Falk-Wolfgang Zipperer (24 December 1899, in

Darmstadt Darmstadt () is a city in the States of Germany, state of Hesse in Germany, located in the southern part of the Frankfurt Rhine Main Area, Rhine-Main-Area (Frankfurt Metropolitan Region). Darmstadt has around 160,000 inhabitants, making it th ...

– 1966 in

Bonn The federal city of Bonn ( lat, Bonna) is a city on the banks of the Rhine in the German state of North Rhine-Westphalia, with a population of over 300,000. About south-southeast of Cologne, Bonn is in the southernmost part of the Rhine-Ruhr r ...

) was a German

jurist A jurist is a person with expert knowledge of law; someone who analyses and comments on law. This person is usually a specialist legal scholar, mostly (but not always) with a formal qualification in law and often a legal practitioner. In the Uni ...

and

librarian A librarian is a person who works professionally in a library providing access to information, and sometimes social or technical programming, or instruction on information literacy to users. The role of the librarian has changed much over time, ...

. Zipperer was one of

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 ...

's closest friends.

Life

Falk Zipperer attended Wilhelmsgymnasium in

Munich Munich ( ; german: München ; bar, Minga ) is the capital and most populous city of the States of Germany, German state of Bavaria. With a population of 1,558,395 inhabitants as of 31 July 2020, it is the List of cities in Germany by popu ...

. In April 1917, Zipperer left grammar school and began officer training. After his participation in the

First World War World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...

, reaching the rank of

lieutenant A lieutenant ( , ; abbreviated Lt., Lt, LT, Lieut and similar) is a commissioned officer rank in the armed forces of many nations. The meaning of lieutenant differs in different militaries (see comparative military ranks), but it is often sub ...

, Zipperer began studying

jurisprudence Jurisprudence, or legal theory, is the theoretical study of the propriety of law. Scholars of jurisprudence seek to explain the nature of law in its most general form and they also seek to achieve a deeper understanding of legal reasoning a ...

Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich The Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich (simply University of Munich or LMU; german: Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München) is a public research university in Munich, Germany. It is Germany's sixth-oldest university in continuous operatio ...

, under, among others, Konrad Beyerle. In 1921, he became active in the Corps Vandalia Graz.Kösener Corpslisten 1996, 180, 115 He finished his studies in 1928. In 1933, he was appointed to the Persönlicher Stab Reichsführer-SS. In 1935, he became a member of the

Nazi Party The Nazi Party, officially the National Socialist German Workers' Party (german: Nationalsozialistische Deutsche Arbeiterpartei or NSDAP), was a far-right politics, far-right political party in Germany active between 1920 and 1945 that crea ...

. He was assigned as a student to Karl August Eckhardt by his old friend

. With a dissertation on the ''Haberfeldtreiben'' with Eugen Wohlhaupter, he received his

doctorate of law A Doctor of Law is a degree in law. The application of the term varies from country to country and includes degrees such as the Doctor of Juridical Science (J.S.D. or S.J.D), Juris Doctor (J.D.), Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.), and Legum Doctor (LL ...

in 1937 at the

University of Kiel Kiel University, officially the Christian-Albrecht University of Kiel, (german: Christian-Albrechts-Universität zu Kiel, abbreviated CAU, known informally as Christiana Albertina) is a university in the city of Kiel, Germany. It was founded in ...

.Dissertation: 'Das Haberfeldtreiben, seine Geschichte und seine Deutung'' In the same year, he was Eckhardt's assistant and chief collaborator in the reorganization of the ''Deutschrechtlichen Instituts des Reichsführers-SS'' (German Legal Institute of the Reichsführer-SS) at the

University of Bonn The Rhenish Friedrich Wilhelm University of Bonn (german: Rheinische Friedrich-Wilhelms-Universität Bonn) is a public research university located in Bonn, North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. It was founded in its present form as the ( en, Rhine U ...

