Wilhelm Friedrich Loeper Wilhelm Friedrich Loeper ( 13 October 1883 in Schwerin – 23 October 1935 in Dessau ) was a Nazi politician and a Nazi Gauleiter in the Gau of Magdeburg - Anhalt . Life . First Loeper became an ensign ( Fahnenjunker ) in Pioneer Battalion 2 in Spandau and then completed training at the Neiße Military School . Already in 1904 he was made a lieutenant , and after various other commands , eventually a first lieutenant in 1912 . Then came his transfer to the Magdeburg Pioneer Battalion 4 . Here he took over command of a searchlight platoon . After the First World War broke out , Loeper was then deployed between 1914 and 1918 at the Western Front as a captain and company chief of Pioneer Battalion 19 . He was wounded several times . In 1915 he was decorated with the Iron Cross and the Mecklenburg - Schwerin Military Merit Cross ( " Mecklenburg - Schwerinsches Militärverdienstkreuz " ) , First Class . After the war ended , Loeper became leader of a Freikorps that saw deployment both in the Baltic States and the Ruhr area . In this capacity , he was involved in quelling the Spartakus uprising . With the founding of the Reichswehr , Loeper became company chief of Pioneer Battalion 2 . In 1923 , he worked as a teacher at the " Pionierschule " in Munich , and got to know Adolf Hitler there . Loeper took part in the Beer Hall Putsch on 9 November 1923 and aimed at getting the " Pionierschule " to fall in and follow Hitler ' s orders . After the putsch had been put down , Loeper was discharged from the Reichswehr in 1924 for his participation . Loeper now began to get involved in the NSDAP . In 1925 he joined the Party . He moved to Dessau and first led the Nazi local ( " Ortsgruppe " ) there . In the same year he became the Gau ' s manager and in the end , in 1927 , Gauleiter of the Gau of Magdeburg - Anhalt , succeeding Hermann Schmischke . Loeper gave himself over to building the Party up in his Gau , and fought against the Bauhaus , which was located in Dessau at that time . In a letter in 1930 he wrote " as the Bauhaus belongs to Jerusalem and not to Dessau " . Loeper later had a decisive part in stripping this institution of its assets . In 1928 , Loeper became a member of the Anhalt " Landtag " . Anhalt had a Nazi " Land " government as early as 1932 . As of 1930 , Loeper was also a member of the Reichstag for electoral district 10 ( Magdeburg ) . Loeper became leader of the Nazi Party ' s personnel office and publisher of the " Trommler " . In 1932 he instituted at Schloß Großkühnau ( in Dessau ) the first " Stammabteilung " and the " Führerschule " of the " Reichsarbeitsdienst " . In the same year came Loeper ' s appointment to provincial NSDAP inspector for Middle Germany - Brandenburg . After the Nazis ' nationwide seizure of power , Loeper became Reich Governor in Braunschweig and Anhalt . He set up office in Dessau . Also in 1933 , the city of Magdeburg made him an honorary citizen , a distinction of which he was posthumously stripped in 1946 . In 1934 , he was appointed an honorary SS Gruppenführer and an honorary Gau leader of the " Reichsarbeitsdienst " . In 1935 , he became a member of the Academy for German Law ( " Akademie für Deutsches Recht " ) . On 23 October 1935 , Loeper died of neck cancer . His burial took place in the Napoleon Tower ( " Napoleonturm " ) in Mildensee near Dessau . Various honours flowed from the region . The Magdeburg borough of Ottersleben named a street " Hauptmann - Loeper - Straße " after him . After the Nazi régime fell , though , such honours quickly disappeared .