The Stiftung Nordhav (''Nordhav-Stiftung'' or Nordhav Foundation) was a front organization of the ''

Sicherheitsdienst ' (, ''Security Service''), full title ' (Security Service of the '' Reichsführer-SS''), or SD, was the intelligence agency of the SS and the Nazi Party in Nazi Germany. Established in 1931, the SD was the first Nazi intelligence organization ...

'' (SD) founded in 1939 by

Reinhard Heydrich Reinhard Tristan Eugen Heydrich ( ; ; 7 March 1904 – 4 June 1942) was a high-ranking German SS and police official during the Nazi era and a principal architect of the Holocaust. He was chief of the Reich Security Main Office (inclu ...

to obtain and manage real estate for the SS.

Founding and purpose

The name ''Nordhav'' came from an old Germanic term for the

North Sea The North Sea lies between Great Britain, Norway, Denmark, Germany, the Netherlands and Belgium. An epeiric sea, epeiric sea on the European continental shelf, it connects to the Atlantic Ocean through the English Channel in the south and the ...

. Heydrich established the ''Stiftung Nordhav'' on 30 July 1939. The State Secretary

Wilhelm Stuckart Wilhelm Stuckart (16 November 1902 – 15 November 1953) was a German Nazi Party lawyer, official, and a State Secretary in the Reich Interior Ministry during the Nazi era. He was a co-author of the notorious Nuremberg Laws and was a participan ...

recognized the foundation 3 August 1939. The foundation's official purpose was to obtain real estate to be used as rest and recreation centers for members of the SS, Reich Security Police, and their families. Besides this official function, Heydrich intended to make use of the organization to acquire real property for himself. Heydrich named five directors: Karl Wilhelm Albert, Herbert Mehlhorn,

Werner Best Karl Rudolf Werner Best (10 July 1903 – 23 June 1989) was a German jurist, police chief, SS-''Obergruppenführer'', Nazi Party leader, and theoretician from Darmstadt. He was the first chief of Department 1 of the Gestapo, Nazi Germany's secret ...

, Kurt Pomme, and

Walter Schellenberg Walter Friedrich Schellenberg (16 January 1910 – 31 March 1952) was a German SS functionary during the Nazi era. He rose through the ranks of the SS, becoming one of the highest ranking men in the '' Sicherheitsdienst'' (SD) and eventually a ...

. The initial foundation endowment was 150,000 reichsmarks.

First acquisition

The first foundation acquisition was the ''Katharinenhof'', a farm on

Fehmarn Fehmarn (, da, Femern; from Old Wagrian Slavic "''Fe More''", meaning "''In the Sea''") is an island in the Baltic Sea, off the eastern coast of Germany's northernmost state of Schleswig-Holstein. It is Germany's third-largest island, after Rüg ...

, a

Baltic Sea The Baltic Sea is an arm of the Atlantic Ocean that is enclosed by Denmark, Estonia, Finland, Germany, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Russia, Sweden and the North and Central European Plain. The sea stretches from 53°N to 66°N latitude and ...

island and vacation spot. Heydrich intended to use this property as a vacation home, in addition to the Fehmarn summer home he already owned. The 11-hectare ''Katharinenhof'' had its own beachfront, archaeologically significant Stone Age graves, a beach house with a thatched roof, and stables. Schellenberg handled the entire transaction. The outbreak of

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposing ...

in Europe on 1 September 1939 caused the foundation to become inactive for the next six months.

Wannsee Villa

The most important financial transaction of the ''Stiftung Nordhav'' occurred in November 1940: the acquisition of the Wannsee Villa at Am Grossen Wannsee 56–58, in Berlin. The industrialist Friedrich Minoux, owner of the villa, had been jailed for defrauding the Berlin Gasworks, the largest financial crime of the Nazi era. From his jail cell in Berlin, Minoux sold the villa to the ''Stiftung Nordhav'' for 1.95 million

reichsmark The (; sign: ℛℳ; abbreviation: RM) was the currency of Germany from 1924 until 20 June 1948 in West Germany, where it was replaced with the , and until 23 June 1948 in East Germany, where it was replaced by the East German mark. The Reich ...

s. Heydrich's intention was to use the villa as an SS guesthouse and vacation lodging, with part reserved for his own needs. On 20 January 1942, the Wannsee Villa became the venue for the Wannsee Conference, the meeting Heydrich held with senior officials of the Nazi regime to announce the plans for the deportation and extermination of all Jews in German-occupied territory. This action was to be coordinated with the representatives from the Nazi state agencies present at the meeting.

Post war

The

Wannsee Villa Wannsee () is a locality in the southwestern Berlin borough of Steglitz-Zehlendorf, Germany. It is the westernmost locality of Berlin. In the quarter there are two lakes, the larger ''Großer Wannsee'' (Greater Wannsee, "See" means lake) and the ...

is today a Holocaust memorial. The ''Katharinenhof'' is a museum and camping spot.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Stiftung Nordhav Foundations based in Germany Defunct organisations based in Germany Organizations established in 1939 1939 establishments in Germany Nazi SS 1945 disestablishments in Germany Front organizations