Karl Rudolf Werner Braune (11 April 1909 in Mehrstedt, Thuringia − 7 June 1951 in Landsberg Prison, Landsberg am Lech, Bavaria) was a German member of the Nazi police and military organization known as the Schutzstaffel, or, more commonly, by its German initials, SS. He held the rank of Obersturmbannführer. During the course of the Nazi invasion of the Soviet Union, which began on 22 June 1941, Braune was the commander of Special Detachment (German: Sonderkommando or Einsatzkommando) 11b, which was in turn part of a Special Purpose Unit D. This unit, and three others similarly organized, have since come to be known by their German name of Einsatzgruppen. As commander of Special Detachment 11b, Braune organized and conducted mass murders of Jews in German-occupied areas of southern Ukraine