Bio of Hanskarl von Hasselbach, Hitler's Surgeon

Portrait of Hanskarl von Hasselbach (doctor accompanying the Führer), 1942/43. Source: Walter Frentz Collection.

Hanskarl von Hasselbach, actually Hans Karl von Hasselbach, (born November 2, 1903 in Berlin; † December 21, 1981 in Pullach im Isar Valley) was a German surgeon and attending physician to Adolf Hitler. Hasselbach, son of the Prussian Rittmeister Karl von Hasselbach, finished his school career in Hirschberg (Silesia) in 1921 with the Abitur. He then studied medicine at the Universities of Breslau, Munich, Freiburg and Rostock. He was approved in 1927 and was awarded a doctorate in Freiburg with the dissertation "About neck fibroids". med. PhD.

He then became an assistant under the chief physician Georg Magnus at Bergmannsheil Hospital in Bochum and, after his appointment to the Charité in November 1933, also moved to Berlin. In addition to Hasselbach, Magnus Karl Brandt's assistant also came to Berlin, as did Magnus from Jena, known Werner Haase. In 1934 Brandt became Hitler's first accompanying surgeon, and Haase soon after became Brandt's deputy in this function. After Haase temporarily resigned from this post due to health reasons, Hasselbach became another deputy surgeon accompanying Hitler through Brandt's mediation in 1936. Hasselbach had already joined the NSDAP (membership number 2,794,377) and SA before the handover of power to the National Socialists in 1932. He switched from the SA to the SS in 1933/34 (SS No. 264.054). Due to his extensive medical work for Hitler and his environment, he was only able to qualify for his habilitation in 1938 with the work "Die Endangitis obliterans" at the University of Munich. He was released from teaching at the Charité.

With the beginning of the German-Soviet War, his place of work was the Führer headquarters in Wolfsschanze in East Prussia. As an SS doctor he was appointed associate professor on April 20, 1943, and in June 1943 he achieved the rank of SS-Sturmbannführer of the Waffen-SS within the SS. In the course of Brandt's dismissal as Hitler's attending physician, Hasselbach also lost his deputy post in October 1944. He was then used in a field hospital on the Western Front.

After the end of the war, Hasselbach was interned by the United States and was interrogated as a witness during the Nuremberg trials. The American authorities found him honest and credible. After his release from Allied internment, he headed the surgery department of the Sarepta hospitals of the Von Bodelschwinghschen Anstalten Bethel as chief physician from 1949 to 1970.

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