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Hermann Otto Fegelein
Hermann Fegelein as SS-Standartenführer
Born	(1906-10-30)30 October 1906 Ansbach, German Empire
Died	29 April 1945(1945-04-29) (aged 38) Berlin, Nazi Germany
Allegiance	Weimar Republic (to 1933)  Nazi Germany
Service / branch	Waffen-SS
Years of service	1925 – 1945
Rank	Obergruppenführer
Commands	SS Cavalry Brigade 8.SS-Freiw.KavDiv "Florian Geyer"
Battles / wars	World War II
Awards	Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross with Oak Leaves and Swords
Relations	Waldemar Fegelein (brother)

SS-Obergruppenführer Hans Georg Otto Hermann Fegelein (30 October 1906 – 28 April or 29 April 1945) was a General of the Waffen-SS in Nazi Germany, a member of Adolf Hitler's entourage, brother-in-law to Eva Braun through his marriage to her sister, Gretl, and husband of the sister-in-law to Adolf Hitler through Hitler's marriage to Eva Braun.

Early career

Fegelein was born in Ansbach, Bavaria, to the retired Oberleutnant Hans Fegelein. As a young boy, he worked at his father's horse riding school in Munich. When it closed due to the worldwide economic depression of the 1920s, he worked as a stable boy for Christian Weber, who was one of the original members of the Nazi Party.

In 1925, after studying for two terms at Munich University, Fegelein joined the Reiterregiment 17 and on 27 April 1927, he joined the Bavarian State Police in Munich as an officer cadet. Whilst in Munich, he came into early contact with National Socialism, joining the Party (membership number 1,200,158) and the SA in 1930. By 1931, Fegelein had transferred to the SS.

Fegelein's Waffen SS Obergruppenführer rank was higher than his Allgemeine SS rank of SS Gruppenführer and Generalleutnant der Waffen-SS. His last film appearance was in a newsreel shot on April 20, 1945 (Hitler's birthday). Fegelein is in the background and his plainly visible collar tabs are those of a Gruppenführer.

SS membership

On July 25, 1937, Reichsführer SS Heinrich Himmler, by special order of the Oberabschnitt (SUD), created the SS Main Riding School in Munich and made Hermann Fegelein the School Commander. Only former royalty from the Hohenzollern and other German Empire (Kaiserzeit) dynasties could send representatives, along with the top heads of German industry, who donated to Martin Bormann's German industry fund. Fegelein requested his friend, Captain Marten von Barnekow, be allowed to enter the horse riding school, and Himmler granted his request.

Fegelein rose quickly through the ranks to that of a SS Gruppenführer. He saw active service on the Russian front with the 8th SS Cavalry Division Florian Geyer during three separate periods, from April 1942 to August 1942, from 14 May 1943 to 13 September 1943, and from 22 October 1943 to 1 January 1944.

He was a prominent member of the SS Riding School (Haupt-Reitschule München). He had also served under Reinhard Heydrich, the Sicherheitsdienst (SS intelligence service) commander.

Relationship with Himmler

Fegelein was nicknamed Heinrich Himmler's "golden boy"; his boyish face and subservient attitude gained him considerable favour with Himmler, who treated him like a son (although he was only six years Himmler's junior). Himmler granted him the best assignments (mostly related to horses), the best staff and generous budgets. Himmler brought Fegelein home after he was wounded on the Russian front in October, 1943. Himmler reassigned Fegelein to Adolf Hitler's headquarters staff as Himmler's adjutant and representative of the SS.

Marriage

His politically arranged marriage to Margarethe "Gretl" Braun took place on June 3, 1944 at the Palace of Mirabell in Salzburg. A marriage license was obtained at the local town clerk's office and Heinrich Himmler was a witness at the simple ceremony. A two-day celebration was then held at Hitler's and Martin Bormann's Obersalzberg mountain homes and the Eagle's Nest. Photographs of the wedding dinner appeared in Britain's weekly Picture Post Magazine the next year after the war ended, showing Hitler at the festivities.

Fegelein was a known playboy and after his marriage to Gretl Braun had many extramarital affairs. Hitler was apparently aware of Fegelein's dalliances and, while not approving, chose to ignore them.

Death

From January to April 1945, Martin Bormann controlled access to Hitler's office. Fegelein was on close terms with him. Further, being married to Eva Braun's sister placed him in Hitler's inner circle. After Fegelein's boss, Heinrich Himmler, tried to negotiate a backdoor surrender to the Western Allies via Count Bernadotte in April 1945, Fegelein left the Reich Chancellery bunker complex and was caught by SS-Obersturmbannführer Peter Högl in his Berlin apartment wearing civilian clothes and apparently preparing to flee to Sweden or Switzerland with his Hungarian mistress. He was carrying cash - German and foreign - and jewelry, some of which belonged to Eva Braun. According to most accounts he was intoxicated when arrested and brought back to the Führerbunker.

