28 Facts About Hartmann Lauterbacher

Hartmann Paul Johann Lauterbacher was the German Stabsfuhrer of the Hitler Youth, the Gauleiter of Gau Southern Hanover-Brunswick, the Oberprasident of the Province of Hanover and an Obergruppenfuhrer of both the SS and the SA in Nazi Germany.

Hartmann Lauterbacher attended Volksschule in Reutte and Kufstein and the Kufstein Reform-Gymnasium.

The next year in Kufstein, the then 14-year-old Hartmann Lauterbacher co-founded the first Ortsgruppe of the Deutschen Jugend in Austria.

Hartmann Lauterbacher first met Adolf Hitler during a visit to Rosenheim on 19 April 1925.

Hartmann Lauterbacher was a member of the Sturmabteilung in Kufstein from 1926 to 1927.

Hartmann Lauterbacher moved to Braunschweig in April 1929 and attended the druggist academy there until March 1930.

Hartmann Lauterbacher became a part-time Hitler Youth volunteer employee and, by 13 November 1929, he was HJ-Fuhrer of the Braunschweig Ortsgruppe.

Hartmann Lauterbacher demonstrated great energy and organizational ability, establishing 31 HJ units in the Gau and increasing membership from 98 in 1930 to over 4,000 by 1932.

Hartmann Lauterbacher accompanied Schirach to important functions such as the 1936 Nuremberg Rally and an official visit to Italy in September 1936.

Hartmann Lauterbacher became the first recipient of the Golden Hitler Youth Badge.

Hartmann Lauterbacher was appointed to the staff of its national leadership, and would be promoted to SA-Obergruppenfuhrer on 20 April 1944.

Hartmann Lauterbacher himself was conscripted into the Waffen-SS on 26 May 1940 and was assigned to the SS-Leibstandarte Adolf Hitler as an SS-Oberscharfuhrer.

Hartmann Lauterbacher was appointed the representative of the General Plenipotentiary for Labor Deployment for his Gau on 6 April 1942, and the Gau Reich Defense Commissioner on 16 November 1942.

In March 1941, Hartmann Lauterbacher issued orders to the district Regierungsprasident, the Hanover Oberburgermeister and the local Gestapo to begin planning for the vacating of Jewish homes and apartments within the city.

Shortly before the arrival of the Americans, and only 20 days before Adolf Hitler killed himself, Hartmann Lauterbacher drove his family to safety in the Harz, but not before having announced over the radio the requisite exhortations for the public to hold out against the onslaught.

On 27 May 1946, Hartmann Lauterbacher appeared as a defense witness for Schirach at the Nuremberg Trials.

Hartmann Lauterbacher was then charged in December 1947 by the German court in Hanover in connection with his role in establishing the Jewish houses.

Hartmann Lauterbacher was reportedly in contact with the Italian intelligence agency.

Hartmann Lauterbacher was commissioned to assist in the organization of the so-called "ratlines", escape routes that Nazi war criminals like Adolf Eichmann, Joseph Mengele, Klaus Barbie and many others utilized in escaping to South America or Middle Eastern states with the help of human smugglers.

Hartmann Lauterbacher was identified and attacked by the Italian Communist Party newspaper l'Unita in April 1950 as a former Nazi leader being assisted by the Church.

For many years, Hartmann Lauterbacher's activities were shrouded in mystery and many conflicting narratives were developed.

However, on 14 December 2014, Spiegel online published a story revealing that Hartmann Lauterbacher had been an operative of the intelligence services of West Germany for thirteen years.

Hartmann Lauterbacher lived in Munich and West Berlin, posing as a foreign trade representative for a Munich-based company owned by his brother Hans.

Hartmann Lauterbacher was retained as an operative of the Gehlen Organization's successor, the Bundesnachrichtendienst when it was formed in 1956.

Hartmann Lauterbacher was employed as a personal advisor to Kwame Nkrumah, the president of Ghana, from 1963 until 1981.

Hartmann Lauterbacher is known to have had involvement with the government of the Kingdom of Morocco.

Hartmann Lauterbacher returned to Germany in 1983 and spent the rest of his life as a recluse but published his memoirs in 1984.

Hartmann Lauterbacher died in April 1988 at Seeon-Seebruck, near the border with his native Austria, without ever having been held accountable for his crimes during the Nazi dictatorship.