Gotthard Heinrici - Personal Life

Personal Life

Heinrici's was born in Gumbinnen (now Gusev), East Prussia, on Christmas Day, 1886, to Paul Heinrici, a local Lutheran minister of the Prussian Church, and his wife Gisela, née von Rauchhaupt. Gisela's father was Edmund Rudolf Volrad Julius Fedor von Rauchhaupt (17 December 1804 – 22 April 1879) an old Lutheran Prussian landlord family, her mother was Antonie Dietze (marr. von Rauchhaupt; 13/07/1820–12/01/1896, Antonie's brother Adolph was ennobled in 1888), daughter of Gottfried Dietze. Gottfried was Prussian chamber commission councillor (Kammerkommissionsrat), a government position which by 1820, was not granted to Jews, simultaneously tenant of the royal demesne in Barby, and Johanna Dorothea Elisabeth Rothmann. If she was born Jewish, she had converted to the religion of her husband, since interfaith marriages were only allowed in Prussia by 1847. He was a cousin of General Gerd von Rundstedt. He had two children, Hartmut and Gisela, with his wife Gertrude. Heinrici was a religious man who attended church regularly. His religious faith and his refusal to join the Nazi Party made him unpopular among the Nazi hierarchy and he was on unfavourable terms with Reichsmarschall Hermann Göring and Hitler. Heinrici's wife Gertrude was half Jewish and both his children Hartmut and Gesela were one quarter Jewish, General Heinrici received the "German Blood Certificate" from Adolf Hitler personally which validated their German nationality.