Walter Fritsch (SA member)

Walter Fritsch (1933)

Walter Fritsch (born August 11, 1889 in Mainz-Kastel ; † February 3, 1966 in Kirchheim unter Teck ) was a German officer and SA leader . Fritsch achieved notoriety above all as the head of the SA field police and the SA Feldjägerkorps in the years 1933 to 1935.

Live and act

Fritsch's biography and even his personal details remained in the dark for a long time: In the first decades after the Second World War, it was only known that a man named Fritsch with the rank of colonel or SA-Standartenführer / Oberführer in the years after 1933 the SA-Feldjägerkorps in Berlin had commanded. In a publication from 2006 it was stated that apart from his surname nothing was known about Fritsch, so that even his identity had to be considered "not [completely] clarified". It was not until 2009 that Fritsch's identity and vita could be clarified through research by the Berlin memorial on the former SA barracks in Papestrasse, the headquarters of the Feldjägerkorps under Fritsch's command.

Life until 1933

Fritsch was the son of second lieutenant in the Hessian Pioneer Battalion No. 11 Gustav Adolf Fritsch and his wife Emma Metha Victoria Fritsch, née Arnoldi. Since his maternal grandmother was a “ Jew ” according to National Socialist standards , Fritsch was considered a quarter Jew in the National Socialist sense , which was not established until the late 1930s.

As a young man, Fritsch took part in the First World War as an officer . After 1918 he left the army. In the following years he worked temporarily as a trainer at the police sports school in Spandau . Either in the army or in the police he was given the rank of colonel. After leaving the police force, Fritsch worked for the Berlin company Anton Fischer.

In the autumn of 1931 Fritsch joined the NSDAP ( membership number 1.011.399) and its street combat unit, the Sturmabteilung (SA), in which he quickly advanced as a former officer: by the Führer order No. II of September 9, 1932, he was promoted to Adjutants of the SA sub-group Berlin-West led by Walter Schmidt and Ernst Pretzel were appointed and promoted in this position to SA standard leader by the Fuehrer Order 15 of July 1, 1933 with effect from May 1, 1933.

Career in the early Nazi state

In February 1933, while still officially serving as adjutant of the West sub-group, Eberhard von Wechmar, the former leader of the East Brandenburg SA sub-group, became head of the so-called SA field police, which was then newly established at the instigation of the Prussian Interior Minister Hermann Göring (Fepo) appointed. This was a barracked special unit of the SA auxiliary police , a reinforcement of the regular police formed by a decree of February 22, 1933 from SA members, whose main task was to secure and consolidate the power of the young Nazi government against theirs was political opponent. On August 28, 1933, Fritsch was reassigned to the state service while retaining his position as chief of the SA field police with the rank of police captain .

Under the leadership of Fritsch, the field police initially consisted of around 180 selected SA members in Berlin . In terms of hierarchy, Fritsch was initially a standard leader z. b. V. subordinated to the SA group Berlin-Brandenburg . His superiors were the group leaders Wolf-Heinrich von Helldorff (until March 1933) and Karl Ernst (from March 1933). Fritsch's official seat was building H on General-Pape-Strasse (today Werner-Voss-Damm 54a) in Berlin, the headquarters of the field police. Under the direction of Fritsch, one of the largest provisional SA prisons in Berlin was set up here in the spring of 1933, where mainly political prisoners were held.

While the SA auxiliary police as a whole were largely dismantled in the further course of 1933, the field police remained. In October the troop, which now comprised around 2,000 men across the Reich and 200 in Berlin, was renamed the SA Feldjägerkorps. At the end of the year, Fritsch moved into new headquarters near Alexanderplatz . In a Gestapo report it was praised that the troops under Fritsch's leadership were “extremely tightly disciplined” and absolutely reliable. Fritsch himself was officially appointed by the Führer order No. 19 of November 9, 1933 with effect from October 7, 1933, with the removal of his previous position as Standartenführer z. b. V. of the Berlin-Brandenburg group appointed "Leader of the Feldjägerkorps in Prussen".

During the Rohm affair in early summer 1934 to Fritsch a statement of the SA-man Alfred Martin , according to the military school Lichterfelde an assessor summary court have been, the arrested and shooting provided people before their execution had been presented as a formality for trial. The negotiations are said to have lasted only a few seconds and ended without exception with convictions and death sentences. However, some of those sentenced are said not to have been shot because all executions were ordered to stop beforehand. For his services in connection with the Röhm affair, Fritsch was promoted to SA Oberführer in July 1934.

