Günther August Wilhelm Schwägermann (24 July 1915 – 30. September 1986) served in the
Nazi
Nazism (), formally named National Socialism (NS; , ), is the far-right politics, far-right Totalitarianism, totalitarian socio-political ideology and practices associated with Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party (NSDAP) in Germany. During H ...
government of German chancellor
Adolf Hitler
Adolf Hitler (20 April 1889 – 30 April 1945) was an Austrian-born German politician who was the dictator of Nazi Germany from 1933 until Death of Adolf Hitler, his suicide in 1945. Adolf Hitler's rise to power, He rose to power as the lea ...
. From approximately late 1941, Schwägermann served as the adjutant for
Reich Minister of Propaganda Joseph Goebbels
Paul Joseph Goebbels (; 29 October 1897 – 1 May 1945) was a German Nazism, Nazi politician and philologist who was the ''Gauleiter'' (district leader) of Berlin, chief Propaganda in Nazi Germany, propagandist for the Nazi Party, and ...
. He reached the rank of
SS-''
Hauptsturmführer'' (captain). Schwägermann survived
World War II
World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...
and was held in American captivity from 25 June 1945 until 24 April 1947.
Life up to 1945
Born in
Uelzen
Uelzen (; ), officially the Hanseatic City of Uelzen (), is a town in northeast Lower Saxony, Germany, and capital of the district of Uelzen. It is part of the Hamburg Metropolitan Region, a Hanseatic town and an independent municipality.
Uelz ...
, Schwägermann attended secondary school and later joined the
1st SS Division Leibstandarte SS Adolf Hitler on 8 April 1937. He was sent to the ''
SS-Junkerschule Bad Tölz'' for officers' training from October 1938 until September 1939. He later served with the
4th SS Polizei Division in France and Russia, and lost an eye to a Russian rifle-butt on the
Eastern front.
He later had it replaced by a
fake eye (of which Hedwig—Goebbels' daughter—was captivated by). After this injury he became the adjutant for Joseph Goebbels and was promoted to the rank of SS-''
Obersturmführer
__NOTOC__
(, ; short: ''Ostuf'') was a Nazi Germany paramilitary ranks, Nazi Germany paramilitary rank that was used in several Nazi organisations, such as the Sturmabteilung, SA, Schutzstaffel, SS, National Socialist Motor Corps, NSKK and the ...
''. Later on 29 November 1944, he was promoted to the rank of SS-''Hauptsturmführer''. In January 1945, Goebbels sent Schwägermann to his villa at
Lanke, ordering him to bring his wife,
Magda
Magda may refer to:
* Magda (given name), a feminine given name (including a list of persons with the name)
* Marinko Magda (born 1963), Serbian mass murderer
* Magda, São Paulo, Brazil, a municipality
* Heimat (play), ''Heimat'' (play), commonly ...
, and their children to stay at an air raid shelter on
Schwanenwerder.
In the Reich Chancellery bunker
By 22 April 1945, while the Soviets were attacking
Berlin
Berlin ( ; ) is the Capital of Germany, capital and largest city of Germany, by both area and List of cities in Germany by population, population. With 3.7 million inhabitants, it has the List of cities in the European Union by population withi ...
, Joseph and Magda Goebbels brought their children to the ''
Vorbunker'' to stay. Schwägermann came with them. Adolf Hitler had already taken up residence in the lower ''
Führerbunker
The () was an air raid shelter located near the Reich Chancellery in Berlin, Germany. It was part of a subterranean bunker complex constructed in two phases in 1936 and 1944. It was the last of the Führer Headquarters (''Führerhaupt ...
'' in January 1945. It was in that protected bunker complex below the
Reich Chancellery
The Reich Chancellery () was the traditional name of the office of the Chancellor of Germany (then called ''Reichskanzler'') in the period of the German Reich from 1878 to 1945. The Chancellery's seat, selected and prepared since 1875, was the fo ...
garden of Berlin that Hitler and a few loyal personnel were gathered to direct the city's final defence.
By the time of
Hitler's death on 30 April 1945, the Soviet Army was less than 500 metres from the bunker complex. On 1 May 1945, Goebbels arranged for an SS dentist,
Helmut Kunz
Helmut Kunz (26 September 1910 – 23 September 1976) was an Schutzstaffel, SS dentist who, after the suicide of Adolf Hitler, was ordered to administer anesthetic to the Goebbels children, six children of Joseph Goebbels before they were killed ...
