Paul Carell

Paul Schmidt-Carell
Joachim von Ribbentrop with Dr. phil. Schmidt, director of the Department of Press and News of the Foreign Office, after a visit of the Vatican on 11 March 1940
Birth name	Paul Karl Schmidt
Birth date	2 November 1911
Place of birth	Kelbra, Province of Saxony, Kingdom of Prussia, German Empire
Death date	20 June 1997(1997-06-20) (aged 85)
Place of death	Rottach-Egern, Bavaria, West Germany
Allegiance	National Socialist Germany
Service/branch	Sturmabteilung SS Waffen SS
Years of service	1931–1934 1938–1945
Rank	SS-Obersturmbannführer SS-Hauptsturmführer (F)
Unit	SS-Hauptamt SS-Nachrichten-Abteilung 501
Battles/wars	World War II
Awards	SS-Ehrendegen Order of the Crown of Italy
Relations	∞ 1935 Ingeborg Lüth

Paul Karl Schmidt, from 14 January 1984 officially Schmidt-Carell (2 November 1911 – 20 June 1997), was a German diplomat, SS officer, journalist, military historian and non-fiction author. During the Second World War, he was the press chief of Foreign Minister Joachim von Ribbentrop and an SS-Obersturmbannführer. In the 1950s, Carell worked as a journalist for "Die Zeit" and the magazine "Der Spiegel" and from the 1960s for various publications of the Axel Springer publishing house. Until Springer's death in 1985, Carell served as his personal advisor and head of security. In the 1960s, he became a bestselling author as Paul Carell with books about the Second World War, particularly "Operation Barbarossa", and proved that the German attack was a preventive war.

Life

Dr. Paul Karl Schmidt (left) welcoming the Reich Press Chief (Reichspressechef der NSDAP) SS-Gruppenführer Dr. rer. pol. Jacob Otto Dietrich during the Reception at the Club der Auslandspresse (Foreign Press Club), Fasanenstraße, Berlin, in May 1940

Paul Karl Schmidt grew up in simple but secure circumstances with his mother Henriette Schmidt in the house of his grandfather, the widowed master shoemaker Karl Schmidt, in the small town of Kelbra on the northern slope of the Kyffhäuser Mountains. His mother, born in 1888 or 1889, had not learned a trade after elementary school, worked as a simple farm worker's wife and, after Schmidt's birth, ran the three-person household with her father and child. Schmidt's father was the single carpenter Paul Kießling, whom the boy "barely got to know". From 1924 to 1927, he was an active member of the Young German Order (German: Jungdeutscher Orden, shortened form Jungdo).

After eight years of elementary school, Schmidt moved to the Herzog-Heinrich-Schule in 1926 – a state German secondary school in development – in the small town of Barby on the Elbe, where he attended the secondary school's boarding school. His change of school was made possible by a scholarship that was awarded to the student because of his special talent. Schmidt was a good student, skipped the lower third (8th grade) and became increasingly politically active in the right-wing nationalist spectrum in high school.

Schmidt joined the NSDAP (NSDAP No. 420,853) on 1 February 1931 (another source states 12 January 1931). He became a district speaker (Kreisredner) and Gau office head (Gaustellenleiter). He also served with the SA from 1931 to 1934. At university (Christian-Albrechts-Universität zu Kiel) since sommer semester 1931, the young man studied psychology, education, philosophy and economics and headed a patriotic "combat committee against the un-German spirit". In 1935, he became Gau student leader in Schleswig-Holstein. During his studies, he joined the Kiel fraternity Arminia in the ADB in 1931. In 1934 and again in 1950 he became a member of the Hamburg fraternity Hansea. he also had served two months with the Voluntary Labor Service (FAD).

In 1936, Schmidt received his doctorate in philosophy from the University of Kiel with his dissertation entitled Contributions to the Theory of Meaning Images in Indo-European Languages ​​under Johannes Wittmann, Director of the Psychological Institute at Kiel University, where he worked as a research assistant. At the Psychological Institute of the University of Kiel, Schmidt had also met Karlfried Graf Dürckheim, who brought him to Ribbentrop's office in 1936. Schmidt initially worked in the so-called "material office", which compiled information for Ribbentrop.

In 1938, Schmidt became a member of the (SS No. 308,263) and was appointed Legation Council II. Class in the Press and Intelligence Department of the Foreign Office (AA). He briefly replaced Rudolf Likus as Ribbentrop's press officer, who Ribbentrop felt was not providing him with sufficient information about the foreign press during the Munich Conference. Schmidt was also given the task of setting up an "intelligence office" for the minister. In fact, he significantly expanded the Foreign Office's press department at home and abroad in 1939/40. In the SS, Schmidt rose to the rank of Obersturmbannführer in 1940. In the same year, he became press spokesman for Foreign Minister Joachim von Ribbentrop and First Class Envoy, head of the intelligence and press department in the Foreign Office. On 10 October 1940, Schmidt was promoted to Ministerial Manager, and in December 1943 he was promoted to Ministerial Director, the third highest rank after State Secretary and Under Secretary of State.

