Blomberg-Fritsch Affair

The Blomberg–Fritsch affair, also known as the Blomberg–Fritsch crisis (German: Blomberg–Fritsch–Krise), was two related scandals in early 1938 which resulted in the subjugation of the German Armed Forces (Wehrmacht) to dictator Adolf Hitler. As documented in the Hossbach Memorandum, Hitler had been dissatisfied with the two high-ranking military officials concerned, Werner von Blomberg and Werner von Fritsch, and regarded them as too hesitant towards the war preparations he was demanding. Hitler took further advantage of the situation by replacing several generals and ministers with men more loyal to him.

Hitler took personal command of the armed forces through the new Oberkommando der Wehrmacht (OKW) after the defeat outside Moscow in December 1941 and appointed himself as commander of the Oberkommando des Heeres (OKH) after Walther von Brauchitsch was relieved and transferred to the leadership reserve (Führerreserve). Hitler then began participating at OKW, where field marshal Wilhelm Keitel never dared to oppose him.

The Blomberg–Fritsch affair began soon after the marriage on 12 January 1938 of the War Minister Werner von Blomberg to Erna Gruhn, when the Berlin police discovered she had a long criminal record and had posed for pornographic photographs. According to testimony given much later at the Nuremberg trials, information received by the Police Commissioner within days also indicated that "Marshal von Blomberg's wife had been a previously convicted prostitute who had been registered as a prostitute in the files of seven large German cities; she was in the Berlin criminal files... She had also been sentenced by the Berlin courts for distributing indecent pictures." Marriage to a person with such a criminal record violated the standard of conduct expected of officers as defined by Blomberg himself and came as a shock to Hitler — the Luftwaffe chief Hermann Göring had been Blomberg's best man, and Hitler himself had served as a witness at the wedding. Hitler and Göring saw this development as an opportunity to dispose of Blomberg. Hitler ordered Blomberg to have the marriage annulled in order to avoid a scandal and to preserve the integrity of the army. Blomberg refused to annul the marriage but, after Göring threatened to make his wife's past public knowledge, on 27 January 1938 he resigned from his posts.

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