Siegfried Uiberreither
Siegfried Uiberreither (29 March 1908 in Salzburg – 29 December 1984 in Sindelfingen) was an Austrian Nazi-Gauleiter and Reichsstatthalter in Styria, Austria during the Third Reich.
Siegfried Uiberreither | |
|---|---|
 Uiberreither in 1934 | |
| Gauleiter of Reichsgau Styria | |
| In office 25 May 1938 – 8 May 1945 | |
| Appointed by | Adolf Hitler |
| Deputy | Tobias Portschy |
| Preceded by | Position created |
| Succeeded by | Position abolished |
| Reichsstatthalter of Reichsgau Styria | |
| In office 1 April 1940 – 8 May 1945 | |
| Appointed by | Adolf Hitler |
| Preceded by | Position created |
| Succeeded by | Position abolished |
| Landeshauptmann of Styria | |
| In office 25 May 1938 – 1 April 1940 | |
| Preceded by | Sepp Helfrich |
| Succeeded by | Position abolished |
| Personal details | |
| Born | 29 March 1908 Salzburg |
| Died | 29 December 1984 (aged 76) Sindelfingen |
| Nationality | Austrian and German |
| Political party | Nazi Party |
| Spouse(s) | Käte Wegener (m. 1939) |
| Relations | Alfred Wegener (father-in-law) |
| Children | 4 |
In 1924, Uiberreither joined the Schill Youth (Schilljugend). He studied law and worked as a construction aid worker. In 1930 he became a secretary for the Workers' Sickness Fund (Arbeiterkrankenkasse) in Graz. In 1931, he joined the SA, and in 1933 he graduated from his studies as a Doctor of Law. In 1937 Uiberreither was leader of the illegal SA Brigade Steiermark.
Following Austria's Anschluss with Nazi Germany on 12 March 1938, Uiberreither became an SA-Brigadeführer and was named Acting Police President for Graz. On 10 April he was elected to the Reichstag. On 25 May 1938, Adolf Hitler appointed him Gauleiter of Styria. On 9 June he was named Landeshauptmann of Styria, thus uniting under his control the highest party and governmental offices in his jurisdiction. On 9 November of the same year, he was advanced to the rank of SA-Gruppenführer.[1]
In 1939 Uiberreither married Käte Wegener (b. 1918), the daughter of Alfred and Else Wegener. They had four sons. The years 1939 and 1940 were ones of military service for Uiberreither, who became a mountain trooper (Gebirgsjäger) and participated in the German landing in Norway. In April 1940, he was discharged from the Wehrmacht with the rank of leutnant.
On 1 April 1940, Uiberreither became Reichsstatthalter (Reich Governor) of Styria. On 14 April 1941 after the invasion of Yugoslavia, he was named the Chief of Civil Administration in the occupied area of Lower Styria (now part of Slovenia). On 16 November 1942, he was appointed the Reich Defense Commissioner for his Reichsgau. On 9 November 1943, he was promoted to SA-Obergruppenführer.[2] In 1944 he was the leader of the Volkssturm in Styria, a last-ditch home guard set up on Martin Bormann's order's towards the end of the Second World War, and associated with the Nazi "Werwolf" organization.
In May 1945, after the Allies had overrun the Reich and Hitler was dead, Uiberreither was arrested and later compelled to testify as a witness at the Nuremberg Trials.. In 1947, Uiberreither fled when it became clear that there was the threat of being handed over to Yugoslavia. After this, there are clues to his having spent a while in Argentina before he eventually – as it is supposed – went to live with his family in Sindelfingen under a false name.
References
- Karl Höffkes: Hitlers Politische Generale. Die Gauleiter des Dritten Reiches: ein biographisches Nachschlagewerk. Grabert-Verlag, Tübingen, 1986, pp. 351-352, ISBN 3-87847-163-7.
- Höffkes, 1986, p. 352.
External links
- Sworn statement from Siegfried Uiberreither in connection with the Nuremberg Trials
- Photos of Siegfried Uiberreither (skip down about 3/5 of page)
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