Hitler

by Volker Ullrich

  15 Karl Alexander von Müller heard the conversations in the Löwenbräukeller and made notes that same night. Shorthand notes and photocopy in BayHStA München, Nl. K. A. v. Müller 19/1. See also Karl Alexander von Müller, Im Wandel einer Welt: Erinnerungen. Vol. 3: 1919–1932, ed. Otto Alexander von Müller, Munich, 1966, pp. 145f.; in addition see the meeting reports in Hitler, Sämtliche Aufzeichnungen, nos. 467–478, pp. 805–18. The enormous red placard that invited people to the twelve gatherings in BA Koblenz, N 1128/28.

  16 Wolfgang Benz, Politik in Bayern 1913–1933: Berichte des württembergischen Gesandten Karl Moser von Filseck, Stuttgart, 1971, pp. 120f. See also Vorwärts, 28 Jan. 1923: “Hitler diktiert—Schweyer pariert”; and Frankfurter Zeitung, 31 Jan. 1923: “Der Held Hitler”; BA Berlin-Lichterfelde, NS 26/386.

  17 Der Hitler-Prozess 1924, ed. and annotated by Lothar Gruchmann and Reinhold Weber in collaboration with Otto Gritschneder, part 2, Munich, 1997, p. 738.

  18 Memorandum on the purpose and task of the Working Association of Patriotic Fighting Organisations (with handwritten amendments by Hitler), 19 April 1923; BA Koblenz, N 1128/4. Reprinted in Hitler, Sämtliche Aufzeichnungen, no. 515, pp. 902–5 (quote on p. 905). On the above see Peter Longerich, Die braunen Bataillone: Geschichte der SA, Munich, 1989, pp. 33f.

  19 Josef Karl Fischer to Escherich, 15 April 1923; BayHStA München, Nl Escherich 47.

  20 Quotes in the following, respectively: bookshop owner Hans Goltz to Hitler, 2 May 1923; BA Koblenz, N 1128/8; Dr. Paula Wack to Hitler, 29 April 1923; BA Koblenz, N 1128/7; “A true supporter” to Hitler, 4 Nov. 1923; BA Koblenz, N 1128/14. On the attacks in the autumn of 1923 see Dirk Walter, Antisemitische Kriminalität und Gewalt: Judenfeindschaft in der Weimarer Republik, Bonn, 1999, pp. 115–19.

  21 Hitler, Sämtliche Aufzeichnungen, no. 520, p. 913 (dated 26 April 1923); no. 522, p. 917 (dated 30 April 1923). See also the order issued to the leaders of the fighting associations on 30 April 1923, which stipulated: “Army weapons will be taken along as a form of self-defence in case of emergency.” BA Berlin-Lichterfelde, NS 26/104. Rudolf Hess told his parents on 8 May 1923: “The fact that we suddenly have weapons is coming to many as a complete shock.” BA Bern, Nl Hess, J1.211-1989/148, 31.

  22 Deuerlein, Aufstieg, pp. 170–3 (quote on p. 171). See also the final report on the events by the Munich Police Directorship (police commando) from 30 April and 1 May 1923, and also the letter from Police President Nortz to Public Prosecutor Dresse with reference to the 1 May 1923 attacks, 23 May 1923; BA Berlin-Lichterfelde, NS 26/104.

  23 Hitler, Monologe, p. 250 (dated 1 Feb. 1942). In his memoirs (p. 1183), Gustav von Kahr remarked that “after this embarrassment—for a time at least—Hitler became entirely meek and mild.” BayHStA München, Nl Kahr 51.

  24 Hitler, Sämtliche Aufzeichnungen, no. 523, p. 918 (dated 1 May 1923).

  25 Escherich’s diary for 22 Feb. and 1 May 1923; BayHStA München, Nl Escherich 10. “Escherich und der Nationalsozialismus,” interview with the Allgäuer Zeitung dated 10 May 1923; BA Koblenz, N 1128/3. In an enraged letter to Escherich, Göring protested in the name of all military officers in the NSDAP against being called “desperados.” Ibid.

  26 Quoted in Large, Where Ghosts Walked, p. 170.

  27 Lothar Gruchmann, “Hitlers Denkschrift an die bayerische Justiz vom 16. Mai 1923: Ein verloren geglaubtes Dokument,” in Vierteljahrshefte für Zeitgeschichte, 39 (1991), pp. 305–28 (Hitler’s memorandum pp. 323–8). On Gürtner’s appointment to Bavarian minister of justice see BA Koblenz, N 1530/20.

