German Chancellor Heinrich von Richter.
Heinrich von Richter was the Chancellor of the German Empire in the late 1940s. His policy of permitting free elections in occupied countries brought an end to the numerous nationalist insurgencies that had led to his predecessor Karl Bruning's downfall.
Von Richter was the leader of the opposition Democratic Party during the early years of the Global War. Following Bruning's arrest on 18 August 1946, von Richter attempted to form a government, but was unable to do so until he agreed to accept members of Bruning's Deutschland Party into his Cabinet.
Although he had opposed Bruning's war aims, von Richter did not intend to accept a humiliating peace. He withdrew most of the German military forces occupying India and the former Ottoman Empire, and used them to reinforce the Russian front. He also ended Bruning's attempts to conquer Great Britain by amphibious assault.
Von Richter dealt with the ongoing insurgencies in Germany's occupied territories by permitting free elections, with the proviso that these nations "must remain allied to the German Empire, and permit German troops to defend them against British aggression." Sufficient nationals cooperated with the programs to enable the elections to take place, and by the end of 1948 a measure of peace had returned to Europe.
Sobel does not mention when von Richter's Chancellorship ended.
Sobel's source for Heinrich von Richter's rise to power and wartime policies is The War of the World by Hans Schuster (New York, 1958).