Karl Hermann Frank - Early Life

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. After spending an unsuccessful year at the law school of the German language Charles University in Prague, Frank served in the Austro-Hungarian Army at the end of World War I. After the war, Frank operated a book store and joined various right wing groups and societies, such as the Kameradschaftsbund.

An extreme advocate of the incorporation of the Sudetenland into Germany, Frank joined the Deutsche Nationalsozialistische Arbeiterpartei (Sudeten German National Socialist Party or DNSAP) in 1919 and set up a book store from which he distributed Nazi propaganda. When the party was suppressed by the Czechoslovak government, Frank helped organize the Sudeten-German Homeland Front in 1933, which officially became the Sudeten German Party (SdP) in 1935.

In 1935, Frank became deputy leader of the SdP and was elected a member of the Czechoslovak Parliament. Coming to represent the most radical National Socialists in the SdP, Frank was made Deputy Gauleiter of the Sudetenland when it became part of Germany in October 1938. Frank's radicalism gained him the favor of Heinrich Himmler, who made Frank an SS-Brigadeführer in November 1938.