Heinrich Lammers

Hans Heinrich Lammers was born in Lublinitz, Upper Silesia. Between 1933 and 1945, Lammers served as Chief of the Reich Chancellery under Adolf Hitler, who considered him his closest legal advisor. From January 1943 onwards, Lammers presided over cabinet meetings in Hitler’s absence.  Although Lammers had no direct involvement in the Schloss case, he issued a Führervorbehalt (Hitler’s prerogative) on 18 June 1938 that granted Hitler the right to select works for his planned Führermuseum in Linz from among those that had been seized and confiscated on orders from his subordinates. During the 1948-1949 Ministries Trial, Lammers was found guilty of war crimes and crimes against humanity and sentenced to a prison term of 20 years. The United States High Commissioners eventually halved his sentence; after another reduction, Lammers was released from the Landsberg prison on 16 December 1951. He died in Düsseldorf 11 years later.

Literature: Koop, Volker. Hans-Heinrich Lammers: Der Chef von Hitlers Reichskanzlei. Dietz, 2017. Brückler, Theodor (ed.). Kunstraub, Kunstbergung und Restitution in Österreich 1938 bis heute. Böhlau, 1999. Wistrich, Robert. Who’s Who in Nazi Germany. Taylor & Francis, 2013, p. 149.