Geneva were well regarded by Austrian chancellor Klemens von
Metternich and continued until the dissolution of the MIB in 1848.SANDBERGER, MARTIN (1911– ). An SS official who headed one
of the Einsatzgruppen in the Baltic and later the administrative
branch of the Sicherheitsdienst (SD), Martin Sandberger was born
in Berlin on 17 August 1911, the son of a corporate director. In No-
vember 1933, he received a doctorate in law from Tübingen, where
he had been a leading student activist for the Nazi Party, which he
had joined in 1931. His rapid ascent in the SD began in 1936 and
resulted in his appointment as head of the Central Immigration Office
North-East shortly after the outbreak of World War II.
Despite his later declaration of opposition to the Final Solution,
he nevertheless followed Hitler’s orders and headed one of the
Einsatzgruppen that eliminated Jews and other Nazi targets in the
Baltic states between June and December 1941. He also directed
the Sicherheitspolizei and the SD in Tallin, Estonia, until fall 1943.
Early the following year, Sandberger was appointed head of admin-
istration for SD-Ausland, reporting directly to Walter Schellenberg
as a member of his inner circle. Following his interrogation by Brit-
ish intelligence at the end of the war, a court in the American zone
sentenced him to death in April 1948, but a clemency board under
John J. McCloy, the U.S. high commissioner for Germany, later com-
muted the sentence to life imprisonment. Numerous dignitaries in the
Federal Republic of Germany, including President Theodor Heuss,
spoke on Sandberger’s behalf, and he was released in 1958.
SAURAU, COUNT FRANZ JOSEF (1760–1832). A Habsburg po-
lice official during the era of the French Revolution, Count Franz
Josef Saurau was born in Vienna on 19 September 1760. In 1789, he
was summoned by Johann Anton Pergen to serve as his assistant
and help counter all manifestations of French subversion. Both men
achieved considerable publicity as a result of the Jacobin trials in
- Saurau also gave the impetus for the composition of the Aus-
trian national anthem by Franz Josef Haydn, which was dedicated to
Emperor Francis II in 1797. Saurau’s administrative and diplomatic
skills led to a number of subsequent positions, including governor of
Lombardy in 1815. He died in Florence on 9 June 1832.
388 • SANDBERGER, MARTIN