Wilhelm Schepmann

Wilhelm Schepmann (17 June 1894 - 26 July 1970) was an SA officer (Obergruppenführer) in Nazi Germany and the last Stabschef (Chief of Staff) of the Nazi Stormtroopers.

Biography

He succeeded Viktor Lutze as Stabschef (SA) after Lutze was killed in a car accident. He began working to restore the morale within and the esteem of the SA and also began cooperating with the SS. He stated, "I will support the Waffen-SS just as much as any other part of the armed forces. The Waffen-SS has been heroic."

Schepmann managed to have units in the Heer (Panzerkorps Feldherrnhalle), Kriegsmarine, and Luftwaffe (Jagdgeschwader 6 Horst Wessel) given SA honour titles, and even a Waffen-SS division (18. SS Freiwilligen-Panzergrenadier-Division Horst Wessel).

Following the war he became involved in the All-German Bloc/League of Expellees and Deprived of Rights.^[1] In the early 1950s he served as a member of the Landtag of Lower Saxony in West Germany.^[2]

He is the father of Richard Schepmann, head of the Neo-Nazi publishing house Teut-Verlag, who was jailed in 1983 for inciting racial hatred.^[3]

Summary of his SA career

Dates of rank

• SA-Gruppenführer: April 1934
• SA-Obergruppenführer: (?)
• Acting Stabschef SA: 2 May 1943
• Stabschef SA: 9 November 1943

Notable decorations

• 1914 Iron Cross Second Class (?)
• 1939 Iron Cross First Class (1939)
• War Merit Cross Second (?) and First (?) Classes without Swords
• Long Service Award of the NSDAP in Bronze (?), Silver (?), and Gold (?)
• Clasp to the Iron Cross Second Class (1939)
• WWI Wound Badge in Black (1918)
• SA Sports Badge (?)
• Golden Party Badge (1933)
• Cross of Honor (1934)
• Anschluss Medal (1938)
• Sudetenland Medal (1938)
• Gau Sudetenland Commemorative Badge (1943)
• Civil Service Faithful Service Medal in Silver (?)

References