Karl Brandt - a mysterious person surrounded by one of the most discussed dictators of the past - Hitler, still worries the minds of historians. So who was this brilliant surgeon and cold-blooded scientist - the next monster of the Third Reich or just a brilliant fanatic of "new" medicine?
Years of Karl Brandt
The biography of Karl Brandt begins in 1904, when a long-awaited boy was born in the family of a German military officer. Almost nothing is known about the childhood of the future doctor, except that the young man purposefully went to his cherished goal - to become a military man, on 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 age 18, Karl Brandt takes the first steps towards a new dream - he enters the University of Jena at the Faculty of Medicine. Education does not end with a diploma - he continues to study, successively graduating from the departments of surgical medicine in Freiburg and Berlin. The name of a first-class specialist is assigned to Brandt after a series of successful operations performed by a young surgeon on the spine.
In 1932, doctor Karl Brandt joined the National Socialist German Workers Party (NSDAP), which has existed since 1920, and since 1933 was the only official party in Germany.
Sign meeting
The first meeting with the Fuhrer at Karl Brandt took place in the late summer of 1933, when a young doctor was unexpectedly called to Upper Bavaria to correct the oversight of the personal adjutant of the great dictator, Wilhelm Bruckner. Willy Bruncker, who drove the car, had the imprudence to fall asleep at the wheel, and in the accident that happened, both he himself and Hitler's niece, Friedl, were seriously injured.
The cold-blooded and surgical accuracy of an unknown doctor arrived was remembered by the Führer, who generally favored strong personalities. Moreover, Friedl quickly got better, which indicated the extraordinary skill of the young specialist.
Brandt was invited to stay in the close circle of the dictator and enter the circle of his personal doctors. Such high privileges were unobtrusively accompanied by the post of leader of the National Socialist Party and, a little later, by the rank of Major General of the SS.
Hitler’s inner circle
In addition to the position of chief surgeon, which was taken by Karl Brandt, the close circle of doctors included Professor Hans Karl von Hasselbach, life doctor Theodor Morrell, surgeon Karl von Aiken, Ludig Stumpfegger - also a surgeon, and dentist Hugo Blaschke. Consolidated in public, this circle of six renowned physicians waged an ongoing struggle between members of the community for the right of the final word in the treatment of the Fuhrer.
It is strange to accept this, but for many years the weakest of the medical six, Morrel, almost single-handedly held in his hands Hitler’s increasingly physical and mental condition.
The British intelligence officer Trevor Roper wrote in his report, describing Dr. Morrell’s characterization in not very flattering expressions: “healer, quack”. The opinion of Dr. Karl Brandt not only coincided with that heard in the reports of foreign intelligence - he was firmly convinced that those huge doses of narcotic and painkillers (based on poisonous grass - belladonna) that the life doctor treats the dictator kill him slowly and steadily.
Hitler was dying and aware of this, so he did not react to the warning of Karl Brandt. Morrel had long ceased to treat him, and this happened with the tacit consent of the Führer. Hitler understood that in the state of deterioration in which his body was, he needed stimulants of the most unambiguous nature much more than in medical pills. The only thing the dictator really craved was to stretch to the moment when the pure Aryan race would prevail over other nationalities and establish world domination.
Race improvement project
Ever since serving the prison term in 1920, the Führer has not abandoned the idea that the Aryan race is imperfect due to natural imperfection. Having become acquainted with the principles of eugenics, the future dictator was inspired with a new idea - to cleanse the German people from pathological offspring. Of course, these thoughts received decent support in the form of power, which passed into the hands of a fanatic.
The author of the project, advocating for the deliverance of the Aryan race from aggravating factors in the form of mentally disabled or physically ugly people, was Hitler's personal doctor, Karl Brandt. In 1933, under the name of a doctor, a bill was created and approved, which enjoins to abort pregnancy and sterilize women who fit into the categories of: mentally unbalanced, physically disabled, half-breeds. A little later, ladies who did not reckon with social norms of behavior and use alcohol and drugs were added to this shocking list.
The action "Euthanasia"
The bill, which was successfully applied, turned out to be just the beginning of a future purge, and a significant impetus to the continuation of the “great plan” came from civilians, a certain couple of Knauer, who turned to the Führer with a piercing request to kill their only son. Being a complete invalid, the child was constantly suffering, and Hitler allowed this first official case of euthanasia in German history to be committed.
What happened, like a bright ray flickering in the mind of the Führer, did not give him rest, and in the fall of 1939 Karl Brandt received a direct order to “tackle the issue” to free the honest German people from the burdens of society of imperfect people.
Brandt's beliefs did not contradict the order received, and he enthusiastically organized a complete census of physically, mentally, socially and racially inferior people living in the country. “On the tick” was put as an adult population, and children of all ages.
Putting “merciful death”, as Karl Brand himself called euthanasia, was supposed to be done with the help of a humane method of strangulation with poisonous gas, but this method varied many times according to situations - later the injection of luminal became the weapon of massacre. And in the distant hospitals, hidden from prying eyes, they acted even easier - they did not give people food until they died without any costs for an expensive drug.
Brandt Promotion
Brandt's career grew at an enviable rate. In 1942, he became authorized, and in 1944, and general commissioner for all health issues. The doctor’s peak exponential action in the new field was his next idea, called Brandt’s Action.
The new project was to free hospital beds for injured German soldiers who needed treatment. There was an increase in beds in clinics in the same original way - killing patients who did not have hopes for a physical or mental recovery.
Heavy fall from Olympus
In the middle of spring 1945, all prominent figures of the Third Reich were strictly ordered to withdraw their family members from the areas through which the Allied forces were supposed to go. The savvy Karl Brandt “did not hear the order”, and his family remained in Thuringia. This was tantamount to treason, and, learning about this, Hitler, without hesitation, gave the order to arrest the life doctor with the deprivation of all his privileges. The trial took place and the death sentence was passed, but not carried out. The successor of the Fuhrer who committed suicide, Grand Admiral Karl Dönitz, released the doctor with the removal of all charges.
Nuremberg trials
Incomplete four years after the liberation of Karl Brandt. Together with the full government of Doenitz, he was again arrested, but on charges of the rulers of the allied forces.
In December 1946, German war criminal Karl Brandt was interrogated in the courtroom at a trial called the US versus Karl Brandt, although most people know this trial as a “trial of doctors.” The doctor refused the services of a free defender and firmly defended his personal opinion regarding the lawfulness and merciful direction of his actions.
He did not leave his convictions even at the moment when the noose pulled his throat. The execution ended the life of Karl Brandt on June 2, 1948.