German Leadership

Gottlob Berger.

Bundesarchiv.

Waffen-SS Obergruppenfuhrer Gottlob Berger, recruitment and manpower genius of the Waffen-SS, in a formal portrait probably connected with the award of the Knight's Cross of the War Merit Cross with Swords (awarded 15 November, 1944). Berger was a highly decorated WW1 veteran, wounded several times and achieving the Iron Cross, Second and First Class, along with the rare German Empire Wound Badge in Gold. He spent the interwar years, for the most part, in the teaching profession, latterly in a senior administrative position. The circumstances of his joining the SS in 1938 are somewhat unclear. However, his initial appointment as Director of the SS Sports Office suggests that he was "headhunted" for his administrative skills. By the end of that year, he had been appointed SS-Standartenfuhrer. Berger really came into his own with his appointment, on 1 April 1940, to head the Main SS Recruiting Office (promoted SS-Brigadefuhrer, 20 April 1940). In this position he displayed great creativity, flexibility and persuasiveness in accessing new sources of manpower for the Waffen-SS in particular. This facilitated the conversion of the Waffen-SS from a relatively small, self-styled élite military force of native Germans to (by end-war) a substantial multinational army based on a core German and "Germanic" élite, operating at the disposal of the Wehrmacht for the duration of the war. Good or bad development ? Well, we would need to adjourn to the forum to discuss that very complex question.. In any case - if Paul Hausser was the "father" of the Waffen-SS, there is a fair argument for the proposition that Berger was its "mother", at least in its mature form. In this 'photo (apart from the Knight's Cross of the War Merit Cross with Swords), Berger is wearing the Iron Cross, First Class (WW1), the War Merit Cross, First Class with Swords, the Wound Badge in Gold (WW1), and the German Social Welfare Decoration (Ehrenzeichen fur Deutsche Volkspflege), Second Class. The latter - the White Cross with Black Eagle to the left of the left breast pocket - was in practice a decoration awarded to senior administrators in Nazi Germany for general civil merit. One interesting point - along with EK and War Merit II ribbons and WW2 clasp to the latter, the German Cross in Silver is absent from the right breast pocket. Berger was certainly entitled to wear that decoration at the date of this 'photo; it does appear in other 'photos of the subject at similar date. And - oh yes - the date indicated by the Bundesarchiv caption appears rather too early, by reference to other sources (just to refer back to an earlier discussion on this point). Best regards, JR.