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Hermann Bartels

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Hermann Bartels
Born(1900-04-14)14 April 1900
Died13 January 1989(1989-01-13) (aged 88)
NationalityGerman
OccupationArchitect
SS career
Allegiance Nazi Germany
Service / branch Schutzstaffel
Battles / warsWorld War II

Hermann Bartels (14 April 1900 – 13 January 1989) was a German architect and member of the Nazi Party and the Schutzstaffel (SS).

Career as an architect for the Nazi Party

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Bartels was personally close to Heinrich Himmler, who put Bartels to work on his pet project of rebuilding castles, and as such the Reichsführer-SS gave Bartels the rank of SS-Standartenführer in June 1942. In this capacity it was Bartels who redesigned the Wewelsburg castle as both the SS school and host of meetings of the leadership.[1] Bartels was attached to the Wewelsburg Office, headed by Standartenführer Siegfried Albert Taubert, from 1934 to 1937.[2] Bartels designs made liberal use of the Black Sun occult symbol, specifically on the floor of the Marble Hall and as such helped to promote its later use by neo-Nazis and Nazi mystics.[3] He also redesigned the official residence of Joseph Goebbels after the propaganda minister had declared himself unsatisfied with the original plans designed by Albert Speer.[4]

Bartels also filled the role of Gaukulturwart (Districy cultural leader) in Münster demonstrating a keen interest in environmental conservation at this post.[5]

References

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  1. ^ Jonathan Petropoulos, Art As Politics in the Third Reich, UNC Press Books, 1999, p. 172
  2. ^ Heinz Höhne, The Order of the Death's Head: The Story of Hitler's SS, Penguin Books, 2000, p. 153
  3. ^ Avner Falk, Anti-semitism: A History and Psychoanalysis of Contemporary Hatred, ABC-CLIO, 2008, p. 141
  4. ^ Viktor Reimann (translated by Stephen Wendt), The Man Who Created Hitler: Joseph Goebbels, William Kimber, 1977, p. 222
  5. ^ Frank Uekötter, The Green and the Brown: A History of Conservation in Nazi Germany, Cambridge University Press, 2006, p. 75