11 See ibid., pp. 37–41.
12 Quoted in Friedrich Hitzer, Anton Graf Arco: Das Attentat auf Kurt Eisner und die Schüsse im Landtag, Munich, 1988, p. 391.
13 Quoted in Michaela Karl, Die Münchner Räterepublik: Porträts einer Revolution, Düsseldorf, 2008, p. 108.
14 Ralf Höller, Der Anfang, der ein Ende war: Die Revolution in Bayern 1918/19, Berlin, 1999, p. 193.
15 Harry Graf Kessler, Das Tagebuch. Vol 7: 1919–1923, ed. Angela Reinthal with Janna Brechmacher and Christoph Hilse, Stuttgart, 2007, p. 222 (entry for 5 April 1919).
16 On the Freikorps of Ritter von Epp, see the brochure and newspaper clipping collection in BA Koblenz, N 1101/34. Upon Epp’s discharge from the Reichswehr in October 1923, Bavarian state premier Eugen von Knilling thanked the general for his “courageous intervention in liberating Munich from the hands of Bolshevism.” Knilling went on: “Your services are part of history and represent an honourable page that shines out from the darkness of recent years.” E. v. Knilling to Ritter von Epp, 31 Oct. 1923; BA Koblenz, N 1101/43a.
17 Erich Mühsam, Tagebücher 1910–1924, ed. and with an afterword by Chris Hirte, Munich, 1994, p. 191 (entry for 7 May 1919).
18 Konrad Heiden, Adolf Hitler: Das Zeitalter der Verantwortungslosigkeit. Eine Biographie, p. 64. In his 1933 autobiography, Eine Jugend in Deutschland, Ernst Toller reported that during a period of incarceration, a fellow prisoner told of meeting Hitler in a Munich barracks in the first months of the republic. “Back then, Hitler declared he was a Social Democrat,” the man allegedly said. Ernst Toller, Prosa, Briefe, Dramen, Gedichte, Reinbek bei Hamburg, 1961, p. 165.
19 See Joachimsthaler, Korrektur, p. 204, who puts the vote in mid-February 1919. Ralf Georg Reuth (Hitlers Judenhass: Klischee und Wirklichkeit, Munich and Zurich, 2009, p. 89) reaches a similar conclusion, writing that the “government soldier Adolf Hitler” was an “adherent of Social Democracy” in late February and March 1919. Plöckinger (Unter Soldaten und Agitatoren, pp. 42–6) correctly rejects this assertion as untenable.
20 Bauer, Die Regierung Eisner, introduction, p. lxi.
21 Hitler, Monologe, p. 248 (dated 1 Feb. 1942).
22 Joachim Fest, Hitler: Eine Biographie, Frankfurt am Main, Berlin and Vienna, 1973, p. 123. Ian Kershaw, Hitler 1889–1936: Hubris, London, 1998, p. 120, also writes of “sheer opportunism.” Ludolf Herbst (Hitlers Charisma: Die Erfindung eines deutschen Messias, Frankfurt am Main, 2010) characterises Hitler’s stance as “wait and see” (p. 96) adding, “Hitler skilfully manoeuvred his way through a political difficult time” (p. 99).
23 See Ralf Georg Reuth, Hitler: Eine Biographie, Munich and Zurich, 2003, p. 78f.; Thomas Weber, Hitler’s First War: Adolf Hitler, the Men of the List Regiment, and the First World War, Oxford and New York, p. 251. Contrary to this, Plöckinger (Unter Soldaten und Agitatoren, p. 43) describes Hitler’s participation in the funeral procession as “less than likely.”
24 Quoted in John Toland, Adolf Hitler: Volume 1, New York, 1976, p. 85.
25 See Joachimsthaler, Korrektur, p. 213f.; Plöckinger, Unter Soldaten und Agitatoren, p. 48f. Reuth’s idea that Hitler became “a functionary in the gears of global Communist revolution” (Hitlers Judenhass, p. 94) is completely off-base.
26 Hitler, Mein Kampf, p. 226. Plöckinger expresses well-founded doubts about this version in Unter Soldaten und Agitatoren, pp. 57, 64f.
27 Hitler, Mein Kampf, p. 227.
28 Quoted in Joachimsthaler, Korrektur, p. 214. See also the investigating committee’s report about Georg Dufter dated 4 June 1919 in Plöckinger, Unter Soldaten und Agitatoren, pp. 344f.
29 See Plöckinger, Unter Soldaten und Agitatoren, p. 100.
30 Joachimsthaler, Korrektur, p. 225.
31 Hellmuth Auerbach, “Hitlers politische Lehrjahre und die Münchner Gesellschaft 1919–1923,” in Vierteljahrshefte für Zeitgeschichte, 25 (1977), p. 18.
