Leaders of the SS & German Police Volume I, containing 71 biographies of senior SS and Police leaders, is now available for order and shipment.
Orders may be submitted via the following page: https://secure.bender-publishing.com/index_s.htm
Thanks in advance and I hope that those who order the book are pleased with it.
~ Mike
Leaders of the SS & German Police
Volume I
Reichsführer-SS – SS-Gruppenführer
(Georg Ahrens to Karl Gutenberger)
by
Michael D. Miller
with
Andreas Schulz
and
Ken McCanliss
Foreword by Mark C. Yerger
Published by
R. James Bender Publishing
P.O. Box 23456
San Jose, CA 95153-3456
Price: $48.95 + $2.50 postage/handling
ISBN No. 1-932970-03-7
498 pages * 288 photos / 51 illustrations * Deluxe Binding [/center]
Sample biography (of the man whose photo appears on the cover, Herbert Backe):
Dipl.-Landwirt
Backe, Herbert Friedrich Wilhelm
SS-Obergruppenführer
Born: 01.05.1896 in Batumi / Transcaucasus, Russia.
Suicide: 06.04.1947 (hanged himself in his cell, Nürnberg Prison).
NSDAP-Nr.: 22 766 (First joined 01.12.1925; left, 24.11.1926; reenrolled 01.10.1931)
SS-Nr.: 87 882 (Joined 01.10.1933)
Promotions:
01.10.1933 SS-Sturmbannführer
27.10.1933 Staatssekretär
04.04.1934 SS-Obersturmbannführer (mit Wirkung vom 29.03.1934)
24.04.1934 SS-Standartenführer (mit Wirkung vom 20.04.1934)
28.08.1934 SS-Oberführer (mit Wirkung vom 09.09.1934)
01.01.1935 SS-Brigadeführer
30.01.1938 SS-Gruppenführer
23.05.1942 Oberbefehlsleiter der NSDAP
09.11.1942 SS-Obergruppenführer
01.04.1944 Reichsminister
Career:
00.00.1902 – 00.00.1905 Attended the German Evangelical Church School in Tiflis.
00.00.1905 – 00.08.1914 Attended the Russian 4th State Boys High School in Tiflis.
00.08.1914 – 00.04.1918 Held in a Russian internment camp for civilian aliens in the Ural region as a Prussian citizen.
00.04.1918 Fled to St. Petersburg.
00.06.1918 Returned to Germany through the efforts of the Swedish Red Cross in St. Petersburg, on the condition that he not be conscripted for military service.
00.06.1918 Entered service as a Kriegsfreiwilliger (saw no frontline service).
00.00.1918 – 10.01.1919 Employed as temporary lathe operator, later as a temporary fitter and payroll clerk in a branch of the “Gute-Hoffnungs-Hütte Oberhausen” (Good Hope Steel Works Oberhausen) in Sterkrade (Ruhr District). His family lost everything during the war and he was forced to work in order to support his sick mother, his brother who was studying engineering, and three sisters.
00.00.1919 Passed his Abitur at the Realgymnasium in Sterkrade.
01.10.1919 - Winter 1919 Unemployed.
Winter 1919 / 00.00.1920 Drainage worker in the Uchter Moor near Hannover.
00.00.1920 – 00.00.1920 Employed on a farm in Hannover (for 8 months).
00.00.1920 – 00.06.1923 Studied agriculture at the University of Göttingen. He worked his way through university during this period as a part-time tutor and estate administrator during semester breaks.
00.05.1923 Certified as Diplom-Landwirt.
00.00.1923 – 00.00.1924 Employed as an agricultural official.
Winter 1922 – 00.08.1923 SA service (as SA-Mann).
00.06.1923 Arrested for bill posting on behalf of the NSDAP. At the police station he delivered a caustic speech in which he compared his treatment to that he had received in Russian captivity. He was later fined RM16,500.
Spring 1924 - 01.04.1927 Assistant lecturer and research assistant for agricultural geography to Professor Erich Obst in the Geography Department of the Technischen Hochschule Hannover (his doctoral thesis was rejected on the grounds that it was not a work of agriculture but of political science).
01.12.1925 Joined the NSDAP.
24.11.1926 Left the NSDAP.
01.04.1927 – 00.00.1928 Manager of the Gunzelfitz estate in Pommern.
00.00.1927 – 00.00.1930 Member of the Stahlhelm-Bund.
