN 3-7648-2373-9 . Pp. 49-51.

Imagery

• Photo in the Berliner Illustrierte night edition of June 16, 1934.

Individual evidence

1. ^ Hans Dühring : The Marienwerder high school. From cathedral school to high school . East German contributions from the Göttingen working group , Vol. XXX. Hölzner Verlag, Würzburg 1964, p. 166