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The Relatives’ Fate

Almost all Georg Elser’s relatives were arrested, taken to Berlin (with the exception of his severely ill father Ludwig Elser), and interrogated by the Gestapo in the Reich Security Main Office. The Gestapo held them under arrest in the heavily guarded Hotel Kaiserhof. Individually and as a group, the family had to identify Georg Elser, marked at the time by severe torture.

The police wanted to gain an overview of Elser’s relatives and produced a family tree, listing not only his grandparents, parents, and brothers and sisters, but also his siblings’ spouses and children.

Georg Elser continued to emphasize to his family that he had acted alone. After several weeks, the Gestapo imposed strict secrecy on the relatives and released most of them from arrest. The police repeatedly also interrogated Königsbronn locals, questioning them about Elser. The quarry owner from whom Elser had stolen the explosives was imprisoned in a concentration camp for over a year.

 

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Elser paid a final visit to his sister, who was three years younger than him, on November 6, 1939. He left his tools and some personal items with her and told her he wanted to leave Germany. Marie Hirth and her husband Karl were arrested on November 12 or 13, 1939. Due to Elser’s visit, the Gestapo assumed they were aware of his plans and kept them both under arrest. Their home in Stuttgart was searched several times. Their son Franz was put into a children’s home. Along with the other family members, Marie and Karl Hirth were taken to Berlin and held there for a short time at the Hotel Kaiserhof. The Gestapo chief Heinrich Müller interrogated them personally. When asked to identify Georg Elser, they saw signs of beatings on his face. Soon after that, the Gestapo moved Marie Hirth to Moabit prison; her husband was immediately re-arrested after his release in December 1939. The Hirths were not set free until mid-February of 1940. Both had lost their jobs in the meantime. Marie Hirth suffered from the consequences of her interrogations for many years.
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Maria and Ludwig Elser—Georg Elser’s parents—were arrested soon after November 9, 1939, and taken first to a prison in Heidenheim, later for about a week to Stuttgart. According to Elser’s mother’s recollections, she was interrogated every day and only found out that her son was the Munich bomber under interrogation. She was separated from her relatives and accompanied to a Berlin prison by a woman officer. Released after several days, she was taken to the Hotel Kaiserhof with other family members, where they were able to spend time together during the day. Police officers patrolled the corridors and everyone had to be alone in their room at night. Maria Elser was subjected to continued daily interrogations in Berlin and asked to identify her son on one occasion. Leonhard Elser and his wife Erna, née Hopphan, were also arrested for some time and taken first to Stuttgart and later to Berlin.

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His oldest sister Friedrike Kraft and her husband Willy were imprisoned soon after November 9, 1939. She was taken to the Stuttgart Gestapo prison on Büchsenstrasse first, followed by her husband the next day. After ten or twelve days in prison with no contact to other family members, she and her husband were taken to Berlin by train, held in the Hotel Kaiserhof, and interrogated every day. The Krafts and the other relatives were released at the end of November 1939 and returned home to Schnaitheim. Elser’s sister Anna, born in 1910, and her husband Fritz Hangs lived in Stuttgart-Zuffenhausen, where they were arrested on November 13, 1939, and taken to the Gestapo prison on Büchsenstrasse. Anna Hangs was not interrogated until almost a week after her arrest, and taken to Berlin by train with her husband two or three days later. She was interrogated twice in Berlin before being released, along with her husband, on November 28. The Hangs returned to Stuttgart but were interrogated several more times after their imprisonment.
Institut für Zeitgeschichte, München
A few days after the assassination attempt, all Georg Elser’s close relatives were arrested and taken to Stuttgart. Police and Gestapo officers repeatedly interrogated his mother and siblings and their spouses in the police headquarters. To gain an overview of Georg Elser’s relatives, the police drew up a family tree, listing not only his grandparents, parents, and brothers and sisters, but also his siblings’ spouses and children.