Estonian politician (1901–1978)
Hjalmar-Johannes Mäe (24 October [O.S. 11 October] 1901 in Tuhala, Kreis Harrien, Governorate of Estonia, Russian Empire – 10 April 1978 in Graz, Austria) was an Estonian politician.[1]
Mäe was twice a candidate to the Riigikogu, in the 1929 Estonian parliamentary election as a Landlords' Party candidate and in the 1932 Estonian parliamentary election as a National Centre Party candidate. Later he joined the Vaps Movement. After the 1934 Estonian coup d'état, Mäe was imprisoned. He was released in June, and sentenced to a year of probation by a military court in 1935. In December 1935, he was arrested on charges of plotting against the state. In 1936, the Supreme Military Court sentenced him to 20 years in prison with hard labour. Mäe was released under an amnesty in 1938.[2]
Mäe was the head of the Directorate of the Estonian Self-Administration, which was subordinate to Reichskommissariat Ostland, during the occupation of Estonia by Nazi Germany, and took part in the first investigation of the Nemmersdorf massacre. After the war, he was interned by U.S. military occupation authorities in Germany until 1947, after which he moved to Austria. There, Mäe became a citizen, and worked as an advisor for West German Chancellor Konrad Adenauer and Austrian Chancellor Josef Klaus. In 1952, State Secretary Hans Ritter von Lex, thanked him for his suggestions on how to ban the German Communist Party. Mäe continued to write and speak against communism until his death in 1978.[2]
In 1999, the Estonian International Commission for Investigation of Crimes Against Humanity concluded that by the virtue of his senior position, Mäe shared responsibility with the German authorities for all criminal actions carried out in Estonia.[2]
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