Georg Paul Erich Hilgenfeldt

Georg Paul Erich Hilgenfeldt (born 2 July 1897 in Heinitz/Ottweiler; likely died in May 1945 in Berlin) was a German official and a high NSDAP (or Nazi Party) government official.

Life

Education

Georg Hilgenfeldt went to the Oberrealschule in Saarbrücken, whereafter he went to Halle until Obersekunda (roughly Grade or Year 11) on the "Frankesch" endowment.

World War I Service and Employment

He served in the First World War as an officer and pilot. After school, he was first an office staffer in the timber industry and head of sales for a building business. From 1928, Hilgenfeldt was a staffer at the "Reich Statistical Office".

Nazi Party Service

On 1 August 1929, he became an NSDAP member (no. 143642), and by 1932 he had become NSDAP Kreisleiter (District Leader) and by 1933 NSDAP Gauinspektor for Inspektion I Groß-Berlin.

He worked as office head at the NSDAP Office for People's Welfare and in close association with the Nationalsozialistische Volkswohlfahrt (NSV), or the National Socialist People's Welfare. By organizing a charity drive to celebrate Hitler's Birthday on April 20, 1931, Joseph Goebbels named him the head of the NSV. The NSV was named the single Nazi Party welfare organ in May of 1933. On 21 September 1933 he was appointed as Reich Commissioner for the Nazi Winter Support Programme (Winterhilfswerk). Under Hilgenfeldt the programme was massively expanded, so that the régime deemed it worthy to be called the "greatest social institution in the world." One method of expansion was to absorb, or in NSDAP parlance coordinate, already exisiting but non-Nazi charity organizations. NSV was the second largest Nazi group organization by 1939, second only to the German Labor Front.

From November of the same year, Hilgenfeldt was a member of the Reich Work Chamber (Reichsarbeitskammer), as well as the Academy for German Law and Honorary Judge at the Supreme Honour and Disciplinary Court. As NSV leader, he was also Reich Women's Leader (Reichsfrauenführerin) Gertrud Scholtz-Klink's superior.

He spoke at the Nuremburg Party Rally in 1936, during the Third Session of the Party Conference.

On 9 September 1937, Hilgenfeldt became SS member no. 289225, and then in 1939 a Brigadeführer in the Waffen-SS, and moreover a Main Office Leader.

In the course of his career, he was not only made an honorary judge, but also appointed Chairman of the Reich Association for Offender Support (Reichsverband für Straffälligenbetreuung). Furthermore, he was also awarded the Danziger Kreuz, First Class.

Death

Since May 1945, Hilgenfeldt has been missing. He is thought to have committed suicide in Berlin.