Bidspirit auction | Heinrich Himmler - Signed Promotion

Heinrich Himmler - Signed Promotion Proposal for a Schutzpolizei Officer - A typed proposal (Vorschlag zur Ernennung) issued by Der Reichsminister des Innern, dated Berlin, 18 January 1940, recommending the promotion of Hauptmann der Schutzpolizei Gustav Vogelsaenger to Major der Schutzpolizei. The document is addressed to the Staatsminister und Chef der Praesidialkanzlei des Fuehrers und Reichskanzlers, and bears a signature reading ”H. Himmler” in his capacity as Deputy. The lower section carries a printed authorization dated 26 January 1940, citing approval ”Im Namen des Deutschen Volkes” and referencing the Fuehrer und Reichskanzler, Adolf Hitler, along with a stamp of the Praesidialkanzlei and additional annotations including a reference number ”RP 992/40.” Such promotion proposals routed through the Reichsministerium des Innern and the Praesidialkanzlei illustrate the bureaucratic process by which senior police appointments were formally sanctioned at the highest levels of the Nazi state during the early war period. Heinrich Himmler held the post of Chef der Deutschen Polizei within the Reich Ministry of the Interior from 1936, giving him authority over the Ordnungspolizei, including the uniformed Schutzpolizei, alongside his role as Reichsfuehrer-SS. Promotions of senior police officers such as this one required formal approval through the Praesidialkanzlei des Fuehrers, reflecting the merging of police and SS command structures under the National Socialist state. The Schutzpolizei constituted the regular municipal uniformed police force, tasked with everyday law enforcement in German towns and cities, and by 1940 operated increasingly within the wider framework of SS and police control established under Himmler.