Walther Hewel
Walther Hewel | |
---|---|
Permanent Representative of the Reichsminister for Foreign Affairs to the Führer | |
In office September 1940 – 30 April 1945 | |
Minister | Joachim von Ribbentrop |
Preceded by | Position created |
Succeeded by | Position abolished |
Head of the Personal Staff of the Reichsminister for Foreign Affairs | |
In office June 1938 – 2 May 1945 | |
Minister | Joachim von Ribbentrop |
Preceded by | Position created |
Succeeded by | Position abolished |
Personal details | |
Born | 25 March 1904 Cologne, Rhine Province, Kingdom of Prussia, German Empire |
Died | 2 May 1945 (aged 41) Berlin, Nazi Germany |
Cause of death | Suicide |
Political party | Nazi Party |
Profession | Diplomat |
Awards | Blood Order |
Walther Hewel (25 March 1904 – 2 May 1945) was an early and active member of the Nazi Party who became a German diplomat, an SS-Brigadeführer and one of German dictator Adolf Hitler's personal friends. He served as the liaison officer between Reichsminister for Foreign Affairs Joachim von Ribbentrop and Hitler's headquarters. Present in the Führerbunker during the Battle of Berlin, he committed suicide while attempting to escape the Red Army after the breakout from the bunker.
Early life
Hewel was born in 1904 to Anton and Elsa Hewel in
Hewel attended the
Hewel then served a commercial apprenticeship in
In Nazi Germany
In 1936, Hewel returned to Germany, where he was appointed the chief of the East Asia Desk in the Foreign Section of the Party.[2] He entered Germany's diplomatic service and was sent to Spain. Journalist James P. O'Donnell remarked that, during this time, Hewel "was almost certainly an agent of Admiral Wilhelm Canaris's Abwehr" counter-intelligence agency.[3]
Hewel returned to Germany and, in August 1937, became the chief of the English Desk in the office of Ambassador
Hewel joined the SS as an SS-Sturmbannführer on 12 July 1937, and attained the rank of SS-Brigadeführer on 9 November 1942.[2]
During World War II
After the outbreak of the
Survivors of Hitler's inner circle claimed that Hewel owed his position to his long involvement with the Nazi Party, and because he was one of Hitler's friends. In her memoirs,
Hewel – along with Propaganda Minister Joseph Goebbels; Hitler's personal secretary, Martin Bormann; Artur Axmann, the head of the Hitler Youth; Johann Rattenhuber, an SS General who was head of the Reichssicherheitsdienst (RSD), which protected Hitler; Ludwig Stumpfegger, Hitler's personal surgeon; and Otto Günsche, Hitler's personal adjutant – was one of the residents of the bunker to observe the burning of the bodies of Adolf Hitler and Eva Braun after they committed suicide. Along with all the others, he had been briefed by Hitler as to what to do to destroy the bodies, although this task was not properly carried out.[6] Earlier, Hewel had been one of the attendees at the wedding between Hitler and Braun,[7] and then the final goodbyes from Hitler and Braun before their suicides.[8][9]
Death
Until Hitler committed
Following Hitler's suicide, Hewel escaped the Führerbunker in a group led by SS-Brigadeführer Wilhelm Mohnke.[11] Mohnke planned to break out towards the German Army, which was positioned in Prinzenallee. However, Hewel was suffering from psychological stress at the time. In her memoirs, Traudl Junge, one of Hitler's secretaries, claimed that, after Hitler's death, Hewel appeared extremely confused and unable to make the simplest decisions for himself.[page needed]