Habilitated Habilitation is the highest university degree, or the procedure by which it is achieved, in many European countries. The candidate fulfills a university's set criteria of excellence in research, teaching and further education, usually including a ...

in 1941, he was appointed the following year to the faculty. After the death of legal historian Karl-Hans Maria Ganahl in 1942, Zipperer was appointed as a professor for German legal history at the

University of Innsbruck The University of Innsbruck (german: Leopold-Franzens-Universität Innsbruck; la, Universitas Leopoldino Franciscea) is a public research university in Innsbruck, the capital of the Austrian federal state of Tyrol, founded on October 15, 1669. ...

on Himmler's request in June 1944, although the faculty preferred Otto Stolz. But Zipperer, who was serving as a

Waffen-SS The (, "Armed SS") was the combat branch of the Nazi Party's ''Schutzstaffel'' (SS) organisation. Its formations included men from Nazi Germany, along with Waffen-SS foreign volunteers and conscripts, volunteers and conscripts from both occup ...

-''

Hauptsturmführer __NOTOC__ (, ; short: ''Hstuf'') was a Nazi Party paramilitary rank that was used in several Nazi organizations such as the SS, NSKK and the NSFK. The rank of ''Hauptsturmführer'' was a mid-level commander and had equivalent seniority to a ...

'' at the front, did not fulfill his professorship. At the end of the war, Zipperer was a

prisoner of war A prisoner of war (POW) is a person who is held captive by a belligerent power during or immediately after an armed conflict. The earliest recorded usage of the phrase "prisoner of war" dates back to 1610. Belligerents hold prisoners of wa ...

. As a "'' Reichsdeutscher''", he was discharged from the Austrian university service. He then worked in the higher service of the Federal Library (Reichstag library) for scientific cataloging.

Relationship with Himmler

Zipperer and

were best friends as children in

, and they remained very close throughout their lives. Coincidentally, both of their families moved to

Landshut Landshut (; bar, Landshuad) is a town in Bavaria in the south-east of Germany. Situated on the banks of the River Isar, Landshut is the capital of Lower Bavaria, one of the seven administrative regions of the Free State of Bavaria. It is also t ...

during their childhoods. When Zipperer returned home from service in the First World War, the two were again classmates, and they spent a great deal of time writing poems, an interest that bound them together. Himmler once remarked that Zipperer was "a really nice, good friend and a great man of genius". When Zipperer married in 1937, Himmler gave a lunch party. In 1938, Himmler accepted Zipperer into the SS. On the occasion of Himmler's 40th birthday in 1940, Zipperer published an essay in a

Festschrift In academia, a ''Festschrift'' (; plural, ''Festschriften'' ) is a book honoring a respected person, especially an academic, and presented during their lifetime. It generally takes the form of an edited volume, containing contributions from the h ...

. When Himmler was preparing for Christmas in 1944, he put down Zipperer's wife, Liselotte, for a gift.

Publications

* ''Der Grenzbaum''. Bonn, 1939. * Review of Johannes Haller's ''Der Eintritt der Germanen in die Geschichte'', in: Zeitschrift der Savigny-Stiftung für Rechtsgeschichte, 1940. * Essay for the ''Festgabe für Heinrich Himmler'' (i.e. ''Honoring Collection for Heinrich Himmler''), which included among others as authors

Werner Best Karl Rudolf Werner Best (10 July 1903 – 23 June 1989) was a German jurist, police chief, SS-''Obergruppenführer'', Nazi Party leader, and theoretician from Darmstadt. He was the first chief of Department 1 of the Gestapo, Nazi Germany's secret ...

and Reinhard Höhn, published by Wilhelm Stuckart, L. C. Wittich Verlag, Darmstadt 1941.

References

Bibliography

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Zipperer, Falk 1899 births 1966 deaths Jurists from Darmstadt People educated at the Wilhelmsgymnasium (Munich) People from Landshut German legal scholars German librarians German Army personnel of World War I SS-Hauptsturmführer Waffen-SS personnel Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich alumni University of Kiel alumni Academic staff of the University of Bonn Academic staff of the University of Innsbruck German prisoners of war in World War II Heinrich Himmler