Hitler

by Volker Ullrich

  28 See Joachimsthaler, Korrektur, p. 120.

  29 Hitler to E. Hepp, 5 Feb. 1915; Hitler, Sämtliche Aufzeichnungen, no. 30, pp. 64–9.

  30 Hitler’s account tallies with the numbers in the official regiment history. Its fighting strength had decreased to a mere 750 men and non-commissioned officers and 4 officers. This means that of the regiment’s 3,000 soldiers, around 70 per cent fell or were wounded in battle. See Fridolin Solleder (ed.), Vier Jahre Westfront: Geschichte des Regiment List RIR 16, Munich, 1932, p. 60. See Weber, Hitler’s First War, pp. 48f.

  31 Hitler, Mein Kampf, p. 130f. See also a letter by Rudolf Hess from 29 June 1924: “Yesterday, the tribune told stories from 1914 that were so vivid and fascinating that I felt overwhelmed.” BA Bern, Nl Hess; quoted in Othmar Plöckinger, Geschichte eines Buches: Adolf Hitlers “Mein Kampf” 1922–1945, Munich, 2006, p. 48.

  32 R. Hess to I. Pröhl, 29 June 1924; Rudolf Hess, Briefe 1908–1933, ed. Rüdiger Hess, Munich and Vienna, 1987, p. 342.

  33 Hitler to J. Popp, 26 Jan. 1915; Hitler, Sämtliche Aufzeichnungen, no. 29, p. 63.

  34 See Wiedemann, Der Mann, p. 24; Balthasar Brandmayer, Zwei Meldegänger, Bruckmühl, 1932, p. 48.

  35 Hitler to J. Popp, 3 Dec. 1914; Hitler, Sämtliche Aufzeichnungen no. 26, p. 60.

  36 The incident is described in Hitler’s letter to E. Hepp, 22 Jan. 1915; ibid., no. 27, p. 68.

  37 Hitler to J. Popp, 3 Dec. 1914; ibid., no. 26, p. 61.

  38 Hitler to J. Popp, 26 Jan. 1915; ibid., no. 29, pp. 63f.

  39 Hitler to E. Hepp, 5 Feb. 1915; ibid., no. 30, pp. 68f.

  40 Quoted in Michael Jürgs, Der kleine Frieden im Grossen Krieg. Westfront 1914: Als Deutsche, Franzosen und Briten gemeinsam Weihnachten feierten, Munich, 2003, p. 43.

  41 Ibid., p. 87. See Weber, Hitler’s First War, p. 61.

  42 Statement by Heinrich Lugauer, a runner in RIR. 16, on 5 Feb. 1940; BA Berlin-Lichterfelde, NS 26/47. See Weber, Hitler’s First War, p. 63.

  43 Hitler, Monologe, p. 46 (entry for 24/25 July 1941). See ibid., p. 71 (entry for 25/26 Sept. 1941): “I’m infinitely grateful that I experienced the war as I did.” Goebbels, Tagebücher, part 1, vol. 2/1, p. 203 (entry for 21 July 1930): “Boss told us about the war. It’s his favourite topic and one that never runs dry.”

  44 Adolf Hitler, Reden, Schriften, Anordnungen—Februar 1925 bis Januar 1933. Vol. 3: Zwischen den Reichstagswahlen Juli 1928–September 1930. Part 3: Januar 1930–September 1930, ed. Christian Hartmann, Munich, 1994, doc. 116, p. 430 (dated 16 Sept.1930). See Otto Wagener, Hitler aus nächster Nähe: Aufzeichnungen eines Vertrauten 1929–1932, ed. Henry A. Turner, Frankfurt am Main, Berlin and Vienna, 1978, p. 142: Wagener recounts Hitler saying that, after reading a book on the Battle of the Somme, he only then fully understood “why someone would lie in a dirty hole and hold out.” See also Hess, Briefe, p. 263 (dated Aug. 1920): “From the very beginning to the end of the war, Hitler was on the frontlines as a common soldier.”

