A founding member of the NSDAP in 1921; after the re-establishment of the party, he rejoined in 1925 and quickly became one of Adolf Hitler's favourites. He was appointed Gauleiter of the Gaus North Rhineland and Ruhr between the years 1925 and 1928, then Gauleiter of Hamburg on 15 April 1929, a post he was to hold until 1945. He was also elected a member of the German Reichstag in November 1932. After Hitler gained power, Kaufmann was appointed Reichsstatthalter of Hamburg on 16 May 1933 with over some 1.8 million people. One of his first acts was to turn over control of the city's Fuhlsbüttel Prison to the SA and SS, where it quickly became the nucleus of the notorious Kola-Fuconcentration camp. In September 1941, after Allied bombing of Hamburg had rendered many people homeless, Kaufmann petitioned Hitler to allow him to deport local Jews so that he could confiscate their property to rehouse bombed-out citizens. Hitler quickly responded, allowing Kaufmann the dubious distinction of being the first Nazi leader to deport German Jews, in this instance to the Łódź Ghetto in Poland. A member of the SS since 1933, he was promoted to SS-Obergruppenführer on 30 January 1942. On 16 November 1942, he was appointed Reich Defense Commissioner for his Gau. Adolf Hitler declared Hamburg as fortress, similar to the Festung Warschau, the cities of Poznań, or Kolberg. In April 1945, Kaufmann and Commander GeneralmajorAlwin Wolz wanted, independently of each other, to capitulate without further struggle. After negotiations and the publication of a pamphlet prepared by Kaufmann—without Kaufmann's consent—Hamburg was declared an "open city" by Admiral Karl Dönitz, then president of Germany.
Arrested shortly after the occupation of Hamburg by British forces in 1945, in 1946 Kaufmann was witness at the Nuremberg Trials; he was subsequently tried for war crimes and sentenced to a term of imprisonment, but released soon after on the grounds of ill health after an accident. He was to be arrested twice more before being finally released in 1953. Kaufmann died on 4 December 1969 in Hamburg.
Apologetic account
In his book Das letzte Kapitel published in 1947, Kurt Detlev Möller described Kaufmann as a "good Gauleiter", a "rebel against the leader", and the "rescuer of Hamburg", because of the capitulation without struggle of the city of Hamburg.
