Service record of Reinhard Heydrich

The service record of Reinhard Heydrich was a collection of official SS documents maintained at the SS Personnel Main Office in Berlin from 1934 until the fall of Nazi Germany in 1945. Most of Reinhard Heydrich's record was captured by the Allies and used for subsequent investigation into Heydrich's duties as head of the RSHA and overall performance in the SS in general.

Today, Reinhard Heydrich's original paper service record is maintained at the German Federal Archives. A microfilm copy of the record is also available at the National Archives and Records Administration in College Park, Maryland.

Heydrich began his military career in 1922, joining the Reichsmarine as a midshipman (Seekadet). He was promoted to senior midshipman (Oberfähnrich zur See) on 1 April 1924 and commissioned an ensign (Leutnant zur See) in 1926. Serving as a signals officer, in 1928 he was promoted to sub-lieutenant (Oberleutnant zur See). However, the promotion further fuelled his arrogance and ambition, resulting in difficult relations with his fellow officers and sailors. Gaining a reputation as a womaniser, in April 1931 he was court-martialled and dismissed from the Navy for "conduct unbecoming to an officer and a gentleman."

When Heydrich joined the SS, it was with the understanding that he would be a primary assistant to Heinrich Himmler and also Himmler's "right hand man" when it came to SS activities in southern Germany. The SS in 1931 was divided by shifting loyalties and geographical divisions, with two SS power bases building up in northern and southern Germany respectively. Two years before the Nazis were in power, this stage of the SS did not encompass the state police forces that Heydrich would eventually be put in command of by Himmler, and his task in 1931 was to develop an internal security group and help Heinrich Himmler to gain more power within the Nazi Party and the SS.

Heydrich was enlisted into the SS in the summer of 1931. After three weeks, Heydrich was given a commission as an SS-Sturmführer and began working out of a Munich apartment to establish his Ic-Dienst which would later become the Sicherheitsdienst (SD). By Christmas, Heydrich was an SS-captain which, at that time, was known as Sturmhauptführer (prior to 1934, SS officer ranks were the same as the SA. This rank would eventually become Hauptsturmführer). Just two weeks later, Heydrich was made an SS-major as he continued to build his security service. Six months later, in the summer of 1932, he became an SS-colonel (Standartenführer) as the SS at this point had no lieutenant colonel rank. An important irony of Heydrich's standing at this point in his career is that senior SS leaders considered him rather unimportant and he was referred to by one SS Group Leader in northern Germany as a "mere" Standartenführer.

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