Gerda Bormann

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Gerda Bormann (born October 23, 1909 in Konstanz as Gerda Buch , † March 23, 1946 in Meran , South Tyrol ) was the wife of the NSDAP politician Martin Bormann , the private secretary of Adolf Hitler , and the initiator of the popular marriage.

Life

Gerda Bormann was born as the eldest of four children of the officer Walter Buch and his wife Else. After the end of the First World War , her father sought contact with the National Socialists and in 1927 became the highest party judge of the NSDAP . Their parents brought up the children in the spirit of National Socialist ideology and anti-Semitism.

Marriage to Martin Bormann

Shortly after completing her training as a kindergarten teacher (1927), Gerda's father advanced to the position of chairman of the Supreme Party Court of the NSDAP (USchlA), an internal institution of the NSDAP , with which he rose to the top ranks of the party. Less than a year later, 19-year-old Gerda met the National Socialist Martin Bormann. Since Bormann already had a criminal record for assault at this point , her father reluctantly agreed to the relationship. In the same year Gerda also joined the NSDAP ( membership number 120.112). The two married on September 2, 1929, with Adolf Hitler and Rudolf Hess acting as witnesses.

children

Gerda and Martin Bormann had ten children, nine of whom survived:

  • Adolf Martin Bormann (* April 14, 1930, † March 11, 2013; called "Krönzi", named after his godfather Adolf Hitler )
  • Ilse Bormann (born July 9, 1931–1958; the twin sister Ehrengard died shortly after birth. Since Ilse was named after her godmother Ilse Hess , her name was changed to "Eike" after Rudolf Hess' flight to Great Britain in 1941)
  • Irmgard Bormann (born July 25, 1933)
  • Rudolf Gerhard Bormann (born August 31, 1934; named after Rudolf Heß, renamed "Helmut" in 1941)
  • Heinrich Hugo Bormann (born June 13, 1936; called "Heiner", named after his godfather Heinrich Himmler )
  • Eva Ute Bormann (born August 4, 1938)
  • Gerda Bormann (born October 23, 1940)
  • Fred Hartmut Bormann (born March 4, 1942)
  • Volker Bormann (born September 18, 1943–1946)

Political opinions

Gerda Bormann shared her husband's political views and supported him. The idea of ​​“Volksnotehe” (Volksnote marriage) goes back to them, with which the increasing war losses of the German population should be compensated. Gerda Bormann was convinced that only a radically new social order could help National Socialism. So she looked for ways to abolish monogamy and to introduce “Volksnotehe”. In February 1944 she pleaded in the interests of the state for the creation of several parallel marriages. Every worthy male member of society should have the legal right to multiple marriages. The concubines would live under the same conditions as the "first wife" and the husband would visit her fortnightly. At the same time she advocated the equation of illegitimate children and wanted to ban the word “adultery” from German usage. The bills discussed as early as 1943 stipulated, among other things, that every German woman should be obliged to father four children with a man, while the latter would have to be available for another woman after this number had been reached.

In addition, Gerda Bormann was a staunch anti-Semite . The attitude that went back to her upbringing was reinforced by her radical husband and her surroundings. In the letters to her husband, she put aside her restraint and persistently insulted “ international Judaism ”.

After the war

Shortly before the collapse of the “Third Reich”, Gerda Bormann fled to South Tyrol , while her husband stayed in Berlin in the Führerbunker . After a few weeks, she was taken to the military hospital (the children stayed in their home), where they were diagnosed with abdominal cancer. On March 23, 1946, Gerda Bormann died of the effects of mercury poisoning , which she suffered from chemotherapy . She left her children to the clergyman Theodor Schmitz, who later adopted the Bormann children.

literature

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ BORMANN: horse without Sunday . In: Der Spiegel . No. 9 , 1962 ( online ).
personal data
SURNAME Bormann, Gerda
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Buch, Gerda (maiden name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German wife of Martin Bormann
DATE OF BIRTH October 23, 1909
PLACE OF BIRTH Constancy
DATE OF DEATH March 23, 1946
Place of death Meran , South Tyrol