Jump to content

Ernst Kaltenbrunner

From Niidae Wiki
Revision as of 16:54, 18 May 2025 by 2a00:23c7:c8bc:c501:c80b:66b4:266f:6da2 (talk) (Improved wording)
(diff) ← Older revision | Latest revision (diff) | Newer revision → (diff)

Template:Short description Template:Redirect Template:For Template:Infobox officeholder Ernst Kaltenbrunner (4 October 1903 – 16 October 1946) was an Austrian high-ranking SS official during the Nazi era, major perpetrator of the Holocaust and convicted war criminal. After the assassination of Reinhard Heydrich in 1942, and a brief period under Heinrich Himmler, Kaltenbrunner was the third Chief of the Reich Security Main Office (RSHA), which included the offices of Gestapo, Kripo and SD, from January 1943 until the end of World War II in Europe.

Kaltenbrunner joined the Nazi Party in 1930 and the SS in 1931, and by 1935 he was considered a leader of the Austrian SS. In 1938, he assisted in the Anschluss and was given command of the SS and police force in Austria. In January 1943, Kaltenbrunner was appointed chief of the RSHA, succeeding Reinhard Heydrich, who was assassinated in May 1942.

A committed antisemite, Kaltenbrunner played a pivotal role in orchestrating the Holocaust and Nazi genocide intensified under his leadership. He oversaw the coordination of security and law enforcement agencies involved in widespread extermination, the suppression of resistance movements in occupied territories, extensive arrests, deportations, and executions. He was the highest-ranking member of the SS to face trial (Himmler having died by suicide in May 1945) at the Nuremberg trials, where he was found guilty of war crimes and crimes against humanity. Kaltenbrunner was sentenced to death, and was executed by hanging on 16 October 1946.

Personal life

[edit]

Kaltenbrunner was born in Ried im Innkreis, Austria, and growing up had a close relationship with his mother (born Theresia Utwardy).Template:Sfn His father Hugo was a lawyer, and Kaltenbrunner spent his early years and primary education in Raab, later attending the Realgymnasium in Linz.Template:Sfn Raised in a 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.Template:Sfn Like his father, the younger Kaltenbrunner's pan-Germanism—replete with anti-Semitism and the notion that political conflict was a racial struggleTemplate:Sfn—was cultivated in the nationalist student fraternities known as Burschenschaften.Template:SfnTemplate:Efn 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.Template:SfnTemplate:Efn

"Handwritten German text of approximately thirty words on a beige-coloured page"
Kaltenbrunner's graduation record, 1926

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.Template:Sfn While studying at Graz, he joined the Arminia fraternity, became active in student politics, and participated in demonstrations against Marxism and clerical influence.Template:Sfn He obtained his doctorate in 1926.Template:Sfn Kaltenbrunner then worked at a law firm in Salzburg for a year before opening his own law office in Linz.Template:Sfn He had deep scars on his face reportedly from duelling in his student days, although some sources attribute them to a drunk-driving accident.Template:SfnTemplate:Efn

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.Template:Sfn Black described this latter organization as "a training ground for the illegal Nazi SA and SS".Template:Sfn 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.Template:Sfn

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.Template:Sfn

SS career

[edit]

On 18 October 1930, Kaltenbrunner joined the Nazi Party as member number 300,179.Template:SfnTemplate:Efn In 1931, he was the Bezirksredner (district speaker) for the Nazi Party in Upper Austria. Kaltenbrunner joined the Schutzstaffel (SS) on 31 August 1931 after encouragement by then leader of Hitler's bodyguard, SS-Standartenführer Sepp Dietrich;Template:Sfn his SS number being 13,039.Template:Sfn Black writes that "Kaltenbrunner found in the Nazi movement and the SS what he politically desired and emotionally needed: a world where the ideal of the racial community was prized, where the theory of racial struggle was accepted as an obvious fact, where all doubts about the meaning of existence were swept away."Template:Sfn

Kaltenbrunner first became a Rechtsberater (legal consultant) for the Nazi Party in 1929 and later held this same position for SS Abschnitt (Section) VIII, beginning in 1932.Template:Sfn That same year he began working at the law practice of his father, who had taken ill.Template:Sfn In October 1932, Ernst Röhm appointed Kaltenbrunner as an SA- und SS-Gruppenrechtsberater, making it his job to provide free legal counsel for members of either unit should they be arrested for "performing their duty".Template:Sfn By 1933, Kaltenbrunner had become head of the National-Socialist Lawyers' League in Linz.Template:Sfn

