Fürstner, Wolfgang.

Fürstner, Wolfgang, born 04-04-1896 in Berlin , Joseph Goebbels  (did you know) was the Gauleiter of Berlin, and a German Wehrmacht captain. Wolfgang Fürstner was married to Leonie von Schlick, daughter of Marie Gräfin von Reventlow and Albert Heinrich Hans Karl von Schlick (1874–1957), last commander of the World War I battlecruiser SMS Derfflinger Under the orders of Rear Admiral Ludwig von Reuter , the interned ships were scuttled on 21-06-1919;  Fürstner was involved in the first war as a Leutnant and led the rebellion of the Free Corpses in Ober Silesia in 1921.  In 1928 he was one of the founders of the first sports unions in Berlin. Karl von Halt, sport official in the NSDAP, here next to Gestapo leader Reinhard Heydrich   and Heinrich Himmler

   (did you know), appointed Fürstner as chairman of the Brandenburger Athletic Union in April 1933. Fürtsner was taken over into the new Reichswehr. In 1936 Fürstner was the first commander, then vice-commander, of the Olympic village during the Berlin Olympic Games, summer 1936.

                                                               Fürstner with Rudolf Hess.

To turn the summer Berlin Olympic Games into a showcase for other German achievements, Adolf Hitler  (did you know) made efforts to play down his regime’s notorious anti-Semitism. He allowed a few token Jews to represent the Reich, among them the fencer Helene Meyer,  she died of breast cancer on 15-10-1953, age 42, the hockey star Rudi Ball,  he died in Africa in September 1975, age 64 and Captain Wolfgang Fürstner, who built and organized the Olympic Village. At the end of June 1936 Fürstner was replaced by Lieutenant Colonel Werner Freiherr von und zu Gilsa, Fürstner was demoted to local vice-commander. Officially Fürstner’s demotion was due to the fact that “Fürstner did not act with the necessary energy,” because 370.000 visitors had poured through from the opening on the first of May to the 15^th of June and caused damage. Probably this explanation was only a pretext to disparage Fürstner because he was half-Jewish, (see Anne Frank) (see Simon Wiesenthal) and (see Setella Steinbach)  the Dutch Sinti girl from the Westerbork train in Holland.

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The non-Jewish Werner von Gilsa was promoted to General der Infanterie, and as last Wehrmacht commandant of Dresden, committed suicide 08-05-1945, age 56, in Leitmeritz, Poland.

           

          Rudi Ball.                         Helene Meyer, right.                              Von Gilza. 

  On 19-08-1936, age 40 Fürstner committed suicide with a pistol shot three days after the end of the Games. There is evidence however that this instantly was unsuccessful. In Australia, reports emerged stating that he had been found dead with a revolver by his side. He had been awarded the Olympic Medal First Class  and had attended a banquet for his successor Gilsa. But Fürstner, a career officer, had learned that according to the Nuremberg Laws he was classified as a Jew and was to be dismissed from the Wehrmacht. In order to cover up Fürstner’s suicide and protect the international reputation of Germany, the Nazis said Fürstner’s death was the result of a car accident and Fürstner was buried in the Invalidenfriedhof in Berlin, only steps from the graves of Gestapo Reinard Heydrich ,  Fritz Todt

 Armaments Minister, Generaloberst der Infanterie, the Field Marshal Walter von Reichenau,   Chef Artillerie Regiment, Werner von Fritsch

and General der Flieger, Chief of the Reichs Air Force Ministry, Carl von Gablenz.