Neumann, Erich

Neumann, Erich, born 31-05-1892 in Forst, Lausitz, into a Protestant family. His father was a factory-owner. After receiving his Abitur, certtificate, Neumann studied law and economics at the universities of Freiburg, Leipzig and Halle. He served in World War I and reached the rank of First Leutnant, Oberleutnant. In 1920, he served as governmental civil servant (in the Prussian Ministry of the Interior, and thereafter in the Essen District Office. Neumann became Senior Executive Officer in the Prussian Ministry of Commerce in 1923. In 1927/28, he became District President, Landratin Freystadt, Lower Silesia, then served as Ministerial Junior Assistant Secretary, Ministerialrat, again in the Prussian Ministry of Commerce. In September 1932, he was appointed Permanent Secretary, Ministerialdirektor, in the Prussian Ministry of State, where he was in charge of administrative reforms. Neumann joined the Nazi Party  in May 1933, four months after Adolf Hitler  took power. He joined the SS in 1934, an SS Obersturmbannführer, being commissioned as a Major, SS Sturmbannführer. In 1936, he was appointed the director of the Foreign Currency department of the Office of the Plenipotentiary for the Four Year Plan. By 1938, Neumann was promoted to undersecretary and attended Hermann Goering‘s meeting about the “Aryanization” of the German economy. He represented the Ministries of Economy, Labour, Finances, Food, Transportation, and Armaments and Ammunition for Minister Dr. Franz Schlegelberger  at the 1942 Wannsee Conference, (see Reinhard Heydrich)  (see Roland Freisler) (see Adolf Eichmann) (see Heinrich Müller).

 Neumann requested that Jewish workers in firms essential to the war effort not to be deported for the time being. Between August 1942 and May 1945, Neumann was the general manager of the German Potassium Syndicate.

Death and burial ground of Neumann, Erich.

   He was interned and interrogated by the Allies in 1945 after the war but released due to poor health in 1948. Some sources quote his death being in the same year, however, the German Federal Archives record him as dying some three years later in Garmisch-Partenkirchen, on 23-03-1951, age 58 and he indeed is buried with this date on the Stadtfriedhof of Partenkirchen. Close by the graves of the Generaloberst der Infanterie, Chief of the Troop Office, Wilhelm Adam

,   Generalleutnant der Gebirgstruppe, Commander of the 1^st Mountain Division , Walter Ritter Stettner von Grabenhofen, Generalleutnant der Infanterie, Stadt Commander of Dresden Robert Schlüter, Korvetten Kapitän Carl Daehnke.

Cemetery location of Neumann, Erich.