Paul Schulz

Paul Schulz (5 February 1898 – 31 August 1963) was a German military officer and Nazi Party official perhaps best known as a leader of the Black Reichswehr in the 1920s.

This was a paramilitary organization in the Weimar Republic that was used to provide additional manpower reserves for the Reichswehr in violation of the Versailles Treaty.

At the end of 1922, Schulz moved to the Wehrkreis (Military District) III in Berlin, where he set up other work groups for the Black Reichswehr.

Brought to trial, he was sentenced to death on 26 March 1927 for inciting the murder of Black Reichswehr Sergeant Walter Wilms.

Schulz brought the mutinous Berlin SA again under control of the party leadership and left the post at the end of May.

Returning to Strasser's organization, he was made head of the department (Arbeitsdienstpflichtamt) charged with setting up the Party's prototype labor service system in October 1931.

With his numerous contacts in the army, civil service and industry, he often served as Strasser's intermediary to influential people outside the Party, including General Kurt von Schleicher and Chancellor Heinrich Brüning.

In the summer of 1932 Strasser initiated a series of organizational reforms to consolidate and centralize the Party structure by imposing an additional layer of supervision on the Gauleiters.

When the assassins turned away to fetch a tarpaulin to remove of the body, Schulz fled into the forest and managed to escape.

For the next few days he stayed with a friend who, acting as an intermediary, obtained a guarantee of protection from Hitler in exchange for Schulz leaving Germany.