Weber, Christian.

Weber, Christian, born 25-08-1883 in Polsingen, Bavaria, a middle class individual who also was known to work in taverns as a bouncer, a champion drinker who was as broad as he was tall, he was fatter than Hermann Göring.

Weber had a reputation for knocking Communists about and was an early bodyguard of Hitler’s. He was one of the “Old Fighters” (“Alte Kämpfer”) along with Hermann Esser

   and bodyguard Brigade Führer Ulrich Graf. Esser was the editor of the Nazi paper, Völkischer Beobachter, and a Nazi member of the Reichstag. In the early history of the party, he was a de facto deputy of Adolf Hitler. Esser died in Dietramszell, Bavaria aged 80 on 07-02-1981 Weber received the “Blood Order”   one of the most prestigious decorations in the Nazi Party. In total 16 women received the award, two from the “Altreich” Eleonore “Sister Pia” Baur  and Emma Schneider and 14 from Austria. Given the number of original marchers in the putsch, the number of awards given under the 1938 extensions (436), and the awards for outstanding service under those same extensions, the total number of recipients numbered fewer than 6.000.

Along with the likes of Emil Maurice,

Ulrich Graf , and Max Amann, Ulrich Graf  was sentenced to five years hard labor and died 03-03-1950, age 71. Weber, a bouncer at a seedy bar, was amongst the earliest political associates of Adolf Hitler. Ever ready for a fight, Weber carried a riding crop with him, a habit shared by Hitler in these early years. Otto Strasser  who died age 76 on 27-08-1974 in Munich would later claim that Weber was also a pimp at this time, although he had a hatred of Weber whom he denounced as an “ape-like creature” and “the most despicable of Hitler’s underlings” In late 1921 Weber was one of Hitler’s cohorts when the Nazis attacked a meeting of the Bavarian League. Hitler personally beat up the League’s leader Otto Ballerstedt, an event that saw the future Führer serve a month in prison. Ballerstedt was a German engineer, writer and politician. Ballerstedt was mainly known as leader of the secessionist Bayerbund and so a political rival of Adolf Hitler. At some stage before 1923 Weber lost an eye and often wore a specially made pair of glasses as a result.Ballerstedt died age 47.on  01-07-1934.

Following the Beer Hall putsch   Weber, by then a horse trader, was owed $1000 by Hitler after he had bought the debt from Ernst Hanfstaengl Weber would insist on Hitler paying the debt in full. The two however remained close and Hanfstaengl later claimed that Weber was one of the few who could make fun of Mein Kampf in Hitler’s company.

A city councilman in Munich he was effectively the boss of the city following the Nazi seizure of power. Weber became something of a hate figure in the city, particularly amongst the middle classes and he became a by-word for corruption as it was regularly questioned how this former hotel bellboy had come to own a number of hotels, villas, petrol stations, a brewery, the city’s racecourse and bus service as well as a home in the Munich Residenz. Other titles that he was granted included presidency of the Reichsjagdmuseum and the League of German Riding Stable Owners. On the Night of the Long Knives Weber was amongst those SS men who travelled to Bad Wiessee to purge the Sturmabteilung leadership. Hitler personally rewarded him for his involvement by promoting him to the rank of Oberführer in the SS.

Ever on the lookout for a chance to enrich himself, Weber was active on Kristallnacht when he took a group of SS men, including a young Hermann Fegelein ,(see Waldemar Fegelein) to Planegg where they ransacked the estate of Jewish nobleman Baron Rudolf Hirsch

  who died in 1998, aged 90 in Berlin. The estate would eventually pass into Weber’s possession. Weber also took care of security arrangements for Nazi functions in Munich although he received criticism for this when his plans failed to prevent Georg Elser’sbomb attack on the Bürgerbräukeller on 08-11-1939 which missed Hitler and a number of other leading Nazis including Heinrich Himmler and Alfred Rosenberg  by only ten minutes. Despite this Weber remained important in Munich, although Gauleiter Paul Giesler

was his rival. The two clashed in 1943 over the continuation of horse racing in the city and the dispute was ultimately brought to Hitler himself, where Giesler argued it should be banned as it was not conducive to total war. Hitler agreed in principle with Giesler but, due to the respect for his Alter Kämpfer comrade, he allowed racing to continue at the Theresienwiese only.

Death and burial ground of Weber, Christian.

Weber died on 11-05-1945, age 61, after being arrested by the United States Army in Berlin. He was one of a number of prisoners being carried in an open-backed lorry, from the prison in Ulm to Heilbronn, when the vehicle overturned. Weber suffered terminal injuries in the accident and died. His body was interred in a mass grave at Heilbronn.