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Portrait of Reichsaertzefuehrer Gerhard Wagner.

Photograph | Photograph Number: 45278
Portrait of Reichsaertzefuehrer Gerhard Wagner. One of a collection of portraits included in a 1939 calendar of Nazi officials.

Portrait of Reichsaertzefuehrer Gerhard Wagner.

One of a collection of portraits included in a 1939 calendar of Nazi officials.

Date
1939
Locale
Germany
Photo Designation
NAZI OFFICIALS/PERSONALITIES OF THE THIRD REICH -- Gauleiter Calendar Portraits
Photo Credit
United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, courtesy of Geoffrey Giles

About This Photograph

Biography
Gerhardt Wagner (1888-1939) was Leader of the National Socialist Chamber of Medicine and Plenipotentiary for Health in the Party Office. Wagner was from Neu-Heiduk, Upper Silesia and was born in August of 1888. He served as a medical officer during World War I and in the Epp and Oberland Freikorps. Practicing medicine in Munich, he joined the NSDAP in 1924. He co-founded the National Socialist German Doctors' Association in 1932 and was Reich Medical Leader by 1934. As a member of the Reichstag, he was Nazi Medical Leader of Franconia in 1933. Wagner was strongly anti-Jewish and supported the sterilization of the handicapped as well as Jews. He was considered the "godfather" of the euthanasia program. Wagner died in Munich on March 25, 1939.

[Sources: Wistrich, Robert. "Who's Who in Nazi Germany." MacMillan, 1982; Zentner, Christian. "Encyclopedia of the Third Reich." MacMillan, 1991.]

Keywords and Subjects

Rights and Restrictions

Photo Source
United States Holocaust Memorial Museum
Copyright: United States Holocaust Memorial Museum
Provenance: Geoffrey Giles
 
Record last modified: 2003-06-17 00:00:00
This page: https://collections.ushmm.org/search/catalog/pa1133307