00.00.1928 – 00.00.19__ Leaseholder of the Hornsen Estate in Kreis Alfeld / Hannover.
00.00.1930 Renewed his contacts with the NSDAP.
00.06.1931 – 00.12.1931 SA service.
01.10.1931 Officialy reenrolled in the NSDAP.
17./18.10.1931 Participated in the SA Rally at Braunschweig.
25.01.1932 – 00.00.1933 Kreisbauernführer (District Farmers’ Leader) and Chairman of the Kreislandbund (District Land Alliance) in Kreis Alfeld.
00.00.1932 – 00.00.1933 Ortsgruppenleiter of the NSDAP in Lamspringe.
00.00.193_ - 00.00.1933 Agricultural advisor of the NSDAP in Regierungsbezirk Hildesheim.
24.04.1932 - 14.10.1933 Member of the Preussischen Landtag (Wahlkreis 16, Süd-Hannover).
24.04.1932 – 14.10.1933 Obmann (Overseer) of the NSDAP Faction in the “Landwirtschaftlichen Ausschuss des Preussischen Landtag” (Agricultural Committee of the Prussian State Legislature).
00.05.1932 – 14.10.1933 NSDAP Faction representative within the “Landwirtschaftlichen Ausschuss” (Agricultural Committee) of the Prussian Landtag.
00.04.1933 – 00.00.19__ Member of the “Reichsführerrings des deutschen Bauernstandes” (Reich Leadership Circle of Agricultural Organizations).
00.05.1933 – 00.00.19__ Leiter of Abteilung H (“Berufsständischer Aufbau des Deutschen Landbunde” / Development [Restructuring] of the German Land Federations) in the “Amt für Agrarpolitik” (Agricultural Policy Office) of the “Reichsleitung der NSDAP.”
15.07.1933 - 08.05.1945 Member of the “Generalrates der Wirtschaft” (General Council of the Economy).
00.00.1933 – 00.04.1941 Member of the “Deutschen Reichsbauernrat” (German National Farming Council).
00.00.1933 – 00.04.1941 Member of the Landesbauernrat (State Farming Council) of Hannover.
00.00.1933 – 00.00.19__ Sonderbeauftragter (Special Representative) of the “Reichsnährstand” (Reich Food Estate).
00.06.1933 - 08.05.1945 Leiter of Stabshauptabteilung A in the “Reichsnährstand.”
00.06.1933 - 27.10.1933 Reichskommissar z.b.V. in the “Reichs- und Preussisches Ministerium für Ernährung und Landwirtschaft” (Reich and Prussian Ministries of Food and Agriculture).
01.10.1933 – 13.04.1935 Joined the SS, assigned to the SS Rasse- und Siedlungsamt (upgraded to Main Office status as SS Rasse- und Siedlungshauptamt, 30.01.1935).
27.10.1933 – 31.12.1934 Staatssekretär in the “Reichs- und Preussisches Ministerium für Ernährung und Landwirtschaft.” Succeeded Joachim von Rohr.
01.12.1933 – 13.04.1935 Verbindungsführer (Liaison Officer) of the SS Rasse- und Siedlungsamt to the “Reichsnährstand.”
11.10.1934 – 00.00.19__ Member of the “Siedlungsausschusses für die Neubildung deutschen Bauerntums” (Settlement Committee for the Restructuring of German Farming)
01.01.1935 - 01.04.1944 Staatssekretär I in the “Reichs- und Preussisches Ministerium für Ernährung und Landwirtschaft” (responsible for Abteilungen II, IV, and V). Succeeded by Hans-Joachim Riecke.
13.04.1935 - 21.06.1935 SS-Führer z.b.V. attached to the Reichsführer-SS.
21.06.1935 - 1.07.1937 Chef of the Siedlungsamt (Settlement Office) in the RuSHA. Succeeded Werner Willikens. Succeeded by Curt von Gottberg.
05.09.1935 – 00.00.19__ Hauptamtsleiter in the “Reichsleitung der NSDAP”, responsible for the “Amt für Agrarpolitik” (Office of Farming Policy),
00.00.1935 – 00.00.19__ Sonderbeauftragter (Special Representative) of the “Reichsamt für Agrarpolitik” (Reich Office of Farming Policy).
ca. 1935 – 00.00.19__ Member of the “Aufsichtsamtes für das Kreditwesen” (Oversight Office for Credit Research) and member of the Verwaltungsrat (Administrative Council) of the “Deutschen Rentenbank-Kreditanstalt” (Landwirtschaftliche Zentralbank [Central Bank of Agriculture] / German Security Bank and Credit Institute [Agricultural Central Bank]), Berlin.
