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49 G. Feder’s diaries, vol. 6 (entry for 14 Aug. 1924); IfZ München, ED 874. See Kershaw, Hitler: Hubris, p. 233f.; Horn, Der Marsch zur Machtergreifung, p. 192; Piper, Rosenberg, pp. 108f.
50 Hermann Fobke to Adalbert Volck, 29 July 1924; Jochmann, Nationalsozialismus und Revolution, doc. 33, pp. 122–4 (quote on p. 123); see ibid., doc. 37, p. 133; doc. 51, p. 165 (“position of strict neutrality”).
51 Hess, Briefe, p. 349 (dated 17 Aug. 1924).
52 Hanfstaengl, Zwischen Weissem und Braunem Haus, p. 166. See Hanfstaengl’s unpublished memoirs, p. 128: “His healthy political instincts told him to let the various groups fight it out and stay in the background himself for the time being.” BSB München, Nl Hanfstaengl Ana 405, Box 47.
53 See Bullock, Hitler, pp. 126f.; Fest, Hitler, p. 316.
54 Der Hitler-Prozess 1924, ed. and annotated by Lothar Gruchmann and Reinhold Weber with Otto Gritschneder, part 1, Munich, 1997, p. 299. See Hitler’s letter to Adolf Vogl, 10 Jan. 1924: “I am expressing my resentment in what I’m writing to justify myself, the first part of which I hope will outlive the trial and me.” Hitler, Sämtliche Aufzeichnungen, no. 604, p. 1060.
55 Franz Hemmrich’s memoirs, p. 35; IfZ München, ED 153.
56 See Plöckinger, Geschichte eines Buches, pp. 21f.
57 See Wolfgang Horn, “Ein unbekannter Aufsatz Hitlers aus dem Frühjahr 1924,” in Vierteljahrshefte für Zeitgeschichte, 16 (1968), pp. 280–94. See Plöckinger, Geschichte eines Buches, pp. 23–6.
58 Hitler, Sämtliche Aufzeichnungen, no. 636, pp. 1232f. On 12 May 1924, Hitler told something similar to a delegation of National Socialist deputies from Salzburg: “At the moment he was writing a book…in which he will settle the scores with the critics who emerged after 8 Nov.” Quoted in Plöckinger, Geschichte eines Buches, p. 34.
59 See Plöckinger, Geschichte eines Buches, pp. 38, 42–8 (on p. 39 see also the catalogue’s title page with a photograph of Hitler). See also Timothy W. Ryback, Hitler’s Private Library: The Books That Shaped His Life, London, 2009, p. 66.
60 See Plöckinger, Geschichte eines Buches, p. 49; based on it, Ryback, Hitler’s Private Library, p. 67. On the autobiographical sections of Mein Kampf see Othmar Plöckinger, “Frühe biographische Texte zu Hitler: Zur Bewertung der autobiographischen Texte in ‘Mein Kampf,’ ” in Vierteljahrshefte für Zeitgeschichte, 58 (2010), pp. 112f. Plöckinger has shown that Hitler basically only recapitulated and embellished those details of his biography that were already known in ethnic-chauvinistic circles.
61 Hess, Briefe, pp. 341f. (dated 29 June 1924). For more on this see Chapter 3, p. 56.
62 Hess, Briefe, p. 346 (entry for 23 July 1923). The first sentence quoted, which is missing in the Wolf Rüdiger Hess edition, in BA Bern, Nl Hess, J1.211-1989/148, 33.
63 Otto Lurker, Hitler hinter Festungsmauern: Ein Bild aus trüben Tagen, Berlin, 1933, p. 56. For a critical perspective on this legend see Plöckinger, Geschichte eines Buches, p. 122. Also Florian Beierl and Othmar Plöckinger, “Neue Dokumente zu Hitlers Buch ‘Mein Kampf,’ ” in Vierteljahrshefte für Zeitgeschichte, 57 (2009), pp. 261–95 (in particular pp. 273, 278f.).
