Hugo Blaschke

Dr. Hugo Johannes Blaschke (14 November 1881 – 6 December 1959) was a German dental surgeon notable for being Adolf Hitler’s personal dentist from 1933 to April 1945 and for being the chief dentist on the staff of Heinrich Himmler with the rank of SS-Brigadeführer.

Life

Blaschke was born in Neustadt and studied dentistry in Berlin and at the University of Pennsylvania.[1] He trained as a dental surgeon in London and opened his own practice in late 1911. During World 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.[1] After treating Hermann Göring in 1930, he joined the Nazi Party on 1 February 1931.[1] He joined the SS on 1 May 1935.[1] As well as Hitler, he also treated Eva Braun,[2] Joseph Goebbels and Heinrich Himmler. Blaschke was promoted to the rank of SS-Brigadeführer on 9 November 1944.[1] He was also awarded the War Merit Cross with Swords, 1st and 2nd class.

In 1945, as the end of the Third Reich drew near, Blaschke accompanied Hitler to the Reich Chancellery and later the Führerbunker in Berlin. As the Red Army closed in on Berlin, Hitler on 20 April ordered Blaschke, Albert Bormann, Admiral Karl-Jesko von Puttkamer, Dr. Theodor Morell, secretaries Johanna Wolf, Christa Schroeder, and several others to leave Berlin by aircraft for the Obersalzberg. The group flew out of Berlin on different flights by aircraft of Die Fliegerstaffel des Führers over the following three days.[3] Blaschke's long time dental assistant Käthe Heusermann had been offered a chance to fly out of Berlin with the others, but had declined and stayed behind with Hitler.[4]

Post-war

He was arrested by US Army forces on 20 May 1945 in Austria.[5] He was interrogated by the Americans after the war about Hitler’s dental treatment in the hope that this would lead to the identification of his remains. Blaschke stated that he had been called in to examine Hitler in October 1944. He discovered that Hitler had a substantial gum infection in tooth number 6 which formed part of the fitted large dental bridge Blaschke had made for him in 1933 and Hitler wanted it to be dealt with quickly.[6] Blaschke went on to recount that he carried out surgery to cut off part of the bridge and remove tooth number 6 due to the infection causing the severe toothache.[6]

Earlier in May 1945, Soviet Army soldiers had captured both Heusermann and Blaschke's long time technician Fritz Echtmann.[5] Soviet officers showed a dental bridge and lower jaw bone to Heusermann and Echtmann which they both identified as being Hitler's.[2] Heusermann went on to spend the next ten years in a Russian prisons and was released in June 1955.[7] Echtmann, also spent years in Soviet prisons until being released in December 1953.[8]

After his release from captivity in December 1948, Blaschke continued to practise as a dentist in Nuremberg. Blaschke reconstructed the dental records of Martin Bormann from memory and these were later used to identify his skeletal remains which were discovered in Berlin in 1972.[9] Hugo Blaschke died in Nuremberg at age 78 in 1959.[1]

Notes

  1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 1.4 1.5 Joachimsthaler 1999, p. 297.
  2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 Kershaw 2008, p. 958.
  3. ↑ Joachimsthaler 1999, p. 98.
  4. ↑ Joachimsthaler 1999, p. 99.
  5. ↑ 5.0 5.1 Joachimsthaler 1999, p. 226.
  6. ↑ 6.0 6.1 Joachimsthaler 1999, p. 69.
  7. ↑ Joachimsthaler 1999, pp. 99, 299.
  8. ↑ Joachimsthaler 1999, pp. 207, 303.
  9. ↑ Lang 1979, p. 432.

References

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