Christian Frederik von Schalburg (15 April 1906 – 2 June 1942) was a Danish army officer who served as commander of the Free Corps Denmark and as a German Waffen-SS Obersturmbannfuehrer during World War II.
Biography[]
Christian Frederik von Schalburg was born in Zmeinogorsk, Russian Empire on 15 April 1906, the son of a Danish noble and a Ukrainian noblewoman. He was educated at Czar Nicholas II of Russia's cadet corps before fleeing to Denmark in the aftermath of the 1917 Russian Revolution, and he came to hate Russia and communism as a result. Von Schalburg joined the Royal Danish Army in 1929, and he became a captain in 1937. In 1939, he became the leader of the youth wing of the Danish Nazi Party after being fired from the army for his mental instability, and he led Danish volunteers to fight for Finland during the Winter War with the Soviet Union. He was absent from Denmark when the country was occupied by Nazi Germany in 1940, and he was upset that the Danes put up no resistance to the invaders, despite holding national socialist views himself. In September 1940, Von Schalburg joined the Waffen-SS and served in the 5th SS Panzer Division Wiking as an SS-Hauptsturmfuehrer, serving on the divisional staff during Operation Barbarossa. In February 1942, he took command of Free Corps Denmark, which was deployed to the front lines in the Soviet Union in May 1942. On 2 June 1942, he was killed by fragments from a Soviet artillery shell in the Demyansk Pocket while trying to rally his faltering men. He was posthumously promoted to SS-Obersturmbannfuehrer, and the Schalburg Corps was named in his honor.