German Leadership

Reinhard Heydrich's second funeral.

Following his death from septicemia (due to contaminated bits of car seat, metal, uniform etc. lodged in his spleen), Heydrich was laid in state at Prague, before his body was returned to Berlin and a slap-up full-on Nazi state funeral service at the Reich Chancellery. Here, Hitler salutes the Fallen. Eulogies were delivered by Hitler, Himmler and Bormann. Hitler's was the shortest, consisting of high praise for "Comrade Heydrich's" service to the Reich, and an announcement that he had awarded Heydrich the most prestigious political award of the Reich, the German Order (of which Heydrich was the second recipient). The German Order was one of the most exclusive of Third Reich awards. It later came to be known as the "Dead Heroes Medal"; of its 11 recipients, no fewer than 7 were awarded the Order posthumously. Two more were killed shortly after receiving it. Only two lived more than a few weeks after receiving this honour. There is a point of view that Heydrich's death in some ways suited Himmler's purposes, insofar as it rid him of a subordinate who was well on the way to becoming a dangerous rival, and allowed him to regain control of a number of security and policing functions from which the presence of Heydrich virtually excluded him from direct involvement. Perhaps. Himmler certainly seems to have intended such a consolidation when, after months of hesitation, he appointed Kaltenbrunner as head of the RHSA. Kaltenbrunner was not "one of the boys", a member of Heydrich's inner circle, and (in spite of his legal qualifications) was not on Heydrich's intellectual level. However, he was (unlike Heydrich, one suspects) a truly fanatical National Socialist, and a "graduate" of the particularly terroristic "school" that was the pre-Anschluss Austrian SS. Also, Himmler did not have over Kaltenbrunner the admittedly tenuous hold given him over Heydrich by the persistent rumours of the latter's alleged Jewish origins. In the end, it seems that Himmler came to fear the brutal, fanatical Kaltenbrunner more than he ever had Heydrich. Schellenberg, head of SD foreign intelligence (admittedly not the most reliable source), reported a conversation with Himmler near the end of the war in which they discussed the possibility of sending out peace feelers to the "western Allies". Himmler's reaction, apparently, was on the lines, "But what would Kaltenbrunner do ?". Best regards, JR.