The events of the Röhm Putsch resulted in the Feldjägerkorps being largely disempowered. The association was placed under the control of the Reich and Prussian Ministry of the Interior and incorporated into the protective police on May 1, 1935 . Within this, the Feldjägerkorps (now without SA addition) continued until 1936, when it was completely absorbed into the Schutzpolizei. On the occasion of the incorporation of the Feldjägerkorps into the police force, Fritsch was accepted into the service of the Reich and Prussian Ministry of the Interior on May 1, 1935, and was promoted to the rank of colonel of the Feldjägerkorps. In the same year, investigations were started against him in connection with allegations that he had embezzled state funds as head of the Feldjägerkorps in 1933 (self-enrichment), that he had abused his official powers by having private enemies arrested and mistreated, as well as that he had abused his official powers by extortionately enriching himself in prisoners in such a way that he had forced them to pay transfer fees to regain their freedom. He was also accused of having issued letters of protection to Jews against the payment of bribes and having shown himself in his uniform with Jews in Berlin coffeehouses. After the investigation carried out by the Ministry of the Interior turned out to be in his favor, Fritsch was released from his official duties on October 16, 1935 and - after being taken into protective custody for a few weeks at the end of 1935 - released from civil service on January 31, 1936. Prior to this, on December 5, 1935, he had agreed to give his written consent to the resignation of his post as Colonel of the Feldjägerkorps, waiving remuneration, pension, survivor's benefits, official title, uniform and service badges that he had acquired from the police and the Feldjägerkorps give.

Further investigations against him were finally put down by Hitler personally at the instigation of the Prussian Prime Minister Hermann Göring and the Reich and Prussian Interior Minister Wilhelm Frick with reference to unspecified higher state interests ("important state political reasons"). However, as part of the investigation conducted by the Ministry of the Interior against Fritsch, it was established that - according to the National Socialist definition - he was partly of Jewish descent. A party expulsion procedure that was initiated against him dragged on for years - or paused for a long time - because the relevant files were in the Ministry of the Interior that they needed for his own disciplinary investigations and therefore could not pass them on for the time being.

On June 7, 1936, Fritsch married Meta Voeske.

During the Second World War , Fritsch was a captain zV (Wehrmachtsfürsorgeoffizier) in the service of the Wehrmachtsfürsorge- und pension office in Potsdam.

On May 5, 1941, at the instigation of the Supreme Party Court , Fritsch voluntarily resigned from the NSDAP at the local NSDAP group responsible for him in Speyer , which suggested this way out of the amicable settlement of the party court proceedings that had been initiated against him because of his partially Jewish descent .

In November 1944, Fritsch, coming from the army, settled in Kirchheim.

Promotions

In the SA

• 1933: SA standard leader
• July 1934: SA Oberführer

In civil service

• 1933: Police captain
• May 1, 1935: Colonel in the Feldjägerkorps

literature

• Matthias Heisig: "The SA field police and their prison", in: Yves Müller / Reiner Zilkenat (ed.): Civil War Army . Research on the National Socialist Sturmabteilung (SA) , 2013, pp. 195–219.
• Wolfgang Edler von Zander : The SA Feldjägerkorps: A forgotten unit of history , Wolfenbüttel 2014.
• Neue Tempelhofer Zeitung from April 30, 1933.

Web links

• Short story of the SA field police with a photo by Fritsch from Deutsche Illustrierte No. 29 of July 16, 1935

Individual evidence

1. ^ Rainer Orth: Der SD-Mann Johannes Schmidt , ISBN 978-3-8288-2872-8 , p. 165.
2. ↑ Akihm Jah: National Socialist Camp. New articles on Nazi persecution and extermination policy and memorial site education , 2006, p. 68.
3. ↑ ^{a b c} http://www.gedenkstaette-papestrasse.de/geschichte/sa-feldpolizei.htm
4. ↑ Roth: The Security Service of the SS and June 30, 1934 , 2009, p. 113.
5. ^ "Der Kommandeur des Feldjägerskorps" (announcement of promotion), in: Berliner Illustrierte Nachtausgabe from July 9, 1934.