Branch: Government
Born: 27 May 1879 in Lublinitz, German Empire.
Died: 4 January 1962 in Düsseldorf, West Germany.
Appointment's:
Chief of the Reich Chancellery 30 January 1933 to 24 April
1945
Cabinet Minister Without Portfolio or (Title Post - 1938)
Reich Minister 1 December 1937 to 24 April 1945
President Of The Reich Cabinet (Presiding Officer In Hitler's
Absence) January 1943 - 24 April 1945
Decorations:
Other: Personnel
Articles:
Hans Heinrich Lammers was born on 27 May 1879 and became a
German jurist and prominent Nazi politician. From 1933 until
1945 he served as head of the Reich Chancellery under
Adolf
Hitler.
Born in Lublinitz (Lubliniec) in Upper Silesia, the son of
a veterinarian, Hans Lammers completed law school at the universities
of Breslau (Wroclaw) and Heidelberg, obtained his doctorate
in 1904, and was appointed judge at the Amtsgericht of Beuthen
(Bytom) in 1912. As a volunteer and officer of the German
Army Hans Lammers received the Iron Cross, First and Second
Class during World War I, then resumed his career as a lawyer
and joined the national conservative German National People's
Party (DNVP), reaching the position of a Undersecretary at
the Reich Ministry of the Interior by 1922.
In 1932, Hans Lammers joined the National Socialist Party
and achieved rapid promotion, appointed head of the police
department, and in the course of the Nazi Machtergreifung
in 1933 a Secretary of State and Chief of the Reich Chancellery.
At the recommendation of Reich Minister Wilhelm Frick, Hans
Lammers became the centre of communications and chief legal
adviser for all government departments. From 1937, he was
a member of
Adolf
Hitler's cabinet as a Reich Minister without portfolio,
and from 30 November 1939 a member of the Council of Ministers
for the Defence of the Reich. In this position Hans Lammers
was able to review all pertinent documents regarding national
security and domestic policy even before they were forwarded
to
Adolf Hitler
personally.
Beginning in January 1943, Hans Lammers served as President
of the cabinet when
Adolf
Hitler was absent from their meetings. Along with
Martin
Bormann, Hans Lammers increasingly controlled access to
Adolf Hitler.
In February 1943, following the Battle of Stalingrad,
Martin
Bormann with Hans Lammers attempted to create a three-man
junta representing the Party
Martin
Bormann, The State (Hans Lammers), and the Army which
would have been led by Field Marshal
Wilhelm
Keitel, chief of the OKW (armed forces high command).
This Committee of Three would have exercised dictatorial powers
over the home front.
Joseph
Goebbels,
Albert
Speer,
Hermann
Göring and
Heinrich
Himmler all saw this proposal as a power grab by
Martin
Bormann and Hans Lammers and a threat to their power,
and combined to block it. However, this scheme eventually
collapsed due to the frequent infighting and mistrust the
party, military, and the various ministries had amongst one
another as Hans Lammers himself eventually lost power and
influence due to the increasing irrelevancies of his post
due to the war.
Hans Lammers in 1947 facing trial for crimes against humanity
In April Hans Lammers was arrested by
Adolf
Hitler's forces during the final days of the Third Reich,
in connection with the upheaval surrounding
Hermann
Göring, who thought that
Adolf
Hitler had stepped down.
Adolf
Hitler vehemently opposed giving up power and wanted Hans
Lammers shot. Hans Lammers was rescued when he was captured
by American forces, but in the meanwhile his wife committed
suicide near Obersalzberg (the site of
Adolf
Hitler's mountain retreat) in early May 1945, as did his
daughter two days later.
After the war in April 1946 Hans Lammers was a witness at
the Nuremberg tribunal. In April 1949 Hans Lammers was put
under Subsequent Nuremberg Trials in the Ministries Trial
and sentenced to 20 years in prison. The sentence was later
reduced to 10 years by U.S. High Commissioner John J. McCloy,
and Hans Lammers was finally pardoned and released in 1952.
Hans Lammers died on 4 January 1962 in Düsseldorf, and
was buried in Berchtesgaden in the same plot as his wife and
daughter.
For a complete list of
sources
