Viktor Lutze

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Viktor Lutze : biography

28 December 1890 – 2 May 1943

Foreign organisation

After the Anschluss, Lutze traveled to Austria to help reorganize the SA there. The most visible role for the SA after the purge was in assisting the SS in Kristallnacht in November 1938. In February 1939, Lutze reviewed a parade of 20,000 Blackshirts in Rome and then set off for a tour of Italy’s Libyan frontier with Tunisia.

Early life

Lutze was born in Bevergern, Westphalia, the son of a peasant craftsman. After a short career in the post office, he joined the German Army in 1912, serving with the 55th Infantry Regiment. He fought in the 369th Infantry Regiment and 15th Reserve Infantry Regiment during World War I. He became a company commander and was heavily wounded four times, including loss of his left eye. After the war, Lutze became a merchant and joined the police force.

Honors

Lutze was posthumously awarded the Highest Grade of the German Order.

Lutze’s Death and funeral

Lutze maintained his position in the weakened SA until his death. On May 1, 1943 he was driving a car near Potsdam with his entire family (one account suggests they were foraging for food). Driving too fast in a curve caused an accident that badly injured Lutze as well as killing his oldest daughter Inge and greatly injuring his younger daughter. Viktor Lutze died during an operation in a hospital in Potsdam at 10:30 the next evening. (News reports stated that the accident involved another vehicle, keeping the news of reckless driving from the public. This may have contributed to theories that Lutze has been killed just as Röhm had been, or that partisans assassinated him). Hitler ordered Joseph Goebbels to convey his condolences to Viktor’s wife Paula and son Viktor, Jr. Goebbels, in his diaries, had already described Lutze as a man of "unlimited stupidity" but at his death decided he was a decent fellow. Lutze was 52 years old.

The esteem in which Lutze was held is indicated by the fact that Hitler ordered a lavish state funeral for him on May 7, 1943 in the Reich Chancellery. Hitler attended in person, something he rarely did at that stage in the war. Lutze was posthumously awarded the Highest Grade of the German Order by Hitler. Hitler also took this opportunity to order party, army, and government officials (many of whom were in attendance) to curtail speeding (specifically requesting they drive no faster than 50 miles per hour).

Hitler appointed Wilhelm Schepmann to succeed Lutze as Stabschef SA, but the organization had been thoroughly marginalized by that time.

Notes