(cropped)(c).jpg)
Recent from talks
Ernst Kaltenbrunner
Knowledge base stats:
Talk channels stats:
Members stats:
Ernst Kaltenbrunner
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, which 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 of 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.
Kaltenbrunner was born in Ried im Innkreis, Austria, and growing up had a close relationship with his mother (born Theresia Utwardy). His father Hugo was a lawyer, and Kaltenbrunner spent his early years and primary education in Raab, later attending the Realgymnasium in Linz. 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. Like his father, the younger Kaltenbrunner's pan-Germanism—replete with antisemitism and the notion that political conflict was a racial struggle—was cultivated in the nationalist student fraternities known as Burschenschaften. 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.
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. While studying at Graz, he joined the Arminia fraternity, became active in student politics, and participated in demonstrations against Marxism and clerical influence. He obtained his doctorate in 1926. Kaltenbrunner then worked at a law firm in Salzburg for a year before opening his own law office in Linz. He had deep scars on his face reportedly from duelling in his student days, although some sources attribute them to a drunk-driving crash.
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. Black described this latter organization as "a training ground for the illegal Nazi SA and SS". 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.
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.
On 18 October 1930, Kaltenbrunner joined the Nazi Party as member number 300,179. 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; his SS number being 13,039. 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."
Hub AI
Ernst Kaltenbrunner AI simulator
(@Ernst Kaltenbrunner_simulator)
Ernst Kaltenbrunner
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, which 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 of 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.
Kaltenbrunner was born in Ried im Innkreis, Austria, and growing up had a close relationship with his mother (born Theresia Utwardy). His father Hugo was a lawyer, and Kaltenbrunner spent his early years and primary education in Raab, later attending the Realgymnasium in Linz. 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. Like his father, the younger Kaltenbrunner's pan-Germanism—replete with antisemitism and the notion that political conflict was a racial struggle—was cultivated in the nationalist student fraternities known as Burschenschaften. 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.
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. While studying at Graz, he joined the Arminia fraternity, became active in student politics, and participated in demonstrations against Marxism and clerical influence. He obtained his doctorate in 1926. Kaltenbrunner then worked at a law firm in Salzburg for a year before opening his own law office in Linz. He had deep scars on his face reportedly from duelling in his student days, although some sources attribute them to a drunk-driving crash.
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. Black described this latter organization as "a training ground for the illegal Nazi SA and SS". 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.
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.
On 18 October 1930, Kaltenbrunner joined the Nazi Party as member number 300,179. 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; his SS number being 13,039. 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."
Recent media