Heinrich Himmler - WW1 Soldier?

[Music] most people familiar with world war ii know that hitler and most of the top nazis were world war one veterans hitler himself spent four years in the trenches at the western front and was decorated three times for gallantry including the prestigious iron cross first class check out the link to my video on this subject in the end screen herman guring was a famous world war one fighter pilot and ace who was awarded imperial germany's highest decoration the puerle merit or blue max likewise rudolph hess had also been a flyer and euro kim von ribentrop a cavalry officer but when it comes to germany's most feared nazi after hitler the ruthless leader of the ss heinrich himmler his world war one service is usually dismissed or glossed over but in fact himmler was a soldier in world war one but because he didn't see combat this aspect of his life which had a formative effect on his personality is often dismissed of not worthy of discussion you may be surprised to learn that far from shirking his military responsibilities himmler actually served for one and a half years in the regular and reserve armies of both imperial germany and the weimar republic he would also serve for almost three years as a fry corps soldier during the revolutionary period of the early 1920s including seeing some action from the 1923 beer hall pooch if adolf hitler's sole aim in his early life was to become an artist then himmler's was to become an army officer neither men would achieve their dreams their failures contributing to what they would later become heinous himmler was born in 1900 in munich capital city of the kingdom of bavaria one of the many kingdoms and principalities that formed the german empire his father joseph himmler had worked his way up from very little to become a school master and a tutor to the bavarian royal family himmler was named for his godfather prince heinrich of bavaria who took a friendly interest in the boy and the wider himmler family his father was stern and conservative and inculcated his three sons with his politics and work ethic and from his mother anna maria himmler gained an early adherence to roman catholicism himmler was not impressive physically wearing spectacles and issuing sports for more ascetic interests but with the outbreak of war the teenage himmler desired above everything else to become an army officer he joined his local cadet corps in lanshut in 1915 and as he grew to military service age he badgered his father to use his royal connections to obtain for him a place in a good regiment as an aspiring officer himmler's father tried to pull the necessary strings but the waiting list to join the first and second bavarian infantry regiments were too long however what happened next says much about himmler's personality he abruptly left school when he discovered that his year was liable for conscription into the army he reasoned that if conscripted as a mere private his chances of becoming an officer would have been lost if he was so keen to fight one would have thought that he would have accepted conscription and gone willingly to the front but it appears that himmler wanted to control the manner of his joining up he worked for a few weeks for the patriotic auxiliary service in a welfare office until receiving the good news that his year group would not be drafted and he returned to school to complete his education but then on the 27th of december 1917 the seventeen-year-old himmler received notice that he had been accepted as a trainee officer with the rank of farnanyonka in the reserve battalion of the 11th bavarian infantry regiment based near regensburg basic training was not a pleasant experience for himmler who came from a sheltered family background but he settled down after a few weeks of homesickness complaints about the food and various other problems do when the training period ended himmler expected to be posted to a frontline battalion but instead himmler was sent on to another training course at freising 40 kilometers from his family home in lanshut meaning he could visit home some weekends successfully completing his second period of training with the other recruits himmler again expected to be sent to the front his older brother gephard was then fighting on the western front as a lightning or second lieutenant and himmler was very keen to do his duty but even though germany was evidently losing the war the army refused to truncate officer training courses and on the 15th of september 1918 himmler was sent on a two-week heavy machine gun course at bamberg following a week's leave himmler returned to regensburg and the regimental depot to help train new recruits until finally selected for a composite company that was to be rushed to the front by now it was november 1918 and with the political situation inside germany unravelling the company was stood down at the last minute ending himmler's last chance to see some action in world war one revolution erupted in bavaria leading to the king's abdication on the 7th of november then emperor wilhelm ii abdicated and fled into exile in the netherlands on the 9th of november leaving a new government to make peace on the 11th of november 1918 ending world war 1. one consolation for himmler was the survival of his brother gephardt who returned home a full lieutenant with an iron cross for gallantry himmler was sent to the 11th regiment's reserve battalion at regensburg hoping that the new republic would have some use for a mostly trained officer but instead he was assigned the inglorious task of helping to demobilize the regiment as the battalions march back to germany from the front the size of the german army began to rapidly decrease as the treaty of versailles made it clear that germany would only have a purely defensive force of just one hundred thousand men himmler was told that all phan and junckers from his original draft was surplus to requirements on the 18th of december 1918 himmler was honorably discharged at the age of 18 from the regular army after almost one year's service