Karl Holz was the NSDAP Gauleiter

Gauleiter

A Gauleiter was the party leader of a regional branch of the NSDAP or the head of a Gau or of a Reichsgau.-Creation and Early Usage:...

 of Gau Franconia

Gau Franconia

Gau Franconia , was an administrative division of Nazi Germany in Middle Franconia, Bavaria from 1933 to 1945. Previous to that, since 1926, it was the regional subdivision of the Nazi Party in this region.-History:...

 and an SA

Sturmabteilung

The Sturmabteilung functioned as a paramilitary organization of the National Socialist German Workers' Party . It played a key role in Adolf Hitler's rise to power in the 1920s and 1930s...

 Gruppenführer

Gruppenführer

Gruppenführer was an early paramilitary rank of the Nazi Party, first created in 1925 as a senior rank of the SA.-SS rank:...

.

He was the fifth child born to a heliographer

Nicéphore Niépce

Nicéphore Niépce March 7, 1765 – July 5, 1833) was a French inventor, most noted as one of the inventors of photography and a pioneer in the field.He is most noted for producing the world's first known photograph in 1825...

 also named Karl Holz and finished Volksschule

Volksschule

A Volksschule was an 18th century system of state-supported primary schools established in the Habsburg Austrian Empire and Prussia . Attendance was supposedly compulsory, but a 1781 census reveals that only one fourth of school-age children attended. At the time, this was one of the few examples...

and an apprenticeship

Apprenticeship

Apprenticeship is a system of training a new generation of practitioners of a skill. Apprentices or protégés build their careers from apprenticeships...

 as a sales

Sales

A sale is the act of selling a product or service in return for money or other compensation. It is an act of completion of a commercial activity....

man, working thereafter as a clerk.

Between 1915 and 1918 he served at the front in the First World War for the German Empire

German Empire

The German Empire refers to Germany during the "Second Reich" period from the unification of Germany and proclamation of Wilhelm I as German Emperor on 18 January 1871, to 1918, when it became a federal republic after defeat in World War I and the abdication of the Emperor, Wilhelm II.The German...

, suffering several wounds in the process. He took a job afterwards as an official in Nuremberg. In 1920 he joined the German Socialist Party (Deutschsozialistische Partei). Once its chairman Julius Streicher

Julius Streicher

Julius Streicher was a prominent Nazi prior to World War II. He was the founder and publisher of Der Stürmer newspaper, which became a central element of the Nazi propaganda machine...

 had gone over to the Nazis in 1922, the party was melded into the NSDAP. Holz's membership number was 77 and he officially joined the Nazis on 11 November 1922. Holz joined the Sturmabteilung and stayed until 1933 with the rank of Sturmführer

Sturmführer

Sturmführer was a paramilitary rank of the Nazi Party which began as a title used by the Sturmabteilung in 1925 and became an actual SA rank in 1928...

.

Quite early on, Holz established a close relationship with Streicher.

In 1924, Holz was elected to Nuremberg City Council, which he quit only the next year. Between 1927 and 1933, he held the post of editor

Editing

Editing is the process of selecting and preparing written, visual, audible, and film media used to convey information through the processes of correction, condensation, organization, and other modifications performed with an intention of producing a correct, consistent, accurate, and complete...

-in-chief of Der Stürmer

Der Stürmer

Der Stürmer was a weekly tabloid-format Nazi newspaper published by Julius Streicher from 1923 to the end of World War II in 1945, with brief suspensions in publication due to legal difficulties. It was a significant part of the Nazi propaganda machinery and was vehemently anti-Semitic...

, Streicher's anti-Semitic

Anti-Semitism

Antisemitism is suspicion of, hatred toward, or discrimination against Jews for reasons connected to their Jewish heritage. According to a 2005 U.S...

 weekly newspaper

Newspaper

A newspaper is a scheduled publication containing news of current events, informative articles, diverse features and advertising. It usually is printed on relatively inexpensive, low-grade paper such as newsprint. By 2007, there were 6580 daily newspapers in the world selling 395 million copies a...

. In 1933 he was given the position of ministerial adviser.

As of 1 January 1934, Karl Holz operated as Streicher's representative in his capacity as Gauleiter of Franconia. In July of the same year, he was appointed NSDAP Kreis leader of Nuremberg-town, and in November came his promotion to SA Brigadeführer

Brigadeführer

SS-Brigadeführer was an SS rank that was used in Nazi Germany between the years of 1932 and 1945. Brigadeführer was also an SA rank....

.

