Karl Freiherr Michel von Tüßling

Karl Freiherr Michel von Tüßling

(from left) Philipp Bouhler, Karl Freiherr Michel von Tüßling (center), Robert Ley with his wife Inge; Munich, July 1939
Born (1907-07-27)27 July 1907
Tüßling, German Empire
Died 30 October 1991(1991-10-30)
Tüßling, Germany
Allegiance  Nazi Germany
Service/branch Schutzstaffel
Years of service 1933–1945
Rank Sturmbannführer
Service number NSDAP #1 726 624
SS #56 074
Battles/wars World War II
Awards SA Sports Badge, Iron Cross 2nd Class and 1st Class

Karl Freiherr Michel von Tüßling[lower-alpha 1] (27 July 1907 – 30 October 1991) was an Schutzstaffel (SS) officer who served in the Nazi government of German dictator Adolf Hitler and in the SS Main Office. From 1936 onwards, he was the personal adjutant of Reichsleiter and SS-Obergruppenführer Philipp Bouhler, who was in charge of Hitler's Chancellery (Kanzlei des Führers), head of the euthanasia programme Aktion T4, as well as co-initiator of Aktion 14f13.[1][2] In 1947 Tüßling provided an affidavit in defence of war criminal Viktor Brack who was sentenced to death at the Nuremberg trials.[3][4]

Biography

Michel von Tüßling was born in Tüßling, Bavaria, as the second child of Alfred Freiherr Michel v. Tüßling (1870–1957) and Hertha Gräfin Wolffskeel v. Reichenberg (1877–1948).[5] He joined the SS (Motorized Unit 2) in Munich in April 1933, shortly after the Nazi Party (NSDAP) seized national power. In summer 1933 he was transferred to the Motor Training Unit in Munich, that was commanded by Viktor Brack. In August 1934, Reichsleiter Philipp Bouhler, who had been Reich Secretary of the NSDAP, became police chairman of Munich, and only a month later, he was appointed chief of Adolf Hitler's Chancellery. In 1935 Bouhler summoned Michel von Tüssling to Berlin, where he became a commissioned officer, rising to the rank of Untersturmführer.[6]

In 1936 he was promoted to Obersturmführer and became Bouhler's personal adjutant, serving in Hitler's Chancellery, where Brack had been appointed chief of Main Office 2 (Hauptamt II). Bouhler's office was responsible for all correspondences for Hitler which included private and internal communications as well as responding to public inquiries. Promoted to Hauptsturmführer with a post at the SS Main Office in 1938, Michel von Tüßling continued his service in Hitler's Chancellery and remained the personal adjutant of Bouhler throughout the Aktion T4, the programme of involuntary euthanasia, that ran officially from September 1939 to August 1941, killing more than 70,000 people.[1][7] On 30 January 1941, Tüßling was promoted to Sturmbannführer.[8][9]

In 1941 Bouhler and Heinrich Himmler initiated Aktion 14f13. Bouhler instructed the head of the Hauptamt II, Viktor Brack who had already been in charge of the various front operations of T4, to implement this order. Aktion 14f13 killed 15,000–20,000 concentration camp prisoners. Later on 10 May 1945, Bouhler was captured and arrested by American troops. He committed suicide on 19 May 1945 while in the U.S. internment camp at Zell am See in Austria.[10]

Michel von Tüßling was interned at Regensburg Internment Camp, from where he provided an affidavit in defence of Viktor Brack in 1947. In this affidavit he also describes their (Brack, Bouhler, Michel von Tüßling) relation to Adolf Hitler's private secretary Martin Bormann; (excerpt):

Brack was an outspoken opponent of Bormann's policy, especially of the NSDAP totality demands advocated by Bormann. I know this very definitely, because Brack repeatedly asked me to use my personal influence to induce Reichsleiter Bouhler to adopt a more active attitude against Bormann's efforts. Bouhler certainly shared Brack's and my opinion of Bormann, but in spite of our remonstrances did not alter his passive attitude to Bormann. ... I am convinced that he [Brack] did not regard the SS as an organisation for the perpetration of crimes. His attitude to the Jewish question did not correspond to the usual SS conception. He was on good terms with several Jews of mixed descent and in his official capacity repeatedly acted on behalf of Jews who applied to him for assistance.
— Karl Baron Michel von Tüßling, Regensburg, 31 March 1947[11]

