Ernst Schlange

Ernst Schlange (September 1, 1888 – † 1947) was a Nazi German politician, Gauleiter of Berlin-Brandenburg and a member of the Prussian Landtag. Severely wounded in World War I, he became active in various anti-Semitic far right political groups and eventually joined the National Socialist German Worker's Party in 1925. He was opposed to the party's more extreme tactics for gaining power and eventually ran afoul of Reich Minister of Propaganda and Gauleiter of Berlin, Joseph Goebbels. This caused Schlange to lose his leadership posts by the mid-1930s. He died under obscure circumstances at the end of World War II.

Born in Randowtal, Pomerania, Schlange was the eldest son of an estate owner. After attending elementary school and high school, he studied law and political science in Greifswald. In 1913, he was employed as a clerk at the Darmstädter und Nationalbank in Berlin. He earned his Doctor of Law and passed the Great State Legal Examination (German: Große Juristische Staatsprüfung) in Prenzlau in 1914.

By the start of World War I, Schlange had injured his left hand in a hunting accident so could not be drafted. He volunteered for the German Army instead, serving on both the Western Front in 1914 and the Eastern Front in 1915. He was wounded on 31 May 1915 at Stepj in Galicia, losing his right arm and right lung. He served out the rest of the war as a Reserve Lieutenant in Kaiser Franz Garde-Grenadier Regiment No. 2. He married in 1917.

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