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FRANZ SCHWEDE Rare signed photo
(1888 – 1960) Nazi German politician, Lord Mayor of Coburg and Gauleiter of Pomerania, tried and convicted of war crimes in 1948. An early supporter of Adolf Hitler, Schwede used intimidation and propaganda to help elect the first Nazi-majority local government in Germany. Fine 3.5 x 5.5 in. b/w, a chest-up view of Schwede wearing his Iron Cross and NSDAP armband, signed at lower-right in black ink. Schwede also adds an inscription in German on the verso, largely untranslated, but mentions a labor camp, the location ‘Kochel’, and the date ’24.VII.33′. Fine condition.

On 13 May 1945, Schwede was captured by the British Army and once again ended up in custody as a prisoner of war. Interned until 1947, he underwent denazification procedures. He was tried for war crimes in a Bielefeld court and on 25 November 1948 sentenced to nine years in prison for membership in the SA-Führerkorps. On 7 April 1951 a court in Coburg sentenced him to another ten years’ imprisonment on 52 counts of abuse of power and grievous bodily harm that he participated in during the terrors of March, 1933. His sentence was commuted to probation on 24 January 1956 on grounds of ill health and he died four years later at the age of 72 in Coburg