Karl-Johannes Soonpää (born Karl-Johannes Soonberg; 2 March 1895 in Pangodi Parish (now Kambja Parish), Kreis Dorpat – 15 June 1944 near Elva, Estonia) was an Estonian politician and civil servant.
[1] Soonpää participated in the Estonian War of Independence as a lieutenant and received the Cross of Liberty for his service.
He also served as the Minister of Labour for a year, from 1927 until 1928, the Minister of Agriculture from 1928 until 1929 and the State Auditor from 1929 until 1940.Political offices:[1] He was one of the few high-ranking statesmen who escaped the June deportation by Soviet authorities following the Soviet occupation of Estonia.
Soonpää fled on his bicycle, and his wife Antonie left the family farm with the children.
[3] Following the reoccupation of Estonia by the Soviets in 1944, Soonpää was killed in June, aged 49, when he tried to capture Soviet saboteurs with two men at night in the forest near Elva.