Pencil sketch of a Nazi by Dr K Prabhakar Rao

LUDWIG RUCKDESCHEL. NAZI

 Ludwig Ruckdeschel (15 March 1907 – 8 November 1986) was the Nazi Gauleiter of Bayreuth during final month of the Gau's existence before the collapse of Nazi Germany in 1945. Before this, from 1933 to 1941, he served as the deputy of Gauleiter Fritz Wächtler, whom he had executed on orders by Martin Bormann. From 1933 to 1945 he was also a member of the German Parliament, the Reichstag.

During the Second World War Ruckdeschel served in the Waffen-SS, rising to the rank of a Sturmbannführer, a rank equivalent to a major. After the war he was arrested in 1947 and eventually sentenced to 13 years in prison but released in 1952.