Signed Portrait of (SS-Oberführer) Dr. Heinrich Glasmeier – Reichsrundfunkintendant – Early 1934 (!)

Original period portrait photograph of Dr. Heinrich Glasmeier (1892–1945), shown wearing an early SS uniform and bearing a personal handwritten dedication and signature on the reverse, dated 1934.

Glasmeier was an important figure in the German broadcasting system during the National Socialist period. In April 1933 he was appointed Intendant of Westdeutsche Rundfunk GmbH in Cologne, a position he held until 1937. He subsequently became Reichsrundfunkintendant and General Director of the Reichs-Rundfunk-Gesellschaft. Glasmeier had also been a member of the SS since 1933.

The photograph shows Glasmeier in an early period SS uniform and is accompanied on the reverse by a contemporary handwritten personal inscription and his signature, dated 1934. The date corresponds perfectly with his position as head of the Westdeutsche Rundfunk at the time.

Glasmeier ultimately attained the rank of SS-Oberführer in 1939, his highest rank within the SS. He remained Reichsrundfunkintendant and General Director of the Reichs-Rundfunk-Gesellschaft until the final months of the war. In May 1945, as U.S. forces approached St. Florian, Glasmeier fled towards the front in the direction of Graz and Wiener Neustadt. He disappeared and was never seen again. He was officially declared dead by the Münster District Court in 1950, although the exact circumstances and date of his death remain uncertain.

The combination of an original period portrait, a personal dedication, and a contemporary signature makes this a particularly interesting piece for collectors of original German political history, autographs, SS-related material, and the history of German broadcasting.