23.10.1936 – 00.00.1942 Leiter of the “Geschäftsgruppen für Ernährung und Landwirtschaft” (Working Group for Food Production and Agriculture) attached to the “Beauftragter für den Vierjahresplan” (Representative for the Four-Year Plan [Hermann Göring]) and member of the “Generalrat des Vierjahresplan-Amtes” (Supervisory Board of the Four-Year Plan Office).
12.04.1937 – 00.00.19__ Leiter of the temporary Labor Committees “Erzeugungsorden” (Production Organization) and “Marktordnung” (Market Organization) of the Reichsnährstand.
00.00.1937 – 08.05.1945 “Chef des Reichsnährstandes” (Chief of the Reich Food Estate). Succeeded Richard Walter Darré).
[01.12.1937] – 00.00.1945 Member of the Lebensborn Society.
01.07.1937 - 08.05.1945 Attached to the Stab SS-RuSHA.
00.00.1938 Suffered a mental breakdown as a result of his feud with Darré, whose ideological flights of fancy conflicted with his logical thought processes.
25.01.1938 Sworn in by the Reichsführer-SS as a “Hüter des Bluts- und Lebensgesetzes der Schutzstaffel” (Keeper of the Blood and Life Statute of the SS).
01.12.1939 Issued instructions to the regional food offices, stating that, for the ration period 18.12.1939 – 14.01.1940, Jews were to be deprived of special food allocations. Consequently, they received less meat, less butter, no rice, and no cocoa.
00.01.1941 – 00.05.1945 Ernährungskontrolleur (Food Controller) of the “Wirtschaftsstab Oldenburg” (Economic Staff Oldenburg, redesignated “Wirtschaftsführungsstabes Ost” [Economic Leadership Staff East] on 25.07.1941).
28.06.1941 – 00.00.194_ Member of the “Reichsforschungsrat” (Reich Research Council),
19.08.1941 – 00.00.1945 Deputy Chairman of the Board (Hans Kehrl was Chairman) of “Ostfaser G.m.b.H.” (company established to handle textile concerns in occupied Russia).
23.05.1942 - 01.04.1944 Acting “Reichsminister für Ernährung und Landwirtschaft” (Minister for Food and Agriculture). Appointed in place of Richard Walter Darré, whom Hitler had suspended from duty.
23.05.1942 - 08.05.1942 Reichsbauernführer (Reich Farmers’ Leader). Succeeded Richard Walter Darré.
00.00.19__ - 00.00.19__ Preussischen Staatsrat.
23.05.1942 - 08.05.1945 Präsident of the “Reichserbhofgerichts” (Reich Court of Hereditary Estates). Succeeded Richard Walter Darré.
23.05.1942 – 00.05.1945 Leiter of the “Reichsamtes für Agrarpolitik” (Reich Office for Farm Policy, redesignated “Reichsamt für das Landvolk” [Reich Office for the Peasantry] on 04.09.1942). Succeeded Richard Walter Darré.
00.00.1942 – 00.05.1945 1.Vizepräsident of the “Kaiser-Wilhelm-Gesellschaft zur Förderung der Wissenschaften” (KWG / Kaiser-Wilhelm Society for the Furtherance of Science; also head of development of the KWG), Berlin.
18.09.1942 Issued a decree concerning food rationing for Jews in Germany and the incorporated territories. The following is an excerpt: “Rations: During the 42nd rationing period [starting 19.10.1942] Jews will no longer receive the following food products: meat, meat products, eggs, wheat products (cake, white bread, cookies, wheat flour, etc.), milk, skimmed milk...”
00.10.1942 – 00.00.1945 Editor of the periodical “Deutsche Agrarpolitik.”
00.00.19__ - 00.00.19__ Member of the Board of Directors of the Deutschen Reichsbahn.
01.04.1944 - 08.05.1945 “Reichsminister für Ernährung und Landwirtschaft” (officially confirmed). Succeeded Richard Walter Darré. Retained in this office by Hitler’s Political Testament of 29.04.1945.
05.05.1945 - 17.05.1945 “Reichsminister (m.d.W.d.G.b.) für Ernährung, Landwirtschaft, und Forsten” (Food, Agriculture, and Forests) in Grossadmiral Karl Dönitz’s “Acting Reich Government” at Flensburg-Mürwik.
