Konstantin Hierl

Konstantin Hierl
Konstantin Hierl in 1941
Director of the Reich Labour Service
In office 26 June 1935 – May 1945
Leader	Adolf Hitler
Preceded by	Position Established
Succeeded by	Position Abolished
Personal details
Born	(1875-02-24)24 February 1875 Parsberg, Bavaria, German Empire
Died	23 September 1955(1955-09-23) (aged 80) Heidelberg, West Germany
Nationality	German
Political party	Nazi Party
Occupation	Military officer
Religion	Roman Catholic

Konstantin Hierl (24 February 1875 – 23 September 1955) was a major figure in the administration of Nazi Germany. He was the head of the Reichsarbeitsdienst (RAD) (Reich Labor Service) and an associate of Adolf Hitler before he came to national power.

Hierl was born in Parsberg near Neumarkt in the Bavarian Upper Palatinate region, and attended secondary school (Gymnasium) in Burghausen and Regensburg. In 1893 he joined the Bavarian Army as a cadet. He obtained the rank of lieutenant in 1895 and graduated from the military academy in 1902. He was promoted to captain (Hauptmann) in 1909. He served as a company commander in the Bavarian infantry. In World War I Hierl served as a member of the general staff of the I Royal Bavarian Reserve Corps, part of the German 6th Army fighting on the Western Front, where he achieved the rank of a lieutenant colonel.

Upon the German defeat and the November Revolution of 1918, Hierl became head of a paramilitary Freikorps unit. Hierl played a role in organizing the Black Reichswehr paramilitary forces in the early years of the Weimar Republic. In 1925, he joined Ludendorff's the far-right Tannenbergbund political society, which Hierl left two years later.