Page "Blomberg–Fritsch Affair" Paragraph 2

The affair started after the 12 January 1938 marriage of War Minister Werner von Blomberg when a policeman reported that the young bride had previously posed for pornographic photos.

According to testimony given at the Nuremberg trials, information received by the Police Commissioner also indicated that " Marshal Von Blomberg's wife had been a previously convicted prostitute who had been registered as a prostitute in the files of seven large German cities ; she was in the Berlin criminal files ... She had also been sentenced by the Berlin courts for distributing indecent pictures.

" Marriage to a person with such a criminal record violated the standard of conduct for officers as defined by Blomberg himself and was a shock to Hitler — Luftwaffe chief Hermann Göring had been Blomberg's best man and Hitler himself a witness.

However, Hitler and Göring also saw this event as an opportunity to dispose of von Blomberg.

Hitler ordered Blomberg to annul the marriage in order to avoid a scandal and to preserve the integrity of the army.

Blomberg refused to annul the marriage and, when Göring threatened to make his wife's past public knowledge, consequently resigned all of his posts on 27 January 1938.