64 See the details provided by Ilse Hess on 28 Dec. 1952 and 29 June 1965 in Werner Maser, Adolf Hitlers “Mein Kampf”: Geschichte, Auszüge, Kommentare, 9th edition, Esslingen, 2001, p. 29. Further, Olaf Rose (ed.), Julius Schaub: In Hitlers Schatten, Stegen, 2005, p. 59. On Hitler’s working methods see Beierl and Plöckinger, “Neue Dokumente,” pp. 276ff. Both Rudolf Hess and prison guard Franz Hemmrich bear witness to Hitler setting out his initial thoughts by hand. Plöckinger, Geschichte eines Buches, p. 153; Franz Hemmrich’s memoirs, pp. 35f.; IfZ München, ED 153.
65 Hess, Briefe, p. 347 (dated 24 July 1924). See also ibid., p. 349 (dated 17 Aug. 1924): “My daily routine begins as follows—at 5 a.m., I get up and make cups of tea for Hitler (who is writing his book) and myself.”
66 Ibid., p. 347 (dated 4 Aug. 1924). In his letter to Heinrich Heim dated 16 July 1924 Hess announced that Hitler’s book should be appearing in the autumn. BA Berlin-Lichterfelde, NS 6/71.
67 Hermann Fobke to Eduard Heinze, a National Socialist in Stettin, 23 Aug. 1924; Plöckinger, Geschichte eines Buches, p. 55. See also Hermann Fobke to Adalbert Volck, 29 July 1924; Jochmann, Nationalsozialismus und Revolution, doc. 33, p. 124.
68 Leybold’s report from 15 Sept. 1924; Deuerlein, Aufstieg, p. 238.
69 See Anna Maria Sigmund, Des Führers bester Freund: Adolf Hitler, seine Nichte Geli Raubal und der “Ehrenarier” Emil Maurice—eine Dreiecksbeziehung, Munich, 2003, p. 71. In contrast, Franz Hemmrich (memoirs, p. 57) asserts that the Munich censors gave the manuscript of Mein Kampf back to Hitler; IfZ München, ED 153.
70 Hanfstaengl, Zwischen Weissem und Braunem Haus, pp. 161f.
71 On this see Plöckinger, Geschichte eines Buches, pp. 67ff.
72 Ibid., pp. 76–8, 86–9.
73 Ibid., pp. 68, 71f., 85, 151. There is no evidence for the common claims that either Father Bernhard Stempfle, the editor in chief of the Miesbacher Anzeiger, or Hanfstaengl helped edit the manuscript. See ibid., pp. 129f., 133–41. Hanfstaengl’s unpublished memoirs, pp. 141f.; BSB München, Ana 405, Box 47. In early March 1925, Stolzing-Cerny gave Gottfried Feder page proofs of Mein Kampf with passages relating to Feder. “Quite wonderful,” he commented. G. Feder’s diaries, vol. 6 (entry for 5 March 1925); IfZ München, ED 74.
74 See Plöckinger, Geschichte eines Buches, p. 120: Also Wolfgang Martynkewicz, Salon Deutschland: Geist und Macht 1900–1945, Berlin, 2009, pp. 424f. (Letter from Elsa Bruckmann to her husband dated 26 Sept. 1924); Hitler, Monologe, p. 206 (dated 16/17 Jan. 1942).
75 Hess, Briefe, p. 370 (dated 24 Oct. 1926). Among other things, Hess now also put together the running heads, as Stolzing-Cerny had got things “terribly wrong” in the first volume. Hess to his father Fritz Hess, 24 Oct. 1926; BA Bern, Nl Hess, J1.211-1989/148, 36.
76 Ibid., p. 346 (dated 23 July 1924). See ibid., p. 349 (dated 17 Aug. 1924): “Its publication will be a severe blow for his enemies.”
77 For the figures see Plöckinger, Geschichte eines Buches, pp. 177–82.
78 Rudolf Hess to his father Fritz Hess, 19 April 1933; BA Bern, Nl Hess, J1.211-1989/148, 51. The time-consuming corrections to the “people’s edition” were made by Rudolf and Ilse Hess. See Rudolf Hess to his parents, 16 April 1930; BA Bern, Nl Hess, J1.211-1989/148, 45. On what follows see Plöckinger, Geschichte eines Buches, pp. 182–8, 407–13, 432–40.
