Robert Erspenmüller

Robert Karl Erspenmüller (Erpsenmüller is often erroneously written in literature) (born March 4, 1903 in Nuremberg , † May 23, 1940 in Blessy , Pas-de-Calais , France) was a German concentration camp overseer and SS man. In 1933 he was the first deputy commandant of the Dachau concentration camp .

Live and act

In the 1920s Erspenmüller was part of the Bavarian State Police .

On April 23, 1931, he became a member of the NSDAP ( membership number 247.630) and in the same year he joined the Munich SS (SS number 3.528). In 1931 he was a member of the SS watch command in the Brown House , the party headquarters of the NSDAP, for a few months . After internal conflicts, he was temporarily on leave and then deployed in various Munich SS formations.

Immediately after the Dachau concentration camp was founded in March 1933, Erspenmüller led a ten-man SS commando that moved into the camp initially set up by the Bavarian State Police to prepare for its takeover by the SS as an advance guard. After this took place on April 11, 1933 and regular camp operations began, Erspenmüller took over the function of leader of the camp's watch command.

Since Erspenmüller was the second man in the camp hierarchy as the leader of the watch command, he also took on the position of deputy to Hilmar Wäckerle , who was in command at the time . In the literature he is inconsistently referred to as “second camp commandant” and “deputy commandant”. Against this background, it is unclear whether he held an official title in the position of deputy commander and what this was possibly.

In 1933, Erspenmüller ordered several murders of prisoners in the camp and in some cases also lent a hand: On April 12, for example, he ordered the shooting of the four Jewish prisoners Rudolf Benario , Artur and Erwin Kahn and Ernst Goldmann in a small wood outside the camp . Most of the testimonies on this matter also suggest that he personally commanded the shooting and possibly even participated in the shooting. The background to this measure was that on the occasion of the opening of the camp they wanted to show the prisoners directly “where they were” in order to create intimidation and discipline. It is unclear whether Wäckerle or Erspenmüller was the originator of the relevant order.

In addition, Erspenmüller, who was considered a “fanatical hater of Jews”, participated in numerous violent attacks against prisoners during his time in Dachau. B. in spontaneous attacks on prisoners with bare fists or in organized mistreatment in which prisoners were deliberately taken aside and systematically maltreated in guard rooms, barracks, etc. with the help of bull whips and other striking tools.

In July 1933 Erspenmüller was given leave of absence after conflicts with the commandant of Dachau, Wäckerle, or his successor Theodor Eicke . Himmler gave Eicke the task of legalizing the murder of prisoners with the so-called post obligation .

In autumn 1933 he was appointed SS adjutant to the Reich Treasurer of the NSDAP, Franz Xaver Schwarz . He remained in this position until the autumn of 1934. He then belonged to the SS disposable troops until 1939.

Erspenmüller died in 1940 as a participant in the French campaign as a battalion commander of a standard of the Waffen-SS , with the rank of SS-Sturmbannführer , when he was shot in the head during an attack by French soldiers on his unit. After the Second World War , various other members of the Dachau guard, such as Hans Steinbrenner , tried to take advantage of Erspenmüller's death to shift responsibility for crimes that he had committed without Erspenmüller's involvement in the camp and to shift responsibility for crimes committed with him to him.

family

Erspenmüller was married to Charlotte (born April 1, 1909), née Wiendl, on May 24, 1928. The marriage produced a daughter.

Promotions

• June 1, 1939: SS-Sturmbannführer

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Dates of death according to the entry at WWII ( Memento from November 9, 2013 in the Internet Archive ).
2. ^ ^{A b} Andreas Dornheim : Wilhelm Aron (1907–1933). Jude, anti-Nazi opponent, social democrat and fraternity student , 2007, p. 60.
3. ↑ Richardi: School of Violence , p. 106

literature

Non-scientific literature:

• Obituary notice for Robert Erspenmüller. In: “Völkischer Beobachter”, June 3, 1940.

Scientific secondary literature:

• Jörg Döring , Markus Joch (Eds.): Alfred Andersch revisited. Biographical studies in the context of the Sebald debate , Berlin 2011.
• Hans-Günter Richardi : School of violence. The Dachau concentration camp , 1995.