Walter Ernst (6 April 1899 – March 1945) was a German lawyer and early member of the Nazi Party who became the Gauleiter of Gau Halle-Merseburg and, later, the Bürgermeister of Schneidemühl and Bromberg.
Fleeing from his city before the Red Army assault, he was condemned for cowardice, assigned to a penal battalion and died in action in the final months before Germany's surrender.
In February 1925, the Nazi Party was reestablished after having been outlawed as a result of Adolf Hitler's failed Beer Hall Putsch.
The Ortsgruppe (local group) in the city of Halle, under its chairman Großclaus, reported directly to the central Party leadership in Munich.
With the support of the Sturmabteilung (SA) leader in Halle, Wolf-Heinrich Graf von Helldorff, Ernst was able to consolidate his position, and the two succeeded in excluding Großclaus from the Party leadership.