Wilhelm Karpenstein
Wilhelm Karpenstein ( born May 24, 1903 in Frankfurt am Main, † May 2, 1968 in Lauterbach (Hesse) ) was Gauleiter of Pomerania during the period of National Socialism.
Life
After a short stint as a miner Karpenstein joined the Nazi Party and began the same year to study law, first in Frankfurt, then in Pomerania. In Greifswald in 1923, he founded the local branch of the NSDAP.
On 31 August 1925 he joined the now readmitted NSDAP ( Mitgliedsnr. 17,333 ) and returned for four years after Hessen ( Darmstadt). During this time he worked as a clerk at various Frankfurt dishes. In 1929 he completed his Assessor exam and returned to Greifswald. At the general election in 1930 he was elected NSDAP Reichstag deputy for the constituency of 6 ( Pomerania ); He was a member of the Reichstag from September 1930 to August 1934, from 1933 to the Prussian State Council. In April 1930 or January 1932, he was appointed as the successor of Walther von Corswant Gauleiter of Pomerania.
Karpenstein attracted attention by arbitrary actions and patronage economy. It based its policy on the SS Pomerania. The empire line inspection had on 14 September 1932, the state inspection in North Hinrich Lohse person to undergo a special examination conditions in Pomerania; but in the result, there was only a debate with the district administration. Lohse wrote on January 24, 1933 after re- statement of the Imperial government on 20 January 1933 to take strong action against abuses in Pomerania that " in Pomerania (...) things ( ...) proceedings unholy (...)" are; he suggested, " to replace the current Gauleiter. " On May 8, 1933 Karpenstein let the Szczecin district leadership of the NSDAP by the SS occupy. The landowner Baron Müffling from Friedland complained in a letter to Rudolf Hess about Karpenstein; who had " lived for years of stealing ," and accused him of homosexual tendencies. SA leader Ernst Röhm named him 1933 " a danger and a scandal for the movement."
Karpensteins human and financial policy within the Nazi party called the auditors appointed by the party to audit the finances in the summer of 1934 " irresponsible." He was as Gauleiter also editor of the " Pomeranian newspaper". As such, he branched of this newspaper from funds with which he bought 25 cars, he asked the SA available.
1934 ended his career abruptly. Background were disputes about the set up on the grounds of the former Vulcan shipyard from his time police chief angel and the local SS lineup concentration camp Bredow near Stettin. On July 21, 1934 Karpenstein was deposed as Gauleiter of Pomerania and expelled from the party, his successor as Gauleiter Franz Schwede was. Karpenstein was from October 1934 to the year 1936 by the Gestapo in Berlin. In July 1936, he was dismissed because of a pardon from prison, with the requirement to reside in Germany, but not within the Gau Pomerania.
He was a lawyer in Berlin since 1938 and during the 2nd World War, mainly soldier.
The responsibility Karpensteins for the concentration camp Bredow was after the second world war the subject of several lawsuits (including Darmstadt Administrative Court, judgment of 12 December 1957 Az I/906/56 and Federal Court, judgment of 12 October 1965 Case No. VI ZR 95 / 64, In: New Legal Wochenschrift 1965, p 2395 ). In this trial a joint responsibility of Karpenstein to the events in the concentration camp Stettin could not be found.
Awards
- January 25, 1934: Medal of the NSDAP