Blondi
Blondi († April 30, 1945 in Berlin ) was Adolf Hitler's shepherd dog .
Significance at the time of National Socialism
Hitler was often pictured with this bitch and, according to contemporary witnesses, loved her very much. His secretary Traudl Junge wrote in her memoirs: "Hitler had the greatest pleasure when Blondi was able to jump a few centimeters higher again [...], and he claimed that dealing with his dog was his best relaxation." Blondi came from a litter of the Shepherd dog of Gerdy Troost , the wife of Paul Ludwig Troost . The idea of giving this dog to Hitler had come from the Führer Accompanying Command after Hitler's black shepherd Muck died and Hitler initially did not acquire a new dog.
The numerous postcards with photographs of Hitler with sheepdogs were intended to convey a private and human side of Hitler. The 1932 by Hitler's personal photographer Heinrich Hoffmann published photo book Hitler like him nobody knows (total circulation 400,000 copies) shows the cover of the protective envelope Hitler with German Shepherd in the mountains. Also in the German newsreel that was subject "Hitler Blondi" used with great success and well received. The recordings, which were also very popular with the German weekly newsreel audience , were made by Walter Frentz , a cameraman who specializes in Hitler's recordings in the German weekly newsreel .
Henry Picker , recorder of Hitler's table talks, writes in his diary that he had the impression “... that he was dealing not with a dog, but with a machine”, and he asks himself “whether Hitler was doing training ... was not basically dominated by the intention to extinguish one's own will even in this animal. ”In her autobiography, which was published in 2001, Hitler's secretary at the time, Traudl Junge, expresses the following: Hitler always had the dog close by, be it on Berghof , in Berlin, in Wolfsschanze , also shortly before the end in Berlin's Führerbunker . On April 30, 1945, shortly before Hitler and Eva Braun suicide have been committed, to the dog killed on Hitler's orders: Werner Haase had given him a phial of poison in the presence of Hitler.
When soldiers of the 79th Infantry Corps of the Red Army ( 3rd Shock Army of the 1st Belarusian Front ) stormed the Reich Chancellery on April 30, 1945 , they found the heavily charred remains of Adolf Hitler, Eva Braun and two shepherd dogs in a bomb crater. According to current historical knowledge, it was most likely “Blondi” and her offspring “Wolf”.
Reception in art and pop culture
Blondi's role in Nazi propaganda is also reflected in mentions in art, satire and pop culture, for example in the eCard series Der Führer privat in the satirical magazine Titanic or in Walter Moers ' comic clip Der Bonker . In the cartoon series The Simpsons , Blondi was located in a fictional dog hell together with the dog Richard Nixons . The actor and writer Michael Degen made Blondi the first-person narrator of his novel of the same name in 2002 . In Günter Grass ' novel Dog Years , the title also refers to Hitler's sheepdog. This dog is not the bitch Blondi, but a male named Prinz. The band Blondie was called in 1997 by participating in an Iggy Pop - Tribute Album "Adolph's Dog".
literature
The shepherd bitch Blondi is mentioned in more detail in:
- Traudl Junge: Until the last hour. Hitler's secretary tells her life. Claassen, Düsseldorf 2001, ISBN 3-546-00311-X .
- Henry Picker: Hitler's table talks at the Fuehrer's headquarters . Propylaea, Berlin 2003, ISBN 3-549-07185-X .
Web links
- Dogsworld: Interview with the historian Professor Wippermann ( memento from June 11, 2008 in the Internet Archive ), including critical remarks on Hitler's alleged love for dogs .
Individual evidence
- ↑ Boy: Until the last lesson. P. 47.
- ↑ Cf. Rochus Misch: The Last Witness. "I was Hitler's operator, courier and bodyguard ." Pendo, Munich 2008, ISBN 978-3-86612-194-2 , p. 105 f.
- ^ Ext. 611, censorship 25 May 1942
- ^ Henry Picker: Hitler's Table Talks
- ↑ Boy: Until the Last Hour , p. 200.
- ↑ In the literature, May 4th is often given as the date of discovery.
- ↑ Mark Jacob, Stephan Benzkofer: 10 things you might not know about blonds , Chicago Tribune, January 9, 2011, accessed May 22, 2017
- ↑ Felix Bringmann: "She painted a curl around my nipple" , stern.de from May 14, 2014, accessed on May 22, 2017
- ↑ Entry in Discogs.com , accessed on May 22, 2017