Karl Weinrich

Karl Otto Paul Weinrich (born 2 December 1887, in Molmeck – died 22 July 1973, in Hausen) was a Nazi Party politician who was Gauleiter of Kurhessen.

Karl Weinrich
Karl Weinrich (in middle), photographed touring a German fortification along the Rhine River
Gauleiter of Gau Kurhessen
In office 1 February 1928 – 6 November 1943
Preceded by	Walter Schultz
Succeeded by	Karl Gerland
Personal details
Born	2 December 1887 Molmeck, Prussia, Germany
Died	22 July 1973 Hausen, West Germany
Political party	National Socialist German Workers' Party (NSDAP)

Weinrich was the son of a shoe manufacturer. After attending elementary school and technical school, he joined the Prussian army in 1906, where he worked in administration. During the First World War he was employed in an army provisions office in Germany. After the war, Weinrich worked in a government supply office from 1920, first in Cologne and from 1920 in Landau in the Bavarian Palatinate, where he also became a member of the Deutschvölkischer Schutz- und Trutzbund, a large anti-Semitic, völkisch organization.[1]

In February 1922 Weinrich joined the Nazi Party and founded local groups first in Landau and later in Kassel. After the ban on the party was lifted, he rejoined it in February 1925 (membership number 24,291). He became an Ortsgruppenleiter (Local Leader) in Kassel and from 1925 to 1927 was Deputy Gauleiter and Gau Treasurer. On 1 February 1928 he became Acting Gauleiter of Gau Hessen-Nassau Nord, succeeding Walter Schultz, and was named permanent Gauleiter in September. The Gau was renamed Gau Kurhessen on 1 January 1934.[2]

From 1929 to 1933 he was a City Councilor in Kassel. From October 14, 1930 to 1933 he was a member of the Landtag of Prussia. He was also a member of the Hessen-Nassau Provincial Parliament and the Kassel Municipal Parliament. In 1933-34 he was the Deputy Authorized Representative of the Province of Hesse-Nassau to the Reichsrat. From 11 July 1933 to 1945 he was a member of the Prussian State Council. From 12 November 1933 to 1945, he was a member of the Reichstag for electoral constituency 19, Hesse-Nassau.[3] A member of the National Socialist Motor Corps (Nationalsozialistisches Kraftfahrkorps, NSKK), he reached the rank of NSKK-Obergruppenführer on 30 January 1939.

On 16 November 1942, he was appointed the Reich Defense Commissioner for his Gau. Shortly after the air raid on Kassel of 22 October 1943, which destroyed the entire city center, Weinrich was charged him with failing in Kassel's war preparations and abandoning the city during the bombing. He was initially placed on leave and then removed from his post as Gauleiter on 6 November 1943. His successor was Karl Gerland, then the Deputy Gauleiter in Reichsgau Lower Danube.[4]

After the war ended, Weinrich was interned in the Eselheide internment camp from 1945 to 1950. On July 6, 1949, he was sentenced to ten years imprisonment by the Kassel Chamber of Justice as one of the main culprits of the Nazi (later reduced to six or seven years, sources differ). In November 1950 he was released, in consideration of time already served. From Kassel he moved to Trendelburg, then to Hausen near Offenbach am Main and finally back to Kassel at the beginning of the 1960s. He died on 22 July 1973.