General der Infanterie Wilhelm Burgdorf (Chefadjutant der Wehrmacht beim Führer und Oberster Befehlshaber der Wehrmacht) in a picture taken in 1945 by Walter Frentz. Burgdorf, serving as Chef des Heerespersonalamtes as well as Chief adjutant to Adolf Hitler since October 1944, remained at the Führer’s side throughout the final weeks of the Battle of Berlin in 1945. As Soviet forces encircled the capital in mid-April he moved permanently into the Führerbunker beneath the Reichskanzlei, attending the daily briefings where fragmented reports of collapsing fronts and failed relief attempts were presented. On 28 April, after news arrived that Heinrich Himmler had opened unauthorized surrender talks with the Western Allies, Burgdorf was appointed to the improvised military tribunal that examined Hermann Fegelein, Himmler’s SS-Verbindungsoffizier and Eva Braun’s brother-in-law; the proceedings under General Wilhelm Mohnke ended without formal sentence when Fegelein proved too intoxicated to stand trial. The following day, 29 April 1945, Burgdorf, together with Joseph Goebbels, General Hans Krebs and Martin Bormann, witnessed and signed Hitler’s politisches Testament and private will. He steadfastly rejected any notion of capitulation, on one occasion drawing his pistol against the radio commentator Hans Fritzsche who proposed contacting the Soviets. After Hitler’s suicide on 30 April and the subsequent deaths of the Goebbels family, Burgdorf and Krebs remained in the bunker. In the early hours of 2 May 1945 the two generals committed suicide by simultaneous gunshots to the head; their bodies were discovered by advancing Red Army troops inside the Führerbunker complex shortly thereafter, marking the end of Burgdorf’s unwavering service to the Führer in the last days of the Third Reich.
Source :
https://forum.axishistory.com/search.php?keywords=burgdorf&t=46430&sf=msgonly
https://www.walter-frentz-collection.de/fotoarchiv/personenarchiv-a-z/personen-a-b/
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