Hermann Bartels (14 April 1900 – 13 January 1989) was a German architect and member of the Nazi Party and the Schutzstaffel (SS).
Career as an architect for the Nazi Party Bartels was personally close to Heinrich Himmler, who put Bartels to work on rebuilding castles, and as such the Reichsführer-SS gave Bartels the rank of SS-Standartenführer in June 1942. In this capacity it was Bartels who redesigned the Wewelsburg castle as both the SS school and host of meetings of the leadership.Jonathan Petropoulos, Art As Politics in the Third Reich, UNC Press Books, 1999, p. 172 Bartels was attached to the Wewelsburg Office, headed by Standartenführer Siegfried Albert Taubert, from 1934 to 1937.Heinz Höhne, The Order of the Death's Head: The Story of Hitler's SS, Penguin Books, 2000, p. 153 Bartels designs made liberal use of the Black Sun occult symbol, specifically on the floor of the Marble Hall and as such helped to promote its later use by neo-Nazis and Nazi mystics.Avner Falk, Anti-semitism: A History and Psychoanalysis of Contemporary Hatred, ABC-CLIO, 2008, p. 141 He also redesigned the official residence of Joseph Goebbels after the propaganda minister had declared himself unsatisfied with the original plans designed by Albert Speer.Viktor Reimann (translated by Stephen Wendt), The Man Who Created Hitler: Joseph Goebbels, William Kimber, 1977, p. 222
Bartels also filled the role of Gaukulturwart (Districy cultural leader) in Münster demonstrating a keen interest in environmental conservation at this post.Frank Uekötter, The Green and the Brown: A History of Conservation in Nazi Germany, Cambridge University Press, 2006, p. 75
References