Richard Hildebrandt

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Richard Hildebrandt
SS-Gruppenführer Richard Hildebrandt.jpg
SS-Gruppenführer Hildebrandt
Birth name Richard Hermann Hildebrandt
Birth date 13 March 1897(1897-03-13)
Place of birth Worms, German Empire
Death date 10 March 1951 (aged 53)
Place of death Bydgoszcz, Poland
Allegiance  German Empire
 National Socialist Germany
Service/branch Iron Cross of the Luftstreitkräfte.png Imperial German Army
SA-Logo.png Sturmabteilung
Flag Schutzstaffel.png SS
Years of service 1915–1918
1923–?
1931–1945
Rank SS-Obergruppenführer
Unit Schutzstaffel
Commands held Chief of the SS Race and Settlement Main Office (1943–1945)
Battles/wars World War I
World War II
Awards Iron Cross, War Merit Cross
Relations ∞ 1928 Johanna "Hansi" Fischer
3 children

Richard Hermann Hildebrandt (b. 13 March 1897 in Worms, German Empire; d. 10 March 1951 in occupied Bromberg) was a German officer of the Imperial German Army and the Allgemeine SS, as well as the Waffen-SS, at last SS-Obergruppenführer, General der Polizei und General der Waffen-SS, but also member of the Reichstag.

Life

Richard Hildebrandt, RuSHA trial (Nuremberg)
Hildebrandt, in "Allgemeine SS - Polizei - Waffen SS 3" by Thierry Tixier
Fritz Hildebrandt (Richard's oldest brother)
Jewish post-war propaganda (1996)
  • Student at the Gymnasiums Worms, Frankfurt am Main and Dorsten (Gymnasium Petrinum)[1]
  • May 1915 Notabitur
  • Entered Army Service in WWI as a volunteer with the 2. Westfälisches Feldartillerie-Regiment Nr. 22 of the Prussian Army and would become artillery spotter on the Western and Eastern Front
    • November 1915 transfer to the Thüringisches Fußartillerie-Regiment Nr. 18, later to the Feldartillerie-Regiment „Prinzregent Luitpold von Bayern“ (Magdeburgisches) Nr. 4
  • November/December 1918 Initially worked in his father's plant in Holsterhausen
  • 1919 to 1921 He then studied economics, languages, history and art history in Cologne and Munich without a degree.
  • He worked as a commercial correspondent and banker in Cologne, Munster, Augsburg, Worms and Hanover.
  • May/August 1922 Member of the NSDAP in Bad Windsheim (Mittelfranken)
  • May 1923 to 1928 Member of Bund Oberland as district leader (Bezirksführer)
  • June 1923 Member of the Sturmabteilung
    • Took part in the Deutscher Tag on 1 to 2 September 1923 in Nürnberg with over 100,000 participants
    • One of the most important results of the "German Day" in Nuremberg was the formation of the Deutscher Kampfbund from the SA (Hermann Göring), Reichsflagge (Captain Adolf Heiß) and Bund Oberland (Friedrich Weber), with Hermann Kriebel appointed as its military leader. Max Erwin von Scheubner-Richter became managing director; political leadership was taken over by Hitler on 25 September 1923.
  • 1928 Hildebrandt emigrated to the USA. He worked as a farmer, gardener, craftsman and as a bookseller in a German bookshop in New York.
  • 1 June 1928 He re-joined the NSDAP (NSDAP-Ortsgruppe) in New York (NSDAP-Nr.: 89 221)
  • May 1930 Return to Germany and Bad Windsheim
    • NSDAP local group leader (Ortsgruppenleiter) and later district leader (Bezirksleiter) of Windsheim/Uffenheim in the district of Middle Franconia
  • January 1931 While now living in Schillingsfürst near Rothenburg ob der Tauber, Hildebrandt re-joined the SA
  • February 1931 Converted from the SA to the Allgemeine SS (SS-Nr.: 7,088)
