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Friedrich Karl Freiherr von Eberstein (14 January 1894 – 10 February 1979) was a member of the German nobility, early member of the Nazi Party, the SA, and the SS (introducing Reinhard Heydrich to Heinrich Himmler in July 1931). He was elected to the Reichstag and held the position of the chief of the Munich Police during the Nazi era. Eberstein was a witness at the Nuremberg Trials.
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Friedrich Karl Freiherr von Eberstein (14 January 1894 – 10 February 1979) was a member of the German nobility, early member of the Nazi Party, the SA, and the SS (introducing Reinhard Heydrich to Heinrich Himmler in July 1931). He was elected to the Reichstag and held the position of the chief of the Munich Police during the Nazi era. Eberstein was a witness at the Nuremberg Trials.
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Early life and career Eberstein was born on 14 January 1894 in Halle on the Saale, of the Dillenburger branch of the von Eberstein family. His father was an army Major. Eberstein attended the Royal Prussian cadet schools at Naumburg and Lichterfelde between 1904 and 1912. He then studied agriculture at the University of Halle until the outbreak of the First World War in August 1914. He enlisted as a war volunteer with the 75th Field Artillery Regiment. He served as a battery commander in the field with the 17th Field Artillery Regiment as a Leutnant of reserves, and earned the Iron Cross, 1st and 2nd class. He was also a balloon observer. After the end of the war, Eberstein fought as a member of the Freikorps Maercker in Wittenberg in central Germany and the Freikorps Rossbach, with which he participated in the Kapp Putsch of March 1920 that attempted to overthrow the recently established Weimar Republic. He also began an apprenticeship in banking. He served in the Reichswehr as a battery chief in Artillery Regiment 16 but was discharged from the military in July 1920 in the wake of the Kapp Putsch. He joined the Halle Schutzpolizei (protection police)…
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Heydrich and Himmler Eberstein played a part in the first meeting of the two major leaders of both the SS and later the Holocaust: Reinhard Heydrich and Heinrich Himmler. Eberstein and Heydrich's families were both from Halle on the Saale. His mother was Heydrich's godmother. He was also a friend of Lina Heydrich, Reinhard Heydrich's wife. Acting on the advice of Karl von Eberstein, Himmler agreed to interview Heydrich. When Himmler cancelled Heydrich's interview in Munich due to alleged illness, Lina ignored the message, and sent Heydrich on a Munich bound train. Karl met Heydrich at the station and drove him to meet Himmler. Himmler received Heydrich and hired him as the chief of the new SS 'Ic Service' or Intelligence Service, which would later become known as the Sicherheitsdienst (SD).
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Role during Kristallnacht Eberstein was the police president of Munich during Kristallnacht. On 10 November 1938, at 1:20 a.m., Heydrich sent out a telegram to various police organizations giving orders for police behavior during the riots. At 2:10 Eberstein sent a telegram to the State Police HQ of Augsburg, Nürnberg, Würzburg, and Neustadt a.d. Weinstraße, the Regierungspräsident, and the Gauleiter, with the subject line "Anti-Jewish Measures". It relayed orders "from the Berlin HQ of the State Police", saying that "Anti-Jewish demonstrations" would occur, with synagogues and Jewish communal centers as targets, and that the demonstrations were not to be interfered with, except to prevent looting and excesses. The Ordnungspolizei or Orpo (uniform order police) would "...do nothing to hinder the demonstrations", but the criminal police and state police would wear plain-clothes. The SS troops could help, but the state police was supposed to maintain control. It went on to state that between 20 and 30,000 Jews would be arrested in Germany. It concluded: "...Every effort will be made to arrest immediately as many Jews as the jails will hold, primarily healthy male and well-to-do adults of not too advanced age". A document from Beutel (probably Lothar Beutel), HQ of State…
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Dismissal from posts Karl von Eberstein was dismissed from all posts on 20 April 1945 for "defeatism", by Gauleiter Paul Giesler, on orders from Martin Bormann. The charge of "defeatism" was made because he refused to support orders from the high command that prisoners held in camps within his administrative command be killed. Eberstein was arrested by American forces on 8 May 1945 and held until October 1948 in several internment camps including, for a time, Dachau.
