Background
Max Kögel was born on 16 October 1895 in Füssen, in the Kingdom of Bavaria. He was the fourth son of a carpenter who worked at a local furniture factory. In 1907, his father died and Max was sent to live with a family at a nearby farm.
Max Kögel was born on 16 October 1895 in Füssen, in the Kingdom of Bavaria. He was the fourth son of a carpenter who worked at a local furniture factory. In 1907, his father died and Max was sent to live with a family at a nearby farm.
Shortly before his sixth birthday, Kögel"s mother died from complications during childbirth. He also had to leave school and began training as a shepherd and later worked as a mountain guide. When the First World War broke out, Kögel volunteered to join the Bavarian infantry.
He served in the military until 12 January 1919 and reached the rank of corporal.
After the war, Kögel returned to Bavaria and worked as a customs clerk in Garmisch-Partenkirchen. In 1920, he left the civil service and opened a souvenir shop.
However, four years later he filed for bankruptcy after he was charged with fraud, for which he received a suspended sentence. He went on to travel for work in Switzerland and Austria before returning to Füssen, where he obtained a job in his father"s old furniture factory.
At that time, he joined the Völkischer Bund and Bund Oberland, both extreme nationalist and anti-Semitic organisations.
Kögel became adjutant to the Dachau concentration camp commander in 1937. From 1938 to 1942 he was first "Direktor" (managing director) and then commander of the labour camp for women in Lichtenburg at Ravensbrück at the rank of Sturmbannführer (Major). In 1942 he was commander of the extermination camp Majdanek and was involved in the installation of gas chambers at this site.
From 1943 to 1945 he was commander at Flossenbürg concentration camp.
After the war, Kögel went on the run and was not arrested until June 1946 in Schwabach, near Nuremberg. He committed suicide by hanging in his prison cell only a day later on 27 June 1946.
Schutzstaffel; Sturmabteilung]
Kögel became a member of the NSDAP (#1179781) on 2 May 1932, and of the Steamship (#37644) in June 1932.