Fritz Schlessmann

Fritz Schlessmann, born Georg Friedrich Schlessmann (11 March 1899 – 31 March 1964) was a Nazi Deputy Gauleiter of Gau Essen and served as Acting Gauleiter for most of the Second World War. He was also a prominent police official and SS-Obergruppenführer. Schlessmann, the son of a locksmith, attended elementary and secondary school in Essen. He left school in 1914 without attaining his diploma and worked as an apprentice locksmith in the Krupp factory until May 1916. He then volunteered for service with the Imperial German Navy in the First World War. He was stationed first in Kiel, then in Wilhelmshaven with the U-boat fleet and assigned to U-100 until discharged after the end of the war in November 1918. In March 1919 he briefly reentered the navy and served as a machinist on a minesweeper until again discharged in May 1919. He returned to work as a locksmith in Heidelberg and Wertheim am Main. He also served with the Freikorps Roßbach in opposing the Ruhr uprising in March 1920. For the next two years, Schlessmann trained as a technician at state mechanical engineering schools in Essen and Elberfeld, passing his engineering examinations in August 1922. On 17 December 1922, Schlessmann became a member of the Nazi Party (NSDAP) co-founding the Ortsgruppe (Local Group) in Essen and becoming the Deputy Ortsgruppenleiter. At the same time, he joined the Party’s paramilitary unit, the Sturmabteilung (SA) becoming the SA-Führer in Essen. During this period, he was working as a construction designer in the Krupp works in Essen until being fired in December 1923 for excessive absenteeism as the result of his SA activities. He remained unemployed for the next two years. Following the Beer Hall Putsch in November 1923, the Nazi Party was outlawed and Schlessmann joined the German Völkisch Freedom Party. After the ban on the Nazi Party was lifted, Schlessmann rejoined it on 15 December 1925 (membership number 25,248). He resumed his duties as Deputy Ortsgruppenleiter and SA leader in Essen, reaching the rank of SA-Standartenführer in 1927.