32 As found in Karl Mayr’s anonymous article in the U.S. magazine Current History, “I was Hitler’s Boss: By a former officer of the Reichswehr,” Nov. 1941, p. 193. For a critical perspective see Plöckinger, Unter Soldaten und Agitatoren, p. 102n11.
33 Ernst Deuerlein, “Hitlers Eintritt in die Politik und die Reichswehr,” in Vierteljahrshefte für Zeitgeschichte, 7 (1959), p. 179.
34 See Plöckinger, Unter Soldaten und Agitatoren, pp. 103f., 108. Here the author corrects the position he previously held: see Othmar Plöckinger, “Adolf Hitler als Hörer an der Universität München im Jahr 1919: Zum Verhältnis zwischen Reichswehr und Universität,” in Elisabeth Kraus (ed.), Die Universität München im Dritten Reich: Aufsätze, vol. 2, Munich, 2008, pp. 13–47.
35 The programme for the first course can be found in Deuerlein, “Hitlers Eintritt,” doc. 2, pp. 191f. For the third course’s speakers see Plöckinger, Unter Soldaten und Agitatoren, pp. 108–10.
36 Diary of Gottfried Feder, vol. 1 (entries for 6 June and July 1919), IfZ München, ED 874. For Feder’s theories see Reuth, Hitlers Judenhass, pp. 158–61; Plöckinger, Unter Soldaten und Agitatoren, pp. 263–5.
37 Hitler, Mein Kampf, p. 229.
38 Karl Alexander von Müller, Mars und Venus: Erinnerungen 1914–1918, Stuttgart, 1954, p. 338.
39 Ibid., pp. 338f. See also Müller’s notes, “Berührungen mit der NSDAP,” about the two lectures, Karl Mayr and his “curious protégé”; BayHStA München, Nl K. A. v. Müller 101.
40 Hitler, Mein Kampf, p. 243. For something similar see Adolf Hitler, Reden, Schriften, Anordnungen—Februar 1925 bis Januar 1933. Vol. 4: Von der Reichstagswahl bis zur Reichspräsidentenwahl Oktober 1930–März 1932. Part 2: Juli 1931–Dezember 1931, ed. Christian Hartmann, Munich, 1996, doc. 80, p. 250 (entry for 4 April 1931).
41 Deuerlein, “Hitlers Eintritt,” doc. 4, p. 196f.; see Plöckinger, Unter Soldaten und Agitatoren, pp. 113–19 (see p. 120 for a facsimile of the handwritten list of participants in Walther Bendt’s “educational commando”).
42 See Plöckinger, Unter Soldaten und Agitatoren, pp. 123f.
43 Hitler, Mein Kampf, p. 235.
44 Orderly Lorenz Frank on 23 Aug. 1919 in Deuerlein, “Hitlers Eintritt,” doc. 9, p. 200. Other voices in Plöckinger, Unter Soldaten und Agitatoren, p. 128.
45 Report by First Lieutenant Bendt on 21 Aug. 1919 in Deuerlein, “Hitlers Eintritt,” doc. 7, p. 199.
46 See Plöckinger, Unter Soldaten und Agitatoren, pp. 194ff., 210ff.
47 Quoted in Dirk Walter, Antisemitische Kriminalität und Gewalt: Judenfeindschaft in der Weimarer Republik, Bonn, 1999, p. 55.
48 Quoted in Plöckinger, Unter Soldaten und Agitatoren, p. 330.
49 Münchener Neueste Nachrichten from 14 Nov. 1919; quoted in Hans-Günter Richardi, Hitler und seine Hintermänner: Neue Fakten zur Frühgeschichte der NSDAP, Munich, 1991, p. 81.
50 For the anti-Semitic pamphlets available in libraries and reading rooms for troops see Plöckinger, Unter Soldaten und Agitatoren, pp. 218ff, 251ff.
51 Report by First Lieutenant Bendt dated 21 Aug. 1919; Deuerlein, “Hitlers Eintritt,” doc. 7, p. 199. In Landsberg Prison in June 1924, Hitler told Rudolf Hess that he had “only arrived at his current stance on the Jewish question after some serious internal conflicts.” Rudolf Hess, Briefe 1908–1933, ed. Rüdiger Hess, Munich and Vienna, 1987, pp. 334f. (dated 11 June 1924).