  45 See Weber, Hitler’s First War, pp. 99–101, 283. Hitler immediately sued the Echo der Welt for defamation. In its judgment of 9 March 1932, the Hamburg State Court ruled that the defendant was prohibited from portraying Hitler’s wartime service in a way that “suggested the plaintiff had tried to shirk his duties as a soldier.” BA Berlin-Lichterfelde, NS 26/17a.

  46 Ferdinand Widmann to A. Hitler, 9 March 1932; BA Berlin-Lichterfelde, NS 26/18.

  47 Statement by Heinrich Lugauer on 5 Feb. 1940; BA Berlin-Lichterfelde, NS 26/47. Further statements by Wilhelm Hansen, Hans Raab and Hans Bauer in ibid. In March 1933, the Berner Tageblatt newspaper published an article, “written by a German academic,” which read: “He [Hitler] was always prepared to do difficult duties. I often experienced how the runners disagreed about whose turn it was when one of them was called by the regimental office…It was always Hitler who stole away and voluntarily delivered the message.” Berner Tageblatt, 23 March 1933; BA Berlin-Lichterfelde, R 43 II/959.

  48 Transcript by Friedrich Petz from 1922; quoted in Joachimsthaler, Korrektur, p. 160f. See the similar verdicts of the regimental commander Major Baron Anton von Tabeuf in February 1922 (ibid., p. 169) and his deputy Baron von Godin in July 1918 (ibid., p. 175f.) In 1931, the last commander of the regiment, Maximilian Baligand, dedicated a copy of the regimental history to “his brave runner, the honorable former private Adolf Hitler with gratitude and in memory of serious but great times in the past.” Timothy W. Ryback, Hitler’s Private Library: The Books That Shaped His Life, London, 2009, p. 14.

  49 Wiedemann added: “On the field of battle, he proved his worth as a courageous and particularly reliable runner, who deserved his Iron Cross, First Class and who was put forward for that honour numerous times, before he actually received it.” BA Koblenz, N 1720/4. See also Wiedemann, Der Mann, pp. 25, 85.

  50 See Weber, Hitler’s First War, pp. 293f., 321–5, 341f.

  51 Ibid., pp. 105f, 345.

  52 Stefan Ernstling, Der phantastische Rebell: Alexander Moritz Frey oder Hitler schiesst dramatisch in die Luft, Zurich, 2007, p. 52.

  53 Wiedemann, Der Mann, p. 26. See Fritz Wiedemann’s statement from 1 July 1947; Robert M. W. Kempner, Das Dritte Reich im Kreuzverhör: Aus den unveröffentlichten Verne​hmung​sprot​okollen des Anklägers in den Nürnberger Prozessen, Munich, 2005, p. 92 (“not leadership material”).

  54 Max Amann’s questioning in Nuremberg on 5 Nov. 1947; Joachimsthaler, Korrektur, p. 160.

  55 Hitler, Mein Kampf, p. 181.

  56 Hess, Briefe, p. 342 (dated 29 June 1924). For the phenomenon of fear in the First World War, see Susanne Michl and Jan Plamper, “Soldatische Angst im Ersten Weltkrieg,” Geschichte und Gesellschaft, 35.2 (2009), pp. 209–48.

  57 Hitler, Mein Kampf, p. 181.

  58 Hitler, Monologe, p. 75 (dated 27/28 Sept. to 9 Oct. 1941).

  59 Ibid., p. 296 (dated 24/25 Feb. 1942). In the spring of 1926, Hitler underlined a passage from Ernst Jünger’s book Feuer und Blut (Fire and Blood) that described this side of the experience of war. See Ryback, Hitler’s Private Library, pp. 82–4.

