Carl von Halfern

Carl von Halfern
Oberpräsident Province of Pomerania
In office June 1930 – 1 October 1933
Preceded by	Julius Lippmann
Succeeded by	Rudolf zur Bonsen
Regierungspräsident Stettin
In office 1 April 1927 – June 1930
Preceded by	Leopold Höhnen
Succeeded by	Hans Simons
Regierungspräsident Hildesheim
In office 1 October 1922 – 1 April 1927
Preceded by	Wilhelm Kutscher
Succeeded by	Leopold Höhnen
Personal details
Born	8 April 1873 Burtscheid, Rhine Province, Kingdom of Prussia, German Empire
Died	20 October 1937 Wilmersdorf
Resting place	Heißbergfriedhof Burtscheid, Aachen
Nationality	German
Political party	German People's Party
Alma mater	University of Strassburg Humboldt University of Berlin University of Bonn Friedrich-Alexander University of Erlangen
Profession	Lawyer
Military service
Allegiance	German Empire
Branch/service	Royal Prussian Army
Years of service	1897–1898
Rank	Rittmeister
Unit	5th (Westphalian) Uhlan Regiment
Awards	Iron Cross, 2nd class

Carl (or Karl) Heinrich Gustav Julius von Halfern (8 April 1873 – 20 October 1937) was a German administrative lawyer who served in the civil service under the German Empire and the Weimar Republic. He was the district administrator of the Saarbrücken district (1916–19), the Regional President of Hildesheim (1922–27) and of Stettin (1927–30) and Oberpräsident of the Prussian Province of Pomerania (1930–33). A member of the German People's Party, he was removed as Oberpräsident shortly after the Nazi Party came into power.

Early life

Born in Burtscheid (today, part of Aachen) the son of a cloth manufacturer, bank director and district administrator, Halfern attended the Kaiser-Karls-Gymnasium and the Kaiser-Wilhelm-Gymnasium (today, Einhard-Gymnasium) in Aachen. He obtained his Abitur in 1893 and then studied law at the University of Strassburg, the Humboldt University of Berlin and the University of Bonn. He was a member of the Student Corps Rhenania Strassburg. He passed his Referendar examination and began a legal clerkship at the district court at Eschweiler and the regional court at Aachen in September 1897. Halfern received his doctorate in law in December 1897 at the Friedrich-Alexander University of Erlangen. He then performed his mandatory military service with the Royal Prussian Army as a one-year volunteer with the 5th (Westphalian) Uhlan Regiment, headquartered in Düsseldorf. He earned the Iron Cross 2nd class and was discharged with the rank of Rittmeister of reserves.

Halfern obtained an entry level legal position with the Prussian civil service at the Düsseldorf Regierungsbezirk (Governmental District) in February 1900. Following completion of his Assessor examination in January 1903, he became a government Assessor at the Tarnowitz (today, Tarnowskie Góry) district office in the Province of Upper Silesia where he remained until April 1906. He then took a leave of absence and undertook a study trip around the world, which took him to Canada, the United States, Mexico, Japan and China. In February 1907, he returned to work in the office of the Regierungspräsident (Regional President) of Münster.

Political career

From July 1909 to June 1916 Halfern was the Landrat (District Administrator) in the Ottweiler district, and from June 1916 to October 1919 he was district administrator and police director in the Saarbrücken district, which was then part of the Prussian Rhine Province. From 1911 to 1919 he also sat as a member of the Rhenish Provincial Landtag. After the end of the First World War and the conclusion of the Treaty of Versailles, Halfern was given the title of Administrative President for the French-occupied Territory of the Saar Basin by the Prussian Interior Minister on 2 October 1919. However on 9 December, the French military administration removed him from office and expelled him from the Saar Territory.

During the Weimar Republic, Halfern joined the German People's Party (DVP) in 1920 and remained a member until the party was disbanded in July 1933. In February 1920 he was appointed Ministerialrat (Ministerial Councilor) on the Privy Finance Council in the Prussian Ministry of Finance and served as general advisor for the implementation of the peace treaty. On 1 October 1922, Halfern succeeded Wilhelm Kutscher as Regierungspräsident in the Hildesheim Regional District, serving until 1 April 1927. He was then transferred to the same post in the Stettin Regional District where he remained until 1 April 1930. In June 1930 he was appointed Oberpräsident of the Province of Pomerania. He was also a member of the Kaiser Wilhelm Society.

After the Nazi seizure of power, as a Prussian Oberpräsident, Halfern was named on 11 July 1933 to the recently reconstituted Prussian State Council by Prussian Minister president Hermann Göring. However, soon he was placed on leave of absence from his post in Pomerania and formally retired on 1 October 1933. However, he continued to sit as a member of the State Council and was also given a seat on the State Debt Committee in Berlin, holding both these positions until his death on 20 October 1937.

Sources

• Carl von Halfern entry in Das Deutsche Führerlexikon 1934-1935
• Karl von Halfern entry in Saarland Biographie
• Lilla, Joachim (2005). Der Preußische Staatsrat 1921–1933: Ein biographisches Handbuch. Düsseldorf: Droste Verlag. ISBN 978-3-770-05271-4.