Hans Krebs (SS general)

Hans Krebs (b. 26 April 1888 in Iglau, Moravia, Austria-Hungary; d. 15 February 1947 in Prague) was an Austrian-German officer in WWI, editor, author, politician, honorary Gauleiter (de) and SS-Brigadeführer in WWII.

Life

Krebs was born in 1888 in Iglau, 75km north-west of Brünn, in Moravia, into a wealthy cloth manufacturing family. In 1911, he became the administrator of the German Workers' Party (Deutsche Arbeiterpartei or DAP) in Aussig, Vienna and Iglau, becoming editor of the party newspaper Deutsche Volkswehr. After the outbreak of World War I, Krebs volunteered to serve in the Austro-Hungarian Army (de). He fought with the K.u.K. Infanterieregiment „Hoch- und Deutschmeister“ Nr. 4 in the South Tyrol, received several awards, and rose to the rank of (1st) Lieutenant (Leutnant or Oberleutnant der Reserve depending on the source). In 1917, after being relieved of military duty due to serious illness, he was named State Secretary in Bohemia (Landessekretär in Böhmen, later Landesleiter von Deutsch-Böhmen) of the DAP. After the war, Krebs joined the National Socialist German Workers' Party (NSDAP) and was its general manager (Hauptgeschäftsführer) in Czechoslovakian-occupied Moravia until 1931. He was also editor of the Iglauer Volkswehr newspaper. From 1925 until 1933 Krebs was a parliamentarian of the DNSAP in the Czech Parliament fighting for German interests.

In 1933, when the party was banned, he was stripped of his parliamentary immunity, arrested, and imprisoned. Krebs subsequently fled to Germany, where he became Pressereferent (Press officer) and Oberregierungsrat (Chief Executive Officer) in the Reich Ministry of the Interior, (Reichshauptstellenleiter) of the NSDAP (he received the special membership number 86 in November 1935, his membership backdated to 1925), a member of the Reichstag from 29 March 1936 until 8 May 1945 and a member of the Schutzstaffel () with the SS-Nr.: 292,802, being promoted to SS-Standartenführer 1938, SS-Oberführer November 1938 and SS-Brigadeführer in 1940. He was also named honorary Gauleiter of the Reichsgau Sudetenland on 26 April 1938 on the occasion of his 50th birthday, also receiving from Adolf Hitler his photo within a silver frame. In late summer 1938 he was promoted to the Ministerialrat (Ministerial Council).

After the liberation of the Sudetenland, Konrad Henlein became official Gauleiter and Krebs returned to Aussig, where he would become Regierungspräsident (District President) from November 1938 (commissioned to conduct business, officially Regierungspräsident on 1 April 1939) until 1945.

Death

After the war, Krebs was given a show trial, falsly convicted of 'high treason', and executed by hanging by Czechoslovakia's communist government in Prague in 1947.

Awards and decorations (excerpt)

• Medal for Bravery (Austria-Hungary), Bronze Medal for Bravery (Tapferkeitsmedaille)
• Karl Troop Cross (German: Karl-Truppenkreuz)
• Medal for Bravery (Austria-Hungary), Silver Medal for Bravery 1st Class (Tapferkeitsmedaille)
• Hungarian World War Commemorative Medal with Swords (de)
• War Commemorative Medal (Austria) with Swords
• Honour Chevron for the Old Guard (Ehrenwinkel der Alten Kämpfer)
• Gau Honour Badge (Ehrenzeichen der Alten Garde 1923)
• Goldenes Parteiabzeichen der NSDAP
• Ehrenkreuz für Frontkämpfer
• Goldenes HJ-Ehrenzeichen

Writings (selection)

• Katechismus der deutschen Arbeiterbewegung Österreichs, Hedeler, Leipzig 1917
• Für Selbstbestimmungsrecht, Demokratisierung und Frauen-Wahlrecht!, aus einer Rede, Nationalsozialistische Druck- und Verlags-Anstalt, Aussig 1919
• Macht und Recht – Eine geschichtspolitische Betrachtung, Sudetendeutscher Verlag, Reichenberg (Böhmen), 1922
• Rednerfibel, 1922
• Der Münchener Kahr-Freitag, 1923
• Arbeiter und Volkstum – Ein Gespräch zweier Arbeiter über die Einheitsfront, 1927
• Die sudetendeutsche Selbstverwaltung – Ein Beitrag zur nationalen Autonomiebewegung, 1928
• Lerne reden!, Leipzig 1931
• Paneuropa und Mitteleuropa?, Franz Eher, München 1931
• Masaryk und der deutsche Nationalsozialismus. Über die Grundsätze und Ziele der D.N.S.A.P. in den Sudetengebieten und die Hitlerbewegung im Deutschen Reiche. Deutsche nationalsozialistische Arbeiterpartei, Aussig 1931
• Der Kampf um die sudetendeutsche Autonomie, Aussig 1933
• Kampf in Böhmen, Volk und Reich Verlag, Berlin 1936 (more editions 1937 and 1938)
• Wir Sudetendeutschen, Berlin 1937 (together with Professor Dr. phil. Emil Lehmann)
  • 3rd edition 1938
  • Sudetendeutsche Landeskunde, Arndt-Verlag, Kiel 1992 (somewhat shortened, especially the parts about Jews)
• Sudetendeutschland marschiert, Berlin 1938 (together with HJ-Bannführer Siegfried Zoglmann)
• Prag und Moskau. Mit einem Geleitwort von Reichsminister Dr. Wilhelm Frick, Zentralverlag der NSDAP Franz Eher Nachf., München 1938

Gallery

• 
• 
• 

Further reading

• Hans Christoph Kaergel (Hg.): Ein Sudetendeutscher ergibt sich nicht! Ein Buch um den sudetendeutschen nationalsozialistischen Führer Hans Krebs, mit 11 Abbildungen, Breslau 1938

External links

• Newspaper articles about and pictures of Hans Krebs
• Krebs, Hans (Abg.), Hannah-Arendt-Institut für Totalitarismusforschung e. V. an der Technischen Universität Dresden