Hartmann Lauterbacher

Hartmann Paul Johann Lauterbacher (24 May 1909 – 12 April 1988) was the German Stabsführer of the Hitler Youth (Hitler Jugend), the Gauleiter of Gau Southern Hanover-Brunswick (Südhannover-Braunschweig), the Oberpräsident of the Province of Hanover and an Obergruppenführer of both the SS and the SA in Nazi Germany.

Tried and acquitted of war crimes after the Second World War, he lived a shadowy existence, was recruited by the West German spy agency and was involved in many underground intelligence operations.

Lauterbacher was born the son of a veterinarian in Reutte in the Tyrol when it was part of Austria-Hungary.

He attended Volksschule in Reutte and Kufstein and the Kufstein Reform-Gymnasium.

From ages 16 to 18, he served an apprenticeship as a druggist in a pharmacy and photo development shop in Kufstein.

While still in school, he had joined the National Socialist Youth organization of the German National Socialist Workers' Party in 1922.

The next year in Kufstein, the then 14-year-old Lauterbacher co-founded the first Ortsgruppe (Local Group) of the Deutschen Jugend (German Youth) in Austria.

In that year, he became the Deputy Führer of the entire organization and served in that capacity until moving up to Führer in 1925.

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

Lauterbacher was a member of the Sturmabteilung (SA) in Kufstein from 1926 to 1927.

In April 1927, he joined the Hitler Youth (HJ) as member number 4,709, merging the Deutschen Jugend organization in Austria with it and becoming the HJ-Unterführer (subleader) in the Tyrol.

On 13 September 1927, he formally joined the Nazi Party (membership number 86,837).

As an Alter Kämpfer, he would later be awarded the Golden Party Badge.

After passing his state examination in 1928, he was employed by the Chamber of Industry and Commerce in Kufstein until March 1929.

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

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

By 1 February 1930, he had advanced to HJ-Bezirksführer (Area Leader) and by 21 March he was a full-time Hitler Youth official as the HJ-Gauführer for Gau Southern Hanover-Brunswick with headquarters in Hanover.

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.

On 10 April 1932, he was promoted to HJ-Gebeitsführer (Regional Leader) for Westphalia and the Lower Rhine region.

On 26 May 1933, after the Nazi seizure of power, he advanced to Führer of the HJ-Obergebeits-West, overseeing all HJ units in six regions of western Germany, including all the Rhineland, the Palatinate and Hesse-Nassau.

On 5 July 1933, he was also made Reichsjugendführer Baldur von Schirach's official representative for all of western Germany.

Lauterbacher's final promotion within the HJ came on 18 May 1934 when he was appointed Deputy Reichsjugendführer to Schirach and HJ-Stabsführer (Chief of Staff).

In his new position, he served as the HJ representative to the German Olympic Committee for the 1936 Summer Olympics in Berlin.

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

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

In addition to his HJ responsibilities, on 29 March 1936, Lauterbacher was elected as a deputy to the Reichstag from electoral constituency 16, Southern Hanover-Brunswick, a seat he would retain until the fall of the Nazi regime.

In April 1937, he was appointed a Ministerial Councilor (Ministerialrat) and, on 9 November of that year, he rejoined the SA with the rank of SA-Gruppenführer.

In 1939, he helped to establish the Academy for Youth Leadership in Braunschweig, a facility for the training and political indoctrination of HJ leaders.

While Schirach was on active military service with the Wehrmacht from December 1939, Lauterbacher served as HJ leader in an acting capacity.

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

While undergoing training in Döberitz, he suffered a severe injury to his right shin with a bone marrow infection and thrombosis that required hospitalization in June at the Hohenlychen Sanatorium, an SS medical facility.

Formally discharged from the Waffen-SS as unfit for front line duty, he joined the Allgemeine-SS (SS number 382,406) on 2 August 1940 with the rank of SS-Brigadeführer, and was assigned to the staff of Reichsführer-SS Heinrich Himmler.

After discharge from the hospital in June 1940, Lauterbacher reported to the branch office of the Party Deputy Führer Rudolf Hess in Vienna for training as a deputy Gauleiter.

On 8 August 1940, he left the HJ and was posted as the Deputy Gauleiter for Gau Southern Hanover-Brunswick, under Gauleiter Bernhard Rust and, on 15 November, he was appointed the Gau Housing Commissioner.

After the 57-year-old Rust stepped down as Gauleiter, Lauterbacher succeeded him on 8 December 1940.

Along with this position came membership on the Defense Committee for Wehrkreis (military district) XI, as well as the honorary leadership of the Academy for Youth Leadership.

Lauterbacher, as a youthful and energetic 31-year-old HJ veteran, was considered an ideal prototype for the new breed of Gauleiter.

In addition, he was a fanatic opponent of the churches and an avid proponent of the Party's dominant role in national affairs.

He would subsequently receive promotions to SS-Gruppenführer (20 April 1941) and SS-Obergruppenführer (30 January 1944).

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