Ernst von Salomon

Ernst von Salomon (September 25, 1902 – August 9, 1972) was a Weimar-era national-revolutionary German writer and right-wing Freikorps member.

He was born in Kiel, in the Prussian province of Schleswig-Holstein, the son of a criminal investigation officer. His ancestors had been members of the French Nobles of the Robe in Alsace about 1700; according to tradition, the dynasty originally came from the Venice aristocracy.

Salomon attended the Musterschule gymnasium in Frankfurt. From 1913 Salomon was raised as a cadet in Karlsruhe and in Lichterfelde near Berlin; during the German Revolution of 1918–19, he joined the paramilitary Freikorps ("Free-Corps") unit under Georg Ludwig Rudolf Maercker suppressing the Spartacist Uprising. Later in 1919, he fought in the Baltic against the Bolsheviks and the Latvian army. With his unit he took part in the Kapp-Putsch in March 1920. He also fought against Polish insurgents in the Third Silesian Uprising of 1921.

After the Freikorps units had been officially dissolved in 1920, Salomon joined the Organisation Consul and received a five-year prison sentence in 1922 for his part in the assassination of Foreign Minister Walther Rathenau – he provided a car for the assassins. In 1927, he received another prison sentence for an attempted Feme murder (paramilitary "self-justice"), and was pardoned by Reich President Paul 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.

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