  60 Hitler, Monologe, p. 71 (dated 25/26 Sept. 1941).

  61 Max Amann’s questioning in Nuremberg on 5 Nov. 1947; Joachimsthaler, Korrektur, p. 158.

  62 Brandmayer, Zwei Meldegänger, p. 103.

  63 See Werner Maser, Adolf Hitler: Legende—Mythos—Wirklichkeit, 12th edition, Munich and Esslingen, 1989, pp. 315, 598–628. For a critical perspective see Joachimsthaler, Korrektur, pp. 161–4; Guido Knopp, Geheimnisse des “Dritten Reiches,” Munich, 2011, pp. 268–76.

  64 See Lothar Machtan, Hitlers Geheimnis: Das Doppelleben eines Diktators, Berlin, 2001, pp. 81ff. Machtan largely based his assertions on later testimony by Hans Mend, the List Regiment’s equestrian orderly, but Mend was a known liar and psychopath. See Joachimsthaler, Korrektur, pp. 143f.; Weber, Hitler’s First War, pp. 137–9.

  65 See Joachimsthaler, Korrektur, pp. 144f.; Weber, Hitler’s First War, p. 317.

  66 See Weber, Hitler’s First War, p. 139f.

  67 Examples in Joachimsthaler, Korrektur, pp. 128, 160; Claudia Schmölders, Hitlers Gesicht: Eine physiognomische Biographie, Munich, 2000, pp. 11–13. See also Joachim Fest, Hitler: Eine Biographie, Frankfurt am Main, Berlin and Vienna, 1973, p. 104; Weber, Hitler’s First War, p. 139.

  68 Hitler, Monologe, p. 219 (dated 22/23 Jan. 1942).

  69 Hitler, Mein Kampf, p. 182.

  70 Max Amann’s questioning in Nuremberg on 5 Nov. 1947; Joachimsthaler, Korrektur, p. 159.

  71 Brandmayer, Zwei Meldegänger, pp. 66–8.

  72 Hitler to E. Hepp, 5 Feb. 1915; Hitler, Sämtliche Aufzeichnungen, no. 30, p. 69.

  73 Hitler, Monologe, p. 411 (dated 19 May 1944). See Otto Dietrich, 12 Jahre mit Hitler, Munich, 1955, p. 164. Hans Frank, Im Angesicht des Galgens: Deutung Hitlers und seiner Zeit auf Grund eigener Erlebnisse und Erkenntnisse, Munich and Gräfelfing, 1953, p. 46: “I had a well-thumbed paperback copy of The World as Will and Representation in my k
napsack.” On the topic of Hitler reading Schopenhauer, see Birgit Schwarz, Geniewahn: Hitler und die Kunst, Vienna, Cologne and Weimar, 2009, pp. 51–3, who asserts that Schopenhauer’s idea of genius supported Hitler’s view of himself as an artist. By contrast Ryback (Hitler’s Private Library, p. 104) doubts that Hitler ever read Schopenhauer during the war. Reports from his former regimental comrades confirm that Hitler spent every free minute reading. See Heinrich Lugauer’s statement of 5 Feb. 1940 and Hans Bauer’s of 15 Feb. 1940; BA Berlin-Lichterfelde, NS 26/47.

  74 See John Keegan, The Face of Battle: A Sturdy of Agincourt, Waterloo and the Somme, London, 1978, pp. 204ff; Gerhard Hirschfeld, Gerd Krumeich and Irina Renz (eds): Die Deutschen an der Somme 1914–1918: Krieg, Besatzung, Verbrannte Erde, Essen, 2006, pp. 79ff.

  75 Quoted in Hirschfeld et al., Die Deutschen an der Somme, p. 147. Hitler, too, described the Battle of the Somme as “more hell than war”; Mein Kampf, p. 209.

