Germany, SS. A Promotion Memo to Richard Walther Darré, from the Desk of Heinrich Himmler

(Beförderungsdokument). A rare and extremely well-preserved promotion memo addressed to SS-Obergruppenführer Richard Walther Darré, constructed of off-white paper stock with black ink, dated 10 May 1935, featuring a typewrittern inscription of “SS-OBERGRUPPENFÜHRER DARRÉ, R. WALTHER (SS-NR. 6 882): ICH ERNENNE SIE M.W.V. 30. I. 35 ZUM CHEF DES RASSE UND SIEDLUNGS-HAUPTAMTES” (“I APPOINT YOU, AS OF 30. 1. 35, CHIEF OF THE RACE AND SETTLEMENT MAIN OFFICE”), with handwritten initials of Reichsführer-SS Heinrich Himmler and Reich Economy Minister Kurt Schmitt, measuring 210 mm (w) x 295 mm (h), with minor discolouration and two small tears evident, in overall near extremely fine condition; accompanied by two reproduction photographs, including a black-and-white studio portrait of Darré, depicted in the uniform of a SS-Obergruppenführer, undated, measuring 116 mm (w) x 174 mm (h), in extremely fine condition, and; a studio portrait of Heinrich Himmler, depicted in the uniform of Reichsführer-SS, undated, measuring 86 mm (w) x 138 mm (h), in extremely fine condition.

Footnote: Richard Walther Darré was born on 14 July 1895 in Buenos Aires, Argentina, to a German father and an Argentine-born mother of German and Swedish ancestry. At the age of nine, he was sent to Germany to further his education, and later attended King’s College School in England. Returning to Germany before the start of World War I, he volunteered for military service and was wounded in action a number of times. After the war, he pursued graduate studies in agronomy, with a focus on animal husbandry, and completed a PhD in 1929. Darré became involved with various nationalist and Völkisch movements in the Weimar Republic, authoring articles and studies on farming and agriculture through a racial lens. His writings on the application of Nordic theories to agriculture brought him to the attention of Heinrich Himmler, and in 1930 Darré joined both the NSDAP and SS. As a newly-appointed administrator of the SS Race and Settlement Main Office, Darré’s rhetoric became overtly anti-Semitic as he assisted in formulating plans for the expansion of farming in a German-dominated Europe. He also founded the Reichsnährstand to regulate food production in the Third Reich. A proponent of eugenics, Darré openly advocated the use of foreign slave labour as a supplement to German farming and food production. Unspecified health issues and a fall from grace with Himmler forced him to resign in 1942. Darré was later tried on seven counts of war crimes and crimes against humanity at Nuremberg, receiving a prison sentence of seven years. He was released due to ill health in 1950 and died of liver cancer on 5 September 1943 in Goslar.