Hedwig Potthast

Hedwig Potthast
Hedwig Potthast, 1933
Personal details
Born	Hedwig Potthast 5 February 1912 Cologne, North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany
Died	1997 (aged 85; date unknown) Baden-Baden, Baden-Württemberg, Germany
Children	Helge (son; born 15 February 1942) Nanette-Dorothea (daughter; 3 June 1944)

Hedwig Potthast (5 February 1912 – 1997) was the private secretary and mistress of Reichsführer-SS Heinrich Himmler with whom she had two children.

Born in 1912, Potthast began as Himmler's secretary in 1936 and by 1938 she was his lover. She resigned from her duties in 1941, and subsequently had two children with Himmler, a boy and a girl. After the war, Potthast married and lived out the rest of her life outside the public eye. In post-war interviews, she refrained from answering questions about Himmler's involvement in war crimes committed by the Nazis and her own knowledge of them. She died in 1997.

Hedwig Potthast was born on 5 February 1912 in Cologne, North Rhine-Westphalia as the daughter of a local businessman. After her final Abitur exams at secondary school, she trained as a secretary qualified in foreign languages. At the end of her training in 1928, Potthast worked in Koblenz.

Through Kurt Baron von Schröder, one of the founders of the Freundeskreis der Wirtschaft ("Circle of Friends of the Economy"), she met Reichsführer-SS Heinrich Himmler. In 1934, she was employed at Gestapo headquarters at Prinz-Albrecht-Straße in Berlin. From early 1936 until early 1941, Potthast was Himmler's private secretary, and in this function was particularly responsible for Himmler's sponsorship and giving of awards.

Himmler and Potthast confessed their love for each other at Christmastime in 1938. At first they tried to keep it platonic, but they fell into an adulterous relationship. Himmler's wife since 1928 and mother of their daughter, Margarete Himmler, found out about Himmler's relationship with Potthast at some time in February 1941. She felt humiliated and bitter, and Potthast's parents rejected the extramarital relationship. Potthast first took up residence in Grunewald and from 1943 she lived in Brückentin, near the estate of Oswald Pohl, because she was a friend of his wife, Eleonore.Lina Heydrich, wife of Himmler's right-hand man Reinhard Heydrich, and Gerda Bormann, spouse of Martin Bormann, were also counted among her friends. Later she lived in Berchtesgaden, Bavaria.