Heinrich Himmler

## Governor of Texas

> "*It is in my view that the German-Americans are, out of all Americans, the ones who practice the American Ideal to its fullest extent.*" - Himmler, *An Interview with Heinrich Himmler* by CBS, 1940.
>
>

**Heinrich Himmler** also known as **Henry Himmler** (7 October 1900 - 13 March 1989) was a German-Americans politician and farmer, serving as President of Governor from 1939 to 1958; Texas's longest serving Governor.

Himmler took Adelsverein from a Texas-only party to a political party and organization focusing on the protection of German culture in American states. Although Himmler focused heavily on German identity, he still considered himself American, describing himself as an *Amerikadeutscher*.

## Life

### Early Life

Heinrich Luitpold Himmler was born in New Braunsfels, Texas on 7 October 1900 into a conservative middle-class Roman Catholic family. His father was Joseph Gebhard Himmler (17 May 1865 – 29 October 1936), a teacher, and his mother was Anna Maria Himmler (née Heyder; 16 January 1866 – 10 September 1941), a devout Roman Catholic. Heinrich had two brothers, Gebhard Ludwig (29 July 1898 – 1982) and Ernst Hermann (23 December 1905 – 2 May 1989).

He attended a grammar school in New Braunsfels, where his father was deputy principal. While he did well in his schoolwork, he struggled in athletics. He had poor health, suffering from lifelong stomach complaints and other ailments. In his youth he trained daily with weights and exercised to become stronger. Other boys at the school later remembered him as studious and awkward in social situations.

Himmler's diary, which he kept intermittently from the age of ten, shows that he took a keen interest in current events, dueling, and "the serious discussion of religion and sex".

### West Point and Military service

In 1916, he enrolled in the Military Academy at Houston. Himmler would reach the rank of Major. Himmler served with an American attache with the German Imperial Army during the German Civil War. Himmler was discharged from the U.S. Army in 1922, where he then attended Texas A&M University studying Agronomy. He graduated in 1924, where he then moved to Austin. After failing to find a job as a agronomist, he moved back to Comal County and began to raise his own chickens.

### Entry Into Politics

Himmler raised chickens peacefully on his farm until 1926, when Himmler joined Adelsverein, the Texas-only political party that focused on German-American rights. Although a member, Himmler did not participate in many meetings. In 1927 however, a band of the Ku Klux Klan attacked Himmler's farm due to his Catholic faith. This began his long-standing hatred of the KKK.

In 1928, Himmler married Margarete Boden, a fellow German-American from Austin. She moved in with Himmler on his farm when the Ku Klux Klan attacked again, this time attempting to kill Margarete before Himmler shot and killed one of the attackers. After this incident, Himmler rallied the Adelsverein in Comal County. He was elected to the Comal County Adelsverein Committee, in which he formed the **Amerikadeutsche Selbstverteidigungbund** (America-German Self-Defence League), an armed paramilitary organization to protect German-Americans in Comal County from the Ku Klux Klan. By July of 1928, Comal County was engulfed in a miniature war between the ADSVB and the KKK. With Comal County being majority German, the ADSVB ran the KKK out of the county by November of 1928.

### The Sturmabteilung and Spreading Influence

Himmler, however, was still not satisfied. With his name now well-known in all of Texas, Himmler brought together all German paramilitaries in Texas to form the Schutzstaffel (Protection Squadron) on December 25 1928. Quickly developing military titles, Heinrich Himmler was made Reichsführer-SS(Realm SS-Leader) of the Schutzstaffel. President of Texas, Hans Neumann, a fellow member of Adelsverein, sanctioned the Schutzstaffel and Himmler's leadership of the organization.

New Years Day of 1929 saw Himmler officially declare that the KKK must be destroyed in Texas. Very quickly, conflict began to happen all across Texas. On January 24th, a KKK March in Houston was ended violently when a large group of SS men ambushed the KKK members. 58 KKK members were injured, while only 24 SS were injured.

Throughout all of 1929, a large amount of violence was seen between the SS and KKK, but none of them ended with deaths. This changed in 1930, when five KKK members dressed in full regalia opened fire on an SS rally in Austin, injuring thirty-two SS and killing sixteen. The one SS-man killed was Horst Wessel, a 22-year old resident of Austin who joined the SS a year before. Wessel was made into a martyr by the SS and Adelsverein, later being commemorated by the Horst-Wessel-Lied, or Horst Wessel Song, which became a de-facto anthem of the SS and Adelsverein.

Himmler's influenced increased even more when in the Adelsverein Party Congress of 1930, SS member and SS-Hauptsturmführer, Harry Fechter, was elected Chairman of the party. Himmler influenced Fechter to expand Adelsverein operations to neighboring countries, particularly to the German Coast region of Louisiana. Fechter was an important cog in the creation of the New Orleans branch of Adelsverein and also served as the main recruiter in the state, organizing and training new SS members and recruiting new German immigrants into the New Orleans SS.

In the early 1930s, Himmler had been appointed Chief of the Office of the Federal Prosecutor for Texas, where he set up a Special Police unit to act as a paramilitary force to combat the Ku Klux Klan alongside his own SS.