Grimminger, Jakob.

Grimminger, Jakob, born 25-04-1892 in Augsburg, Bavaria, He became a member of the Nazi Schutzstaffel (SS) who was famous for carrying the Blutfahne, the ceremonial Nazi flag.

Grimminger attended elementary school in his youth. He was then trained as a model carpenter. He entered the Imperial German Army when he was sixteen years old and served during World War I. Mechanic in an air regiment between 1914 and 1917, he fought in the Gallipoli Campaign  and after one year destined in Palestine, where he fought against the British and Arabs under T.E. Lawrence. Thomas Edward Lawrence, CB, DSO (born 16-08-1888 in Tremadog, Wales, † 19-05-1935, in Clouds Hill, England), known as Lawrence of Arabia, was a British officer, archaeologist, secret agent and writer. Lawrence was best known for his participation in the British uprising of the Arabs against the Ottoman Empire during the First World War. Back in Britain Lawrence got off the road on 13-05-1935 with his motorcycle and sustained serious head injuries. He was in a coma for six days and died at the age of 46.

Grimminger was awarded the Iron Cross second class. At the end of the war, Grimminger was interned in a prison camp on the Bosporus until March 1919. After his return to Germany, he was released from service on 03-04-1919 and worked for the F.F. Kustermann in Munich.. Working as a tallest he joined the Nazi Party in 1922 NSDAP-Nr.: 759/SS-Nr.: 135 and became a member of the Sturmabteilung, an initially only twelve-strong unit, which was founded for the personal protection of Hitler and which was subsequently increased to over 30 men. He took part in the fights for Coburg in 1922 and the Munich Beer Hall Putsch of 09-11-1923.  Grimminger rejoined the party when the NSDAP was founded in spring 1925. In the new NSDAP, he received membership number 759. Adolf Hitler had number 555.  After serving in the “das Braune Haus” , the general headquarters of the NSDAP , he was selected in 1926 to become a member of the SS. On 25-02-1926 Grimminger joined the SS, founded in 1925 as Hitler’s “Praetorian Guard”. At that time, he was one of the first eight members of the Munich SS Standard 1 run by the former butscher Sepp Dietrich. Grimminger was promoted many times during his service in the SA and the SS, eventually reaching the rank of SS Standartenführer. He gained notoriety after being selected to become the bearer of the esteemed “Blood Flag“

which was the Nazi banner used in a 1923 coup attempt “Beer Hall Putsch” against the Bavarian government. Hitler’s with a total of approximately 2000 men marched out and they met a force of 130 soldiers blocking the way under the command of State Police Senior Lieutenant Michael von Godin. The two groups exchanged fire, killing four state police officers and 16 Nazis. The flag, as claimed, had been splattered with the blood of those killed on that day, like Andreas Bauriedl 

   and Theodor Pfordten.   Hitler flew and went undergound in the house of  an intimate of Adolf Hitler, Hanfstaengl, Ernst Franz Sedgwick “Putzi”

  but was arrested two days later.

Grimminger was also City council man in Munich. When Heinrich Himmler took over the leadership of the SS in 1929 and began to fundamentally reorganize it, Grimminger was one of the 280 SS men that Himmler took over in “his” organization. According to the SS seniority lists, Grimminger has had membership number 135 since then. As a member of the SS he was given the honour of carrying the blood-stained Blutfahne from the Munich putsch, he became Adolf Hitler’s shadow (did you know). Grimminger was decorated with the Goldenes Parteiabzeichen, the Blood Order or the Coburger Ehrenzeichen , the three most important decorations of the NSDAP. Grimminger, who had been married to Hildegard Weber since 01-08-1936, reached the peak of his SS career in April 1943 when he was promoted to SS Standartenführer.

     He survived the  war and was put on trial by the Allies in 1946 for being a member of the SS and carrying the Blutfahne for nineteen years. He was not sent to prison for this, but all of his property was confiscated.

He reportedly attempted to enter politics, and served as a councilor in Munich, however his past prevented him from continuing this career. He died in poverty as a simple street sweeper and in obscurity on 28-01-1969, age 76, in Munich and was buried on the Waldfriedhof of Munich, his grave has new owners now and he was removed to Herzebrock-Clarholz, where the gravestone alas is removed also. On the Waldfriedhof are also buried the next personalities, Generals, Kommandeur IV Flak Regiment, Rudolf Bogatsch, Generalleutnant der Artillerie, Commander of the Troops Exercise Grounds in Maria ter Heide, Heinrich Curtze, Generalmajor der Infanterie, Kommandeur Wehrmacht Operaties Staff, Ernst Detleffsen, Franz Ritter von Epp,   Generalmajor der Kavallerie, Staff of the Inspector of Land Fortifications West, Gero von Gersdorf, Oberst der Wehrmacht, Highest German Commander on D-Day, Normandy, Ernst Goth, SS Obergruppenführer, Kommandeur General II SS Panzerkorps, Paul “Papa” Hausser,

SS Obersturmführer, Chef 1./SS Pz Grenadier Regiment 38 “Goetz von Berlichingen”, Bruno Hinz, Generalmajor der Flieger, Commander of the Air Defend Division, Max Ibel, aircraft desiner, Hugo Junkers, General der Panzertruppe, Kommandeur der 4^th Panzerdivision, Dietrich von Saucken,  Generalmajor der Flieger, Kommandeur Luftregio Truppe 3, Ernst Weber, Hitler Navy adjutant Karl von Puttkamer, the scientist Werner Heissenberg, Generalmajor der Gebirgstruppe, Kommandeur der Jäger Regiment 100, Otto Schury, Goering’s second wife, Emmy Goering Sonnemann and the famous film maker

   Leni Riefenstahl. “Triumpf of the Will” , the film chronicles the 1934 Nazi Party Congress in Nuremberg.