Christian Frederik von Schalburg (15 April 1906 in Zmeinogorsk, Russian Siberia \u2013 2 June 1942 near Demyansk) was a Danish officer who served on the German side during World War II. He was the leader of Frikorps Danmark. He was married to Helga Schalburg. <\/p>\n
Von Schalburg was born in Zmeinogorsk in Siberia, Russia on 15 April 1906, the son of the Danish landowner and director August Theodor Schalburg and the Russian Elena Vasiljevna. His mother was of Russian nobility, born Starizki von Siemianowska.
As a young man he received military training in the Tsar\u2019s cadet corps in Saint Petersburg. The October Revolution forced the family to flee to Denmark in 1918.
Schalburg was baptised on 10 February 1907 in the Russian Orthodox Church and was given the name Konstantin Feodorovitch Schalburg. It was only on 22 December 1907 that he was baptised into the Lutheran faith and given the name Christian Frederik Schalburg.
The German preposition \u201cvon\u201d (meaning \u201cof\u201d) was not part of his baptismal name. <\/p>\n
In Denmark he continued his military career in the Royal Life Guards, where he became a captain-lieutenant. At the same time, he was active in the youth wing of the National Socialist Workers\u2019 Party of Denmark, where he followed the more bureaucratic A. V. Schubert as national youth leader.
When the Russo-Finnish Winter War broke out in 1939, von Schalburg volunteered to fight against the Red Army. When the Winter War ended, he volunteered for the Waffen-SS and served in the 5th SS Panzergrenadier Division \u201cWiking\u201d.
As he held the rank of captain-lieutenant in Danish military service, he was appointed SS-Hauptsturmf\u00fchrer. During his time in \u201cWiking\u201d he was awarded both the Iron Cross 1st and 2nd Class. <\/p>\n
On 1 March 1942 he took command of Frikorps Danmark as SS-Sturmbannf\u00fchrer (equivalent to major). He trained the corps and was present when it received its baptism of fire in the Demyansk pocket.
The attack was catastrophically planned and cost approximately 20 men their lives. Acknowledging his responsibility, von Schalburg threw himself into direct combat in an attempt to salvage the situation, but was killed when an artillery shell exploded a few meters from him.
It is said that the failed attack was the reason why none of the officers involved received any significant promotions for the rest of the war, despite very heavy losses among the officer corps.
The perception of the Danish officers was quite clear. <\/p>\n
Von Schalburg died on 2 June 1942 when, during an attack, he stepped on a landmine and was hit by shell fragments from Russian artillery. He is buried in the Frikorps Danmark cemetery in Biakowo.
SS Reichsf\u00fchrer Heinrich Himmler posthumously promoted him on 3 June (effective from 1 June 1942) to SS-Obersturmbannf\u00fchrer (equivalent to lieutenant colonel). <\/p>\n
On 18 June 1942 a memorial service was held at the Odd Fellow Palace in Copenhagen, attended among others by Prince Harald, his wife Princess Helena, Prime Minister Buhl, Foreign Minister Scavenius, and Defence Minister Brorsen. King Christian X, however, stayed at home; officially it was stated that he was ill. <\/p>\n
The Schalburg Corps, which was named after him, was a German attempt to replace the Danish army after its dissolution on 29 August 1943. One of its purposes was to combat sabotage.
The German terror actions in the form of bomb attacks against civilian targets were called \u201cschalburgtage.\u201d <\/p>\n
Von Schalburg\u2019s younger sister Vera (b. 1912) lived until 1993. As a young woman she lived in Paris, where she made a living as a dancer and Soviet agent. There she was recruited by the Abwehr and sent to England in 1938.
Von Schalburg was very displeased and believed it would damage both his own and the DNSAP\u2019s reputation if it became known that his sister had served in both Soviet and German intelligence.
In May 1939 he raised the issue with the German minister in Denmark, Renthe-Fink, who arranged for Vera to be recalled from London. She continued as an Abwehr agent in Copenhagen until the night of 30 September 1940, when she was flown by seaplane from Stavanger and landed by rubber boat near Buckie in Scotland.
Along with Vera were the agents Karl Theodor Dr\u00fccke and Werner Waelti. Vera was to return to London as hostess in a fashionable tea salon in Mayfair, frequented by leading politicians.
However, the three agents were quickly arrested, and Dr\u00fccke and Waelti were sentenced for espionage and hanged in Wandsworth Prison. Vera von Schalburg avoided this by entering British service.
She was trained by MI5 officer Klop Ustinov, father of Peter Ustinov. She was then sent to the Isle of Wight, where British prisoners were held, in order to spy on them by pretending to be a fellow inmate.
After the war Vera travelled to Germany but later returned to England, where she lived until her death. <\/p>\n
Kirkeb\u00e6k\u2019s collected memoirs of Schalburg have been published by Mikkel Kirkeb\u00e6k, with reference here for further information: Schalburg \u2013 a patriotic traitor. Gyldendal, 2008. <\/b>
\nThere are countless photos of Schalburg; an excerpt is shown here.<\/b><\/p>\n
After his death, a propaganda stamp featuring his portrait was issued. It was sold by the Schalburg Memorial Foundation. <\/b><\/p>\n
H. T. Nielsen writes in a German military magazine an article (this predates Kirkeb\u00e6k\u2019s book with detailed information).<\/b><\/p>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":2776,"template":"","personer":[106],"class_list":["post-2775","litteratur_og_kilder","type-litteratur_og_kilder","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","personer-christian-frederik-von-schalburg"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/fkdanmark.simsoft.dk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/litteratur_og_kilder\/2775","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/fkdanmark.simsoft.dk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/litteratur_og_kilder"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/fkdanmark.simsoft.dk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/litteratur_og_kilder"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fkdanmark.simsoft.dk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2776"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/fkdanmark.simsoft.dk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2775"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"personer","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fkdanmark.simsoft.dk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/personer?post=2775"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}