the Reich Defense Commissioners was changed from the Wehrkreis to the Gau level, and Hanke remained Commissioner only for his Gau. On 30 January 1944, Hanke was promoted to SS-Obergruppenführer. Hanke had a long affair with Baroness Freda von Fircks in Breslau, the daughter of a wealthy landowner and University of Berlin lecturer. They were finally married on 25 November 1944, after she gave birth to their daughter in December 1943. The 1945 fall of Breslau During the waning months of World War II, as the Soviet Red Army advanced into Silesia and encircled Fortress Breslau (Festung Breslau), Hanke was named by Hitler to be the city's "Battle Commander" (Kampfkommandant). Hanke oversaw, with fanaticism, the defense of the city during the Siege of Breslau. Goebbels, dictating for his diary, repeatedly expressed his admiration of Hanke during the spring of 1945. During the 82-day siege, Soviet forces inflicted approximately 30,000 civilian and military casualties and took more than 40,000 prisoners, while suffering 60,000 total casualties. However, somewhat quirkily, throughout the siege, the Aviatik tobacco factory produced 500,000 cigarettes a day. Occasionally, concerts were held during lulls in the bombardment. On 6 May, the day before Germany's surrender, General Hermann Niehoff surrendered the besieged Breslau, the Soviet army already having reached Berlin. Hanke had flown out the previous day in a small Fieseler Storch plane kept in reserve for him. Breslau was the last major city in Germany to surrender. Destruction by Soviet aerial and artillery bombardment, along with acts of destruction committed by the SS and Nazi Party members, brought "80 to 90 percent" of Breslau to a state of ruin. Hanke's fanaticism and unconditional obedience to Hitler's orders impressed Hitler, who in his political testament appointed him to be the last Reichsführer-SS and Chief of the German Police, replacing Heinrich Himmler on 29 April 1945. Eight days beforehand, Hanke had been honored with the Nazi Party's highest decoration, the German Order, a reward for his defence of Breslau against the advancing Soviet Red Army. Hanke's ascendancy to the rank of Reichsführer-SS was a result of Hitler proclaiming Himmler a traitor for his secretly attempted surrender negotiations with the Western Allies. Hitler stripped Himmler of all his offices and ranks and ordered his arrest. Death Hanke received word of his promotion on 5 May 1945. He flew to Prague and attached himself to the 18th SS-Freiwilligen-Panzer-Grenadier-Division "Horst Wessel". Hanke chose to