Karl Hermann Frank
Czechoslovak member of Czechoslovak national parliament and Nazi Germany politician (1898-1946)
Karl Hermann Frank (24 January 1898 – 22 May 1946) was a Sudeten German official in the Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia prior to and during World War II. Attaining the rank of Obergruppenführer, he was in command of the Nazi police apparatus in the protectorate, including the Gestapo, the SD, and the Kripo. After the war, he was tried, convicted and executed by hanging for his role in organizing the massacres of the people of the Czech villages of Lidice and Ležáky.
Early life
Born in Karlsbad, Bohemia, in Austria-Hungary (present-day Karlovy Vary, Czech Republic), Frank was taught by his father (a proponent of Georg Ritter von Schönerer's policies) about nationalist agitation. Frank attempted to enlist in the Austro-Hungarian Army in World War I, but he was rejected due to blindness in his right eye. He spent a year at the law school of the German language Charles University in Prague and worked as a tutor to make money.
A Sudeten German, Frank advocated of the incorporation of the Sudetenland into Germany, Frank joined the German National Socialist Workers' Party (DNSAP) by 1923 and was involved in setting up several DNSAP chapters in northern Bohemia and Silesia. In 1925, Frank opened a book store which specialized in Nazi literature. Frank joined and helped organize the Sudeten-German Homeland Front (SdH) in 1933, which officially became the Sudeten German Party (SdP) in 1935. He then worked in the SdP public relations and propaganda department.
In 1935, Frank became deputy leader of the SdP and was elected a member of the Czechoslovak Parliament.
Begin with the source’s own compact description: “Karl Hermann Frank” is czechoslovak member of Czechoslovak national parliament and Nazi Germany politician (1898-1946). The dossier treats that line as a proposition to test through Karl, Hermann and Frank, not as a finished interpretation.
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The phrase “czechoslovak member of Czechoslovak national parliament and Nazi Germany politician (1898-1946)” supplies a clear boundary for inquiry. It also exposes the unanswered questions: who defined that boundary, when it became stable and which sources sit outside it.
Chronology provides the most reliable spine for this subject; interpretation should follow only after identities and dates are secure. The source revision retrieved here is dated Aug 23, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q57328. VIAF identifies the subject as 806600. The Library of Congress control number is n95085094. 3 of 3 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1898, 1946, 1923 and 1925.
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This entry incorporates text from “Karl Hermann Frank” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.