German Criminals

Rank the Most Wicked German Criminals

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 1 
Josef Mengele
(German Physician Known for His Atrocities at the Auschwitz II Concentration Camp)
Josef Mengele
106
Birthdate: March 16, 1911
Sun Sign: Pisces
Birthplace: Bavaria, Germany
Died: February 7, 1979

Known as Angel of Death, Dr. Josef Mengele was the chief doctor of Auschwitz concentration camp and was responsible for killing thousands of Jews as well as torturing the prisoners mercilessly and conducting inhuman experiments on them. These included injecting them with chemicals and stitching twin children together. Despite his horrible crimes, the infamous Nazi doctor could never be captured.

 2 
Adolf Eichmann
(German Military Official and One of the Major Organisers of the Holocaust)
Adolf Eichmann
88
Birthdate: March 19, 1906
Sun Sign: Pisces
Birthplace: Solingen, Germany
Died: June 1, 1962
Adolf Eichmann was a Nazi lieutenant colonel and one of the chief organizers of the Holocaust, that involved mass deportation and murder of Jews. In 1962, Eichmann was captured by the Mossad in Argentina and was then taken to Israel. He was eventually tried and hanged for crimes against humanity.
 3 
Irma Grese
(Nazi Concentration Camp Guard at Ravensbrück & Auschwitz Who Served as Warden of Bergen-Belsen)
Irma Grese
33
Birthdate: October 7, 1923
Sun Sign: Libra
Birthplace: Feldberger Seenlandschaft, Germany
Died: December 13, 1945

Irma Grese, or the Hyena of Auschwitz, served as an SS guard at the Nazi concentration camps of Auschwitz and Ravensbrück. She was also the warden of the ladies’ section of the Bergen-Belsen camp and ended up being convicted of torture and murder of prisoners. She was executed at 22.

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 4 
Klaus Barbie
(Nazi Leader)
Klaus Barbie
20
Birthdate: October 25, 1913
Sun Sign: Scorpio
Birthplace: Bad Godesberg
Died: 1991 AD

Klaus Barbie was a Gestapo and SS official during the Nazi era. Dubbed the Butcher of Lyon, Barbie was known for having tortured prisoners of the Gestapo while stationed in Lyon, France. It is also believed that he played a major role in the execution of Che Guevara. Barbie's life and work inspired the 2007 documentary film My Enemy's Enemy.

 5 
Ilse Koch
(German War Criminal Who Became One of the First Prominent Nazis Tried by the U.S. Military)
Ilse Koch
21
Birthdate: September 22, 1906
Sun Sign: Virgo
Birthplace: Dresden, Germany
Died: September 1, 1967
Ilse Koch was the wife of Karl-Otto Koch, the Nazi commandant of the Buchenwald and Majdanek concentration camps. Also known as Beast of Buchenwald, The Bitch of Buchenwald, and Butcher Widow, she was tried by the U.S. military for her sadistic abuse of war prisoners. She died of suicide.
 6 
Oskar Dirlewanger
(War Criminal)
Oskar Dirlewanger
12
Birthdate: September 26, 1895
Sun Sign: Libra
Birthplace: Würzburg, Germany
Died: June 7, 1945
German military officer Oskar Dirlewanger established and led the Nazi SS penal unit Dirlewanger during World War II. He had also participated in World War I and the Spanish Civil War, winning the Iron Cross 2nd Class and 1st Class. He died in Allied custody at the Altshausen prison camp.
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 7 
Willi Herold
(Military personnel)
Willi Herold
23
Birthdate: September 11, 1925
Sun Sign: Virgo
Birthplace: Chemnitz, Germany
Died: November 14, 1946
 8 
Alfred Jodl
(Chief of the Operations Staff of the German Armed Forces High Command (1939 - 1945))
Alfred Jodl
14
Birthdate: May 10, 1890
Sun Sign: Taurus
Birthplace: Würzburg, Germany
Died: October 16, 1946

Alfred Jodl was a German colonel-general who played an important role throughout World War II by serving as Chief of the Operations Staff of a German Armed Forces High Command called the Oberkommando der Wehrmacht. After the war, Jodl was tried at the Nuremberg trials and was found guilty on charges, such as crimes against humanity and war crimes.

