Otto Hellmuth

Otto Hellmuth (22 July 1896 – 20 April 1968) was a member of the Nazi Party and the Gauleiter in Lower Franconia (Unterfranken) from 1928 to 1945.

Born at Markt Einersheim, during World War I he entered service as a Kriegsfreiwilliger in the Bavarian Army, assigned successively to Infanterie-Regiment Nr.

[2] Three weeks before the first nationwide anti-Jewish boycott began in 1933, Hellmuth had already forced the closing of Jewish-owned stores and offices in Würzburg.

On 1 July 1934, he became Regierungspräsident (Government President) of Unterfranken, thus uniting under his control the highest party and governmental offices in his jurisdiction.

However, on 9 November 1939, he was made an Obergruppenführer in the National Socialist Motor Corps (Nationalsozialistisches Kraftfahrerkorps or NSKK).

[6] In 1936 he acquired the house of a Jewish pharmacist as his private residence by compelling the city to purchase it far below its market value.

[5] When the Gaufrauenschaftsleiterin of Mainfranken paid Passau a formal visit, with a delegation of activists, Margarethe Schneider-Reichel presented them with a painting of Hellmuth.

[8] During a visit to the Werneck sanatorium and nursing home on 23 September 1940, Hellmuth demanded its immediate evacuation and confiscation.