Peter von Heydebreck

Hans-Adam Otto von Heydebreck, commonly known as Peter von Heydebreck (1 July 1889, in Köslin – 30 June 1934, in Stadelheim Prison) was a German Freikorps- and SA leader, member of the Reichstag and a Nazi. Heydebreck served as an officer in the German Army in World War I. During the German revolution of November 1918, he founded the Freikorps named after him.

During the Third Silesian Uprising in 1921, his troops were foremost in the reconquest of the low mountain at the centre of the Battle of Annaberg, gaining for Von Heydebreck the epithet "the Hero of Annaberg".

Heydebreck was a member of the Second Reichstag from May to December 1924 as a member of the far-right German Völkish Freedom Party. After Hitler came to power, Heydebreck, who had since switched to the NSDAP, was again a member of the Reichstag as a successor from November 1933 until his murder. In 1925 he founded the SA in Silesia from various Freikorps and from 1933 took over the leadership of the SA in Pomerania. On March 16, 1934, the Upper Silesian town of Kędzierzyn-Koźle was renamed Heydebreck O.S. after him.

Heydebreck made a career for himself in the Nazi Party, but, during the Night of the Long Knives in June 1934, he was brought to Stadelheim Prison and was executed with five other SA men by an SS firing squad, becoming one of the victims of the Night of the Long Knives. The Nazis did not rename the town which was named after him. In 1957, Sepp Dietrich was sentenced to 18 months in prison for convening the firing squad that executed Heydebreck and the others.

External links

• Peter von Heydebreck in the German National Library catalogue
• Porträt und Biographie im Handbuch des Reichstages
• Peter von Heydebreck in den Akten der Reichskanzlei