In January 1934, Kaltenbrunner was briefly jailed at the Kaisersteinbruch detention camp with other Nazis for conspiracy by the Engelbert Dollfuss government.Template:Sfn While there, he led a hunger strike against the inadequate food rations, poor sanitary conditions, and unfair treatment by the Heimwehr guards at the camp, which forced the government to release 490 of the party members.Template:Sfn In 1935, he was jailed again on suspicion of high treason; more specifically, Kaltenbrunner was accused of spreading Nazi propaganda materials to the army.Template:Sfn This charge was dropped, but he was sentenced to six months imprisonment for conspiracy and he lost his license to practice law.Template:Sfn Although many of the accused and arrested Austrian Nazis emigrated to Germany, Kaltenbrunner remained in Austria—a fact he shared with an acquaintance in 1935—at Himmler's insistence, who saw in the Austrian a useful associate for strengthening the SS there.Template:Sfn

From mid-1935 Kaltenbrunner was head of the illegal SS Abschnitt VIII in Linz and was considered a leader of the Austrian SS. To provide Heinrich Himmler, Reinhard Heydrich and Heinz Jost with new information, Kaltenbrunner repeatedly made trips to Bavaria.Template:Sfn He would hide on a train and on a ship that traveled to Passau, then return with money and orders for Austrian comrades.Template:Sfn During his trips between the two countries, he frequently carried detailed reports gathered by the Nazi underground in Austria, including photos Kaltenbrunner had taken in autumn 1936 of confidential documents that detailed Austria's foreign policy.Template:Sfn During January 1937, Himmler appointed Kaltenbrunner chief of the entire Austrian SS.Template:Sfn Kaltenbrunner was arrested again by Austrian authorities on charges of heading the illegal Nazi Party organization (the Nazi Relief Office) in Oberösterreich.Template:Sfn He was released in September.Template:Sfn

Acting on orders from Hermann Göring, Kaltenbrunner assisted in bringing about the Anschluss with Germany (13 March 1938); he was awarded the role of State Secretary for Public Security in the Seyss-Inquart cabinet of 11 to 13 March 1938.Template:Sfn Controlled from behind the scenes by Himmler, Kaltenbrunner still led, albeit clandestinely, the Austrian SS as part of his duty to "coordinate" and manage the Austrian population – this entailed the Nazification of all aspects of Austrian society.Template:Sfn Then on 21 March 1938, he was promoted to SS-Brigadeführer.Template:Sfn He was a member of the German Reichstag from 10 April 1938 until 8 May 1945.Template:Sfn Amid this activity, he helped establish the Mauthausen-Gusen concentration camp near Linz.Template:Sfn Mauthausen was the first Nazi concentration camp opened in Austria following the Anschluss.Template:Sfn On 11 September 1938, Kaltenbrunner was promoted to the rank of SS-Gruppenführer (equivalent to a lieutenant general in the German Army) while holding the position of leader of SS-Oberabschnitt Österreich (re-designated SS-Oberabschnitt Donau in November 1938). Also in 1938, he was appointed Higher SS and Police Leader (Höherer SS- und Polizeiführer; HSSPF) for Oberabschnitt Donau, which was the primary SS command in Austria (he held that post until 30 January 1943).Template:Sfn

File:Bundesarchiv Bild 121-0492, Wien, Einweihung, Polizeikrankenhaus.jpg
Kaltenbrunner with Ordnungspolizei officials in Vienna in 1940 following the 1938 Anschluss

World War II

[edit]
File:Bundesarchiv Bild 183-45534-0005, Kz Mauthausen, Besuch Heinrich Himmler, Franz Ziereis.jpg
Kaltenbrunner, Heinrich Himmler and August Eigruber (in black) inspect Mauthausen concentration camp in 1941, in the company of camp commander Franz Ziereis (center left)
File:Bundesarchiv Bild 192-029, KZ Mauthausen, Himmler, Kaltenbrunner, Ziereis.jpg
Kaltenbrunner with Himmler and Ziereis at Mauthausen in April 1941

