Günther Brandt

Günther Brandt
Günther Brandt
Born	1 October 1898
Died	4 July 1973 (aged 74)
Nationality	German
Occupation(s)	Anthropologist at the SS Race and Settlement Main Office ; Officer in the Kriegsmarine
Awards	Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross

Günther Brandt (1 October 1898 – 4 July 1973) was a German anthropologist and political activist during the Nazi era.

Following World War I, Brandt joined the "Marinebrigade Ehrhardt" and fought with the Freikorps in the Spartacist uprising of the German Revolution in Berlin, and in the Silesian Uprisings against the Poles and Polish Silesians of Upper Silesia. In 1921 he joined the Nazi Party and was involved in the assassination of the Foreign Minister Walther Rathenau in June 1922. He was sentenced to four years imprisonment in 1925. He was released early and studied medicine from 1926 to 1932 in Kiel, Berlin and Munich.^[1]

Brandt was also an SS officer with the final rank of Obersturmbannführer. During World War II, he served in the Kriegsmarine and was a recipient of the Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross.

Awards

Iron Cross (1914) 2nd Class (8 December 1917)^[2]
Silesian Eagle 2nd Class (1 October 1919)^[2]
Clasp to the Iron Cross (1939) 2nd Class (9 January 1940) & 1st Class (30 August 1940)^[2]
German Cross in Gold on 26 November 1942 as Korvettenkapitän of the Reserves in the 12. U-Jagd-Flottille^[3]
Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross on 23 December 1943 as Korvettenkapitän of the Reserves and chief of the 21. U-Jagd-Flottille^[4]

Dörr, Manfred (1995). Die Ritterkreuzträger der Überwasserstreitkräfte der Kriegsmarine—Band 1: A–K [The Knight's Cross Bearers of the Surface Forces of the Navy—Volume 1: A–K] (in German). Osnabrück, Germany: Biblio Verlag. ISBN 978-3-7648-2453-2.
Patzwall, Klaus D.; Scherzer, Veit (2001). Das Deutsche Kreuz 1941 – 1945 Geschichte und Inhaber Band II [The German Cross 1941 – 1945 History and Recipients Volume 2] (in German). Norderstedt, Germany: Verlag Klaus D. Patzwall. ISBN 978-3-931533-45-8.
Scherzer, Veit (2007). Die Ritterkreuzträger 1939–1945 Die Inhaber des Ritterkreuzes des Eisernen Kreuzes 1939 von Heer, Luftwaffe, Kriegsmarine, Waffen-SS, Volkssturm sowie mit Deutschland verbündeter Streitkräfte nach den Unterlagen des Bundesarchives [The Knight's Cross Bearers 1939–1945 The Holders of the Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross 1939 by Army, Air Force, Navy, Waffen-SS, Volkssturm and Allied Forces with Germany According to the Documents of the Federal Archives] (in German). Jena, Germany: Scherzers Militaer-Verlag. ISBN 978-3-938845-17-2.
Schmuhl, Hans-Walter (2005). Grenzüberschreitungen: das Kaiser-Wilhelm-Institut für Anthropologie, menschliche Erblehre und Eugenik 1927–1945 [Crossing Boundaries: the Kaiser Wilhelm Institute for Anthropology, Human Heredity and Eugenics 1927–1945] (in German). Göttingen, Germany: Wallstein Verlag. ISBN 978-3-89244-799-3.