Ludwig Runzheimer (28 July 1912 – 6 July 1946) was a German ''SS-Oberscharführer'' in the

Gestapo The (, ), Syllabic abbreviation, abbreviated Gestapo (), was the official secret police of Nazi Germany and in German-occupied Europe. The force was created by Hermann Göring in 1933 by combining the various political police agencies of F ...

during

World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

. During the last months of the war he held a central position at the

Espeland detention camp Espeland detention camp ( Norwegian: ''Espeland fangeleir'', German: ''Polizeihäftlingslager Espeland'') was an internment camp opened in 1943 by Nazi Germany in occupied Norway next to the village of Espeland in the modern-day borough of Arna, ...

occupied Norway The occupation of Norway by Nazi Germany during the World War II, Second World War began on 9 April 1940 after Operation Weserübung. Conventional armed resistance to the Norwegian Campaign, German invasion ended on 10 June 1940, and Nazi G ...

, where he became notorious for sadistic behaviour and

torture Torture is the deliberate infliction of severe pain or suffering on a person for reasons including corporal punishment, punishment, forced confession, extracting a confession, interrogational torture, interrogation for information, or intimid ...

of prisoners. Following the

liberation of Norway The occupation of Norway by Nazi Germany during the Second World War began on 9 April 1940 after Operation Weserübung. Conventional armed resistance to the German invasion ended on 10 June 1940, and Nazi Germany controlled Norway until th ...

, he was arrested and sentenced to death for

war crime A war crime is a violation of the laws of war that gives rise to individual criminal responsibility for actions by combatants in action, such as intentionally killing civilians or intentionally killing prisoners of war, torture, taking hostage ...

s. He was

executed Capital punishment, also known as the death penalty and formerly called judicial homicide, is the state-sanctioned killing of a person as punishment for actual or supposed misconduct. The sentence (law), sentence ordering that an offender b ...

by the

Norwegian state Norwegian, Norwayan, or Norsk may refer to: *Something of, from, or related to Norway, a country in northwestern Europe *Norwegians, both a nation and an ethnic group native to Norway *Demographics of Norway *Norwegian language, including the two ...

on 6 July 1946.

Early life

Ludwig Runzheimer was born on 28 July 1912 in the town of

Gladenbach Gladenbach [] is a town in Hesse, Germany, in the west of Marburg-Biedenkopf district. Geography Location The town of Gladenbach lies on the eastern edge of the Westerwald in the Hessian Highland (''Bergland''). This part of the Lahn-Dill Highlan ...

Hesse Hesse or Hessen ( ), officially the State of Hesse (), is a States of Germany, state in Germany. Its capital city is Wiesbaden, and the largest urban area is Frankfurt, which is also the country's principal financial centre. Two other major hist ...

, Germany. A member of the

Nazi Party The Nazi Party, officially the National Socialist German Workers' Party ( or NSDAP), was a far-right politics, far-right political party in Germany active between 1920 and 1945 that created and supported the ideology of Nazism. Its precursor ...

since 1934, he trained as a radio operator in the ''

Luftwaffe The Luftwaffe () was the aerial warfare, aerial-warfare branch of the before and during World War II. German Empire, Germany's military air arms during World War I, the of the Imperial German Army, Imperial Army and the of the Imperial Ge ...

'' and from November 1938 he served in the German border police. After the outbreak of war in 1939, he went into the ''

Geheime Feldpolizei The ''Geheime Feldpolizei'' (; ), shortened to GFP, was the secret military police of the German ''Wehrmacht'' until the end of the Second World War (1945). Its units carried out plainclothes and undercover security work in the field. Their ope ...

'' and served in the

Netherlands , Terminology of the Low Countries, informally Holland, is a country in Northwestern Europe, with Caribbean Netherlands, overseas territories in the Caribbean. It is the largest of the four constituent countries of the Kingdom of the Nether ...

Belgium Belgium, officially the Kingdom of Belgium, is a country in Northwestern Europe. Situated in a coastal lowland region known as the Low Countries, it is bordered by the Netherlands to the north, Germany to the east, Luxembourg to the southeas ...

France France, officially the French Republic, is a country located primarily in Western Europe. Overseas France, Its overseas regions and territories include French Guiana in South America, Saint Pierre and Miquelon in the Atlantic Ocean#North Atlan ...

, and

Russia Russia, or the Russian Federation, is a country spanning Eastern Europe and North Asia. It is the list of countries and dependencies by area, largest country in the world, and extends across Time in Russia, eleven time zones, sharing Borders ...

. In September 1944, he was ordered to

Bergen Bergen (, ) is a city and municipalities of Norway, municipality in Vestland county on the Western Norway, west coast of Norway. Bergen is the list of towns and cities in Norway, second-largest city in Norway after the capital Oslo. By May 20 ...

