Konstantin Hierl

Konstantin Hierl.

Flag of the "Reichsarbeitsführer" (Reich labor leader) Konstantin Hierl 1935 - 1945

Konstantin Hierl (February 24, 1875 - September 23, 1955) was a major figure in the administration of Nazi Germany. He was the head of the Reichsarbeitsdienst and an associate of Adolf Hitler before he came to power.

Hierl was born in Parsberg, Bavaria. In 1919, as a major in the Reichswehr's Political Department in Munich, Hierl ordered the ex-soldier Hitler to attend a meeting of the German Workers' Party (which soon became the Nazi Party).

On June 5, 1931, two years before the Nazi Party ascended to power, Hierl became head of the FAD (Freiwilliger Arbeitsdienst), a state sponsored voluntary labour organization that provided services to civic and agricultural construction projects. There were many such organizations in Europe at the time, founded to provide much-needed employment during the Great Depression.

At the time, Hierl was already a high-ranking member of the NSDAP and when they took power in 1933, he remained the head of the labour organization - now called the Nationalsozialistischer Arbeitsdienst, or NSAD. In 1934 it was yet again renamed, this time as the Reichsarbeitsdienst, and Hierl would control it until the end of World War II.

When the Nazi Party came to power, Hitler named Hierl as the State Secretary for Labor Service, a Reich Labor Leader in 1935, a Reichsleiter in 1936, and a Reichsminister in 1943. On February 24, 1945, he was awarded the German Order, the highest decoration that the Nazi Party could bestow on an individual, for his services to the Reich.

Hierl survived World War II, was tried and found guilty of "major offenses" after the war, and spent five years in a labour camp. He died in 1955 in Heidelberg.