Rudolf Querner

Rudolf Querner (1941)

Ernst Rudolf Querner (born June 10, 1893 in Lehndorf near Kamenz , † May 27, 1945 near Magdeburg ) was a German SS-Obergruppenführer , general of the Waffen-SS and police general . Querner worked from May 1941 as Higher SS and Police Leader (HSSPF) North Sea, based in Hamburg, from late January 1943 as HSSPF Donau and finally from October 1944 to early May 1945 as HSSPF Mitte.

Life

Family background, World War I and police service

Querner, son of a farmer and manor owner, attended a humanistic grammar school in Bautzen . He then attended the cadet corps in Dresden and the war school in Hanover. Querner took part in the First World War as an officer from August 1914 and was taken prisoner by the French at the end of the war. Rudolf Querner was married to Annemarie, nee Schorkopf, from 1919, and the marriage had four children. One daughter was the sculptor Ursula Querner . From September 1919 Querner was employed by the Ordnungspolizei in Saxony, where he became the leader of the Hundreds and department commander.

time of the nationalsocialism

Querner joined the NSDAP ( membership number 2,385,386) in the course of the transfer of power to the National Socialists in 1933 . He became a personnel officer in the Saxon Ministry of the Interior and from 1934 worked as a consultant for "Organization and Use" in the Reich Ministry of the Interior .

From September 1, 1936 to April 1, 1937, he worked as a commander of the Hamburg police force and then as an inspector, or from 1940 as a commander, with the Hamburg order police until October 1940. The SS (SS no. 308 240) occurred in Querner 1938th In addition, Querner acted as commander of the Ordnungspolizei (BdO) in Prague provisionally in March 1939. From November 1940 to April 1941, Querner SS leader was employed in the RFSS staff and from December 1940 in the Ordnungspolizei as general inspector of the gendarmerie and the municipal police force.

Hamburg

From May 1, 1941 to the end of January 1943, Querner acted as HSSPF North Sea in military district X with headquarters in Hamburg . Querner's duties also included the management of the police department within the Hamburg state administration as well as representing the Hamburg governor Karl Kaufmann in all police matters. Querner was significantly involved in the deportation of Hamburg's Jews , which began at the end of October 1941. From October 23 to 25, 1941, Querner and seven other SS leaders accompanied Reichsführer SS Heinrich Himmler on a tour of the Mogilew labor camp , which was to be expanded into an extermination camp . Querner also participated in the extermination of Jews in the east as a middleman between the Hamburg company Tesch & Stabenow , main supplier of Zyklon B , and the higher SS and police leaders in the east.

Vienna

From the end of January 1943 to the beginning of October 1944, Querner was HSSPF Donau in Wehrkreis XVII with headquarters in Vienna . He was promoted to SS-Obergruppenführer on June 21, 1943 and to General of the Waffen-SS on July 1, 1944. In his function as SS-Obergruppenführer he took part in the Gruppenführer conference on October 4, 1943 in Poznan, at which Heinrich Himmler gave the first Poznan speech .

In the wake of the failed coup d'état of July 20, 1944 , Querner and other SS leaders were "invited" and briefly detained by the chief of staff Heinrich Kodré on the evening of July 20, 1944 in the Vienna military district command on the Stubenring . It is noticeable that he and his SS units subordinated themselves to the Chief of Staff in Wehrkreis XVII, Vienna, the knight's cross holder Heinrich Kodré, and did nothing with his SS units to suppress the attempted coup. As Jedlicka also reports, he did not even want to see the telex himself: "If you say that, I will believe you". Kodré's authority as a Knight's Cross holder made him appear above suspicion for Querner. In a report by Captain Fritz Bollhammer it says literally: “General Querner asked who General von Esebeck was, asked very emphatically whether it was new that the commander would be represented by a general sent by the OKH and whether General Esebeck would specifically agree came here for this purpose. ”So the matter didn’t seem quite safe to him, since it was customary to have Austrian generals represent the Austrian military district commanders. Nevertheless, he accepted the measures taken by Kodré without protest. As is well known, the SS did not fight in Vienna - quite unlike in Berlin and other military districts - because Querner, who was "staying" in the military district command at Kodré, did not receive an order to do so, and this also against the deployment of Kodré ordered " Valkyrie " did not protest. In the subsequent investigation by the Gestapo , this behavior was a delicate point, so that the matter fizzled out, although it was a clear omission - the SS did nothing against the attempted coup. Since Querner did not look at the telex in person, he could not have noticed the illegitimate signature by Erwin von Witzleben , so that one could accuse him of massive errors on the part of the Gestapo if one had wanted to. The facts spoke for themselves and were embarrassing enough.

