Karl Lenz was a Nazi Party official who served as the third and last Gauleiter of Gau Hesse-Darmstadt.
19 Facts About Karl Lenz
1.
2.
Karl Lenz was an officer in the Allgemeine SS and the Waffen-SS.
3.
Karl Lenz saw action on both the Eastern Front and Western Front with Infantry Regiment 70 and Reserve Infantry Regiment 221.
4.
Karl Lenz was awarded the Iron Cross 2nd class, classified as severely war-disabled and discharged from the military in January 1919.
5.
Karl Lenz worked for a time as an agricultural laborer and then attended teacher's college until 1920.
6.
Karl Lenz worked as a teacher in the Baden State government from 1920 to 1928, however his political activities led to numerous suspensions.
7.
Karl Lenz headed the Sturmabteilung in Heidelberg from 1922 to 1925 and was at one time arrested and held in detention for smuggling arms and explosives.
8.
The Nazi Party was banned in the aftermath of the Beer Hall Putsch but when the ban was lifted, Karl Lenz re-enrolled in April 1926 and was made the Ortsgruppenleiter in Eichtersheim.
9.
Karl Lenz became a municipal delegate there and by autumn moved up to Kreisleiter in Sinsheim, south of Heidelberg.
10.
Karl Lenz became a writer for "Fuhrer", the Nazi newspaper of Gau Baden published in Karlsruhe.
11.
Karl Lenz was then employed as a writer for the Nazi newspaper "Gau Baden der NSDAP" in Karlsruhe.
12.
In September 1930, Karl Lenz was elected to the Reichstag for electoral constituency 32.
13.
On 16 September 1931 following the death of Peter Gemeinder, Karl Lenz was appointed Gauleiter of Gau Hesse-Darmstadt, which consisted of the People's State of Hesse.
14.
In December 1931, Karl Lenz was elected to the Landtag of Hesse and in January was named the NSDAP parliamentary faction leader.
15.
Karl Lenz was engaged in a power struggle with Jakob Sprenger, the Landesinspekteur whose duties included oversight of Lenz' Gau.
16.
Just after Strasser's fall from power on 8 December 1932, Karl Lenz was removed as Gauleiter of Hesse-Darmstadt on 15 December.
17.
Karl Lenz's resignation was ostensibly due to health problems related to pneumonia and pleurisy but, in reality, was due to the above noted factors.
18.
In 1935, Karl Lenz resettled in Munich, returned to teaching and became active as a member of the National Socialist Teachers League.
19.
Karl Lenz died on 7 November 1944, from complications following an appendectomy.