Postwar Confinement:
Arrested in Rheims, France by British and U.S. authorities, 23.05.1945. Transferred to Nürnberg Prison, 12.10.1946, remaining there until his suicide the following year. He hanged himself due to his belief that he would be extradited to the Soviet Union. While in his cell at Nürnberg, he excused himself for the effects of his wartime rationing decrees upon people in concentration camps by saying he had been ignorant and overburdened, and that an eye disease had prevented him from reading every paper he had signed. Nevertheless, he wrote to the German journalist and former Buchenwald inmate Eugen Kogon, asking for forgiveness. Kogon forgave him.
Published Works:
Deutscher Bauer erwache. Die Agrarkrise, ihre Ursachen und Folgerungen (Awaken German Farmer. The
Agricultural Crisis; Its Origins and Conclusions)(1931)
Das Ende des Liberalismus. (The End of Liberalism. Excerpts) (1938).
Um die Nahrungsfreiheit Europas. Weltwirtschaft oder Grossraum. (About the Food Self Sufficiency of Europe),
Wilhelm Goldmann, Leipzig (1942).
Decorations & Awards:
00.00.194_ Kriegsverdienstkreuz I. Klasse ohne Schwerter
00.00.194_ Kriegsverdienstkreuz II. Klasse ohne Schwerter
00.00.19__ Medaille zur Erinnerung an den 1. Oktober 1938
00.00.19__ Medaille zur Erinnerung an den 13. März 1938
30.01.1938 Goldenes Ehrenzeichen der NSDAP
ca. 1931 Abzeichen des SA-Treffens Braunschweig 1931
00.00.194_ Dienstauszeichnung der NSDAP in Silber
00.00.194_ Dienstauszeichnung der NSDAP in Bronze
00.00.193_ Deutsche Olympia-Ehrenzeichen I. Klasse
00.00.19__ SA Sportabzeichen in Bronze
[01.12.1937] Ehrendegen des Reichsführers-SS
00.00.1936 Totenkopfring der SS
00.00.19__ SS-Zivilabzeichen (Nr. 45 853)
00.00.19__ Ehrendolch der SS
16.12.1935 Julleuchter der SS
00.00.193_ Ehrenwinkel für alte Kämpfer
00.00.19__ Grand Officer Cross of the Order of the Crown of Italy
00.00.19__ Grand Officer Cross of the Order of St. Mauritius & St. Lazarus (Italy)
00.00.19__ Grand Cross of the Order of Civil Merit (Bulgaria)
00.00.19__ Grand Cross of the Order of the Finnish Lion
Notes:
* One of five children of the Prussian Army Leutnant a. D. Albrecht Backe (committed suicide in 1907), a German merchant in Russia. One older brother (who served in the German Army during World War I) and three sisters. Herbert was the primary support for his ailing mother and his siblings following the death of his father and the tremendous deprivation brought on by the end of World War I.
* Religion: Protestant until 1942, then declared himself “gottgläubig.”
* Married on 06.10.1928 to Ursula Kahl (born 08.10.1900 in Petersdorf / Schlesien; NSDAP-Nr. 1 467 139; Member of the NS-Frauenschaft; they met while both were working as assistants to Prof. Obst at the Technischen Hochsschule in Hannover). Three sons (Albrecht, born 18.08.1933; Arnulf, born 10.11.1934; and Arnd, born 10.06.1936) and one daughter (Armgard, born 16.12.1932).
* Close personal friend of Reinhard Heydrich.
* Foreign language proficiency: Russian.
* Height: 5 ft., 9 in. (175 cm).
* Highly regarded by Reichsminister Dr. Goebbels, who made the following comments in his diary:
01.05.1941:
“Backe’s control of his department is masterly. If anything is possible, then he will do it.”
21.05.1942:
“Backe does his job in an exemplary manner. You depend upon him. He is not a pale theoretician like Darré, but a real, first-class man of practice.”
Goebbels’ opinion of Backe had apparently undergone a change within the next year, however, as evidenced by the following diary entry:
23.05.1943:
“Nor does he [Dr. Robert Ley] think much of Backe. He believes that Backe’s policies will gradually lead to the complete ruin of our stock of cattle…. I believe he is more pessimistic than the situation warrants. Nevertheless I believe he is right in his contention that Backe is too much of a theoretician and therefore is getting to be more and more impractical. The whole Food Ministry- but this is more the fault of Darré than of Backe- is quite a dogmatic institution, totally unsuited to wartime.”
