Reinhard Heydrich

Origin

Reinhard Heydrich was born in Halle an der Saale, the son of a wealthy Catholic composer. Throughout his life he faced rumours that he was Jewish. He was a skilled violin player, a talent that he would showcase throughout his life. He was also intelligent and a skilled fencer and athlete. He took readily to the patriotic ideals of his father, a German nationalist.

He was only 10-years-old when World War I began, and as such was unable to enlist. He did sign up for Maercker's Volunteer Rifles, a branch of the Freikorps, which was a heavily right-wing paramilitary group. As well, he became a member of the Deutschvolkischer Schutz und Trusztbund, which was an anti-Semitic organization. He joined the Navy in 1922 at the age of 18, becoming a navel cadet in Kiel where he was unpopular due to rumours of Jewish ancestry. He was promoted to ensign in 1926 and placed aboard the battleship Schleswig Holstein, where he found himself in power over those who had tormented him. He used his position for revenge.

He was a notorious flirt, and when he became engaged to the woman who would be his wife, Lina von Osten, in 1930, a former lover became enraged and lodged a complaint against him. The formal charge was "conduct unbecoming an officer and a gentleman". He was exonerated, but ultimately dismissed from his post in 1931.

Character Evolution

In 1931 Heydrich was able to obtain an interview with Heinrich Himmler through a friend of his wife, Lina. Himmler was impressed and hired Heydrich to create and manage the counterintelligence wing of the Schutzstaffel (SS). It was at this point that Heydrich became a member of the Nazi party. He set up headquarters in Munich and quickly became a force to be reckoned with, creating vast spy networks and amassing a huge collection of cross-referenced index cards that could be used to blackmail or bring down opponents to the Nazi party, as well as some high-ranking members. Late in 1931 Heydrich was promoted to the position of SS major.

In 1932 his supposed Jewish origins were revealed and his enemies attempted to use them to destabilize his power. He was investigated thoroughly by the "genealogy expert" who determined he had no such relations. Nonetheless, this rumor was used by Adolf Hitler, Himmler and other superiors in the Nazi party to control Heydrich, who they believed, correctly, would follow any order given blindly out of gratitude for being allowed to remain in the party.

By the summer of 1932 Heydrich's counterintelligence force was a powerful force of intimidation and terror. In 1933 when Hitler became chancellor Heydrich used his supply of information to imprison a number of dissenters. These dissenters were so great in number that they overflowed the prisons, causing the first concentration camps to be built. In 1934 when Himmler and Hermann Goring declared an uneasy truce in order to counter the threat posed by the Sturmabteilung (SA), Heydrich created "evidence" to convince Hitler that the head of the SA, Ernst Rohm, was attempting to overthrow him. This push for he purging of the SA led to the Night of the Long Knives, which allowed Heydrich full control of the Gestapo which he quickly turned into a machine of fear. Along with Himmler, he shaped Germany into a police state terrorized by his all-powerful police force.

In 1936, Heydrich had control of the Sicherheitspolizei (SiPo), consisting of the Gestapo, and the Kriminalpolizei (KriPo). By 1939 he had unified the SiPo and the Sicherheitsdienst (SD) under the Reich Main Security Office, with himself as the Chief of the Security Police and SD. In August of 1940 he was made President of Interpol. In 1941 he was promoted to SS-Obergruppenfuhrer und General de Polizei. Later in 1941 he was appointed Stellvertretender Reichsprotektor of the Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia. While there he suppressed the Black Market and established unemployment insurance, as well as torturing and killing any opposition or rebels. He was, essentially, military dictator of this region for his time there.

On May 27th, 1942 as assassination attempt was made on him in Prague. He slipped into a coma shortly afterwards from injuries sustained in the attempt and passed away in the early hours of the morning on June 4th, 1942 from septicemia.