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Hans Lammers

Hans Lammers (27 May 1879-4 January 1962) was Chief of the Reich Chancellery from 30 January 1933 to 24 April 1945, succeeding Erwin Planck.

Biography[]

Hans Lammers was born in Lublinitz, German Empire (present-day Lubliniec, Poland in 1879), and he served as an Imperial German Army officer during World War I. After the war, he became involved in the national conservative DNVP, and he became a lawyer before joining the NSDAP in 1932 and rapidly rising through the ranks. He became Chief of the Reich Chancellery in 1933 and a Minister without Portfolio in 1937, managing national security and domestic policy in Hitler's absence. In January 1943, he became president of the cabinet when Hitler was absent from meetings, but the Committee of Three was shut down by Hitler's other ministers in August 1943. In April 1945, he was arrested by the SS for supporting Hermann Goering's bid to seize power, and, in April 1946, he served as a defense witness at the Nuremberg Trials. In April 1949, he was sentenced to 20 years in prison during the Ministries Trials, but he was released in 1951 and died in Dusseldorf in 1962.

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