At this point, historical accounts begin to differ. In The Last Days of Hitler, historian Hugh Trevor-Roper remarked:

The real causes and circumstances of the execution of Fegelein provide one of the few subjects in this book upon which final certainty seems unattainable.

However, it should be noted that Trevor-Roper's book was written in 1947. Some other theories disagreed with each other, and a few seemed preposterous (e.g. a claim that Hitler himself gunned Fegelein down). Most claimed he had been shot following a court-martial. Journalist James P. O'Donnell in his interviews of the 1970s, discovered a detailed version as to what happened to Fegelein. Waffen-SS General Wilhelm Mohnke, who presided over the court-martial, told O'Donnell the following:

"Hitler ordered me to set up a tribunal forthwith. I was to preside over it myself...I myself decided the accused man deserved trial by high-ranking officers. The panel consisted of four general officers - Generals Wilhelm Burgdorf, Hans Krebs, Johann Rattenhuber, and me...We did, at that moment, have every intention of holding a trial.

What really happened was that we set up the court-martial in a room next to my command post...We military judges took our seats at the table with the standard German Army Manual of Courts-Martial before us. No sooner were we seated than defendant Fegelein began acting up in such an outrageous manner that the trial could not even commence.

Roaring drunk, with wild, rolling eyes, Fegelein first brazenly challenged the competence of the court. He kept blubbering that he was responsible to Himmler and Himmler alone, not Hitler...He refused to defend himself. The man was in wretched shape - bawling, whining, vomiting, shaking like an aspen leaf. He took out his penis and began urinating on the floor...

I was now faced with an impossible situation. On the one hand, based on all available evidence, including his own earlier statements, this miserable excuse for an officer was guilty of flagrant desertion... Yet the German Army Manual states clearly that no German soldier can be tried unless he is clearly of sound mind and body, in a condition to hear the evidence against him. I looked up the passage again, to make sure, and consulted with my fellow judges...In my opinion and that of my fellow officers, Hermann Fegelein was in no condition to stand trial, or for that matter to even stand. I closed the proceedings...So I turned Fegelein over to General Rattenhuber and his security squad. I never saw the man again."

Some survivors of the Führerbunker say Eva Braun pleaded with Hitler to spare her brother-in-law Hermann, and some say she did not speak a word in his defense. There is agreement among bunker survivors that when Fegelein was first arrested Braun did inform Hitler that her sister was pregnant and this apparently led Hitler to initially consider releasing him without punishment. However there is no agreement on whether she said anything once Hitler condemned him to death.

Legacy

Both Fegelein's parents survived the war and claimed to have received messages (via a third party) that he was continuing resistance underground. However, there is no evidence Fegelein was alive after April 29, 1945 and no bunker witnesses have ever suggested he survived. Gretl, inheriting some of her sister Eva's valuable jewelry, also survived the war and gave birth to a daughter (named Eva Barbara Fegelein, after her late aunt, Eva Braun). Eva Fegelein committed suicide on April 25, 1975 following the death of a close friend. Gretl Fegelein died in 1987, aged 72.

Awards

• Infantry Assault Badge (silver)
• Close Combat Clasp (silver)
• Wound Badge (silver)
• Iron Cross (1939) 2nd and 1st class
• German Cross in Gold (1 November 1943)
• Knight's Cross with Oak Leaves and Swords
  • Knight's Cross on 2 March 1942 as SS-Standartenführer and commander of the SS-Kavallerie-Brigade
  • 157th Oak Leaves on 22 December 1942 as SS-Oberführer and commander of a Kampfgruppe
  • 83rd Swords on 30 July 1944 as SS-Gruppenführer and Generalleutnant of the Waffen-SS and commander of the 8. SS-Freiwilligen-Kavallerie-Division "Florian Geyer"

Officially, Fegelein's death sentence resulted in the loss of all his orders and honorary signs.

Portrayal in the media

Hermann Fegelein has been portrayed by the following actors in film and television productions.

• Julius Jonak in the 1955 West German film Der Letzte Akt (Hitler: The Last Ten Days).
• Jean Topart in the 1972 French television production Le Bunker.
• Inigo Jackson in the 1973 British television production The Death of Adolf Hitler.
• Julian Glover in the 1973 British film Hitler: The Last Ten Days.
• Terrence Hardiman in the 1981 United States television production The Bunker.
• Volker Spengler in the 1989 West German film 100 Jahre Adolf Hitler (100 Years of Adolf Hitler).
• Thomas Kretschmann in the 2004 German film Downfall (Der Untergang).

