Reutlinger, (Philipp) Heinrich

SA-Standartenführer

Born: 25.05.1898 in Frankfurt am Main

died: 15.11.1963 in Enzklösterle (Calw district)

Reutlinger volunteered for the front even before he finished school. As a lieutenant out of service, he caught up on his school-leaving exams and studied paper chemistry for a few semesters without a degree. During this time, he belonged to the Rossbach Freicorps and took part in battles in the Baltic States, among other places. In 1925, he became a member of the NSDAP. In 1930, he joined the SA and was elected to the Prussian state parliament in the same year and, after its dissolution in 1933, to the German Reichstag.

In 1932, Reutlinger, now SA standard bearer, was ordered to Wiesbaden. The jurisdiction of Reutlinger, who was promoted to brigade leader of the Wiesbaden SA in November 1933, extended to the borders of Hanau, Frankfurt am Main and Koblenz. He had 38,000 paramilitary SA members under his command. The SA standard home in the Luisenschule on Luisenplatz was converted into an SA prison where inmates, mostly Communists but also Social Democrats as well as some Jews and critics of the NSDAP within the party, were detained and tortured for up to six months.

During Reutlinger's term of office, the communist Karl Müller was murdered by the SA, as were the Jewish social democrat Max Kassel and the merchant Salomon Rosenstrauch. The Jewish merchant Ludwig Grosshut died as a result of ill-treatment by the SA. Reutlinger was known for often patrolling his district with a giant dog and on horseback and considered himself the sole ruler of Wiesbaden - until he was transferred to Hanau on January 28, 1935 for corruption and abuse of office. The transfer saved him from arrest in the course of the so-called Röhm Putsch, when Hitler had the SA leadership ousted. After six months in custody, Reutlinger was expelled from the SA and NSDAP. He then tried his hand as a horse breeder, hotelier and car dealer in the Stuttgart area.

In 1946, Reutlinger was summoned as a witness in a court case concerning the murder of Max Kassel. In the 1948 trial, Reutlinger was classified as "less incriminated". In 1959, he was sentenced to 20 months in prison. In 1963, one of Reutlinger's sons submitted a petition for clemency. Nine months after his remaining sentence was suspended, Reutlinger died.