  • 24 June to 14 August 1931 Service in the SS-Abschnitt I
  • 17 August 1931 Staff leader and adjutant to the leader of Adolf Hitler's bodyguard at the time, Sepp Dietrich
  • 1 July 1932 Staff leader and adjutant of the SS Brigade Süd (Munich), re-named SS Group Süd in October 1932
  • 30 January 1933 transferred to SS Group West (SS-Gruppe West) after a conflict with Julius Streicher
    • Hildebrandt was seen as short-tempered. He was an "opponent of the many little Hitlers", as Heinz Höhne wrote.
  • November 1933 to 8 May 1945 Member of the German Reichstag
    • initially for constituency 7 (Breslau) and from 1936 for constituency 19 (Hesse-Nassau)
  • 12 January 1934 to 15 April 1935 Leader of the SS Section XXI (SS-Abschnitt XXI)
  • 1934 (other sources claim summer 1933) Prussian provincial council (Preußischer Provinzialrat)
  • Mid-April 1935 Full-time leader of SS Section XI (SS-Abschnitt XI) in Wiesbaden
  • 1936 Member of the local state farmers' council (Landesbauernrat), Landbauernthing and Reichsbauernthing in the Rhine province
  • 1 January 1937 to 26 October 1939 1937 Leader of the SS Upper Section Rhine (SS-Oberabschnitt Rhein)
  • May 1939 He founded the "German Reich Association for People's Care and Settlement Aid" („Deutscher Reichsverein für Volkspflege und Siedlungshilfe“) with the aim of breaking up church property.
  • 1 April to 26 October 1939 Höherer SS- und Polizeiführer (HSSPF) Rhein (Higher SS and Police Leader Rhine)
  • Oktober/November 1939 to April 1943 HSSPF of Danzig-Westpreußen
    • in personal union leader of the SS Upper Section Vistula and in Danzig-West Prussia representative of the Reich Commissioner for the Consolidation of German Nationality; also judge (Gerichtsherr) of the SS- und Polizei-Gericht IV Danzig since 20 November 1939; Hildebrandt resigned from his position as HSSPF after disputes over competence with Gauleiter Albert Forster.
  • April 1940 to July 1942 Member of the People's Court (Volksgerichtshof)
  • 20 April 1943 to 8 May 1945 Chief of the Rasse- und Siedlungshauptamt der SS (RuSHA)
  • 25 Dezember 1943 to 5 September 1944 Acting HSSPF Black Sea and also SS- und Polizeiführer (SSPF) Taurien-Krim-Simferopol (SS and Police Leader), acting for Ludolf Hermann Emmanuel Georg Kurt Werner von Alvensleben (1901–1970)
  • 25 August to 9 September 1944 HSSPF Siebenbürgen
  • 26 February to 8 May 1945 Liaison officer of the RFSS to the Oberbefehlshaber Heeresgruppe Mitte (commander of Army Group Centre), Generalfeldmarschall Ferdinand Schörner
  • 10 March to 8 May 1945 Leader of the SS-Oberabschnitt Südost and HSSPF Südost
    • After SS-Obergruppenführer Karl Wolff had turned his back on Heinrich Himmler and signed the German surrender for Southwest in Italy in March 1945, Hildebrandt, together with SS-Obergruppenführers Felix Steiner and Curt von Gottberg, considered the plan to assassinate Hitler and thus end the war to put. But nothing came of it.
  • April to 8 May 1945 also Höherer SS- und Polizeiführer (HSSPF) Böhmen-Mähren with headquarters in Prague
  • 24 December 1945 Arrested in Wiesbaden
  • 10. März 1948 Convicted to 25 years for alleged war crimes at the RuSHA trial
    • He was then extradited to Poland, where he was tried (show trial) together with Max Henze and sentenced to death on 4 November 1949 for his service in Danzig-West Prussia
  • 10 March 1951 Execution