• Fegelein's role in the 2004 film Downfall (Der Untergang) became significant in regards to the internet parodies of the film found on YouTube, in which he is a central parody figure. The fictional depiction of Fegelein is often as a culprit of committing cruel and often comical antics against Hitler, or as a source of intense frustration for Hitler.

Notes

1. Traudl Junge, who was an eye-witness to the events in the bunker, mentions that Fegelein had been condemned to death and was "shot like a dog". She also mentions that Eva Braun tried to justify Fegelein's behaviour to Hitler.

References

This article includes a list of general references, but it lacks sufficient corresponding inline citations. Please help to improve this article by introducing more precise citations. (February 2009) (Learn how and when to remove this message)

Citations

1. Junge, Traudl (2004). Until the Final Hour : Hitler's Last Secretary. Arcade Publishing. p. 208. ISBN 1-55970-728-3. {{cite book}}: Cite has empty unknown parameter: |coauthors= (help)
2. Williamson, Gordon K.; Bujeiro, Ramiro. "Knight's Cross, Oak-Leaves and Swords Recipients 1941-45" (Elite). Osprey. p. 44. ISBN 1-84176-643-7. {{cite book}}: Cite has empty unknown parameter: |coauthors= (help)CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
3. Joachimstaler, Anton (1999). The Last Days of Hitler: the Legends, the Evidence, the Truth. Arms & Armour Press. ISBN 1-86019-902-X.
4. ^ O'Donnell, 1978, pp. 182, 183.
5. Junge, Traudl, 2002.
6. Fellgiebel 2000, p. 178.
7. Fellgiebel 2000, pp. 63, 477.
8. Fellgiebel 2000, p. 44.
9. Scherzer, 2007, p. 128.
10. "Hermann Fegelein (Character)". IMDb.com. Retrieved May 8, 2008. {{cite web}}: Cite has empty unknown parameters: |month= and |coauthors= (help)
11. "Letzte Akt, Der (1955)". IMDb.com. Retrieved May 8, 2008. {{cite web}}: Cite has empty unknown parameters: |month= and |coauthors= (help)
12. "The Death of Adolf Hitler (1973) (TV)". IMDb.com. Retrieved May 8, 2008. {{cite web}}: Cite has empty unknown parameters: |month= and |coauthors= (help)

Bibliography

• Berger, Florian (1999). Mit Eichenlaub und Schwertern. Die höchstdekorierten Soldaten des Zweiten Weltkrieges. Selbstverlag Florian Berger. ISBN 3-9501307-0-5
• Junge, Traudl (2002). Until the Final Hour. (English edition) London. ISBN 0-297-84720-1.
• O'Donnell, James (2001). The Bunker. New York: Da Capo Press (reprint). ISBN 0-306-80958-3.
• Patzwall, Klaus D. and Scherzer, Veit (2001). Das Deutsche Kreuz 1941 - 1945 Geschichte und Inhaber Band II. Norderstedt, Germany: Verlag Klaus D. Patzwall. ISBN 3-931533-45-X.
• Schaulen, Fritjof (2003). Eichenlaubträger 1940 - 1945 Zeitgeschichte in Farbe I Abraham - Huppertz (in German). Selent, Germany: Pour le Mérite. ISBN 3-932381-20-3.
• Scherzer, Veit (2007). Ritterkreuzträger 1939 - 1945 Die Inhaber des Ritterkreuzes des Eisernen Kreuzes 1939 von Heer, Luftwaffe, Kriegsmarine, Waffen-SS, Volkssturm sowie mit Deutschland verbündeter Streitkräfte nach den Unterlagen des Bundesarchives. Jena, Germany: Scherzers Miltaer-Verlag. ISBN 978-3-938845-17-2.
• Williamson, Gordon (2006). Knight's Cross, Oak-Leaves and Swords Recipients 1941-45. Osprey Publishing Ltd. ISBN 1-84176-643-7.

• Joachim Jahns, Der Warschauer Ghettokönig, Dingsda-Verlag Leipzig 2009, ISBN 978-3-928498-99-9

External links

• Template:PND
• Lexikon der Wehrmacht

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• 1906 births
• 1945 deaths
• People from Ansbach
• SS generals
• Recipients of the Close Combat Clasp
• Recipients of the German Cross
• Recipients of the Knight's Cross
• People condemned by Nazi courts
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• Internet memes
• People from the Kingdom of Bavaria
• Heinrich Himmler