Wolf-Heinrich Graf von Helldorf

Wolf-Heinrich von Helldorff
Wolf-Heinrich von Helldorff
Member of the Prussian Landtag
In office 1924–1928
Member of the Reichstag
In office 1933–1944
Chief of the Berlin Police
In office 1935–1944
Personal details
Born	(1896-10-14)14 October 1896 Merseburg, German Empire
Died	15 August 1944(1944-08-15) (aged 47) Berlin, Germany
Political party	National Socialist Freedom Party (NSFP) NSDAP

Wolf-Heinrich Graf von Helldorff (14 October 1896 – 15 August 1944) was a German police official and politician, who served as a Member of the Prussian Parliament during the Weimar Republic, as a Member of the German Parliament for the Nazi Party from 1933 and as president of police in Potsdam and Berlin. From 1938, he became associated with the anti-Nazi resistance, and was executed in 1944 for his role in the 20th July plot to overthrow Hitler's regime.

Helldorff was born in Merseburg, a noble landowner's son, Helldorff served as a lieutenant from 1915 in the First World War. He was a member of the Prussian Parliament from 1924 to 1928, and again in 1932.

He was also friends with the stage magician and psychic, Erik Jan Hanussen, who constantly lent him money for his debts. "The count was always in debt, and his private life was a wreck. He was separated from his wife and was on bad terms with his mother after welching on his promise to pay her rent. Sometimes he was behind in his own rent. On one occasion he 'forgot' to pay for a new Mercedes. And he was always late paying his personal tailor and the trainer he hired for his racehorse. There were other debts as well, all from a gambling habit Helldorff couldn't shake. Luckily, he could always count on a handout from Hanussen. All he had to do was sign an IOU, which Hanussen would add to his growing pile of chits he kept safe in his apartment."

He became a member of the National Socialist Freedom Party in 1924, which served as a legal front for the Nazi Party when it was banned after the Beer Hall Putsch. The NSFP was reabsorbed into the NSDAP in 1926 after the latter was made legal again, and by 1931 Helldorff had joined the SA, functioning as an SA leader in Berlin. The scope of his work got bigger in 1933 when he was also given responsibility for the SS's Berlin-Brandenburg leadership. At the same time, he was also elected to the Reichstag.