Walther Hewel (25 March 1904 – 2 May 1945) was a German diplomat before and during World War II, an early and active member of the Nazi Party, and one of German dictator Adolf Hitler's personal friends.
Hewel was born in 1904 to Anton and Elsa Hewel in Cologne in the Rhineland,[2] where his father ran a cocoa factory. His father died in 1913, leaving Elsa to run the factory.
Hewel graduated in 1923, moved to Munich in Bavaria, and attended the Technical University of Munich. The same year, as an 18 year old, he joined the Stosstrupp Hitler, a formation of the Nazi Party's SA "brownshirt" stormtroopers[1] – his member number was in the low 200s[3] – and took part in Hitler's failed Beer Hall Putsch, carrying a swastika banner with 23-year-old Heinrich Himmler.[3] After Hitler's subsequent conviction for treason, Hewel was in Landsberg prison with him[2] for several months, where he served as Hitler's volunteer valet. He was released on 30 December 1924 because of his youth.[3][1]
Hewel then served a commercial apprenticeship in Hamburg in 1926, following which he spent a year in England. From 1927, Hewel worked abroad for several years in the Dutch East Indies (now Indonesia) as a planter and coffee salesman for a British firm . Hewel joined the Nazi Party there in June 1933 and helped to organise local branches with German expatriates as members. By 1937, the Nazi Party in Indonesia had established branches in Batavia, Bandung, Semarang, Surabaya, Medan, Padang, and Makassar.
