Paul Giesler
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Paul Giesler (born 15 June 1895 in Siegen; died 8 May 1945 in Berchtesgaden) was a member of the NSDAP, from 1941 NSDAP Gauleiter of Westphalia-South (Westfalen-Süd) and as of 1942 also acting Gauleiter of Munich-Upper Bavaria (München-Oberbayern). He was from 2 November 1942 to 28 April 1945 the Premier (Ministerpräsident) of Bavaria.
[edit] Life
The trained architect was from 1924 a Party speaker, an SA leader, and leader of an NSDAP local (Ortsgruppenleiter). During the Night of the Long Knives he only narrowly missed being arrested and murdered. Only from August 1941 did Giesler once again take up important Party functions, at Martin Bormann's instigation, first becoming NSDAP Gauleiter of Westphalia-South in 1941, and then as of April 1942 Adolf Wagner's successor as acting Gauleiter of Munich-Upper Bavaria. After Ludwig Siebert's death on 1 November 1942, he was also appointed acting Ministerpräsident of Bavaria.
In Munich, Giesler made a name for himself as an advocate of brutal methods of terror with the defeat of the White Rose (Weiße Rose) resistance movement. In April 1945 he was appointed Reich Defence Commissar-South and with help from SS units brutally quelled the "Freedom Action Bavaria" ("Freiheitsaktion Bayern") uprising under Captain Dr. Rupprecht Gerngroß in Munich. In Adolf Hitler's will of 29 April 1945, Giesler was made Reich Minister for the Interior. He never had the chance to assume this latest post, though.
On 8 May 1945, the capitulation day, Giesler died while fleeing at Berchtesgaden as a result of a suicide attempt made together with his wife a few days earlier.
