Hugo Gutmann
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Hugo Gutmann | |
|---|---|
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| Allegiance |  German Empire |
| Service/ | Artillery Branch, German Army |
| Years of service | 1902-1919 |
| Rank | Leutnant |
| Unit | Regiment "List" |
| Commands | 16th Bavarian Reserve Regiment |
| Awards | Iron Cross (First and Second Class) |
Hugo Gutmann (1880–1971) was a German-Jewish veteran of World War I who is famously known as Adolf Hitler's superior officer during the war, as well as the man responsible for recommending Hitler for the award of the Iron Cross.
Early Life and Army career
Gutmann was born on November 19, 1880 in Nuremberg. In 1902, Gutmann joined the Bavarian Army and had risen to the rank of Feldwebel by 1904, at which time he was transferred to the reserves. When World War I began in 1914, Gutmann was recalled and soon after he joined the Regiment "List". On April 15, 1915, he was promoted to Lieutenant (Leutnant), and appointed as a Company Commander and Acting Adjutant for the Regiment's artillery battalion.
Throughout most of 1918, from January 29 to August 31, Gutmann served as Adolf Hitler's direct superior. Gutmann later lobbied for Hitler's award of the Iron Cross First Class (an award typically reserved for commissioned officers), and the decoration was presented on August 4, 1918, near Soissons, on recommendation from Gutmann. Some accounts further state that it was Gutmann who made the actual award and pinned the medal on Hitler's chest. Hitler would wear this medal throughout the remainder of his career, including while serving as Fuhrer of Nazi Germany.
Gutmann himself was an Iron Cross recipient, having been awarded the Iron Cross 2nd Class on December 2, 1914 (incidentally the same day as Hitler), as well as the Iron Cross 1st Class on December 4, 1915.
Post World War I and Nazi Years
On February 8, 1919, Guttman was demobilized from the German Army but still maintained on the Army rolls as a Reserve Lieutenant. He married later that year and would go on to father two children. During the 1920s, Guttman owned and operated an office-furniture shop in Vordere-Steingasse 3 in Nuremberg.
In the fall of 1933, Gutmann applied for a veteran's war pension which was granted. At this time, President Paul von Hindenberg had passed several verbal and written decrees allowing for the protection of Jewish war veterans from the rising tide of antisemitism in Germany. In 1935, after the passing of the Nuremberg Laws, Gutmann lost his German citizenship and was formally discharged from the veteran rolls of the German Army. He still continued to receive a pension, however, possibly due to Hitler's influence.[1]
In 1938, Guttman was arrested by the Gestapo but released both due to sympathetic SS personnel, who knew Gutmann's history, as well as anti-Nazi elements in the German Police. In 1939, Gutmann and his family escaped to Belgium just as World War II was beginning in Europe. In 1940, he immigrated to the United States just prior to the Nazi invasion of the Low Countries.
Post World War II
Guttman eventually settled in the city of St. Louis, Missouri where he changed his name to Henry G. Grant and went back into the furniture business. He died in 1971.
Portrayals in Media
In the 2003 television mini-series "Hitler: The Rise of Evil", Hugo Gutmann is portrayed by actor Brendan Hughes.
References
- ^ According to the historian Werner Maser, Gutmann received, by Hitler's intervention, a pension from the Third Reich down to the end of the war.