 9 
Armin Meiwes
(German Convicted Murderer)
Armin Meiwes
16
Birthdate: December 1, 1961
Sun Sign: Sagittarius
Birthplace: Essen, Germany
Armin Meiwes, also known as "The Master Butcher," was a computer repair man who killed and ate engineer Jürgen Armando Brandes, who had voluntarily offered himself to be eaten, in response to an advertisement on an online cannibalism-oriented forum. Armin is now serving a life sentence for murder.
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 10 
Herschel Grynszpan
8
Birthdate: March 28, 1921
Sun Sign: Aries
Birthplace: Hanover
Died: May 8, 1960

Herschel Grynszpan was a German Jew best remembered for assassinating a German diplomat named Ernst vom Rath to avenge the persecuted Jews. Rath's assassination had a huge impact on the Jews as the Nazis cited his murder as justification for their planned antisemitic pogroms against the Jews in Germany. Herschel Grynszpan disappeared in 1944 and was declared dead in 1960.

 11 
Dorothea Binz
(Officer)
Dorothea Binz
8
Birthdate: March 16, 1920
Sun Sign: Pisces
Birthplace: Templin, Germany
Died: May 2, 1947
 12 
Greta Bösel
(Nurse)
Greta Bösel
1
Birthdate: May 9, 1908
Sun Sign: Taurus
Birthplace: Wuppertal, Germany
Died: May 3, 1947
 13 
Fritz Haarmann
(Serial killer)
Fritz Haarmann
12
Birthdate: October 25, 1879
Sun Sign: Scorpio
Birthplace: Hanover, Germany
Died: April 15, 1925
 14 
Hildegard Lächert
(Nurse)
Hildegard Lächert
5
Birthdate: January 20, 1920
Sun Sign: Aquarius
Birthplace: Berlin, Germany
Died: 1995 AD
 15 
Elisabeth Becker
(Guard)
Elisabeth Becker
4
Birthdate: July 20, 1923
Sun Sign: Cancer
Birthplace: Nowy Staw, Poland
Died: July 4, 1946
 16 
Oskar Groening
(War Criminal)
Oskar Groening
14
Birthdate: June 10, 1921
Sun Sign: Gemini
Birthplace: Nienburg, Lower Saxony, Germany
Died: March 9, 2018

Oskar Groening was a German SS Unterscharführer at the Auschwitz concentration camp. He was in charge of counting and sorting the money retrieved from the prisoners arriving at the camp. At the end of the war, he surrendered to the British and was transferred to Britain as a prisoner of war. Years later, he was named a war criminal.

