List of Nazi Party leaders and officials

Leaders of the Nazi Party and Nazi affiliated organizations
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This is a list of Nazi Party (NSDAP) leaders and officials. It is not meant to be an all inclusive list.

Hermann Göring and Heinrich Himmler

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(from left) Philip Bouhler, Karl Freiherr Michel von Tüßling, Robert Ley with his wife Inge; Munich, July 1939

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  • Eugen Hadamovsky – National programming director for German radio; chief of staff in the Nazi Party's Central Propaganda Office (Reichspropagandaleitung) in Berlin from 1942 to 1944.
  • Heinrich Hager – SA-Oberführer. Elected at Reichstag 1932 to his death in 1941. Leader of SA Brigade 77.
  • Karl Hanke – A State Secretary in the Ministry of Propaganda (1937–1941); Gauleiter of Gau Lower Silesia and Oberpräsident of the Prussian Province of Lower Silesia from 1941 to 1945; the last Reichsführer-SS (after Himmler was expelled from office by Hitler) from late April to early May 1945.
  • Fritz Hartjenstein – SS-Obersturmbannführer. Concentration camp commandant at Auschwitz-Birkenau, Natzweiler and Flossenbürg.
  • Paul Hausser – SS-Oberstgruppenführer; Generaloberst der Waffen-SS. First commander of the military SS-Verfügungstruppe (SS-VT) that grew into the Waffen-SS, in which he was a prominent field commander.
  • Franz Hayler – State Secretary and Deputy to the Reich Economics Minister during the latter part of World War II.
  • Martin Heidegger – Eminent philosopher; NSDAP member who supported Hitler after he became Chancellor in 1933.
  • Erhard Heiden – Founding member of the Schutzstaffel (SS); its third Reichsführer from 1927 to 1929.
  • Edmund Heines – An early Party member, he participated in the Beer Hall Putsch. Deputy Gauleiter of Gau Silesia, Police President of Breslau and an SA-Obergruppenführer, he was the Deputy to Stabschef Ernst Röhm from 1931 and was executed during the Night of the Long Knives.
  • August Heißmeyer – An SS-Obergruppenführer, he led the SS Main Office (1935–1939) and was the Higher SS and Police Leader for Berlin and Brandenburg (1939–1945).
  • Wolf-Heinrich Graf von Helldorff – An SA-Obergruppenführer and General der Polizei, he was Police President of Potsdam (1933–1935) and Berlin (1935–1944) where he led anti-Jewish riots. Involved in the 20 July Plot, he was executed in 1944.
  • Otto Hellmuth – Gauleiter of Gau Mainfranken and an Obergruppenführer in the National Socialist Motor Corps (NSKK).
  • Konrad Henlein – A Sudeten German, he founded the Sudeten German Party and was the Gauleiter and Reichsstatthalter of Reichsgau Sudetenland and an SS-Obergruppenführer.
  • Rudolf Hess (not to be confused with Rudolf Höß) – Reichsleiter, SS-Obergruppenführer and Deputy Führer to Hitler until his flight to Scotland on the eve of the German invasion of the Soviet Union in June 1941.
  • Walther Hewel – An early Party member and a participant in the Beer Hall Putsch. He was a protégé of Foreign Minister Joachim von Ribbentrop, a "Special Ambassador" and the Foreign Office liaison to Hitler. He was a personal friend of Hitler and an SS-Brigadeführer.
  • Werner Heyde – Psychiatrist; one of the main organizers of the T-4 Euthanasia Program.
  • Reinhard Heydrich – SS-Obergruppenführer; General der Polizei, Chief of the RSHA or Reichssicherheitshauptamt (Reich Security Main Office: including the Gestapo, SD and Kripo police agencies); Stellvertretender Reichsprotektor (Deputy Reich-Protector) of Bohemia and Moravia. He was Himmler's "right-hand man", and considered a principal architect of the Night of the Long Knives and the Final Solution. Assassinated in Prague in 1942 by British-trained Czech commandos.
  • Konstantin Hierl – Reichsleiter and head of the Reichsarbeitsdienst; associate of Adolf Hitler before he came to power.
  • Friedrich Hildebrandt – Gauleiter and Reichsstatthalter of Gau Mecklenburg. He was also an SS-Obergruppenführer.
  • Erich Hilgenfeldt – Head of the National Socialist People's Welfare and an SS-Gruppenführer.
  • Heinrich Himmler – Reichsführer-SS. As head of the SS, Chief of the German Police and later Reich Minister of the Interior, one of the most powerful men in the Third Reich. Reichsleiter, Commander-in-Chief of the Replacement Army and Reich Commissioner for the Consolidation of German Nationhood. Expelled from offices by Hitler in late April 1945.
  • Hans Hinkel – Journalist; Commissioner at the Reich Ministry for the People's Enlightenment and Propaganda.
  • August Hirt – Chairman at the Reich University in Strasbourg; instigated a plan to build a study-collection of specialized human anatomical specimens from over 100 murdered Jews. Allied discovery of corpses, paperwork and statements of laboratory assistants led to war crimes trial preparation, which he avoided through suicide.
  • Adolf Hitler – Politician; leader of the National Socialist German Workers' Party (German: Nationalsozialistische Deutsche Arbeiterpartei, abbreviated NSDAP), commonly known as the Nazi Party. Absolute dictator of Germany from 1934 to 1945, with titles of Chancellor from 1933 to 1945 and head of state (Führer und Reichskanzler) from 1934 to 1945.
  • Franz Hofer – Gauleiter and Reichsstatthalter of Reichsgau Tirol-Vorarlberg; Landeshauptmann of Tyrol; Supreme Commissioner of the Operation Zone of the Alpine Foothills. He was an advocate for creating an Alpine Fortress as a last stand redoubt for Nazi forces. He was an NSKK-Obergruppenführer.
  • Albert Hoffmann – The Gauleiter of Gau Westphalia-South from 1943 to 1945, at the same time he was Deputy to Goebbels in his capacity as Reich Inspector for Civil Air Warfare Measures and an SS-Gruppenführer.
  • Hermann Höfle – Deputy to Odilo Globocnik in the Aktion Reinhard program. Played a key role in the "Harvest Festival" massacre of Jewish inmates of various labor camps in the Lublin district of Nazi-occupied Poland in early November 1943.
  • Peter Högl – A policeman in the Kriminalpolizei , he became an SS-Obersturmbannführer and Deputy to Johann Rattenhuber in the Reichssicherheitsdienst (Reich Security Service) that provided personal protection for Hitler and other Nazi leaders.
  • Rudolf Höß – (not to be confused with Rudolf Hess) – SS-Obersturmbannführer; Commandant of Auschwitz concentration camp.
  • Karl Holz – protégé of rabid antisemitic journalist Julius Streicher, he was editor-in-chief at Der Stürmer and Deputy Gauleiter of Gau Franconia for many years, becoming Gauleiter in 1942. He was also an SA-Gruppenführer.
  • Franz Josef Huber – former Munich political police department inspector with Heinrich Müller; in 1938 appointed chief of the Security Police (SiPo) and Gestapo for Vienna and the "Lower Danube", and "Upper Danube" regions of Austria.
  • Adolf Hühnlein – Reichsleiter; Korpsführer (Corps Leader) of the National Socialist Motor Corps (NSKK) from 1934 until his death in 1942.

