Rudolf Diels
| Rudolf Diels | |
 Ministerialrat Dr. jur. Rudolf Diels in 1933 | |
Director of the Gestapo
| |
|---|---|
| In office 26 April 1933 – 1934 | |
| President | Paul von Hindenburg Adolf Hitler (The Führer) |
| Chancellor | Adolf Hitler |
| Appointed by | Hermann Göring |
| Preceded by | none |
| Succeeded by | Reinhard Heydrich |
| Born | December 16, 1900 Prussia, German Empire |
| Died | November 18, 1957 (aged 56) Germany (hunting accident) |
| Political party | National Socialist German Workers' Party (NSDAP) |
| Spouse(s) | ∞ 1930 Hildegard „Hilde“ Mannesmann[1] ∞ 1943 Ilse Johanna Luise Katharina Ada Göring, née Burchard |
Rudolf Diels (b. 16 December 1900 in Berghausen in Taunus; d. 18 November 1957 in Katzenelnbogen)[2] was a German lawyer, politician, SS officer, administrative official and head of the Gestapo in 1933-34.[3] [4] He was a protégé of Hermann Göring.[3]
Contents
Life
Diels was born in Berghaus in Taunus[2], the son of a farmer.[3] He served in the Imperial German Army as a young volunteer during World War I and afterwards went to study law at the University of Marburg from 1919. He was a member of a Burschenschaft and was very courageous during academic fencing, as his facial scars show.
He joined the Prussian Interior Ministry in 1930 and was promoted to an advisory position in the Prussian police in 1932, targeting political radicals, both Communists and National Socialists. He had become head of the Prussian Political Police by early 1933 when the Reichstag Fire occurred.[5]
When Göring was made Prime Minister of Prussia in 1933, replacing Karl Severing, he was impressed with Diels' work and new commitment to the National Socialist Party. In April 1933 Göring re-appointed him as Chief of the new Prussian State Police department 1A, again concerned with political crimes.[3] Department 1A was soon renamed the Geheime Staatspolizei, or Gestapo. Diels was the main interrogator of Marinus van der Lubbe following the Reichstag fire of February 27, 1933.[2]
Diels soon attracted the attention of political rivals including Heinrich Himmler and Reinhard Heydrich.[3] Himmler was head of the SS at the time.[1] He was badly smeared, but with Goring's aid, he narrowly avoided execution during the Night of the Long Knives[3], fleeing his post for five weeks. When control of the Gestapo was then given to Himmler, Diels was dismissed on April 1, 1934. He was briefly Deputy Police President of Berlin before being appointed to the local government of Cologne as President of the District government (Regierungspräsident)[3].
He maintained his association with Göring, marrying a cousin of his protector.[2] Göring saved him from prison on a number of occasions, notably once in 1940 when he declined to order the arrest of Jews and more vitally in 1944 after the July 20 Plot to assassinate Hitler.[2]
Regierungspräsident a. D. (retired) Diels presented an affidavit for the prosecution at the Nuremberg trials[3] but was also summoned to testify by Göring's defence lawyer.[2] In 1948 he was released from Allied custody. He came home to his divorced second wife Ilse Diels-Göring (they had divorced officially due to pressure from above in the autumn of 1944, but stayed together), widow of Karl Ernst Göring (1885–1932), who ran the large chicken farm in Katzenelnbogen, where Diels had grown up. It was very profitable, and Diels had no financial cares. Ilse (1898–1972) had lost two of her three sons in WWII, they were officers of the Luftwaffe (Jagdgeschwader 26 and Jagdgeschwader 6).
He also served in the post-war government of Lower Saxony (Niedersachsen) from 1950[2] and then in the Ministry of the Interior until his retirement in 1953.[3]
Death
He died when his rifle accidentally discharged while he was hunting.[3][6]
Memoirs
Diels' memoirs, Lucifer Ante Portas: Von Severing bis Heydrich, were published in 1950.[3] A less cautious work was published after his retirement, Der Fall Otto Johns (1954).
SS-Promotions
- 9. November 1933 SS-Standartenführer (honorary as joining the SS)
- 20. April 1939 SS-Oberführer in the staff of the SS-Abschnitt IV (Hannover)
Awards and honours (excerpt)
- Ehrenkreuz für Frontkämpfer
- SS-Ehrendegen
- SS-Ehrenring
- Plakette für hervorragende Verdienste um die Luftverteidigung (air defense plaque) in Oktober 1940
- War Merit Cross (1939) (Kriegsverdienstkreuz), 2nd Class in April 1941
- Akademischer Ehrenbürger Technischen Hochschule (TH) Hannover (Academic Honorary Citizen of the university for engineering sciences)
- Ehrensenator der Technischen Hochschule (TH) Hannover (Honorary Senator of the university for engineering sciences)
Writings (selection)
- Lucifer ante portas. Zwischen Severing und Heydrich. Interverlag, Zürich 1949
- Der Fall Otto John. Göttinger Verlag-Anstalt, Göttingen 1954
Further reading
- Larson, Erik (2011). In the Garden of Beasts: Love, Terror, and an American Family in Hitler's Berlin, First, New York: Crown Publishing Group, 162. ISBN 978-0-307-40884-6.
- Diels, Rudolf. Affidavits of Rudolf Diels. Axis History: Holocaust and 20th Century War Crimes. Axis History Forum. Retrieved on 14 January 2012.
References
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 Larson, Erik (2011). In the Garden of Beasts: Love, Terror, and an American Family in Hitler's Berlin. New York: Crown Publishing Group, 138. ISBN 978-0-307-40884-6.
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 2.3 2.4 2.5 2.6 Hopmans, Rob. Rudolf Diels. World War II Graves. Retrieved on 14 January 2012.
- ↑ 3.00 3.01 3.02 3.03 3.04 3.05 3.06 3.07 3.08 3.09 3.10 Simkin, John. Rudolf Diels. Spartacus Educational. Retrieved on 14 January 2012.
- ↑ Larson, Erik (2011). In the Garden of Beasts: Love, Terror, and an American Family in Hitler's Berlin. New York: Crown Publishing Group, 117–118, 138–140. ISBN 978-0-307-40884-6.
- ↑ Diels, Rudolf. Rudolf Diels, Head of the Prussian Political Police, on the Reichstag Fire of February 27, 1933 (Retrospective Account, 1949). German History in Documents and Images (GHDI). Retrieved on 14 January 2012.
- ↑ Larson, Erik (2011). In the Garden of Beasts: Love, Terror, and an American Family in Hitler's Berlin. New York: Crown, 362. ISBN 978-0-307-40884-6.