52 A. Gemlich to Captain Mayr, 4 Sept. 1919; Deuerlein, “Hitlers Eintritt,” doc 10a, pp. 201f.
53 Hitler to A. Gemlich, 16 Sept. 1919; Deuerlein, “Hitlers Eintritt,” doc. 12, pp. 203–5; also reproduced in Adolf Hitler, Sämtliche Aufzeichnungen 1905–1924, ed. Eberhard Jäckel with Axel Kuhn, Stuttgart, 1980, no. 61, pp. 88–90. Plöckinger (Unter Soldaten und Agitatoren, p. 143) correctly concludes that in his answer Hitler “did not advance any original positions, but merely summarised views and ideas that were already widespread in anti-Semitic circles.” On the interpretation of the “Gemlich letter,” see also ibid., pp. 332–8.
54 See Walter, Antisemitische Kriminalität, pp. 3
4f.
55 See Plöckinger, Unter Soldaten und Agitatoren, pp. 257, 334f.
56 Hitler to A. Gemlich, 16 Sept. 1919; Deuerlein, “Hitlers Eintritt,” doc. 12, p. 204. See also Hitler’s contribution to a discussion at an NSDAP meeting on 6 April 1920: “We do not want to be the sort of emotional anti-Semites who create a pogrom mood. We are filled with the uncompromising determination to grasp this evil by the roots and tear it out in its entirety (enthusiastic applause).” Ibid. no. 91, p. 119.
57 Captain Mayr to A. Gemlich, 17 Sept. 1919; Deuerlein, “Hitlers Eintritt,” doc. 11, p. 202f. Against the background of these remarks it is all the more astonishing that Karl Mayr would get close to the SPD in 1923 and later collaborate with the Reich Banner Black-Red-Gold. See Othmar Plöckinger, “Frühe biographische Texte zu Hitler: Zur Bewertung der autobiographischen Texte in ‘Mein Kampf,’ ” in Vierteljahrshefte für Zeitgeschichte, 58 (2010), p. 99n25.
58 Hitler, Mein Kampf, p. 236.
59 See Plöckinger, Unter Soldaten und Agitatoren, pp. 144, 147–51.
60 See Auerbach, “Hitlers politische Lehrjahre,” p. 8f.; Werner Maser, Die Frühgeschichte der NSDAP: Hitlers Weg bis 1924, Frankfurt am Main and Bonn, 1965, pp. 146–8; Reginald Phelps, “Before Hitler came: Thule Society and Germanen Orden,” in Journal of Modern History, 35 (1963), pp. 245–61; Hermann Gilbhard, Die Thule-Gesellschaft: Vom okkulten Mummenschanz zum Hakenkreuz, Munich, 1994.
61 See Dirk Stegmann, “Zwischen Repression und Manipulation: Konservative Machteliten und Arbeiter- und Angestelltenbewegung 1910–1918: Ein Beitrag zur Vorgeschichte der DAP/NSDAP,” in Archiv für Sozialgeschichte, 12 (1972), p. 385ff.; Maser, Frühgeschichte, pp. 142–6.
62 From February to August 1919, between 10 and 38 people took part in DAP members’ meetings. See Anton Joachimsthaler, Hitlers Weg begann in München 1913–1923, Munich, 2000, p. 251.
63 Hitler, Mein Kampf, pp. 237f.
64 See Plöckinger, Unter Soldaten und Agitatoren, p. 151f.
65 Georg-Franz Willing, Die Hitler-Bewegung: Der Ursprung 1919–1922, Hamburg and Berlin, 1962, p. 66. On the differing records of this remark see Kershaw, Hitler: Hubris, p. 643n79.
66 Hitler, Mein Kampf, p. 241.
67 See Fest, Hitler, p. 170. According to a statement by Hans Georg Grassinger, the operational manager of the Münchener Beobachter and one of the founders of the German Socialist Party (DSP), which evolved out of the Thule Society, Hitler offered to work for the DSP and the newspaper in the fall of 1919, but there was no position for him. Testimony by Hans Georg Grassinger, 19 Dec. 1951; IfZ München, ZS 50.
68 Hitler, Mein Kampf, p. 243. In an article in the Illustrierter Beobachter newspaper on 3 Aug. 1929, Hitler recalled the “unbelievably tiny beginnings” of the movement. Hitler, Reden, Schriften, Anordnungen, vol. 3, part 2, doc. 62, pp. 336–41 (quote on p. 336).
