Henry Picker

Henry Picker (born February 6, 1912 in Wilhelmshaven ; † May 2, 1988 in Starnberg ) was a German administrative lawyer . He became known as the recorder of Adolf Hitler's table talks .

Life

Picker, son of a Wilhelmshaven businessman and senator, became a member of the NSDAP in 1930 and studied law at the Philipps University in Marburg , the Christian Albrechts University in Kiel and the Friedrich Wilhelms University in Berlin . Since 1931 he was a member of the Corps Teutonia Marburg . Since 1934 trainee , doctorate he 1936 in Kiel for Dr. iur.

In 1936/37 he was (as assessor ) the main adviser and foreign representative of the Reich Youth Leadership . 1938/39 he was Councilor in Jever and Brake (Unterweser) . After he had been on the staff of the Führer’s Deputy in Munich in 1940/41 , he came to the Führer ’s headquarters from March to July 1942 as a senior government advisor and legal assistant to Hitler . On behalf of Heinrich Heim , he had to record Hitler's table discussions. On September 19, 1942, the Reich Interior Minister commissioned Wilhelm Frick Picker with the provisional administration of the District Office of the North District .

Since 1943 a soldier in the Wehrmacht , he came as an ensign d. R. in British captivity , from which he was released in 1947. In the post-war period he represented the emergency area Wilhelmshaven at the federal government in Frankfurt am Main and Bonn from 1948 to 1951 . After that he worked as a writer .

His revised version of the notes he and Heim made was published in numerous editions from 1951. As a result, there were legal disputes over any copyrights Pickers to the notes. Werner Jochmann did not publish the complete record until 1980 , whereupon Picker again sought the legal dispute.

In 1963 Picker published a book on Pope John XXIII. In the drafting of which he was advised by the Vatican librarian Count Giuseppe Newlin.

Since 1941 he was with the sports teacher Irene geb. Atzinger married. With her he had three sons and a daughter.

Works

• Representation and intellectual historical interpretation of the new currents in criminal policy and the overcoming of the school dispute. The purpose of the punishment in the Third Reich . Berlin 1935 (= dissertation Uni Kiel 1936)
• Hitler's table talks in the Führer Headquarters 1941–1942. Athenäum, Bonn 1951. (Completely revised and expanded new edition with previously unknown personal testimonies from Adolf Hitler, Stuttgart 1983, ISBN 3-512-00425-3 .)
• John XXIII The Pope of Christian Unity and the 2nd Vatican Council . Blick und Bild, Kettwig 1963

literature

• Ernst Klee : The dictionary of persons on the Third Reich . Who was what before and after 1945 . 2nd Edition. Fischer-Taschenbuch-Verlag, Frankfurt am Main 2007, ISBN 978-3-596-16048-8 .
• Werner Delbanco: "Anyone who knows the Führer personally, like me, can measure happiness ..." . In: Leather is bread. Contributions to North German regional and archive history (Festschrift Andreas Röpcke ), Schwerin 2011, pp. 295–310.
• Mikael Nilsson: Hitler redivivus “Hitler's table talks” and “Monologues in the Führer Headquarters” - a critical investigation . In: Vierteljahrshefte für Zeitgeschichte , Volume 67 (2019), pp. 105–146.

Web links

• Literature by and about Henry Picker in the catalog of the German National Library

Individual evidence

1. ↑ During the Cold War with the tax office . In: Die Zeit , No. 21/1954
2. ↑ ^{a b c d} Blue Book of the Corps Teutonia in Marburg 1825 to 2000 . Marburg 2000
3. ↑ Kösener Corpslisten 1996, 171 , 1292
4. ^ Inge Lüpke-Müller: A region in political upheaval. The democratization process in East Frisia after the Second World War . Edited by the East Frisian Landscape . Aurich 1998, ISBN 3-932206-11-8 , pp. 84f
5. ↑ Twenty million . In: Der Spiegel . No. 28 , 1952, pp. 21 ( online ).
6. ↑ Hitler's heirs . In: Der Spiegel . No. 49 , 1952, pp. 32 ( online ). On Picker's incorrect way of editing and trivializing comments, cf. W. Delbanco, p. 304 ff.
7. ↑ I am a general against my will . In: Der Spiegel . No. 10 , 1980, pp. 176 ( online ).
8. ↑ Short message  ( page no longer available , search in web archives )  Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. (PDF) in the Hamburger Abendblatt , July 5, 1980; Archive ( Memento of the original from August 28, 2011 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.