Baldur Benedikt von Schirach (9 May 1907 – 8 August 1974) was a German politician who served as head of the Hitler Youth from 1931 to 1940. From 1940 to 1945, he was the Gauleiter (district leader) and Reichsstatthalter (Reich governor) of Vienna.
A member of the Nazi Party from the age of 18, Schirach was named national youth leader of the party in 1931. In 1932, he was elected as a deputy to the Reichstag. After Adolf Hitler became Chancellor of Germany in 1933, he was appointed Jugendführer (Youth Leader) of the German Reich, responsible for all youth organizations in the nation. In 1940, Schirach saw action as an infantryman in the French Campaign, for which he was awarded the Iron Cross, 2nd Class. In 1940, Schirach was appointed Gauleiter of the Reichsgau Vienna; Artur Axmann succeeded him as leader of the Hitler Youth. A virulent antisemite, he was responsible for deporting 65,000 Viennese Jews to various Nazi concentration camps in German-occupied Poland.
In April 1945, facing Red Army advance, Schirach fled from Vienna to Tyrol, where he later surrendered to American forces. At the Nuremberg trials, he was convicted of crimes against humanity and sentenced to 20 years in prison. After completing his sentence at Spandau in 1966, Schirach retired to Southern Germany. He died in 1974 at the age of 67.
Early life and family
Schirach was born in Berlin, the youngest of four children of theatre director, grand ducal chamberlain and retired captain of the cavalry Carl Baily Norris von Schirach (1873–1948) and his American wife Emma Middleton Lynah Tillou (1872–1944). A member of the noble Schirach family, of Sorbian West Slavic origins, three of his four grandparents were from the United States, chiefly from Pennsylvania. English was the first language he learned at home and he did not learn to speak German until the age of six. He had two sisters, Viktoria Benedikta and the opera singer Rosalind von Schirach, and a brother, Karl Benedict von Schirach. His brother committed suicide in 1919 at the age of 19.
Schirach was educated at the Wilhelm-Ernst-Gymnasium from 1916 to 1917, followed by the "Forest Pedagogium" boarding school at Bad Berka. This was inspired by a similar school founded by Hermann Lietz. He then returned to Weimar where he attended the Realgymnasium at Museumplatz 3.
On 31 March 1932 Schirach married the 19-year-old Henriette Hoffmann, the daughter of Heinrich Hoffmann, Adolf Hitler's personal photographer and friend. Schirach's family was at first vehemently opposed to this marriage, but Hitler insisted. Otto Strasser dismissively described Schirach as "a young effeminate". Through this relationship, Schirach became part of Hitler's inner circle. The young couple were welcome guests at Hitler's "Berghof" holiday home. Henriette von Schirach gave birth to four children: Angelika Benedikta von Schirach (born 1933), lawyer Klaus von Schirach (born 1935), businessman Robert von Schirach (1938–1980) and sinologist Richard von Schirach (1942–2023). Robert had a son, the lawyer and best-selling German crime-fiction writer Ferdinand von Schirach. Richard had children Ariadne von Schirach, philosopher and critic, and Benedict Wells, a novelist.
Nazi Party career
Reich youth leader
Schirach joined a Wehrjugendgruppe (paramilitary youth group) at the age of seventeen, the youth division of the . He first met Hitler aged seventeen, when Hitler gave a speech in Weimar and Schirach was assigned guard duty. Schirach considered this the strongest speech he ever heard from Hitler, and paid attention to the sound of his voice, "deep and raw, resonant like a cello." Schirach wrote a poem about the encounter, which was published in Hans Severus Ziegler's newspaper Der Nationalsozialist. It was set to music by Gerhard Pallman and published in several songbooks. Schirach later described it as one of his "many bad poems". In October 1924, Hitler again visited Weimar, and visited the home of Schirach's father.