Karl Otto Paul Weinrich (2 December 1887 – 22 July 1973) was a Nazi Party official and politician who was Gauleiter of Gau Kurhessen.

He then volunteered for the Prussian army in 1906, assigned to the 28th Infantry Regiment, "von Goeben," working as an administrative clerk and attaining the rank of Sergeant by 1912.

Becoming politically active, he joined the Deutschvölkischer Schutz- und Trutzbund, the largest and most influential anti-Semitic, völkisch organization in Germany.

[4] A member of the paramilitary National Socialist Motor Corps (Nationalsozialistisches Kraftfahrkorps, NSKK), he reached the rank of NSKK-Obergruppenführer on 30 January 1939.

[5] After the outbreak of World War II, Weinrich was made a member of the Defense Committee for Wehrkreis (Military District) IX which included Gau Kurhessen.

In this capacity, he had responsibility for civil defense and evacuation measures, as well as control over the war economy, including rationing and suppression of black market activities.

[6] Reichsminister of Propaganda, Joseph Goebbels, wrote a scathing report to Hitler and commented in his diary: ”Weinrich has in no way proven equal to the demands made on him by the recent air raid.

A gruesome picture strikes the eye … Much may have been prevented or at least mitigated if suitable preparations had been taken by the Gau leadership … Weinrich played a very sorry role … I shall certainly report to the Führer the pitiful role he played as Gauleiter and urge that he be quickly replaced.”[7]Weinrich was placed on extended leave from his posts on 6 November 1943 and was retired to his farming estate in Trendelburg for the remainder of the war.