16 Facts About Herbert Klemm

Herbert Klemm was a German lawyer and SA-Oberfuhrer who was a protege of high-ranking Nazi officials Martin Bormann and Otto Thierack.

Herbert Klemm rose through the Nazi Party and government ranks to become the State Secretary in the Reich Ministry of Justice in Nazi Germany.

Herbert Klemm served in the short-lived Flensburg government in May 1945 as the acting Reichsminister for Justice.

Herbert Klemm was tried, convicted and sentenced to life imprisonment for war crimes and crimes against humanity in the Judges' Trial at Nuremberg in 1947.

Herbert Klemm's sentence was commuted and he was released in 1957.

Herbert Klemm passed the Referendar examination in 1925, completed a legal clerkship, passed the Assessor examination in 1929 and then worked for the public prosecutor's office in Dresden until 1935.

From March 1933 through March 1935, Klemm was employed at the Ministry of Justice in the state of Saxony as the personal advisor and adjutant to the Saxon Minister of Justice, Otto Thierack.

Herbert Klemm was from March 1933 a public prosecutor in Saxony and, from May 1934, he held the office of Chief Public Prosecutor.

In July 1940, after the conquest of the Netherlands, Herbert Klemm was assigned to the Reichskommissariat Niederlande under Arthur Seyss-Inquart, where he dealt with the administration of German civil law and served as a liaison between the German administration and the Dutch Ministry of Justice in The Hague.

Herbert Klemm was friends with Martin Bormann, who was the chief of staff to Deputy Fuhrer Rudolf Hess at the Munich headquarters of the Nazi Party.

On 17 March 1941, Herbert Klemm secured an appointment to this office as the head of Department III-C, which dealt with reviewing laws and ordinances proposed by the Ministry of Justice.

On 4 January 1944, Herbert Klemm succeeded Curt Rothenberger as the State Secretary in the Reich Justice Ministry, which was now headed by his former patron Thierack, as Reichsminister.

In September 1944, Herbert Klemm was appointed as the deputy head of the National Socialist Association of Legal Professionals, headed by Thierack, and to which he had belonged since 1933.

On 5 May 1945, when the cabinet of the so-called Flensburg government was formed by Leading Minister Lutz Schwerin von Krosigk, Thierack was dismissed and Herbert Klemm succeeded him as acting Reichsminister of Justice.

Herbert Klemm was arrested by British occupation troops along with all of the Flensburg government on 23 May 1945.

Herbert Klemm's sentence was commuted to 20 years and, on 14 February 1957, he was released from Landsberg prison and settled in Bredeney, a borough of Essen.