Description
1944 ORIGINAL HEINRICH HIMMLER SIGNED SS AND SCHUTZPOLIZEI PROMOTION DOCUMENT – SS-STANDARTENFÜHRER HEINRICH SCHULTZ – REICH CHANCELLERY
Original April 1944 Third Reich promotion document bearing the handwritten ink signature of Heinrich Himmler, Reichsführer-SS and Chief of the German Police, concerning the promotion of Heinrich Schultz from SS-Obersturmbannführer and Oberstleutnant der Schutzpolizei to SS-Standartenführer and Oberst der Schutzpolizei. The official document, titled Vorschlag zur Ernennung (Proposal for Appointment), was issued by the Reichsminister des Innern (Reich Minister of the Interior) and dated 7 April 1944 at the Feld-Kommandostelle (Field Command Post). Himmler's distinctive signature appears prominently in blue ink beneath the statement “Der Leiter der Parteikanzlei hat Einwendungen gegen die Ernennung nicht erhoben” (The Head of the Party Chancellery has raised no objections to the appointment). The document bears the official stamp of the Präsidialkanzlei des Führers und Reichskanzlers, recording receipt on 12 April 1944, together with the file reference RP 3193/44. The lower section contains the subsequent appointment authorization issued at Führer-Hauptquartier on 20 April 1944, Adolf Hitler's birthday, in the name of the German people and Adolf Hitler as Führer und Reichskanzler, with a printed “gez. Adolf Hitler” notation rather than an original Hitler signature. Additional official processing notations are dated 17 April 1944 and include the printed name of Dr. Hans Heinrich Lammers's contemporary Reich Chancellery counterpart, Dr. Otto Meissner, as head of the Presidential Chancellery.
The accompanying detailed personnel record identifies Schultz as born on 3 November 1890 in Ahrensbök, Lübeck, and records his residence in Hamburg, his marriage, three children, and military service from 12 October 1910 to 30 November 1919, including service as an officer's deputy and release from prisoner-of-war captivity. His subsequent police career is documented through promotions to Polizeileutnant in 1921, Polizeioberleutnant in 1923, Polizeihauptmann in 1930, Major der Schutzpolizei on 20 April 1937, and Oberstleutnant der Schutzpolizei in 1942. Further entries record his SS rank of Obersturmbannführer, NSDAP membership from 1 May 1933, and his involvement since 1925 in a veterans' organization associated with former members of Infantry Regiment 141. The April 1944 promotion to SS-Standartenführer and Oberst der Schutzpolizei is also corroborated by contemporary police promotion records identifying Schultz with the Hamburg police administration.
Forum Geschichte der Wehrmacht
An exceptionally significant original wartime governmental document linking Heinrich Himmler, the SS, the German police leadership, the Presidential Chancellery, and the formal appointment authority of Adolf Hitler, highlighted by Himmler's large original blue-ink signature and the accompanying detailed biographical and service record.