In June 1940, Kaltenbrunner was appointed Vienna's chief of police and held that additional post for a year. In July 1940, he was commissioned as an SS-Untersturmführer into the Waffen-SS Reserve.Template:Sfn Alongside his many official duties, Kaltenbrunner also developed an intelligence network across Austria, moving southeastwards, which eventually brought him to Himmler's attention for appointment as chief of the Reich Security Main Office (RSHA) in January 1943.Template:Sfn The RSHA was composed of the SiPo (Sicherheitspolizei; the combined forces of the Gestapo and Kripo) along with the SD (Sicherheitsdienst, Security Service).Template:Sfn Kaltenbrunner replaced Heydrich, who had been assassinated in June 1942. Kaltenbrunner held this position until the end of World War II.Template:Sfn Hardly anyone knew Kaltenbrunner, and upon his appointment, Himmler transferred responsibility both for SS personnel and for economics from the RSHA to the SS Main Economic and Administrative Office.Template:Sfn Nonetheless, Kaltenbrunner was promoted to SS-Obergruppenführer und General der Polizei on 21 June 1943. He also replaced Heydrich as president (serving from 1943 to 1945) of the International Criminal Police Commission (ICPC), the organization today known as Interpol.Template:Sfn

Fearing a collapsing home-front due to the Allied bombing campaigns, and worried that another "stab-in-the-back" at home could arise as a result, Kaltenbrunner immediately tightened the Nazi grip within Germany.Template:Sfn From what historian Anthony Read relates, Kaltenbrunner's appointment as RSHA chief came as a surprise given the other possible candidates like the head of the Gestapo, Heinrich Müller, or even the SD foreign-intelligence chief, Walter Schellenberg.Template:Sfn Historian Richard Grunberger also added the name of Wilhelm Stuckart, the future minister of the German Interior, as another potential candidate for head of the RSHA; however, he suggests that Kaltenbrunner was most likely selected since he was a comparative "newcomer", expected to be more "pliable" in Himmler's hands.Template:Sfn

Like many of the ideological fanatics in the regime, Kaltenbrunner was a committed antisemite. According to former SS-Sturmbannführer Hans Georg Mayer, Kaltenbrunner was present at a December 1940 meeting among Adolf Hitler, Joseph Goebbels, Himmler and Heydrich where it was decided to gas all Jews incapable of heavy physical work.Template:Sfn Under Kaltenbrunner's command, the genocide of Jews picked up pace as "the process of extermination was to be expedited and the concentration of the Jews in the Reich itself and the occupied countries were to be liquidated as soon as possible."Template:Sfn Kaltenbrunner stayed constantly informed over the status of concentration-camp activities, receiving periodic reports at his office in the RSHA.Template:Sfn

To combat homosexuality across the greater Reich, Kaltenbrunner pushed the Ministry of justice in July 1943 for an edict mandating compulsory castration for anyone found guilty of this offence. While this was rejected, he still took steps to get the army to review some 6,000 cases to prosecute homosexuals.Template:Sfn

During the summer of 1943, Kaltenbrunner conducted his second inspection of the Mauthausen-Gusen concentration camp. While he was there, 15 prisoners were selected to demonstrate for Kaltenbrunner three methods of killing: by a gunshot to the neck, hanging, and gassing. After the killings were performed, Kaltenbrunner inspected the crematorium and later the quarry.Template:Sfn In October 1943, he told Herbert Kappler, the head of German police and security services in Rome, that the "eradication of the Jews in Italy" was of "special interest" for "general security".Template:Sfn Four days later, Kappler's SS and police units began rounding up and deporting Jews by train to Auschwitz concentration camp.Template:Sfn

In 1944, during an arranged meeting in Klessheim Castle near Salzburg, when Hitler was in the process of strong-arming Admiral Horthy into a closer integration between Hungary and Nazi Germany, Kaltenbrunner was present for the negotiations and escorted Horthy out once they were over. Accompanying Horthy and Kaltenbrunner on the journey back to Hungary, Adolf Eichmann brought with him a special Einsatzkommando unit to begin the process of rounding up and deporting Hungary's 750,000 Jews.Template:Sfn

It was said that even Himmler feared him, as Kaltenbrunner was an intimidating figure with 1.94m (6'4½") in height, facial scars, and volatile temper.Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn Kaltenbrunner was also a longtime friend of Otto Skorzeny and recommended him for many secret missions, allowing Skorzeny to become one of Hitler's favourite agents. Kaltenbrunner also allegedly headed Operation Long Jump, an alleged plan to assassinate Stalin, Churchill, and Roosevelt in Tehran in 1943.Template:SfnTemplate:Efn

