Christian Weber (SS general)

Christian Weber (25 August 1883 in Polsingen – 11 May 1945 in the Swabian Jura) was a German Nazi Party official and Schutzstaffel Brigadeführer.

Along with the likes of Emil Maurice, Ulrich Graf, and Max Amann, Weber, a bouncer at a seedy bar, was amongst the earliest political associates of Adolf Hitler. Ever ready for a fight, Weber carried a riding crop with him, a habit shared by Hitler in these early years.Otto Strasser would later claim that Weber was also a pimp at this time, although he had a hatred of Weber whom he denounced as an "ape-like creature" and "the most despicable of Hitler's underlings". In late 1921 Weber was one of Hitler's cohorts when the Nazis attacked a meeting of the Bavarian League. Hitler personally beat up the League's leader Otto Ballerstedt, an event that saw the future Führer serve a month in prison. At some stage before 1923 Weber lost an eye and often wore a specially made pair of glasses as a result.

Following the Beer Hall putsch Weber, by then a horse trader, was owed $1000 by Hitler after he had bought the debt from Ernst Hanfstaengl. Weber would insist on Hitler paying the debt in full. The two however remained close and Hanfstaengl later claimed that Weber was one of the few who could make fun of Mein Kampf in Hitler's company.

A city councilman in Munich, he was effectively the boss of the city following the Nazi seizure of power. Weber became something of a hate figure in the city, particularly amongst the middle classes and he became a by-word for corruption as it was regularly questioned how this former hotel bellboy had come to own a number of hotels, villas, petrol stations, a brewery, the city's racecourse and bus service as well as a home in the Munich Residenz. Other titles that he was granted included presidency of the Reichsjagdmuseum and the League of German Riding Stable Owners. On the Night of the Long Knives Weber was amongst those SS men who travelled to Bad Wiessee to purge the Sturmabteilung leadership. Hitler personally rewarded him for his involvement by promoting him to the rank of Oberführer in the SS.

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