Josef Terboven (23 May 1898 – 8 May 1945) was the Reichskommissar of occupied Norway under Nazi Germany from 24 April 1940 to 8 May 1945, succeeding Fritz Schlessmann. Terboven was the de facto ruler of Nazi-occupied Norway in the aftermath of the German invasion in 1940, and he blew himself up with dynamite rather than surrender in 1945.
Biography[]
Josef Terboven was born on 23 May 1898 in Essen, Germany to a landed family of Dutch descent. He served in the artillery and air force during World War I, and he studied law and political science at Munich and Freiburg under the Weimar Republic. In 1923, he became the 25,247th member of the Nazi Party, taking part in the failed Beer Hall Putsch. In 1928, he became the Gauleiter of Essen, and he became governor of the Rhineland in 1935, holding the post until 1940. On 24 April 1940, he was named the governor (Reichskomissar) of Norway before the invasion even finished, but the civilian administration of Norway was small and ineffective. He employed bullying tactics against the resistance, having the town of Telavag destroyed and having the moderate general Nikolaus von Falkenhorst dismissed. Terboven was responsible for setting up concentration camps in the country and for coming up with the idea of the Nazi leadership moving to Norway rather than surrender to the Allies in May 1945. On 8 May 1945, the German forces in Norway under Franz Boehme surrendered to the Allies, and Terboven blew himself up at the Skaugum compound by detonating 110 pounds of dynamite.