Walther Hewel
Name:	Walther Hewel
Born:	2 January 1904
Died:	2 May 1945 (aged 41)
Nicknames	Hewel the weasel
Known for	Antics (Real life) Ambassador to nowhere
Portrayed by	Gerald Alexander Held

Walther Hewel [IPA: valtɐ heːvɐl] (2 January 1904 - 2 May 1945) was a German diplomat and a personal friend of Adolf Hitler.

Biography

Hewel was born in 1904 to parents Anton and Elsa in Cologne, where his father ran a cocoa factory. His father died in 1913, leaving Elsa to run the factory. Although still a teenager at the time, Hewel was one of the earliest members of the Nazi Party, and is calculated to have been between the 200th and 300th person to actually join the group. Hewel graduated in 1923 and attended the Technical University of Munich. The same year, he took part in the Nazi's failed Beer Hall Putsch. After Hitler's subsequent conviction for treason, Hewel stayed in Landsberg prison with him and, for several months, acted as Hitler's valet.

After the Putsch, Hewel worked for several years as a coffee salesman and planter for a British firm in Dutch East Indies (now Indonesia). In Indonesia, Hewel organised the local branch of the Nazi Party with the membership of German expatriates there. In 1938, Hitler recalled Hewel to Germany. During this time, he resumed his earlier friendship with the dictator. Hewel served as a diplomat in the Foreign Ministry, and on 15 March 1939 transcribed the conference between Hitler and Czech president Emil Hácha.

Technically Hewel was an ambassador and he was supposed to serve as Joachim von Ribbentrop's liaison to Hitler. However, he spent most of World War II without an official portfolio and once described himself as "an ambassador to nowhere." Survivors of Hitler's inner circle claimed that Hewel owed his position to his long involvement with the Nazi Party, and because he was one of Hitler's friends/cronies. In her memoirs, Traudl Junge, Hitler's private secretary, described Hewel as something like Hitler's majordomo. According to Junge, Hewel was placed in charge of coordinating his household, keeping peace between the military and civilian officials around Hitler, and regulating contact between male and female members of Hitler's entourage.

Almost all accounts of Hewel described him as a pleasant and good-natured, if not quite intelligent, man. He usually ended up dealing with situations and events that Hitler could not handle. Other members of the inner circle recounted that, unlike many other Nazi leaders, Hewel was able to stay awake and attentive during Hitler's long monologues on topics such as anti-Semitism. For example, Heinz Guderian, when recalling Hewel, remarked that he was "a good raconteur and a good listener." Hewel tended to be shy around women, and as a result, Hitler often tried to play matchmaker for him. In 1944, Hewel married Elizabeth Blanda at Berchtesgaden. They had one son by the time of his death the following year.

Role in Downfall

In the last days in the bunker, Hewel tried to convince Hitler to leave Berlin. After hearing of the surrender to the Soviets, he committed suicide, swallowing a cyanide pill given to him by Hitler and shooting himself.

Hewel, the Bunker's ultimate dork, is played by Gerald Alexander Held.

Trivia

• In contrast with his geeky image in Downfall, Hewel was probably the only character appearing in the film who performed antics in real life - he often played practical jokes on Foreign Minister Joachim von Ribbentrop, to Hitler's amusement. While KakashiBallZ depicted Hewel as someone who would keep Fegelein from angering Hitler,^[1] in reality, it was he who was known to be an antic master among the high-ranking Nazi Party officials.
• While being ambassador to now-Indonesia he ran a coffee-trading business. He also managed to amass a considerable nazi movements in several cities there.

Gallery

Hewel shows Bormann he knows Kung Fu.

Photo of real Hewel.

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References