43 Facts About Josef Terboven

Josef Antonius Heinrich Terboven was a German Nazi Party official and politician who was the long-serving Gauleiter of Gau Essen and the Reichskommissar for Norway during the German occupation.

Josef Terboven joined the Nazi Party in 1923, participated in the Beer Hall Putsch and eventually rose through the ranks to become the Gauleiter of Essen and the editor of various Nazi newspapers.

Josef Terboven established multiple concentration camps in Norway, ruthlessly persecuted the Jewish population and focused on crushing the Norwegian resistance movement.

Josef Terboven's actions led to numerous atrocities, such as the Beisfjord massacre in which hundreds of Yugoslavian political prisoners and prisoners-of-war were murdered.

Josef Terboven hoped to turn Norway into a fortress for the Nazi regime's last stand.

On 8 May 1945, the day of Germany's surrender, Josef Terboven died of suicide by detonating 50 kg of dynamite in a bunker on the Skaugum compound in Norway.

Josef Terboven's family survived in West Germany, and his wife, Ilse Terboven died in 1972.

Josef Terboven was born in Essen, the son of minor landed gentry of Dutch descent.

Josef Terboven attended Volksschule and Realschule in Essen until 1915 and then volunteered for military service in the First World War.

Josef Terboven served with Feldartillerie Regiment 9 and then with the nascent air force.

Josef Terboven was awarded the Iron Cross, 1st and 2nd class, and attained the rank of Leutnant before being discharged on 22 December 1918.

Josef Terboven studied law and political science at the University of Munich and the University of Freiburg, where he first got involved in politics.

Josef Terboven dropped out of the university in 1922 without earning a degree and trained as a bank official in Essen, working as a bank clerk through June 1925.

Josef Terboven joined the Nazi Party in November 1923 with membership number 25,247 and participated in the abortive Beer Hall Putsch in Munich.

Josef Terboven joined the Sturmabteilung becoming the SA-Fuhrer in Essen.

Josef Terboven formally re-enrolled in the Party on 15 December 1925.

From 1927 to December 1930, Josef Terboven was the editor of the weekly Nazi newspaper The New Front: The Weekly Sheet of the Working People.

However, on 1 August 1930 the Essen district officially was raised to Gau status and Josef Terboven was named Gauleiter.

Josef Terboven would retain this post throughout the Nazi regime.

In 1930, Josef Terboven became a City Councilor in Essen and a member of the Provincial Landtag of the Rhine Province until it was dissolved in 1933.

On 14 September 1930, Josef Terboven was elected to the Reichstag from electoral constituency 23, Dusseldorf-West; he would serve as a Reichstag deputy until the end of the Nazi regime.

From 15 December 1930, Josef Terboven was the editor of the National-Zeiting in Essen.

On 28 June 1934, Josef Terboven married Ilse Stahl, Joseph Goebbels's former secretary and mistress.

On 5 February 1935, Josef Terboven was appointed Oberprasident of Prussia's Rhine Province which included Gau Essen and three other Gaue.

Josef Terboven thus united under his control the highest party and governmental offices within his jurisdiction.

On 27 April 1935 Josef Terboven received the Golden Party Badge.

Josef Terboven was promoted to the rank of SA-Obergruppenfuhrer on 9 November 1936.

On 16 November 1942, the jurisdiction of the Reich Defense Commissioners was changed from the Wehrkreis to the Gau level and Josef Terboven remained Commissioner for only his Gau of Essen.

Josef Terboven was named Reichskommissar for Norway on 24 April 1940 even before the military invasion's completion on 10 June.

Josef Terboven moved into Skaugum, the official residence of Crown Prince Olav, in September 1940 and made his headquarters in the Norwegian Parliament building.

Josef Terboven was responsible to no one but Hitler, and within the Nazi governmental hierarchy, his office stood on the same level as the Reich Ministries.

Josef Terboven regarded himself as virtually an autonomous viceroy with what he termed "limitless power of command".

Reichskommissar Josef Terboven had supervisory authority over only the German civilian administration, which was very small and did not rule Norway directly.

On 25 September 1940, Josef Terboven dismissed the Administrative Council and appointed a thirteen-member Provisional State Council to administer affairs.

All the members were Josef Terboven's hand-picked appointees and worked under his control and supervision.

Josef Terboven therefore remained in ultimate charge of Norway until the end of the war in 1945, even after he had permitted the formation of a Norwegian puppet regime on 1 February 1942 under Quisling as minister-president, the so-called Quisling government.

Josef Terboven did not have authority over the 400,000 regular German Army forces that were stationed in Norway which were under the command of Generaloberst Nikolaus von Falkenhorst, but he commanded a personal force of around 6,000 men of whom 800 were part of the secret police.

In contrast to the military forces commanded by Falkenhorst, which aimed to reach an understanding with the Norwegian people and were under orders by Falkenhorst to treat Norwegians with courtesy, Josef Terboven behaved in a petty and ruthless way and was widely disliked not only by the Norwegians but by many Germans.

Josef Terboven established multiple concentration camps in Norway, including Falstad concentration camp near Levanger and Bredtvet concentration camp in Oslo in late 1941.

From 1941, Josef Terboven increasingly focused on crushing the Norwegian resistance movement, which engaged in acts of sabotage and assassination against the Germans.

In October 1944, in response to the Red Army advance in to the Finnmark region of northern Norway, Josef Terboven instituted a scorched earth policy that resulted in the forced evacuation of 50,000 Norwegians and widespread destruction, including the burning of 10,000 homes; 4700 farms; and hundreds of schools, churches, shops and industrial buildings.

Josef Terboven died alongside the body of SS-Obergruppenfuhrer Rediess, who had shot himself earlier.

Josef Terboven's family survived in West Germany, although his daughter, Inga, in an event in 1964 unrelated to her father's history, killed her two-year-old daughter by strangulation.