Hedwig Potthast

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Portrait of Hedwig Potthast, 1933
Hedwig Potthast (approx. 1933)

Hedwig Potthast (born February 5, 1912 in Cologne , † September 22, 1994 in Baden-Baden ) was the private secretary and lover of Reichsführer SS Heinrich Himmler .

Life

Before 1945

Hedwig Potthast was the daughter of a businessman . After graduating from high school , she left her parents' home and trained as a foreign language correspondent at the commercial school in Mannheim , in order to later work as a secretary. After completing her training, she initially worked in Koblenz . She met Heinrich Himmler through Kurt Freiherr von Schröder , partner in the Stein bank and one of the founders of the " Friends of the Reichsführer SS ". From 1934 she worked at the Secret State Police Office in Berlin . From the beginning of 1936 to the beginning of 1941, Potthast was Himmler's private secretary, and in this role she was particularly responsible for Himmler's sponsorships and gift giving.

Both admitted their love at the end of 1938; and from 1940 they were in an extramarital relationship. Himmler's wife Margarete Himmler , with whom he had the daughter Gudrun , learned of this relationship by February 1941 at the latest and was bitter about it. Hedwig Potthast's parents permanently refused this extramarital relationship. Potthast first took up residence in Berlin-Grunewald and from 1943 in Brückentin near the estate of Oswald Pohl , with whose wife Eleonore she was friends. Also Lina Heydrich and Gerda were among her friends. She later lived in Berchtesgaden . Hedwig Potthast had two children with Heinrich Himmler, a son, Helge (born February 15, 1942 in the Hohenlychen sanatorium ) and a daughter, Nanette-Dorothea (born July 20, 1944 in Berchtesgaden). Little is known about Himmler's " second marriage " to Potthast. Probably because of Himmler's activity as Reichsführer SS, the couple only rarely saw each other. In all probability Potthast, like Himmler's wife, was not informed about Himmler's official business. Her relationship with Himmler was kept secret during the Nazi era . Potthast last met Himmler in mid-March 1945, after which they both made phone calls almost every day until April 19, 1945.

post war period

At the end of the war she was on the Achensee , and after hearing about Himmler's death on the radio on May 23, 1945, she temporarily lived with Eleonore Pohl in Rosenheim . In June / July 1945 she was arrested there by members of the US Army and interrogated for several days in Munich . Afterwards she was temporarily housed in the Lindenfycht estate of the Himmler couple in Gmund am Tegernsee , where at that time Hilde, Himmler's sister-in-law, lived. Margarete and Heinrich Himmler's daughter Gudrun only found out about her from the children of Himmler's second marriage after the end of the war. The attempt to contact her, however, failed due to Potthast's refusal. Even when Potthast lived in Teisendorf , contact with the Gebhard Himmler family in Gmund and with Himmler's former close confidante Karl Wolff continued until the 1950s. She married and took on a new name. The former Spiegel editor Peter-Ferdinand Koch interviewed her in 1987, whereby she remained silent about Himmler's responsibility for Nazi violent crimes.

literature

Movies

  • Himmler private - Greetings from racial madness , ZDF documentary 2014

Web links

Commons : Hedwig Potthast  - Collection of Images

Individual evidence

  1. Michael Wildt with Katrin Himmler: Himmler private - Letters of a mass murderer , Piper Verlag, 2014, p. 385.
  2. a b c d Peter Longerich: Heinrich Himmler. Biography. Siedler, Munich 2008, p. 482.
  3. Himmler's mistress.
  4. ^ Peter Longerich: Heinrich Himmler. Biography. Siedler, Munich 2008, p. 484.
  5. Katrin Himmler: The Himmler Brothers. A German family story. S. Fischer, Frankfurt a. M. 2005, p. 240.
  6. Katrin Himmler: The Himmler Brothers. A German family story. S. Fischer, Frankfurt a. M. 2005, p. 241.
  7. Katrin Himmler: The Himmler Brothers. A German family story. S. Fischer, Frankfurt a. M. 2005, p. 246.
  8. ^ Peter Longerich: Heinrich Himmler. Biography. Siedler, Munich 2008, p. 753.
  9. Katrin Himmler: The Himmler Brothers. A German family story. S. Fischer, Frankfurt a. M. 2005, p. 265.
  10. Katrin Himmler: The Himmler Brothers. A German family story. S. Fischer, Frankfurt a. M. 2005, p. 266 f.