99 On Hitler’s arrival in jail, see the description of former prison official Franz Hemmerich “Die Festung Landsberg am Lech 1920–1945,” written in 1970, pp. 3f.: “A couple of strands of hair hung down into his face, pale and sunken from stress and sleepless nights, out of which a pair of hard eyes stared out into the void.” IfZ München, ED 153; Otto Lurker, Hitler hinter Festungsmauern: Ein Bild aus trüben Tagen, Berlin, 1933, pp. 4–6 (on p. 65 see the protective custody order from 11 Nov. 1923).
100 See Gordon, Der Hitlerputsch, pp. 416–23. On Hess see Hess to his parents, 21 Dec. 1923, 2 April 1924; BA Bern, Nl Hess, J1.211-1989/148, 31, 33; Hess, Briefe, p. 322 (dated 11 May 1924). On Feder, see “Promemoria 1923/24,” in G. Feder’s diaries, vol. 6; IfZ München, ED 874.
101 Quoted in Gordon, Der Hitlerputsch, p. 313.
102 Clemens, Herr Hitler in Germany, p. 80. See Kahr, memoirs, pp. 1376f.; BayHStA München, Nl Kahr 51. In a conversation with Ritter von Epp, Minister President Knilling described Kahr as “the most hated man in Munich.” Political diary of Ritter von Epp, vol. 1 (entry for 10 Nov. 1923); BA Koblenz, N 1101/22.
103 Karl Alexander von Müller to Paul Nikolaus Cossmann, 13 Nov. 1923; BayHStA München, Nl K. A. v. Müller 19/1. For the course of the mass event at Munich University on 12 Nov. 1923 see Deuerlein, Der Hitler-Putsch, doc. 113, pp. 357f.; Anton Schmalix to Christian Weber, 20 Sept. 1937; BA Berlin-Lichterfelde, NS 26/1267. On the students’ mood see Albrecht Haushofer in retrospect to Rudolf Hess, 29 March 1935; BA Koblenz, N 1122/957.
104 See Winkler, Weimar, pp. 241ff.
105 Memoirs of Franz Hemmerich, p. 13; IfZ München, ED 153. See ibid., pp. 9–15: According to these sources, Hitler began his hunger strike several days after being brought to Landsberg and held out for ten days.
106 Otto Gritschneder, Bewährungsfrist für den Terroristen Adolf H.: Der Hitler-Putsch und die bayerische Justiz, Munich, 1990, p. 35. See also Ott’s report in the Bayernkurier, 3 Nov. 1973, reprinted in Werner Maser, Adolf Hitlers “Mein Kampf”: Geschichte, Auszüge, Kommentare, 9th edition, Esslingen, 2001, pp. 18–20. Anton Drexler too claimed that he—together with attorney Lorenz Roder—had convinced Hitler to end his hunger strike after thirteen days. Anton Drexler to Felix Danner, 5 Jan. 1934; BA Berlin-Lichterfelde, NS 26/2012.
107 Hess, Briefe, p. 313 (dated 16 Nov./4 Dec. 1923).
108 Quoted in John Toland, Adolf Hitler: Volume 1, New York, 1976, p. 192. On 23 Nov. one of Hitler’s early visitors, the Sudeten German National Socialist Hans Knirsch, reported: “He still has no use of his arm.” Othmar Plöckinger, Geschichte eines Buches: Adolf Hitlers “Mein Kampf” 1922–1945, Munich, 2006, p. 32.
109 See Brigitte Hamann, Winifred Wagner oder Hitlers Bayreuth, Munich and Zurich, 2002, pp. 86–100 (quotations on pp. 90, 91, 96f., 97, 99, 94).
110 Report by deputy state prosecutor Dr. Ehard, 14 Dec. 1923, on interrogating Hitler during the previous days; Der Hitler-Prozess, part 1, pp. 299–307 (quotation on pp. 299f.).
111 Ibid., p. 307.
112 See the reports by the Münchener Neuesten Nachrichten, 27 Feb. 1924 and the München-Augsburger Abendzeitung, 27 Feb. 1924; BA Berlin-Lichterfelde, NS 26/1928c and NS 26/1928d. On the run-up to the trial, see Wilhelm Frick to his sister Emma, 12 Feb. 1924. Frick wrote that “the trial is attracting massive public interest—the unintended result is European fame.” BA Koblenz, N 1241/7.
113 Hanfstaengl, Zwischen Weissem und Braunem Haus, p. 156.
114 München-Augsburger Abendzeitung, 27 Feb. 1924; Münchener Zeitung, 26 Feb. 1924; Münchener Neueste Nachrichten, 27 Feb. 1924; BA Berlin-Lichterfelde NS 26/1928e, NS 26/1928b, NS 26/1928d.
