Hugo Blaschke

Hugo Blaschke
Blaschke c. 1948
Born	(1881-11-14)14 November 1881 NeustadtinWest Prussia,German Empire
Died	6 December 1959(1959-12-06)(aged 78) Nuremberg,Bavaria,West Germany
Occupation	Dental surgeon
Employer	Adolf Hitler
Known for	Hitler's personal dentist

Hugo Johannes Blaschke(14 November 1881 – 6 December 1959) was a Germandental surgeonnotable for beingAdolf Hitler's personal dentist from 1933 to April 1945 and for being the chief dentist on the staff ofReichsführer-SSHeinrich Himmler.

Life

Blaschke was born in Neustadt in West Prussia (nowWejherowo) and studied dentistry inBerlinand at theUniversity of Pennsylvania.He trained as a dental surgeon inLondonand opened his own practice in late 1911. DuringWorld War I,he served as a military dentist in Frankfurt/Oder and in Berlin. After the war ended, he went back to private practice in Berlin.After treatingHermann Göringin 1930, Blaschke began seeing other top Nazi leaders for dental work. Blaschke then joined theNazi Partyon 1 February 1931.Göring recommended him to Hitler in 1933. Following the successful treatment, Blaschke became Hitler's personal dentist.As well as Hitler, he also treatedEva Braun,Joseph GoebbelsandHeinrich Himmler.He joined theSchutzstaffel(SS) on 1 May 1935 and was appointed chief dentist of the SS on 31 August 1943.He was promoted to the rank of SS-Brigadeführeron 9 November 1944.

In 1945, as the end ofNazi Germanydrew near, Blaschke accompanied Hitler to theReich Chancelleryin Berlin and theFührerbunker.As theRed Armywasclosing in on Berlin,on 20 April, Hitler ordered Blaschke,Albert Bormann,AdmiralKarl-Jesko von Puttkamer,Dr.Theodor Morell,secretariesJohanna Wolf,Christa Schroeder,and other staff to leave Berlin by aircraft for theObersalzberg.The group flew out of Berlin on different flights by aircraft of theFliegerstaffel des Führersover the following three days.

Post-war

In early May, Soviet Red Army soldiers captured Blaschke's dental assistant Käthe Heusermann and his technician Fritz Echtmann.Heusermann gave a detailed description of Hitler's and Eva Braun's dental bridges and made drawings of them. Thereafter, Heusermann and Echtmann were separately shown the dental remains found outside theFührerbunker,which they confirmed were those of Hitler and Braun.Both then spent years in Soviet prisons.

Blaschke was arrested by US Army troops in Austria on 20 May 1945.He was interrogated by the Americans after the war about Hitler's dental treatment, as part of the effort to identify Hitler's remains. After his release in December 1948, Blaschke practiced dentistry inNuremberg.He reconstructed the dental records ofMartin Bormannfrom memory, and these were later used to identify Bormann's skeletal remains, which were discovered in Berlin in 1972.Blaschke died in Nuremberg in 1959.He was buried in St. Peter Cemetery in Nuremberg.

References

Footnotes

Citations

Bibliography

• 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.ISBN978-1-58648-366-1.
• Joachimsthaler, Anton(1999) [1995].The Last Days of Hitler: The Legends, The Evidence, The Truth.Brockhampton Press.ISBN1-86019-902-X.
• Kershaw, Ian (2008).Hitler: A Biography.New York: W. W. Norton & Company.ISBN978-0-393-06757-6.
• Lang, Jochen von (1979).The Secretary. Martin Bormann: The Man Who Manipulated Hitler.New York: Random House.ISBN978-0-394-50321-9.

External links

• Riaud, Xavier (December 2006)."Story of three SS dentists during World War II: Pr Hugo Blaschke, Dr Hermann Pook and Dr Willy Frank".Vesalius: Acta Internationales Historiae Medicinae.12(2): 79–93.ISSN1373-4857.PMID17575817– viaPubMed.