File:Bundesarchiv Bild 151-17-03, Volksgerichtshof, Dr. Ernst Kaltenbrunner.jpg
Kaltenbrunner (front row, second from left) as a spectator at a People's Court show trial following the failed 20 July plot in 1944

Immediately in the wake of the 20 July Plot on Hitler's life in 1944, Kaltenbrunner was summoned to Hitler's wartime headquarters at the Wolfsschanze (Wolf's Lair) in East Prussia to begin the investigation into who had planned the assassination attempt.Template:Sfn Once it was revealed that an attempted military coup against Hitler had been launched, Himmler and Kaltenbrunner had to tread carefully, as the military was not under the jurisdiction of the Gestapo or the SD. When the attempt failed, the conspirators were soon identified.Template:Sfn Kaltenbrunner called for the execution of those implicated in the plot.Template:Sfn An estimated 5,000 people were eventually executed, with many more sent to concentration camps.Template:SfnTemplate:Efn

Historian Heinz Höhne counted Kaltenbrunner among the fanatical Hitler loyalists and described him as being committed "to the bitter end".Template:Sfn Field reports from the SD in October 1944 about deteriorating morale in the military prompted Kaltenbrunner to urge the involvement of the RSHA in military court-martial proceedings, but this was rejected by Himmler, who thought it unwise to interfere in Wehrmacht (military) affairs.Template:Sfn In December 1944, Kaltenbrunner was granted the additional rank of General of the Waffen-SS. On 15 November 1944, he was awarded the Knights Cross of the War Merit Cross with Swords. In addition, he was awarded the Nazi Party Golden Party Badge and the Blutorden (Blood Order).Template:Sfn Using his authority as Chief of the RSHA, Kaltenbrunner issued a decree on 6 February 1945 that allowed policemen to shoot people at their own discretion deemed "disloyal", without any form of judicial review.Template:Sfn

On 12 March 1945, a meeting took place in Vorarlberg between Kaltenbrunner and Carl Jacob Burckhardt, president of the International Committee of the Red Cross (1945–48).Template:Sfn Just over a month later, Himmler was informed that SS-Obergruppenführer (general) Karl Wolff had been negotiating with the Allies for the capitulation of Italy.Template:Sfn When questioned by Himmler, Wolff explained that he was operating under Hitler's orders and attempting to play separate Allies against one another. Himmler believed him,Template:Sfn but Kaltenbrunner did not, and told Himmler that an informant claimed that Wolff had also negotiated with Cardinal Schuster of Milan and was about to surrender occupied Italy to the Allies.Template:Sfn Himmler angrily repeated the allegations; Wolff, feigning offence, challenged Himmler to present these statements to Hitler. Unnerved by Wolff's demands, Himmler backed down, and Hitler sent Wolff back to Italy to continue his purported disruption of the Allies.Template:Efn

On 18 April 1945, three weeks before the war ended, Himmler named Kaltenbrunner commander-in-chief of the remaining German forces in southern Europe.Template:Sfn Kaltenbrunner attempted to organize cells for post-war sabotage in the region and Germany but accomplished little.Template:Sfn Hitler made one of his last appearances on 20 April 1945 outside the subterranean Template:Lang in Berlin, where he pinned medals on boys from the Hitler Youth for their bravery.Template:Efn Kaltenbrunner was among those present, but realizing the end was near, he then fled from Berlin.Template:Sfn

Arrest

[edit]

On 12 May 1945 Kaltenbrunner was apprehended along with his adjutant, Arthur Scheidler, and two SS guards in a remote cabin at the top of the Totes Gebirge mountains near Altaussee, Austria, by a search party initiated by the 80th Infantry Division, Third U.S. Army. Information had been gained from Johann Brandauer, the assistant burgermeister of Altaussee, that the party was hiding out with false papers in the cabin. This was supported by an eyewitness sighting by the Altaussee mountain ranger five days earlier. Special Agent Robert E. Matteson from the U.S. Army's Counterintelligence Corps Detachment organized and led a patrol consisting of Brandauer, four ex-Wehrmacht soldiers, and a squad of U.S. soldiers to effect the arrest. The party climbed over mountainous and glacial terrain for six hours in darkness before arriving at the cabin.Template:Sfn After a short standoff, all four men exited the cabin and surrendered without a shot fired. Kaltenbrunner claimed to be a doctor and offered a false name. However, upon their arrival back to town his last mistress, Countess Gisela von Westarp, and the wife (Iris) of his adjutant Arthur Scheidler chanced to spot the men being led away; the ladies called out to both men and embraced them. This action resulted in their identification and arrest by U.S. troops.Template:Sfn