  28 Hitler, Monologe, p. 204 (dated 16/17 Jan. 1942); see ibid., p. 207: “Yes, I am deeply connected to this mountain.” On Hitler’s time on the Obersalzberg in 1923, see the Munich police transcript of Dietrich Eckart’s interrogation on 15 Nov. 1923; BA Berlin-Lichterfelde, NS 26/2180: Ulrich Chaussy, Nachbar Hitler: Führerkult und Heimatzerstörung am Obersalzberg, 6th revised and extended edition, Berlin, 2007, pp. 27ff.

  29 Rudolf Hess, Briefe 1908–1933, ed. Rüdiger Hess, Munich and Vienna, 1987, p. 299 (dated 15 July 1923).

  30 Joachim Fest, Hitler: Eine Biographie, Frankfurt am Main, Berlin and Vienna, 1973, p. 247.

  31 Hess, Briefe, p. 299 (dated 15 July 1923). See also Hitler’s letter to Walter Riehl, the National Socialist leader in Vienna, of 5 July 1923, in which the former writes of “being interrupted two or three times a week to hold lectures.” Hitler, Sämtliche Aufzeichnungen, no. 543, p. 943. By contrast, in a letter to Hitler dated 28 Aug. 1923, Emil Maurice expressed concern “that something isn’t right here…You’ve been conspicuously quiet recently—the opposite of the way you used to live.” Quoted in Anna Maria Sigmund, Des Führers bester Freund: Adolf Hitler, seine Nichte Geli Raubal und der “Ehrenarier” Emil Maurice—Eine Dreiecksbeziehung, Munich, 2003, p. 47.

  32 Sebastian Haffner, Geschichte eines Deutschen: Die Erinnerungen 1914–1933, Stuttgart, 2000, p. 63. See also Eugeni Xammar, Das Schlangenei: Berichte aus dem Deutschland der Inflationsjahre 1922–1924, Berlin, 2007, pp. 122f. (dated 19 Oct. 1923). Escherich’s recollections of the months from June to October 1923 provide an insightful look at how the German currency and the German economy plummeted; BayHStA München, Nl Escherich 10.

  33 Quoted in Longerich, Die braunen Bataillone, p. 38; Harold J. Gordon, Hitlerputsch 1923: Machtkampf in Bayern 1923–1924, Frankfurt am Main, 1971, p. 219.

  34 See Winkler, Weimar, pp. 202–10.

  35 Deuerlein, Der Hitler-Putsch, no. 6, p. 170.

  36 Der Hitler-Prozess, part 1, pp. 37, 266. See Kahr, memoirs, p. 1009: according to this source, Ludendorff had been actively and eagerly cooperating with Hitler since 1922; BayHStA München, Nl Kahr 51. According to the testimony of Karl Kriebel on 17 June 1952, his brother Hermann Kriebel served “as a middleman between Hitler and Ludendorff on numerous occasions.” IfZ München, ZS 256. Hess first told his parents about his contact with Ludendorff in a letter dated 22 Sep. 1920; BA Bern, Nl Hess, J1.211-1989/148, 25.

  37 Quoted in Gordon, Hitlerputsch 1923, pp. 193f. On the founding of the Patriotic Fighting Association see the letters by former Captain Weiss from 17 Sept. 1923; BA Berlin-Lichterfelde, NS 26/3. In addition see the diaries of G. Feder, vol. 5 (entry for 25 Sept. 1923); IfZ München, ED 874.

  38 Der Hitler-Prozess, Part 1, p. 190.

  39 BA Koblenz, N 1128/2. The quoted letters to Hitler, along with many others from the autumn of 1923 are collected in BA Koblenz, N 1128/12, N 1128/13, N 1128/14, N 1128/15: BA Berlin-Lichterfelde, NS 26/1, NS 26/2, NS 26/2a, NS 26/3.

  40 Hitler, Sämtliche Aufzeichnungen, no. 566, pp. 1002, 1004.

  41 Hess, Briefe, pp. 303f. (dated 16 Sept. 1923). See Rudolf Olden, Hitler, Amsterdam, 1935; new edition, Hildesheim, 1981, p. 88: “Sooner or later, the moment comes when the speaker is overcome with spirit, and something unknown and undefinable bursts out of him, sobbing, screaming and gurgling.”

