Karl Kaufmann, the “Führer” of Hamburg

1900 -1969

Nazi Party Gauleiter Karl Kaufmann was the primary initiator of the deportation of Hamburg’s

Jews. By holding five of the most important political offices and implementing the “Kaufmann

System” of corruption, he became the most powerful political figure in Hamburg. He was a faith- ful follower of Adolf Hitler until just before the war’s end, actively taking part in his policies of an- nihilation and expansion.

Karl Kaufmann was born on 10 October 1900 as the son of a middle-class laundry owner in Kre- feld. After numerous school transfers, and dropping out of secondary school without attaining his university qualifications, he finally quit his apprenticeship in the family business after a quar- rel with his father. Afterwards, he made a living as an unskilled laborer, supplementing his inco- me with secret remittances from his mother. In 1918, shortly before the end of World War I, he was drafted into the navy, but did not reach the frontline.

Kaufmann began seeking recognition in right-wing paramilitary organizations early on. In 1920 he was active against the “Red Ruhr Army,” a year later he fought with the Upper Silesian Frei- korps against Polish insurgents, and then in 1923 with the illegal “Heinz” organization against the French occupation of the Ruhr. He joined the Nazi Party as early as 1922, encouraging Hit- ler shortly before his attempted putsch of November 1923 “towards the liberation struggle a- gainst the inner and outer enemy,” and advanced to the position of Gauleiter for North Rhine- land in 1925. In 1928, Kaufmann entered the Prussian state parliament on behalf of the Nazi

Party, and then the Reichstag, where he remained until 1945. The parliamentary salary was his first regular income.

After heavy skirmishing within the party, Hitler transferred Kaufmann, who seemed “restive, un- ripe, and immoderate,” as his friend Joseph Goebbels described him in 1926, to Hamburg. The- re, Kaufmann took over leadership of the local Gau (Nazi administrative region) in May 1929 and built up a power base. To his favorites, as well as to “deserving Party comrades,” he awar- ded cash handouts, fictitious offices, and material goods, including some acquired through “Ary- anization” receipts. After 1933, an extraordinary combination of political power lay in his hands: besides Gauleiter, he was appointed Reichsstatthalter, Chief of the Hamburg State and Munici- pality Administration, Reich Defense Commissioner for Military District X, and (as of 1942) Reich

Commissioner for German Maritime Shipping.

While on the one hand pushing to establish the notorious “Kola-Fu” concentration camp at

Hamburg-Fuhlsbüttel, because the treatment of dissidents seemed “too slack” to him, he was on the other hand holding weekly citizens’ meetings. His social populism afforded him the informal nickname “Kuddel Kaufmann.” When it seemed opportune, he would use his power to annul administrative decisions, which seriously aggravated legal uncertainties. He punished any pro- tests.

Kaufmann fought not only for the implementation of National Socialist policies, but also for regi- onal Hamburg interests. In 1939, he began arranging positions for his followers within the admi- nistrations of the occupied territories, including that of the Soviet Union and of the Generalgou- vernement. Hamburg companies profited greatly from the looting of these territories. In Septem- ber 1941, Kaufmann seized the initiative and got Hitler to approve his plan of “evacuating”

Hamburg’s Jews, so that “bombed-out citizens could be allocated housing again.” This “request” is seen as a trigger for the deportations that began across the Reich in October 1941.

Near the war’s end, Kaufmann surrendered Hamburg to the British without a fight, against Hit- ler’s orders – which later contributed to the legend built around him as the “Savior of the City.”

He was interned on 4 May 1945 and remained in prison, except for a temporary medical di- scharge, until he was set free in 1950. After renewed attempts at becoming politically active in radical right-wing groups, he was arrested and held again for a short time in 1953. Despite se- veral preliminary investigations into crimes against humanity, Kaufmann never again had to de- fend himself in court. In 1959, he was made senior executive of an insurance company founded by Otto Wolff, his former deputy economic advisor in the Gau administration. Kaufmann died in

Hamburg on 4 December 1969, still an well-connected citizen.