, to inject
his six children with
morphine
Morphine, formerly also called morphia, is an opiate that is found naturally in opium, a dark brown resin produced by drying the latex of opium poppies (''Papaver somniferum''). It is mainly used as an analgesic (pain medication). There are ...
so that when they were unconscious, an ampule of
cyanide
In chemistry, cyanide () is an inorganic chemical compound that contains a functional group. This group, known as the cyano group, consists of a carbon atom triple-bonded to a nitrogen atom.
Ionic cyanides contain the cyanide anion . This a ...
could be then crushed in each of their mouths. According to Kunz's later testimony, he gave the children morphine injections but it was Magda Goebbels and SS-''
Obersturmbannführer''
Ludwig Stumpfegger, Hitler's personal doctor, who administered the cyanide.
At around 20:30, Goebbels and his wife,
Magda
Magda may refer to:
* Magda (given name), a feminine given name (including a list of persons with the name)
* Marinko Magda (born 1963), Serbian mass murderer
* Magda, São Paulo, Brazil, a municipality
* Heimat (play), ''Heimat'' (play), commonly ...
left the bunker and walked up to the garden of the Chancellery, where they committed suicide. There are several different accounts of this event. According to one account, Goebbels shot his wife and then himself. Another account was that they each bit on a cyanide ampule and were given a
coup de grâce
A coup de grâce (; ) is an act of mercy killing in which a person or animal is struck with a melee weapon or shot with a projectile to end their suffering from mortal wounds with or without their consent. Its meaning has extended to refer to ...
immediately afterwards. Schwägermann testified in 1948 that the couple walked ahead of him up the stairs and out into the Chancellery garden. He waited in the stairwell and heard the shots sound. Schwägermann then walked up the remaining stairs and once outside he saw the lifeless bodies of the couple. Following Joseph Goebbels's prior order, Schwägermann had an SS soldier fire several shots into Goebbels's body, which did not move. The bodies were then doused with petrol, but the remains were only partially burned and not buried. According to
Brunhilde Pomsel, Schwägermann was the one who personally informed the occupants of the
Führerbunker
The () was an air raid shelter located near the Reich Chancellery in Berlin, Germany. It was part of a subterranean bunker complex constructed in two phases in 1936 and 1944. It was the last of the Führer Headquarters (''Führerhaupt ...
of the suicides of Hitler and Goebbels, as well as their respective wives.
Breakout
In one of Hitler's last orders, he had given permission for the Berlin forces to attempt a breakout of the Soviet encirclement after his death. General
Helmuth Weidling, commander of the Berlin Defence Area, and SS-''
Brigadeführer
''Brigadeführer'' (, ) was a paramilitary rank of the Nazi Party (NSDAP) that was used between 1932 and 1945. It was mainly known for its use as an SS rank. As an SA rank, it was used after briefly being known as '' Untergruppenführer'' in ...
''
Wilhelm Mohnke
Wilhelm Mohnke (15 March 1911 – 6 August 2001) was a German military officer who was one of the original members of the ''Schutzstaffel'' ''SS-Stabswache'' Berlin (Staff Guard Berlin) formed in March 1933. Mohnke, who had joined the Nazi Party ...
, the (''Kommandant'') Battle Commander for the centre government district, devised a plan to escape out from Berlin to the Allies on the western side of the Elbe or to the German Army to the North. Mohnke split up the Reich Chancellery and ''Führerbunker'' soldiers and personnel into ten main groups. Schwägermann was in one of the breakout groups of 1 May. The group, including
Werner Naumann
Werner Naumann (16 June 1909 – 25 October 1982) was a German civil servant and politician. He was State Secretary in Joseph Goebbels' Ministry of Public Enlightenment and Propaganda during the Nazi Germany era. He was appointed head of th ...
,
Hans Baur,
Georg Betz, Alfred Rach, and
Ludwig Stumpfegger, walked underground along the
U-Bahn
Rapid transit in Germany consists of four systems and 14 systems. The , commonly understood to stand for ('underground railway'), are conventional rapid transit systems that run mostly underground, while the or ('city rapid railway') are c ...
. They were joined by
Artur Axmann
Artur Axmann (18 February 1913 – 24 October 1996) was the Germans, German Nazi national leader (''Reichsjugendführer'') of the Hitler Youth (''Hitlerjugend'') from 1940 to 1945, when the war ended. He was the last living Nazi with a rank equi ...
before surfacing at
Stadtmitte station, and later by
Martin Bormann
Martin Ludwig Bormann (17 June 1900 – 2 May 1945) was a German Nazi Party official and head of the Nazi Party Chancellery, private secretary to Adolf Hitler, and a war criminal. Bormann gained immense power by using his position as Hitler ...
