On 14 May Weitzel, along with deputies Edmund Heines and Wilhelm Stegmann, was sentenced by a Berlin court to three months in prison for assault.

[2] After the Nazi seizure of power, Weitzel was appointed Police President of Düsseldorf on 1 May 1933 by Prussian Minister of the Interior Hermann Göring.

Numerous Communists and Social Democrats were arrested and beaten, and Weitzel was reported to have personally taken part in interrogations and torture.

As chief of police, he banned processions and public appearances by church groups in the city and published a pamphlet against Catholic priests and religious orders.

[2] On 11 June 1938, he was appointed by Reichsführer-SS Heinrich Himmler as Higher SS and Police Leader (HSSPF) "West", based in Düsseldorf.

During the Second World War, after the occupation of Norway by German troops, Weitzel was transferred to become HSSPF "Nord" on 20 April 1940, with headquarters in Oslo.

[8] Only two months later, Weitzel was fatally injured by shrapnel in an RAF air raid on Düsseldorf while he was home on leave.