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August Franz Anton Hans Fritzsche (21 April 1900 – 27 September 1953) Christopher H. Sterling: Encyclopedia of Radio. Routledge, 2003 was a German journalist and broadcaster who was the Ministerialdirektor at the Reich Ministry of Public Enlightenment and Propaganda of Nazi Germany. He was the preeminent German broadcaster of his time, as part of efforts to present a more popular and entertaining side of the Nazi regime, and his voice was recognised by the majority of Germans.
After serving in the Imperial German Army in the First World War, Fritzsche joined Alfred Hugenberg's German National People's Party. He began his broadcasting career in 1932, and a year later his agency was incorporated into Joseph Goebbels's Propaganda Ministry, upon which he also became a member of the Nazi Party. He became head of the ministry's Press Division in 1938, and head of the Radio Division in 1942. Despite his prominence in German radio, Fritzsche played no significant role in the formulation of policy.
Fritzsche was present in the Berlin Führerbunker during the last days of Adolf Hitler. After Hitler's death, he surrendered to the Red Army. He was indicted for war crimes in the Nuremberg trials before the International Military Tribunal but was acquitted of all charges. In January 1947, a German denazification court sentenced him to nine years of hard labour. He was released under an amnesty in 1950 and died three years later.
Following the Nazi seizure of power, the Wireless News service with Fritzsche as its head, was incorporated into Joseph Goebbels' Propaganda Ministry on 1 May 1933. Fritzsche joined the Nazi Party that same day. He later joined the Sturmabteilung (SA). He also was made a member of the Academy for German Law. In 1938, Fritzsche became head of the Press Division. In November 1942, he became head of the Radio Division. Fritzsche had no involvement in creating policy. During the war, Fritzsche was Germany's most prominent radio commentator.
In April 1945, he was present in the Berlin Führerbunker during the last days of Adolf Hitler and Goebbels. After Hitler's suicide on 30 April 1945, Goebbels assumed Hitler's role as chancellor.Kershaw, Ian (2008). Hitler: A Biography, pp. 949–950, 955. On 1 May, Goebbels completed his sole official act as chancellor. He dictated a letter to Soviet Army General Vasily Chuikov, requesting a temporary ceasefire and ordered German General Hans Krebs to deliver it. Chuikov commanded the Soviet forces in central Berlin.Fest, Joachim (2004) 2002. Inside Hitler's Bunker, pp. 135–137. After this was rejected, Goebbels decided that further efforts were futile.Vinogradov, V. K. (2005). Hitler's Death: Russia's Last Great Secret from the Files of the KGB, p. 324. Goebbels then launched into a tirade berating the generals, reminding them Hitler forbade them to surrender. Fritzsche left the room to try to take matters into his own hands. He went to his nearby office on Wilhelmplatz and wrote a surrender letter addressed to Soviet Marshall Georgy Zhukov. An angry and drunk General Wilhelm Burgdorf followed Fritzsche to his office.Fest (2004) 2002. Inside Hitler's Bunker, p. 137. There he asked Fritzsche if he intended to surrender Berlin. Fritzsche replied that he was going to do just that. Burgdorf shouted that Hitler had forbidden surrender and as a civilian he had no authority to do so. Burgdorf then pulled his pistol to shoot Fritzsche, but a radio technician knocked the gun and the bullet misfired, hitting the ceiling. Several men then hustled Burgdorf out of the office and he returned to the bunker.Fest (2004) 2002. Inside Hitler's Bunker, pp. 137–139. Fritzsche then left his office and went over to the Soviet lines and offered to surrender the city.
Fritzsche was sent to Nuremberg, and tried before the Nuremberg Trials. He was charged with conspiracy to commit crimes against peace, and crimes against humanity. In his positions in the propaganda apparatus of the Nazi State, Fritzsche played a role to further the conspiracy to commit atrocities and to launch the war of aggression. According to journalist and author William L. Shirer, it was unclear to the attendees why he was charged. Shirer remarked that "no-one in the courtroom, including Fritzsche, seemed to know why he was there – he was too small a fry – unless it were as a ghost for Goebbels".Shirer, William L. (1960). The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich. New York City: Simon & Schuster. According to the IMT prosecution, he "incited and encouraged the commission of War Crimes by deliberately falsifying news to arouse in the German People those passions which led them to the commission of atrocities". Fritzsche was acquitted because the court was "not prepared to hold that his were intended to incite the German people to commit atrocities on conquered peoples". He was one of only three defendants to be acquitted at Nuremberg (along with Hjalmar Schacht and Franz von Papen). Fritzsche case for the defence at Nuremberg trials
Nuremberg prosecutor Alexander Hardy later said that evidence not available to the prosecution at the time proved Fritzsche not only knew of the extermination of European Jews but also "played an important part in bringing Nazi about," and would have resulted in his conviction and execution. Fritzsche was classified as Group I (Major Offenders) by a denazification court, which sentenced him to nine years of hard labor in a labor camp on 31 January 1947. He was released under an amnesty in September 1950. He married his second wife, Hildegard Springer, in 1950. Fritzsche died of cancer in 1953. His wife died by suicide the same year.
Fritzsche, along with Albert Speer and Baldur von Schirach, were eventually communed by Lutheran Pastor Henry F. Gerecke and were administered the Eucharist.Railton, Nicholas M. “Henry Gerecke and the Saints of Nuremberg.” Kirchliche Zeitgeschichte, vol. 13, no. 1, 2000, pp. 112–137. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/43750887. Accessed 8 Feb. 2021.
According to British intelligence, Fritzsche was part of the Naumann Circle in the early 1950s, a group of ex-Nazis who aimed to infiltrate the Free Democratic Party and eventually restore the Nazi state. Fritzsche prüfte Werbekraft. In: Die Welt. 7. Februar 1953.
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