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Ernst von Salomon (25 September 1902 – 9 August 1972) was a German novelist and screenwriter. He was a Weimar-era national-revolutionary activist and right-wingFreikorps member.
He was born inKiel, in thePrussianprovince of Schleswig-Holstein,[1] the son of a criminal investigation officer. Salomon attended theMusterschule gymnasium in Frankfurt.
From 1913 Salomon was raised as a cadet inKarlsruhe and inLichterfelde nearBerlin; during theGerman Revolution of 1918–19, he joined the paramilitaryFreikorps ("Free-Corps") unit underGeorg Ludwig Rudolf Maercker suppressing theSpartacist Uprising. Later in 1919, he fought in theBaltic against theBolsheviks and theEstonian andLatvian armies. With his unit he took part in the Kapp-Putsch in March 1920. He also fought against Polish insurgents in theSilesian Uprisings of 1921.[2]
After theFreikorps units had been officially dissolved in 1920, Salomon joined theOrganisation Consul and received a five-year prison sentence in 1922 for his part in the assassination of Foreign MinisterWalther Rathenau – he provided a car for the assassins. In 1927, he received another prison sentence for an attemptedFeme murder (paramilitary "self-justice"), and was pardoned by Reich PresidentPaul von Hindenburg after a few months – he had not killed the severely wounded victim, Wagner, when he pleaded for his life, which was noted by the court.[citation needed]
After his release from prison, Salomon committed himself to the support ofFeme murder convicts and began to publishfeuilleton articles in thenational conservativeDeutsche Allgemeine Zeitung newspaper, which earned him the attention ofConservative Revolutionary andNational Bolshevist circles aroundFriedrich Hielscher andArnolt Bronnen.[citation needed]
In 1929, he backed his elder brother Bruno in his struggle for the Schleswig-HolsteinRural People's Movement by simulating a bomb attack on theReichstag building in Berlin. He had to spend three months in investigative custody, during which time he finished writing his first novelThe Outlaws (Die Geächteten), published byErnst Rowohlt.
Unlike many other German writers and poets, he did not sign theGelöbnis treuester Gefolgschaft proclamation of loyalty toAdolf Hitler. He had been arrested after the NaziMachtergreifung, together withHans Fallada, but was released after a few days. Suspiciously eyed by the authorities, who suspected him to be an adherent ofOtto Strasser's "Third Position", he earned his living by writing film scripts for the German film companyUFA.[3] Salomon wrote the screenplay for the 1941 anti-British propaganda filmCarl Peters. From October 1944 to May 1945, he was deployed in the localVolkssturm.[4] Salomon supported Ernst Rowohlt after he had received a publishing ban for employing Jewish personnel and temporarily corresponded with conservativeresistance circles aroundArvid Harnack andHarro Schulze-Boysen. His lover, Ille Gotthelft, was Jewish but he was able to protect her from persecution by passing her off as his spouse.
In June 1945, Salomon was interned by American military occupation authorities due to his active opposition to democracy during the Weimar era and his proximity to Nazi ideology. Gotthelft was also interned.[5] In his autobiographicalThe Answers, Salomon described how he and his lover were seriously mistreated by American soldiers when he was in custody, being called "Nazi pig!" and "despicable creatures". Salomon was imprisoned by the Americans until September 1946.[6]
In 1951, Salomon published the bookThe Questionnaire (Der Fragebogen), in which he gave his ironic and sarcastic "Answers" to the 131 point questionnaire concerning people's activities between 1933-1945 which the Western Allied Military Governments in Germany issued by the tens of thousands at the end of the war. A famous public discussion of the book took place in the main train station ofCologne, organised by booksellerGerhard Ludwig.[citation needed] Although Liberals and the Left condemned it violently, the book was a sensation in Germany and between its publication in 1951 and 1954 by which time it had sold over 250,000 copies.[7]
Ernst von Salomon died of heart failure at his home nearHamburg on 9 August 1972. He was 69 years of age.[8]
(Note: this bibliography is incomplete.)