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  • Fritz Sauckel – Gauleiter of Gau Thuringia, Reichsstatthalter of Thuringia, General Plenipotentiary for Labour Deployment (1942–45) and an Obergruppenführer in both the SA and the SS. Convicted of war crimes and hanged by the Nuremberg Tribunal.
  • Karl-Otto Saur – Head of the Technical Department in the Reich Ministry of Armaments and War Production, he was chief of staff to both the Fighter Staff and the Armaments Staff from 1944. He was named Reichsminister of Munitions in Hitler’s will in place of Albert Speer.
  • Hjalmar Schacht – An economist, banker and politician, who served as the Currency Commissioner and President of the Reichsbank under the Weimar Republic. A fierce critic of post-World War I reparation obligations, he became a supporter of Hitler and served as President of the Reichsbank and Reich Minister of Economics. He played a key role in restoring the German economy but since he opposed the policy of German re-armament, Schacht was first sidelined and then forced out beginning in December 1937. Schacht became a fringe member of the German Resistance and was imprisoned after the 20 July plot in 1944. He was tried at Nuremberg and acquitted.
  • Paul Schäfer – Hitler Youth member and Wehrmacht corporal, subsequently convicted for multiple charges of child sex abuse in Chile.
  • Gustav Adolf Scheel – Reichsstatthalter and Gauleiter of Reichsgau Salzburg (1941–1945) and a Nazi "multifunctionary." As the Reichsstudentenführer, he headed the National Socialist German Students' League and the German Student Union. He was also a Higher SS and Police Leader and an SS-Obergruppenführer.
  • Walther Schellenberg – SS-Brigadeführer who rose through the SS as Heydrich's deputy. In March 1942, he became Chief of Department VI, SD-foreign branch, which, by then, was a department of the RSHA. Later, following the abolition of the Abwehr in 1944, he became head of all foreign intelligence.
  • Hans Schemm – A Gauleiter in Bavaria from 1928 and Head of the National Socialist Teachers League. Died in a plane crash in 1935.
  • Wilhelm Schepmann – SA-Obergruppenführer, and SA-Stabschef from 1943 to 1945.
  • Max Scheubner-Richter – most senior Nazi killed during the Beer Hall Putsch, ideologue and mentor to Alfred Rosenberg.
  • Baldur von Schirach – Reichsleiter for Youth Education, leader of the Hitler Youth (1931–40) and Gauleiter & Reichsstatthalter of Vienna (1940–45). He was an SA-Obergruppenführer.
  • Franz Schlegelberger – Jurist and State Secretary in the Reich Ministry of Justice (1931–1941) he became Acting Reich Minister of Justice (1941–1942).
  • Fritz Schlessmann – Police President, Deputy Gauleiter and Acting Gauleiter of Gau Essen. He was also an SS-Obergruppenführer.
  • Albert Schmierer - Head of the Reich pharmacists Reichsapothekerführer (1933-1945).
  • Carl Schmitt – Philosopher, jurist, and political theorist.
  • Kurt Schmitt – Economic leader and Reich Economomics Minister (1933–1934).
  • Paul Schmitthenner – Architect and city planner.
  • Gertrud Scholtz-Klink – Leader of the National Socialist Women's League (1934–1945).
  • Wilhelm Freiherr von Schorlemer – SA-Obergruppenführer. Member of the constituency of the National Socialist Reichstag. Leader of SA Group "Danube". (1938–1945).
  • Ferdinand Schörner – A Generalfeldmarschall, he was a committed Nazi loyalist known for brutality and harsh discipline. A holder of the Golden Party Badge, he was appointed the last Commander-in-Chief of the German Army in Hitler’s will.
  • Julius Schreck – Co-founder of the SA and Stoßtrupp-Hitler. The first commander of the SS from April 1925 to April 1926. Later Hitler's personal chauffeur.
  • Franz Xaver Schwarz – Reichsleiter, National Treasurer of the NSDAP 1925–1945 and head of the Reichszeugmeisterei or National Material Control Office. Promoted to SS-Oberstgruppenführer in 1944.
  • Heinrich Schwarz – Commandant of Auschwitz III-Monowitz concentration camp from 1943 to 1945.
  • Franz Schwede – The first Nazi elected as Bürgermeister of a German City (Coburg) he was later Gauleiter of Gau Pomerania, Oberpräsident of the Prussian Province of Pomerania and an SA-Obergruppenführer.
  • Lutz Graf Schwerin von Krosigk – Reich Minister of Finance (1932–1945) and "Leading Minister" of the last cabinet of the Third Reich under Reich President Großadmiral Karl Dönitz.
  • Siegfried Seidl – Commandant of the Theresienstadt (1941–1943) and Bergen-Belsen (1943–1944) concentration camps.
