Oskar Putz (servant)

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Oskar Putz (1931).

Oskar Putz (born March 31, 1894 in Neuheide , Lower Silesia , † December 3, 1973 in Berlin-Schöneberg ) was the personal servant of the German Reich President Paul von Hindenburg .

Life and activity

Oskar Putz took part in the First World War in his youth , in which he was awarded the Iron Cross . After the war, Putz entered the service of the former chief of staff of the World War Paul von Hindenburg, who was then living as a pensioner in Hanover, and moved into his Hanover villa so that he was always at his disposal. Despite the subordinate relationship, both men were very close to each other, which was expressed, among other things, in the fact that Hindenburg had him called before his death to personally say goodbye.

After Hindenburg was elected Reich President in 1925, Putz and Hindenburg moved into the Berlin Presidential Palace , where he moved into a small apartment. He retained his position as a body servant until Hindenburg's death on August 2, 1934. In order to avoid confusion with Hindenburg's son Oskar von Hindenburg , Putz von Hindenburg and the rest of the people around Hindenburg were called Karl in the Reich President's Palace and on Gut Neudeck . After Hindenburg's death, Putz was taken over by State Secretary Otto Meissner .

A personal diary written by Putz, which contains numerous observations and memories from his time as Hindenburg's personal servant - for example a description of the last days of Hindenburg's life in Neudeck in 1934 - passed into the possession of Hans-Otto Meissner after his death. Since Meissner's death, the - previously unpublished - diary has been kept in the Federal Archives in Koblenz as part of Meissner's estate . The source value of this document consists primarily in the fact that it is one of only very few testimonies that report first-hand about the late life of Hindenburg and the events in the area around Hindenburg in the late phase of the Weimar Republic and in the early days of National Socialism .

literature

Remarks

  1. ↑ Since Putz took part in the First World War, he must have been born before 1902 - the year 1901 was the last to take part in the war. Since Hans-Otto Meissner reports in a book from 1978 that Putz left him his diary, Putz must have died before 1978.
  2. ↑ See picture " Body Servant of the Reich President von Hindenburg ".

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Werner Maser: Hindenburg. A political biography , 1990, p. 363.
  2. ↑ Hans-Otto Meissner: Magda Goebbels. Ein Lebensbild , 1978, p. 146.
personal data
SURNAME Plaster, Oskar
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Personal servant of the German President Paul von Hindenburg
DATE OF BIRTH March 31, 1894
PLACE OF BIRTH Neuheide , Glatz district in Lower Silesia
DATE OF DEATH 3rd December 1973
Place of death Berlin-Schöneberg