Josef Antonius Heinrich Terboven (May 23, 1898 -
May 8, 1945) was a
Nazi leader, best
known as the
Reichskommissar during
the
German military
occupation of Norway.
Early life
Terboven
was born in Essen
, the son of
minor landed gentry. He served in the German
field artillery and nascent
air force in
World War
I and was awarded the
Iron Cross,
rising to the rank of lieutenant.
He studied law and political science at
the universities of Munich
and Freiburg
, where he
first got involved in politics.
Dropping
out of the university in 1923, Terboven joined the NSDAP with member number 25247 and participated
in the abortive Beer Hall
Putsch
in Munich. When the NSDAP was subsequently
outlawed, he found work at a bank for a few years before being laid
off in 1925.
Nazism
He then went to work full-time for the
Nazi
party. Terboven helped establish the party in Essen and became
Gauleiter there in 1928.
He was part of the
Sturmabteilung
from 1925. On June 29, 1934, Terboven
married Ilse Stahl,
Joseph Goebbels'
former secretary and mistress.
Adolf
Hitler was the guest of honor at the wedding.
Terboven was made
Oberpräsident der Rheinprovinz
in 1935 and earned a reputation as a petty and
ruthless ruler. See Martial law in Trondheim in
1942 and Telavåg
.
Rule of Norway
He was
made Reichskommissar of Norway
on April 24,
1940, even before the military invasion was completed on 7 June
1940. He moved into the Norwegian crown prince's
residence at Skaugum
in September
1940 and made his headquarters in Stortinget
(the Norwegian parliament buildings).
Although the Nazi authorities instituted a puppet Norwegian regime
through the
Quisling cabinet,
Terboven ruled Norway as a dictator. Terboven did not have
authority over the 400,000 regular German Army forces stationed in
Norway, but did command a force of 6,000, of whom 800 were part of
the secret police. His aspiration was to set up Fortress Norway
(
Festung Norwegen) for the Nazi
regime's last stand.
He also planned to set up concentration camps in Norway,
establishing Falstad concentration camp
near Levanger
and Bredtvet concentration camp
in Oslo
in late
1941.
Terboven was hated by the Norwegians and earned little respect
among fellow Germans. Even
Goebbels
showed anger in his diary toward what he called Terboven's
"bullying tactics" against the Norwegians. Terboven nervetheless
remained in charge of Norway until 1945, even after the
proclamation of the
Quisling
government.
With the
announcement of Germany's
surrender, Terboven committed suicide on May 8, 1945 by
detonating 50 kg dynamite in a bunker on the Skaugum
compound. He died alongside the body of Obergruppenführer Wilhelm Rediess, SS and Police Leader and commander of
all SS
troops in
Norway, who had shot himself earlier.
Sources and references
(incomplete)