Nazi Party and SS Membership
Herbert Kappler joined the Nazi Party on August 1, 1931 at the age of twenty three. At the same time, he became a stormtrooper in the Sturmabteilung (SA) and served as an SA-Mann from August 1, 1931 to December 1, 1932. His Nazi Party membership number was 594,899.
Upon leaving the SA, Kappler was accepted as a prospective candidate into the Schutzstaffel (SS) and appointed to the entry level probation rank of SS-Anwärter. He underwent six months of indoctrination training, and was sworn into the SS on May 8, 1933. During Kappler's probationary period, Adolf Hitler became Chancellor of Germany, meaning that Kappler did not have the "honor" of full SS membership prior to the Nazis' assumption of power. Even so, due to his membership in the SA and Nazi Party dating from 1931, Kappler was considered an Alter Kämpfer and awarded the Honour Chevron for the Old Guard in 1934.
After serving as an SS-Anwärter from December 1932 to May 1933, Kappler was appointed an SS-Mann and assigned the SS membership number 55,211. His first assignment was as a member of an Allgemeine SS formation (the 13th SS-Standarte), operating out of Stuttgart, performing part time duties as a member of the general SS.
Kappler was also in Stuttgart during the Night of the Long Knives, but was at this time too junior in the SS to significantly participate. Towards the end of 1934, on September 29, he married Leonore Janns who was the same age as Kappler (27 at the time) and came from the city of Heilbronn. The two lived at an address on Tübingern, Kurzestrasse 15, before later moving to an apartment listed at Stuttgart-Degerloch, Reutlingerstrasse 98.
In 1935, as part of Germany's rearming programs, Kappler was called up to serve in the Wehrmacht. Since he was at this time considered only a general SS member, not assigned to permanent full time duties, Kappler was not exempt from the draft and he became a Schütze in the Wehrmacht on June 11, 1935. Kappler performed active training duty over three separate periods from June 1935 to September 1936, with final release on September 27, 1936 with the rank of Feldwebel der Reserve. Kappler was never discharged and technically held this rank during World War II, although by that time Kappler was an active full time SS member and exempt from further military service. Kappler was also never affiliated with the Waffen-SS and spent the war performing "behind the lines" police and security duty.
In mid 1935, Kappler applied for transfer to the full time SS and submitted an application to join the Sicherheitspolizei (Security Police) or SiPo. In January 1936, he was promoted to the rank of SS-Scharführer (sergeant) and assigned to duty at the Gestapo main office of Stuttgart (Stapoleitstelle Stuttgart). Over the next year, Kappler began to be noticed by his superiors and was introduced to Reinhard Heydrich (although some sources state Kappler knew Heydrich for some time before). In 1937, Kappler (now an SS-Oberscharführer (staff sergeant)) was sent by his Gestapo superiors to attend the Führerschule der Sicherheitspolzei (Leadership School of the Security Police) in Berlin from which he graduated in the summer of 1937 as a certified Kriminalkommissar (Criminal Commissioner). This set the stage for further advancement and Kappler was commissioned a Gestapo officer, with the rank of SS-Untersturmführer (second lieutenant), on November 9, 1938 (the traditional anniversary of the Munich Beer Hall Putsch).
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