69 Hitler, Mein Kampf, p. 244.
70 See Plöckinger, Unter Soldaten und Agitatoren, p. 157.
71 See the report by Michael Lotter, secretary of the DAP in the NSDAP-Hauptarchiv, dated 17 Oct. 1941; Joachimsthaler, Hitlers Weg, p. 257 (see p. 258 for a facsimile of the membership card); in addition, A. Drexler in an unsent letter to Hitler from Jan. 1940: Ernst Deuerlein (ed.), Der Aufstieg der NSDAP in Augenzeugenberichten, Munich, 2nd edition, 1976, pp. 97f.
72 Hitler, Mein Kampf, p. 390. Over lunch at the Reich Chancellery in December 1936, Hitler told stories “from the first party meetings” for which he himself “typed up and distributed flyers.” Die Tagebücher von Joseph Goebbels. Part 1: Aufzeichnungen 1923–1941, ed. Elke Fröhlich, Munich, 1998–2006, vol. 3/2, pp. 274f. (entry for 3 Dec. 1936).
73 Hitler, Mein Kampf, p. 390. See the advertisement in the Münchener Beobachter in Plöckinger, Unter Soldaten und Agitatoren, p. 158f.
74 Max Amann’s questioning in Nuremberg on 5 Nov. 1947; Joachimsthaler, Hitlers Weg, p. 264.
75 PND report on the DAP meeting of 13 Nov. 1919; Hitler, Sämtliche Aufzeichnungen, no. 66a, p. 93. Also in Deuerlein, “Hitlers Eintritt,” doc. 14, pp. 205–7.
76 Münchener Beobachter, 19 Nov. 1919; Hitler, Sämtliche Aufzeichnungen, no. 66b, p. 94.
77 See Plöckinger, Unter Soldaten und Agitatoren, pp. 160–3, 169.
78 Report on the DAP meeting of 10 Dec. 1919; Deuerlein, “Hitlers Eintritt,” doc. 16, pp. 209f.; Hitler, Sämtliche Aufzeichnungen, no. 69b, pp. 98f.
79 PND report on the DAP meeting of 16 Jan. 1919; Hitler, Sämtliche Aufzeichnungen, no. 73, p. 105.
80 See an outline of the DAP leadership structure of Dec. 1919 in Hitler, Sämtliche Aufzeichnungen, no. 68, p. 95; facsimile in Joachimsthaler, Hitlers Weg, p. 266.
81 A reprint of the 25-point programme, etc. in Deuerlein (ed.), Der Aufstieg der NSDAP, pp. 108–12.
82 PND report on the DAP meeting of 24 Feb. 1920; Hitler, Sämtliche Aufzeichnungen, no. 83a, p. 110.
83 Ibid.; see also Plöckinger, Unter Soldaten und Agitatoren, p. 176.
84 Hitler, Mein Kampf, p. 406. See Hitler’s article on the second anniversary of 24 Feb. 1920 in the Völkischer Beobachter: “When I finally adjourned the meeting at 10:30 p.m., we were not the only ones who had the feeling that a wolf had been born that was destined to attack the herd of seducers and betrayers of the people.” Hitler, Sämtliche Aufzeichnungen, no. 363, p. 584.
85 Münchener Neueste Nachrichten, 25 Feb. 1920; quoted in Hans-Günter Richardi, Hitler und seine Hintermänner: Neue Fakten zur Frühgeschichte der NSDAP, Munich, 1991, pp. 116f.; Völkischer Beobachter, 28 Feb. 1920; Hitler, Sämtliche Aufzeichnungen, no. 83b, p. 111.
86 See the entry in Hitler’s military pay-book; BayHStA München, Nl Adolf Hitler.
5 The King of Munich
1 Adolf Hitler, Monologe im Führerhauptquartier 1941–1944: Die Aufzeichnungen Heinrich Heims, ed. Werner Jochmann, Hamburg, 1980, p. 209 (dated 16/17 Jan. 1942); see ibid., p. 147 (dated 30 Nov. 1941): “In hindsight, this was the time of the most beautiful struggle.”
2 Ibid., p. 173 (dated 3/4 Jan. 1942).
3 Ibid., pp. 209f. (dated 16/17 Jan. 1942).
4 See David Clay Large, Where Ghosts Walked: Munich’s Road to the Third Reich, New York and London, 1997, p. 231; Andreas Heusler, Das Braune Haus: Wie München zur “Hauptstadt der Bewegung” wurde, Munich, 2008, pp. 201f.
5 On the Kapp Putsch and its consequences see Heinrich August Winkler, Weimar 1918–1933: Die Geschichte der ersten deutschen Demokratie, Munich, 1993, pp. 122ff.
6 See Dirk Walter, Antisemitische Kriminalität und Gewalt: Judenfeindschaft in der Weimarer Republik, Bonn, 1999, pp. 64f.