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Nuremberg testimony Eberstein was a witness at the Nuremberg Trials. He was interviewed by Horst Pelckmann, counsel for the SS, and Major F Elwyn Jones, junior counsel for the United Kingdom. In his testimony, Eberstein gave organizational and historical information about the SS, the SA, their relationship with the German nobility, the Nazi Party, the SD (Security Service) and the Gestapo (Secret State Police). Eberstein claimed that the SS was not, in the view of his peers, a criminal organization, it was not created for purposes of violence, did not participate in the invasion of Austria, that he knew nothing of SS participation in the invasions of France, Belgium, Russia, Poland and others. He also stated that "my men" in the Allgemeine-SS (general SS) did not mention atrocities when home from "front leave". With regard to his personal place in the chain of command, Eberstein stated that as a Police President, he had control over 1700 men in the Schutzpolizei (Protection Police), Ordnungspolizei (Order Police), and Kriminalpolizei (Criminal Police). He claimed the "chiefs of police had nothing to do with the political police or the security service" (meaning the Gestapo, and the SD). It is unclear from this translation if…
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Denazification The denazification of Germany included the classification of ex-Nazis into one of five categories. On 15 November 1948, Eberstein was classified by a German denazification court into class III (lesser offender) and ordered to forfeit 30 percent of his wealth. No additional jail time was ordered, because he was given credit for the three and half-years internment under the Allies. After some additional legal procedures, Eberstein was temporarily placed into a more serious category of class II (incriminated person). However, on 19 February 1953, he was finally classified in the less-serious category IV of Mitläufer, which can be roughly translated as "follower or sympathizer". Other criminal investigations of Eberstein were without consequences, including preliminary investigations in 1950 and 1961 by prosecuting authorities in Munich of charges that Eberstein had ordered or participated in the murders of prisoners of war.
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Timeline 1913 to 1914. University of Halle (Saale)
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1915. Leutnant of reserves 1918–? no later than early 1920s. Freikorps in central Germany and Upper Silesia.
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1930–1931. City council member, Gotha 1930 Jul – Jan 1931. Joined SA. On staff of Gausturms in Weimar.
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1931 Nov 15. SA-Oberführer 1931 Nov – 1932 Jul. Gau SA-Sturmführer for Munchen Oberbayern 1931 Nov 15 – 1932 Apr 13. SA Gausturm / Untergruppe München 1932 July 1 – 1933 Feb 19. Führer for SA Gruppe Hochland
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1933 Feb. Leaves SA 1933 Feb 21 – 1933 Sept 9. SS-Gruppenführer, and Führer of SS-Abschnitt XVIII (HQ in Weimar) 1933 Mar 5. Elected to the Reichstag 1933 Nov 15 – 1934 May 1. Führer for SS-Oberabschnitt Mitte (Halle) with 10-15,000 men under command 1933. Located in Weimar, Thuringia. In Staatsrat in Thuringia. Delegate to the Nazi Reichstag for the 8th 'session' (Wahlperiod) 1934 May 1 – 1936 Apr 1. Führer for SS-Oberabschnitt Elbe (which had absorbed Mitte) 1934 June 30. (Night of the Long Knives) - in Dresden 1934 Dec 15 to 1936 Mar 31. District Governor (Kreishauptmann), Dresden-Bautzen
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1936 January 30. Becomes SS-Obergruppenführer 1936 April 1. Führer of SS-Oberabschnitt Süd. Police president of Munich 1938 Mar 12 to 1942 Dec 17. HSSPF 'Main' (Benno Martin was de facto HSSPF) 1938 Apr 12 to 1945 Apr 20. HSSPF 'Süd' 1938 Nov 9-10. In chain of command for orders implementing (Kristallnacht).
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1941 Apr 8. General der Polizei 1942 Oct – 1945 Apr. Worked in Bavarian State Ministry of the Interior
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1944 Jul 1. General der Waffen-SS 1944 Nov. 1200 SS men left in his Oberabschnitt, none available for SS work 1945 early Feb. Dismissed, replaced by Vogler as temporary substitute for HSSPF and Oberabschnitt Führer Süd 1945 Apr 20. Relieved of all posts for 'defeatism' 1946 August 3 & 5. Nuremberg Trial witness, by which time he had been under arrest for 15 months 1979 Feb 10. Died in Tegernsee, Bavaria.
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Awards and decorations Iron Cross of 1914, 1st and 2nd class