  • Franz Seldte – Leader of Der Stahlhelm under the Weimar Republic, he was Reich Minister for Labour from 1933 to 1945.
  • Arthur Seyss-Inquart – Austrian Nazi; upon being appointed Chancellor in 1938 he invited in German troops resulting in Austria's annexation. Later Deputy to Hans Frank in the General Government of occupied Poland (1939–40), and Reichskommissar of the Netherlands (1940–44). He was also an SS-Obergruppenführer. Convicted of war crimes and hanged by the Nuremberg Tribunal.
  • Ludwig Siebert – Minister President and Minister of Finance in Bavaria until his death in 1942, he was also an SA-Obergruppenführer.
  • Gustav Simon – Gauleiter of Gau Moselland from 1931 and Chief of Civil Administration in Luxembourg from 1940 to 1944. He was an NSKK-Obergruppenführer.
  • Franz Six – Chief of Amt VII, Written Records of the Reichssicherheitshauptamt (RSHA) which dealt with ideological tasks. These included the creation of anti-semitic, anti-masonic propaganda, the sounding of public opinion and monitoring of Nazi indoctrination by the public.
  • Otto Skorzeny – An SS-Obersturmbannführer, he headed many commando operations including the rescue from captivity of Italian dictator Benito Mussolini.
  • Albert Speer – Architect for Nazis' offices and residences, Party rallies and State buildings (1932–42). In 1942 he succeeded Fritz Todt as Reich Minister of Armaments and War Production, Head of the Organisation Todt, Inspector General for German Roadways and Inspector General for Water and Energy.
  • Jakob Sprenger – The Gauleiter of Gau Hesse-Nassau as well as Reichsstatthalter and Minister President of Hesse and Oberpräsident of the Prussian Province of Nassau from 1944, he was also an SA-Obergruppenführer.
  • Franz Stangl – Commandant of the Sobibor (1942) and Treblinka (1942–1943) extermination camps.
  • Johannes Stark – German physicist and Physics Nobel Prize laureate who was closely involved with the Deutsche Physik movement under the Nazi regime.
  • Otto Steinbrinck – Industrialist and bureaucrat.
  • Felix Steiner – SS-Obergruppenführer und General der Waffen-SS. He was chosen by Himmler to oversee the creation of, and command the volunteer Waffen-SS Division, 5th SS Panzer Division Wiking.
  • Walter Stennes – the Berlin commandant of the Sturmabteilung (SA), who in the summer of 1930 and again in the spring of 1931 led a revolt against the NSDAP in Berlin as these SA members saw their organization as a revolutionary group, the vanguard of a socialist order that would overthrow the hated Republic. Both revolts were put down and Stennes was expelled from the Nazi Party. He left Germany in 1933 and worked as a military adviser to Chiang Kai-shek.
  • Willi Stöhr – From late 1944, he was Gauleiter and Reichsstatthalter of Gau Westmark. In addition, he was the Chief of Civil Administration in occupied Lorraine.
  • Gregor Strasser – early prominent German Nazi official and politician. Murdered during the Night of the Long Knives in 1934.
  • Otto Strasser – early prominent German Nazi official and politician. Otto Strasser, together with his brother Gregor Strasser, was a leading member of the party's left-wing faction, and broke from the party due to disputes with the dominant "Hitlerite" faction.
  • Julius Streicher – founder and publisher of anti-semitic Nazi newspaper Der Stürmer (1923–1945), Gauleiter of Franconia (1929–40). Convicted of war crimes and hanged by the Nuremberg Tribunal.
  • Karl Strölin – Lord Mayor of Stuttgart (1933–1945) and Chairman of the Deutsches Ausland-Institut (DAI).
  • Jürgen Stroop – SS-Gruppenführer und Generalleutnant der Waffen-SS und Polizei. Stroop's most prominent role was the suppression of the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising, an action which cost the lives of over 50,000 people.
  • Wilhelm Stuckart – Jurist, State Secretary in the Interior Ministry and attendee at the Wannsee Conference. He was also an SS-Obergruppenführer.
  • Otto von Stülpnagel – General and Military Commander of occupied France from 1940 to 1942.
  • Emil Stürtz – He was Gauleiter of Gau March of Brandenburg and Oberpräsident of the Prussian Province of Brandenburg (1936–1945). He was also Oberpräsident of Posen-West Prussia from 1936 to its dissolution in 1938, and was an Obergruppenführer in the National Socialist Motor Corps.
  • Friedrich Syrup – Jurist and politician, who served as Reich Minister for Labour from 1932 to 1933.

