Anton von Hohberg und Buchwald


Anton Freiherr von Hohberg und Buchwald was a German officer in Prussian Army and also in the Schutzstaffel. He was murdered on 2 July 1934.

Life

Hohberg was born in Wismar, Mecklenburg-Schwerin, and started a career as a Cavalry officer in the German Imperial Army. He served throughout World War I as a Rittmeister and was retired after 1918. After his dismissal, he went to his family's manor in Dulzen near Preussisch Eylau, East Prussia, where he started to work as a farmer. In 1909 he married Gertrud von Rheinbaben, daughter of Prussian Minister of Interior and Finances, but divorced in 1912 after a duel with Horst von Blumenthal, whom she then married. Around 1930 he joined the National Socialist German Workers' Party and was temporarily a member of the staff of East Prussian SS leader Erich von dem Bach–Zelewski, but came into personal conflicts with him.
On 14 May 1934 Hohberg was dismissed as SS–Oberabschnittsreiterführer with a rank of SS-Obersturmführer. During the Night of the Long Knives, von dem Bach gave the order to kill Hohberg. Most probably on 2 July 1934, Hohberg was shot in his manor house in Dulzen by SS-Scharführer Zummach and SS-Obersturmführer Carl Reinhard. Hohberg was one of the few SS-members, and probably the highest-ranking one, killed in the Röhm-Putsch.

Aftermath

Von dem Bach-Zelewski was a high-ranking SS-officer throughout World War II. On 16 January 1961 he was sentenced to four and a half years imprisonment by a West German court for the Hohberg murder. He died in prison in 1972.