Paul Scharfe (6 September 1876 – 29 July 1942) was an SS-''
Obergruppenführer
' (, "senior group leader") was a paramilitary rank in Nazi Germany that was first created in 1932 as a rank of the ''Sturmabteilung'' (SA) and adopted by the ''Schutzstaffel'' (SS) one year later. Until April 1942, it was the highest commissio ...
'' and ''
General
A general officer is an officer of high rank in the armies, and in some nations' air forces, space forces, and marines or naval infantry.
In some usages the term "general officer" refers to a rank above colonel."general, adj. and n.". OED ...
'' of the
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 ...
in
Nazi Germany
Nazi Germany (lit. "National Socialist State"), ' (lit. "Nazi State") for short; also ' (lit. "National Socialist Germany") (officially known as the German Reich from 1933 until 1943, and the Greater German Reich from 1943 to 1945) was ...
and first chief of the
SS Court Main Office.
Early life
Scharfe, son of a
headmaster
A head master, head instructor, bureaucrat, headmistress, head, chancellor, principal or school director (sometimes another title is used) is the staff member of a school with the greatest responsibility for the management of the school. In som ...
, was born in Danzig in
Prussia
Prussia, , Old Prussian: ''Prūsa'' or ''Prūsija'' was a German state on the southeast coast of the Baltic Sea. It formed the German Empire under Prussian rule when it united the German states in 1871. It was ''de facto'' dissolved by an ...
(today,
Gdansk, Poland) and, after completing his education, enrolled as an officer cadet in August 1895, attended the military school in
Anklam
Anklam [], formerly known as Tanglim and Wendenburg, is a town in the Western Pomerania region of Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, Germany. It is situated on the banks of the Peene river, just 8 km from its mouth in the ''Kleines Haff'', the western ...
and was commissioned a ''
Leutnant
() is the lowest Junior officer rank in the armed forces the German-speaking of Germany (Bundeswehr), Austrian Armed Forces, and military of Switzerland.
History
The German noun (with the meaning "" (in English "deputy") from Middle High Ge ...
'' in the
Imperial German Army in January 1897. He was a comrade of
Paul Hausser
Paul Hausser also known as Paul Falk after taking his maiden name post war (7 October 1880 – 21 December 1972) was a German general and then a high-ranking commander in the Waffen-SS who played a key role in the post-war efforts by former mem ...
. After marrying in 1903, Scharfe left active service and joined the ''
Landwehr
''Landwehr'', or ''Landeswehr'', is a German language term used in referring to certain national armies, or militias found in nineteenth- and early twentieth-century Europe. In different context it refers to large-scale, low-strength fortificatio ...
'' reserves. He became a police commissioner, first in
Adenau
Adenau () is a town in the High Eifel in Germany. It is known as the ''Johanniterstadt'' because the Order of Saint John was based there in the Middle Ages. The town's coat of arms combines the black cross of the Electorate of Cologne with the l ...
from 1905 to 1912 and then in Schrimm (today,
Śrem
Śrem (german: Schrimm) is a town on the Warta river in central Poland. It has been in the Greater Poland Voivodeship since 1999. From 1975 to 1998 it was part of the Poznań Voivodeship. As of 1995, the population of Śrem was 29,800.
Śrem i ...
, in Poland).
In
World War I
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 ...
, Scharfe fought on the
eastern front from September 1914 to October 1915 as a
company and
battalion
A battalion is a military unit, typically consisting of 300 to 1,200 soldiers commanded by a lieutenant colonel, and subdivided into a number of companies (usually each commanded by a major or a captain). In some countries, battalions a ...
commander, earning the
Iron Cross
The Iron Cross (german: link=no, Eisernes Kreuz, , abbreviated EK) was a military decoration in the Kingdom of Prussia, and later in the German Empire (1871–1918) and Nazi Germany (1933–1945). King Frederick William III of Prussia es ...
, 2nd class. He was then posted to the Prussian Interior Ministry and ended the war as a ''Landwehr'' ''
Major''. He resumed his police career after the war, serving in the Prussian police from 1921 to 1931, beginning with the security police (''
Schutzpolizei
The ''Schutzpolizei'' (), or ''Schupo'' () for short, is a uniform-wearing branch of the ''Landespolizei'', the state (''Land'') level police of the states of Germany. ''Schutzpolizei'' literally means security or protection police, but it is b ...
'') in
Halle and retiring as an ''
Oberstleutnant
() is a senior field officer rank in several German-speaking and Scandinavian countries, equivalent to Lieutenant colonel. It is currently used by both the ground and air forces of Austria, Germany, Switzerland, Denmark, and Norway. The Swedi ...
'' of police in
Berlin
Berlin ( , ) is the capital and List of cities in Germany by population, largest city of Germany by both area and population. Its 3.7 million inhabitants make it the European Union's List of cities in the European Union by population within ci ...
.
SS career
On 1 October 1931, Scharfe joined the
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 ...
(membership number 665,697) and the
SS (member number 14,220). He was first assigned as head of the security section in the SS leadership office 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 ...
. In June 1933, ''
Reichsführer-SS
(, ) was a special title and rank that existed between the years of 1925 and 1945 for the commander of the (SS). ''Reichsführer-SS'' was a title from 1925 to 1933, and from 1934 to 1945 it was the highest rank of the SS. The longest-servi ...
''
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 ...
made him responsible for all the SS courts. On 1 July 1939, he was appointed the first chief (''Hauptamtschef'') of the newly formed
SS Court Main Office, the legal department of the SS. This office was responsible for formulating the laws and codes of conduct for the SS and the German police, conducting its own investigations and trials, as well as administering the SS and Police Courts and
penal camps. This legal status meant all SS personnel were accountable only to the SS courts. This effectively placed the SS above German law and outside the jurisdiction of civilian courts. In a speech to a meeting of SS-''
Gruppenführers'' in January 1939 in Berlin, Scharfe explained the rationale for this SS jurisdiction policy thusly:
Compared to the ordinary member of the Party, the SS man naturally occupies a special place, primarily because it is his duty to protect the Movement and its Führer, if necessary at the sacrifice of his life. This special position … of course means that the SS man must be dealt with in a special way.
On 20 November 1939, Scharfe was officially recognized as Himmler's deputy in all SS disciplinary matters. He was granted the Waffen-SS rank of ''
Generalleutnant
is the Germanic variant of lieutenant general, used in some German speaking countries.
Austria
Generalleutnant is the second highest general officer rank in the Austrian Armed Forces (''Bundesheer''), roughly equivalent to the NATO rank of ...
'' on 9 November 1940, and was promoted to SS-''Obergruppenführer'' and General of the Waffen-SS on 20 April 1942. Scharfe died of natural causes on 29 July 1942. His successor, from 15 August 1942, was
Franz Breithaupt
Franz Breithaupt (8 December 1880 – 29 April 1945) was a German SS functionary during the Nazi era. From August 1942 until April 1945, he was chief of the SS Court Main Office ''(Hauptamt SS-Gericht)''. Breithaupt was murdered by his SS aide ...
.
See also
*
List SS-Obergruppenführer
References
Sources
*
*
*
*
*
Additional reading
* Seidler, Franz W. (1991). ''Die Militärgerichtsbarkeit der Deutschen Wehrmacht 1939–1945''. Herbig. p. 202. .
{{DEFAULTSORT:Scharfe, Paul
1876 births
1942 deaths
German Army personnel of World War I
German police officers
Military personnel from Gdańsk
Nazi Party members
Recipients of the Iron Cross (1914), 2nd class
Recipients of the War Merit Cross
SS-Obergruppenführer
Waffen-SS personnel