Karl Hanke - Nazi Party

Nazi Party

Hanke joined the Nazi Party (NSDAP) on 1 November 1928. Hanke began his National Socialist career at the somewhat low level of Amtswalter, a low ranking speaker and factory cell organizer. He joined the Sturmabteilung (SA) Reserve in 1929, that same year he became a deputy street cell leader. In 1930 he was promoted to street cell leader (Strassenzellenleiter). Later that year, he became a section leader (Sektionsführer) in Berlin.

Hanke was finally fired from his Prussian State service job at the vocational school in April 1931 for his political activities, and he went to work full time for the party. By late 1931, he was Kreisleiter (ward leader) of Westend in Berlin, working under Berlin's (Gauleiter) Joseph Goebbels. In 1932, Hanke was made chief Gau organizational director and on 1 April 1932, personal adjutant and Referent (advisor) to Goebbels in his capacity as propaganda director of the NSDAP (Reichspropagandaleiter der NSDAP).

In his position as Kreisleiter of Westend in Berlin, Hanke was the first party official to establish contact with the young architect Albert Speer. Hanke contracted Speer to convert a villa in the western suburbs into an office for the local party organization in 1932. Hanke and Speer became close friends. In 1944, according to Speer's book (Inside the Third Reich), Hanke strongly advised Speer never to visit "a camp in Upper Silesia" (Auschwitz) for any reason. Hanke had "seen something that he was not allowed to describe and indeed could not describe."