Background
Ernst Kaltenbrunner was born in Ried im Innkreis, Austria. He was the son of a lawyer.
public official secret service
Ernst Kaltenbrunner was born in Ried im Innkreis, Austria. He was the son of a lawyer.
Ernst Kaltenbrunner was educated at the Realgymnasium in Linz. Raised in a nationalist family, Kaltenbrunner was childhood friends with Adolf Eichmann, the infamous SS officer who played a key role in implementing the Nazis' Final Solution against Europe's Jews.
After Gymnasium, he went on to obtain his doctorate degree in law at Graz University in 1926. He worked at a law firm in Salzburg for a year before opening his own law office in Linz.
In 1932 he joined the Austrian Nazi Party and the Austrian branch of the SS. He was commissioned an SS-Sturmhauptführer (Captain) on the staff of the SS Austrian Group "Donau", but the Austrian SS was considered an underground and illegal organization by the Austrian government, and Kaltenbrunner was arrested and jailed for high treason in 1934. He was released from prison the next year, however, and was appointed by his German leaders to become the commander of the entire Austrian division of the SS. In 1937 he was promoted to SS-Oberführer (Brigadier General) and began working with Arthur Seyss-Inquart to put in motion the Austrian "Anschluss" (union) with Germany and merge Austria into the Third Reich. When the two countries united in 1938, Kaltenbrunner was promoted to Lieutenant General (Gruppenführer) and appointed as the Higher SS and Police Leader of Austria. He at once introduced the security forces of the Gestapo and SS Security Service (SD) into the new "Ostmark" of the German Reich and, in addition, proceeded to open the death camp at Mauthausen. Meanwhile, his SS troopers were strictly enforcing the newly enacted anti-Jewish measures in the streets and towns of Austria.
In 1942 Kaltenbrunner became an SS-General (Obergruppenführer) and was assigned to succeed Reinhard Heydrich as the commander of the Reich Central Security Office (RSO) of the SS. This put him in direct command of what the Nazis termed the "Final Solution to the Jewish Question", in which wholesale genocide was carried out against the Jewish population of Europe, resulting in the deaths of over six million Jews.
Kaltenbrunner's reputation for ruthlessness and brutality came to the forefront in 1944 when he was put in charge of tracking down, arresting and interrogating those who had been involved in the famous July 1944 assassination attempt against Adolf Hitler. While he excelled at that task, in his other duties he was considered somewhat incompetent and was rumored to be an alcoholic. Historians have theorized that Heinrich Himmler appointed Kaltenbrunner to succeed Heydrich, because the clever, capable and devious Heydrich had become far too powerful in the SS and Himmler wanted a less competent man to take his place who would, in turn, not pose a threat to Himmler's own authority.
In 1945 Kaltenbrunner moved his headquarters from Berlin to Austria and attempted to negotiate an Austrian surrender to the Allies. While this was partially successful, he must have been somewhat surprised to find himself under arrest at the end of the war and charged as a major war criminal. He was among the Nazi hierarchy put on trial at the Nuremberg War Crimes Trials in 1946, although he missed the first half of the proceedings against him due to illness. Found guilty of war crimes and crimes against humanity, Ernst Kaltenbrunner was sentenced to be hanged, and was sent to the gallows at Nuremberg on October 1, 1946.
Ernst Kaltenbrunner excelled in brutal repression and providing human fodder for the concentration camps. He took a personal interest in various methods of execution used in the camps under his aegis and especially in the gas chambers. Under his ruthless prodding, the RSHA organized the hunting down and extermination of several million Jews. During the war he was also responsible for the murder of Allied parachutists and prisoners of war. Kaltenbrunner had a passion for military intelligence and counter-espionage.
Quotations: Kaltenbrunner's last words were: "I have loved my German people and my Fatherland with a warm heart. I have done my duty by the laws of my people and I am sorry that in this hardest of time my people were led by men who were not soldiers and that crimes were committed of which I had no knowledge. Germany, good luck".
Ernst Kaltenbrunner was an alcoholic and a chain-smoker.
Physical Characteristics: A giant of a man, nearly seven feet tall, with massive broad shoulders, huge arms, a thick square chin and deep scars from his student duelling days.
On 14 January 1934, Ernst Kaltenbrunner married Elisabeth Eder (b. 1908) who was from Linz and a Nazi Party member. They 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 (née Wolf). All the children survived the war.