During the Nuremberg "Doctors' trial", Brack was accused of war crimes and crimes against humanity: Nazi human experimentation, mass murder under the guise of euthanasia, his relation to Aktion 14f13, and his involvement to the implementation of the Final Solution. Brack was found guilty and executed at Landsberg Prison in 1948.

Michel von Tüßling returned to his estate in Tüßling, where he died in 1991. He was married twice. His first marriage took place on the 16 May 1938 to Elisabeth von Stumm (1918–1996) in Berlin; divorced, Traunstein, 22. December 1948. His second marriage took place on the 14 November 1960 to Ulrike Barth (1925–1999) in Munich.[12] He had three children. His daughter, Stephanie Gräfin Bruges-von Pfuel (born 1961) is the current mayor of Tüßling (CSU).[13][14]

Ranks

Awards and decorations

Notes

  1. ↑ Regarding personal names: Freiherr was a title before 1919, but now is regarded as part of the surname. It is translated as Baron. Before the August 1919 abolition of nobility as a legal class, titles preceded the full name when given (Graf Helmuth James von Moltke). Since 1919, these titles, along with any nobiliary prefix (von, zu, etc.), can be used, but are regarded as a dependent part of the surname, and thus come after any given names (Helmuth James Graf von Moltke). Titles and all dependent parts of surnames are ignored in alphabetical sorting. The feminine forms are Freifrau and Freiin.

References

  1. 1 2 "Nationalsozialistisches Jahrbuch 1942". Google Books (in German). 2016-07-28. Retrieved 2016-08-19.
  2. ↑ "Adelige Funktionäre in der NSDAP im Jahre 1939". Institut Deutsche Adelsforschung (in German). Retrieved 2016-08-21.
  3. ↑ "Harvard Law School Library - Nuremberg Trials Project". nuremberg.law.harvard.edu. Retrieved 2016-08-19.
  4. ↑ Ebbinghaus, Angelika (2001). The Nuremberg Medical Trial 1946/47, Walter de Gruyter, p. 236. ISBN 978-31-109-5007-6
  5. ↑ Genealogisches Handbuch des Adels, Freiherrliche Häuser, Band XV, Limburg a.d. Lahn 1989, p. 359 ff.
  6. ↑ "Harvard Law School Library - Nuremberg Trials Project". nuremberg.law.harvard.edu. Retrieved 2016-08-19.
  7. ↑ NSDAP - Reichsorganisationsleiter Dr. Robert Ley, Hg. (1941), Nationalsozialistisches Jahrbuch 1942, Franz Eher Nachfolger, Munich, p. 167
  8. ↑ "Numery członków SS od 56 000 do 56 999.". DWS-XIP Druga Wojna Światowa (in Polish). Retrieved 2016-08-19.
  9. ↑ "The numbers of members of the SS: 56 000 to 56 999.". United States Holocaust Memorial Museum. Retrieved 2016-08-19.
  10. ↑ Miller, Michael (2006). Leaders of the SS and German Police, Vol. 1, R. James Bender Publishing, p. 155. ISBN 978-93-297-0037-2
  11. ↑ "Affidavit: Karl Freiherr Michel von Tuessling, page 3-4". Harvard Law School. Retrieved 2016-11-03.
  12. ↑ Elward, Ronald (2004-02-24). "BOHLEN UND HALBACH". The Heirs of Europe. Retrieved 2016-09-15.
  13. ↑ "Bürgermeister of Tüßling". Markt Tüßling (in German). 2016-08-06. Retrieved 2016-09-16.
  14. ↑ "Stephanie von Pfuel - Official Homepage: Biografie". Stephanie von Pfuel (in German). Retrieved 2016-09-17.
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