Hans Kammler

Infobox Military Person
name= Hans Friedrich Karl Franz Kammler
lived= August 26 1901 – May, 1945?
placeofbirth= Stettin, Germany
placeofdeath=


caption= Hans Kammler, France, 1944
nickname=
allegiance=flagicon|Nazi Germany Nazi Germany
serviceyears=
rank= Obergruppenführer
branch= Schutzstaffel
commands=
unit=
battles= World War I
World War II
awards= |laterwork= General Dr Hans Friedrich Karl Franz Kammler (August 26 1901 – May 1945?) was a civil engineer and high-ranking officer of the SS. He oversaw SS construction projects, and towards the end of World War II was put in charge of the V-2 missile programme.

Early life

Kammler was born in Stettin, Germany (now Szczecin, Poland). In 1919, after volunteering for army service, he served in the Rossbach Freikorps. From 1919 to 1923 he studied civil engineering in Munich and Danzig (now Gdańsk).

Kammler joined the NSDAP on 1 March 1932 and held a variety of administrative positions when the Nazi government came to power in 1933, initially as head of the Aviation Ministry's building department. He joined the SS (no. 113,619) on 20 May 1933.

World War II

From 1942 Kammler designed facilities for the extermination camps, including gas chambers and crematoria. Kammler eventually became Oswald Pohl's Deputy at the SS-Wirtschafts-Verwaltungshauptamt (WVHA), which oversaw Amtsgruppe D (Amt D), the Administration of the concentration camp system, and was also Chief of Amt C, which designed and constructed all of the concentration and extermination camps. Following the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising in 1943, Heinrich Himmler assigned him to overseeing the demolition of the ghetto in retaliation.

Kammler was also charged with constructing facilities for various secret weapons projects, including manufacturing plants and test stands for the Messerschmitt Me 262 and V-2. Following the Allied bombing raids on Peenemünde in "Operation Hydra" in August 1943, Kammler was assigned to moving these production facilities underground, which resulted in the Mittelwerk facility and its attendant concentration camp complex, Mittelbau-Dora, which housed slave labour for constructing the factory and working on the production lines.

Albert Speer made Kammler his representative for "special construction tasks", expecting that Kammler would commit himself to working in harmony with the ministry's main construction committee. But in March 1944 Kammler had Goering appoint him as his delegate for "special buildings" under the fighter aircraft programme, which made him one of the war economy's most important managers, and robbed Speer of much of his influence.cite book | last = Kroener| first = Bernhard R | authorlink = | coauthors = | title = Wartime Administration, Economy, and Manpower Resources 1942 - 1944/5 | publisher = Oxford University Press | date = 2003 | location = | pages = p. 390 | url = | doi = | id = | isbn = 0198208731]

In 1944, Himmler convinced Adolf Hitler to put the V-2 project directly under SS control, and on August 8 Kammler replaced Walter Dornberger as its director. From January 1945, Kammler was placed as head of all missile projects and in April 1945 was created "Fuehrer's general plenipotentiary for jet aircraft" by Hitler.

In March 1945, as US forces were advancing through Germany, the slave workers housed in the Dora-Mittelbau concentration camp were to be executed as security risks. It is believed that the order for their murder was received by Kammler, but he did not comply with it.

Death

On 9 July 1945 Kammler's widow petitioned to have him declared dead as of 9 May 1945, adducing a sworn statement by Kammler's driver, Kurt Preuk, according to which Preuk had personally seen "the corpse of Kammler and been present at his burial" on 9 May 1945. The District Court of Berlin-Charlottenburg ruled on 7 September 1948 that his death was officialy established as 9 May 1945.

In a later sworn statement on 16 October 1959, Preuk stated that Kammler's date of death was "about 10 May 1945", but that he did not know the cause of death. On 7 September 1965, Heinz Zeuner (a wartime aide of Kammler's), stated that Kammler had died on 7 May 1945 and that his corpse had been observed by Zeuner, Preuk and others. All the eyewitnesses consulted were certain that the cause of death was cyanide poisoning. [cite book | last = Naasner| first = Walter | authorlink = | coauthors = | title = SS-wirtschaft und SS-verwaltung | publisher = Droste | date = 1998 | location = | pages = p. 341 | url = | doi = | id = | isbn = 3770016033]

In popular culture

Kammler will be a character in the upcoming Finnish science fiction movie "Iron Sky". [ [http://www.ironsky.net/site/?page_id=10 Story: Iron Sky] ]

Notes

ee also

*Arthur Rudolph
*The Bell
* [http://forum.axishistory.com/viewtopic.php?t=13942 Photograph and biography {reference only}]

Links

* [http://www.petermann-heiko.de/video/hitlers_bombe_lang.wmv Film "Hitler's Bomb" 179,4 MB]