The group headed along the U-Bahn tunnels, but their route was blocked so they went above ground and later joined hundreds of other German civilians and military personnel who had sought refuge at the Schultheiss-Patzenhofer Brewery. Upon arriving at the holdout on 2 May 1945, Hewel made remarks to the effect that he planned to commit suicide. Despite the efforts of Dr. Ernst-Günther Schenck – who attempted to talk him out of it in a long and wide-ranging conversation – Hewel killed himself in the manner that Professor Dr. Werner Haase had recommended to Hitler, biting down on a cyanide capsule while shooting himself in the head.[12] According to Schenck, Hewel was emotionally and physically exhausted, which contributed to his actions.[10]
In his long conversation with Schenck, Hewel said about Hitler, in response to Schenck's question about Hitler's mental health in his last days:
Hitler was a consummate actor.... Toward the end, he was less the leader, Der Führer, than a man flinging from reality as it advanced itself.... As I look back at those long briefing sessions, it strikes me that Hitler was hopelessly engulfed in the grandeur of his mission, a sense that was now disintegrating into self-pity. When the goddess Nemesis began to avenge his hubris, he lost his nerve.[13]
Personality and personal life
When Gretl Braun, the sister of Hitler's mistress Eva Braun, became pregnant out of wedlock, Hitler took steps to try to find her a husband. Hewel, a shy bachelor, was considered to be one of the possibilities. Braun later married SS-Gruppenführer Hermann Fegelein of the Waffen-SS.[14] A few weeks later, on 12 July 1944, Fegelein's good friend, Elizabeth "Blondie" Blanda – a Red Cross nurse who had previously tended to Hewel after he survived an airplane crash on 21 April 1944 in which General Hans-Valentin Hube was killed – married Hewel[15] at Berchtesgaden.
The tall and portly Hewel, whose nickname was "Surabaya Wally",
A
He was the type of fellow who always knew how to get a good table by tipping the headwaiter in advance. I remember he would insist on artichoke hearts with his venison. He specialized in that kind of Gemütlichkeit [friendliness] that's never quite genuine unless it's a bit artificial.[16]
O'Donnell referred to Hewel as a man who had a front row seat to history, but who lacked the intelligence and perspective to realize it.[full citation needed]
In popular culture
Walther Hewel has been portrayed by the following actors in film and television productions:
- John Savident in the 1973 British film Hitler: The Last Ten Days.[18]
- Gerald Alexander Held in the 2004 German film Downfall (Der Untergang).[19]
References
Notes
- ^ a b c d Zentner & Bedürftig 1991, p. 405.
- ^ a b c d e f g Joachimsthaler 1996, p. 286 n.27.
- ^ a b c d e f O'Donnell 2001, p. 312.
- ^ Patzwall 1986, p. 36.
- ^ a b c Stockhorst 1985, p. 195.
- ^ O'Donnell 2001, p. 236.
- ^ O'Donnell 2001, p. 158.
- ^ O'Donnell 2001, p. 222.
- ^ Joachimsthaler 1996, p. 137.
- ^ a b O'Donnell 2001, p. 323.
- ^ O'Donnell 2001, pp. 271–276.
- ^ O'Donnell 2001, pp. 311–321.
- ^ O'Donnell 2001, p. 319.
- ^ O'Donnell 2001, p. 102.
- ^ O'Donnell 2001, p. 210.
- ^ a b c d e f O'Donnell 2001, p. 313.
- ^ O'Donnell 2001, pp. 313–314.
- IMDb.com. Retrieved 8 May 2008.
- IMDb.com. Retrieved 8 May 2008.
Bibliography
- ISBN 1-85409-380-0.
- Junge, Traudl; Müller, Melissa editor (2004) Until the Final Hour: Hitler's Last Secretary, Arcade Publishing. ISBN 978-1-55970-728-2.
- ISBN 978-0-306-80958-3.
- Patzwall, Klaus D. (1986). Das Ehrenzeichen vom 9. November 1923 (Blutorden), 2. geänderte Auflage. Norderstedt: Militair-Verlag Patzwall.
- Stockhorst, Erich (1985). 5000 Köpfe: Wer War Was im 3. Reich. Arndt. ISBN 978-3-887-41116-9.
- Zentner, Christian and Bedürftig, Friedemann (1991). ISBN 0-02-897500-6.