Contrary to what most people believe, there were a total of 5 men who held the position of Reichsführer-SS during the Third Reich. Most are obscure figures to history but I thought that the reader would be interested in knowing who they were.
Julius Schreck (July 13, 1898-May 16, 1936) was an early Nazi Party member and also the first commander of the Schutzstaffel (SS). Schreck joined the Nazi Party in 1920, at about the same time as Adolf Hitler, and the two developed a deep friendship in the early days of Nazi history.
In 1921 Schreck was one of the founders of the Sturmabteilung (SA) and also helped form the Stabswache, which was an early company of SA troops assigned as bodyguards to Hitler. In 1923, Schreck participated in the Beer Hall Putsch and was incarcerated at Landsberg prison along with other top Nazi leaders.
When the Nazi Party was refounded in 1925, Schreck was asked by Emil Maurice to help found a new bodyguard company for Hitler which would be known as the Stabswache. Later that year, the group of eight men was renamed as the Schutzstaffel and Schreck became SS Member number 5. He was also asked by Hitler to command the bodyguard company and, as such, became the first Reichsführer-SS (although Schreck never referred to himself by this title).
In 1926, Schreck stood down as Reichführer-SS. He remained on the SS rolls as an SS-Führer and worked as Hitler’s private chauffeur. In 1930, after the SS had begun to expand under Heinrich Himmler, Schreck was appointed as an SS-Standartenführer but had little actual power. He remained as Hitler's chauffeur for the next six years before resigning due to poor health. His final SS rank was that of SS-Oberführer.
In 1936, Julius Schreck developed meningitis and died on May 16th. He was honored in a Nazi state funeral with Adolf Hitler delivering his eulogy.
Joseph Berchtold (March 6, 1897-August 23, 1962), a former stationary salesman, succeeded Julius Schreck as Reichsführer SS in 1926. Considered to be more dynamic than Schreck, Berthold, a former stationary salesman, took command of the SS in 1926. But even he was finding it difficult to keep the Party organizers at bay and in March 1927 after much in-fighting, he resigned and was replaced by his deputy, Erhard Heiden. In this picture, Berchtold is standing at left.
Erhard Heiden (1927-1929)
Erhard Heiden (February 23, 1901-September 1933) was an early member of the Nazi Party and the third commander of the Schutzstaffel (SS). Heiden was a Nazi stormtrooper who, in 1925, joined a small stormtrooper bodyguard unit known as the Schutzstaffel. Heiden was an early advocate of separating the SS from its master organization, the Sturmabteilung (SA), and in March 1927 he was appointed as the Reichsführer-SS in an attempt to keep the SS from being disbanded under SA desires.
Under Heiden’s leadership the SS declined in membership from 1000 to 280, with SA desires made public that the SS should be disbanded. As Heiden attempted to keep the tiny group from going under, he hired a young chicken farmer, named Heinrich Himmler, to serve as his deputy. Heiden regarded Himmler as "a keen young clerk" but did not see him as leadership material. Nevertheless, in 1929 Heiden stepped down as commander of the SS and allowed Himmler to succeed him. He faded into obscurity as the SS grew to unprecedented levels with Heinrich Himmler, who had once been an office clerk under Heiden, became one of the most powerful men in Nazi Germany.I have so far, not found a picture of Heiden. If you can supply me with a picture, I would very much appreciate it.
Much has been written about Himmler so I will not repeat it here. Destined to be the most feared man in Germany, Himmler created an empire within Nazi Germany that is still studied to this day. In the last days of the war, Himmler tried to negotiate a separate peace with the Western Allies. As a result of this. while the Reich crumbled around him in late 1945, Hitler's last will and testament dismissed Himmler from all his posts and commands. Himmler committed suicide in May 1945 after being captured by the British. This photo was taken circa 1929 around the time of his appointment to the position of Reichführer-SS. Note that he wears the collar tabs of an SS-Oberführer (Senior Colonel).
Karl-August Hanke (August 24, 1903–May, 1945) was a Nazi Party official who served as Gauleiter of Lower Silesia from 1940 to 1945 and was also a key member of Joseph Goebbels's Propagandaministerium throughout the years of the Third Reich. He was a Reserve Wehrmacht officer, serving in the German Army from 1940 to 1944 and was also a member of the Allgemeine-SS (General SS). During the French campaign of 1940, Hanke served in Erwin Rommel's 7th Panzer Division, on occasion even saving his general's life when he and the general had suddenly driven into a large force of French bicycle troops.
Hanke was instrumental in shaping Albert Speer's early career in the Nazi Party and both remained close friends. So much so in fact that in 1944 (according to Albert Speer's book Inside the Third Reich), Hanke strongly advised Speer never to visit Auschwitz for any reason as he had "seen something that he was not allowed to describe and indeed could not describe".
According to Speer in Inside the Third Reich, Hanke also had a love affair with Magda Goebbels after her husband, Joseph Goebbels, had an affair with a film star. However, Speer describes their relationship as more of a "revenge affair" on Magda's part after learning of her husband's infidelity.
Hanke orchestrated the brutal expulsion of the civilian population of Bresla in the dying months of the war (deemed necessary for an effecive military defence of the city), however he is best known as the last Reichsführer-SS, replacing Heinrich Himmler on April 20, 1945. Just eight days before, he had been honored with Nazi Germany's highest decoration, the German Order, a reward for his defence of Breslau against the advancing Soviets. Hanke's ascendancy to the rank of Reichsführer-SS was as a result of Adolf Hitler proclaiming Himmler as a traitor and stripping Himmler of all his offices and ranks and ordering his arrest.
Karl Hanke was never to receive word of his promotion to the highest possible SS rank, as he was captured by either Czech or Polish partisans and executed sometime in May of 1945. Thanks to Micheal Lousada for sending me this picture of Hanke.