Carl Oberg

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Carl Oberg
Carl Oberg (1).png
HSSPF Carl Oberg as a
SS-Gruppenführer und Generalleutnant der Polizei
Birth name Carl Albrecht Wilhelm Arnold Oberg
Birth date 27 January 1897 (1897-01-27)
Place of birth Hamburg, German Empire
Death date 3 June 1965 (aged 68)
Place of death Flensburg, Schleswig-Holstein,
West Germany
Allegiance  German Empire
 Weimar Republic
 National Socialist Germany
Service/branch Iron Cross of the Luftstreitkräfte.png Imperial German Army
Freikorps Flag.jpg Freikorps
Flag Schutzstaffel.png SS / Police / Waffen-SS
Years of service 1915–1945
Rank SS-Obergruppenführer, General der Polizei and General of the Waffen-SS
Service number NSDAP #575,205
SS rune.png #36,075
Commands held
  • SS and Police Leader (SSPF),
    Radom, General Government
    (August 1941 – May 1942)
  • Higher SS and Police Leader (HSSPF), French State
    (May 1942 – November 1944)
Battles/wars World War I
World War II
Awards War Merit Cross (1939) with Swords
Relations ∞ 1923 Frida Tramm
Other work Merchant

Carl Albrecht Wilhelm Arnold Oberg (also Karl and Carl Albrecht; 27 January 1897 – 3 June 1965) was a German officer and veteran of two world wars, finally SS-Obergruppenführer, General der Polizei and General of the Waffen-SS in World War II.

Life

Carl Oberg (center) in conversation with Pierre Laval (left) and Herbert Hagen, Paris 1943
Leon Degrelle with Karl Oberg in Paris, 1944
Joseph Darnand and Oberg in Paris on 2 July 1944

In August 1914, 17-year-old Carl (Oberprimaner am Hamburger Johanneum) volunteered for the army with the Holsteinisches Feld-Artillerie-Regiment Nr. 24. His enlistment was postponed, he then achieved his emergency war Abitur (Kriegs- or Notabitur) in August 1915 and was subsequently assigned to the artillery, serving as battery officer with Lauenburgisches Feld-Artillerie-Regiment Nr. 45. On 21 September 1916, he was commissioned as a 2nd Lieutenant[1] fighting on the Western Front and was awarded the Iron Cross in both classes.

In 1919, he was discharged and then joined the Freikorps (Freiwillige Wachabteilung Bahrenfeld, renamed Zeitfreiwilligen-Korps Groß-Hamburg in August 1919) until March 1920 after having taken part in the Kapp Putsch. He worked as a merchant for the yeast factory. At the same time, he was managing director of the Escherich Organisation (Organisation Escherich) in 1921. Oberg then worked as a civilian liaison officer between the Reichswehr and patriotic associations in Schleswig-Holstein.

From January 1926 to January 1930, he worked in Hamburg as an import merchant for tropical fruits. In November 1930 he acquired a tobacco shop (“Trinkhalle”) in Hamburg (until 1933). Oberg became a member of the NSDAP on 1 June 1931 and the SS in 1932. In 1932, he went to Munich. There he worked closely with Reinhard Heydrich and became his adjutant. It is assumed that he was Heydrich's right-hand man in the SD at the time. Oberg coordinated the actions during the "Röhm Putsch" together with Werner Best.

He became head of personnel at the SD headquarters in Munich. After disputes with Heydrich, he became commander of the 22nd SS Standarte in Mecklenburg in November 1935 and staff leader of SS Section IV (Hanover) in January 1937. On 20 September 1938, he was appointed police administration officer Hannover. He became SD leader in mid-March 1939. In January 1939, Oberg became acting police chief in Zwickau and was deployed in the same role in Bremen from April 1941.

WWII

During World War II, Oberg was transferred to the General Government as SS and Police Leader (SSPF) in the Radom district from 13 October 1941 to early May 1942. His appointment as SS and Police Leader was scheduled for early August 1941, but Oberg did not arrive in the General Government until mid-October. On 5 May 1942, he was transferred to Paris in occupied France as Higher SS and Police Leader (HSSPF). After being personally inaugurated by Reinhard Heydrich, he took up the post of HSSPF on 1 June 1942. SS-Sturmbannführer Herbert Martin Hagen became his personal advisor. There, he fought primarily against the terror of the French Resistance. In the course of the failed coup d'état on 20 July 1944, six weeks after the Allied invasion of Normandy, Oberg was briefly detained in Paris on orders of the military resistance in Berlin.

“The office of the Higher SS and Police Leader in France, Gruppenführer Oberg, was also near Boulevard Lannes. Major General Walter Brehmer had taken it upon himself to arrest the Gruppenführer. Because of the persistent heat, Oberg was sitting at his desk in his shirt sleeves and talking to Ambassador Abetz on the phone when the general entered and pointed his gun at him. Outraged, Oberg jumped up and called out the meaning of this nonsense. Brehmer replied sharply that the SS had staged a coup in Berlin and declared him arrested. Oberg then surrendered without resistance and also instructed his escort to surrender their weapons. It could only be a misunderstanding.”[2]

After his release, Oberg is said to have behaved very honorably towards those involved. After the occupation of France, Oberg was given a command in the staff of the operations department/Army Group Upper Rhine (later renamed Army Group Vistula) in November 1944, which was directly subordinate to Reichsführer SS Heinrich Himmler. From February to May 1945, he served with the Hauptamt SS-Gericht (Main Office SS Court).

Post-WWII

After the end of the war, in June 1945, Oberg was captured by members of the US Army in a Tyrolean village in the mountains near Kitzbuhel. Oberg was initially sentenced to death in Wuppertal by victor's justice in 1946, but was then deported to France on 10 October 1946, and sentenced to death again in Paris on 9 October 1954 for alleged war crimes. On 20 April 1958, his death sentence was reduced to life imprisonment. The sentence was reduced to 20 years of forced labor at the end of 1959. Oberg was finally pardoned by President Charles de Gaulle, was released on 28 November 1962 and repatriated. According to former French prime minister Pierre Isaac Isidore Mendès Franc, the pardon of Oberg (and SS-Standartenführer Helmut Knochen) was a request of German Chancellor Konrad Adenauer. General (ret.) Oberg then lived in Flensburg, where his family and many old comrades were now staying.

Family

Carl Albrecht Oberg was born in 1897, the son of a physician and professor of medicine Prof. Dr. med. Carl Joseph Gustav Alexander Oberg (1853–1923) and his wife Susanna, née Versmann (1863–1922). He had three older sisters:

  • Charlotte Minna Eleonore Julie Elisabeth (25 March 1888 – 25 May 1969)
  • Bertha Magdalene Susanne (b. 3 July 1890)
  • Hildegard May (14 July 1892 – 15. November 1973)

Marriage

On 30 November 1923 in Husum, Carl Oberg married his fiancé Frida Tramm (b 1901). They had three children, one daughter and two sons.

Promotions

Imperial German Army

  • 1915 Fähnrich (Officer Cadet)
  • 21 September 1916 Leutnant (2nd Lieutenant)

SS

Awards and decorations

Gallery

  • Carl Oberg (3).png
  • Karl Albrecht Oberg, uniform.jpg
  • Carl Oberg.jpg

References

  1. ↑ Dienstalters-Liste der Offiziere der Königlich Preußischen Armee und des XIII. (Königlich Württembergischen) Armeekorps, 1918, p. 182
  2. ↑ Wilhelm von Schramm: Aufstand der Generale. Der 20. Juli 1944 in Paris, p. 113
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