 17 
Gerda Steinhoff
(Guard)
Gerda Steinhoff
4
Birthdate: January 29, 1922
Sun Sign: Aquarius
Birthplace: Wrzeszcz, Gdańsk, Poland
Died: July 4, 1946
 18 
Paul Blobel
(Military leader, Criminal)
Paul Blobel
1
Birthdate: August 13, 1894
Sun Sign: Leo
Birthplace: Potsdam, Germany
Died: June 7, 1951
 19 
Gudrun Ensslin
(Far-left terrorist and founder of the West German far-left militant group Red Army Faction)
Gudrun Ensslin
3
Birthdate: August 15, 1940
Sun Sign: Leo
Birthplace: Bartholomä, Germany
Died: October 18, 1977
 20 
Irmgard Möller
(Terrorist)
Irmgard Möller
2
Birthdate: May 13, 1947
Sun Sign: Taurus
Birthplace: Bielefeld, Germany
 21 
Said Bahaji
(Alleged member of the Hamburg cell that provided money and material support to the perpetrators of the September 11 attacks)
Said Bahaji
0
Birthdate: July 15, 1975
Sun Sign: Cancer
Birthplace: Haselünne, Germany
Died: August 31, 2013
 22 
Brigitte Mohnhaupt
(Criminal)
Brigitte Mohnhaupt
5
Birthdate: June 24, 1949
Sun Sign: Cancer
Birthplace: Rheinberg, Germany
 23 
Ludolf von Alvensleben
(SS functionary and Police Leader)
Ludolf von Alvensleben
3
Birthdate: March 17, 1901
Sun Sign: Pisces
Birthplace: Halle, Germany
Died: April 1, 1970
 24 
Fritz Klein
(Military physician, War criminal)
Fritz Klein
2
Birthdate: November 24, 1888
Sun Sign: Sagittarius
Birthplace: Codlea, Romania
Died: December 13, 1945
 25 
Martin Gottfried Weiss
(Military personnel)
Martin Gottfried Weiss
2
Birthdate: June 3, 1905
Sun Sign: Gemini
Birthplace: Weiden, Germany
Died: May 29, 1946
 26 
Friedrich Flick
(Industrialist)
Friedrich Flick
1
Birthdate: July 10, 1883
Sun Sign: Cancer
Birthplace: Germany
Died: July 20, 1972
 27 
Wanda Klaff
(Camp guards)
Wanda Klaff
4
Birthdate: March 6, 1922
Sun Sign: Pisces
Birthplace: Danzig, Free City of Danzig
Died: July 4, 1946
 28 
Heinz Lammerding
(German SS Officer Convicted of War Crimes During World War II)
Heinz Lammerding
2
Birthdate: August 27, 1905
Sun Sign: Virgo
Birthplace: Dortmund, Germany
Died: January 13, 1971
 29 
Adelheid Schulz
(Criminal)
Adelheid Schulz
3
Birthdate: March 31, 1955
Sun Sign: Aries
Birthplace: Lörrach, Germany
 30 
Jenny-Wanda Barkmann
(Guard)
Jenny-Wanda Barkmann
5
Birthdate: May 30, 1922
Sun Sign: Gemini
Birthplace: Hamburg, Germany
Died: July 4, 1946
 31 
Reinhard Heydrich
(Nazi Official)
Reinhard Heydrich
45
Birthdate: March 7, 1904
Sun Sign: Pisces
Birthplace: Halle
Died: June 4, 1942

Reinhard Heydrich was a Nazi police officer and a high-ranking SS. Heydrich is widely regarded as one of the main architects of the Holocaust, a World War II genocide that killed some six million Jews. Described by Adolf Hitler as the man with the iron heart, Heydrich is regarded as the darkest figure of the Nazi era by many historians.

 32 
Otto von Pack
(Conspirator)
Otto von Pack
0
Birthdate: 1480 AD
Birthplace: Germany
Died: February 8, 1537
 33 
Helmut Oberlander
(War criminals)
Helmut Oberlander
3
Birthdate: February 15, 1924
Sun Sign: Aquarius
Birthplace: Molotschna, Ukraine
 34 
Rudolf Brandt
(Lawyer)
Rudolf Brandt
1
Birthdate: June 2, 1909
Sun Sign: Gemini
Birthplace: Frankfurt an der Oder, Germany
Died: June 2, 1948
 35 
Curveball
(Defense Intelligence Agency cryptonym)
Curveball
0
Birthdate: 1968 AD
Birthplace: Iraq
 36 
Peter Kürten
(Serial killer)
Peter Kürten
8
Birthdate: May 26, 1883
Sun Sign: Gemini
Birthplace: Cologne, Germany
Died: July 2, 1931
 37 
Martin Bormann
(Private Secretary of Adolf Hitler)
Martin Bormann
36
Birthdate: June 17, 1900
Sun Sign: Gemini
Birthplace: Wegeleben, Germany
Died: May 2, 1945

Martin Bormann was a Nazi Party official. Bormann headed the Nazi Party Chancellery, and gained immense power after he was accepted into Adolf Hitler's inner circle. In 1935, he became Hitler's personal secretary and served as the minister of the Nazi Party after Hitler's suicide in 1945.

