August Benda (died June 1929) was a German-Jewish policeman and chief of the Berlin Police's political department during the Weimar era. He was assassinated by the Nazi Party in June 1929.
Biography[]
August Benda was born in Berlin, Germany to a Jewish family, and he became head of the political police in Berlin under the Weimar Republic. While Benda was of Jewish heritage, he played the organ at his wife's Christian church, even though he refused to be baptized. Affiliated with the Social Democrats, Benda was a staunch supporter of parliamentary democracy and was steadfastly opposed to the rising threats of communism and fascism. In 1929, he presided over the coverup of the Blutmai massacre to discredit the Communists, and he also oversaw the arrest of nationalist businessman Alfred Nyssen for smuggling arms for the Black Reichswehr. However, he was assassinated in a Nazi bomb attack on his home, as her acquaintance Horst Kessler deceived his servant Greta Overbeck into believing that Benda had killed her boyfriend Richard Pechtmann, and persuaded her to plant the bomb under Benda's desk. Benda and his young daughter were both killed when Benda unlocked his desk drawer, triggering the bomb.
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