his dream of becoming a second lieutenant shattered himmler tried to find something to do whilst drifting towards nationalist and right-wing politics in the economic chaos of post-war germany himmler had a new plan to achieve his dream of a commission in the regular army in april 1919 himmler joined his local freikorps unit in lanshut the freikorp being right-wing paramilitary groups of former servicemen led by experienced officers and ncos he also obtained a place in the oberland freikorps the leader of this group was rudolf von sobottendorf chairman of the tula society a german occultist and nationalist organization that was destined to heavily influence himmler and the later ss and whose emblem was the swastika oberland freiko took part in the bloody crushing of the short-lived munich soviet republic though himmler was not involved in any fighting himmler's hopes of rejoining the regular army were briefly raised when the government ordered fry corps organizations absorbed into the armed forces but freikor oberland was not included receiving his school certificate in july 1919 himmler enrolled to study agriculture at munich technical university he chose this subject as he knew the course would be full of landed gentry and aristocrats many of whom were reserve officers and new friends like these might help him back into the army a bout of paratyphoid fever delayed himmler's taking up his new place time he used to read widely and his letters and diaries note his expression of anti-semitic and anti-freemason views for the first time in october 1919 himmler started at the university proving a good student with plenty of friends who enjoyed an active social life he fenced for the university and also joined the reserve army the equivalent in the united states to the army national guard or in britain to the army reserve inducted into the 14th alarm company the 21st rifle brigade this right-wing reichsheir unit was called out several times during political agitation in munich in december 1919 the unit was mobilized and himmler armed with a rifle stood ready to quell unrest but in the event was stood down on the 16th of january 1920 a great tumult resulted from a court sentencing former army officer count arco to death for his assassination of bavarian prime minister kurt eisner in february 1919. himmler's unit planned to stage a coup along with many other parts of the army against the bavarian government but count arco's death sentence was commuted to life imprisonment and the crisis was diffused in spring 1920 himmler's military career was ended again by government decree as reserve units were disbanded at the request of the british french and americans all himmler could do was join the residence reserve and a local rifle club his army reserve service amounted to about six months however he was next to join another paramilitary formation the reichsflagger or reich flag a unit created by captain ernst rome in 1922 himmler received two medals for his wartime military service the war commemorative medal 1914-18 of the kofreuser union in march and the german honorary commemorative badge of the world war in december politics was in disarray in bavaria with hitler and famous world war one general eric ludendorff leading opposition to a triumvirate that ran bavaria led by gustav ritter von karr whose job title was general state commissioner effectively dictator of bavaria the reichsflagger organization declared support for von kaar leading rome and a hard core of supporters to break away and form the reichskriegflager or reich warflag and himmler followed rome's organization threw in its lot with hitler and took part in the beer hall putch on the 9th of november 1923 when hitler attempted to overthrow the fonkar government by force himmler in military uniform and armed with a rifle was the standard bearer of the reichskrieg flagger carrying not surprisingly given the organization's name the old german imperial battle flag of world war one he was by now also an nsdap member having joined the party in august 1923. rome himmler and the other members of the reich's creek flagger were not part of the famous march from the berger broy keller beer hall to the feldhenhala war memorial in central munich led by hitler and guring that ended in a gun battle between nazis and munich police instead the reich's creek flagger had cordoned off the army headquarters in the city and would be themselves surrounded by reichsheir troops loyal to von kaar fighting did break out and for the first time himmler actually saw some combat stuck between the soldiers defending army headquarters and more troops that arrived to break the oreick creek flaggers siege of the complex soldiers trapped inside the building opened fire causing rome's men to return fire two members of himmler's unit were killed however after a ceasefire and negotiations the army allowed the reich's creek flagger to disperse and unlike the nazis they were not arrested or placed on trial himmler simply being interviewed by the police and then released himmler became more closely involved with the nazi party rising rapidly through the ranks throughout the 1920s to become the fourth holder the post of reichsfield ss in january 1929 it has been noted by many historians that his failure to see any combat in world war one affected his personality and also made him the butt of many jokes by hitler and the hard core of combat veterans that surrounded the fuhrer though of course never to his face himmler would die under mysterious circumstances in british custody on the 23rd of may 1945 at the age of 44. that however will be the subject of another video in the future thanks for watching please subscribe and share and also visit my audio book channel war stories with mark felton you can also help to support both of my channels at paypal and patreon details in the 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Channel: Mark Felton Productions

Views: 788,871

Keywords: Mark Felton, Himmler, WW1

Id: MOHynWSV9ME

Length: 14min 1sec (841 seconds)

Published: Wed Jul 07 2021