  76 Wiedemann, Der Mann, p. 29.

  77 Hitler, Monologe, p. 172 (dated 3/4 Jan. 1942).

  78 Hitler, Mein Kampf, p. 210.

  79 Ibid., p. 210. See Hitler’s testimony in front of Munich Court I on 26 Feb. 1924: “Whereas we had previously showed absolute obedience at the front, it more or less dissolved in the field hospital.” Der Hitler-Prozess 1924, ed. and annotated by Lothar Gruchmann and Reinhold Weber with Otto Gritschneder, part 1, Munich, 1997, p. 21. On “self-mutilation,” see Ulrich and Ziemann, Frontalltag, pp. 151–3.

  80 Hitler, Mein Kampf, p. 211.

  81 Ingo Materna and Hans-Joachim Schreckenbach (eds) with Bärbel Holtz, Berichte des Berliner Polizeipräsidenten zur Stimmung und Lage der Bevölkerung in Berlin 1914–1918, Weimar, 1987, no. 175, p. 156. For background see Volker Ullrich, “Kriegsalltag: Zur inneren Revolutionierung der wilhelminischen Gesellschaft,” in Wolfgang Michalka (ed.), Der Erste Weltkrieg: Wirkung—Wahrnehmung—Analyse, Munich and Zurich, 1994, pp. 603–21.

  82 Hitler, Mein Kampf, p. 211.

  83 Quoted in Ziemann, Front und Heimat, p. 274.

  84 W. Rathenau to W. Schwaner, 4 Aug. 1916; Walther Rathenau, Briefe. Vol. 2: 1914–1922, ed. Alexander Jaser, Clemens Picht and Ernst Schulin, Düsseldorf, 2006, p. 1552.

  85 Quoted in Volker Ullrich, “ ‘Drückeberger’: Die Judenzählung im Ersten Weltkrieg,” in Julius H. Schoeps and Joachim Schlör (eds), Antisemitismus: Vorurteile und Mythen, Munich and Zurich, 1995, p. 214.

  86 Hitler, Mein Kampf, p. 211. See Hitler’s speech on 29 Feb. 1928: “For four years, these people avoided serving at the front.” Adolf Hitler, Reden, Schriften, Anordnungen—Februar 1925 bis Januar 1933. Vol. 2: Vom Weimarer Parteitag bis zur Reichstagswahl Juli 1926–Mai 1928. Part 2: August 1927–Mai 1928, ed. and annotated Bärbel Dusik, Munich, 1992, no. 237, pp. 701f.

  87 Hitler, Mein Kampf, pp. 211f.

  88 See John Toland, Adolf Hitler: Volume 1, New York, 1976, pp. 70. Reuth’s assumption that during the war Hitler had been completely free of anti-Jewish sentiment seems rather implausible; Ralf Georg Reuth, Hitlers Judenhass: Klischee und Wirklichkeit, Munich and Zurich, 2009, pp. 35–43. But that does not mean that he despised Jews. Weber (Hitler’s First War, p. 237) also asserts that in early 1917 Hitler was “no committed, avowed anti-Semite.”

  89 Wiedemann, Der Mann, pp. 33f.

  90 Hitler to K. Lanzhammer, 19 Dec. 1916; www.​europeana​1914–​1918.​eu. Facsimile in Süddeutsche Zeitung, 3 May 2012. Hitler to B. Brandmayer, 21 Dec. 1916; Hitler, Sämtliche Aufzeichnungen no. 44, p. 78.

  91 Wiedemann, Der Mann, p. 30. In August 1938, Professor Max Unold contacted Wiedemann and informed him: “Some time ago, I found the enclosed notebook from the war and discovered that as a corporal in my replacement battalion in Munich in 1917, I had none other than Adolf Hitler in my quarters.” According to Unold’s notes, the battalion was quartered in a school on Munich’s Luisenstrasse in February and March of 1917. M. Unold to F. Wiedemann, 18 Aug. 1938; BA Koblenz, N 1720/8.

  92 Hitler, Monologe, p. 57 (dated 8/9–10/11 Aug. 1941).

  93 See the entry “Tank” (author: Gerhard P. Gross) in Gerhard Hirschfeld, Gerd Krumeich and Irina Renz (eds) with Markus Pöhlmann, Enzyklopädie Erster Weltkrieg, Paderborn, 2003, pp. 917–19.

