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Margarete Himmler

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Margarete Himmler
Himmler in 1918
Born
Margarete Boden

(1893-09-09)9 September 1893
GoncarzewonearBromberg,West Prussia,German Empire
Died25 August 1967(1967-08-25)(aged 73)
Munich,West Germany
Other namesMargarete Siegroth
Marga Himmler
OccupationNurse
Spouse
​
​
(m.1928;died1945)​
ChildrenGudrun Burwitz

Margarete Himmler(néeBoden;9 September 1893 – 25 August 1967), also known asMarga Himmler,was the wife ofReichsführer-SSHeinrich Himmler.[1][2]

Youth, first marriage, and divorce[edit]

Margarete Boden was born inGoncarzewonearBromberg,the daughter of landowner Hans Boden and his wife Elfriede (née Popp).[3]Margarete had three sisters (Elfriede, Lydia and Paula) and a brother.[4]In 1909, she attended theHöhere Töchterschule(High School for Girls) in Bromberg, then a city in theGerman Empire(nowBydgoszcz,Poland). Margarete trained and worked as a nurse during theFirst World Warfollowed by a stint at aGerman Red Crosshospital at the war's end.[2]

Her first marriage was short and produced no children. Due to the economic support of her father, she was able to operate and direct a private nursing clinic inBerlin.[5]

Marriage to Heinrich Himmler[edit]

Margarete (middle) withHeinrichand daughterGudrun
Margarete with her husband in front of theKurhaus, Wiesbaden,in November/December 1936

Himmler met his future wife, Margarete Boden, in 1927. They met during one of his lecture tours and remained thereafter in written contact.[6]In one surviving letter, Boden refers to Heinrich Himmler as the "Landsknecht[7]with the hard heart "but she was nevertheless impressed by his romantic style of writing and his sincere love for her.[8][9][10]The blonde, blue-eyed nurse corresponded perfectly to Heinrich Himmler's ideal woman.[4]

Seven years his senior, Boden shared his interest in herbal medicine andhomeopathy,and was part owner of a small private clinic. They shared an excessive propensity for efficiency, and neatness, longed for strict domesticity, and both preferred a parsimonious lifestyle.[11]From her husband she received a consistent diet ofanti-Semitismand diatribes againstCommunistsandFreemasons.Her anti-Semitism was evident in a letter to Heinrich Himmler dated 22 June 1928, in which she made disparaging remarks about the co-owner of the private clinic in Berlin, gynecologist and surgeon Bernhard Hauschildt, exclaiming, "That Hauschildt! Those Jews are all the same!"[12]

Heinrich and Margarete married in July 1928.[11]Initially, Heinrich struggled with the decision to reveal his relationship with Margarete to his parents, partly due to her being seven years older, but also because she was a divorcee, and foremost, because she was aProtestant.[13]None of Himmler's family members attended the wedding, so Heinrich's groomsmen were the father and brother of the bride.[14]Ultimately, Heinrich Himmler's parents accepted Margarete, but the family kept their distance from her and remained that way throughout the length of the relationship.[15]The couple had their only child,Gudrun,who was born on 8 August 1929; they were also foster parents to Gerhard von Ahe, the son of an SS officer who had died before the war.[16]Margarete sold her share of the clinic and used the proceeds to buy a plot of land inWaldtrudering,near Munich, where they put up a prefabricated house. Himmler was constantly away on party business, so his wife took charge of their efforts—mostly unsuccessful—to raise livestock for sale. Afterthe Nazis seized power in January 1933,the family moved first to Möhlstrasse in Munich, and in 1934 toGmund am Tegernsee,where they bought a house.

Himmler later gained a large house in the Berlin suburb ofDahlemfree of charge as an official residence. The couple now saw each other rarely as Himmler became absorbed by work.[17]Gebhard,Heinrich Himmler's older brother, characterized Margarete as a "cool, hard woman with extremely delicate nerves who radiated no warmth at all and spent too much time moaning"[15]who had, despite these characteristics, been an "exemplary housewife", one who devotedly loved Heinrich and remained true to her husband.[18]Margarete Himmler joined theNazi Partyas early as 1928 (member number 97,252).[19][20]Due to Himmler's enormous responsibilities, the relationship with Marga was strained.[21][22]The couple did unite for social functions; they were frequent guests at the home ofReinhard Heydrich.Margarete saw it as her duty to invite the wives of the senior SS leaders over for coffee and tea on Wednesday afternoons.[23]Despite her best efforts and the fact that Margarete was married to theReichsführer-SS,she remained unpopular in SS circles. Former Hitler Youth leaderBaldur von Schirachwrote in his memoirs that Heinrich Himmler was constantly "henpecked", essentially had zero influence at home, and had to yield to Margarete's will.[24]