79 Frank, Im Angesicht des Galgens, p. 46. See also Otto Wagener, Hitler aus nächster Nähe: Aufzeichnungen eines Vertrauten 1929–1932, ed. Henry A. Turner, Frankfurt am Main, Berlin and Vienna, 1978, p. 415.
80 See Ryback, Hitler’s Private Library, p. 77f. For example, Emil Maurice received the tenth copy of the luxury edition of 1925, limited to 500 copies, with the dedication: “For my loyal and upstanding shield bearer.” Sigmund, Des Führers bester Freund, pp. 72f. (see p. 73 for the facsimile of the dedication). During the 1925 Wagner Festival in Bayreuth, Hitler also presented Winifred Wagner with a freshly printed, personally dedicated copy of the first volume. See Brigitte Hamann, Winifred Wagner oder Hitlers Bayreuth, Munich and Zurich, 2002, p. 142.
81 Hitler, Mein Kampf. Vol. 1: Eine Abrechnung, 7th edition, Munich, 1933, pp. 231f.
82 On the style of the book, see Fest, Hitler, pp. 291–3. The cultured Fest does not conceal his contempt for the “half-educated” Hitler. In a similar vein, see Bullock, Hitler, p. 122; Ralf Georg Reuth, Hitler: Eine Biographie, Munich and Zurich, 2003, p. 172. According to Hess, Hitler remarked in Landsberg: “Nobody should write in German unless he has read Schopenhauer, with his beautifully clear style.” BA Bern, Nl Hess, J1.211-1989/148, 33. There is no evidence of a “clear style” in Mein Kampf, however.
83 Lurker, Hitler hinter Festungsmauern, p. 52; Franz Hemmrich’s (memoirs, p. 28) wrote that Hitler’s cell increasingly came to resemble a “small study.” IfZ München, ED 153. In November 1937, Rudo
lph Schüssler claimed that in 1924 he had delivered “the most significant material from the Sternecker period,” which formed the basis of Mein Kampf, in two large packages to Landsberg. See Ernst Schulte-Strathaus, Central Party Archive employee, to staff director Martin Bormann, 27 Nov. 1937; BA Berlin-Lichterfelde, NS 10/55.
84 Otto Strasser, Hitler und ich, Konstanz, 1948, p. 78. See Ryback, Hitler’s Private Library, p 69. The Bruckmanns sent the Chamberlain books to the prison, see Martynkewicz, Salon Deutschland, p. 410. On the influence of Paul de Lagarde on Hitler see Ulrich Sieg, “Ein Prophet nationaler Religion: Paul de Lagarde und die völkische Bewegung,” in Friedrich Wilhelm Graf (ed.), Intellektuellen-Götter, Munich, 2009, pp. 1–19.
85 See Ryback, Hitler’s Private Library, pp. 66–71 (quote on p. 71). On Ford also see Reuth, Hitler, pp. 174f.
86 See Timothy Ryback, Hitlers Bücher: Seine Bibliothek—sein Denken, Cologne, 2010, pp. 126–49 (chapter not included in the earlier English and American editions). That Hitler had read the work of Madison Grant is confirmed by his speech in Zirkus Krone on 6 April 1927; 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. 99, p. 236.
87 See Ryback, Hitler’s Private Library, p. 114f; Wagener, Hitler aus nächster Nähe, p. 149. For a selection of Hitler’s reading see Chapter 2, p. 32.
88 See also the analysis of Eberhard Jäckel, still the standard on the subject, in Hitlers Weltanschauung: Entwurf einer Herrschaft, Stuttgart, 1981. See also Barbara Zehnpfennig, Hitlers “Mein Kampf”: Eine Interpretation, 2nd edition, Munich, 2002, which endeavours to make “something comprehensible” out of the text (p. 32).
