Albert Forster
| Albert Forster | |
|---|---|
 |
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| State President of the Free City of Danzig | |
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In office 23 August – 1 September 1939 |
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| Preceded by | Arthur Greiser |
| Succeeded by | position abolished |
| Reichsstatthalter and Gauleiter of Danzig-West Prussia | |
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In office 1935–1945 |
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| Appointed by | Adolf Hitler |
| Preceded by | positions established |
| Succeeded by | positions abolished |
| Personal details | |
| Born | 26 July 1902 Fürth, Kingdom of Bavaria, German Empire |
| Died | 28 February 1952 (aged 49) Warsaw, Republic of Poland |
| Political party | National Socialist German Workers Party (NSDAP) |
| Spouse(s) | Gertrud Deetz |
Albert Maria Forster (26 July 1902 – 28 February 1952) was a Nazi German politician. Under his administration as the Gauleiter of Danzig-West Prussia (the other German-annexed section of occupied Poland) during the Second World War, the local non-German population of Poles and Jews was classified as sub-human and subjected to extermination campaign involving ethnic cleansing, mass murder, and forceful Germanisation. Lack of agricultural manpower, however, forced Forster to review his policies and Germanise the Poles by simply declaring Aryans all Poles in his area who were reasonably proficient in German. Forster was tried, convicted and hanged for his crimes in Warsaw after Germany was defeated.
Forster was born in Fürth, Bavaria, where he attended the Humanistisches Gymnasium from 1912 to 1920. In 1923, he became a member of the SA in Fürth and observed the trial for high treason of Erich Ludendorff, Adolf Hitler and eight others, which took place between 26 February and 1 April 1924 in the court of Munich.
In 1930, Forster became the Nazi Party's Gauleiter of the Free City of Danzig (now Gdańsk, Poland). In the spring of 1933, Forster spearheaded the Nazi take-over of Danzig. Between 1933 and 1939, Forster became embroiled in a feud with the Nazi President of the Danzig Senate, Arthur Greiser, who was to remain Forster's lifelong nemesis.
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