 38 
Erich Naumann
(War crimal, Police officer)
Erich Naumann
3
Birthdate: April 29, 1905
Sun Sign: Taurus
Birthplace: Meissen, Germany
Died: June 7, 1951
 39 
Rudolf Höss
(German Nazi Commandant and Longest-Serving Commandant of Auschwitz Concentration and Extermination Camp)
Rudolf Höss
22
Birthdate: November 25, 1901
Sun Sign: Sagittarius
Birthplace: Baden-Baden, Germany
Died: April 16, 1947

Rudolf Höss was a German SS officer who was convicted of war crimes after the defeat of Nazi Germany. The longest-serving commandant of the Auschwitz extermination camp, Höss implemented means to accelerate the Final Solution, a Nazi plan for the genocide of Jews. Upon his order, pesticide Zyklon B was used in gas chambers, killing millions of people.

 40 
Wilhelm Keitel
(Chief of the German Armed Forces High Command (1938 - 1945))
Wilhelm Keitel
11
Birthdate: September 22, 1882
Sun Sign: Virgo
Birthplace: Helmscherode, Bad Gandersheim, Germany
Died: October 16, 1946

Wilhelm Keitel was a German field marshal. As the chief of the Armed Forces High Command, Keitel was Nazi Germany Armed Forces' highest-ranking officer during World War II. Wilhelm Keitel was responsible for the loss of many lives as he signed several criminal orders. After the war, he was indicted as one of the war criminals and sentenced to death.

 41 
Ernst Röhm
(Nazi War Criminal)
Ernst Röhm
24
Birthdate: November 28, 1887
Sun Sign: Sagittarius
Birthplace: Munich, Germany
Died: July 1, 1934

Regarded by Hitler as a potential rival, Röhm was murdered at the Führer’s order. Ernst Röhm was a prominent German military officer and an early member of the Nazi Party. He was wounded thrice in World War I and was briefly imprisoned for his part in the Beer Hall Putsch. 

 42 
Herta Ehlert
(Camp guard)
Herta Ehlert
8
Birthdate: March 26, 1905
Sun Sign: Aries
Birthplace: Berlin, Germany
Died: April 4, 1997
 43 
Birgit Hogefeld
(Red Army Faction)
Birgit Hogefeld
4
Birthdate: July 27, 1956
Sun Sign: Leo
Birthplace: Wiesbaden, Germany
 44 
Mounir el-Motassadeq
(Member of al-Qaeda and of assisting some of the hijackers in the September 11 attacks)
Mounir el-Motassadeq
0
Birthdate: April 3, 1974
Sun Sign: Aries
Birthplace: Marrakesh, Morocco
 45 
Adam Worth
(art thief)
Adam Worth
1
Birthdate: 1844 AD
Birthplace: Kingdom of Prussia
Died: January 8, 1902

Adam Worth was a German-born American thief whose short stature earned him the nickname Napoleon of the criminal world. It is widely believed that he was the inspiration behind Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's character Professor James Moriarty. In the 1976 period comedy film Harry and Walter Go to New York, Adam Worth was portrayed by English actor Sir Michael Caine.

 46 
Juana Bormann
(Prison guard at several Nazi concentration camps from 1938)
Juana Bormann
3
Birthdate: September 10, 1893
Sun Sign: Virgo
Birthplace: Birkenfelde, German Empire
Died: December 13, 1945
 47 
Wilhelm Ruppert
(Guard)
Wilhelm Ruppert
4
Birthdate: February 2, 1905
Sun Sign: Aquarius
Birthplace: Frankenthal, Germany
Died: May 29, 1946
 48 
Albert Kesselring
(War Criminal)
Albert Kesselring
13
Birthdate: November 30, 1885
Sun Sign: Sagittarius
Birthplace: Marktsteft, Kingdom of Bavaria, Germany
Died: July 16, 1960
One of Hitler’s most reliable strategists during World War II, Albert Kesselring was a loyal Luftwaffe general. His exploits include operations in Poland, France, and Britain. Following the Nuremberg trials, he was sentenced to death, but the sentence was later commuted. He was released after being diagnosed with throat cancer. 
 49 
Paul Schäfer
(Nazi, Child Rapist, and the Founder & Leader of a Sect Called 'Colonia Dignidad')
Paul Schäfer
6
Birthdate: December 4, 1921
Sun Sign: Sagittarius
Birthplace: Troisdorf, Germany
Died: April 24, 2010

Paul Schäfer Schneide was a Nazi era German colonel, who at the end of WWII founded an orphanage in West Germany. Charged with child molestation, he fled to Chile, where he established an isolated colony. But charged with child abuse, he had to flee once more before being arrested and convicted on twenty-five counts. He died while serving his term.