7 Bogislav von Selchow to Escherich, 24 June 1922; BayHStA München, Nl Escherich 47. On “Organisation Consul” and the attacks it carried out, see Martin Sabrow, Der Rathenau-Mord: Rekonstruktion einer Verschwörung gegen die Republik von Weimar, Munich, 1994.
8 See Bruno Thoss, Der Ludendorff-Kreis 1919–1923: München als Zentrum der mitteleuropäischen Gegenrevolution, Munich, 1978.
9 Large, Where Ghosts Walked, p. 126.
10 Der Hitler-Prozess 1924, ed. and annotated by Lothar Gruchmann and Reinhold Weber with Otto Gritschneder, part 2, Munich, 1997, p. 447.
11 Adolf Hitler, Mein Kampf. Vol. 1: Eine Abrechnung, 7th edition, Munich, 1933, p. 403.
12 Hitlers Tischgespräche im Führerhauptquartier, ed. Henry Picker, Stuttgart, 1976, p. 160 (dated 19 March 1942).
13 Quoted in Werner Maser, Die Frühgeschichte der NSDAP: Hitlers Weg bis 1924, Frankfurt am Main and Bonn, 1965, p. 256.
14 Hitler, Mein Kampf, pp. 560f.
15 See Reginald H. Phelps, “Hitler als Parteiredner im Jahre 1920,” in Vierteljahrshefte für Zeitgeschichte, 11 (1963), p. 284. See also Rudolf Hess to Milly Kleinmann, 11 April 1921: “[Hitler] speaks regularly; on Monday evenings to a small private circle, and every eight to fourteen days publicly.” BA Bern, Nl Hess, J1.211-1989/148, 27. Hitler’s postcard to “Frau Regierungsrat” Dora Lauböck, Rosenheim, from Vienna, undated (Oct. 1920): “Yesterday spoke he
re for the first time with great success. Today, it’s Leopoldstadt’s turn.” IfZ München, ED 100/86.
16 Hitler, Mein Kampf, p. 544.
17 Hitler to G. Seifert, 27 Oct. 1921; Adolf Hitler, Sämtliche Aufzeichnungen 1905–1924, ed. Eberhard Jäckel with Axel Kuhn, Stuttgart, 1980, no. 309, p. 509. Figures from Kurt Pätzold and Manfred Weissbecker, Geschichte der NSDAP 1920–1945, Cologne, 1998, pp. 27, 54.
18 See Ernst Hanfstaengl, Zwischem Weissem und Braunem Haus: Erinnerungen eines politischen Aussenseiters, Munich, 1970, pp. 86f.
19 John Toland, Adolf Hitler: Volume 1, New York, 1976, p. 112.
20 For the typical course of a meeting see Hanfstaengl, Zwischen Weissem und Braunem Haus, pp. 37–9; Hanfstaengl’s note “ad A. H., Dez.1922”: “The conclusion culminated in a rallying cry, a slogan. The spoken word as weapon.” BSB München, Nl Hanfstaengl Ana 405, Box 25.
21 In Marlies Steinert, Hitler, Munich, 1994, p. 125.
22 Hanfstaengl, Zwischen Weissem und Braunem Haus, p. 84.
23 Ibid., p. 85.
24 Ibid., p. 41. See Franz Pfeffer von Salomon’s notes of 19 Aug. 1964. Salomon believed that Hitler’s secret was that he expressed “what was already present deep down, fermenting and boiling and waiting to be put in the right words.” IfZ München, ZS 177. Josef Kopperschmidt also saw the most important factor in Hitler’s success as a mass public speaker as the “rhetorical principle of connection,” i.e. the ability to connect with people’s existing hopes and fears. Josef Kopperschmidt (ed.), Hitler der Redner, Munich, 2003, p. 18.
25 Hans Frank, Im Angesicht des Galgens: Deutung Hitlers und seiner Zeit auf Grund eigener Erlebnisse und Erkenntnisse, Munich and Gräfelfing, 1953, pp. 39f. See Dieter Schenk, Hans Frank: Hitlers Kronjurist und Generalgouverneur, Frankfurt am Main, 2006, pp. 48f.
26 Konrad Heiden, Adolf Hitler: Das Zeitalter der Verantwortungslosigkeit. Eine Biographie, Zurich, 1936, pp. 100f.
27 Hitler, Sämtliche Aufzeichnungen, no. 223, p. 367 (dated 21 April 1921). On 9 January 1922, Hitler concluded a speech at an NSDAP meeting in Munich with the words: “So help me God! Amen.” Ibid., no. 341, p. 544.
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