115 Indictment from 8 Jan. 1924; Der Hitler-Prozess, part 1, pp. 308–22 (quotation on p. 324).
116 Ibid., pp. 60f.
117 Kahr, memoirs, p. 1450; BayHStA München, Nl Kahr 51. The quote is from Friedrich Hitzer, Anton Graf Arco: Das Attentat auf Eisner und die Schüsse im Landtag, Munich, 1988, p. 313. On Neidhardt see Bernhard Huber, “Georg Neidhardt—nur ein unpolitischer Richter?,” in Marita Krauss (ed.), Rechte Karrieren in München: Von der Weimarer Zeit bis in die Nachkriegsjahre, Munich, 2010, pp. 95–111.
118 Der Hitler-Prozess, part 2, pp. 738f. See the political diary of Ritter von Epp, vol. 1 (entry for 12 March 1924): “From the trial: Lossow snd Seisser getting the job done. Kahr is collapsing.” BA Koblenz, N 1101/22.
119 See Der Hitler-Prozess, part 3, pp. 1034, 1088.
120 Quoted in Deuerlein, Aufstieg, p. 205. See also the Bayerischer Kurier report, which concluded that “in terms of content” the trial was like “a rabble-rousing meeting of ethnic chauvinists”; ibid., p. 228. The Social Democratic newspaper Münchener Post (29 Feb. 1924) wrote that the proceedings were “increasingly taking on comedic qualities.” BA Berlin-Lichterfelde, NS 26/1928a.
121 Der Hitler-Prozess, part 4, pp. 1591f.; Rudolf Hess called Hitler’s concluding statement “probably one of the best and most powerful speeches he’s ever given.” Hess, Briefe, p. 317 (dated 2 April 1924).
122 Der Hitler-Prozess, part 4, p. 1593.
123 See the exact wording of the court’s verdict in Gritschneder, Bewährungsfrist, pp. 67–94. Gottfried Feder was “deeply shaken” by the court’s ruling. G. Feder’s diaries, vol. 5 (entry for 1 April 1924); IfZ Munich, ED 874.
124 Extract from the report by the Münchener Neueste Nachrichten in Der Hitler-Prozess, part 4, pp. 1597–9 (quotation on p. 1599).
125 Quoted in Large, Where Ghosts Walked, p. 194; see Clemens, Herr Hitler in Germany, p. 88.
126 Die Weltbühne, (10 April 1924), p. 466 (reprint 1978).
127 Gritschneder, Bewährungsfrist, p. 92.
128 See Andreas Heusler, Das Braune Haus: Wie München zur “Hauptstadt der Bewegung” wurde, Munich, 2008, p. 105.
129 In comparison, see Ian Kershaw, Hitler 1889–1936: Hubris, London, 1998, pp. 223ff., who asserts that Hitler first presented himself as the “Führer” during his Landsberg incarceration. Likewise Herbst, Hitlers Charisma, pp. 178ff.
130 Hitler, Monologe, p. 262 (dated 3/4 Feb. 1942). See also Hitler’s speech in Weimar on 20 Oct. 1926, in which he said that he had no intention to take a step like the one he had back in 1923. Adolf Hitler, Reden, Schriften, Anordnungen—Februar 1925 bis Januar 1933. Vol. 2: Vom Weimarer Parteitag bis zur Reichstagswahl Juli 1926–Mai 1928. Part 1: Juli 1926–Juli 1927, ed. and annotated Bärbel Dusik, Munich, London, New York and Paris, 1992, no. 39, p. 79.
131 Sebastian Haffner, Germany: Jekyll & Hyde—Deutschland von innen betrachtet, Berlin, 1996, p. 21. See also idem, Anmerkungen zu Hitler, 21st edition, Munich, 1978, p. 9. Fest (Hitler, p. 282), also speaks of a “veritably suicidal make-up.”
132 See Johannes Kunisch, Friedrich der Grosse: Der König und seine Zeit, Munich, 2004, pp. 173, 209, 368, 373, 407.
133 In an essay that served as a preliminary version of his account of the Hitler putsch in the third volume of his memoirs, Karl Alexander von Müller noted: “There were already signs that should have given us pause for thought: the ruthlessness with which he broke his word to Kahr and Lossow; the wild yet cold-blooded gamble of a putsch that could have resulted in a blood-bath; and the even riskier move of ordering a march through the city, which indeed cost a number of people their lives, while he fled.” BayHStA München, Nl K. A. v. Müller 101.
