page_title: Untersturmführer
section_title: General-SS commissions
hierarchical_section_title: Untersturmführer / General-SS commissions
caption_attribution_description: English: Copy of Adolf Eichmann's appoint order as an SS officer Deutsch: Eigenhändiger Lebenslauf von 1937
context_page_description: Untersturmführer was a paramilitary rank of the German Schutzstaffel first created in July 1934. The rank can trace its origins to the older SA rank of Sturmführer which had existed since the founding of the SA in 1921. The rank of Untersturmführer was senior to Hauptscharführer and junior to the rank of Obersturmführer.
context_section_description: Within the Allgemeine, or "General" SS, promotion to the rank of Untersturmführer required satisfactory service in the enlisted SS ranks with an SS member holding the rank of Hauptscharführer before consideration could be given for an officer's commission.  Those so eligible were required to obtain a recommendation from their SS chain of command followed by submission of a document known as the Lebenslauf.  A résumé of the SS member's career, the Lebenslauf stated why the SS member felt they should be commissioned as an officer and gave, as evidence, a list of chronological accomplishments both within the SS and before joining.
  Following a racial and political background check, the SS member's service record would be reviewed, with the Lebenslauf and all SS evaluations screened by the SS personnel office (known as the SS Personalhauptamt).  If found eligible for promotion, the potential SS officer's name would be forwarded to Heinrich Himmler for final approval of commission.
  Between 1934 and 1938, Himmler personally reviewed all candidates for promotion to the rank of Untersturmführer.  However, during the Second World War, manpower constraints and logistics prevented Himmler from screening all SS officer applicants and the task typically fell to subordinates.
caption: Adolf Eichmann's Lebenslauf for his application for promotion from SS-Hauptscharführer to SS-Untersturmführer in 1937
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