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Friedrich Hildebrandt (19 September 1898 - 5 November 1948) was a German Nazi Party politician and SS-Obergruppenfuhrer. He was convicted of war crimes at the Dachau trials in 1947.
Biography edit
Hildebrandt was born in Mecklenburg-Schwerin, Germany, in 1898. He joined the Germany Army in 1916 and was assigned to Reserve-Infanterie-Regiment 24 to serve on the Western Front during World War I. He was severely injured during a gas attack and was shot twice before he was eventually captured by the Red Army and imprisoned in Russia. He remained in Russia until January 1920, when he was released. Upon returning to Germany he was discharged from the army and joined the Security Police, participating in the suppression of the Kapp Putsch and the Spartacist Uprising, before being charged with using excessive force. Although he was acquitted, he was sacked from the police force.
Hildebrandt joined the Nazi Party in 1925 and was elected to the Reichstag in 1930. After the Nazi seizure of power, he was appointed Reich Governor of Mecklenburg-Schwerin, Mecklenburg-Strelitz and Lubeck on 26 May 1933. The Greater Hamburg Act of 1937 created the Gau of Mecklenburg-Lubeck, of which Hildebrandt was Gauleiter. A member of the SS since 1933, Hildebrandt was promoted to SS-Obergruppenfuhrer in 1942, followed by Reich Defence Commissioner for Mecklenburg-Lubeck.
Following the end of World War II, Hildebrandt was arrested by American troops and charged with war crimes. The charges were based on orders he had issued to execute all parachuting Allied airmen, a violation of the Hague Conventions. Hildebrandt was charged at the Dachau trials, the trials of all German war criminals captured by American troops held at the former Dachau concentration camp. Hildebrandt was sentenced to death and executed by hanging at Landsberg Prison on 5 November 1948.