  42 Ibid., p. 304 (dated 16 Sept. 1923).

  43 Hitler to Kahr, 27 Sept. 1923; Hitler, Sämtliche Aufzeichnungen, no. 573, p. 1017.

  44 Ibid., no. 581, pp. 1028f. (dated 7 Oct. 1923); no. 583, pp. 1932, 1034 (dated 14 Oct. 1923). In conversation with the head of the Bavarian crown prince’s cabinet, Count von Soden, on 26 Sept. 1923, Scheubner-Richter also declared: “There is no enthusiasm within the fighting associations for Herr von Kahr since he is a man of half-measures.” Kahr, memoirs, p. 1252; BayHStA München, Nl. Kahr 51.

  45 See Gordon, Hitlerputsch 1923, pp. 206–9. In his diary, Franz Ritter von Epp expressed his outrage at the “thunderbolt” Seeckt hurled at Lossow: “The entire grit this government lacks towards the outside, it tries to display towards its own people…Cowardly and craven without, brutal within.” Political diary of Ritter von Epp, vol. 1 (entry for 20 Oct. 1923); BA Koblenz, N 1101/22.

  46 See Kahr, memoirs, pp. 1293ff. (“The longing for a directory for the Reich”); BayHStA München, Nl Kahr 51. On the autumn 1923 plans to form a “directory” see Walter Mühlhausen, Friedrich Ebert 1871–1925: Rei
chspräsident der Weimarer Republik, Bonn, 2006, pp. 681ff.

  47 Der Hitler-Prozess, part 3, p. 788.

  48 Deuerlein, Der Hitler-Putsch, doc. 16, pp. 186f.

  49 Hitler, Sämtliche Aufzeichnungen, no. 589, p. 1043 (dated 23 Oct. 1923); no. 592, pp. 1049f. (dated 30 Oct. 1923). See Rudolf Hess to Karl Haushofer, 6 Oct. 1923: “The convalescence of the whole must proceed from Bavaria outwards; the Bavarians as the most German of Germans.” BA Koblenz, N 1122/15.

  50 Der Hitler-Prozess, part 4, p. 1587. See also ibid., part 3, p. 1199: “A man who is capable of something has the goddamned duty and responsibility to see it through.”

  51 Ibid., part 3, p. 659 (Seisser statement).

  52 Quoted in Gordon, Hitlerputsch 1923, p. 231.

  53 Seisser’s report on the meeting in Berlin, 3 Nov. 1923; Deuerlein, Der Hitler-Putsch, doc. 79, pp. 301–4 (quotation on p. 303). Escherich also noted in Berlin on 3 Nov. 1923: “The general view is that a national dictatorship will have to follow in the next few days. Hopefully this will be possible by legal means.” BayHStA München, Nl Escherich 10. On 11 March 1923, at the behest of Lossow, Hitler had met with Seeckt. After Hitler had held a one-and-a-half-hour monologue about his plans to topple the government in Berlin, it ended with Seeckt abruptly remarking: “From this day forth, Mr. Hitler, we have nothing more to say to each other.” Report written down from memory by Seeckt’s assistant, Colonel Hans Harald von Selchow, on 15 Oct. 1956; IfZ München, ZS 1900.

  54 Der Hitler-Prozess, part 1, p. 78 (Friedrich Weber’s statement on Bund Oberland); part 2, p. 772 (Lossow’s statement).

  55 Ibid., part 1, p. 44. See also Rudolf Hess’s records from 9 April 1924, stating that Hitler had “the definite impression” that the triumvirate would “always shy back from taking the final step” and that “it would never be taken, if he himself didn’t act.” Hess, Briefe, p. 318.

  56 Fritz Lauböck to Otto Weber (Lübeck), 28 Sept. 1923; BA Koblenz, N 1128/1. On the rumours about the reinstatement of the Bavarian monarchy see Adolf Schmalix to Christian Weber, 20 Sept. 1937; BA Berlin-Lichterfelde, NS 26/1267.

  57 Ernst Hanfstaengl, Zwischem Weissem und Braunem Haus: Erinnerungen eines politischen Aussenseiters, Munich, 1970, p. 120.

  58 Der Hitler-Prozess, part 1, p. 212.

  59 Heinrich Hoffmann and Dietrich Eckart, for instance, were not informed. Both only learned of the “national revolution” in the Bürgerbräukeller on the night of 9 Nov. See Heinrich Hoffmann’s manuscript for the court proceedungs of January 1947, pp. 10f.; IfZ München, MS 2049; transcript of Dietrich Eckart’s questioning on 15 Nov. 1923; BA Berlin-Lichterfelde, NS 26/2180.

