Bernhard Weiß (police executive)
Encyclopedia
Bernhard Isidor Weiß [Weiss] (born 30 July 1880 in Berlin
Berlin
Berlin is the capital city of Germany and is one of the 16 states of Germany. With a population of 3.45 million people, Berlin is Germany's largest city. It is the second most populous city proper and the seventh most populous urban area in the European Union...

, died 29 July 1951 in London
London
London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...

) was a German lawyer and Vice President of the Berlin
Berlin
Berlin is the capital city of Germany and is one of the 16 states of Germany. With a population of 3.45 million people, Berlin is Germany's largest city. It is the second most populous city proper and the seventh most populous urban area in the European Union...

 police during the Weimar Republic
Weimar Republic
The Weimar Republic is the name given by historians to the parliamentary republic established in 1919 in Germany to replace the imperial form of government...

.

Born into a prominent, liberal Jewish family, he earned a doctorate of law after studying law at the University of Berlin, the University of Munich, the University of Freiburg
University of Freiburg
The University of Freiburg , sometimes referred to in English as the Albert Ludwig University of Freiburg, is a public research university located in Freiburg im Breisgau, Baden-Württemberg, Germany.The university was founded in 1457 by the Habsburg dynasty as the...

 im Breisgau and the University of Würzburg
University of Würzburg
The University of Würzburg is a university in Würzburg, Germany, founded in 1402. The university is a member of the distinguished Coimbra Group.-Name:...

. Subsequently, he was trained as a military officer, and served as a Rittmeister
Rittmeister
Rotamaster was the military rank of a commissioned cavalry officer in charge of a squadron , the equivalent of O3 or Captain, in the German-speaking armies, Austro-Hungarian, Polish-Lithuanian, Russian and some other states.The exact name of this rank maintains a variety of spellings in different...

 during World War I
World War I
World War I , which was predominantly called the World War or the Great War from its occurrence until 1939, and the First World War or World War I thereafter, was a major war centred in Europe that began on 28 July 1914 and lasted until 11 November 1918...

, when he was decorated with the Iron Cross
Iron Cross
The Iron Cross is a cross symbol typically in black with a white or silver outline that originated after 1219 when the Kingdom of Jerusalem granted the Teutonic Order the right to combine the Teutonic Black Cross placed above a silver Cross of Jerusalem....

 First Class.

He was appointed Deputy Chief of the Berlin Criminal Police in 1918, and became its head in 1925. He was appointed Vice President of the Berlin police force in 1927. Weiß was a member of the liberal Deutsche Demokratische Partei (German Democratic Party). He played a central role during the political tension in the Weimar Republic, and was a fierce defender of the democratic republic against right-wing and left-wing extremists.

After the Nazi rise to power, he fled Germany, and settled in London. He was subsequently deprived of his German citizenship. In 1951, shortly after becoming a German citizen again, he died of cancer in London.

The Bernhard-Weiß-Medaille of the Bund jüdischer Soldaten in der Bundeswehr, the association of German-Jewish soldiers, is named in his honour.

Literature

  • Dietz Bering: Kampf um Namen. Bernhard Weiß gegen Joseph Goebbels, Klett-Cotta, Stuttgart 1991, 527 S., Ill.
  • Michael Berger: Bernhard Weiß, preußischer Jude und Offizier, in: Eisernes Kreuz und Davidstern. Die Geschichte Jüdischer Soldaten in Deutschen Armeen, S. 203−207, trafo verlag, Berlin 2006. ISBN 3-89626-476-1.
  • Joachim Rott: Bernhard Weiß (1880-1951), Verlag Hentrich & Hentrich, Teetz 2008, ISBN 3-9384-855-4X
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