Martin Mutschmann (9 March 1879 – 14 February 1947) was the Nazi Regional Leader (Gauleiter) of the state of Saxony (Gau Saxony) during the time of the Third Reich. Early years Born in Hirschberg on the Saale in the Principality of Reuss-Gera, Germany, Mutschmann moved while he was young with his family to Plauen in Saxony. He served an apprenticeship as an embroiderer and from 1896 to 1901 was employed as a master embroiderer, department head and warehouse director in lace and linen factories in Plauen, Herford and Köln. That was followed by military service from 1901-1903, after which he returned to employment in the Plauen Lace Factory (Plauener Spitzenfabriken). He established his own lace factory, Mutschmann & Eisentraut, in Plauen in October 1907. During World War I, he volunteered for service with Reserve Infantry Regiment 133 and served on the Western Front until he was severely wounded in April 1916. He was awarded the Iron Cross, 2nd class, was discharged from the Army as unfit for field service on 24 December 1916 and resumed the direction of his factory in Plauen. After the war, he was an early participant in the nationalist and anti-Semitic Deutschvölkischer Schutz und Trutzbund. He joined the National Socialist German Workers Party NSDAP in April 1922, was a founding member of the local branch (Ortsgruppe) in Plauen and made personal donations of capital to the Nazi Party. Mutschmann lost his lace business in the Great Depression, but he continued to solicit donations from other businesses. His fundraising skills found favour with the Nazi Party, and with Adolf Hitler whom he visited in Landsberg prison. During the period when the Nazi Party was banned in the wake of the failed Beer Hall Putsch, Mutschmann succeeded Fritz Tittmann as the leader in Saxony of the National Socialist Freedom Movement (NSFB), a Nazi front organization, taking over at the NSFB party congress, 16-17 August 1924. Nazi Party career After the Party was re-established in 1925, Mutschmann was appointed Landesleiter (later Gauleiter) of Saxony on 27 March 1925, maintaining that position until the fall of the Nazi regime. He formally re-enrolled in the Party on 2 June 1925 (Party membership number 35). Generally his political activity concentrated on Saxony rather than on Germany as a whole. Mutschmann was passionately interested in the preservation of Saxon arts and crafts. In September 1930, he was elected to the Reichstag for electoral