Theodor Oberländer

Who was Theodor Oberländer?

Theodor Oberländer was an Ostforschung scientist, Nazi officer and German politician.

Before World War II, he devised plans aimed against the Jewish and Polish populations in territories that were to be conquered by Nazi Germany. During the war he supported the ethnic cleansing policies of the Nazis and after the invasion of the Soviet Union, served as a contact officer with Nazi collaborationists on the Eastern Front.

After the war, he served as Federal Minister for Displaced Persons, Refugees and Victims of War in the Second and Third Cabinets of Chancellor Konrad Adenauer from 1953 to 1960, and as a Member of the Bundestag from 1953 to 1961 and from 1963 to 1965. Oberländer initially represented the All-German Bloc/League of Expellees and Deprived of Rights and served as its chairman from 1954 to 1955. In 1956 he became a member of the Christian Democratic Union. Before he entered federal politics, he served as a member of the Parliament of Bavaria from 1950 to 1953 and as Secretary of State for Refugee Affairs in the Bavarian Ministry of the Interior from 1951 to 1953.