Bruno Gesche

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Hans Bruno Arthur Gesche (born November 5, 1905 in Berlin ; † 1980 ) was a German SS officer. From 1934 to 1944 Gesche was in command of the Führer Accompanying Command , Adolf Hitler's bodyguard .

Life

Gesche was born as the son of the head utensil master a. D. Robert Gustav Paul Gesche (born January 30, 1866 in Dühringshof; † December 13, 1923 in Hanover) and his wife Klara Gesche, b. Beier (born July 24, 1873 in Rixdorf). After attending school, he worked for a bank. In 1922 he joined the NSDAP ( membership number 8592) and the Sturmabteilung (SA). After the Nazi Party Congress of 1927, Gesche left the SA to join the Schutzstaffel (SS) instead (membership number 1.093), into which he was accepted despite his strong squint .

In 1932 Gesche was one of eight SS men that Hitler selected for his closest bodyguard, the so-called Führerbegleitkommando. In June 1934, after Kurt Gildisch's dismissal, Gesche was promoted to the post of commander of the escort unit, which he held until December 1944, with an interruption of six months in 1942.

In this capacity, Gesche has been involved in disputes with Reichsführer SS Heinrich Himmler several times over the years , but most of them ended lightly for him because Hitler, who had developed a special affection for Gesche, held his protective hand over him. In autumn 1932 Gesche criticized the security measures that the SS had taken to protect Hitler during an election campaign on October 14, 1932 in Selb . When Himmler, who took this criticism as a personal attack, then demanded Gesche's dismissal, Hitler forbade this and only allowed a small reprimand. After several cases of excessive alcohol consumption, on September 26, 1938, Himmler forced Gesche to undertake in writing to renounce alcohol for three years, otherwise Gesche would be expelled from the SS. After a few months, this measure was lifted on Hitler's instructions, so that Gesche was allowed to consume alcohol again.

After Gesche threatened another SS officer with a weapon while he was drunk in the spring of 1942, Himmler transferred him to the Eastern Front as a punishment. There he took part in fighting in the Caucasus with the 5th SS Panzer Division Wiking for a few months before he was sent back home in October 1942 after being wounded. At the end of 1942, at Hitler's request, Gesche was finally called back to the Fiihrer's headquarters , where he was reappointed commander of the escort command.

In December 1944, another alcohol abuse led to Gesche's final dismissal as commander of the Führer Accompanying Command. He was also demoted by eleven ranks from SS-Obersturmbannführer to SS-Unterscharführer. Himmler also advised him to report to the SS Special Unit Dirlewanger , an SS punitive unit with particularly high casualty rates. Since Gesche did not receive this request until January 1945 and Hitler had forbidden the use of members of his bodyguard on the Eastern Front, he was instead deployed to the Italian front until the end of the war, where he was a member of the 16th SS Panzer Grenadier Division . At the end of the war, Gesche became an American prisoner of war . Gesche's successor as the commandant of the escort command took over at the turn of the year 1944/1945 Franz Schädle .

After the Second World War, Gesche was occasionally questioned by historians as a witness about his experiences in Hitler's environment and his knowledge of the dictator. a. by John Toland and Peter Hoffmann.

marriage and family

On October 15, 1937 Gesche married Anna Luise Riss (born October 15, 1909 in Wilkersdorf). The daughters Frigga (born March 10, 1938) and Uta (born October 22, 1939) resulted from the marriage.

Promotions

  • SS-Untersturmführer, July 20, 1931
  • SS-Obersturmführer, November 9, 1933
  • SS-Hauptsturmführer, July 1, 1934
  • SS-Sturmbannführer, April 20, 1935
  • SS-Obersturmbannführer, November 9, 1944
  • SS-Unterscharführer, December 20, 1944 (demoted)

Archival material

  • SS Fuehrer Personnel File on Bruno Gesche, Federal Archives Lichterfelde.

literature

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Standesamt Berlin IX: Birth register for the year 1905, birth certificate No. 1762/1905. ( Digitized version )
  2. ↑ Rochus Misch: The last witness. I was Hitler's operator, courier, and bodyguard . With a foreword by Ralph Giordano , 3rd edition, Zurich and Munich 2008, ISBN 978-3-86612-194-2
  3. ↑ report of a survey by Geshe Toland in August 1973 .
  4. ↑ Peter Hoffmann : Die Sicherheit des Diktators , 1975, p. 258 refers to an oral communication from Gesches to him on November 12, 1974.
personal data
SURNAME Gesche, Bruno
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Gesche, Hans Bruno Arthur (full name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German SS officer
DATE OF BIRTH 5th November 1905
PLACE OF BIRTH Berlin
DATE OF DEATH 1980