Albert Tonak

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Tonak at the wheel of Goebbels' car. In the fund: Hermann Göring (1930).

Albert Tonak (born March 8, 1906 in Berlin ; † April 30, 1942 near Gusewo ) was a German SS member and chauffeur of Joseph Goebbels .

Life

Career in the NSDAP

According to the Völkischer Beobachter , Tonak originally belonged to the Red Front Fighters League before he "converted" to National Socialism on the occasion of a National Socialist evening event in the Pharus Halls . According to his SS documents, he officially joined the NSDAP on April 4, 1926 ( membership number 33,733). From 1925 to 1927 he was a member of the SA , and at the end of the 1920s he became one of the first members of the SS (SS No. 1.127).

From 1926 Tonak was the personal chauffeur and bodyguard of the Berlin Gauleiter Joseph Goebbels . Goebbels used his driver in various ways for his propaganda: He posed with him for an article in the Deutsche Illustrierte of November 3, 1936, in which he tried to demonstrate his attachment to the "little man". On September 22, 1929 Tonak was seriously injured in an attack on Goebbels. Another attack that was aimed at Tonak himself was exploited by Goebbels in his 1932 book Kampf um Berlin :

"When the chauffeur from Dr. Goebbels, Albert Tonak, returned home on Friday after the meeting, and was ambushed by red murder boys in front of the house. He is now lying badly with two knife wounds in his arm and a stomach blow. "

On July 4, 1934 Tonak, then assigned to SS Section XXIII, was promoted to SS-Hauptsturmführer due to his role in the suppression of the so-called Röhm Putsch . His promotion was there - in addition to the promotions of Emil Maurice , Christian Weber , Bernhard Siebken , Alfred Holstein, Albin von Reitzenstein , Wilhelm Keilhaus , Monschein and Karl Hanke - of at least nine SS promotions that were personally pronounced by Reichsführer SS Heinrich Himmler . Later he received, among other things, the SS skull ring.

In the later 1930s Tonak moved to Wroclaw as a manager .

World War II and death

From 1940 Tonak took part in the Second World War as a simple storm man with the Waffen SS . He was initially a member of the 1st Squadron of the 2nd SS Totenkopf Cavalry Regiment.

In 1941 at the latest he was assigned to the SS Cavalry Brigade Warsaw IIa. He died in late April 1942 in a partisan attack near Gusewo. His body was buried in Korotona . Goebbels' adjutant Frederick Christian Prince von Schaumburg Lippe later reported in his biography to the Propaganda Minister that the latter "mourned Tonak very much".

Tonak's body is buried today in the Rshew collective cemetery in Russia.

family

In his first marriage, Tonak was married to Frida Müller, the Deputy Reichsleiterin of the DFO , from 1930 . On July 1, 1937, he married Lotte Riegel (born August 16, 1914). The marriage had four children.

Archival material

  • SS-Führerpersonal file, Bundesarchiv Lichterfelde (SSO 186-B "Tolius - Tootson", pictures 528-533).

Individual evidence

  1. Jump up ↑ Joseph Goebbels: Das Tagebuch , 1961, p. 122, note 2.
  2. ^ Joseph Goebbels: Battle for Berlin. The beginning , Vol. 1, 1932 p. 248.
  3. ↑ Written confirmation of the promotions announced by Himmler by his personal adjutant, letter to the SS office in Munich on August 1, 1934, in: Fuehrerpersonalakte von Wilhelm Keilhaus (SSO 160-A "Keibl-Keller, Hans"), Fig. 595.
  4. ↑ Frederick Christian: Dr. G. A portrait of the Propaganda Minister , 1964, p. 15.
  5. ↑ War graves care .
personal data
SURNAME Tonak, Albert
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German SS leader
DATE OF BIRTH March 8, 1906
PLACE OF BIRTH Berlin
DATE OF DEATH April 30, 1942
Place of death at Gusewo