89 Hitler, Mein Kampf, p. 372.
90 Ibid., pp. 312, 314, 316.
91 Quotations in ibid., pp. 372, 317, 422.
92 Ibid., p. 317.
93 Hitler, Sämtliche Aufzeichnungen, no. 654, p. 1242.
94 Hitler, Mein Kampf, pp. 69f.
95 Saul Friedländer, Das Dritte Reich und die Juden: Die Jahre der Verfolgung 1933–1939, Munich, 1998, pp. 87ff., particularly pp. 104, 113f.
96 See the overview in Jäckel, Hitlers Weltanschauung, p. 69.
97 Hitler, Mein Kampf, p. 772. See Hitler’s speech at Zirkus Krone, 13 April 1927; Hitler, Reden, Schriften, Anordnungen, vol. 2, part 1, no. 104, pp. 259f.
98 See Hess, Briefe, p. 345 (dated 10 July 1924). But Bruno Hipler, Hitlers Lehrmeister: Karl Haushofer als Vater der NS-Ideologie, St. Ottilien, 1996, pp. 159, 207, completely exaggerates the situation when he calls Haushofer the “spiritual father” of the Nazi world view and the “inspiration” behind Mein Kampf. For a critical perspective see Plöckinger, Geschichte eines Buches, pp. 144f. See also Karl Lange, “Der Terminus ‘Lebensraum’ in Hitlers Mein Kampf,” in Vierteljahrshefte für Zeitgeschichte, 13 (1965), pp. 426–37.
99 See Axel Kuhn, Hitlers aussenpolitisches Programm, Stuttgart, 1970, p. 115. While in Landsberg, Hitler read Haushofer’s 1913 book about Japan, Dai Nihonaus, which uses the example of Japan to illustrate the necessity of war for survival among peoples. See Hess, Briefe, p. 328 (dated 19 May 1924). On the content of the book see Hippler, Hitlers Lehrmeister, pp. 29ff.
100 Hitler, Mein Kampf, p. 154.
101 Ibid., pp. 739, 742.
102 Ibid., p. 743.
103 Victor Klemperer, LTI: Notizbuch eines Philologen, 24th edition, fully revised, ed. and annotated Elke Fröhlich, Stuttgart, 2010, p. 34. See also Joachim Riecker, Hitlers 9. November: Wie der Erste Weltkrieg zum Holocaust führte, Berlin, 2009, p. 87: “There are few politicians who, before taking power, so openly described their fundamental convictions and allowed such a free view into their emotional lives as Adolf Hitler.”
104 See Karl Lange, Hitlers unbeachtete Maximen: Mein Kampf und die Öffentlichkeit, Stuttgart, 1968, pp. 30, 144–7.
105 Strasser, Hitler und ich, pp. 79f.
106 Plöckinger, Geschichte eines Buches, p. 362. See also, critically, Michael Wildt, Geschichte des Nationalsozialismus, Göttingen, 2008, p. 37.
107 Quoted in Plöckinger, Geschichte eines Buches, pp. 225–7.
108 Hellmut von Gerlach, “Duell Hitler-Schleicher,” in Die Weltbühne, 14 June 1932, p. 875 (reprinted 1978). See Plöckinger, Geschichte eines Buches, pp. 228–40.
109 See Plöckinger, Geschichte eines Buches, pp. 405f., 424–9, 443f.
110 See Hess, Briefe, p. 351 (dated 20 Aug. 1924): “He’s as impatient as a child for his release on 1 Oct.”
111 Hitler, Sämtliche Aufzeichnungen, no. 26, p. 1270. On the relationship between Hitler and Werlin see Eberhard Reuss, Hitlers Rennschlachten: Die Silberpfeile unterm Hakenkreuz, Berlin, 2006, pp. 40–5. Also, Hitler, Monologe, p. 259 (dated 3/4 Feb. 1942): “The first thing I bought after being released from prison on 20 Dec. 1924 was a Mercedes compressor.”