Orders may be submitted via the following page: https://secure.bender-publishing.com/index_s.htm
Thanks in advance and I hope that those who order the book are pleased with it.
~ Mike
Leaders of the SS & German Police
Volume I
Reichsführer-SS – SS-Gruppenführer
(Georg Ahrens to Karl Gutenberger)
by
Michael D. Miller
with
Andreas Schulz
and
Ken McCanliss
Foreword by Mark C. Yerger
Published by
R. James Bender Publishing
P.O. Box 23456
San Jose, CA 95153-3456
Price: $48.95 + $2.50 postage/handling
ISBN No. 1-932970-03-7
498 pages * 288 photos / 51 illustrations * Deluxe Binding [/center]
Sample biography (of the man whose photo appears on the cover, Herbert Backe):
Dipl.-Landwirt
Backe, Herbert Friedrich Wilhelm
SS-Obergruppenführer
Born: 01.05.1896 in Batumi / Transcaucasus, Russia.
Suicide: 06.04.1947 (hanged himself in his cell, Nürnberg Prison).
NSDAP-Nr.: 22 766 (First joined 01.12.1925; left, 24.11.1926; reenrolled 01.10.1931)
SS-Nr.: 87 882 (Joined 01.10.1933)
Promotions:
01.10.1933 SS-Sturmbannführer
27.10.1933 Staatssekretär
04.04.1934 SS-Obersturmbannführer (mit Wirkung vom 29.03.1934)
24.04.1934 SS-Standartenführer (mit Wirkung vom 20.04.1934)
28.08.1934 SS-Oberführer (mit Wirkung vom 09.09.1934)
01.01.1935 SS-Brigadeführer
30.01.1938 SS-Gruppenführer
23.05.1942 Oberbefehlsleiter der NSDAP
09.11.1942 SS-Obergruppenführer
01.04.1944 Reichsminister
Career:
00.00.1902 – 00.00.1905 Attended the German Evangelical Church School in Tiflis.
00.00.1905 – 00.08.1914 Attended the Russian 4th State Boys High School in Tiflis.
00.08.1914 – 00.04.1918 Held in a Russian internment camp for civilian aliens in the Ural region as a Prussian citizen.
00.04.1918 Fled to St. Petersburg.
00.06.1918 Returned to Germany through the efforts of the Swedish Red Cross in St. Petersburg, on the condition that he not be conscripted for military service.
00.06.1918 Entered service as a Kriegsfreiwilliger (saw no frontline service).
00.00.1918 – 10.01.1919 Employed as temporary lathe operator, later as a temporary fitter and payroll clerk in a branch of the “Gute-Hoffnungs-Hütte Oberhausen” (Good Hope Steel Works Oberhausen) in Sterkrade (Ruhr District). His family lost everything during the war and he was forced to work in order to support his sick mother, his brother who was studying engineering, and three sisters.
00.00.1919 Passed his Abitur at the Realgymnasium in Sterkrade.
01.10.1919 - Winter 1919 Unemployed.
Winter 1919 / 00.00.1920 Drainage worker in the Uchter Moor near Hannover.
00.00.1920 – 00.00.1920 Employed on a farm in Hannover (for 8 months).
00.00.1920 – 00.06.1923 Studied agriculture at the University of Göttingen. He worked his way through university during this period as a part-time tutor and estate administrator during semester breaks.
00.05.1923 Certified as Diplom-Landwirt.
00.00.1923 – 00.00.1924 Employed as an agricultural official.
Winter 1922 – 00.08.1923 SA service (as SA-Mann).
00.06.1923 Arrested for bill posting on behalf of the NSDAP. At the police station he delivered a caustic speech in which he compared his treatment to that he had received in Russian captivity. He was later fined RM16,500.
Spring 1924 - 01.04.1927 Assistant lecturer and research assistant for agricultural geography to Professor Erich Obst in the Geography Department of the Technischen Hochschule Hannover (his doctoral thesis was rejected on the grounds that it was not a work of agriculture but of political science).
01.12.1925 Joined the NSDAP.
24.11.1926 Left the NSDAP.
01.04.1927 – 00.00.1928 Manager of the Gunzelfitz estate in Pommern.
00.00.1927 – 00.00.1930 Member of the Stahlhelm-Bund.
00.00.1928 – 00.00.19__ Leaseholder of the Hornsen Estate in Kreis Alfeld / Hannover.
