Hans Frank - Family

Family

On 2 April 1925 Frank married 29-year-old secretary Brigitte Herbst (1895–1959) from Forst (Lausitz). The wedding took place in Munich and the couple honeymooned in Venetia. Hans and Brigitte Frank had five children:

  • Sigrid Frank (born 13 March 1927, Munich)
  • Norman Frank (born 3 June 1928, Munich)
  • Brigitte Frank (born 13 January 1935, Munich)
  • Michael Frank (born 15 February 1937, Munich)
  • Niklas Frank (born 9 March 1939, Munich)

Brigitte Frank had a reputation for having a more dominant personality than her husband: after 1939 she called herself "a queen of Poland" ("Königin von Polen"). The marriage was unhappy and became colder from year to year. When Frank sought a divorce in 1942, Brigitte gave everything to save their marriage in order to remain the "First Lady in the General Government". One of her most famous comments was "I'd rather be widowed than divorced from a Reichsminister!" Frank answered: "So you are my deadly enemy!"

In 1987, Niklas Frank wrote a book about his father, Der Vater: Eine Abrechnung ("The Father: A Settling of Accounts"), which was published in English in 1991 as In the Shadow of the Reich. The book, which was serialized in the magazine Stern, caused controversy in Germany because of the scathing way in which the younger Frank depicted his father: Niklas referred to him as "a slime-hole of a Hitler fanatic" and questioned his remorse before his execution.

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