134 Der Hitler-Prozess, part 2, p. 738.
135 Only in a letter at the end of February 1924 did Rudolf Hess consider whether it would not have been wiser “to delay the operation, not to do things too hastily…But it’s of course easy to recognise in hindsight that there was still time!” Hess to Ilse Pröhl, 28 February 1924; BA Bern, Nl Hess, J1.211-1989/148, 33.
7 Landsberg Prison and Mein Kampf
1 Hans Frank, Im Angesicht des Galgens: Deutung Hitlers und seiner Zeit auf Grund eigener Erlebnisse und Erkenntnisse, Munich and Gräfelfing, 1953, pp. 46f.
2 Konrad Heiden, Adolf Hitler: Das Zeitalter der Verantwortungslosigkeit. Eine Biogra
phie, Zurich, 1936, p. 188.
3 Adolf Hitler, Sämtliche Aufzeichnungen 1905–1924, ed. Eberhard Jäckel with Axel Kuhn, Stuttgart, 1980, no. 636, p. 1232. See Rudolf Hess, Briefe 1908–1933, ed. Rüdiger Hess, Munich and Vienna, 1987, p. 317 (dated 2 April 1924). In the six months he still had to serve, wrote Hess, Hitler “will have the chance to further edify and educate himself in peace.”
4 Adolf Hitler, Monologe im Führerhauptquartier 1941–1944: Die Aufzeichnungen Heinrich Heims, ed. Werner Jochmann, Hamburg, 1980, p. 262 (dated 3/4 Feb. 1942).
5 Ibid., p. 49 (dated 27/28 July 1941). See Hess, Briefe, p. 391 (dated 8 March 1928). Hess quotes Hitler saying that his enemies would have every reason to regret imprisoning him: “Here he had time to collect himself and arrive at some fundamental conclusions.”
6 Hitler, Monologe, p. 262 (dated 3/4 Feb. 1942).
7 Hess, Briefe, p. 338 (dated 18 June 1924). See also Rudolf Hess to Heinrich Heim, 16 July 1924. Hess wrote that it was not until Landsberg that he “first completely comprehended the massive importance” of Hitler as a person; BA Berlin-Lichterfelde, NS 6/71. In a speech after being released from Landsberg in November 1924, the law student Hermann Fobke declared: “I would like it if you too would recognise that this man justifies the faith we put in him, namely that he can be the leader who takes us on the path to our ultimate goal: a free, ethnically based Greater Germany.” BA Berlin-Lichterfelde, NS 26/901.
8 Carl von Ossietzky, Sämtliche Schriften. Vol. 2: 1922–1924, ed. Bärbel Boldt, Dirk Grathoff and Michael Sartorius, Reinbek bei Hamburg, 1994, p. 335.
9 Ernst Hanfstaengl, Zwischen Weissem und Braunem Haus: Erinnerungen eines politischen Aussenseiters, Munich, 1970, p. 157. See Hanfstaengl’s unpublished memoirs, p. 122: “You could have opened a flower shop, a vegetable shop and a wine store with all the stuff that piled up.” BSB München, Nl Hanfstaengl Ana 405, Box 47.
10 Otto Lurker, Hitler hinter Festungsmauern: Ein Bild aus trüben Tagen, Berlin, 1933, p. 20. See Franz Hemmrich’s memoirs, pp. 49f.; IfZ München, ED 153.
11 Ernst Deuerlein (ed.), Der Aufstieg der NSDAP in Augenzeugenberichten, Munich, 2nd edition, 1976, p. 232.
12 Lurker, Hitler hinter Festungsmauern, pp. 57f.; for the visitor list see Ernst Piper, Alfred Rosenberg: Hitlers Chefideologe, Munich, 2005, p. 101; Othmar Plöckinger, Geschichte eines Buches: Adolf Hitlers “Mein Kampf” 1922–1945, Munich, 2006, p. 33.
13 BA Berlin-Lichterfelde NS 10/123, with the handwritten addition “To the Führer from his old fellow traveller in the struggle, Elsa Bruckmann, 24 September ’34.”
14 See Lurker, Hitler hinter Festungsmauern, pp. 18, 21; Hans Kallenbach, Mit Adolf Hitler auf Festung Landsberg, Munich, 1933, p. 82. Franz Hemmrich’s memoirs, p. 32; IfZ München, ED 153. For Hitler’s predilection for Bavarian traditional dress see Hitler, Monologe, pp. 282f. (dated 17 Feb. 1942).
