Austrian SS leader who succeeded Heydrich as head of the Reich Security Main Office, Gestapo included, from 1943 to 1945
Born in Ried im Innkreis, Austria, he took a doctorate in law at Graz in 1926 and joined the Nazi Party in 1930 and the SS in 1931. After the failed July Putsch of 1934 he was interned and sentenced for high treason; by 1935 he led the Austrian SS. He helped bring about the Anschluss in 1938, serving as state secretary for public security in Seyss-Inquart’s cabinet, then commanded the SS and police in Austria. In January 1943 he succeeded the assassinated Heydrich as chief of the Reich Security Main Office, which included the Gestapo, Kripo and SD, and until the war’s end coordinated the killings of the Holocaust and the suppression of resistance in occupied Europe; he was also president of Interpol. The highest-ranking SS member tried at Nuremberg, he was hanged on 16 October 1946.
Activities and affiliations
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1930–1945
Security, intelligence and policing
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1938
Austria state institutionsState Secretary for Public Security
Security, intelligence and policing -
1943–1945
Schutzstaffel (SS)Chief of the Reich Security Main OfficeMain
Security, intelligence and policing