Otto Ohlendorf in perspective. Ideological radicalism, social engineering and mass violence in German fascism

This article provides an approach to the political evolution of Otto Ohlendorf (1907-1951). Ohlendorf was member of NSDAP since 1925, studied Political Economy and Law, and climbed to the top of crucial places of leadership in the Central Security Office (RSHA), where he got the position of SS-Brigadesführer and Chef of Amt III (Inland). As Secretary of State of Commerce in the Reichswirtschaftsministerium (RWM) during the period of the so-called «total war», he fought in favor of middle class interests, against the Speer's strategy of industrial «rationalization» and «optimization» of work. In 1951, he was hanged in Landsberg, for his role in extermination policies as leader of Einsatzgruppe D. His evolution allows us to consider a case study in relation with some of the crucial aspects of fascist experience. For instance: the growing of national-socialist movement, the conflicts between «technocrats» and «radicals», the viability of a fascist economic project, or the place of social control and violence in the consolidation process of Nazism.