In 1940, in connection with the Streicher irregularities involving the Aryanization

Aryanization

Aryanization is a term coined during Nazism referring to the forced expulsion of so-called "non-Aryans", mainly Jews, from business life in Nazi Germany and the territories it controlled....

 of Jewish assets, Holz was temporarily stripped of all his offices. Appointed Reich Defence Commissar of Franconia as of November 1942, he was furthermore assigned the Gau leadership on 8 March 1943. Although Streicher was still Gauleiter, Adolf Hitler

Adolf Hitler

Adolf Hitler was an Austrian-born German politician and the leader of the National Socialist German Workers Party , commonly referred to as the Nazi Party). He was Chancellor of Germany from 1933 to 1945, and head of state from 1934 to 1945...

 appointed Holz as such in November 1944, shortly before the war's end.

After United States

United States

The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

 troops of the 3d Infantry Division

U.S. 3d Infantry Division

The 3rd Infantry Division is a United States Army infantry division based at Fort Stewart, Georgia. It is a direct subordinate unit of the XVIII Airborne Corps and U.S. Army Forces Command...

 had all but taken Nuremberg on 18 April 1945, Holz barricaded himself in the Palmenhofbunker at the Nuremberg Police Presidium along with a small group, among whom was the city's mayor, Willy Liebel. It has been assumed that Holz shot Liebel in the Palmenhofbunker owing to the latter's efforts to surrender the city to put a stop to the fighting, and also because there had been a rivalry between the two men for years over who should have the power within the local Nuremberg NSDAP. Holz met his own end in the same place on 20 April – coincidentally Hitler's birthday – but whether it was suicide

Suicide

Suicide is the act of intentionally causing one's own death. Suicide is often committed out of despair or attributed to some underlying mental disorder, such as depression, bipolar disorder, schizophrenia, alcoholism, or drug abuse...

 or an injury sustained in the battle is unknown.

Every bit as unsqueamish as his predecessor as Gauleiter, Julius Streicher, Holz boasted many penalties for political crimes (by his own count 17, and among those 5 prison sentences). With his aggressive way of doing things, even dissenters within the party had to suffer with the knowledge that Holz, as a party man and as Streicher's pupil, had partly taken over from his master. The Gauleiter's office in Upper Franconia

Upper Franconia

Upper Franconia is a Regierungsbezirk of the state of Bavaria, southern Germany. It forms part of the historically significant region of Franconia , all now part of the German Federal State of Bayern .With more than 200 independent breweries which brew...

, which was already much striven-after even before the Nazis seized power

Machtergreifung

Machtergreifung is a German word meaning "seizure of power". It is normally used specifically to refer to the Nazi takeover of power in the democratic Weimar Republic on 30 January 1933, the day Hitler was sworn in as Chancellor of Germany, turning it into the Nazi German dictatorship.-Term:The...

, was successfully disputed by the Bayreuth Kreisleiter Hans Schemm

Hans Schemm

Hans Schemm was a Gauleiter in Nazi Germany.-Life:Schemm, whose parents ran a shoemaker's shop, first went to a Volksschule for five years and then as of 1905 a teaching seminary. In 1915 he got married; in 1917 a son was born...

, despite Streicher's support for Holz.

Awards

Karl Holz received the following awards:

• Verwundetenabzeichen (Wound Badge
  Wound Badge
  Wound Badge was a German military award for wounded or frost-bitten soldiers of Imperial German Army in World War I, the Reichswehr between the wars, and the Wehrmacht, SS and the auxiliary service organizations during the Second World War. After March 1943, due to the increasing number of Allied...
  
  ) in 1918;
• Verwundetenabzeichen in 1939, in gold 1940;
• Iron Cross
  Iron Cross
  The Iron Cross is a cross symbol typically in black with a white or silver outline that originated after 1219 when the Kingdom of Jerusalem granted the Teutonic Order the right to combine the Teutonic Black Cross placed above a silver Cross of Jerusalem....
  
  , second class in 1939;
• Ehrenkreuz für Frontkämpfer (Nazi medal for World War I veterans);
• Golden Party Badge;
• Dienstauszeichnung der NSDAP in Gold (Service Award of the NSDAP in Gold).
• The Golden Cross of the German Order
  German Order (decoration)
  The German Order was the most important award that the Nazi Party could bestow on an individual for "duties of the highest order to the state and party". This award was first made by Adolf Hitler posthumously to Reichsminister Fritz Todt at his funeral in February, 1942...
  
  on 19 April 1945 (the day before his death), bestowed by Hitler for his role in Nuremberg's defence against the US Army;