Günther Tamaschke

Günther Tamaschke (26 February 1896 – 14 October 1959) was a Standartenführer in the SS during world war 2.

Pre-NSDAP
Tamaschke was born to a merchant father in Berlin in 1896. In 1914, he completed a diploma that would allow him to graduate early if he joined the military, which he then volunteered for. Fighting in world war 1, he was captured by the French at the battle of The Somme, eventually being allowed to return to Germany in 1920, two years after the war ended. When he got back to Berlin he took part in the Kapp Putsch, an unsuccessful attempt to overthrow the Weimar government.

Following the defeat of the Putsch, Tamaschke joined the Freikorps, a German military voluntary unit, eventually leaving and becoming a banker. In 1922, he quit this job and began working at his father's store, as well as getting married to an unknown woman. Soon after, Tamaschke joined the Deutschvölkische Freiheitspartei, a virulently anti-semetic party, but eventually left it in 1926 to join the NSDAP, better known as the Nazi Party, under the leadership of Adolf Hitler.

SS Standartenführer
Tamaschke, as Nazi party member 36,978, was sent to the SS in 1927, left his family in 1930, cut ties with his in-laws in 1932, and had become a Standartenführer by 1935. He was also an important figure in the Dachau extermination camp due to the actions of Kurt Daluege until Theodor Eicke met him that year and formed a bond with him, resulting in Tamaschke being promoted to head of the political unit of the concentration camp inspectorate (CCI).

In 1937, Eicke had him transferred to become commandant of the new Lichtenburg women's camp, where he reported directly to Eicke (until he was replaced) and was immediate superior to Johanna Langefeld. When Lichtenburg was disbanded, Tamaschke, Langefeld and the others working at Lichtenburg were transferred to Ravensbruck, where Tamaschke became director of the women's camp there, once again with Langefeld reporting directly to him. In 1939, it was revealed that Tamaschke had had an affair with a female guard, which the Nazis viewed as immoral. As a result, he was sacked from Ravensbruck, transferred away from his Totenkopf SS unit and lost both the trust of Eicke and a divorce case. Several years later in 1942, he was sacked from the SS entirely on the orders of Heinrich Himmler for allegedly enriching himself with Jewish assets, although he was later released with nothing more than a reprimand for attempting to buy one of the few Jewish companies that still existed.

After the war, Tamaschke went into hiding in Uhingen, where he died of natural causes in 1959.