 50 
Herbert Kappler
(Key German SS Functionary Responsible for the Ardeatine Massacre)
Herbert Kappler
3
Birthdate: September 23, 1907
Sun Sign: Libra
Birthplace: Stuttgart, Germany
Died: February 9, 1978

Herbert Kappler was a German SS official who served in the Nazi regime. As the head of German police in Rome, Kappler was responsible for the Fosse Ardeatine massacre, which killed 335 civilians and political prisoners. The massacre inspired a film titled Massacre in Rome, where Kappler was played by Richard Burton. Kappler was convicted and sentenced to life imprisonment.

 51 
Heinz Jost
(German SS Official)
Heinz Jost
1
Birthdate: July 9, 1904
Sun Sign: Cancer
Birthplace: Homberg (Efze)
Died: November 12, 1964
 52 
Denis Cuspert
(German Rapper-turned-Terrorist)
Denis Cuspert
3
Birthdate: October 18, 1975
Sun Sign: Libra
Birthplace: Berlin, Germany
Died: January 17, 2018
 53 
Beate Zschape
(Terrorist)
Beate Zschape
2
Birthdate: January 2, 1975
Sun Sign: Capricorn
Birthplace: Jena, East Germany
Height: 5'5" (165 cm)
 54 
Viktor Brack
(Member of the Schutzstaffel and a Convicted Nazi War Criminal)
Viktor Brack
5
Birthdate: November 9, 1904
Sun Sign: Scorpio
Birthplace: Haaren, Aachen, Germany
Died: June 2, 1948

One of the leaders of the Action T4 euthanasia plan that exterminated the physically and mentally disabled, Nazi Party member Viktor Brack also specialized in child euthanasia. He was also chosen to plan a sterilization drive for physically fit Jews. He was eventually hanged for his war crimes.

 55 
Jens Söring
(Author)
Jens Söring
3
Birthdate: August 1, 1966
Sun Sign: Leo
Birthplace: Bangkok, Thailand
 56 
Alfried Krupp von Bohlen und Halbach
(Industrialist)
Alfried Krupp von Bohlen und Halbach
3
Birthdate: August 13, 1907
Sun Sign: Leo
Birthplace: Essen, Germany
Died: July 30, 1967
 57 
Fritz Sauckel
(Politician)
Fritz Sauckel
4
Birthdate: October 27, 1894
Sun Sign: Scorpio
Birthplace: Haßfurt, Germany
Died: October 16, 1946
 58 
Otto Ohlendorf
(German SS Functionary and Holocaust Perpetrator During the Nazi Era)
Otto Ohlendorf
5
Birthdate: February 4, 1907
Sun Sign: Aquarius
Birthplace: Hoheneggelsen, Söhlde, Germany
Died: June 7, 1951

Otto Ohlendorf was a German SS official who played an important role in carrying out the Holocaust in the Nazi regime. As the commander of Einsatzgruppen, Nazi Germany's paramilitary death squads, Otto Ohlendorf was responsible for mass murder in south Ukraine, Moldova, the Crimea, and the North Caucasus. He was tried for crimes against humanity and executed in 1951.

 59 
Andreas Baader
(Co-Founder and Leader of the Red Army Faction (RAF))
Andreas Baader
5
Birthdate: May 6, 1943
Sun Sign: Taurus
Birthplace: Munich, Germany
Died: October 18, 1977

Andreas Baader is remembered as a co-founder of the West German military organization Red Army Faction (RAF). Initially a bohemian, he did not attend university and worked as a construction worker and journalist before joining the left-wing guerrilla movement. Following his suicide, his brain was removed for study by the German government.

