ABSTRACT
Terboven, Josef (1898–1945) Reich Commissar in Norway, Josef Terboven was born in Essen on 23 May 1898, of Roman Catholic parents. After serving as a Lieutenant during World War I, Terboven studied at the Universities of Freiburg and Munich. In 1923 he took part in the Munich putsch. A bank clerk by profession, Terboven joined the SA and the NSDAP in Essen during the late 1920s. In 1930 he was elected one of 107 National Socialist deputies to the Reichstag, representing the electoral district of Düsseldorf West. In 1933 he became a Prussian State Councillor and was appointed Gauleiter of Essen. On 5 February 1935 Terboven was designated Oberpräsident of the Rhine Province and in September 1939 Reich Defence Commissioner for Defence District VI. Following the German invasion of Norway, Terboven was appointed SA-Obergruppenfuhrer and Reich Commissioner for the occupied territory on 24 April 1940, a position he held until the end of the war. Terboven's brutal conduct in Norway was warmly praised by Hitler in his ‘table talk’ (5 May 1942): ‘Terboven knew he would have quicksand under his feet’, the Führer observed, ‘if he did not act ruthlessly.’ His cruelty affected all Norwegians, but after the invasion of Russia was especially directed against the tiny Jewish community, many of whom were either executed or deported to Germany. Terboven committed suicide in May 1945 in Norway.