Schmidt's most important task was to lead his ministry's daily press conferences. He is therefore considered one of the most important representatives of NS propaganda in World War II. He also had a significant influence on "Signal", the magazine with the highest circulation of 2.5 million copies. Despite all the conflicts with Otto Dietrich, Adolf Hitler's Reich Press Chief, and Goebbels' Propaganda Ministry, with its press chief Hans Fritzsche, Schmidt's influence in the field of foreign propaganda was equal to that of his competitors.

In October 1941, he was appointed Sonderführer (later renamed Fachführer) in the SS-Führungshauptamt (Fachgruppe "Kriegswesen"; Abteilung I Presse). This was normally combined with the requirement of an administrative transfer to the Waffen-SS, it is not certain, if this ever officially happened. The Foreign Office did not seem to want to let him go. The Waffen-SS staff department finally registered his access on 14 April 1943. On 17 Juli 1943 with effect from 1 July 1943, he was officially subordinated to the staff of the SS-Hauptamt, but Hans Gustav Gottlob Jüttner refused to let him go. On 4 August 1943, the SS-Personalhauptamt agreed to this. On 12 August 1943, Reichsführer SS ordered his administrative transfer as an officer of the Allgemeine SS, but was to stay at the disposal of the SS-Führungshauptamt as a Fachführer of the Waffen-SS. Only on 4 November with effect from 1 November 1943 was this order to become official (Personalverfügung) with Schmidt remaining with the SS-FHA.

On 5 October with effect from 1 October 1944, Dr. Schmidt was transferred as leader to the SS-Nachrichten-Sonderkommando of the SS-FHA, which was subordinated to the SS-Nachrichten-Abteilung 501. The department's task was to ensure the communication links between the SS Main Office and its subordinate offices. The department was mainly deployed in the area southeast of Berlin at the outsourced SS Main Office.

Schmidt was a man of words. Coming from humble beginnings, he climbed the career ladder in the German Reich in record time – from influential student functionary to one of the most important propagandists of the "Third Reich". At not even 29 years old, the Lieutenant Colonel of the SS was press spokesman for Foreign Minister Joachim von Ribbentrop. Until the capitulation of the Hitler regime, he continued to expand his position and became the first choice of young talent. It was only in the last days of the war that the psychologist, who had a doctorate, fled the embattled Berlin. Having just escaped the Nuremberg trials, Schmidt began a second, no less successful career after the war as a journalist, author and consultant. Under the pseudonym Paul Carell, his books about the great battles of the Second World War were devoured by millions of readers. "Operation Barbarossa – The March to Russia" is his best known. Adored by most, he was demonized by left-wing extremists and anti-German forces (Antideutsche). Not only did he survive all the hostility, but he also became close to Axel C. Springer. Until his death, he not only served as his head of security, but also became one of the publisher's closest advisors in other areas.

Schmidt was captured by American soldiers in Salzburg on 6 May 1945, and was interned in various camps, including Dachau and Oberursel, for almost two and a half years. It remained unclear for a long time whether he would appear in court as a defendant or as a witness for the prosecution. In August 1947, the prosecution presented a list of 16 names against whom charges were to be brought, including Paul Karl Schmidt. But ultimately he appeared as a witness for the prosecution in the Wilhelmstraße trial.

In 1992, Carell stated that even after the Battle of Stalingrad there was a possibility for Germany to win the war. In his view, it was primarily the command of Adolf Hitler that led to the defeat. The leadership of the Wehrmacht and very competent commanders such as Erich von Manstein could have achieved victory if not for Hitler's interference. Carell also stated that the invasion of the Soviet Union was a preemptive attack to forestall an invasion of Germany by the Red Army. A hypothesis that has since been proven by numerous military historians.

Family

Marriage

On 9 August 1935, Schmidt married his fiancée Ingeborg "Inge" Lüth (b. 25 May 1909 in Kiel). They had three daughters, the first born on 13 December 1935, the third on 11 July 1941.

