Heinrich Tillessen

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Heinrich Tillessen (November 27, 1894, Cologne – 12 November 1984, Koblenz) was one of the murderers of Matthias Erzberger, the former minister of finance of the Centre Party. One of his brothers was Karl Tillessen, the deputy of Hermann Ehrhardt in the Organisation Consul. The other accomplice in the crime was Heinrich Schulz. The trial of Heinrich Tillessen was held in postwar Germany, and received widespread attention from the public and legal experts, exemplifying numerous problems in the judicial processing of crimes before and during the Nazi period.

Youth[]

The father of Heinrich Tillessen was an artillery officer. His mother Karoline was Dutch. He grew up with ten siblings (three brothers and seven sisters) in Cologne, Metz and Koblenz - the garrison locations of his father. One of his brothers was the Admiral Werner Tillessen. The family was considered strictly Catholic. When the father retired in 1904, the family moved to Koblenz.

Military[]

Following the death of his father and mother (1910 and 1911), Heinrich Tillessen left school and entered into the service of the Imperial German Navy as a midshipman on April 1, 1912. On 12 April 1914, he was promoted to Fähnrich zur See, and to Leutnant zur See on 22 March 1915.

During the First World War he did first service as a deck officer on smaller units. On 13 July 1917 he was transferred to the 17th Torpedo Boat Division, where he was employed under the commander Hermann Ehrhardt as watch on the leading boat. As part of the delivery of the German navy, he led a charge torpedo boat to Scapa Flow. After the scuttling of the fleet there, he had to remain in 1920 in English captivity until the end of July. On 30 July 1920 he was dismissed at his own request from the Marine.

Murder of Matthias Erzberger[]

Heinrich Tillessen failed then to get a foothold in a civilian job. He was a member of the Marinebrigade Ehrhardt of his former commander and took in March 1920 part of the Kapp Putsch. The dissolution of the Ehrhardt Brigade had been ordered already on February 29, 1920 by the victors. Heinrich Tillessen went to the successor group in Munich, Organisation Consul, which was also led by Hermann Ehrhardt. The stated goal was the implementation of lynchings. The chief of operations in the Munich headquarters was Manfred von Killinger, also former torpedo boat commander. From him Heinrich Tillessen and Heinrich Schulz received in August 1921 the personal mission to assassinate Erzberger. On August 26, 1921 in the morning the two met at a lonely place in the Black Forest in Bad Griesbach Erzberger, who was walking there with his party colleague Carl Diez. The perpetrators made a number of pistol shots and injured both seriously. Erzberger tried to escape down, but collapsed after 10 meters. The perpetrators went after him, and slew him with head shots at close range.

Escape[]

The perpetrators initially went back to Munich. However, the investigators were able to determine their identity very quickly, setting off a search warrant with pictures of the perpetrators. These left Munich on August 31, 1921. Heinrich Tillessen initially hid in the Alps, then moved over Salzburg to the Burgenland. In November and December 1921, both perpetrators lived under an assumed name in Budapest. A request by Germany for extradition was rejected by Hungary in the absence of an agreement. Equipped by his political friends in Germany again with a false German passport, Tillessen went to Spain at the end of 1925. In Madrid he found work and lived for years in a modest middle-class background. He avoided the contact with other Germans.

Return and second time in the military[]

In December 1932, Heinrich Tillessen returned to Germany and took refuge with his siblings in Cologne. On January 30, 1933 Adolf Hitler was appointed chancellor. Already on 21 March 1933 President Paul von Hindenburg signed the so-called impunity regulation of 1933. As a consequence of this decree all nationalist political murderers of preceding years were granted an amnesty. Tillessen did not have to hide any longer. He found work again, married and lived in Düsseldorf, Mannheim and Heidelberg. On September 1, 1933, he joined the Nazi Party (member no. 3,575,464) and the Sturmabteilung. On September 4, 1939 Tillessen was drafted into the military service, but declared incapable for service on board shortly after. He spent the Second World War on land in the service of the German Admiralty and was released in late 1944 in the rank of Corvette captain. He returned to his family in Heidelberg.

