# Willy Schmelcher

Willy Schmelcher (25 October 1894 – 15 February 1974) was a Nazi Party politician and police official who rose to the rank of SS-Gruppenführer and was the chief of police in Saarbrücken and Metz. He was also a member of the Reichstag throughout the duration of Nazi Germany and served as an SS and Police Leader in the Reichskommissariat Ukraine and the Reichsgau Wartheland during the Second World War.

## Early life

Schmelcher, the son of a master glazier, completed Realschule in Eppingen in 1911. Until 1914, he studied at the building trade school in Stuttgart. On the outbreak of the First World War, he joined the Imperial German Army and served on the western front as a combat engineer. Commissioned a Leutnant in July 1917, he was captured by the British in September 1918, earning the Iron Cross, 1st and 2nd class. Released in January 1920, he studied civil engineering at the Technische Hochschule Stuttgart (today, the University of Stuttgart) and graduated with an engineering degree in 1925. He passed his state engineering examinations in 1927 and worked as a construction engineer.

## SS and Nazi Party career

Schmelcher joined the Nazi Party (membership number 90,783) and the Sturmabteilung (SA), its paramilitary unit, in June 1928. As an early Party member, he later would be awarded the Golden Party Badge. He was the SA leader in Gau Baden from 1928 to August 1930. In June 1930, he became a member of the Schutzstaffel (SS member number 2,648). On 1 August, he left the SA with the rank of SA-Standartenführer. Schmelcher became the Führer of the 10th SS-Standarde in Neustadt in September 1932, remaining in that command until July 1935. He next held SS staff positions with Abschnitt (district) XXIX in Mannheim (July 1935 to April 1936) and with Oberabschnitte (main district) "Südwest" in Stuttgart (to January 1937) and "Rhein" in Wiesbaden (to December 1938), before being assigned to the Sicherheitsdienst (SD) Main Office, later a part of the Reich Security Main Office. From March 1935 to October 1942, he also was the Polizeipräsident (chief of police) in Saarbrücken.
Apart from his SS duties, Schmelzer also was involved in Nazi Party politics. In 1929, he was elected to the Neustadt city council, serving as the leader of the Nazi parliamentary group and becoming the council chairman. Following the Nazi seizure of power, he became chairman of the Nazi parliamentary group in the Rhenish Palatinate district assembly (Kreistag) in March 1933, and held this office until 1937. In November 1933, he was elected to the Reichstag from electoral constituency 27 (Rheinpfalz) and retained that seat until the end of the Nazi regime.

## Second World War

In 1940, during the Second World War, Schmelcher performed military service with the 70th Infantry Regiment, being promoted to Hauptmann of reserves. After the fall of France, he was made Polizeipräsident of Metz in December 1940. Following the German attack on the Soviet Union, Schmelcher became the SS and Police Leader (SSPF) in Tschernigow (today, Chernihiv) from 19 November 1941 to 1 July 1943 and also in Shitomir (today, Zhytomyr) from 5 May to 25 September 1943. From 15 October 1943 to the end of the Nazi regime in May 1945, Schmelcher also served as head of the Technische Nothilfe, a civil defense organization in the main office of the Ordnungspolizei (order police). On 9 November 1943, he was promoted to SS- Gruppenführer und Generalleutnant der Polizei. In December 1944, he became the last Higher SS and Police Leader (HSSPF) "Warthe" with his headquarters in Posen (today, Poznań).

## Post-war life

After the end of the war, Schmelcher was interned by the Allies. In January 1949, he underwent denazification proceedings and was judged to be a "lesser offender". From 1954 to 1962, he worked in the civil defense department of the Saarland Interior Ministry. Schmelcher died in Saarbrücken in February 1974.

## SS and police ranks

SS and police ranks :
| Date | Rank |
| 30 January 1931 | SS-Sturmführer |
| 9 September 1932 | SS-Sturmhauptführer |
| 10 September 1932 | SS-Sturmbannführer |
| 20 April 1933 | SS-Standartenführer |
| 15 September 1935 | SS-Oberführer |
| 16 September 1942 | SS-Brigadeführer und Generalmajor der Polizei |
| 9 November 1943 | SS-Gruppenführer und Generalleutnant der Polizei |