Richard Herrmann (sports official)

Richard Herrmann (born December 20, 1895 in Grünberg ; † December 27, 1941 in Liwny ) was a German National Socialist sports functionary as well as SA and SS leader, most recently with the rank of SS brigade leader and major general of the Waffen SS .

Life

Childhood and youth

Richard Herrmann was born in the district of Gießen as the sixth child of the Hessian district court clerk Richard Herrmann and his wife Luise Herrmann (née Pauli). After attending primary school for two years , Herrmann entered the high school in Langen (Hesse) , where he remained until the end of the Obersekunda .

First World War and career in police service

Immediately after the beginning of the First World War , Herrmann volunteered for military service and in September 1914 he moved to the 4th Lower Alsatian Infantry Regiment No. 143 on the Western Front , where he was wounded in the back by a shrapnel in October. Despite the injury, Herrmann fought at the front until June 1916. After the wound had recovered, he was entrusted with the MG inspection in Dallgow-Döberitz near Berlin as a training officer for a few months . At the beginning of 1917 he was transferred back to the Western Front, where he stayed in his regiment until December 1918. Awarded the Iron Cross 2nd and 1st class, Herrmann returned home in 1918 and was unemployed for a short time because the Versailles Peace Treaty limited the German army to 100,000 men. After being employed as leader of a mixed division at IR 61 in the Eastern Border Guard of the active 35th Division and as regimental adjutant, Herrmann left the Reichswehr in May 1920 .

On October 1, 1920, Herrmann joined the Hessian State Police School in Darmstadt as a teaching officer, where he was responsible as a course director for the next generation of police officers. He held this position for almost eight and a half years until he left the state police service on February 1, 1929. During his work at the state police school, Herrmann played handball. He also took part in the founding of the Hessian Police Sports Association, as its director until 1929. The background to Herrmann's departure from the police were political disputes with the Social Democrats . The sources available to date do not provide any more precise reasons. His subsequent entry into the NSDAP ( membership number 292.788) soon afterwards, however, suggests that Herrmann was dismissed for undemocratic and subversive activities.

Career in the Nazi movement and the Nazi state

In 1930 Herrmann moved to Bavaria, where he settled in the Upper Bavarian community of Gröbenzell . After joining the NSDAP, he worked for them as a speaker and local group leader . Also in 1930 he became a member of the SA. In this he was promoted directly to SA-Sturmführer and entrusted with the management of SA-Sturm 80 in Fürstenfeldbruck .

After the SA ban was lifted in July 1932, Herrmann became staff leader of the SA Group Hochland, whose leader was initially the later SS Obergruppenführer Friedrich Karl von Eberstein (then still SA leader) and later Wilhelm Schmid . Herrmann held this position until October 1934, after which he became head of the SA Brigade 86 in Augsburg .

Shortly after the National Socialists came to power , Herrmann was promoted to police captain by the Hessian government because of his “commitment to the national uprising” .

On January 27, 1937, Herrmann changed from the SA to the SS (SS-No. 278.321), was promoted to SS-Brigadführer on the same day and subsequently assumed the function of an inspector for physical exercises for the Reichsführer-SS. At the same time he was head of the German handball and basketball association. In personal union, Herrmann was also the leader of handball in the handball department of the Reichsbund for physical exercises (see below).

In the Reichstag election of April 1938 , Herrmann ran unsuccessfully for the National Socialist Reichstag . In 1939 he became the commander of the 7th SS skull and crossbones standard .

When the Second World War broke out , Herrmann took over the command of a regiment of the Waffen SS. From June 12, 1940 to May 25, 1941 he then acted as commander of the Waffen SS Nord and commander of the combat group of the same name .