  60 Der Hitler-Prozess, part 1, p. 114 (Pöhner’s statement).

  61 Hess, Briefe, p. 310 (dated 16 Nov./4 Dec. 1923). During the preceding weeks Hess spent most of his time with his mother in Reicholdsgrün, studying economics. His former “mood of storm and stress” was “quite muted,” he wrote in a letter to his friend Professor Karl Haushofer in mid-September 1923. It felt good, he wrote, to “relax from all the external agitation.” In early October, he said that he had no intention of returning to Munich, writing, “I’m waiting to be summoned.” R. Hess to K. Haushofer, 13 Sept., 6 Oct. 1923; BA Koblenz, N 1122/15. See also Hess to Ilse Pröhl, 27 Sep., 1 Oct., 24 Oct. 1923; BA Bern, Nl Hess, J1.211-1989/148, 31. Accordung to these letters, Hess travelled to Munich “at the last moment,” at the end of October.

  62 Hanfstaengl, Zwischen Weissem und Braunem Haus, p. 129. Gottfried Feder also first received the order to be at the Bürgerbräukeller at 9 p.m. on 8 Nov. Notes on “November 1923,” in G. Feder’s diaries, vol. 5; IfZ München, ED 874.

  63 Hofmann, Der Hitler-Putsch, p. 160.

  64 Konrad Heiden, Adolf Hitler: Das Zeitalter der Veran​twort​ungsl​osigkeit. Eine Biographie, Zurich, 1936, p. 156.

  65 See Hess, Briefe, p. 311 (dated 16 Nov./4 Dec. 1923).

  66 Der Hitler-Prozess, part 1, p. 50.

  67 Müller, Im Wandel einer Welt, p. 161. See Kahr, memoirs, p. 1353; BayHStA München, Nl Kahr 51.

  68 Indictment from 8 Jan. 1924; Der Hitler-Prozess, part 1, p. 309.

  69 Kahr, memoirs, pp. 1354f.; BayHStA München, Nl Kahr 51. See Der Hitler-Prozess, part 2, p. 749 (Lossow’s statement).

  70 Quotes from, respectively, Der Hitler-Prozess, part 3, p.795 (Kahr’s statement); part 1, p. 51 (Hitler’s statement), p. 310 (indictment); part 2, p. 750 (Lossow’s statement); part 1, p. 310 (indictment), p. 115 (Pöhner’s statement), p. 310 (indictment). See Kahr, memoirs, pp. 1355f.; BayHStA München, Nl Kahr 51.

  71 Müller, Im Wandel einer Welt, p. 162.

  72 On Göring’s entrance see Der Hitler-Prozess, part 2, pp. 597, 620, 631, 634.

  73 Müller, Im Wandel einer Welt, pp. 162f.; Der Hitler-Prozess, part 1, p. 311 (indictment).

  74 Kahr, memoirs, pp. 1345f.; BayHStA München, Nl Kahr 51. In Munich in the spring of 1924, rumours swirled that Ludendorff had summoned his old confidant from the world war, Colonel Max Bauer, to the city on 8 Nov. 1923, but Bauer had refused to come and warned Ludendorff against the planned undertaking. As rumour had it, a letter to that effect had been confiscated when authorities had searched Ludendorff’s home, but prosecutors had decided not to use it. Political diary of Ritter von Epp, vol. 1 (entry for 27 April 1924); BA Koblenz, N 1101/22.

  75 Quotes from, respectively, Der Hitler-Prozess, part 1, p. 311 (indictment); part 3, p. 796 (Kahr’s statement); part 1, p. 53 (Hitler’s statement). See Kahr, memoirs, pp. 1357f; Bay HstA München, Nl Kahr 51.

  76 Quotes from, respectively, Der Hitler-Prozess, part 3, p. 797 (Kahr’s statement); Müller, Im Wandel einer Welt, p. 164; Der Hitler-Prozess, part 1, pp. 311f. (indictment); Müller, Im Wandel einer Welt, p. 164; Der Hitler-Prozess, part 1, p. 312 (indictment). See Kahr, memoirs, pp. 1359f.; BayHStA München, Nl Kahr 51

  77 Der Hitler-Prozess, part 1, p. 53.

  78 See Hofmann, Der Hitler-Putsch, p. 169; Der Hitler-Prozess, part 1, p. 279: Ludendorff said that he had been unable to believe “that the gentlemen would go back on their word.” According to testimony by Mathilde Scheubner-Richter on 9 July 1952, Ludendorff visited her two days after the failed putsch and cried like a small child, saying: “Noble lady, it is the end of Germany, if German officers break their word to another German officer.” IfZ München, ZS 292.