Braunschweig

From October 5, 1944 to May 8, 1945, Querner was HSSPF Mitte in military district XI with its headquarters in Braunschweig . In this function, Querner was largely responsible for crimes that took place in the course of the evacuation of concentration and prisoner-of-war camps in military district XI.

death

After the war, Querner was arrested and then committed suicide on 27 May 1945 in the prison suicide . His estate is in the Federal Archives in Koblenz in the collection of small acquisitions .

Awards

Querner's SS and police ranks
date	rank
May 1938	SS standard leader
April 1939	Major General of the Police
June 1939	SS-Oberführer
April 1940	SS Brigade Leader
November 1940	SS group leader and lieutenant general of the police
June 1943	SS-Obergruppenführer and General of the Police
July 1944	SS-Obergruppenführer and General of the Waffen SS

Iron Cross (1914) 2nd class

Regional order

Medal in memory of October 1, 1938

Reich sports badge in silver

Cross of Merit of the Decoration of Honor of the German Red Cross

War Merit Cross (1939) 2nd and 1st class with swords

Honorary sword of the Reichsführer SS

SS skull ring

literature

Linde Apel, Hamburg Authority for Culture, Sport, Media, in collaboration with the Research Center for Contemporary History in Hamburg and the Neuengamme Concentration Camp Memorial , publisher: Sent to death - The deportations of Jews, Roma and Sinti from Hamburg 1940 to 1945 . Metropol, Berlin 2009.
Ruth Bettina Birn : The Higher SS and Police Leaders. Himmler's representative in the Reich and in the occupied territories. Droste, Düsseldorf 1986, ISBN 3-7700-0710-7 (also: Stuttgart, Universität, Dissertation, 1985).
Ernst Klee : The dictionary of persons on the Third Reich . Who was what before and after 1945 . 2nd Edition. Fischer-Taschenbuch-Verlag, Frankfurt am Main 2007, ISBN 978-3-596-16048-8 .
Heinz Höhne : The order under the skull - The history of the SS , Augsburg 1998, ISBN 3-89350-549-0 .
Beate Meyer: The persecution and murder of Hamburg's Jews 1933–1945: history, testimony, memory , Wallstein-Verlag, Göttingen 2006, ISBN 978-3-8353-0137-5 .
Ludwig Jedlicka : July 20 in Vienna , Herold-Verlag, Vienna 1965. (Main source; contains an in-depth report on the events of Heinrich Kodré in the appendix .)
Karl Glaubauf : Colonel iG Heinrich Kodré , a Linz knight's cross bearer in the military resistance. In: Documentation Archive of the Austrian Resistance (Ed.), Yearbook 2002, pp. 41–68.
Dermot Bradley (Ed.): The Generals of the Waffen-SS and the Police , Volume 4, Osnabrück 2009, ISBN 3-7648-2595-2 ; Pp. 128-148.

Web links

Commons : Rudolf Querner - collection of images, videos and audio files

Literature by and about Rudolf Querner in the catalog of the German National Library
Newspaper article about Rudolf Querner in the press kit of the 20th century of the ZBW - Leibniz Information Center for Economics .
Querner, Rudolf 1893-1945 at the Leibniz Information Center for Economics
Querner, Rudolf 1893-1945 at the central database of bequests at the Federal Archives

Individual evidence

↑ ^a ^b Ruth Bettina Birn: The higher SS and police leaders. Himmler's representative in the Reich and in the occupied territories. , Düsseldorf 1986, p. 342.
↑ ^a ^b ^c Querner, Rudolf (Document 2) .
↑ Who is who? The German who's who . Volume 15. Arani, 1967, p. 2102.
↑ ^a ^b ^c Ernst Klee : The dictionary of persons on the Third Reich . Frankfurt am Main 2007, p. 475.
↑ Dermot Bradley (ed.): The generals of the Waffen-SS and the police . Volume 4. Osnabrück 2009, ISBN 3-7648-2595-2 , p. 134.
↑ Dermot Bradley (ed.): The generals of the Waffen-SS and the police . Volume 4. Osnabrück 2009, ISBN 3-7648-2595-2 , p. 135.
^ Herbert Diercks : Documentation town house. The Hamburg police under National Socialism. Texts, photos, documents . Neuengamme Concentration Camp Memorial , Hamburg 2012, p. 59.
↑ Dermot Bradley (ed.): The generals of the Waffen-SS and the police . Volume 4. Osnabrück 2009, ISBN 3-7648-2595-2 , p. 138.
↑ Beate Meyer: The persecution and murder of Hamburg's Jews 1933-1945: history, testimony, memory . Wallstein-Verlag, Göttingen 2006, p. 34.
^ The planned extermination camp in Mogilew on www.deathcamps.org.
^ Richard Breitman: State Secrets. The crimes of the Nazis - tolerated by the Allies. Karl Blessing Verlag, Munich 1999, ISBN 3-89667-056-5 , p. 103 ff.
↑ Dermot Bradley (ed.): The generals of the Waffen-SS and the police . Volume 4. Osnabrück 2009, ISBN 3-7648-2595-2 , p. 128, p. 141.
^ Romuald Karmakar , The Himmler Project , DVD 2000, Berlin, ISBN 3-89848-719-9 .
↑ Heinz Höhne: The Order under the Skull - The History of the SS , Augsburg 1998, p. 493.
^ Ludwig Jedlicka: July 20 in Vienna . Vienna 1965, p. 108.
^ Karl Glaubauf: Colonel iG Heinrich Kodré , A Linz Knight Cross Bearer in the Military Resistance. 2002, p. 50.
↑ Dermot Bradley (ed.): The generals of the Waffen-SS and the police . Volume 4. Osnabrück 2009, ISBN 3-7648-2595-2 ; P. 145.
^ Linde Apel, Hamburg Authority for Culture, Sport, Media, in collaboration with the Research Center for Contemporary History in Hamburg and the Neuengamme Concentration Camp Memorial (ed.): Sent to death - The deportations of Jews, Roma and Sinti from Hamburg, 1940 until 1945 . Metropol Verlag, Hamburg 2009 - DVD for the exhibition, Die Täter , p. 6.
↑ Wolfgang A. Mommsen (editor): The bequests in the German archives: (with additions from other holdings) , Part II, Writings of the Federal Archives, Harald Boldt Verlag, Boppard am Rhein 1983, (No. 7092), p. 1037.

