Product Code Database
Paul Georg Otto Hinkler (25 June 1892 – 13 April 1945) was a prominent member of the Nazi Party (NSDAP). He served as Gauleiter of Gau Halle-Merseburg and was a high-ranking police official for most of the Nazi regime.
In the NSDAP, Hinkler successively held positions as Ortsgruppenleiter (Local Leader), Bezirksleiter (District Leader) and Untergauleiter (Assistant Gauleiter) in Gau Halle-Merseburg. In July 1926 he was named Gau SA-Führer in Halle-Merseburg, and held this position through 1928. On 25 July 1926, he was appointed Gauleiter of Halle-Merseburg as the successor to Walter Ernst, who had been its first Gauleiter. Between 1927 and 1931 he was also a City Councilor in Halle.
In the election to the Prussian Landtag in May 1928, Hinkler was defeated but he was elected to the Provincial Landtag of the Prussian Province of Saxony and became the leader of its NSDAP parliamentary group. On 5 May 1930, Hinkler became a member of the National Socialist Motor Corps with membership number 13. On 10 October 1930, he was elected a member of the Prussian Landtag and he was named Executive Director of the Nazi parliamentary faction, holding this position until February 1933. In May 1932 he also became chairman of the budget committee.
Named as a national speaker ( Reichsredner) for the Party, he was then granted a leave of absence from his Gauleiter position, and was succeeded by Rudolf Jordan on 19 January 1931. In 1932 Hinkler became a member of the Advisory Board of the Prussian State Bank. He also became the editor of the daily newspaper Der Kampf.
On 15 November 1933, Hinkler was briefly appointed head of the Gestapo in Berlin by Hermann Göring as the temporary successor to Rudolf Diels. However, he was forced out of that position after two weeks when rumors spread of alcohol dependence and mental weakness. Hinkler remained Police President of Altona-Wandsbek and head of the Gestapo there until 31 March 1937, when he lost his position as a result of the territorial reorganization mandated by the Greater Hamburg Act.
Hinkler had unsuccessfully applied to stand for election to the Reichstag on 29 March 1936. However, on 20 July 1936, Hinkler replaced sitting Reichstag Deputy Cuno Meyer, who was removed from office for financial irregularities. Hinkler represented electoral constituency 8 (Liegnitz) in Lower Silesia but in the 10 April 1938 election, he was elected for constituency 34 (Hamburg). Paul Hinkler entry in the Reichstag Members Database
On 29 August 1938, Hinkler became the acting Police President of Wuppertal and on 8 March 1939 his appointment was made permanent. In 1940 he was temporarily drafted into the Wehrmacht. In his SA career Hinkler was promoted several times, ultimately on 9 November 1942 to SA- Gruppenführer. After conflicts with the local Düsseldorf Gauleiter Friedrich Karl Florian, Hinkler was placed on indefinite leave, effective 1 December 1943. He was placed at the disposal of the staff of the SA high command to 1945.
Toward the end of the war, as Allied soldiers closed in on him, Hinkler committed suicide by taking poison on 13 April 1945 in Nißmitz near Freyburg.
|
|
