Albert Hartl


Albert Hartl was a former Catholic priest in Germany who joined the National Socialist German Workers' Party in 1933 and the Sicherheitsdienst the following year.

Early life and education

Hartl studied for the priesthood from 1916 to 1929 at a seminary in Freising and the University of Munich. He was ordained in 1929 by the Archbishop of Munich Cardinal Michael von Faulhaber and began teaching, including at the Freising seminary.

Career with SD

While teaching at Friesing, Hartl became involved with a group of priests who had joined the Nazi Party, and in 1933 he signed up as a paid SD informant. He reported Father Josef Rossberger, apparently his best friend, for anti-Nazi activity, which led to a trial, Rossberger's imprisonment, and Hartl being taken into protective custody by Richard Heydrich, head of the SD. Following this, Hartl left the priesthood and joined the SD himself. In 1935, according to Gitta Sereny, he became the SD's Chief of Church Information. In March 1941, when the Reich Security Head Office was reorganized, he was placed in charge of a Gestapo office known as IV B. Department IV B4, led by Adolf Eichmann, was the office responsible for the deportation of Jews outside Poland.

Works cited