Franz Limmer (Munich 3.4.1908 – 26.11.1993 Munich)

Growing up in modest circumstances and without parents, Franz Limmer attended the then seven-grade elementary school from 1914 to 1921, latterly in Iffeldorf, which he completed with a good report card ("very praiseworthy behavior"). He subsequently worked as an agricultural worker and bricklayer's apprentice for the Maffei estate in Staltach, where his conduct and insight drew similar praise. Limmer participated in youth wrestling competitions over this period. From July 1925 to October 1927, Limmer worked as a stableman for the entrepreneur Eduard Scharrer on the Bernried estate. There, he learned how to care for horses, harnesses, and carriages as well as how to ride and how to drive a two-horse carriage. At his own request, Limmer left the position—in which he was rated as being "very hardworking and reliable"—to join the Bavarian State Police as a probationary constable on October 1, 1927.

After one year of service as a probationary constable and a spell at the police training school in Eichstätt, he was taken on as a constable in the Bavarian State Police and promoted to sergeant in 1930. In 1932/1933, he attended an advanced training course at the police academy in Fürstenfeldbruck, which he completed with good grades and which also familiarized him with specialist areas such as service regulations and civil service law. Limmer, now a probationary official with the Munich police force, rose through the usual ranks, progressing to senior sergeant and beyond to district senior sergeant. It was in this rank that he witnessed the November 1938 Pogroms in Munich and saw that the Storm Battalion (SA) prevented the police from intervening. The Catholic Limmer and his wife Josepha had their daughter Ingeborg in 1939. After attending a course for the intermediate law enforcement service, Limmer became a senior detective sergeant and permanent officer in the Munich Criminal Police in January 1940.

When Limmer learned on February 5, 1942 that he had been seconded to Einsatzgruppe B by the Reich Security Main Office and asked colleagues whether this would involve shooting Jews, he decided to refuse on humanitarian grounds. He cited health problems (a nervous disposition) which would prevent him from carrying out such duties, and he was subsequently referred to the neurological department of the police hospital in Berlin for an examination. There, the examining doctor put him under tremendous pressure and spelled out to him that this was a clear case of insubordination and that the "iron hand of the SS" would get him. Limmer did not back down, however, and was initially able to continue serving with the Munich Criminal Police.

When, a few months later, he refused the repeated requests of his superiors (including staff manager Dr. Werner Katto) to join the SS and the Nazi Party and to leave the Catholic Church, an acute illness that hit Limmer in the fall of 1942 was used as a pretext to remove him from the police force. Following an official medical examination, the Reich Security Main Office in Berlin certified Limmer unfit for service, resulting in his immediate dismissal from the police force. Limmer appealed this decision in January 1943. He requested a transfer to the administrative service, which he eventually managed to secure despite resistance on the part of his superiors. However, to do so he had to pass the career development examination for the intermediate administrative service, which he sat over the period spanning July 1943 to July 1944. Limmer benefited from having successfully completed a business course at the Sabel School during his decommissioning in 1943. From August 1944 to January 1945, Limmer was seconded to the police administration in Wittenberg, and from mid-January to the end of March 1945 he was employed as a security service instructor in the police reserve unit.

When the war ended, Limmer formally held a permanent post with the commander of the Munich police, meaning that he returned to the Munich police administration to report for duty only a few days after the end of the war, on May 17, 1945. He started out working in the passport office and in records management, and from July 1945 to mid-February 1946 the United States Military Government assigned him to a special department for document review (1st Police Record Unit Special Branch). He wrote to the police headquarters during this period to highlight the fact that his career was being held back by National Socialist superiors. On February 11, 1946, now secretary of the administration, he was appointed to the civil service on probation as chief sergeant of the state police serving as station chief of the Grünwald state police. He was promoted to commissioner of the state police a year later. On November 18, 1947, Limmer was reappointed for life as Chief Commissioner of the State Police.

At the denazification proceedings in Stade in 1948 and in the civilian tribunal in Munich in 1953, Limmer gave witness testimony against Dr. Werner Katto, but was not believed. Limmer was promoted twice more, to senior staff sergeant and finally, in 1965, to police chief. At the end of April 1968, Franz Limmer retired. He lived with his wife and daughter in Munich-Freimann and enjoyed traveling, DIY, and spending time with his grandson. The failure to denazify the police always plagued Limmer, as he had the same superiors after the war as he had in the Third Reich. Franz Limmer passed away in Munich in November 1993.