Otto Günsche

Otto Günsche
Günsche as a SS-Untersturmführer
Born	(1917-09-24)24 September 1917 Jena, Saxe-Weimar-Eisenach
Died	2 October 2003(2003-10-02) (aged 86) Lohmar, North Rhine-Westphalia
Allegiance	Nazi Germany
Service/branch	Waffen-SS
Years of service	1933–1945
Rank	SS-Sturmbannführer
Unit	1st SS Division Leibstandarte SS Adolf Hitler
Battles/wars	World War II
Awards	Wound Badge in Silver Infantry Assault Badge Iron Cross 2nd Class Iron Cross 1st Class War Merit Cross - 2nd Class with Swords

Otto Günsche (24 September 1917 – 2 October 2003) was a Sturmbannführer (major) in the Waffen-SS and a member of 1st SS Division Leibstandarte SS Adolf Hitler before he became Adolf Hitler's personal adjutant. He was captured by soldiers of the Red Army on 2 May 1945. After various prisons and labor camps in the USSR, he was released from Bautzen Penitentiary on 2 May 1956.

Biography

Günsche was born in Jena in Thuringia. After leaving secondary school at 16 he volunteered for the Leibstandarte Adolf Hitler and joined the Nazi Party. He first met Adolf Hitler in 1936. He was Hitler's SS orderly officer from 1940 to 1941. He then had front-line combat service until January 1943 when Günsche became a personal adjutant for Hitler. During 1944, Günsche fought on the eastern front and in France until March 1944 when he again was appointed a personal adjutant for Hitler. He was present at the 20 July 1944 attempt to kill Hitler at the Wolf's Lair in Rastenburg. The bomb explosion burst Günsche's eardrums and caused him to receive a number of contusions.

As the end of the Third Reich became imminent, Günsche was tasked by Hitler with ensuring the cremation of his body after his death on 30 April 1945. He stood guard outside the room as Hitler and Eva Braun committed suicide. Having ensured that the bodies were burnt using fuel supplied by Hitler's chauffeur Erich Kempka, Günsche left the Führerbunker after midnight on 1 May. He was captured by Soviet troops encircling the city on 2 May 1945 and flown to Moscow for interrogation by the NKVD.

He was imprisoned in Moscow and Bautzen in East Germany and released on 2 May 1956. During imprisonment, Günsche and Heinz Linge were primary sources for Operation Myth, the biography of Hitler that was prepared for Joseph Stalin. The dossier was edited by Soviet NKVD (later the MVD, separate from the new agency of the KGB) officers. The report was received by Stalin on 30 December 1949. The report was published in book form in 2005 under the title: The Hitler Book: The Secret Dossier Prepared for Stalin from the Interrogations of Hitler's Personal Aides.

Günsche died of heart failure at his home in Lohmar, North Rhine-Westphalia in 2003. He had three children.

Awards and decorations

• Wound Badge in Silver
• Infantry Assault Badge
• Iron Cross 2nd Class
• Iron Cross 1st Class
• War Merit Cross - 2nd Class with Swords

Portrayal in the media

• In the 2004 German film Downfall (Der Untergang), Otto Günsche is portrayed by Götz Otto.

References

• Eberle, Henrik; Uhl, Matthias, eds. (2005). The Hitler Book: The Secret Dossier Prepared for Stalin from the Interrogations of Hitler's Personal Aides. New York: Public Affairs. ISBN 978-1-58648-366-1. {{cite book}}: Invalid |ref=harv (help)
• Hamilton, Charles (1984). Leaders & Personalities of the Third Reich, Vol. 1. R. James Bender Publishing. ISBN 0-912138-27-0. {{cite book}}: Invalid |ref=harv (help)
• Joachimsthaler, Anton (1999) [1995]. The Last Days of Hitler: The Legends, the Evidence, the Truth. Trans. Helmut Bögler. London: Brockhampton Press. ISBN 978-1-86019-902-8. {{cite book}}: Invalid |ref=harv (help)
• Kershaw, Ian (2008). Hitler: A Biography. New York: W. W. Norton & Company. ISBN 0-393-06757-2. {{cite book}}: Invalid |ref=harv (help)
• O'Donnell, James (2001) [1978]. The Bunker. New York: Da Capo Press. ISBN 0-306-80958-3. {{cite book}}: Invalid |ref=harv (help)

External links

• Otto Günsche in the German National Library catalogue
• Picture of Günsche