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  • Fritz Wächtler – Gauleiter of the eastern Bavarian administrative region of Gau Bayreuth. He was an Obergruppenführer in both the SA and the SS.
  • Otto Wächter – Austrian lawyer and high-ranking member of the SS. He was appointed to government positions in Poland and Italy. In 1940 68,000 Jews were expelled from Krakow, Poland and in 1941 the Kraków Ghetto was created for the remaining 15,000 Jews by his decrees.
  • Otto Wagener – Soldier and economist. Was successively Stabschef of the SA, head of the Party Economic Policy Section, and briefly, Reich Commissar for the Economy. Subsequently he resumed his army career, reaching the rank of Generalmajor.
  • Adolf Wagner – A participant in the Beer Hall Putsch, he was Gauleiter of Gau Munich-Upper Bavaria as well as Deputy Minister President and Interior Minister of Bavaria. He was an SA-Obergruppenführer.
  • Gerhard Wagner – Reich Health Leader (Reichsärzteführer) from 1934 to 1939.
  • Josef Wagner – Gauleiter of Gau Westphalia-South from 1931 and also of Gau Silesia from 1934. Oberpräsident of the Prussian provinces of both Upper Silesia and Lower Silesia from 1934 and, after their union, the Province of Silesia (1938–1941). He was also an Obergruppenführer of both the SA and NSKK. Relieved of his posts in November 1941 and expelled from the Nazi Party in October 1942, he was executed by the Gestapo in 1945.
  • Robert Heinrich Wagner – A participant in the Beer Hall Putsch, he was Gauleiter of Gau Baden from 1925 and Reichsstatthalter of Baden. He was also Chief of Civil Administration for occupied Alsace from 1940 to 1944 and an NSKK-Obergruppenführer.
  • Karl Wahl – An early Party member, he was Gauleiter of Gau Swabia and an SS-Obergruppenführer.
  • Paul Wegener – A regional administrator in occupied Norway from 1940 to 1942, he succeeded Karl Röver as Gauleiter of Gau Weser-Ems and Reichsstatthalter of both Oldenburg and Bremen from 1942 to 1945. He was an SS-Obergruppenführer. President Karl Dönitz named him a State Secretary as staff chief of the civilian cabinet in May 1945.
  • Karl Weinrich – He was Gauleiter of Gau Electoral Hesse from 1928 to 1943 and an Obergruppenführer in the National Socialist Motor Corp (NSKK).
  • Ernst von Weizsäcker – A career diplomat, he was State Secretary in the Foreign Office from 1938 to 1943 and Ambassador to the Holy See from 1943 to 1945. An SS-Brigadeführer, he was convicted of war crimes in the Ministries Trial.
  • Wilhelm Weiß – Editor-in-Chief of the Nazi Party's official newspaper, the Völkischer Beobachter, from 1938 to 1945, President of the Reich Press Association and an SA-Obergruppenführer.
  • Horst Wessel – Sturmführer in the Berlin SA and author of the Horst-Wessel-Lied ("Die Fahne Hoch"), the Party anthem. Elevated to martyr status by Nazi propaganda after his 1930 murder– by Communists or by a rival pimp, according to their opponents.
  • Max Winkler – Reich Commissioner for the German Film Industry.
  • Christian Wirth – SS-Obersturmführer. He was a senior German police and SS officer during the program to exterminate the Jewish people of occupied Poland during World War II, known as "Operation Reinhard". Wirth was a top aide of Odilo Globocnik, the overall director of "Operation Reinhard" (Aktion Reinhard or Einsatz Reinhard).
  • Hermann Wirth – Dutch-German historian and scholar of ancient religions and symbols. He co-founded the SS-organization Ahnenerbe, but was later pushed out by Heinrich Himmler.
  • Eduard Wirths – Chief camp physician at Auschwitz concentration camp from 1942 to 1945.
  • Karl Wolff – SS-Obergruppenführer und General der Waffen-SS. He became Chief of Personal Staff to the Reichsführer-SS (Heinrich Himmler) and SS Liaison Officer to Hitler until his replacement in 1943. From 1943 to 1945, Wolff was the Supreme SS and Police Leader of the 'Italien' area. By 1945 Wolff was acting military commander of Italy, and in that capacity negotiated the surrender of all the forces in the Southwest Front.
  • Alfred Wünnenberg – SS-Obergruppenführer und General der Waffen-SS und der Polizei. Commander of the SS-Polizei-Division, 1941–1943; Chief of the Ordnungspolizei (Orpo), 1943–1945 after Kurt Daluege suffered a massive heart attack.

