Passport of Max Wuensche – Hitler’s Aide

Max Wuensche Hitlers Aide
You see here a document of a significant figure of WWII – the passport of MAX WUENSCHE, SS commander awarded with the Knight’s Cross of the Iron Cross with Oak Leaves and personal aide to Adolf Hitler. A passport of such a significant figure of the Third Reich is very rare!

Max Wuensche Hitlers Aide

Born on April 20, 1914, in Kittlitz. In July 1933, Wünsche joined the SS. In 1935, he graduated from SS-Junkerschule at Bad Tölz and was promoted to Untersturmführer. Wünsche was then posted to the Leibstandarte SS Adolf Hitler (LSSAH) as a platoon leader. In October 1938, Wünsche was assigned as an orderly officer for Hitler. In that role, Wünsche joined the Führerbegleitkommando (the SS bodyguard unit), which provided personal security for Hitler.

In January 1940, he was again posted to the LSSAH, as a platoon commander in a motorcycle company under the command of Kurt Meyer, for the invasion of the Netherlands and the Battle of France. In December 1940, he became an adjutant to Sepp Dietrich, where he stayed during the invasion of the Balkans (Operation Marita) and Soviet Union (Operation Barbarossa). In February 1942, Wünsche was given the command of the LSSAH Sturmgeschütz (assault gun) battalion.

In 1942 Wuensche completed the General Staff training course at the Staff College in Germany and was promoted to Sturmbannführer. In September 1942, he was posted to the LSSAH and resumed command of the Sturmgeschütz battalion; in October, he assumed command of a brigade in a panzer regiment of LSSAH. His battalion’s first action was at Kharkiv in 1943. On February 25, 1943, Wünsche led his tankers into battle against a defensive position staffed by the Soviet 350th Rifle Division. Supported by artillery and a company of SS grenadiers, Wünsche’s battalion launched its attack and overran the Soviet front lines, destroying some anti-tank guns. Wünsche’s assault would lead to the destruction of 47 artillery pieces and anti-tank weapons. During the attack, 800 Soviet troops were killed. For his actions during the battles for Kharkiv, Wünsche was awarded the German Cross in Gold and later the Knight’s Cross in February 1943. Max Wuensche Hitlers Aide

In June 1943, Wünsche was transferred to a new division forming in France, the 12th SS Panzer Division Hitlerjugend, to take command of the 12th SS Panzer Regiment. On June 6, 1944, the Allies landed in Normandy (Operation Overlord), and the division was committed to action on June 7. The division was later trapped in the Falaise pocket, where on the night of August 20, Wünsche escaped out of the pocket on foot. He was wounded and captured by British soldiers.

In 1944, Wuensche was taken prisoner and spent the rest of the war as a prisoner of war in camp 165 at Caithness, Scotland, a special camp for high-ranking German officers. In 1948 Wünsche was released and returned to Germany. He died in 1995.

A passport of such a significant figure of the Third Reich is very rare! Max Wuensche Hitlers Aide

I was contacted via my website by the owner of the document, who told me that the document was owned by his grandfather for ages, together with other documents such as military documents and WWII pictures. His grandfather worked as a driver and was in charge of vehicle fleets.

According to the owner… “There’s also a letter from him after the war when he’s applying for a job – it mentions there that he was in charge of the cars for cabinet ministers and the prime minister at some point. His name was William Vincent Tetlow, and there’s a placard in his stuff that reads “NCO IC Unit Transport.”

There are also a lot of photos, including pictures of Hitler’s palace right after it was bombed, including inside (e.g., the dining room with a massive chandelier on the floor within the ruin). I’m not sure if he possibly took the passport then, or if he somehow came into contact with Wuensche after he was captured and taken to Scotland.

Looking deeper into the details of the passport, I found the following…

What is at least unusual, is that the passport was issued at the 8th police department in Berlin, including a handwritten entry, “The leader of the 8th police department”. I have dozens of NS Berlin issues, and none is issued from this unit. Usually, police department II in Berlin is in charge of issuing passports. However, the 8th police department did exist.

Secondly, the passport fixing looks quite worn with the rusty metal eyelets. Someone could think it was eventually manipulated, as the metal eyelets do not look that sleek. Again, if I look at my documents, almost all still look sleek after 75–80 years. It depends on how the documents were stored all the years, which can affect the metal eyelets.

The stamping on the passport picture shows a rather unusual gap (at least from this picture angle). The handwritten passport number is 8R/3/39, which means only three passports might have been issued till April 6, 1939, when Wünsche’s document was made. Wünsche was from Oct 1938 to the beginning of 1940 Ordinance officer with AH.

The UdSSR visa was issued on August 22, 1939, in Berlin at the embassy of the USSR (consular department) to enter the UdSSR till September 7, 1939, via the border Welikie Luki; exit must be made via the same border within 15 days after entry.

The signature of Wuensche seems to fit compared to a document offered at a past auction.

 

Tom Topol | Passport History Expert & Author.
Featured in media incl. CNN, BBC, Newsweek. Awarded by the U.S. Department of State.
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