Nazi Party. After the Nazi seizure of power, Schwarz was elected to the Reichstag in March 1933, from electoral constituency 26, Franconia, and served until the fall of the Nazi regime. On 2 June 1933, he was also named a Reichsleiter (Reich Leader), the second highest political rank of the Nazi Party. On 2 October 1933, Schwarz was made a member of the Academy for German Law at its inaugural meeting. Hitler attended Schwarz's 60th birthday celebration on 27 November 1935. Hitler's will, dated 2 May 1938 (which left his entire fortune to the party) included the provision that it be opened in Schwarz's presence. Besides the party treasury (largely based on membership dues), Schwarz was responsible for the central assignment of NSDAP unique membership numbers. When members died or stopped paying dues, the old numbers were not freed up for new members. If old members picked up their dues later a new party number would be assigned. The Nazi Party had 8.5 million members on the books by 1945. Schwarz was regarded as an able administrator who generally kept out of party politics. SA and SS membership On 18 December 1931, Schwarz was made a Gruppenführer in the Sturmabteilung (SA), the Nazi paramilitary organization. In June 1932, Schwarz joined the Schutzstaffel, also as a Gruppenführer, with SS member number 38,500. On 1 July 1933 he was promoted to SS-Obergruppenführer. On 9 November 1933 his SA rank was raised to Obergruppenführer as well. Finally, on 20 April 1942, he was promoted to the newly created rank of SS-Oberst-Gruppenführer, becoming one of only four people to ever hold the rank. On 5 June 1944, Schwarz received a high military award, the War Merit Cross, 1st class with Swords (Kriegsverdienstkreuz 1. Klasse mit Schwertern) by Hitler for his work during the Munich air raids of 24–25 April of that year. Further, Schwarz led a Volkssturm battalion in Grünwald at the end of the war. He was arrested by the Americans and interned at Camp Ashcan. Death Schwarz died in another Allied internment camp near Regensburg on 2 December 1947, due to recurring gastric troubles. He was 72. In September 1948, Schwarz was posthumously classified by the Munich denazification court as a "major offender" and all his assets were confiscated. See also List of SS-Oberst-Gruppenführer Notes References Hallgarten, George W. F. (1952). "Adolf Hitler and German Heavy Industry, 1931-1933", The Journal of Economic