Christian Weber (25 August 1883 – 11 May 1945) was a German
Nazi Party
The Nazi Party, officially the National Socialist German Workers' Party (german: Nationalsozialistische Deutsche Arbeiterpartei or NSDAP), was a far-right political party in Germany active between 1920 and 1945 that created and supported t ...
(NSDAP) official and member of the ''
Schutzstaffel
The ''Schutzstaffel'' (SS; also stylized as ''ᛋᛋ'' with Armanen runes; ; "Protection Squadron") was a major paramilitary organization under Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party in Nazi Germany, and later throughout German-occupied Europe duri ...
'' (SS).
Biography
Along with the likes of
Emil Maurice
Emil Maurice (; 19 January 1897 – 6 February 1972) was an early member of the National Socialist German Workers' Party (Nazi Party) and a founding member of the ''Schutzstaffel'' (SS). He was Hitler's first personal chauffeur, and was one of ...
,
Ulrich Graf, and
Max Amann, Weber, a
bouncer
A bouncer (also known as a doorman or door supervisor) is a type of security guard, employed at venues such as bars, nightclubs, cabaret clubs, stripclubs, casinos, hotels, billiard halls, restaurants, sporting events, schools, concerts, or ...
at a bar, was among the earliest political associates of
Adolf Hitler
Adolf Hitler (; 20 April 188930 April 1945) was an Austrian-born German politician who was dictator of Nazi Germany, Germany from 1933 until Death of Adolf Hitler, his death in 1945. Adolf Hitler's rise to power, He rose to power as the le ...
. Ever ready for a fight, Weber carried a
riding crop with him, a habit shared by Hitler in those early years.
Otto Strasser
Otto Johann Maximilian Strasser (also german: link=no, Straßer, see ß; 10 September 1897 – 27 August 1974) was a German politician and an early member of the Nazi Party. Otto Strasser, together with his brother Gregor Strasser, was a lead ...
denounced Weber as an "ape-like creature" and "the most despicable of Hitler's underlings"; Strasser later claimed that Weber was a
pimp at this time.
In late 1921, Weber was one of Hitler's cohorts when the Nazis attacked a meeting of the Bavarian League. Hitler personally beat up the League's leader
Otto Ballerstedt, an event that led to serving a month in prison. At some stage before 1923, Weber lost an eye and often wore a specially made pair of glasses as a result.
Following the 1923
Beer Hall Putsch, Weber, by then a horse trader, was owed $1000 by Hitler after he had bought the debt from
Ernst Hanfstaengl
Ernst Franz Sedgwick Hanfstaengl (; 2 February 1887 – 6 November 1975) was a German-American businessman and close friend of Adolf Hitler. He eventually fell out of favour with Hitler and defected from Nazi Germany to the United States. He lat ...
. Weber insisted on Hitler paying the debt. The two however remained close and Hanfstaengl later claimed that Weber was one of the few who could make fun of ''
Mein Kampf'' in Hitler's company.
A city councilman in
Munich
Munich ( ; german: München ; bar, Minga ) is the capital and most populous city of the German state of Bavaria. With a population of 1,558,395 inhabitants as of 31 July 2020, it is the third-largest city in Germany, after Berlin and Ha ...
, he was effectively the boss of the city following the Nazi seizure of power in 1933. Weber became a hated figure in the city, particularly amongst the middle classes, and he became a by-word for corruption as it was regularly questioned how a former hotel bellboy had come to own a number of hotels, villas, petrol stations, a brewery, the city's racecourse, its bus service, and a home in the
Munich Residenz. Other titles that he acquired included presidency of the ''
Reichsjagdmuseum'' and the League of German Riding Stable Owners.
[Schwarzwäller, ''The Unknown Hitler'', pg. 212.]
In 1934, during the
Night of the Long Knives
The Night of the Long Knives (German: ), or the Röhm purge (German: ''Röhm-Putsch''), also called Operation Hummingbird (German: ''Unternehmen Kolibri''), was a purge that took place in Nazi Germany from 30 June to 2 July 1934. Chancellor Ad ...
, Weber was amongst the SS men who travelled to
Bad Wiessee to purge the ''
Sturmabteilung'' (SA) leadership. Hitler personally rewarded him for his involvement by promoting him to the rank of SS-''
Oberführer
__NOTOC__
''Oberführer'' (short: ''Oberf'', , ) was an early paramilitary rank of the Nazi Party (NSDAP) dating back to 1921. An ''Oberführer'' was typically a NSDAP member in charge of a group of paramilitary units in a particular geographic ...
