Wilhelm Frick

Wilhelm Frick
Frick, c. 1940-45
Reichsminister of the Interior
In office
30 January 1933 – 20 August 1943
PresidentPaul von Hindenburg
(1933–1934)
Adolf Hitler
(1934–1943; as Führer)
ChancellorAdolf Hitler
Preceded byFranz Bracht
Succeeded byHeinrich Himmler
General Plenipotentiary for Administration of the Reich
In office
4 September 1938[1] – 20 August 1943
Appointed byAdolf Hitler
Preceded byOffice established
Succeeded byHeinrich Himmler[2]
Protector of Bohemia and Moravia
In office
24 August 1943 – 8 May 1945
Appointed byAdolf Hitler
Preceded byKonstantin von Neurath (de jure)
Kurt Daluege (de facto)
Succeeded byPosition abolished
Reichsminister without Portfolio
In office
24 August 1943 – 30 April 1945
Additional positions
1939–1945Member of the Council of Ministers for the Defense of the Reich
1934—1945Member of the Prussian State Council
1933—1945Reichsleiter
1933–1945Member of the Reichstag (Nazi Germany)
1924—1933Member of the Reichstag (Weimar Republic)
Personal details
Born(1877-03-12)12 March 1877
Alsenz, Kingdom of Bavaria, German Empire
Died16 October 1946(1946-10-16) (aged 69)
Nuremberg Prison, Nuremberg, Bavaria, Allied-occupied Germany
Cause of deathExecution by hanging
Political partyNazi Party
Spouses
  • Elisabetha Emilie Nagel
    (m. 1910; div. 1934)
  • Margarete Schultze-Naumburg
    (m. 1934)
Children5
Alma mater
OccupationAttorney
Signature
Criminal conviction
Criminal statusExecuted
Conviction(s)Crimes of aggression
War crimes
Crimes against humanity
TrialNuremberg trials
Criminal penaltyDeath

Wilhelm Frick (12 March 1877 – 16 October 1946) was a convicted war criminal and prominent German politician of the Nazi Party (NSDAP) who served as Minister of the Interior in Adolf Hitler's cabinet from 1933 to 1943[3] and as the last governor of the Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia.

As the head of the Kriminalpolizei (criminal police) in Munich, Frick took part in Hitler's failed Beer Hall Putsch of 1923, for which he was convicted of high treason. He managed to avoid imprisonment and soon afterwards became a leading figure of the Nazi Party (NSDAP) in the Reichstag. In 1930, Frick became the first Nazi to hold a ministerial-level post at any level in Germany in Thuringia as state Minister of the Interior.

After Hitler became Chancellor of Germany in 1933, Frick joined the new government and was named Minister of the Interior. Additionally, on 21 May 1935, Frick was named Generalbevollmächtigter für die Reichsverwaltung (General Plenipotentiary for the Administration of the Reich).[4] He was instrumental in formulating laws that consolidated the Nazi regime (Gleichschaltung), as well as laws that defined the Nazi racial policy, most notoriously the Nuremberg Laws. On 30 August 1939, immediately prior to the outbreak of the Second World War, Frick was appointed by Hitler to the six-person Council of Ministers for Defense of the Reich which operated as a war cabinet.[5] Following the rise of the SS, Frick gradually lost favour within the party, and in 1943 he was replaced by Heinrich Himmler as interior minister. Frick remained in the cabinet as a minister without portfolio until Hitler's death in 1945.

After World War II, Frick was tried and convicted of war crimes at the Nuremberg trials and executed by hanging.

  1. ^ Office of United States Counsel for Prosecution of Axis Criminality (1948). Nazi Conspiracy And Aggression: Supplement B. United States Government Printing Office. p. 408.
  2. ^ Lisciotto, Carmelo (2007). "SS & Other Nazi Leaders". Holocaust Research Project. Retrieved 18 April 2024.
  3. ^ Claudia Koonz, The Nazi Conscience, p 103, ISBN 0-674-01172-4
  4. ^ "Nazi Germany - Government Structure". Retrieved 8 May 2023.
  5. ^ Broszat, Martin (1981). The Hitler State. Longman Inc. pp. 308–309. ISBN 0-582-49200-9.

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