SS-General & Handwerkmeister, Wilhelm Schmidt

Head of the Union for artisans

SS-Standartenführer Wilhelm Schmidt photograph (he later became an SS-Oberführer). Typical head and shoulders portrait. Classic  photograph of excellent quality. Incredible detail. Collar insignia sharp, as is the 25mm Golden Party Badge worn on the tie, and the 30mm Golden Party Badge worn on the breast pocket. The 1923 Gau Badge is in equally sharp focus. Reverse has the period ink stamp of the photographer, Braemer U.Güll, along with a typed desciption about Schmidt.

Size: 18cm x 13cm with borders. 

Condition report: Overall very good  condition. One slight bend to the lower right corner.

Background to Wilhelm Schmidt: Born March 5th, 1900 in Wiesbaden , died August 29th, 1938 in Berlin

After attending middle school in Wiesbaden Schmidt completed a plumbing apprenticeship and in 1922 passed the exam as a plumber and installation master. In 1925 he became self-employed as a master plumber in Wiesbaden. His training period was interrupted by participation in the First World War , in which he served in the 2nd Company of the Airship Division II . In 1924 he was a time volunteer at the Infantry Regiment 13 .

In 1921 Schmidt was initially a member of a DVP Youth Group, before he joined the German Volkische Schutz- and Trutzbund . In January 1923 he joined the NSDAP for the first time. During the Allied occupation of the Rhineland Schmidt was expelled from the occupied territory from 1923 to 1925. After the temporary ban of the NSDAP, he joined the party ( membership number 33,560) again in April 1926 and founded in the same year the NSDAP Ortsgruppe Wiesbaden . He was from 1926 to 1928 a member of the SA and since 1931 a member of the SS (SS No. 20,548). In the SS he reached the rank of SS-Oberführers on June 8th, 1936. In 1932 he was elected to the Prussian Landtag , to which he belonged until the dissolution of the corporation in October 1933. In November 1933 he became a member of the National Socialist Reichstag .

Schmidt was a leader in the Gleichschaltung of the German Chambers of Crafts. From 1933 to 1934 he was president of the Chamber of Crafts for the administrative district of Wiesbaden. Schmidt was known to be a devout National Socialist, a quote from his speech on May 17th, 1934 before the press: "... We are at a turning point at which the National Socialist state with iron hand writes new history. The reorganization of the craft organization in compulsory guilds and circle craftsmanship clears up completely with the liberal-democratic craft organization [...] principle of the law on the reorganization of the conditions in the craft is the implementation of the Führer principle." In his speech at the Reichshandwerkstag 1936, Schmidt declared:  "The nucleus of a true national economy was, is and always will be the craft. About the craft is the way to National Socialist economy. "

On May 3rd, 1933, the foundation of a new association, the imperial estate of the German craft was made at a plenary meeting of the Reich Association of German crafts. In the board of the Reichsstandes Schmidt was elected in addition to other NSDAP members and Adrian von Renteln to the presidency. Thus, the craft had four organizations with boards in personal union, the Imperial Association of German crafts, the Imperial State of the German craft, the German Chamber of Crafts and the trade associations in the imperial state of the German craft.
In November 1936, Schmidt had to resign as Reichshandwerkmeister after disputes over powers with the head of the German Labor Front, Robert Ley. A party trial started in 1937 against him was discontinued in January 1938. A leave of absence from the SS service parallel to the party court proceedings was justified by the fact that Schmidt announced the remilitarization of the Rhineland in a telephone call prematurely.

After Schmidt's death, Max Solbrig took over his Reichstag mandate on 10th September 1938.