1. August Heissmeyer held several major commands, including as the chief of the SS Main Office from 1935 to 1939 and as the Higher SS and Police Leader of the Berlin district from 1939 to 1945.
19 Facts About August Heissmeyer
1. 2.
August Heissmeyer was wounded by shrapnel in April 1917 and, after recovery, he served as a company commander with Reserve Infantry Regiment 269 until August.
3.
August Heissmeyer joined the Grenzschutz Ost, a border defense force, for a short while and then left military service in February 1919.
4.
August Heissmeyer worked as a laborer in a wool products factory and then joined the Marine-Brigade von Loewenfeld, a Freikorps unit, between March and August 1920.
5.
August Heissmeyer took courses to complete his education and earned his Abitur in October 1920.
6.
August Heissmeyer formed a National Socialist factory cell and was terminated by the owners in April 1925 for his political activity.
7.
August Heissmeyer had married Marie Lode, a German Red Cross nurse, in August 1923 and by this time had the first of his six children by her.
8.
On 1 May 1925, August Heissmeyer joined the Sturmabteilung, the Nazi paramilitary organization, and became the SA-Fuhrer in Gottingen.
9.
August Heissmeyer formally was admitted to the Nazi Party on 30 October 1925.
10.
August Heissmeyer was named the SA-Gaufuhrer of SA-Gausturm Hannover-Sud and was responsible for expanding its membership, which he continued to lead until August 1928.
11.
August Heissmeyer attempted to return to his studies between 1925 and 1927 with the financial assistance of his father-in-law, but this was withdrawn when the extent of his political involvement was discovered and Heissmeyer again had to cease his studies.
12.
Between 1928 and 1931, August Heissmeyer continued to work at various jobs, including as a sales representative for a fruit tree company, at the Siemens-Schuckert aircraft engine plant and as an instructor at a driving school.
13.
August Heissmeyer joined the Schutzstaffel on 17 December 1930.
14.
In February 1936, August Heissmeyer was made Inspector of the National Political Institutes of Education, a network of elite secondary boarding schools to train future leaders of the Nazi state.
15.
On 9 November 1936, August Heissmeyer was promoted to SS-Obergruppenfuhrer and in April 1938, he was named chairman of the Reichsbund der Kinderreichen, an organization that promoted large Aryan families.
16.
Immediately following the outbreak of the Second World War, August Heissmeyer was appointed as the Higher SS and Police Leader "Spree" on 2 September 1939, where he was in charge of all SS and police in the Berlin-Brandenburg area.
17.
August Heissmeyer technically worked under the supervision of Heissmeyer who, until 15 August 1940, held the title of Inspector of Concentration Camps and General Inspector of the SS-Totenkopfverbande.
18.
In December 1940, August Heissmeyer, a widower with six children, married Gertrud Scholtz-Klink, the Reichsfrauenfuhrerin of the National Socialist Women's League, who had two previous marriages and was a mother of four.
19.
August Heissmeyer was arrested in 1963, convicted of crimes against humanity and sentenced to life imprisonment in 1966.