  79 See Peter Longerich, Heinrich Himmler: Biographie, Munich, 2008, pp. 76f.

  80 Der Hitler-Prozess, part 2, p. 756 (Lossow’s statement).

  81 Ibid., p. 757; see Kahr, memoirs, pp. 1367f.; BayHStA München, Nl. Kahr 51.

  82 Text in Hitler, Sämtliche Aufzeichnungen, no. 597, p. 1056.

  83 Der Hitler-Prozess, part 3, p. 873 (Seisser’s statement).

  84 Der Hitler-Prozess, part 2, pp. 662f. (retired Major Alexander Siry’s statement).

  85 See the report by the Spanish journalist Eugeni Xammar, who was present in the Bürgerbräukeller on 8 Nov.: “Der Putsch als Spektakel” (Das Schlangenei, pp. 134–8).

  86 For details see Walter, Antisemitische Gewalt, pp. 120–36; further, see the indictment against forty members of Stosstrupp Hitler, dated 29 April 1924, reprinted in Hans Kallenbach, Mit Adolf Hitler auf Festung Landsberg, Munich, 1933, pp. 16–29.

  87 Detlev Clemens, Herr Hitler in Germany: Wahrnehmungen und Deutungen des Nationalsozialismus in Grossbritannien 1920 bis 1939, Göttingen and Zurich, 1996, p. 80.

  88 See Gordon, Hitlerputsch 1923, p. 241; Walter, Antisemitische Gewalt, p. 114. On 13 Nov. 1923, the widow Elly von der Pfordten wrote to Karl Alexander von Müller with the request: “Should you be able with the help of Engineer F(eder) to tell me more about my husband’s final moments, I would be very grateful. Every word is important to me.” BayHStA München, Nl K. A. v. Müller 19/1.

  89 Hanfstaengl’s note; BSB München, Nl Hanfstaengl Ana 405, Box 25; Der Hitler-Prozess, part 3, p. 1203.

  90 Recorded as “November 1923” in G. Feder’s diaries, vol. 5; IfZ München, ED 874. The quote is from Hofmann, De
r Hitler-Putsch, p. 194

  91 Der Hitler-Prozess, part 1, p. 282 (Ludendorff’s statement).

  92 See ibid., p. 57 (Hitler’s statement): “Herr Ludendorff in particular took the standpoint that we had to try to go into the city ourselves, even if it were our last move, and attempt to get public opinion on our side.” See notes of a conversation with Karl Kriebel from 17 June 1952; IfZ München, ZS 258.

  93 Der Hitler-Prozess part 1, p. 58. See also ibid., p. 230 (Kriebel’s statement); part 2, p. 400 (Brückner’s statement). On the role of Rossbach and the Infantry School see the transcript of a conversation with Gerhard Rossbach, dated 31 Oct. 1951; IfZ München, ZS 128.

  94 See Hanfstaengl, Zwischen Weissem und Braunem Haus, p. 143. Text in David Jablonski, The Nazi Party in Dissolution: Hitler and the Verbotszeit 1923–1925, London, 1989, p. 29. That morning, the Münchener Neueste Nachrichten (9 Nov. 1923) ran a headline reading, “National Directorship to be Instituted.” Six days earlier, the Münchener Zeitung (3 Nov. 1923) had already run the headline “Hitler’s Putsch—Kahr’s Rape” and published Kahr’s contrary appeal. Copies of the newspapers in BayHStA München, Nl K. A. v. Müller 19/2.

  95 See the report by Police First Lieutenant Baron von Godin, 10 Nov. 1923; Deuerlein, Der Hitler-Putsch, doc. 97, pp. 330f.

  96 For the following quotations see also Anna Maria Sigmund, “Als Hitler auf der Flucht war,” in Süddeutsche Zeitung, 8 and 9 Nov. 2008 (based on the unpublished memoirs of Helene Hanfstaengl).

  97 See the report dramatising his wife’s memoirs in Hanfstaengl, Zwischen Weissem und Braunem Haus, p. 6.

  98 Deuerlein, Der Hitler-Putsch, doc. 118, p. 372 (dated 13 Nov. 1923). See also the recollections of the Uffinger police constable Georg Schmiedel in “Ich verhaftete Adolf Hitler!,” in the Weilheimer Tageblatt, 10 Dec. 1949; BSB Müchen, Nl Hanfstaengl Ana 405, Box 40; further, the half-monthly report of the Weilheim Police Directorship from 30 Nov. 1923; BA Berlin-Lichterfelde, NS 26/66.