Friedrich Karl Freiherr von Eberstein (14 January 1894 – 10 February 1979) was a member of the German nobility, early member of the Nazi Party, the SA, and the SS (introducing Reinhard Heydrich to Heinrich Himmler in July 1931). He was elected to the Reichstag and held the position of the chief of the Munich Police during the Nazi era. Eberstein was a witness at the Nuremberg Trials.
Early life and career
Eberstein was born on 14 January 1894 in Halle on the Saale, of the Dillenburger branch of the von Eberstein family. His father was an army major. Karl was at cadet schools until 1912. Early on in World War I, Karl served in the German Army with Field Artillery Regiment 17 in August 1914. He was also a balloon observer, and later a battery commander in Artillery Regiment 16. He was awarded the Iron Cross Second Class and the Iron Cross First Class. After World War I, Eberstein fought as a member of the Freikorps in Middle Germany and/or Upper Silesia, and also with the Halle "Protection Police". After that, he went into banking.
Eberstein joined the Nazi Party in 1922, but quit after the failed Beer Hall Putsch in November 1923. He then re-joined the Party in 1925 with number: 15067. He was an early member of the SS (membership number: 1386) and on the staff of Heinrich Himmler. According to Jonathan Petropoulos, Eberstein was part of Himmler's strategy to attract members of the nobility and aristocracy to the SS. Eberstein obtained the officer rank SS-Sturmführer on 1 April 1929. He also joined the SA in July 1930, but left it in February 1933.
Eberstein eventually reached the high rank of SS-Obergruppenführer, held two HSSPF posts, and was the Führer of SS-Oberabschnitt Mitte (and Elbe when Mitte was absorbed), and then later Führer of SS-Oberabschnitt Süd for over 10 years.
Heydrich and Himmler
Eberstein played a part in the first meeting of the two major leaders of both the SS and later the Holocaust: Reinhard Heydrich and Heinrich Himmler. Eberstein and Heydrich's families were both from Halle on the Saale. His mother was Heydrich's godmother. He was also a friend of Lina Heydrich, Reinhard Heydrich's wife. Acting on the advice of Karl von Eberstein, Himmler agreed to interview Heydrich. When Himmler cancelled Heydrich's interview in Munich due to alleged illness, Lina ignored the message, and sent Heydrich on a Munich bound train. Karl met Heydrich at the station and drove him to meet Himmler. Himmler received Heydrich and hired him as the chief of the new SS 'Ic Service' or Intelligence Service, which would later become known as the Sicherheitsdienst (SD).
Role during Kristallnacht
Eberstein was the police president of Munich during Kristallnacht. On 10 November 1938, at 1:20 a.m., Heydrich sent out a telegram to various police organizations giving orders for police behavior during the riots. At 2:10 Eberstein sent a telegram to the State Police HQ of Augsburg, Nürnberg, Würzburg, and Neustadt a.d. Weinstraße, the Regierungspräsident, and the Gauleiter, with the subject line "Anti-Jewish Measures". It relayed orders "from the Berlin HQ of the State Police", saying that "Anti-Jewish demonstrations" would occur, with synagogues and Jewish communal centers as targets, and that the demonstrations were not to be interfered with, except to prevent looting and excesses. The Ordnungspolizei or Orpo (uniform order police) would "...do nothing to hinder the demonstrations", but the criminal police and state police would wear plain-clothes. The SS troops could help, but the state police was supposed to maintain control. It went on to state that between 20 and 30,000 Jews would be arrested in Germany. It concluded: "...Every effort will be made to arrest immediately as many Jews as the jails will hold, primarily healthy male and well-to-do adults of not too advanced age". A document from Beutel (probably Lothar Beutel), HQ of State Police Munich, six minutes later, stated that "officers of the state and criminal police" would accompany the demonstrators in plain-clothes, allow them to destroy Jewish shops and homes, but to prevent looting, after which the Orpo would secure the destroyed buildings.