Karl Friedrich Schorlemer

Karl Friedrich Freiherr von Schorlemer (23 March 1886 – 27 September 1936) was a German nobleman, landowner, lawyer, and politician in the German National People's Party. He served as a deputy in the Reichstag during the Weimar Republic and Nazi Germany.

Family, education and war service Schorlemer was born in 1886 at Rödelheim (now part of Frankfurt) to an old Westphalian aristocratic landowning family. He attended a private elementary school in Wissen as well as the Stella Matutina, a private Jesuit secondary school in Feldkirch, and the Gymnasium in Bedburg. He then studied law at the University of Lausanne, the University of Münster, the University of Bonn, the Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München, and the University of Göttingen. While still completing his studies, Schorlemer fulfilled his compulsory military service with the Royal Prussian Army in Field Artillery Regiment No. 22 (2nd Westphalian), headquartered in Münster. In 1913, he became a judicial trainee in Wiehl. From 1914 to 1918, Schorlemer took part in the First World War as a member of his former regiment. During the war, Schorlemer was promoted to Oberleutnant, commanded the 5th battery of his regiment from 1917 to 1918, and was awarded both classes of the Iron Cross.

Schorlemer was a member of the Nazi paramilitary unit, the Sturmabteilung (SA), and attained the rank SA-Oberführer. He was in the inner circle of SA-Stabschef Ernst Röhm, who appointed him as the chief of staff of SA-Gruppe Westfalen, and then chief of staff of SA-Obergruppe III at Koblenz. After Röhm's murder in the Night of the Long Knives on 1 July 1934, Schorlemer was arrested by the Gestapo but proceedings against him were dismissed in 1935.