Editing Ernst Kaltenbrunner (section)

== Personal life ==
Kaltenbrunner was born in [[Ried im Innkreis]], Austria, and growing up had a close relationship with his mother (born Theresia Utwardy).{{sfn|Black|1984|pp=27–29}} His father Hugo was a lawyer, and Kaltenbrunner spent his early years and primary education in [[Raab, Austria|Raab]], later attending the [[Gymnasium (Germany)|Realgymnasium]] in [[Linz]].{{sfn|Black|1984|pp=30–31}} Raised in a [[German nationalism|nationalist]] family, his ideological understanding of the world was shaped to some extent by the ''völkisch'' [[Pan-Germanism]] movement in Austria, since his father was an adherent to its ideals.{{sfn|Black|1984|p=11}} Like his father, the younger Kaltenbrunner's pan-Germanism—replete with [[anti-Semitism]] and the notion that political conflict was a racial struggle{{sfn|Black|1984|pp=12–21}}—was cultivated in the nationalist student fraternities known as ''[[Burschenschaft]]en''.{{sfn|Black|1984|pp=21–26}}{{efn|Pan-Germanists like Kaltenbrunner sought German unity based on racial purity, particularly among the educated German-Austrian elite in the late 19th century. This ideology rejected liberalism, socialism, democracy, Catholicism, Slavic nationalism, and the Habsburg multinational state, blaming them for obstructing a utopian vision of cultural and economic security. Pan-Germans traced these influences to Enlightenment rationalism and the French Revolution, identifying Jews as the chief beneficiaries of modernization and urbanization. They idealized a "pure" Germanic society rooted in rural, medieval traditions while portraying Jews and urban culture as corrupting forces. This worldview framed modernity as a threat and called for a "conservative revolution" to restore a mythical past.{{sfn|Black|1984|p=49}} }} Kaltenbrunner was incidentally also childhood friends with [[Adolf Eichmann]], the infamous SS officer who later played a key role in implementing the Nazis' "[[Final Solution]]" against Europe's Jews.{{sfn|Gerwarth|2012|p=100}}{{efn|It was Kaltenbrunner who presented Eichmann with his Nazi membership application in April 1932 and seven months later, it was Kaltenbrunner who suggested to Eichmann that he should also join the SS.{{sfn|Evans|2024|pp=325–326}} }} 

[[File:Kaltenbrunner graduation 1926.jpg|thumb|right|Kaltenbrunner's graduation record, 1926|alt="Handwritten German text of approximately thirty words on a beige-coloured page"]]

After finishing gymnasium in 1921, Kaltenbrunner first studied chemistry at the [[University of Graz]], where his father had matriculated, but switched to law in 1923.{{sfn|Black|1984|pp=33–34}} While studying at Graz, he joined the Arminia fraternity, became active in student politics, and participated in demonstrations against [[Marxism]] and clerical influence.{{sfn|Bartrop|Grimm|2019|pp=163—165}} He obtained his doctorate in 1926.{{sfn|Wistrich|1995|p=135}} Kaltenbrunner then worked at a law firm in [[Salzburg]] for a year before opening his own law office in Linz.{{sfn|Snyder|1976|p=189}} He had [[dueling scar|deep scars]] on his face reportedly from [[academic fencing|duelling]] in his student days, although some sources attribute them to a drunk-driving accident.{{sfn|Persico|1995|p=155}}{{efn|See: {{Cite web |url=http://www.law.umkc.edu/faculty/projects/ftrials/nuremberg/NurembergNews10_16_46.html |title=The Nuremberg Trials<!-- Bot generated title --> |access-date=2016-04-18 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20010312175414/http://www.law.umkc.edu/faculty/projects/ftrials/nuremberg/NurembergNews10_16_46.html#dueling%20scars |archive-date=2001-03-12 |url-status=dead }}}}

By 1928, Kaltenbrunner was bored, lonely, and unfulfilled according to historian Peter Black; however Kaltenbrunner's work as a provincial lawyer in Linz also brought him into the right-wing "gymnastic circles in Linz" where he joined the ''Deutsch-Volkischer Turnverein'', an organization with close ties to the paramilitary formation of the Austrian ''[[Heimwehr]]''.{{sfn|Black|1984|pp=54–55}} Black described this latter organization as "a training ground for the illegal Nazi SA and SS".{{sfn|Black|1984|p=55}} In the summer of 1929, Kaltenbrunner joined the ''Heimwehr'', which Black claims merged his "emotional need for membership in a community" with his political ideals.{{sfn|Black|1984|pp=60–61}} 

On 14 January 1934, Kaltenbrunner married Elisabeth Eder (20 October 1908 – 20 May 2002), who was also a [[Nazi Party]] member; the couple had three children. In addition to the children from his marriage, Kaltenbrunner had twins, Ursula and Wolfgang (b. 1945) with his long-time mistress, Gisela Gräfin von Westarp (27 June 1920 – 2 June 1983). All the children survived the war.{{sfn|Miller|2015|pp=408–409}}