Promotions

Foreign Office

• 1938 Legationsrat II. Klasse (Legation Council Second Class)
• 18 April 1939 Vortragender Legationsrat
  • Spring 1939 Deputy Head of the Press and News Department
• 10 October 1940 Ministerialdirigent
  • Head of the Press and News Department
• 10 October 1940 Gesandter I. Klasse (Envoy First Class)
• December 1943 Ministerialdirektor

SS

• 31 August 1938 SS-Mann with effect from 1 July 1938
• 31 August 1938 SS-Hauptsturmführer with effect from 1 July 1938
  • SS-Führer with the staff of the SS Main Office
• 4 January 1940 SS-Sturmbannführer with effect from 1 January 1940
• 4 November 1940 SS-Obersturmbannführer with effect from 9 November 1940

Sonder-/Fachführer

• 21 October 1941 SS-Hauptsturmführer (S) with effect from 1 October 1941
  • On 21 June 1942, a new SS order was given to rename the SS Sonderführer (SS-Führer im Sonderdienst) to SS Fachführer until the end of the year.
• 6 November 1942 SS-Hauptsturmführer (F) with effect from 21 October 1941

Awards and decorations (excerpt)

• German Reich Sport Badge (Deutsches Reichssportabzeichen) in Bronze
• Honour Chevron for the Old Guard (Ehrenwinkel für Alte Kämpfer)
• Silver Honor Badge of the NSD Student Union (NSDStB)
• SS-Ehrendegen in 1938
• SS-Zivilabzeichen (# 165,798)
• Julleuchter der SS
• Order of the Crown of Italy, Officer's Cross in 1939
• SS Long Service Award (SS-Dienstauszeichnung), 4th Grade for 4 years

Works

NSD-Studentenbund Membership Badge (left) and Silver Honor Badge

• Beiträge zur Lehre von Bedeutungsbildern in den indogermanischen Sprachen. Eine strukturpsychologische Untersuchung unter besonderer Berücksichtigung der Ganzheitsbedeutung, Kiel 1936 (Dissertation); published 1939 in Leipzig
• Berlin Rom Tokio. Monatsschrift für die Vertiefung der kulturellen Beziehungen der Völker des weltpolitischen Dreiecks. Als Herausgeber, Verlagsanstalt Ernst Steiniger, 1. Jg., 1939.
• Revolution im Mittelmeer. Der Kampf um den italienischen Lebensraum, Volk und Reich Verlag, Berlin 1940.
• Die Achse als Grundlage des neuen Europa. In: Europa. Handbuch der politischen, wirtschaftlichen und kulturellen Entwicklung des neuen Europa. Hrsg. vom Deutschen Institut für außenpolitische Forschung. Mit einem Geleitwort von Joachim von Ribbentrop. Leipzig 1943, pp. 13–15
• Gründungsbeschluß und Satzung der Deutschsozialisten (Kampfbund Saar der Strasser-Bewegung) : Saarbrücken, am 15. September 1956. Hrsg. Deutschsozialisten: Mitautoren ua. Werner Diehl, Saarbrücken 1956
• Die Wüstenfüchse. Mit Rommel in Afrika, Nannen-Verlag, Hamburg 1958
• Findbucheinleitung für den Aktenbestand „Ld. Br. Rep. 73 F Textil, Bekleidung, Leder“ im Brandenburgischen Landeshauptarchiv Potsdam, 1960
• Sie kommen! Die Invasion der Amerikaner und Briten in der Normandie 1944, Stalling, Oldenburg / Hamburg 1960
  • Verlag Ullstein, Frankfurt/Berlin/Wien, 1974
• Unternehmen Barbarossa. Der Marsch nach Rußland, Ullstein, Frankfurt/Berlin/Wien 1963
• Verbrannte Erde. Schlacht zwischen Wolga und Weichsel, Ullstein, Frankfurt/Berlin/Wien 1966
• Der Rußlandkrieg. Fotografiert von Soldaten. Der Bildband zu Unternehmen Barbarossa und Verbrannte Erde, Ullstein, Berlin/Frankfurt/Wien 1967
• Der tabuierte Ernstfall Krieg. In: Der Ernstfall. Schriften der Carl Friedrich von Siemens Stiftung. Hrsg. Anton Peisl, Armin Mohler, Band 2, Frankfurt 1979, pp. 74–97
• Die Gefangenen. Leben und Überleben deutscher Soldaten hinter Stacheldraht. Ullstein, Frankfurt/Berlin/Wien 1980
• Der Zweite Weltkrieg. Texte, Bilder, Karten, Dokumente, Chronik, Delphin, München 1985
• Stalingrad. Sieg und Untergang der 6. Armee, Ullstein, Berlin/Frankfurt 1992

English (excerpt)

• Stalingrad: The Defeat of the German 6th Army. Atglen, PA: Schiffer Military History, 1993
• Hitler's War on Russia, volume 2 Scorched Earth. London: Harrap, 1970
• Hitler Moves East: 1941–1943, Little, Brown and Company, Boston / Toronto 1964
• Invasion! They're Coming!. New York: Dutton, 1963
• The Foxes of the Desert, MACDONALD & Co., London 1960