12. After demanding the people of Stuttgart fight to the death, Wilhelm Murr fled the city in disguise before killing himself in captivity
Wilhelm Murr (b. 1888) was a Nazi politician, serving as Gauleiter of Württemberg-Hohenzollern and rising to the rank of SS-Obergruppenführer during the Second World War. Growing up in poverty Murr left school after the deaths of both his parents at age 14, first gaining commercial experience and from 1908-10 fulfilling his military service requirement. During the First World War Murr served on all major fronts, rising through the lower ranks to Vize-Feldwebel (Staff Sergeant) and spent the final days of the war injured in a military hospital in Cottbus.
Heavily involved in union politics prior to the First World War, having joined the far-right and anti-Semitic German National Trade Assistants’ Union, Murr joined the Nazi Party in 1923 and enthusiastically proselytized the movement to colleagues and friends. With a reputation for ruthlessness and subordination to Hitler, Murr rose to the position of Gauleiter in Württemberg-Hohenzollern in 1928 and eventually quit his factory job in 1930 to work for the party full-time.
Elected to the Reichstag in 1931 for the district of Württemberg, after the Machtergreifung Murr was selected by the Landstag as State President for the district in addition being appointed Minister for Interior and Economic Affairs. By 1933 Murr had successfully dissolved the Landstag and was appointed Reichsstatthalter (Reich Governor) for Württemberg. Upon the outbreak of war Murr was appointed Reich Defense Commissar of Defense District V, granting him near absolute control over his province. Murr used this authority to ensure the efficient extermination of all undesirables, especially the Jews and mentally ill.
Despite calling on April 10 1945 for the city of Stuttgart to be defended unconditionally against advancing Allied forces, utilizing ruthless tactics including forbidding the raising of white flags under threat of execution and “Sippenhaft” (the detention of an offender’s family), Murr fled the city in disguise along with his family on April 19. Arrested by French troops on May 13, Murr identified himself using the alias Walter Müller and both he and his wife committed suicide with cyanide capsules in captivity in Egg, Vorarlberg. Murr was hunted for almost a year by Allied forces, who eventually employed dental records to confirm the identities of the deceased couple on April 16 1946.