  94 Hitler prepared himself by reading Max Osborn’s book on Berlin, which appeared as vol. 43 of the series Berühmte Kunststätten im Leipziger Verlag E. A. Seemann; he had purchased it in November 1915 in Tournes. Ryback, Hitler’s Private Library, pp. 7f, 18–22.

  95 Hitler to E. Schmidt, 6 Oct. 1917; Hitler, Sämtliche Aufzeichnungen, no. 50, p. 82. See also Hitler’s Berlin visits between 1916 and 1918, Thomas Friedrich, Die missbrauchte Hauptstadt: Hitler und Berlin, Berlin, 2007, pp. 11–27; Sven Felix Kellerhoff, Hitlers Berlin: Geschichte einer Hassliebe, Berlin and Brandenburg, 2005, pp. 17–20.

  96 Hitler to M. Amann, 8, 11, and 12 Oct. 1917; Hitler, Sämtliche Aufzeichnungen, nos 51–53, pp. 82f.

  97 Volker Ullrich, Kriegsalltag: Hamburg im Ersten Weltkrieg, Cologne, 1982, pp. 85–92 (quotation on p. 87).

  98 Berichte des Berliner Polizeipräsidenten, no. 242, p. 213.

  99 Ullrich, Kriegsalltag, p. 126. For a case study of the strike in Jan. 1918, idem, “Der Januarstreik 1918 in Hamburg, Kiel und Bremen: Eine vergleichende Studie zur Geschichte der Streikbewegungen im Ersten Weltkrieg,” in Zeitschrift für Hamburgische Geschichte, (1985), pp. 45–74.

  100 Quoted in Bernd Ulrich, Die Augenzeugen: Deutsche Feldpostbriefe in Kriegs- und Nachkriegszeit 1914–1933, Essen, 1997, p. 74n104; Ulrich and Ziemann, Frontalltag, p. 196.

  101 Hitler, Mein Kampf, pp. 213, 217.

  102 Berichte des Berliner Polizeipräsidenten, no. 270, p. 240.

  103 See Joachimsthaler, Korrektur, p. 172; Weber, Hitler’s First War, p. 209.

  104 Hitler, Monologe, p. 152 (dated 10/11 Nov. 1941). For the awarding of the Iron Cross, First Class see Joachimsthaler, Korrektur, p. 173; Weber, Hitler’s First War, p. 215. By contrast Othmar Plöckinger (Unter Soldaten und Agitatoren: Hitlers prägende Jahre im deutschen Militär 1918–1920, Paderborn, 2013, p. 16f.) doubts that Gutmann played a role in Hitler’s commendation since he was not a member of the regiment at the time when Hitler was put forward for or awarded the Iron Cross. See ibid., p. 18, for a facsimile of the list of recorded soldiers in Hitler’s regiment on 4 Aug. 1918.

  105 Quoted in Ulrich and Ziemann, Frontalltag, p. 204.

  106 Hitler, Monologe, p. 100 (dated 21/22 Oct. 1941). See Weber, Hitler’s First War, pp. 218, 219.

  107 Hitler, Mein Kampf, p. 221.

  108 For a summary see Hans-Joachim Neumann and Henrik Eberle, War Hitler krank? Ein abschliessender Befund, Bergisch-Gladbach, 2009, pp. 42–8.

  109 Hitler to an unknown “Herr Doktor,” 29 Nov. 1921; Hitler, Sämtliche Aufzeichnungen, no. 325, p. 526. Facsimile in Joachimsthaler, Korrektur, pp. 92–4. See Hitler’s testimony in front of Munich Court I, 26 Feb. 1924: “For a short time, I was completely blind and didn’t think I would ever be able to see again…Over the course of my treatment, my condition improved to the point that when I was released from the field hospital I could at least read large headlines.” Der Hitler-Prozess 1924, vol. 1, p. 19.

