Terboven was born in Essen, Germany, and attended Volksschule and Realschule before he volunteered for military service during the First World War.

Terboven established multiple concentration camps in Norway, ruthlessly persecuted the Jewish population and focused on crushing the Norwegian resistance movement.

His actions led to numerous atrocities, such as the Beisfjord massacre in which hundreds of Yugoslavian political prisoners and prisoners-of-war were murdered.

As the tide of the war turned against Germany, Terboven implemented a scorched earth policy in northern Norway that resulted in the forced evacuation of 50,000 Norwegians and widespread destruction.

On 8 May 1945, the day of Germany's surrender, Terboven died of suicide by detonating 50 kg of dynamite in a bunker on the Skaugum compound in Norway.

[1] Josef Terboven attended Volksschule and Realschule in Essen until 1915 and then volunteered for military service in the First World War.

[2] Terboven joined the Nazi Party in November 1923 with membership number 25,247 and participated in the abortive Beer Hall Putsch in Munich.

In August 1925 Terboven went to work full-time for the Party, becoming the head of a small Nazi newspaper and book distributorship in Essen.

[3] On 1 October 1928 upon the dissolution of the Großgau Ruhr, the Essen district became an independent unit subordinated to the central Party headquarters in Munich.

[5] After the Nazi seizure of power, Terboven was promoted to SA-Gruppenführer on 1 March 1933 and made a member of the Prussian State Council on 10 July 1933.

On 5 February 1935, Terboven was appointed Oberpräsident (High President) of Prussia's Rhine Province which included Gau Essen and three other Gaue.

He moved into Skaugum, the official residence of Crown Prince Olav, in September 1940 and made his headquarters in the Norwegian Parliament building.

A proclamation was issued deposing King Haakon VII, outlawing the government-in-exile, disbanding the Storting and banning all political parties except Vidkun Quisling’s Nasjonal Samling.

Goebbels, the Reich Minister of Propaganda, expressed annoyance in his diaries about what he called Terboven's "bullying tactics" against the Norwegians, as they alienated the population against the Germans.

[11] From 1941, Terboven increasingly focused on crushing the Norwegian resistance movement, which engaged in acts of sabotage and assassination against the Germans.

In another incident, the shooting of two German police officials on 6 September 1942 led to Terboven personally declaring martial law in Trondheim from 5 to 12 October 1942.

In October 1944, in response to the Red Army advance in to the Finnmark region of northern Norway, Terboven instituted a scorched earth policy that resulted in the forced evacuation of 50,000 Norwegians and widespread destruction, including the burning of 10,000 homes; 4700 farms; and hundreds of schools, churches, shops and industrial buildings.

[14] As the tide of the war turned against Germany, Terboven's personal aspiration was to organise Festung Norwegen (Fortress Norway) for the Nazi regime's last stand.

However, after Hitler's suicide, his successor, Großadmiral Karl Dönitz, summoned Terboven to his headquarters in Flensburg on 3 May 1945 and ordered him to cooperate with winding down hostilities.

Consequently, Dönitz dismissed Terboven from his post as Reichskommissar on 7 May and transferred his powers to General der Gebirgstruppe Franz Böhme.

[15] With the announcement of Germany's surrender, Terboven committed suicide on 8 May 1945 by detonating 50 kilograms (110 lb) of dynamite in a bunker on the Skaugum compound.