Karl Heinz Bremer

Who is Karl Heinz Bremer?

Karl Heinz Bremer was a German historian who died during the Second World War.

He had taught German at the Sorbonne and the Ecole Normale before the Second World War. When he returned to Germany, he joined the Nazi party. Following the fall of France, he was the associate director of the German Institute in Paris, from its creation in the fall of 1940, until he was sent to the Russian front a year later. The German Institute was responsible for editing the French press, and for controlling newly published French books during the occupation.

Bremer is known for the friendship he developed with the French collaborator and journalist Robert Brasillach. This friendship prospered because both men were eager to exchange knowledge of each other's country and culture. But Bremer got involved very much in the policy of the Nazis in Paris. Together with Gerhard Heller, he became the main censor of the German embassy in Paris. Bremer also translated several works of Henry de Montherlant.

After a change in the personal policy of the Auswärtiges Amt, Bremer was sent to the Eastern front as many men servicing not in the army. He died shortly later at a battle near to Lake Ilmen.