Family

Richard was born the son of Albert Julius Hildebrandt (b. 1866 in St. Georgen-Bayreuth; d. 1939 in Windsheim) and his wife Margareta Christina, née Dos. His father was director and co-owner of the Keramitwerk founded in Holsterhausen in 1911, which was taken over by Röchling (Wetzlar) in 1914, converted into a steelworks and closed in the mid-1920s. Father Albert was Mayor in Windsheim from 1930 until 1933. Richard had five brothers:

  • Friedrich "Fritz" (b. 2 November 1892 in Fichtelberg), who had fought in WWI and married Toni Ulrich (a descendant of the son-in-law of Pfungstadt brewery founder Justus Hildebrand) in 1922, joined the SS rune.png in Bavaria (SS-Nr. 181,214) and was a member of the NSDAP (Nr. 2,176,645), along with his wife, since 1932. From 1939 to 1944, he was SS-Standartenführer (since 20 April 1939) and leader of the 33rd SS Standard in Mainz. He is not to be confused with the NSDAP politician (Gauleiter und Reichsstatthalter des Gaues Mecklenburg) SS-Obergruppenführer Friedrich "Fritz" Hildebrandt (1898–1948) and with two SS officers of the same name (like SS-Obersturmbannführer der Waffen-SS Fritz Hildebrandt, born 6 February 1897 in Erfurt) who worked in concentration camps (SS-Totenkopfverbände) and one of whom was sentenced to life imprisonment in Bremen. He served in the Wehrmacht instead of in the Waffen-SS. As Hauptmann der Reserve of the 79. Infanterie-Division he survided the Battle of Stalingrad, being wounded and flown out on one of the last planes. As Major der Reserve he fought with the LXXVI. Panzerkorps, were he was Dritter Generalstabsoffizier or Ic, also responsible for the anti-partisan warfare (Bandenbekämpfung). Among other decorations, he was awarded the War Merit Cross 2nd and 1st Class with swords as well as the German Cross in Silver on 26 December 1944. From 2 May 1945 until 4 May 1948, he was a POW of the British. From 1926, before the war, to 1961 he was managing director of the Pfungstadt brewery, which is still respected today.
  • Karl (b. 1894 in Offstein; d. 1971 in Eintürmen) was an architect by profession, but went full-time to the Reich Labor Service (RAD). In 1935, he switched to the judiciary and became head of the “Hanns Kerrl” community camp for trainee lawyers in Jutebog. In 1940, he returned to the Reich Labor Service as a senior labor leader (to be compared with a lieutenant colonel), was drafted into the Heer and was so wounded in numerous military operations that he had to retire in 1944. Before the end of the war, he went underground in Warmensteinach/Ofr. (approx. 25 km from Bayreuth), the birthplace of his mother, and re-surfaced in the early 1950s as a beekeeper and chairman of the Warmensteinach local group of the Fichtelgebirge home association.
  • Ernst-Albrecht (b. 31 May 1895 in Offstein; d. 28 March 1970 in Nürnberg)[2], fought in WWI, Oberleutnant a. D., studied economics for two semesters at Goethe University in Frankfurt, served briefly in the Freikorps from 1922 to 1923, served as an SA battalion adjutant in Coburg, worked as a commercial clerk, then auditor, joined the SS rune.png (SS-Nr. 25,517) in February 1932, the NSDAP in May 1933 (Nr. 1,664,468), was Police Director in Hof, then Chief of Police in Dessau, became a SS-Hauptsturmführer d. R. der Waffen-SS (30 January 1943) as well as SS-Oberführer (April 1944) of the Allgemeine SS as well as SS and Police Leader (SSPF) in northern Italy with headquarters in Bologna. After the war he lived in Dorsten, was denazified, moved to Düsseldorf, then to Hof (Upper Franconia) and in 1954 to Nuremberg.[3]
  • Wilhelm (b. 10 May 1898 in Gräfenberg)
  • Otto (b. 6 August 1899 in Offstein; d. 1967 in Windsheim)

Marriage

On 24 March 1928, Richard Hildebrandt married in New York his fiancée Johanna "Hansi" Fischer (b. 26 June 1903 Bamberg). They had three children, two sons (born 14 March 1932 und 6 July 1936 in Danzig, one was named Wolfgang) and a daughter (born 7 September 1934 in Danzig).

Promotions

Awards and decorations

SS-Obergruppenführer Richard Hildebrandt (uniform, museum) (1).jpg

Gallery

  • SS-Obergruppenführer Richard Hildebrandt II.jpg
  • Richard Hildebrandt.jpg
  • SS-Obergruppenführer Richard Hildebrandt (uniform, museum) (2).jpg

Writings

  • Richard Hildebrandt / Ruprecht Schulemann: Wegweiser in die neue Heimat Danzig-Westpreußen, Danziger Verlags-Druckerei, 1941 to 1943 (five editions)

References

  1. ↑ Richard Hildebrandt, Dorsten-transparent.de, 20 November 2020
  2. ↑ Hildebrandt, Ernst-Albrecht
  3. ↑ On 1 February 1932, Hildebrandt joined the SS. He was commissioned an SS-Sturmführer on 2 April of that year and promoted to SS-Hauptsturmführer on 15 November. After the NSDAP victory, he rejoined the Party on 1 April 1933. He began his career as an intelligence officer with the SD from March to May 1933 in SS-Gruppe "Süd" in Munich, the headquarters of the Party. He was then made commander of the SD detachment in that jurisdiction (renamed SS-Oberabschnitt (Main District) "Süd" in November 1933) and served in that capacity until April 1934. At that point, he was made a special duties officer on the staffs of the 15th SS-Standarte in Altona, and then the 75th SS-Standarte in Berlin; these assignments ran from April 1934 until April 1937. He was then promoted to SS-Sturmbannführer and returned to his SD command in Munich from 20 April to 10 August 1937. Hildebrandt's next posting was as the Police President in Hof, where he attained the rank of SS-Obersturmbannführer in November 1938 and remained until July 1940. From 6 July 1940 until the fall of the Reich, Hildebrandt was the Police President of Dessau, though others acted in his place during his long wartime absence.
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