During theNuremberg Rallyin 1938, Himmler had conflicts with most of the wives of the highest-ranking SS leaders, who as a group refused to take any directions from her. According to Heydrich's biographers and historianRobert Gerwarth,Lina Heydrichharbored a "violent dislike" of Margarete Himmler, which was probably reciprocated.[25][1]After the war, Lina Heydrich made disparaging comments to a reporter fromDer Spiegel.Margarete was described as a "narrow-minded, humorless, blonde-haired woman"[1]who suffered fromagoraphobia.[26]

Hedwig Potthast,Himmler's young secretary starting in 1936, became his mistress by 1938. She left her job in 1941. Himmler fathered two children with her: a son, Helge (born 1942), and a daughter, Nanette Dorothea (born 1944 at Berchtesgaden). Margarete, by then living in the town ofGmund am Tegernseein Bavaria with her daughter, learned of the relationship sometime in 1941. Margarete and Himmler were already separated, and she decided to tolerate the relationship for the sake of her daughter.

Second World War[edit]

OnceWorld War IIbegan, Himmler helped operate a military hospital affiliated with theGerman Red Cross.By December 1939, she was supervising the Red Cross hospitals inMilitary DistrictIII (Berlin-Brandenburg). In this position, she led missions into the territories and countries occupied by the GermanWehrmacht.[27]In March 1940, Margarete recorded a business trip toGerman-occupied Poland,so she was certainly a witness to events there. In her journals, written while serving, Himmler wrote, "Then I was inPosen,ŁódźandWarsaw.This Jewish rabble, Polacks, most of them don't look like human beings and the dirt is indescribable. It's an incredible job trying to create order there. "[28]

For her efforts, Himmler reached the rank of colonel in the German Red Cross.[29]In February 1945, in writing to Gebhard Himmler, Margarete said of Heinrich, "How wonderful that he has been called to great tasks and is equal to them. The whole of Germany is looking to him."[30]

Heinrich Himmler was close to his first daughter,Gudrun,whom he nicknamedPüppi( "dolly" ); he phoned her every few days and visited as often as he could.[27]Hedwig and Margarete both remained loyal to Himmler. Margarete and Heinrich Himmler last saw one another in April 1945, sharing time together with Gudrun at their Gmund residence.[31]

Post-war[edit]

Margarete Himmler (left) with daughter Gudrun in Allied internment during theNuremberg TrialsinNuremberg,24 November 1945

In 1945, Margarete and Gudrun left Gmund asAlliedtroops advanced into the area. After the invasion ofBolzano,Italy, by theU.S. Armyin May 1945, Margarete and Gudrun were arrested. They were held in various internment camps in Italy, France, and Germany. During her internment, Margarete was interrogated, but it became clear that she was not informed of the official business of her husband, and was described as having a "small-town mentality" which persisted throughout her questioning.

In September 1945, Margarete Himmler was again interrogated, but this time it was during theNuremberg trials.Margarete and Gudrun were then detained at theFlak-Kaserne Ludwigsburginternment camp.[32]Since they were not accused, she and Gudrun were released in November 1946 from internment. They took refuge for a time with theBethel InstitutionofBielefeld.Margarete's stay there was expressly endorsed by the Executive Board of the Bethel Institution, but this was not without controversy. On 4 June 1947, in the European edition of theNew-York Tribune,an article appeared entitled, "Widow of Heinrich Himmler Lives Like a Gentlewoman".[33]

Margarete was categorized in 1948 at Bielefeld as a lesser offender (Category III) and was to bedenazifiedaccordingly. In 1950, Margarete retained a lawyer to challenge this classification, since she claimed that her early Nazi Party membership was no more than "nominal" and that her high rank resulted from her early service with the German Red Cross, in which she had served since 1914. Margarete maintained that while she had been the wife of theReichsführer-SS,she remained far from the spotlight. Nevertheless, the denazification committee inDetmoldrevised her classification and contended that she likely supported the goals of the Nazi Party and endorsed the actions of her husband. Her lawyer insisted during the follow-on appeals process that Margarete could not be held responsible for the actions of her husband and countered that the official decision was guided by the idea ofSippenhaft,which meant she was responsible by familial connections. On 19 March 1951, she was finally classified as aMitläuferin(Category IV).