  110 This is suggested in Bernhard Horstmann, Hitler in Pasewalk: Die Hypnose und ihre Folgen, Düsseldorf, 2004 (quotation on p. 113).

  111 Quoted in Uwe Lohalm, Völkischer Radikalismus: Die Geschichte des Deutschvölkischen Schutz- und Trutzbundes 1919–1923, Hamburg, 1970, p. 53.

  112 Hitler, Mein Kampf, pp. 221–5. See also Hitler’s testimony in front of Munich Court I, 26 Feb. 1924: “On 9 November (1918) it became clear to me, and that night I made my decision: the vacillations in my life between whether to go into politics or remain an architect came to an end. That night I decided that, if I got my vision back, I would turn to politics.” Der Hitler-Prozess 1924, p. 21.

  113 Ernst Deuerlein, Hitler: Eine politische Biographie, Munich, 1969, p. 40.

  4 The Leap into Politics

  1 Adolf Hitler, Mono
loge im Führerhauptquartier 1941–1944: Die Aufzeichnungen Heinrich Heims, ed. Werner Jochmann, Hamburg, 1980, p. 234 (dated 25/26 Jan. 1942).

  2 See Anton Joachimsthaler, Korrektur einer Biographie: Adolf Hitler 1908–1920, Munich, 1989, p. 187; Othmar Plöckinger, Unter Soldaten und Agitatoren: Hitlers prägende Jahre im deutschen Militär 1918–1920, Paderborn, 2013, p. 29.

  3 See Bernhard Grau, Kurt Eisner 1867–1919: Eine Biographie, Munich, 2001, pp. 343ff.

  4 Wilhelm Herzog, Menschen, denen ich begegnete, Bern and Munich, 1959, pp. 67 f.

  5 See Grau, Kurt Eisner, pp. 388ff.

  6 Michael Epkenhans, “ ‘Wir als deutsches Volk sind doch nicht klein zu kriegen…’: Aus den Tagebüchern des Fregattenkapitäns Bogislav von Selchow 1918/19,” in Militärgeschichtliche Mitteilungen, 55 (1996), p. 202.

  7 Quoted in Joachimsthaler, Korrektur, p. 190. In November 1929, Hitler declared: “I did not support that revolution for a second.” Adolf Hitler, Reden, Schriften, Anordnungen—Februar 1925 bis Januar 1933. Vol. 3, Part 2: März 1929–Dezember 1929, ed. and annotated by Klaus A. Lankheit, Munich, New Providence, London and Paris, 1994, doc. 93, p. 436. Joachim Riecker (Hitlers 9. November: Wie der Erste Weltkrieg zum Holocaust führte, Berlin, 2009, p. 49) offers no evidence for his statement that Hitler “was initially positive towards the revolution.”

  8 Adolf Hitler, Mein Kampf. Vol. 1: Eine Abrechnung, 7th edition, Munich, 1933, p. 226.

  9 Franz J. Bauer (ed.): Die Regierung Eisner 1918/19: Minis​terra​tspro​tokolle und Dokumente, Düsseldorf, 1987, no. 40b, p. 246 (dated 3 Jan. 1919). The Münchener Neueste Nachrichten newspaper wrote of a “dance pandemic”; quoted in Martin H. Geyer, Verkehrte Welt: Revolution, Inflation und Moderne. München 1914–1924, Göttingen, 1998, p. 72. On the phenomenon of the “dance craze” during the November revolution, see also Volker Ullrich, Die Revolution von 1918/19, Munich, 2009, pp. 42f.

  10 Hitler, Mein Kampf, p. 226. On the stay in Traunstein and the date of the return to Munich, see Plöckinger, Unter Soldaten und Agitatoren, pp. 34–6 (page 33 contains a photo of Hitler together with Ernst Schmidt in the Traunstein training camp).