Hans Müller (attorney, 1906)
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Hans Müller (* 18 September 1906 in Giessen; † after 1947) was a German jurist. Müller was personal adviser to the head of the Party Chancellery of the NSDAP, Martin Bormann, and a judge at the People's Court (Volksgerichtshof).
Life and work[edit]
After attending school, Müller studied law. Since his legal clerkship in 1929, he was a civil servant in the judicial service: in the same year, Müller became a district court councillor in Berlin. In 1932 he passed the assessor's examination. In the following years, he was employed in the judicial service as a public prosecutor, district court councillor and higher regional court councillor.[1]
During the Nazi era, Müller worked at the Kammergericht, among other places. With effect from 1 May 1937, he joined the NSDAP. He was also a judge at the People's Court.
In August 1942, Müller joined the NSDAP party chancellery, where he initially became a clerk in the State Law Department under State Secretary Gerhard Klopfer. In the summer of 1943, he moved up to the position of personal advisor and office manager of the Reichsleiter Martin Bormann, who, as head of the party chancellery and personal "secretary" of Adolf Hitler, was one of the most powerful men in the Nazi state in the last years of the Second World War. In the process, Müller also recorded some conversations.[2]
After Hitler's death was announced on 1 May 1945, Müller and the head of the Stenographic Service at Führerhauptquartier, Kurt Peschel, decided to destroy all stenographic records brought to Berchtesgaden of military situation meetings from September 1942 to April 1945. The SS then took the documents to a site behind Königsee, where they were set on fire.[3]
At the end of Second World War, Müller became an Allied prisoner of war. He was subsequently held in custody until at least 1947 and was examined as a witness at the Nuremberg Trials. He was then released and denazified. He later continued to work in the judiciary and became vice-president of the Bundesfinanzdirektion München.
Hans Müller was friends with Helmut von Hummel, another Bormann's advisor, until his death.[4] When exactly Müller died is unknown.
Interrogation during the Nuremberg Trials[edit]
In the interrogation, Müller said, when asked about his rank in the party, that he had had no actual rank in the NSDAP. The worst thing that had ever passed through his hands, he said, was a criminal record of the member of the 20 July, Andreas Hermes, who was to be executed. Müller said in the interrogation that this had shaken him, as he considered it a summa iniuria (Latin, translated: supreme injustice) in his eyes. Bormann gave him Hermes's file and the order to look up anything about Hermes at service offices. After Müller had checked this and reported that no information was available, he did not return the file to Bormann, but burned it in order, as he said in the interrogation, to save the latter's life.Furthermore, Müller said when questioned about Bormann: "Bormann was obnoxious as a human being, he was cold, robust, scornful, cynical." Later he also provided examples of this: "Christmas 1944 Bormann had known me for over a year. There he said, tell me, Herr Müller, do you actually have children? From this you can see that he never bothered about such things. [...]Another example: In the autumn of 1944, a telex arrived. On the telex it is noted when it was posted at the place of posting and when it arrived at the place of arrival.[...] The telex arrived several hours late. Then Bormann called me at night and yelled: 'If this happens again, I'll have you put under lock and key!' [...] The next morning I went to see him in his office and told him that I considered myself dismissed[...]. He roared: 'That might suit you. You will stay there as long as I wish. If you go against my will, I'll have you treated like a deserter and you know what will happen to you. [...] I know that others have also complained about his manner towards the employees of the Party Chancellery. [...] I also asked at regular intervals after a few months to be dismissed, justifying this by saying that I wanted to join the Wehrmacht. He settled everything in writing and refused."[1]
On 6 October, another interrogation took place, because Robert Kempner had the impression that Müller was holding back with his statements. However, the subsequent interrogation was not conducted by Kempner, but by Mr. Singer. In this interrogation, Müller was asked whether he had heard anything about meetings with SS-Obergruppenführer Gottlob Berger or SS-Obersturmbannführer Fritz Arlt. Müller denied this, saying that he only knew SS-Gruppenführer Hermann Fegelein,, whose brother SS-Standartenführer Waldemar Fegelein, SS-Obergruppenführer Julius Schaub and SS-Gruppenführer Karl Wolff.[5]
Archival tradition[edit]
A personnel file of the Reich Ministry of Justice on Müller has been preserved in the Bundesarchiv-Berlin (R 3001/194092). In addition, in the holdings of the former Berlin Document Center there is a file with party correspondence on him (R 9361-II/735340) and a note by Müller on the alleged involvement of Field Marshal Keitel in the events of the 20 July 1944, noted on 25 July 1944 (NS 6/25).
Literature[edit]
- Herbert Michaelis: Causes and Consequences. Vom deutschen Zusammenbruch 1918 und 1945 bis zur staatlichen Neuordnung Deutschlands in der Gegenwart. A collection of deeds and documents on contemporary history. Biographical Register, 1979, p. 500.
- Mikael Nilsson: Hitler Redux: The Incredible History of Hitler's So-Called Table Talks. Routledge, 2020, ISBN 978-1-00-017329-1
- Bob Reiss: Germany and the Second World War - Volume 9, Part 1. Clarendon Press, 1990, ISBN 0-19-928277-3
- Wolfram Pyta: Hitler: The Artist as Politician and Commander. An analysis of rule. Siedler Verlag, 2015, ISBN 978-3-641-15701-2
References[edit]
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 Interrogation of the witness Hans Müller by Dr Kempner (PDF), on ifz-muenchen.de
- ↑ Mikail Nilson: Hitler Redux
- ↑ Detlef Peitz: Hanging on Hitler's lips. In: Frankfurter Rundschau..
- ↑ Günther von Hummel: Politik Therapie-wie Politik therapeutisch zu begreifen wäre
- ↑ Müllers Interrogation during the Nurenberg Trials: https://www.ifz-muenchen.de/archiv/zs/zs-1248.pdf
External links[edit]
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