rapidly during the following years. The construction of the RSHA in
1939 was largely based on his ideas, and he became head of Section
1 for a brief period. His departure from the RSHA stemmed from a
dispute with Heydrich, who came to regard his deputy as overly le-
galistic. (Best later called Heydrich “the most demonic personality”
in the Nazi leadership.) After leaving the RSHA, Best headed the
civil administration in occupied France for two years.
The climax of Best’s career was as Reich Commissioner of
Denmark from November 1942 until the end of the war. Although
evidence exists that he sought to sabotage the implementation of
the Final Solution, a Copenhagen court sentenced him to death in
1949 following his extradition. Granted clemency in Denmark in
1951, Best nevertheless faced a series of legal charges in the Fed-
eral Republic of Germany. The most serious one—complicity in the
massacre of thousands of Jews and Polish intellectuals in occupied
Poland—resulted in his arrest in 1969, but he was released three
years later owing to frail health. Best died in Mülheim an der Ruhr
on 23 June 1989. See also SCHUTZHAFT.BEURMANN, EDUARD (1804–1883). A prized journalist work-
ing as an agent for the Mainzer Informationsbüro (MIB), Eduard
Beurmann was a lawyer in Bremen before deciding to become a
writer. In Frankfurt am Main, he became well established in various
literary circles, particularly the group Young Germany, and in 1836,
together with Karl Gutzkow, began publishing the journal Telegraf
für Deutschland. That same year, Beurmann was recruited by Joseph
Clannern von Engelshofen, the later head of the MIB. Following se-
cret assignments in Paris and Brussels, Beurmann reported regularly
from Frankfurt. In 1841, he assumed the editorial direction of the
Journal de Francfurt and further emphasized its pro-Austrian bias.
His submissions to the MIB, which also mirrored his conservative
convictions and political astuteness, continued until 1847.
BIALEK, ROBERT (1915–1954). The inspector general of the East
German Barracked Police who defected to the West and was later
kidnapped, Robert Bialek was born in Breslau (now Wroclaw, Po-
land) on 23 June 1915, the son of a Social Democratic family. Joining
the German Communist Youth association in 1933, he was arrested
BIALEK, ROBERT • 37