According to this judgment, she was not to be held accountable for the crimes of her husband, despite that she had not been distant from them. Additional arguments were presented that she and her daughter had benefited from the rise of her husband. Because of this, another denazification proceeding, started by theBavarian Prime MinisterHans Ehard,resumed in theBritish occupation zone.These proceedings focused on the unresolved question of ownership of Margarete and Heinrich's home in Gmund. On 15 January 1953, at the final hearing against Margarete in Munich, she was classified as a beneficiary of the Nazi regime and thus placed in Category II (Activists, Militants, and Profiteers, or Incriminated Persons/German:Belastete), and sentenced to 30 days' special/punitive work. She also lost her pension rights and the right to vote.[34]

Gudrun left Bethel in 1952. From the autumn of 1955, Margarete lived with her sister Lydia in Heepen. Her adopted son Gerhard also lived with them in her apartment.[35]Margarete's final years were spent with her daughter in Munich.[36]Gudrun emerged from the experience embittered by her alleged mistreatment and remained devoted to her father's memory.[37][38]

Assessment[edit]

Peter Longerichnotes that Margarete Himmler probably did not know about the official secrets or planned projects of her husband during the Nazi era.[27]She said after the war she did not have any knowledge of Nazi crimes, but she remained a committed National Socialist and was certainly anti-Semitic.[39]Jürgen Matthäusdescribed her as a typical Nazi who wanted the Jews gone, and observed that despite any efforts contrariwise to isolate herself from the regime and its crimes, she profited from them.[40]

See also[edit]

Wikimedia Commons has media related toMargarete Himmler.

References[edit]

