German Leadership

Gauleiter of Lower Silesia.

Karl Hanke as Gauleiter of Lower Silesia (1942-'45). Hanke was a rather headstrong Nazi, and notable protegé of Joseph Goebbels, whom he served as personal secretary and later as State Secretary (Deputy Minister) at the Ministry of Propaganda and Public Enlightenment. Hanke's relationship with Goebbels entered a rocky phase in 1938 when - in response to the Propaganda Minister's unusually serious love affair with Czech actress Lida Baarová - Magda Goebbels appears to have entered in turn into an affair with Hanke, who had hitherto been particularly friendly with her. The affair ended Hanke's appointment as State Secretary (part of Hitler's intervention to smother the Baarová affair and its threat to the Goebbels marriage). However, Hanke does not really appear to have fallen from favour with Hitler, or even with Goebbels. The military decorations shown here were earned as an Oberleutnant in the 7th Panzer Division, serving under another leading Goebbels protegé, Erwin Rommel. When his outspoken criticism of Rommel's command style resulted in a falling-out with Rommel, Hanke was discharged from the Heer, but was almost immediately appointed Gauleiter of Lower Silesia, in which post, in 1945, he directed the early stages of the defence of "Fortress Breslau" against the Soviet Red Army. Goebbels particularly praised his conduct in this regard in his Diaries. As for Hitler, he appointed Hanke (who was an SS-Brigadefuhrer) as Reichfuhrer-SS and Reich Police President (but not Interior Minister) in succession to the disgraced Himmler in the dying days of the Reich, and awarded him the German Order, one of the few persons awarded the "Dead Heroes Medal" in his lifetime. Karl Hanke did not live long to "enjoy" these honours - imprisoned as a PoW by Czech forces (while disguised as a low-ranking SS soldier) he was killed in the course of an attempted escape by PoWs early in June, 1945. Best regards, JR.