''. From 1936 to 1939, Weber organized the notorious "
Night of the Amazons" carnivals at the
Nymphenburg Palace
The Nymphenburg Palace (german: Schloss Nymphenburg, Palace of the Nymphs) is a Baroque palace situated in Munich's western district Neuhausen-Nymphenburg, in Bavaria, southern Germany. Combined with the adjacent Nymphenburg Palace Park it cons ...
, which featured parades of topless variety show girls dressed only in skin-colored panties.
[Pope, Ernest R.: ''Munich Playground.'' New York 1941, pp. 35–36.]
Ever on the lookout for a chance to enrich himself, Weber was active on ''
Kristallnacht
() or the Night of Broken Glass, also called the November pogrom(s) (german: Novemberpogrome, ), was a pogrom against Jews carried out by the Nazi Party's (SA) paramilitary and (SS) paramilitary forces along with some participation fro ...
'' when he took a group of SS men, including a young
Hermann Fegelein, to
Planegg
Planegg is a municipality in the district of Munich, in Bavaria, Germany. It is located on the river Würm, 13 km west of Munich (centre).
Economy
Koch Media has its head office in Planegg. It also hosts many biotech-companies, like ADVA ...
where they ransacked the estate of Jewish nobleman Baron . The estate eventually passed into Weber's possession.
Weber took care of security arrangements for Nazi functions in Munich although he received criticism for this when his plans failed to prevent
Georg Elser's bomb attack on the
Bürgerbräukeller on 8 November 1939, which missed Hitler and a number of other leading Nazis including
Heinrich Himmler
Heinrich Luitpold Himmler (; 7 October 1900 – 23 May 1945) was of the (Protection Squadron; SS), and a leading member of the Nazi Party of Germany. Himmler was one of the most powerful men in Nazi Germany and a main architect of th ...
and
Alfred Rosenberg
Alfred Ernst Rosenberg ( – 16 October 1946) was a Baltic German Nazi theorist and ideologue. Rosenberg was first introduced to Adolf Hitler by Dietrich Eckart and he held several important posts in the Nazi government. He was the head o ...
by only ten minutes. Despite this, Weber remained important in Munich, although ''
Gauleiter
A ''Gauleiter'' () was a regional leader of the Nazi Party (NSDAP) who served as the head of a '' Gau'' or '' Reichsgau''. ''Gauleiter'' was the third-highest rank in the Nazi political leadership, subordinate only to '' Reichsleiter'' and to ...
''
Paul Giesler
Paul Giesler (15 June 1895 – 8 May 1945) was a German Nazi Party functionary responsible for acts of brutality which included killing opponents of the regime in southern Germany. He first joined the Nazi Party (NSDAP) in 1922; he reenrolled on ...
was a rival. The two clashed in 1943 over the continuation of
horse racing in the city and the dispute was ultimately brought to Hitler himself, where Giesler argued it should be banned as it was not conducive to total war. Hitler agreed in principle with Giesler but, due to the respect for his ''
Alter Kämpfer
''Alter Kämpfer'' (German for "Old Fighter"; plural: ''Alte Kämpfer'') is a term referring to the earliest members of the Nazi Party, i.e. those who joined it before the ''Reichstag'' 1930 German federal election, with many belonging to the par ...
'' comrade, he allowed racing to continue at the
Theresienwiese
Theresienwiese is an open space in the Munich borough of Ludwigsvorstadt-Isarvorstadt. It serves as the official ground of the Munich Oktoberfest. A space of , it is bordered in the west by the Ruhmeshalle and the Bavaria statue, symbolizing ...
only.
Death
Weber died in 1945 after being arrested by the
United States Army
The United States Army (USA) is the land warfare, land military branch, service branch of the United States Armed Forces. It is one of the eight Uniformed services of the United States, U.S. uniformed services, and is designated as the Army o ...
near
Starnberg. He was one of a number of prisoners being carried in an open-backed lorry, which overturned. Weber suffered fatal injuries in the accident. His body was interred in a mass grave at
Heilbronn.
Dös Viech g'fallt mir
/ref>
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Weber, Christian
1883 births
1945 deaths
People from Weißenburg-Gunzenhausen
People from the Kingdom of Bavaria
German Lutherans
Nazi Party politicians
Members of the Reichstag of Nazi Germany
Officials of Nazi Germany
German city councillors
SS-Brigadeführer
Military personnel of Bavaria
Road incident deaths in Germany
Prisoners who died in United States military detention
20th-century Lutherans
Nazis who died in prison custody