, Norway, where he worked for the ''

Sicherheitspolizei The often abbreviated as SiPo, is a German term meaning "security police". In the Nazi Germany, Nazi era, it referred to the state political and criminal investigation security agency, security agencies. It was made up by the combined forces of ...

'' (SiPo) in Gestapo Division IV A. In this role he was directly involved in the torture of prisoners.

Espeland detention camp

In 1945, the head of SiPo in Bergen,

Ernst Weimann Ernst is both a surname and a given name, the German, Dutch, and Scandinavian form of Ernest. Notable people with the name include: Surname * Adolf Ernst (1832–1899) German botanist known by the author abbreviation "Ernst" * Anton Ernst (born ...

, needed a way to tighten lax conditions at the nearby

. He also wished to remove Runzheimer (who had a past criminal conviction in Germany) from his department. Being aware of Runzheimer's cruel character, Weimann solved both problems by transferring him out of Bergen to Espeland, where he was assigned as a special guard tasked with enforcing a stricter regime. The camp commander at Espeland, ''SS-Oberscharführer'' Georg Eberl, had been treating prisoners reasonably well, but this changed with the arrival of Runzheimer on 1 March 1945. Under the approval of his new superior, ''SS-Hauptsturmführer'' Eugen Nemitz, Runzheimer presided over a reign of terror in the camp. Strictly enforcing the rules and punishing the slightest mistake, he greatly increased use of the camp's isolation cells. He also initiated a programme of punitive exercises to follow the ten hour camp workday. This would include forcing prisoners to perform hare jumps to the point of exhaustion, making them run across the camp while carrying full buckets of excrement from the

latrine A latrine is a toilet or an even simpler facility that is used as a toilet within a sanitation system. For example, it can be a communal trench in the earth in a camp to be used as emergency sanitation, a hole in the ground ( pit latrine), or ...

, and making the weakest carry him on their backs. In addition to this, he was also physically violent, dishing out beatings with a stick and trampling prisoners. On one occasion, in the middle of winter, he ordered inmates to roll in dirt before forcing them to wash off in the nearby river. Some of the prisoners died of exhaustion. Runzheimer carried on in this manner until the camp was liberated on 9 May 1945 after the

end of World War II in Europe The end of World War II in Europe occurred in May 1945. Following the Death of Adolf Hitler, suicide of Adolf Hitler on 30 April, leadership of Nazi Germany passed to Grand Admiral Karl Dönitz and the Flensburg Government. Soviet Union, Soviet t ...

Trial and execution

Fearing consequences for their brutal treatment of camp prisoners, many of the guards (including Runzheimer) abandoned Espeland shortly before it was liberated by Norwegian police. However, many of the officers had left portraits of themselves hung up on the walls inside the barracks and this enabled prisoners to identify the worst offenders to the authorities. Runzheimer was eventually arrested in

Sunnhordland Sunnhordland is a traditional district in the western region of Norway. The district consists of the southern coastal regions of the old Hordaland county (now part of Vestland county). It includes the areas that surround the mouth of the Harda ...

. He was put on trial on 15 January 1946. Dr. Koren, who had been imprisoned at Espeland during Runzheimer's tenure, testified against him (translated from Norwegian):

I got the impression of Runzheimer as a sadistic Gestapist. He rejoiced when he could torment his fellow human beings and when he became ecstatic, he seemed as a man who was not aware of his actions. On a daily basis he was nervous, impulsive, constantly in motion, surely also sleepless, and I mostly perceive him as insane. That is not meant as a mitigating circumstance.

Dr. Koren also detailed the various injuries he had treated at the camp as a result of Runzheimer's behaviour. Runzheimer himself claimed that he had only performed his military duty, refusing to admit to serious abuses. He was found guilty and sentenced to death by the

Gulating Court of Appeal The Gulating Court of Appeal () is one of six courts of appeal in the Kingdom of Norway. The Court is located in the city of Bergen. The court has jurisdiction over the counties of Vestland and Rogaland plus Sirdal Municipality in Agder county ...

on 13 April 1946. He was the only German sentenced to death in Norway who did not appeal his case. Runzheimer was executed by

firing squad Firing may refer to: * Dismissal (employment), sudden loss of employment by termination * Firemaking, the act of starting a fire * Burning; see combustion * Shooting, specifically the discharge of firearms * Execution by firing squad, a method of ...

at Sverresborg Fortress in Bergen in the morning hours of 6 July 1946.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Runzheimer, Ludwig 1912 births 1946 deaths People from Marburg-Biedenkopf Gestapo personnel German police officers convicted of crimes Espeland concentration camp personnel Executed Nazi concentration camp personnel Executed people from Hesse Nazis executed in Norway People convicted of torture

Early life

Espeland detention camp

Trial and execution

See also

References