Willy Schmelcher

Schmelcher, the son of a master glazier, completed Realschule in Eppingen in 1911. Until 1914, he studied at the building trade school in Stuttgart. On the outbreak of the First World War, he joined the Imperial German Army and served on the western front as a combat engineer. Commissioned a Leutnant in July 1917, he was captured by the British in September 1918, earning the Iron Cross, 1st and 2nd class. Released in January 1920, he studied civil engineering at the Technische Hochschule Stuttgart (today, the University of Stuttgart) and graduated with an engineering degree in 1925. He passed his state engineering examinations in 1927 and worked as a construction engineer.[https://www.reichstag-abgeordnetendatenbank.de/select.html?pnd=13052137X Willy Schmelcher biography] in the [https://www.reichstag-abgeordnetendatenbank.de/index.html Reichstag Members Database]

Schmelcher joined the Nazi Party (membership number 90,783) and the Sturmabteilung (SA), its paramilitary unit, in June 1928.{{sfn|Schiffer Publishing Ltd.|2000|p=18}} As an early Party member, he later would be awarded the Golden Party Badge. He was the SA leader in Gau Baden from 1928 to August 1930. In June 1930, he became a member of the Schutzstaffel (SS member number 2,648).{{sfn|Schiffer Publishing Ltd.|2000|p=18}} On 1 August, he left the SA with the rank of SA-Standartenführer. Schmelcher became the Führer of the 10th SS-Standarde in Neustadt in September 1932, remaining in that command until July 1935. He next held SS staff positions with Abschnitt (district) XXIX in Mannheim (July 1935 to April 1936) and with Oberabschnitte (main district) "Südwest" in Stuttgart (to January 1937) and "Rhein" in Wiesbaden (to December 1938), before being assigned to the Sicherheitsdienst (SD) Main Office, later a part of the Reich Security Main Office. From March 1935 to October 1942, he also was the Polizeipräsident (chief of police) in Saarbrücken.{{sfn|Yerger|1997|pp=40, 174}}

Apart from his SS duties, Schmelzer also was involved in Nazi Party politics. In 1929, he was elected to the Neustadt city council, serving as the leader of the Nazi parliamentary group and becoming the council chairman. Following the Nazi seizure of power, he became chairman of the Nazi parliamentary group in the Rhenish Palatinate district assembly (Kreistag) in March 1933, and held this office until 1937. At the November 1933 parliamentary election, he was elected to the Reichstag from electoral constituency 27 (Palatinate) and retained that seat until the end of the Nazi regime.[https://www.reichstag-abgeordnetendatenbank.de/selectmaske.html?pnd=13052137X&recherche=ja Willy Schmelcher entry] in the [https://www.reichstag-abgeordnetendatenbank.de/index.html Reichstag Members Database]

In 1940, during the Second World War, Schmelcher performed military service with the 70th Infantry Regiment, being promoted to Hauptmann of reserves. After the fall of France, he was made Polizeipräsident of Metz in December 1940. Following the German attack on the Soviet Union, Schmelcher became the SS and Police Leader (SSPF) in Tschernigow (today, Chernihiv) from 19 November 1941 to 1 July 1943 and also in Shitomir (today, Zhytomyr) from 5 May to 25 September 1943. From 15 October 1943 to the end of the Nazi regime in May 1945, Schmelcher also served as head of the Technische Nothilfe, a civil defense organization in the main office of the Ordnungspolizei (order police). On 9 November 1943, he was promoted to SS- Gruppenführer und Generalleutnant der Polizei. In December 1944, he became the last Higher SS and Police Leader (HSSPF) "Warthe" with his headquarters in Posen (today, Poznań).{{sfn|Yerger|1997|pp=40, 67}}

After the end of the war, Schmelcher was interned by the Allies. In January 1949, he underwent denazification proceedings and was judged to be a "lesser offender". From 1954 to 1962, he worked in the civil defense department of the Saarland Interior Ministry. Schmelcher died in Saarbrücken in February 1974.{{sfn|Klee|2007|p=542}}

{{reflist|30em}}

• {{ReichstagDB|13052137X}}
• {{cite book |last=Klee |first=Ernst |author-link=Ernst Klee |title=Das Personenlexikon zum Dritten Reich. Wer war was vor und nach 1945 |publisher=Fischer-Taschenbuch-Verlag |location=Frankfurt-am-Main |year=2007 | page=542|isbn=978-3-596-16048-8}}
• {{cite book |editor-last=Schiffer Publishing Ltd. |title=SS Officers List: SS-Standartenführer to SS-Oberstgruppenführer (as of 30 January 1942) |publisher=Schiffer Military History Publishing |location= |year=2000 |isbn=0-7643-1061-5}}
• Stockhorst, Erich (1985). 5000 Köpfe: Wer War Was im 3. Reich. Arndt. p. 383, {{ISBN| 978-3-887-41116-9}}.
• {{cite book |last=Yerger |first=Mark C. |year=1997 |title=Allgemeine-SS: The Commands, Units and Leaders of the General SS |publisher=Schiffer Publishing Ltd. |isbn=0-7643-0145-4}}

• [https://www.deutsche-digitale-bibliothek.de/person/gnd/13052137X Willy Schmelcher] in the [https://www.deutsche-digitale-bibliothek.de/ Deutsche Digitale Bibliothek online]

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Category:1894 births

Category:1974 deaths

Category:German Army officers of World War II

Category:German civil engineers

Category:Holocaust perpetrators in Germany

Category:Holocaust perpetrators in Ukraine

Category:Members of the Reichstag 1933–1936

Category:Members of the Reichstag 1936–1938

Category:Members of the Reichstag 1938–1945

Category:Nazi Party politicians

Category:People from the Grand Duchy of Baden

Category:People from Heilbronn (district)

Category:Recipients of the clasp to the Iron Cross, 1st class

Category:Recipients of the clasp to the Iron Cross, 2nd class

Category:Recipients of the War Merit Cross

Category:SA-Standartenführer

Category:SS and police leaders

Category:SS-Gruppenführer

Category:University of Stuttgart alumni