World War II Database

Contributor: C. Peter Chen

ww2dbaseHans Heinrich Lammers was born in Lublinitz, Upper Silesia, Germany to a veterinarian. He studied law at Breslau and Heidelberg in Germany. He was made a judge in Beuthen, Upper Silesia in 1912. During WW1, he fought with the German Army and was awarded the First Class and Second Class of the Iron Cross. After the war, he resumed his career as a lawyer. He joined the German National Peoples Party, and by 1922 was made the Under Secretary of the Interior. In 1932, he joined the Nazi Party. In 1933, he was appointed the head of a police department. In the mid-1930s, he was appointed a State Secretary and chief of the Reich Chancellery. In the latter role, he became the chief legal adviser for all government branches. In 1937, he became a member of Adolf Hitler's cabinet as a minister without portfolio. After the European War began in Sep 1939, on 30 Nov, he was named a member of the Council of Ministers for the Defense of the Reich, which allowed him to review documents regarding national security before they were forwarded to Hitler, thus placing him in a position of significant influence. In Jan 1943, he was appointed the president of the cabinet, thus acting as head of the cabinet should Hitler be absent. In Feb 1943, Lammers conspired with Martin Bormann to solidify their power within the Nazi Party, but the attempt was largely nullified by the equally influential Joseph Goebbels, Albert Speer, Hermann Göring, and Heinrich Himmler. Toward the end of the war, Lammers' influence gradually decreased as his post became more and more irrelevant to the rapidly deteriorating war situation. In late Apr 1945, he was arrested by German police in connection of Hitler's perception of a coup d'état by Göring. Believing that Lammers had already been executed, his wife committed suicide in early May 1945, and his daughter committed suicide two days later. After the war, Lammers was a witness at the Nuremberg war crimes trials in 1946, and in 1948-1949 tried during the Ministries Trial. He was found guilty and sentenced to 20 years' imprisonment. In 1951, the sentence was reduced to 10 years. In 1952, he was released. He passed away in 1962 in Düsseldorf, Germany. He was buried in Berchtesgaden, Bavaria, Germany in the same plot as his wife and daughter.

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