. At
Lehrter Bahnhof they split up, Schwägermann, Naumann, and Rach heading west along
Invalidenstraße
Invalidenstraße, or Invalidenstrasse (see ß), is a street in Berlin, Germany. It runs east to west for through the districts of Mitte (locality), Mitte and Moabit. The street originally connected three important railway stations in the nort ...
towards
Moabit
Moabit () is an inner city locality in the boroughs of Berlin, borough of Mitte, Berlin, Germany. As of 2022, about 84,000 people lived in Moabit. First inhabited in 1685 and incorporated into Berlin in 1861, the former industrial sector, industr ...
. They hid in industrial wasteground for several days before escaping Berlin and reaching the
American Zone
The American occupation zone in Germany (German language, German: ), also known as the US-Zone, and the Southwest zone, was one of the four Allied-occupied Germany, occupation zones established by the Allies of World War II in Germany west of t ...
to the west.
After the war
Schwägermann reunited with his wife in
Munich
Munich is the capital and most populous city of Bavaria, Germany. As of 30 November 2024, its population was 1,604,384, making it the third-largest city in Germany after Berlin and Hamburg. Munich is the largest city in Germany that is no ...
and lived incognito until 25 June 1945, when the couple were reported to the
Counterintelligence Corps
The Counter Intelligence Corps (Army CIC) was a World War II and early Cold War intelligence agency within the United States Army consisting of highly trained special agents. Its role was taken over by the U.S. Army Intelligence Corps in 1961 and ...
and taken into U.S. custody.
Schwägermann remained a
prisoner of war
A prisoner of war (POW) is a person held captive by a belligerent power during or immediately after an armed conflict. The earliest recorded usage of the phrase "prisoner of war" dates back to 1610.
Belligerents hold prisoners of war for a ...
in various camps until 24 April 1947.
Later in life, he lived in northern Germany. In February 1948 in
Hanover
Hanover ( ; ; ) is the capital and largest city of the States of Germany, German state of Lower Saxony. Its population of 535,932 (2021) makes it the List of cities in Germany by population, 13th-largest city in Germany as well as the fourth-l ...
he gave two interviews and a written statement about Hitler's last days, English translations of which were made for
Michael Musmanno. In 1951 he was among the ex-comrades under Werner Naumann who formed the
Naumann Circle
The Naumann Circle (), also sometimes referred to as the Circle or the Naumann Affair, was an organization of former German adherents of the Nazi Party that was formed in the German Federal Republic (West Germany) several years after the end o ...
and infiltrated the
Lower Saxony
Lower Saxony is a States of Germany, German state (') in Northern Germany, northwestern Germany. It is the second-largest state by land area, with , and fourth-largest in population (8 million in 2021) among the 16 ' of the Germany, Federal Re ...
branch of the
Free Democratic Party (FDP) and got elected to
its Landtag. He commented publicly in June 1954 on ''The Last Days of Hitler'' by
Hugh Trevor-Roper
Hugh Redwald Trevor-Roper, Baron Dacre of Glanton, (15 January 1914 – 26 January 2003) was an English historian. He was Regius Professor of Modern History (Oxford), Regius Professor of Modern History at the University of Oxford.
Trevor-Rope ...
, among whose sources was the transcript of Schwägermann's 1945–46 debriefing by the US military, but who did not himself speak to Schwägermann. In the 1950s Schwägermann founded an import–export company named Labora in Munich with
Hartmann Lauterbacher's brother Hans.
[; ; ] In 1960 the German
Federal Intelligence Service (BND) requested the US
Central Intelligence Agency
The Central Intelligence Agency (CIA; ) is a civilian foreign intelligence service of the federal government of the United States tasked with advancing national security through collecting and analyzing intelligence from around the world and ...
's file on Schwägermann. Labora was later sold as a
front company to the BND.
According to
Erich Kuby, in 1965 Schwägermann was a federal civil servant in Munich,
where he lived until his death in 1986.
References
Citations
Bibliography
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*
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Schwaegermann, Gunther
1915 births
Year of death missing
SS-Hauptsturmführer
Joseph Goebbels
20th-century German civil servants
German prisoners of war in World War II held by the United States
People from Uelzen
People from the Province of Hanover
Military personnel from Lower Saxony
Naumann Circle members
Waffen-SS personnel