Otto Koch was born in Schweinfurt in 1902. After World War I, he joined the Oberland branch of the Freikorps, a right-wing extremist armed group. From 1922 on, he studied history, law, and economics in Würzburg.
In 1922, Otto Koch joined the NSDAP and worked as a lawyer and advisor for the party. After the Nazis came to power, he became district leader of the party in Ingolstadt and, in 1937, mayor of Weimar. In this role, from 1941 onwards, he organized the expulsion of Jewish people from their homes and their subsequent deportation. He also received a leadership position in the SA in 1942.
In April 1945, Otto Koch ensured the surrender of Weimar to the US Army without a fight. The Americans deposed him and detained him briefly. In April 1946, the Soviet secret service arrested Otto Koch for his SA membership and took him to the Soviet Special Camp No. 2. He died there on January 3, 1948.
At this point, the Weimar Criminal Investigation Department was already led by communists. Their “final report” on Koch was written four months after his arrest by the Soviet secret police.
Pictured in the foreground is a wreath for Otto Koch, who died in the Special Camp No. 2 in 1948. A popular revisionist narrative alleges that Koch prevented Weimar from being attacked by US troops by surrendering the city without a fight in 1945. This historical revisionist narrative persists to this day. The ribbon on the wreath refers to Koch as the “savior of the city of Weimar.”