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See also

Sources

  • Höffkes, Karl (1986). Hitlers Politische Generale. Die Gauleiter des Dritten Reiches: ein biographisches Nachschlagewerk. Tübingen: Grabert-Verlag. ISBN 3878471637.
  • Brett-Smith, Richard (1976). Hitler's Generals. San Rafael, CA: Presidio Press. ISBN 0891410449.
  • Miller, Michael D.; Schulz, Andreas (2012). Gauleiter: The Regional Leaders of the Nazi Party and Their Deputies, 1925–1945. Vol. 1 (Herbert Albrecht – H. Wilhelm Hüttmann). R. James Bender Publishing. ISBN 978-1932970210.
  • Miller, Michael D.; Schulz, Andreas (2017). Gauleiter: The Regional Leaders of the Nazi Party and Their Deputies, 1925–1945. Vol. 2 (Georg Joel – Dr. Bernhard Rust). R. James Bender Publishing. ISBN 978-1932970326.
  • Miller, Michael D.; Schulz, Andreas (2015). Leaders of the Storm Troops. Vol. 1. Solihull, England: Helion & Company. ISBN 978-1909982871.
  • Snyder, Louis L. (1976). Encyclopedia of the Third Reich. McGraw Hill Inc. ISBN 978-1569249178.
  • Taylor, James; Shaw, Warren (1987). The Third Reich Almanac. New York: World Almanac. ISBN 0886873630.
  • Wistrich, Robert (1982). Who's Who in Nazi Germany. Macmillan Publishing Co. ISBN 002630600X.
  • Zentner, Christian; Bedürftig, Friedemann (1997). The Encyclopedia of the Third Reich. New York: Da Capo Press. ISBN 0306807939.
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