In 2001, Ernst Kaltenbrunner's personal Nazi security seal was found in an Alpine lake in Styria, Austria, 56 years after he had thrown it away to hide his identity. The seal was recovered by a Dutch citizen on holiday. The seal has the words "Chef der Sicherheitspolizei und des SD" (Chief of the Security Police and SD) engraved on it. Experts have examined the seal and believe it was discarded in the final days of the European war in May 1945.Template:Sfn

Nuremberg trials

[edit]
File:War criminal, SS Lieutenant General Ernst Kaltenbrunner (2).jpg
Kaltenbrunner testifying as a witness on his own behalf at the International Military Tribunal.

At the Nuremberg trials, Kaltenbrunner was charged with conspiracy to commit crimes against peace, war crimes and crimes against humanity.Template:Sfn Due to the areas over which he exercised responsibility as an SS general and as chief of the RSHA, he was acquitted of crimes against peace, but held responsible for war crimes and crimes against humanity.Template:Sfn

File:Ernst Kaltenbrunner.jpg
Kaltenbrunner wheeled into court during the Nuremberg trials after a brain hemorrhage during interrogation.

During the initial stages of the Nuremberg trials, Kaltenbrunner was absent because of two episodes of subarachnoid hemorrhage, which required several weeks of recovery time.Template:Sfn He was examined by Chief Medical Officer Lt. Col. Rene Juchli who reported that Kaltenbrunner was suffering from gallstones.Template:Sfn After his health improved, the tribunal denied his request for pardon. When he was released from a military hospital he pleaded not guilty to the charges of the indictment against him. Kaltenbrunner said all decrees and legal documents that bore his signature were "rubber-stamped" and filed by his adjutant(s). He also said Gestapo Chief Heinrich Müller had illegally affixed his signature to numerous documents in question.Template:Sfn

Kaltenbrunner argued in his defence that his position as RSHA chief existed only theoretically and said he was only active in matters of espionage and intelligence. He maintained that Himmler, as his superior, was the person culpable for the atrocities committed during his tenure as chief of the RSHA. Kaltenbrunner also asserted that he had no knowledge of the Final Solution before 1943 and went on to claim that he protested against the ill-treatment of the Jews to Himmler and Hitler.Template:Sfn Further denials from Kaltenbrunner included statements that he knew nothing of the Commissar Order and that he never visited Mauthausen concentration camp, despite documentation of his visit.Template:Sfn At one point, Kaltenbrunner went so far as to avow that he was responsible for bringing the Final Solution to an end.Template:Sfn In response to his denials, people in the courtroom laughed.Template:Sfn

Conviction and execution

[edit]

On 30 September 1946, the International Military Tribunal (IMT) found Kaltenbrunner not guilty of crimes against peace, but guilty of war crimes and crimes against humanity (counts three and four). On 1 October 1946, the IMT sentenced him to death by hanging.Template:Sfn

File:Dead ernstkaltenbrunner.jpg
Kaltenbrunner's body after execution by hanging on 16 October 1946

Kaltenbrunner was executed on 16 October 1946, around 1:15 am, in Nuremberg. His body, like those of the other nine executed men and that of Hermann Göring (who committed suicide the previous day), was cremated at the Eastern Cemetery in Munich and the ashes were scattered in a tributary of the River Isar.Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn

Dates of rank

[edit]
Awards and decorations

See also

[edit]

References

[edit]

Notes

[edit]

Template:Notelist

Citations

[edit]

Template:Reflist

Bibliography

[edit]

Template:Refbegin

Template:Refend

Further reading

[edit]
[edit]

Template:Commons Template:Wikiquote


Template:S-start Template:S-gov Template:S-bef Template:S-ttl Template:S-aft Template:S-bef Template:S-ttl Template:S-aft Template:S-mil Template:S-bef Template:S-ttl Template:S-aft Template:S-end

Template:Main Nuremberg defendants Template:NSDAP Template:Einsatzgruppen Template:Heinrich Himmler Template:Holocaust Ukraine Template:Authority control

Retrieved from "https://wiki.niidae.com/index.php?title=Ernst_Kaltenbrunner&oldid=12268"