 |
Arthur Karl GreiserGerman party leader of the NSDAP
Date of Birth: 22.01.1897
Country:  Germany |
Content:
Biography of Arthur Karl Greiser
Arthur Karl Greiser, a German Nazi party official, was born on January 22, 1897, in Schroda, German Empire (now part of Poland). He was the President of the Senate of the Free City of Danzig and the Head of the Danzig government from November 28, 1934, to the autumn of 1939. He was also one of the leaders of the occupation regime in Poland, serving as the Gauleiter and Reichsstatthalter of Wartheland from October 21, 1939, to January 1945. Greiser was a member of the SS, holding the rank of Obergruppenführer, and served as a member of Heinrich Himmler's staff.
Early Life and Military Service
Greiser was the son of a bailiff and attended primary school until 1903. He then spent two years at a secondary school before transferring to the Royal Humanistic Gymnasium in Hohensalza (Hohensalza) until August 1914. During his childhood and youth, he learned the Polish language and was fluent in it. With the outbreak of World War I on August 4, 1914, Greiser volunteered for the navy. In August 1917, he was promoted to lieutenant and became the commander of a squadron of aircraft. From October 1917, he served as the chief of the naval aviation station "Flandria II" in Ostend, Belgium. In October 1918, his plane was shot down, and he spent the spring of 1919 in a hospital. For his distinguished service, he was awarded the Iron Cross, 1st and 2nd class.
After being discharged from the military in 1919, Greiser joined the Volunteer Corps and participated in its activities in the Baltic States. In May 1921, he was finally demobilized and worked for an export company until 1928. He then became a self-employed sales representative for "Stettiner Olverke" in Danzig. However, due to the onset of the Great Depression in 1928, he went bankrupt and worked as a captain of a motorboat ferrying passengers in the Gdansk Bay until 1930.
Political Career
In 1922-1923, Greiser was a member of the German Social Party (party ticket No. 520). In 1924, he founded a local organization of the "Stahlhelm" in Danzig. On December 1, 1929, he joined the Nazi Party (party ticket No. 166,635) and the SA. On June 30, 1931, he switched from the SA to the SS (No. 10,795). Since November 1930, he had been the leader of the Nazi Party faction in the Senate of the Free City of Danzig. From October 1930 to June 19, 1933, he served as the manager of the Danzig Gauleiter's office.
After the Nazi Party won an absolute majority in the Danzig parliament elections on May 28, 1933, Greiser became the Vice President of the Danzig Senate on June 20, 1933. From October 1933 to October 1939, he served as the Deputy Gauleiter of Danzig under Albert Forster. On November 28, 1934, he succeeded Hermann Rauschning as the President of the Senate of the Free City of Danzig and simultaneously became the Head of the Danzig government. In this position, he actively promoted Nazi propaganda, particularly advocating for the annexation of Danzig to Germany.
After the German invasion of Poland on September 1, 1939, Greiser was appointed as the Chief of Civil Administration under the Commander of the Poznan Army District ("Chef der Zivilverwaltung im Militärbezirk Posen"). Following the defeat of Poland, the territory included in the Reich was formed into the "Reichsgau Posen" with its center in Poznan. On October 21, 1939, Greiser was appointed as the Gauleiter and on October 26, 1939, as the Imperial Governor (Reichsstatthalter) of Posen, which was later renamed the "Warthegau" on January 29, 1940. On July 7, 1940, Greiser became a member of the Reichstag as a representative of Wartheland.
During Greiser's governance of Wartheland, a large-scale expulsion of Polish population from the territory took place, with approximately 630,000 Poles being forced to leave, while ethnic Germans were resettled, totaling around 537,000 people. On November 16, 1942, Greiser was appointed as the Imperial Commissioner for the Defense of Wartheland. In the final phase of the war, on September 25, 1944, he became the leader of the "German People's Storm" (Deutschen Volkssturms) in Wartheland.
Greiser's reign ended with the defeat of Nazi Germany in 1945. He was arrested by the Allies and brought to trial for his role in war crimes and crimes against humanity. On July 21, 1946, he was sentenced to death and executed by hanging on July 21, 1946, in Poznan.
