ABSTRACT
Rademacher, Franz (1906–73) Head of the ‘Germany’ III Department (Abteilung Deutschland) under Martin Luther (q.v.) during World War II and the ‘Jewish expert’ in the German Foreign Office, Franz Rademacher was born on 20 February 1906 in Neustrelitz, Mecklenburg, the son of a locomotive engineer. After attending a humanistic Gymnasium in Rostock, Rademacher studied law at the Universities of Munich and Rostock, passing his second Staatsprüfung (State examination) in April 1932 and becoming an assistant judge. A member of the NSDAP from March 1933 (he joined the SA in the summer of 1932 but left two years later), Rademacher entered the Foreign Office as Legation Secretary at the end of 1937. In 1938 he was assigned as chargé d'affaires to the German embassy in Montevideo, Uruguay, a post he held until in May 1940 he returned to Germany, taking over the Jewish Referat in Abteilung Deutschland under Martin Luther. A career-minded bureaucrat who brandished his pseudo-scientific anti-semitism very conspicuously, Rademacher was closely involved in the planning for the ‘Final Solution’ during the three years he served under Luther.