00.00.1930 Renewed his contacts with the NSDAP.
00.06.1931 – 00.12.1931 SA service.
01.10.1931 Officialy reenrolled in the NSDAP.
17./18.10.1931 Participated in the SA Rally at Braunschweig.
25.01.1932 – 00.00.1933 Kreisbauernführer (District Farmers’ Leader) and Chairman of the Kreislandbund (District Land Alliance) in Kreis Alfeld.
00.00.1932 – 00.00.1933 Ortsgruppenleiter of the NSDAP in Lamspringe.
00.00.193_ - 00.00.1933 Agricultural advisor of the NSDAP in Regierungsbezirk Hildesheim.
24.04.1932 - 14.10.1933 Member of the Preussischen Landtag (Wahlkreis 16, Süd-Hannover).
24.04.1932 – 14.10.1933 Obmann (Overseer) of the NSDAP Faction in the “Landwirtschaftlichen Ausschuss des Preussischen Landtag” (Agricultural Committee of the Prussian State Legislature).
00.05.1932 – 14.10.1933 NSDAP Faction representative within the “Landwirtschaftlichen Ausschuss” (Agricultural Committee) of the Prussian Landtag.
00.04.1933 – 00.00.19__ Member of the “Reichsführerrings des deutschen Bauernstandes” (Reich Leadership Circle of Agricultural Organizations).
00.05.1933 – 00.00.19__ Leiter of Abteilung H (“Berufsständischer Aufbau des Deutschen Landbunde” / Development [Restructuring] of the German Land Federations) in the “Amt für Agrarpolitik” (Agricultural Policy Office) of the “Reichsleitung der NSDAP.”
15.07.1933 - 08.05.1945 Member of the “Generalrates der Wirtschaft” (General Council of the Economy).
00.00.1933 – 00.04.1941 Member of the “Deutschen Reichsbauernrat” (German National Farming Council).
00.00.1933 – 00.04.1941 Member of the Landesbauernrat (State Farming Council) of Hannover.
00.00.1933 – 00.00.19__ Sonderbeauftragter (Special Representative) of the “Reichsnährstand” (Reich Food Estate).
00.06.1933 - 08.05.1945 Leiter of Stabshauptabteilung A in the “Reichsnährstand.”
00.06.1933 - 27.10.1933 Reichskommissar z.b.V. in the “Reichs- und Preussisches Ministerium für Ernährung und Landwirtschaft” (Reich and Prussian Ministries of Food and Agriculture).
01.10.1933 – 13.04.1935 Joined the SS, assigned to the SS Rasse- und Siedlungsamt (upgraded to Main Office status as SS Rasse- und Siedlungshauptamt, 30.01.1935).
27.10.1933 – 31.12.1934 Staatssekretär in the “Reichs- und Preussisches Ministerium für Ernährung und Landwirtschaft.” Succeeded Joachim von Rohr.
01.12.1933 – 13.04.1935 Verbindungsführer (Liaison Officer) of the SS Rasse- und Siedlungsamt to the “Reichsnährstand.”
11.10.1934 – 00.00.19__ Member of the “Siedlungsausschusses für die Neubildung deutschen Bauerntums” (Settlement Committee for the Restructuring of German Farming)
01.01.1935 - 01.04.1944 Staatssekretär I in the “Reichs- und Preussisches Ministerium für Ernährung und Landwirtschaft” (responsible for Abteilungen II, IV, and V). Succeeded by Hans-Joachim Riecke.
13.04.1935 - 21.06.1935 SS-Führer z.b.V. attached to the Reichsführer-SS.
21.06.1935 - 1.07.1937 Chef of the Siedlungsamt (Settlement Office) in the RuSHA. Succeeded Werner Willikens. Succeeded by Curt von Gottberg.
05.09.1935 – 00.00.19__ Hauptamtsleiter in the “Reichsleitung der NSDAP”, responsible for the “Amt für Agrarpolitik” (Office of Farming Policy),
00.00.1935 – 00.00.19__ Sonderbeauftragter (Special Representative) of the “Reichsamt für Agrarpolitik” (Reich Office of Farming Policy).
ca. 1935 – 00.00.19__ Member of the “Aufsichtsamtes für das Kreditwesen” (Oversight Office for Credit Research) and member of the Verwaltungsrat (Administrative Council) of the “Deutschen Rentenbank-Kreditanstalt” (Landwirtschaftliche Zentralbank [Central Bank of Agriculture] / German Security Bank and Credit Institute [Agricultural Central Bank]), Berlin.