In May 1941 Herrmann took over command of the 1st SS Infantry Brigade, which was stationed in the Generalgouvernement at the same time, while being promoted to Major General of the Waffen SS . His successor as the commander of the 6th SS Mountain Division North was, however, Karl-Maria Demelhuber . As leader of the 1st SS Infantry Brigade, Herrmann took part in the German attack on the Soviet Union from June 1941 . In the first weeks after the German invasion of the Soviet Union, the Herrmann's subordinate SS brigade killed at least 7,000 Jews in the Ukraine .

Herrmann died in December 1941 after contracting shrapnel in his head during fighting in Liwny .

Athletic career

Richard Herrmann's life has always been closely related to sport. So he was mainly active in the field of football and athletics , here with a special focus on short distance distances , until he was drafted in 1914. Herrmann also took part in championships of the Frankfurt Gymnastics and Sports Association.

In 1924 Richard Herrmann came into contact with handball for the first time , which at that time was a very young sport, at least in Germany , and was considered a typical police sport. Until 1930 Herrmann played for the police sports club Darmstadt 1911 eV At the same time, Herrmann acted as referee and began his career as a "club leader". In 1930 he moved to Munich , where he tried his hand at the commercial sector. There he was deputy head of the German Sports Authority for Athletics, the DSB. With the aim of bringing German sport into line after 1933, Herrmann was, from a party point of view, the ideal occupation for the field of activity of the head of the department for handball / basketball, which was established in 1934. Richard Herrmann managed to eliminate the ideological conflicts between the athletes and gymnasts who fought over the area of ​​responsibility of handball before and during the Weimar period . He even managed, which many of his fellow sports leaders were unable to do at the time of National Socialism , that he brought the international association IAHF under his control by aligning the top of the association during the field handball world championship in Germany in 1938 and being elected president. At the same time, Herrmann pushed his party career forward, as Heinrich Himmler appointed him inspector for physical exercises in the personal staff of the Reichsführer SS and head of the office for physical exercises in the SS main office in April 1937 . From that moment Herrmann held the rank of SS Brigade Leader , which led to an enormous political and social rise. He was also the inspector for German police sports and, as the latter, was responsible for sports matters for the security police and the SD . Richard Herrmann was therefore one of the most influential sports officials in the Reich and often represented the Reich Sports Leader Hans von Tschammer und Osten at public events .

This fact led to a far-reaching withdrawal of Herrmann from the day-to-day business of the handball / basketball department. Only occasionally did handball sports propagandists write perseverance articles in his name.

After Herrmann's death, Karl Otto Herrmann succeeded him as head of the handball / basketball department.

family

Herrmann's marriage, which entered into 1922, remained childless as a result of an accident involving his wife in 1923.

Promotions

Promotions in the military:

• 191 ?: Lieutenant
• 191? First lieutenant
• October 1, 1920: Police lieutenant
• ? Police lieutenant
• March 24, 1933: Police captain
• 1939: Captain of the Reserve

Promotions in SA and SS:

• July 1, 1931: SA Sturmführer
• July 1, 1932: SA-Sturmbannführer
• November 29, 1932: SA Standartenführer (effective July 1, 1932)
• March 1, 1933: SA Oberführer
• January 15, 1934: SA Brigade Leader
• January 27, 1937: SS-Brigadführer (with patent from January 15, 1934)
• June 21, 1940: Major General of the Waffen SS

Awards

Herrmann received the Iron Cross of both classes in the First World War and in 1939 the clasps for the Iron Crosses. He was also the holder of the Wound Badge in Silver, the War Merit Cross II. Class in Swords and the Cross of Honor for Frontline Fighters and the Julle candlestick and the skull ring.

literature

• Erik Eggers (Ed.): Handball. A German domain. Göttingen 2007, ISBN 978-3-89533-558-7 .
• Waldemar Küther : Grünberg. History and face of a city in 8 centuries. 1972, p. 568.

Individual evidence

1. ↑ ^{a b c} Erik Eggers (Ed.): Handball. A German domain . Verlag Die Werkstatt, Göttingen 2007, pp. 70–71.