Richard Pruchtnow

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Richard Reinhard Ferdinand Pruchtnow (born April 8, 1892 in Berlin , † June 22, 1943, probably in Bad Salzbrunn in Silesia) was a German SS leader.

Live and act

Pruchtnow's wedding celebration on January 29, 1937. In the picture (right to left): Lina Heydrich , Karl Wolf, Heinrich Himmler, Fräulein Henrichsen, Pruchtnow and his bride and Reinhard Heydrich

Youth and First World War

Richard Pruchtnow was born as the son of the Berlin master butcher Friedrich Wilhelm Louis Pruchtnow (1853-1901) and his wife Martha Anna Maria Platzke (1858-1928). From 1898 to 1910 he attended the Königstädtische Realgymnasium . He then completed a commercial apprenticeship and worked as an accountant . At the First World War , was awarded in which, inter alia with the Iron Cross II. Class, he took from August 1914 to November 1918 as a sergeant in part.

Weimar Republic

From 1919 to 1923 Pruchtnow was an accountant and cashier, then from 1923 to 1930 an authorized signatory at the Salomon Oppenheim banking business . He then hired himself from April 1930 to March 1931 as an insurance agent . After he had been unemployed from April to August 1931, he worked from August 1931 to September 1933 in the service of the foreign exchange management office of the Berlin tax office . Afterwards he was for a short time, until October 1933, district treasurer at the German Labor Front in Berlin.

Pruchtnow joined the NSDAP on May 1, 1931 ( membership number 531.273). He joined the SS in November 1931 (membership number 27,487).

time of the nationalsocialism

At the end of 1933 Pruchtnow was assigned to the SD , the secret service of the SS. On November 1, 1933, he was made available to Hermann Behrends , head of the SD Upper Section East, as a personal adjutant . In this capacity, Pruchtnow was significantly involved in the intrigue game against the Gestapo boss Rudolf Diels , organized by Behrends on behalf of Heinrich Himmler and Reinhard Heydrich , which - ultimately successfully - aimed to secure Diel's position in the power struggle within the Nazi leadership groups weaken and force his replacement in order to enable the SS to take over the Gestapo.

On October 17, 1934, Pruchtnow was assigned to Heinrich Himmler's personal staff , where he worked in the chief adjutantage. There he took over tasks as a liaison officer of the Reichsführer SS to the Reich Ministry for Public Enlightenment and Propaganda . In 1937 Pruchtnow married Mathilde Dickert (born July 5, 1908 in Alsdorf). On January 15, 1938, in addition to his previous duties, Pruchtnow was given the function of a liaison officer of Himmler's staff to Minister of Economics Walther Funk .

In March 1940 Pruchtnow was designated as commander of the Lichtenau Fortress for honorary prisoners. On March 1, 1941, Pruchtnow was appointed house commander of the Secret State Police Office.

At the end of 1942, Pruchtnow was scheduled to be the chief of police, but could no longer take up this position due to his liver cancer . In March 1943 he was instead appointed acting police director of the Troppau police department . In May 1943 he was appointed as the regular holder of this position, which he could no longer perform due to his state of health: After a recovery cure in Silesia could not help, Pruchtnow died in June 1943. A few weeks earlier, Himmler had had him as a gesture of solidarity symbolically appointed SS-Oberführer.

Pruchtnow's grave is on the war cemetery in Berlin-Steglitz-Lichterfelde II Parkfriedhof.

Promotions

literature

  • Johannes Tuchel : Am Grossen Wannsee 56-58. From Villa Minoux to the House of the Wannsee Conference , 1992, p. 172.

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Bundesarchiv Lichterfelde: SSO-Film 394 A, image 1453: indicates that Pruchtnow was seriously ill in the Hotel Schlesischer Hof in Bad Salzbrunn in May 1943.
  2. ↑ Volksbund War Graves Commission .
personal data
SURNAME Pruchtnow, Richard
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Pruchtnow, Richard Reinhard Ferdinand (full name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German SS officer
DATE OF BIRTH April 8, 1892
PLACE OF BIRTH Berlin
DATE OF DEATH June 22, 1943
Place of death Bad Salzbrunn in Silesia