23.10.1936 – 00.00.1942 Leiter of the “Geschäftsgruppen für Ernährung und Landwirtschaft” (Working Group for Food Production and Agriculture) attached to the “Beauftragter für den Vierjahresplan” (Representative for the Four-Year Plan [Hermann Göring]) and member of the “Generalrat des Vierjahresplan-Amtes” (Supervisory Board of the Four-Year Plan Office).
12.04.1937 – 00.00.19__ Leiter of the temporary Labor Committees “Erzeugungsorden” (Production Organization) and “Marktordnung” (Market Organization) of the Reichsnährstand.
00.00.1937 – 08.05.1945 “Chef des Reichsnährstandes” (Chief of the Reich Food Estate). Succeeded Richard Walter Darré).
[01.12.1937] – 00.00.1945 Member of the Lebensborn Society.
01.07.1937 - 08.05.1945 Attached to the Stab SS-RuSHA.
00.00.1938 Suffered a mental breakdown as a result of his feud with Darré, whose ideological flights of fancy conflicted with his logical thought processes.
25.01.1938 Sworn in by the Reichsführer-SS as a “Hüter des Bluts- und Lebensgesetzes der Schutzstaffel” (Keeper of the Blood and Life Statute of the SS).
01.12.1939 Issued instructions to the regional food offices, stating that, for the ration period 18.12.1939 – 14.01.1940, Jews were to be deprived of special food allocations. Consequently, they received less meat, less butter, no rice, and no cocoa.
00.01.1941 – 00.05.1945 Ernährungskontrolleur (Food Controller) of the “Wirtschaftsstab Oldenburg” (Economic Staff Oldenburg, redesignated “Wirtschaftsführungsstabes Ost” [Economic Leadership Staff East] on 25.07.1941).
28.06.1941 – 00.00.194_ Member of the “Reichsforschungsrat” (Reich Research Council),
19.08.1941 – 00.00.1945 Deputy Chairman of the Board (Hans Kehrl was Chairman) of “Ostfaser G.m.b.H.” (company established to handle textile concerns in occupied Russia).
23.05.1942 - 01.04.1944 Acting “Reichsminister für Ernährung und Landwirtschaft” (Minister for Food and Agriculture). Appointed in place of Richard Walter Darré, whom Hitler had suspended from duty.
23.05.1942 - 08.05.1942 Reichsbauernführer (Reich Farmers’ Leader). Succeeded Richard Walter Darré.
00.00.19__ - 00.00.19__ Preussischen Staatsrat.
23.05.1942 - 08.05.1945 Präsident of the “Reichserbhofgerichts” (Reich Court of Hereditary Estates). Succeeded Richard Walter Darré.
23.05.1942 – 00.05.1945 Leiter of the “Reichsamtes für Agrarpolitik” (Reich Office for Farm Policy, redesignated “Reichsamt für das Landvolk” [Reich Office for the Peasantry] on 04.09.1942). Succeeded Richard Walter Darré.
00.00.1942 – 00.05.1945 1.Vizepräsident of the “Kaiser-Wilhelm-Gesellschaft zur Förderung der Wissenschaften” (KWG / Kaiser-Wilhelm Society for the Furtherance of Science; also head of development of the KWG), Berlin.
18.09.1942 Issued a decree concerning food rationing for Jews in Germany and the incorporated territories. The following is an excerpt: “Rations: During the 42nd rationing period [starting 19.10.1942] Jews will no longer receive the following food products: meat, meat products, eggs, wheat products (cake, white bread, cookies, wheat flour, etc.), milk, skimmed milk...”
00.10.1942 – 00.00.1945 Editor of the periodical “Deutsche Agrarpolitik.”
00.00.19__ - 00.00.19__ Member of the Board of Directors of the Deutschen Reichsbahn.
01.04.1944 - 08.05.1945 “Reichsminister für Ernährung und Landwirtschaft” (officially confirmed). Succeeded Richard Walter Darré. Retained in this office by Hitler’s Political Testament of 29.04.1945.
05.05.1945 - 17.05.1945 “Reichsminister (m.d.W.d.G.b.) für Ernährung, Landwirtschaft, und Forsten” (Food, Agriculture, and Forests) in Grossadmiral Karl Dönitz’s “Acting Reich Government” at Flensburg-Mürwik.
