Brandt Karl (Hitler's personal physician): biography, achievements and interesting facts

Karl Brandt - a mysterious person surrounded by one of the most talked about dictators of the past - Hitler, still worries the minds of historians. So who was this brilliant surgeon and cold-blooded scientist - another monster of the Third Reich or just a genius fanatic of "new" medicine?

Years of Karl Brandt's Doctrine

Biography Karl Brandt begins in 1904, when the family of a military German officer was born a long-awaited boy. About the future doctor's childhood, almost nothing is known, except that the young man purposefully went to his cherished goal - to become a military man, after the model of his father. The plans had to change dramatically when young Brandt turned 14 years old. The failure of German troops in World War I broke his faith in a successful career in the military field.

In 1922, that is, at the age of 18, Karl Brandt takes the first steps towards a new dream - he enters the University of Jena at the Faculty of Medicine. The training does not end with the receipt of a diploma - he continues to study, consistently graduating from the Faculty of Surgery in Friborg and Berlin. The name of the first-class specialist is assigned to Brandt after a number of successful operations conducted by a young surgeon on the spine.

In 1932, Dr. Karl Brandt joined the National Socialist German Workers Party (NSDAP), which has existed since 1920, and since 1933 it was the only official German party.

A Sign Meeting

The first meeting with the Fuhrer of Karl Brandt occurred in the late summer of 1933, when the young doctor was unexpectedly summoned to Upper Bavaria to correct the oversight of the personal adjutant of the great dictator, William Brückner. The driver of the car, Willy Brunker, had the imprudence to fall asleep at the wheel, and both he and Hitler's niece, Friedl, were seriously injured in the accident.

The coolness and surgical accuracy of the unfamiliar doctor who arrived was remembered by the Fuhrer, who was generally very fond of strong personalities. Moreover, Friedl quickly went on the amendment, which indicated the outstanding skill of the young specialist.

Brandt was invited to stay in the close circle of the dictator and enter into the circle of his personal physicians. Such high privileges were unobtrusively accompanied by the post of the leader of the National Socialist Party and, a little later, by the rank of Major-General of the SS.

In the close circle of Hitler

In addition to the position of chief surgeon, which was occupied by Karl Brandt, the approximate circle of physicians included Professor Hans Karl von Hasselbach, the physician Theodore Morrel, surgeon Karl von Aiken, Lyubig Shtumppegger - also a surgeon, and dentist Hugo Blaschke. Solidar in public, this circle of six illustrious physicians led an incessant struggle between members of the community for the right of a decisive word in the treatment of the Fuhrer.

It is strange to take this, but for many years the weakest of the six, Morrel, practically alone held in hand more and more useless physical and mental state of Hitler.

British intelligence officer Trevor Roper wrote in his report, citing the characterization of Dr. Morrel in not very flattering terms: "a witch doctor, a charlatan." The opinion of Dr. Karl Brandt not only coincided with the sounding in the reports of foreign intelligence - he was firmly convinced that those huge doses of narcotic and anesthetics (based on the poisonous grass - belladonna), by which the physician-physician treats the dictator, kill that slowly and steadily.

Hitler was dying and aware of this, so he did not react to Karl Brandt's warning in any way. Morrel has long ceased to treat him, and it happened with the tacit consent of the Fuhrer. Hitler realized that in the state of deterioration in which his body was, he was much more than in therapeutic pills, he needed stimulants of the most unambiguous properties. The only thing the dictator really wanted was to stretch out to the point when the pure Aryan race will prevail over other nationalities and establish world domination.

The project to improve the race

Ever since the imprisonment in prison of the Führer in 1920, the idea that the Aryan race is imperfect due to natural imperfection was not abandoned. Having become acquainted with the principles of eugenics, the future dictator was inspired by a new idea - to cleanse the German people from pathological offspring. Of course, these thoughts received a worthy support in the form of power, which passed into the hands of a fanatic.

The author of the project, which advocates the rescue of the Aryan race from aggravating factors in the form of mentally handicapped or physically ugly people, became Hitler's personal physician, Karl Brandt. In 1933, under the name of a doctor, a bill was drafted and approved, enjoining to interrupt pregnancy and to sterilize women fit under categories: mentally unbalanced, physically inferior, half-bloods. A little later, ladies were added to this shocking list, not taking into account social norms of behavior and using alcohol and narcotic drugs.

Action "Euthanasia"

The bill, successfully applied, was only the beginning of the future purge, and a significant push in continuation of the "grand design" came from civilians, a certain couple Knauer, who turned to the Fuhrer with a piercing request to kill their only son. Being completely disabled, the child suffered continuously, and Hitler allowed to make this first official case of euthanasia in the history of Germany.

What happened, as a bright beam flashed in the mind of the Fuehrer, did not give him rest, and in the autumn of 1939 Karl Brandt received a direct order to "tackle the matter" for the liberation of the honest German people from the burdens of a society of imperfect people.

Brandt's convictions did not contradict the order received, and he enthusiastically organized a general census of physically, mentally, socially and racially inferior people living on the territory of the country. "On a tick" was put as an adult population, and children of all ages.

To betray "merciful death", as Karl Brand himself called euthanasia, was supposed with the help of a humane method of strangling with poison gas, but this method was repeatedly varied in situations - later, the injection of luminal became an instrument of mass murder. And in the distant clinics hidden from prying eyes they acted even easier - they did not allow people to eat until they died without any expenses for an expensive drug.

Share Brandt

Career Brandt grew enviable pace. In 1942 he became authorized, and in 1944 and the general commissioner for all health issues. The peak exponential action of the doctor in the new field was his next idea, called "Brandt's Share."

The new project consisted in the release of hospital beds for the wounded German soldiers in need of treatment. It was possible to increase the beds in clinics in the same original way - killing patients who do not have hopes for physical or mental recovery.

Heavy fall from Olympus

In the middle of spring of 1945, all prominent figures of the Third Reich were strictly ordered to withdraw their families from the areas on which the Allied troops were to pass. Savvy Carl Brandt ordered "did not hear", and his family stayed in Thuringia. This was tantamount to high treason, and upon learning of this, Hitler, without hesitation, ordered the arrest of the medical lab with the deprivation of all his privileges. The trial was held, and the death sentence was pronounced, but not carried out. The successor of the suicidal Führer, Grand Diplomat Karl Dönitz, freed the doctor with the removal of all charges.

The Nuremberg Trials

Incomplete four years lived after the liberation of Karl Brandt. Together with the full government structure of Deniz he was again arrested, but already on charges of the rulers of the Allied forces.

In December 1946, the German war criminal Karl Brandt was interrogated in the courtroom on a process known as "the US against Karl Brandt," although most people know this trial as a "process over doctors." The doctor refused the services of a free defender and firmly defended his personal opinion regarding the legitimacy and charitable orientation of his actions.

He did not leave his convictions in the moment when the noose pulled his throat. The execution ended the life of Karl Brandt on June 2, 1948.