Background
Karl Kaufmann was born in Krefeld on 10 October 1900, of Roman Catholic parents.
Karl Kaufmann was born in Krefeld on 10 October 1900, of Roman Catholic parents.
After serving in World War I, in 1920 he joined the Erhardt Freikorps Brigade in Upper Silesia and the Ruhr. One of the co-founders of the NSDAP in the Ruhr in 1921, he was appointed Gauleiter of the Rhineland district three years later, a position he held until 1928.
From 1928 until 1930 he was a member of the NSDAP faction in the Prussian legislature and in 1930 he was elected as a delegate to the Reichstag. In the same year he was dismissed from all his Party appointments as a result of accusations dating back several years that he had embezzled Party funds, blackmailed political opponents and worn an Iron Cross that had never been awarded to him.
In 1933 he was reinstated as district leader and appointed Reichsstatthalter of Hamburg, a position he held until the end of the war.
He took an active part in the atrocities in Fuhlsbüttel concentration camp. In 1941 Kaufmann was promoted to SS-Obergruppenfuhrer and a year later he was appointed Reich Commissioner for Overseas Shipping.
After the war, Kaufmann lived as a businessman in Hamburg until an investigation in 1948 led to a sentence of one year and two months. On 22 April 1949 he was released on health grounds from British internment.
Arrested by the Hamburg authorities on 3 August 1950, he was set free soon afterwards. Arrested once again on 5 January 1953 on account of his associations with other Nazi chiefs, he was released on 29 March 1953.