Postwar Confinement:
Arrested in Rheims, France by British and U.S. authorities, 23.05.1945. Transferred to Nürnberg Prison, 12.10.1946, remaining there until his suicide the following year. He hanged himself due to his belief that he would be extradited to the Soviet Union. While in his cell at Nürnberg, he excused himself for the effects of his wartime rationing decrees upon people in concentration camps by saying he had been ignorant and overburdened, and that an eye disease had prevented him from reading every paper he had signed. Nevertheless, he wrote to the German journalist and former Buchenwald inmate Eugen Kogon, asking for forgiveness. Kogon forgave him.
Published Works:
Deutscher Bauer erwache. Die Agrarkrise, ihre Ursachen und Folgerungen (Awaken German Farmer. The
Agricultural Crisis; Its Origins and Conclusions)(1931)
Das Ende des Liberalismus. (The End of Liberalism. Excerpts) (1938).
Um die Nahrungsfreiheit Europas. Weltwirtschaft oder Grossraum. (About the Food Self Sufficiency of Europe),
Wilhelm Goldmann, Leipzig (1942).
Decorations & Awards:
00.00.194_ Kriegsverdienstkreuz I. Klasse ohne Schwerter
00.00.194_ Kriegsverdienstkreuz II. Klasse ohne Schwerter
00.00.19__ Medaille zur Erinnerung an den 1. Oktober 1938
00.00.19__ Medaille zur Erinnerung an den 13. März 1938
30.01.1938 Goldenes Ehrenzeichen der NSDAP
ca. 1931 Abzeichen des SA-Treffens Braunschweig 1931
00.00.194_ Dienstauszeichnung der NSDAP in Silber
00.00.194_ Dienstauszeichnung der NSDAP in Bronze
00.00.193_ Deutsche Olympia-Ehrenzeichen I. Klasse
00.00.19__ SA Sportabzeichen in Bronze
[01.12.1937] Ehrendegen des Reichsführers-SS
00.00.1936 Totenkopfring der SS
00.00.19__ SS-Zivilabzeichen (Nr. 45 853)
00.00.19__ Ehrendolch der SS
16.12.1935 Julleuchter der SS
00.00.193_ Ehrenwinkel für alte Kämpfer
00.00.19__ Grand Officer Cross of the Order of the Crown of Italy
00.00.19__ Grand Officer Cross of the Order of St. Mauritius & St. Lazarus (Italy)
00.00.19__ Grand Cross of the Order of Civil Merit (Bulgaria)
00.00.19__ Grand Cross of the Order of the Finnish Lion
Notes:
* One of five children of the Prussian Army Leutnant a. D. Albrecht Backe (committed suicide in 1907), a German merchant in Russia. One older brother (who served in the German Army during World War I) and three sisters. Herbert was the primary support for his ailing mother and his siblings following the death of his father and the tremendous deprivation brought on by the end of World War I.
* Religion: Protestant until 1942, then declared himself “gottgläubig.”
* Married on 06.10.1928 to Ursula Kahl (born 08.10.1900 in Petersdorf / Schlesien; NSDAP-Nr. 1 467 139; Member of the NS-Frauenschaft; they met while both were working as assistants to Prof. Obst at the Technischen Hochsschule in Hannover). Three sons (Albrecht, born 18.08.1933; Arnulf, born 10.11.1934; and Arnd, born 10.06.1936) and one daughter (Armgard, born 16.12.1932).
* Close personal friend of Reinhard Heydrich.
* Foreign language proficiency: Russian.
* Height: 5 ft., 9 in. (175 cm).
* Highly regarded by Reichsminister Dr. Goebbels, who made the following comments in his diary:
01.05.1941:
“Backe’s control of his department is masterly. If anything is possible, then he will do it.”
21.05.1942:
“Backe does his job in an exemplary manner. You depend upon him. He is not a pale theoretician like Darré, but a real, first-class man of practice.”
Goebbels’ opinion of Backe had apparently undergone a change within the next year, however, as evidenced by the following diary entry:
23.05.1943:
“Nor does he [Dr. Robert Ley] think much of Backe. He believes that Backe’s policies will gradually lead to the complete ruin of our stock of cattle…. I believe he is more pessimistic than the situation warrants. Nevertheless I believe he is right in his contention that Backe is too much of a theoretician and therefore is getting to be more and more impractical. The whole Food Ministry- but this is more the fault of Darré than of Backe- is quite a dogmatic institution, totally unsuited to wartime.”
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