15 Hess, Briefe, p. 326 (dated 18 May 1924); see also ibid., pp. 323f. (dated 16 May 1924): “He looks better now that he’s well-fed and there’s no chance for him to run willy-nilly from one meeting to another until deep into the night.”
16 See the register of prisoners in Landsberg in BA Berlin-Lichterfelde, NS 26/66; Kallenbach, Mit Adolf Hitler auf Festung Landsberg, pp. 55f.; Lurker, Hitler hinter Festungsmauern, p. 32; Franz Hemmrich’s memoirs, pp. 24, 26; IfZ München, ED 153.
17 Kallenbach, Mit Adolf Hitler auf Festung Landsberg, p. 45.
18 Hanfstaengl, Zwischen Weissem und Braunem Haus, p. 157; see Kallenbach, Mit Adolf Hitler auf Festung Landsberg, pp. 66f. According to Franz Hemmrich’s memoirs (p. 32), Hitler served as a referee and donated books and tobacco as prizes for the winners; IfZ München, ED 153. On the sports competitions see also Rudolf Hess’s letter to his father Fritz Hess; BA Bern, Nl Hess, J1.211-1989/148, 33.
19 Kallenbach, Mit Adolf Hitler auf Festung Landsberg, p. 77.
20 Ibid., pp. 115–17; see also Lurker, Hitler hinter Festungsmauern, p. 55.
21 Hanfstaengl, Zwischen Weissem und Braunem Haus, p. 156; see Hess, Briefe, p. 323 (dated 16 May 1924): “The treatment is beyond reproach, the absolute definition of ‘honourable.’ ” See also Hitler, Monologe, p. 113 (29 Oct. 1941): “None of the prison guards ever insulted us.”
22 Quoted in Plöckinger, Geschichte eines Buches, p. 30n6.
23 Kallenbach, Mit Adolf Hitler auf Festung Landsberg, p. 117.
24 See Plöckinger, Geschichte eines Buches, p. 26. An issue of “The Landsberg Honorary Citizen” with the subtitle “Gazette of the Prisoners of Landsberg am Lech” in BA Berlin-Lichterfelde, NS 26/92. See also Lurker, Hitler hinter Festugsmauern, p. 35; Kallenbach, Mit Adolf Hitler auf Festung Landsberg, p. 113.
25 Hitler, Monologe, p. 113 (dated 29 Oct. 1941).
26 Hess, Briefe, p. 344 (dated 5 July 1924).
27 See David Jablonsky, The Nazi Party in Dissolution: Hitler and the Verbotszeit 1923–1925, London, 1989, pp. 28ff.
28 See Piper, Rosenberg, p. 97.
29 As in Alan Bullock, Hitler: A Study in Tyranny, London, 1990, p. 122. Ian Kershaw, Hitler 1889–1936: Hubris, London, 1998, pp. 225f., disagrees, stressing Hitler’s belief in Rosenberg’s loyalty as a main motive. Piper (Rosenberg, pp. 97f.) agrees.
30 Albrecht Tyrell, Führer befiehl…Selbstzeugnisse aus der “Kampfzeit” der NSDAP: Dokumentation und Analyse, Düsseldorf, 1969, doc. 22a, pp. 72f. See also party leadership of the NSDAP (“Rolf Eidhalt”) to the local Straubing chapter on 5 Dec. 1923, stating that the character of the movement as a “secret organisation” would free local chapters of “lukewarm members just going along for the ride.” BA Berlin-Lichterfelde, NS 26/89.
31 Speech by Hermann Fobke in Göttingen in Nov. 1924; BA Berlin-Lichterfelde, NS 26/901. See Hess, Briefe, p. 324 (dated 16 May 1924): “Of course we miss him on the outside, his unifying personality and the authority which makes small-time blowhards give in.” See also Wolfgang Horn, Der Marsch zur Machtergreifung: Die NSDAP bis 1933, Düsseldorf, 1980, p. 174.
32 Hanfstaengl, Zwischen Weissem und Braunem Haus, p. 159.
33 See Jablonsky, The Nazi Party in Dissolution, p. 54; Tyrell, Führer befiehl, p. 68; Horn, Der Marsch zur Machtergreifung, pp. 177f.
34 Tyrell, Führer befiehl, doc. 31, pp. 81–3 (quote on p. 82). See ibid., doc. 23, pp. 73f.
35 See Martin H. Geyer, Verkehrte Welt: Revolution, Inflation und Moderne. München 1914–1924, Göttingen, 1998, pp. 355f.; Jablonsky, The Nazi Party in Dissolution, pp. 82f.; Horn, Der Weg zur Machtergreifung, pp. 178f.