 60 
Linda Wenzel
(Member for the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant)
Linda Wenzel
4
Birthdate: December 19, 2001
Sun Sign: Sagittarius
Birthplace: Saxony, Germany
 61 
Christine Schürrer
(Criminal)
Christine Schürrer
1
Birthdate: June 30, 1976
Sun Sign: Cancer
Birthplace: Hanover, Lower Saxony, Germany
 62 
Herta Bothe
(Concentration camp guard during World War II)
Herta Bothe
10
Birthdate: January 3, 1921
Sun Sign: Capricorn
Birthplace: Teterow, Germany
Died: March 16, 2000
 63 
Stefan Baretzki
(Known for SS guard at Auschwitz)
Stefan Baretzki
3
Birthdate: March 24, 1919
Sun Sign: Aries
Birthplace: Chernivtsi, Ukraine
Died: June 21, 1988
 64 
Joachim Kroll
(German Criminal and Serial Killer)
Joachim Kroll
5
Birthdate: April 17, 1933
Sun Sign: Aries
Birthplace: Zabrze, Poland
Died: July 1, 1991
 65 
Karl Gebhardt
(German Medical Doctor and War Criminal During World War II)
Karl Gebhardt
8
Birthdate: November 23, 1897
Sun Sign: Sagittarius
Birthplace: Haag in Oberbayern, Germany
Died: June 2, 1948

Initially a professor of sports medicine, Karl Gebhardt later joined the Nazi camp. He had headed the German Red Cross and also developed sports for the physically disabled. After being accused of failing to treat Reinhard Heydrich, he conducted deadly experiments on concentration camp inmates to prove his innocence.

 66 
Dieter Wisliceny
(Military leader)
Dieter Wisliceny
5
Birthdate: January 13, 1911
Sun Sign: Capricorn
Birthplace: Możdżany, Poland
Died: May 4, 1948
 67 
Erich Muhsfeldt
(War criminal)
Erich Muhsfeldt
2
Birthdate: February 18, 1913
Sun Sign: Aquarius
Birthplace: Hennigsdorf, Germany
Died: January 24, 1948
 68 
Karl Eberhard Schöngarth
(Military personnel)
Karl Eberhard Schöngarth
4
Birthdate: April 22, 1903
Sun Sign: Taurus
Birthplace: Leipzig, Germany
Died: May 16, 1946
 69 
Werner Braune
(Nazi official)
Werner Braune
2
Birthdate: April 11, 1909
Sun Sign: Aries
Birthplace: Schlotheim, Nottertal-Heilinger Heights, Germany
Died: June 7, 1951
 70 
Gesche Gottfried
(Murderer)
Gesche Gottfried
14
Birthdate: March 6, 1785
Sun Sign: Pisces
Birthplace: Bremen, Germany
Died: April 21, 1831
 71 
Volker Eckert
(German Serial Killer)
Volker Eckert
11
Birthdate: July 1, 1959
Sun Sign: Cancer
Birthplace: Plauen, Germany
Died: July 2, 2007

Volker Eckert was a German serial killer who murdered at least six women in Spain, France, and East Germany between 1974 and 2006. Although he confessed to only six murders, Eckert is believed to have murdered many other women in countries like the Czech Republic and Italy. He committed suicide on July 2, 2007, during his criminal proceedings.

 72 
Bruno Lüdke
(Serial Killer)
Bruno Lüdke
9
Birthdate: April 3, 1908
Sun Sign: Aries
Birthplace: Germany
Died: April 8, 1944
 73 
Beate Schmidt
(Serial killer)
Beate Schmidt
16
Birthdate: October 5, 1966
Sun Sign: Libra
Birthplace: Lehnin, Bezirk Potsdam, Germany
 74 
Hilde Liesewitz
(Schutzstaffel Guard)
Hilde Liesewitz
10
Birthdate: January 31, 1922
Sun Sign: Aquarius
Birthplace: Grünwald, Germany