Ernst Schlange

Born in Gut Schwaneberg near Prenzlau in the Prussian Province of Brandenburg, Schlange was the eldest son of an estate owner. After attending elementary school and high school, he studied law and political science in Greifswald. In 1913, he was employed as a clerk at the Darmstädter und Nationalbank in Berlin. He earned his Doctor of Law and passed the Great State Legal Examination (German: Große Juristische Staatsprüfung) in Prenzlau in 1914.

By the start of World War I, Schlange had injured his left hand in a hunting accident so could not be drafted. He volunteered for the German Army instead, serving on both the Western Front in 1914 and the Eastern Front in 1915. He was severely wounded on 31 May 1915 at Stepj in Galicia, losing his right arm and right lung. He was awarded the Iron Cross, 1st and 2nd class. He spent nearly four years recuperating in hospitals and served out the rest of the war as a Reserve Oberleutnant in the Kaiser Franz Garde-Grenadier Regiment No. 2. He married in 1917. He was discharged in May 1919.[1]

In 1922 he joined the Deutschsoziale Partei (DtSP) founded by Richard Kunze, a völkisch, anti-Semitic political group and early rival to the Nazi Party. Schlange established local DtSP chapters in Wilmersdorf, Zehlendorf and Steglitz.[2] In 1925 he founded the ephemeral Großdeutsche Volksgemeinschaft in Berlin, but dissolved it in favor of joining the NSDAP when that party regained legal status that same year (membership number 4837).[3]

On 27 March 1925, Schlange was appointed Party Gauleiter in the district of Gross-Berlin.[4] His time in office was marked by disputes over the course of the party. Schlange, a close confidant of Otto Strasser, spoke out against the violent methods of the Sturmabteilung (SA) in Berlin but could not prevail. In particular he was explicitly opposed to SA Frontbann formations. He was not opposed to their political orientation, but rather wanted a more cautious course for the NSDAP and the pursuit of power by legal means. Criticized for his weak leadership style within his own wing of the party, Schlange was placed on leave in February 1926 and resigned from his post on 20 June.[5] Schlange was succeeded by his Deputy Gauleiter, Erich Schmiedicke.[6]

Schlange moved to Potsdam, where he took over the building of the Nazi Party there. In 1932 he was democratically elected to the Prussian Landtag. On 18 October 1930 the NSDAP leadership reappointed him Gauleiter, this time of Gau Brandenburg, succeeding Emil Holtz.[7] Here he ran afoul the Gauleiter of Berlin, Joseph Goebbels. After the Seizure of Power in 1933, Schlange's Gau was merged with Gau Ostmark to form the new Gau Kurmark. The leadership of the new Gau went to Wilhelm Kube, the Gauleiter of Ostmark. Schlange was forced out of his office on 16 March 1933 and lost political influence. He held only minor posts after that: in 1934 he was elected President-General of the Prussian-South German Lottery, appointed to President of the State Gazette in 1935, and Chairman of the Kösener Senioren-Convents-Verband (KSCV) in 1936. On March 10, 1937, Hitler refused Schlange the right to wear his former Gauleiter service uniform.[8] Details of his further life remain unknown.

When the Third Reich collapsed in 1945, Schlange was allegedly seen in a Soviet internment camp in the Spreewald. Another source indicates that he was killed in 1947 at NKVD special camp Nr. 7, a prison set up by the Russians to hold political detainees on the site of the previous Nazi Sachsenhausen concentration camp.[9] According to the KSCV Corps listings and his award of the Iron Cross, Schlange died sometime in 1947.[10]

• Information about Ernst Schlange in the Reichstag database