1900: Hitler’s Gestapo Chief was an Opponent of Nazism

Hitler’s chief of the Gestapo, Heinrich Müller, was born on this day.

Since the surname Müller (meaning “miller”) is very common in Germany, he was called the “Gestapo Müller” to distinguish him from the other Müllers. He was born in the Bavarian capital of Munich, and joined the Bavarian police at the age of about 19 years.

He allegedly formed a low opinion of communists when he witnessed the violence during the short-lived Bavarian Soviet Republic. Müller became a professional police officer, and eventually even became the head of the Munich Political Police Department.

It is very interesting that Müller, as a police secretary (Polizeisekretär), generally didn’t support the Nazis for a long time. Indeed, when the Nazis were taking over Bavaria, he allegedly advised use of force against them to his superiors. Müller also allegedly once spoke of Hitler as “an immigrant unemployed house painter”.

However, after the Nazis came to power they hired Müller as a capable and ruthless professional. Some Nazis could not believe that such a principled opponent of Nazism could become the head of the Gestapo. Müller joined Hitler’s Nazi party in 1939, but only at Himmler’s insistence.

Müller’s immediate superior was the notorious Reinhard Heydrich, head of the Reich Main Security Office (Reichssicherheitshauptamt – RSHA). Indeed, Heydrich gathered around him a few other Bavarians, such as Franz Josef Huber and Josef Albert Meisinger, and these people, together with Müller, made up a kind of professional core of police leadership.

Heinrich Müller remained at the head of the Gestapo until the end of the war, with the rank of SS-Gruppenführer and Generalleutnant of the police. His disappearance after Soviets captured Berlin is still shrouded in mystery. Namely, it is not known when or where he died, and there are many hypotheses and conspiracy theories concerning that.