SS-Brigadeführer Christian Weber

[trespasser07]

Any info avaliable on this early member as I have nothing on him apart from the Wikipedia article.

Regards

Trespasser07.

[J. Duncan]

There is only secondary information on Weber (no bios in English). A good book which has a lot of gossipy tidbits on Weber (and Adolf Wagner) is "Munich Playground" by Ernst R. Pope. Pope visited Germany in the 1930's and got to know these men. He was on good terms with Wagner, who sent him a crate of beer. The general impression one gets about Christian Weber from reading the various accounts about him and comparing them is that he was a former groom, meaning that he worked in a stable in his youth and was much involved in horse racing, which he later became somewhat of a big shot in. He was 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 Göring!). He 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 Ulrich Graf. He stayed a mostly provincial figure in Munich, but he was an SS member too. He was a participant in the 1923 Putsch and was very much a participant in the subsequent filmed memorials of the 1930's. Later, after the Nazis gained power, he organized horse races and staged these risque parades called "Night of the Amazons" featuring nude women. Hermann Fegelein worked for him at one point early in his "career". Weber was later killed during the "Munich uprising" in 1945. I do not know the details of his death. Much of this general information comes from the following books (in addition to above book mentioned, by Pope):

1. Kurt Ludecke "I Knew Hitler"
2. Ernst "Putzi" Hanfstaengl "Unheard Witness"
3. David Clay Large "Where Ghosts Walked: Munich's Road to the Third Reich"
4. Louis Snyder "Encyclopedia of the Third Reich"
5. Robert Wistrich "Who's Who in Nazi Germany"
6. Christian Zentner ed. "Encyclopedia of the Third Reich" 2 vols.
6. William L. Shirer "Rise and Fall of the Third Reich"
7. Glen B. Infield "Secrets of the SS"

[jeffhan373]

Weber was head of the Office for the 8th/9th November. His most important responsibility there was ensuring the Fuehrer's safety while inside the Buergerbraeukeller on the 8th of November, when Hitler delivered his annual speech to the Old Guard. He and Polizeipraesident von Eberstein battled over this responsibility in the 1930s, and Hitler came down squarely on Weber's side. Eberstein was allowed to oversee security for all other aspects of the November ceremonies, but not inside the beer hall on the night of the 8th. This may have been one reason why Georg Elser's bomb nearly killed Hitler in 1939 - had professional detectives been working the hall they may well have found the bomb.

[trespasser07]

Very interesting, is there also info on his arguements with Paul Geisler and Karl von Eberstein who were also chiefs of Munich.

Trespasser07

[J. Duncan]

Here is the first page from Pope's chapter on Christian Weber.
I'll post more if I find the time.

Chapter III
"Portrait of a Nazi Grafter"

"Munichers delight in relating the story of Christian Weber's sole visit to an art gallery, one in which the portraits of nazi leaders were exhibited. After gazing at Hitler, Hess, Himmler, Hierl, and other H's, as well as the rest of the alphabet soup of Third reich brss hats, Christian peered intently and with ever-increasing anger at one particular frame. His huge jowls hoisted themselves ponderously into a frown; his little red eyes glared through fleshy sockets.
'That portrait of me is terrible. Remove it at once. It makes me look like a pig'. Christian grunted to his adjudant.
'Very well' replied the subordinate. 'Herr weber orders you to remove this mirror at once!'
His name is only the only christian part of these 350 pounds of degenarate fat. Christian has been squatting on the head chair of the Muncih city council ever since hitler came to power. He is too heavy to boil down to soap or oil, in which form he could do even the Third Reich more good than waddling clumsily around the beer halls in his uniform of himmler's SS regiment commander. Christian Weber is a classic example of the bevy of Nazi racketeer-grafters who helped themselves tot he gravy after helping Hitler to the head ogf the German table.
Starting as a Munich stable boy, his career and girth have developed into well-rounded fulfillment...."

[Erich S]

Does anyone have a photo of Weber wearing his Coburg Badge?

[Oberhessin]

Weber was not killed in the Munich Uprising but b an car accident after he was arrested in 1945.
There is a short biography in German linked on his German Wikipedia site.
And an funny novel, "Die Nacht der Amazonen" by former BND-agent Herbert Rosendorfer.
I have a lot of information on Weber, please send me a message for certain Questions.
My next book will contain a chapter on Webers activities till 1923.