  1. ^abcWyllie, James (February 2020)."Nazi wives: the women beside Hess, Goebbels, Göring and Himmler".HistoryExtra.BBC History Revealed. Archived fromthe originalon 2 March 2020.Retrieved11 February2020.
  2. ^abWittler, Christina.Leben im Verborgenen. Die Witwe des „Reichsführers SS “Heinrich Himmler Margarete Himmler (1893–1967)In: Bärbel Sunderbrink (Hrsg.):Frauen in der Bielefelder Geschichte,Bielefeld 2010, p. 194
  3. ^Christina Wittler:Leben im Verborgenen. Die Witwe des "Reichsführers SS" Heinrich Himmler Margarete Himmler (1893–1967)In: Bärbel Sunderbrink (Hrsg.):Frauen in der Bielefelder Geschichte,Bielefeld 2010, p. 194
  4. ^abHimmler 2007,p. 117.
  5. ^Jürgen Matthäus:„Es war sehr nett “. Auszüge aus dem Tagebuch der Margarete Himmler, 1937–1945.In:Werkstatt Geschichte25 (2000), p. 75
  6. ^Longerich 2012,p. 103.
  7. ^TheLandsknechtwere mercenary soldiers in the German and other continental European armies in the 16th and 17th centuries. Historian Andrew Morrall claims that the ‘’Landsknecht’’ represented for Germans in particular, the "exemplum of a race of men, free, natural, and courageous". See: Andrew Morrall, "Soldiers and Gypsies- Outsiders and Their Families in Early Sixteenth Century German Art", inArtful Armies, Beautiful Battles: Art and Warfare in Early Modern Europe,by Pia F. Cuneo, ed. Pia F. Cuneo,History of Warfare(Boston: Brill, 2002), p. 160.
  8. ^Himmler 2007,p. 119.
  9. ^Himmler's letters to his wife were discovered in Israel and reported by the newspaperDie Weltand in an opinion of an expert from theBundesarchiv(German Federal Archives) are without a doubt, authentic.Verschollene Briefe Heinrich Himmlers aufgetaucht,In:Die Welton 24 January 2014 on welt.de
  10. ^"Ich fahre nach Auschwitz. Küsse, Dein Heini"Archived2014-02-22 at theWayback Machine,on:msnon 26 January 2014
  11. ^abManvell & Fraenkel 2007,p. 17.
  12. ^Himmler 2007,p. 118.
  13. ^Himmler 2007,pp. 117–118.
  14. ^Himmler 2007,p. 122.
  15. ^abHimmler 2007,p. 140.
  16. ^Manvell & Fraenkel 2007,pp. 17, 258.
  17. ^Flaherty 2004,p. 27.
  18. ^Cited by Christina Wittler:Leben im Verborgenen. Die Witwe des „Reichsführers SS “Heinrich Himmler Margarete Himmler (1893–1967)In: Bärbel Sunderbrink (Hrsg.):Frauen in der Bielefelder Geschichte,Bielefeld 2010, p. 195
  19. ^Jürgen Matthäus:„Es war sehr nett “. Auszüge aus dem Tagebuch der Margarete Himmler, 1937–1945.In:Werkstatt Geschichte25 (2000), p. 77
  20. ^Ernst Klee.Das Kulturlexikon zum Dritten Reich. Wer war was vor und nach 1945( "The Cultural Encyclopedia of the Third Reich. Who was What before and after 1945" ). Frankfurt am Main: S. Fischer, 2007, p. 248.ISBN978-3-10-039326-5.
  21. ^Longerich 2012,pp. 109, 374–375.
  22. ^Manvell & Fraenkel 2007,pp. 40–41.
  23. ^Gerwarth 2011,p. 111.
  24. ^Baldur von Schirach:Ich glaubte an Hitler.Mosaik-Verlag, Hamburg 1967, p. 213.
  25. ^Gerwarth 2011,p. 83.
  26. ^Lina Heydrich, c.(1950) in the JournalDer Spiegel,speaking about Margarete Himmler. Cited from: Katrin Himmler:Die Brüder Himmler. Eine deutsche Familiengeschichte.S. Fischer, Frankfurt a.M. 2005, p. 237; Context, parts cited and parts paraphrased from Gerwarth,Heydrich,p. 83.
  27. ^abcLongerich 2012,pp. 466–468.
  28. ^Longerich 2012,p. 468.
  29. ^Christina Wittler:Leben im Verborgenen. Die Witwe des „Reichsführers SS “Heinrich Himmler Margarete Himmler (1893–1967)In: Bärbel Sunderbrink (Hrsg.):Frauen in der Bielefelder Geschichte,Bielefeld 2010, p. 198
  30. ^Longerich 2012,p. 732.
  31. ^Oliver Schröm, Andrea Röpke:Stille Hilfe für braune Kameraden.Christoph Links Verlag, Berlin 2002,ISBN386153231X,p. 106f.
  32. ^Christina Wittler:Leben im Verborgenen. Die Witwe des "Reichsführers SS" Heinrich Himmler Margarete Himmler (1893–1967)In: Bärbel Sunderbrink (Hrsg.):Frauen in der Bielefelder Geschichte,Bielefeld 2010, p. 193
  33. ^Christina Wittler:Leben im Verborgenen. Die Witwe des "Reichsführers SS" Heinrich Himmler Margarete Himmler (1893–1967)In: Bärbel Sunderbrink (Hrsg.):Frauen in der Bielefelder Geschichte,Bielefeld 2010, p. 197
  34. ^Christina Wittler:Leben im Verborgenen. Die Witwe des „Reichsführers SS “Heinrich Himmler Margarete Himmler (1893–1967)In: Bärbel Sunderbrink (Hrsg.):Frauen in der Bielefelder Geschichte,Bielefeld 2010, p. 197f.
  35. ^Christina Wittler:Leben im Verborgenen. Die Witwe des „Reichsführers SS “Heinrich Himmler Margarete Himmler (1893–1967)In: Bärbel Sunderbrink (Hrsg.):Frauen in der Bielefelder Geschichte,Bielefeld 2010, p. 199f.
  36. ^Ernst Klee:Das Kulturlexikon zum Dritten Reich. Wer war was vor und nach 1945.S.Fischer, Frankfurt am Main 2007, p. 248.
  37. ^Himmler 2007,p. 275.
  38. ^Sify News 2010.
  39. ^Christina Wittler:Leben im Verborgenen. Die Witwe des „Reichsführers SS “Heinrich Himmler Margarete Himmler (1893–1967)In: Bärbel Sunderbrink (Hrsg.):Frauen in der Bielefelder Geschichte,Bielefeld 2010, p. 200
  40. ^Jürgen Matthäus:"Es war sehr nett". Auszüge aus dem Tagebuch der Margarete Himmler, 1937–1945Archived2010-03-07 at theWayback Machine(pdf; 7,92 MB). In: Werkstatt Geschichte|Werkstatt Geschichte25 (2000), pp. 75–93.

Bibliography[edit]

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