Siegfried Taubert



Siegfried Taubert (born 11 December 1880 in Brallentin, Poland; died 13 February 1946 in Kiel) was Nazi, SS-Obergruppenführer, General of the Waffen-SS and Schutzstaffel (SS) Police general. Taubert died in Kiel in 1946.

Early life and World War I
Siegfried Taubert was born on 11 December 1880 in Brallentin; his father was a Protestant pastor. After passing his university entrance test, enrolled in military school as a Fahnenjunker (junior). He was assigned to the Infantry Regiment Duke Ferdinand von Braunschweig 57 in Wesel-Westphalia. On 5 May 1904 he married Arnoldine Johanna Juta from the Netherlands; they had three children, including Ilse, who married Ernst-Robert Grawitz a SS German physician. From 1914 to 1918 he was a career officer during World War I. In November 1919 he departed the army with the rank of major. From 1921 to 1924 he became an industrial Manager in Poland and leader in steel helmet factory in Greifenhagen. In August 1925 Taubert sold his house in the Greifenhagen and moved to Berlin and worked as a sales manager in a piano factory. In 1931 he moved over to insurance work at the Swiss Life Insurance and Pension Fund in Berlin. and was thereafter unemployed. In 1931 he lost his job and became politically active in the Frontbann, also Tannenbergbund organizations.

Nazi career and World War II
In 1931 he join the Nazi Party (membership number 525.246) and the Schutzstaffel (SS number 23.128). Working for SS General Kurt Daluege, he was promoted to SS-Oberführer. From 1935 to 1938 Taubert was the chief of staff in Reinhard Heydrich's Sicherheitsdienst (Security Service; SD) in the main SS office. On 13 September 1936 he was promoted to SS-Brigadeführer. From 1938 to 1945 he was the captain of the SS Wewelsburg castle, after Manfred von Knobelsdorff. The SS Wewelsburg castle was Heinrich Himmler's SS headquarter and training center for head SS officers. Taubert duties often took him away from the Wewelsburg castle. Before the war, Taubert used the Reich Labor Service for Himmler's SS Research and Education Center projects at the castle, when the war in Europe started he then used concentration camp inmates. The inmate laborers were housed behind barbed wire in the neighboring village of Niederhage. Taubert became the lay judge at the People's Court Volksgerichtshof. He also was the adjutant captain of the castle Gottlieb Bernhardt. In October 1943 Taubert visited the Princess Sophie of Greece and Denmark at Himmler request. In 1943 he became SS-Obergruppenführer and General of the Waffen-SS. Near the end of World War II in Europe, on 31 March 1945, he fled from Wewelsburg castle to Schleswig-Holstein as the US 3rd Armored Division approached the castle. Taubert knowing that US Army was coming, he had the castle antiquities and artworks packed and moved to the nearby Boddeker estate, while others were moved and hidden in other facilities and nearby homes. Some art was hidden within the walls of the estate’s buildings. Himmler ordered Wewelsburg castle destroyed, but Taubert refused. Taubert died in Kiel in 1946.

Ranks

 * Fahnenjunker: 30 August 1899
 * Fähnrich: 18 April 1900
 * Leutnant: 18 January 1901
 * Oberleutnant: 22 March 1910
 * Hauptmann: 5 September 1914
 * Major i.G :[1] 22 February 1919
 * SS-Anwärter: 2 January 1932
 * SS-Mann: 10 September 1932
 * SS-Truppführer: 17 February 1933
 * SS-Untersturmführer: 12 June 1933
 * SS-Obersturmführer: 3 September 1933
 * SS-Hauptsturmführer: 9 November 1933
 * SS-Sturmbannführer: 1 January 1934
 * SS-Obersturmbannführer: 20 April 1934
 * SS-Standartenführer: 4 July 1934
 * SS-Oberführer: 15 September 1935
 * SS-Brigadeführer: 13 September 1936
 * SS-Gruppenführer: 11 September 1938
 * SS-Obergruppenführer and General of the Waffen-SS on 30 January 1943

Awards

 * Iron Cross (1914) 2nd and 1st class
 * Wound Badge (1918) in black
 * War Merit Cross (1939) with swords 2nd class
 * Honour Sword of Reichsführer-SS
 * SS skull ring
 * Hanseatic Cross
 * Cross for Military Merit, 3rd Class
 * War Merit Cross, 1st Class
 * Honour Chevron for the Old Guard
 * Nazi Party Long Service Award