[J. Duncan]

That's news indeed. Amazing how many sources have their facts wrong about his death.
Here is a photo illustrating the immense girth of Weber of which Mr. Pope speaks. Photo also shows
how fat Göring was as well:

[VJK]

Hi Erich,

In this pic you can just see the top of the Coburger Abzeichen:
http://de.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?tit ... 1203221528

Best regards,

VJK

[J. Duncan]

Another tidbit from Pope's book (pg. 31):

"A wide variety of interests keeps our Nazi Falstaff happy from one Brown Ribbon sweepstakes to the next annual races.
In order of importance, Christian's spiritual stimuli are: 1. horses 2. Money and women, both of which he chases with equal enthusiasm and perseverence; 3. Eating and Drinking. National Socialism means as much to him as Cupid to the madame of one of those houses which Christian visited on his trip to Paris - it symbolizes nothing more than a meal ticket."

He says on the same page that Weber also owned a profitable trucking company (which, if true, I was not aware).

"...as a profitable sideline, President of Christian Weber's Trucking Company, with offices in the Residenz -the City palace of Bavarian Kings. It was in the historic royal bed of this erstwhile palace that Weber often chose to sleep with his mistresses after closing his trucking office for the day."

pages 35-36:

"But let us leave the stables and the turf for the finer things in life. Let us observe our Nazi rhinocerous as he sponsors feminine beauty...In the summer of 1937, the nazi pilgrim's progress took him to the World's Fair at Paris, a city he'd been itching to visit all his life...When he returned, he declared to fellow members of the town coucil:
'We can capture the international tourist trade that has been swamping Paris in pursuit of unveiled feminine puchritude!
Judging from what I saw in the french capital, our naked German girls are much better looking than the french women. All we have to do is take the clothes of the girls right here at home, put them in the spotlight, and men with money to spend will forsake Paris for Munich. Jawohl! Heil Hitler!"...Christian was seized with a brain wave that provided a solution to his carnival problem. Why not combine all his life's interests into one show? No sooner said than "Heiled!". The result was Weber's gargantuan Aufgalopp - a concoction of horsy themes, decorations, expensive admission prices,
naked women, champagnue, and Weisswurst stirred together from 8pm to 8am.."

To page 38:
"They aint naked enough! Give'em nipples. They gotta have tits an'big breasts thundered our art critic in his inimitable Bavarian vernacular...Christian's carnival was a tremendous financial feath in his cap. I need hardly add that he also enjoyed the evening thoroughly. After the official part of the program was over, I saw no more of the jovial sponsor. He disappeared behind the heavy red curtains of his private box, one of his self-selected chorus girls in each beefy paw. Christian has many children in Munich. If only he knew it".

"Imagine the metropolitan Opera in New York with the orchestra seats removed to make way for a dance floor. Picture to yourself the cellar of the Metropolitan Opera as a maze of beer halls and necking laboratories, where beer, champagnue, kisses, hot-dogs, re-and pro-creation mingle in gay abandon, each according to the individual's needs and tastes. Imagine further a succession of horses and nude women parading across the stage of the theater, while bottle pop and curtains are drawn in the box seats. Visualize an inebriated, radiant 350 pound ex-stable boy in billowing starched shirt and tails as the patron saint of the night's festivities...Christian Weber's artistic triumph".

[J. Duncan]

Weber has now even entered the world of novel (both fictionially and non-fictionally based) in the book by Herbert Rosendorfer titled
"The Night of the Amazons". The author sees the entire rise and fall of the Third Reich in one man - Christian Weber!
See book description from amazon.com:

http://www.amazon.com/Night-Amazons-Her ... 595&sr=1-1

[J. Duncan]

I was looking through my sources and I was wrong on 3 citations (I was working from memory which isn't what it used to be)...the two separate encyclopedias and the Wistrich book contain no specific references to Weber, however my source for him being killed in Munich during the uprising is none other than Charles Hamilton's excellent "Leaders and Personalities of the Third Reich", a Bender book! I was surprised to learn he had it wrong, although Hamilton has Heinrich Müller (in vol. 2) having died in Hawaii!! Oh well, even a Bender book isn't fool proof.

[jeffhan373]

Weber was marginalized after the catastrophe at the Buergerbraeukeller in 1939, losing all responsibility for Hitler's safety as a result of the bomb attempt. He seems to have gone into obscurity during the war, though he did maintain his position as a Ratsherr of Munich. I'll have to check my files to see if he even shows up at the November ceremonies after 1939.

He was killed in May 1945 in an auto accident while being transported to a military prison in a US Army truck.

Attached is a photo of him from 1935, showing his Coburg Badge, GPB, Blood Order ribbon and City Councilor's chain...

[Erich S]

Thanks Jeff for the photo of Weber wearing his CB. Best, Erich

[J. Duncan]

Short video featuring Weber's Bachanale "Night of the Amazons" (in color).

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PAKRyBH7CBM