Hans Fritzsche (21 April 1900 – 27 September 1953) was a Nazi propaganda official during World War II.
Biography[]
Hans Fritzsche was born in Bochum, German Empire on 21 April 1900, and he served in the Imperial German Army during World War I. He became a journalist and government radio employee during the Interwar period, and he joined the Nazi Party on 1 May 1933. He headed the radio department of the Propaganda Ministry before being promoted to cover the news, and he was later sent to lead the radio department again in 1942. He was present in the Fuhrerbunker with Adolf Hitler in April 1945, and he planned to surrender to the Soviets during the Battle of Berlin. A drunk Wilhelm Burgdorf attempted to shoot Fritzsche when he discovered this, but a radio technician knocked the gun, and the bullet hit the ceiling instead. Burgdorf was rushed away, and Fritzsche entered Soviet captivity. He was tortured until he signed a confession, and he was later acquitted of war crimes during the Nuremberg Trials of 1946. He was released from prison in September 1950, and he died of cancer in Cologne, West Germany in 1953.
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