36 See Horn, Der Weg zur Machtergreifung, pp. 163, 184; Piper, Rosenberg, pp. 104f.
37 For the results of the Reichstag elections see Tyrell, Führer befiehl, doc. no. 25, p. 76; for the electoral pact ibid., doc. 24b, p. 75. Gottfried Feder travelled to Landsberg on 9 May, where Hitler was “very charming and warm” and congratulated him on the election. G. Feder’s diaries, vol. 5 (entry for 9 May 1924); IfZ München, ED 874.
38 See Jablonsky, The Nazi Party in Dissolution, pp. 86f.; Kershaw, Hitler: Hubris, p. 229. By contrast, in an “open letter to Herr von Graefe” on 17 March 1926, Hitler clearly contended that he had been against the merger from the very beginning: “To me during my imprisonment, the thought that my marvellous popular movement could be handed over to a clique of parliamentarians was worse than the lack of liberty itself.” Adolf Hitler, Reden, Schriften, Anordnungen—Februar 1925 bis Januar 1933. Vol. 1: Die Wiedergründung der NSDAP Februar 1925–Juni 1926, ed. and annotated Clemens Vollnhals, Munich, London, New York and Paris, 1992, no. 111, pp. 343f.
39 G. Feder’s diaries, vol. 5 (entry for 24 May 1924); IfZ München, ED 874. Full text of the declaration of 26 May 1924 in Horn, Der Marsch zur Machtergreifung, p. 187.
40 Tyrell, Führer befiehl, doc. 27, pp. 77f.
41 See Jochen Haupt’s pamphlet “Über die organisatorischen Massnahmen zur Fortsetzung der nationalsozialistischen Parteiarbeit in Norddeutschland,” in Werner Jochmann, Nationalsozialismus und Revolution: Ursprung und Geschichte der NSDAP in
Hamburg 1922–1933. Dokumente, Frankfurt am Main, 1963, doc. 16, pp. 69–72.
42 Hitler, Sämtliche Aufzeichnungen, no. 636, p. 1232.
43 Rudolf Hess to Wilhelm Sievers, 11 May 1925; reprinted in Henrik Eberle (ed.), Briefe an Hitler: Ein Volk schreibt seinem Führer. Unbekannte Dokumente aus Moskauer Archiven—zum ersten Mal veröffentlicht, Bergisch-Gladbach, 2007, pp. 56f. In contrast, Hermann Fobke, another former Landsberg inmate, told an audience in Göttingen in Nov. 1924 “that today Hitler is still the committed anti-parliamentarian he always was.” BA Berlin-Lichterfelde, NS 26/901.
44 Jochmann, Nationalsozialismus und Revolution, doc. 20, pp. 77f. (quote on p. 78). Also in Hitler, Sämtliche Aufzeichnungen, no. 647, pp. 1238f. On 19 June, after visiting Landsberg, Gottfried Feder wrote that Hitler was “depressed,” adding “he wants to withdraw entirely from the movement and has to work, that is, write to earn money.” G. Feder’s diaries, vol. 6 (entry for 19 June 1924); IfZ München, ED 874. In a letter to Albert Stier on 23 June 1924, Hitler reiterated his decision to resign the party leadership; Tyrell, Führer befiehl, doc. 28, p. 78; also in Hitler, Sämtliche Aufzeichnungen, no. 649, pp. 1239f.
45 Hermann Fobke to Ludolf Haase, 23 June 1924; Jochmann, Nationalsozialismus und Revolution, doc. 26, pp. 90–2 (quote on p. 91). See Rudolf Hess to Heinrich Heim, 16 July 1924. Hitler, wrote Hess, did not want to take responsibility “for what is happening on the outside without his knowledge and in part against his will.” On the other hand, according to Hess, Hitler was “convinced he could get everything back on track soon after he was freed.” BA Berlin-Lichterfelde, NS 6/71.
46 Quoted in Deuerlein, Aufstieg, pp. 235f.; see Emil Maurice to Adolf Schmalix, 19 July 1924; BA Berlin-Lichterfelde, NS 26/1267; Jablonsky, The Nazi Party in Dissolution, pp. 96–8.
47 Deuerlein, Aufstieg, p. 236.
48 Confidential report about the Weimar conference by Adalbert Volck, a lawyer from Lüneburg, 20 July 1924; Jochmann, Nationalsozialismus und Revolution, doc. 30, pp. 98–102 (quote on p. 101). See Jablonsky, The Nazi Party in Dissolution, pp. 103ff.
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