personal data
SURNAME	Querner, Rudolf
ALTERNATIVE NAMES	Querner, Rudolf Ernst (full name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION	German General of the Waffen SS and Police
DATE OF BIRTH	June 10, 1893
PLACE OF BIRTH	Lehndorf (Panschwitz-Kuckau)
DATE OF DEATH	May 27, 1945
Place of death	Magdeburg

[Birn342-1] Ruth Bettina Birn: The higher SS and police leaders. Himmler's representative in the Reich and in the occupied territories. , Düsseldorf 1986, p. 342.

[Leibniz-Informationszentrum-2] Querner, Rudolf (Document 2) .

[3] Who is who? The German who's who . Volume 15. Arani, 1967, p. 2102.

[Klee475-4] Ernst Klee : The dictionary of persons on the Third Reich . Frankfurt am Main 2007, p. 475.

[5] Dermot Bradley (ed.): The generals of the Waffen-SS and the police . Volume 4. Osnabrück 2009, ISBN 3-7648-2595-2 , p. 134.

[6] Dermot Bradley (ed.): The generals of the Waffen-SS and the police . Volume 4. Osnabrück 2009, ISBN 3-7648-2595-2 , p. 135.

[Diercks59-7] Herbert Diercks : Documentation town house. The Hamburg police under National Socialism. Texts, photos, documents . Neuengamme Concentration Camp Memorial , Hamburg 2012, p. 59.

[8] Dermot Bradley (ed.): The generals of the Waffen-SS and the police . Volume 4. Osnabrück 2009, ISBN 3-7648-2595-2 , p. 138.

[9] Beate Meyer: The persecution and murder of Hamburg's Jews 1933-1945: history, testimony, memory . Wallstein-Verlag, Göttingen 2006, p. 34.

[10] The planned extermination camp in Mogilew on www.deathcamps.org.

[11] Richard Breitman: State Secrets. The crimes of the Nazis - tolerated by the Allies. Karl Blessing Verlag, Munich 1999, ISBN 3-89667-056-5 , p. 103 ff.

[12] Dermot Bradley (ed.): The generals of the Waffen-SS and the police . Volume 4. Osnabrück 2009, ISBN 3-7648-2595-2 , p. 128, p. 141.

[13] Romuald Karmakar , The Himmler Project , DVD 2000, Berlin, ISBN 3-89848-719-9 .

[14] Heinz Höhne: The Order under the Skull - The History of the SS , Augsburg 1998, p. 493.

[Jedlicka108-15] Ludwig Jedlicka: July 20 in Vienna . Vienna 1965, p. 108.

[16] Karl Glaubauf: Colonel iG Heinrich Kodré , A Linz Knight Cross Bearer in the Military Resistance. 2002, p. 50.

[17] Dermot Bradley (ed.): The generals of the Waffen-SS and the police . Volume 4. Osnabrück 2009, ISBN 3-7648-2595-2 ; P. 145.

[18] Linde Apel, Hamburg Authority for Culture, Sport, Media, in collaboration with the Research Center for Contemporary History in Hamburg and the Neuengamme Concentration Camp Memorial (ed.): Sent to death - The deportations of Jews, Roma and Sinti from Hamburg, 1940 until 1945 . Metropol Verlag, Hamburg 2009 - DVD for the exhibition, Die Täter , p. 6.

[19] Wolfgang A. Mommsen (editor): The bequests in the German archives: (with additions from other holdings) , Part II, Writings of the Federal Archives, Harald Boldt Verlag, Boppard am Rhein 1983, (No. 7092), p. 1037.