Arrest and First Trial[]

In Heidelberg Heinrich Tillessen was arrested on 4 May 1945 by the American military police and interrogated. He confessed on his own initiative to be an accomplice in the murder of Erzberger. Heinrich Tillessen remained then in custody. On August 15, 1945, a formal arrest warrant was issued. On May 13, 1946 he was transferred to Freiburg im Breisgau to answer before the competent Baden court. On August 26, 1946 exactly 25 years after the fact, an action before the district Court Offenburg to proceedings before the Criminal Court was filed. The board rejected, however, by order of 10 September 1946, the opening of the trial. In their view there was impunity by the impunity Regulation of 1933. The competent chamber of the Court of Appeal lifted on September 30, 1946 on the order of 10 September 1946 and ordered the opening of the trial. However, the chamber of the court did not follow at all points of the argument for the prosecution: Specifically, they pointed out that it considered that the impunity Regulation of 1933 is applicable. The trial took place in November 1946. The prosecution called for the death penalty, the defense acquittal, citing impunity Regulation of 1933. The verdict was announced already on 29 November 1946 by the Chamber chairman Rudolf Goering (1883-):^[1] put acquittal using the impunity Regulation of 1933. The indictment immediate appeal on a point, thereby preventing the res judicata effect of the judgment. The response to this ruling was enormous: The press condemned it as "Schandurteil".

Second proceedings before the Tribunal général in Rastatt[]

However, the French occupation organs reacted most consistently: Heinrich Tillessen was intercepted on the date of release from custody by the French secret service, brought to France and interned there. After he was dismissed, he promptly retired. The French tribunal headquartered in Rastatt near Baden-Baden as the supreme court for all civil matters in Baden prolonged the process itself. It lasted two dates: December 23, 1946 trial, and 6 January 1947 sentencing. Basis of the judgment was the question to be decided whether the provision adopted by Adolf Hitler impunity Regulation (StrFVO)^[1] possessed of 21 March 1933, was legally binding after 1945.

The judgment of the Landgericht Offenburg^[2] was repealed and the proceeding for a new hearing at the district court in Konstanz made under the condition that impunity Regulation of 1933 should no longer be applied.

The second trial was held from 25 to 28 February 1947 in Konstanz chaired by the District Court Director Anton Henneka. The prosecution called for the death penalty, the defense pleaded now - to avoid that - to manslaughter. The court said Heinrich Tillessen is guilty of murder and crimes against humanity under Control Council Law no. 10. The sentence was 15 years of imprisonment. The judgment was final.

Pardon[]

Soon after the verdict, his wife and the defense petitioned for clemency. In May 1952 Heinrich Tillessen received bail, and in December 1952, the remainder of the sentence was suspended. Later on, in March 1958, the sentence was passed on clemency. The widow of Matthias Erzberger had called for pardon.^[3] Heinrich Tillessen again found work, lived in Heidelberg and Frankfurt and in old age, in Koblenz. He died at the age of 89.

Literature[]

• Cord Gebhardt: Der Fall des Erzberger-Mörders Heinrich Tillessen. Ein Beitrag zur Justizgeschichte nach 1945. Mohr, Tübingen 1995 (Beiträge zur Rechtsgeschichte des 20. Jahrhunderts, Band 14), ISBN 3-16-146490-7.
• Reiner Haehling von Lanzenauer: Der Mord an Matthias Erzberger. Verlag der Gesellschaft für Kulturhistorische Dokumentation, Karlsruhe 2008 (Schriftenreihe des Rechtshistorischen Museums Karlsruhe, Band 14). ISBN 3-922596-71-1.
• Edith Raim: Justiz zwischen Diktatur und Demokratie : Wiederaufbau und Ahndung von NS-Verbrechen in Westdeutschland 1945 - 1949. Oldenbourg, München 2013, ISBN 978-3-486-70411-2. (Zugl.: Augsburg, Univ., Habil.-Schr., 2012).

References[]