112 Franz Hemmrich’s memoirs, p. 37; IfZ München, ED 153.
113 Deuerlein, Aufstieg, pp. 238f.
114 Otto Gritschneder, Bewährungsfrist für den Terroristen Adolf H.: Der Hitler-Putsch und die bayerische Justiz, Munich, 1990, pp. 101f.
115 Ibid., pp. 103–7, 114–18. In late Sep. 1924 Justice Minister Gürtner also officially protested against the “conditional pardon” issued to Hitler and Kriebel, arguing that both were suspected of maintaining “contact with dissolved organisations.” BayHStA München, Nl Held 727.
116 Hermann Fobke to Ludolf Haase, 2 Oct. 1924; Jochmann, Nationalsozialismus und Revolution, doc. 48, p. 157.
117 See Alfons Probst (member of the state assembly) to State President Held, 22 Sept. 1924, on the memo dated 16 Sept. 1924 from Ministerial Councillor Josef Pultar, secretary to the president of the Austrian National Council in Vienna; BayHStA München, Nl Held 731. Report of the Regensburger Anzeiger, 7 Nov. 1924, “Hitlers Staatsangehörigkeit (mit hs. Zusatz des Sohnes von Held)”; ibid., Nl Held 730. See also Deuerlein, Aufstieg, p. 239f.; Donald Cameron Watt, “Die bayerischen Bemühungen um Ausweisung Hitlers 1924,” in Vierteljahrshefte für Zeitgeschichte, 6 (1958), pp. 270–80.
118 Hitler, Sämtliche Aufzeichnungen, no. 664, pp. 1246f. (entry for 16 Oct. 1924). See Hess, Briefe, p. 353 (dated 14 Oct. 1924): Austria “has revoked the tribune’s citizenship…We are rejoicing!”
119 See Plöckinger, Geschichte eines Buches, pp. 74f.; Franz Jetzinger, Hitlers Jugend: Phantasien, Lügen und Wahrheit, Vienna, 1956, pp. 279f. (see p. 272 for the facsimile of Hitler’s application, dated 7 April 1925).
120 See Gritschneder, Bewährungsfrist, pp. 119–30. The telegram from the Bavarian state prosecutor to the management of Landsberg Prison, dated 20 Dec. 1924, in BA Berlin-Lichterfelde NS 26/67.
121 G. Feder’s diaries, vol. 6 (entry for 8 Dec. 1924): “Heavy defeat” for the National Socialists; IfZ München, ED 874.
122 Maria Hof to State President Held, 16 Dec. 1924; BayHStA München, Nl Held 729.
123 Hitler, Monologe, p. 260 (dated 3/4 Feb. 1942). On 18 Nov. 1938, Hitler visited Landsberg and had his assistant Brückner present gifts to two guards, whom he still recognised. Daily diaries of Max Wünsche, dated 18 Nov. 1938; BA Berlin-Lichterfelde, NS 10/125.
124 Hess, Briefe, p. 359 (entry for 20 Dec. 1924). According to Rudolf Buttmann’s diary, entry for 20 Dec. 1924, Director Leybold refused Strasser admittance to the facility, citing Hitler’s wish that there be no “leaving ceremonies”; BayHStA München, Nl Buttmann 82.
125 See Rudolf Buttmann’s diary entry about a conversation at the Bechsteins’ house in Berlin on 19 June 1925, in which Hitler articulated “his disappointment with Ludendorff since he let the three of them escape during the night of 8/9 Nov. 1923”; BayHStA München, Nl Buttmann 82.
126 Hess, Briefe, p. 357 (dated 11 Dec. 1924).
127 See Heinrich Hoffmann, Hitler wie ich ihn sah: Aufzeichnungen seines Leibfotographen, Munich and Berlin, 1974, pp. 41f.; Das Hitler-Bild: Die Erinnerungen des Fo
tografen Heinrich Hoffmann, ed. Joe J. Heydecker, St. Pölten and Salzburg, 2008, pp. 61f.; Rudolf Herz, Hoffmann & Hitler: Fotografie als Medium des Führer-Mythos, Munich, 1994, p. 95.
128 Hitler, Monologe, p. 260 (dated 3/4 Feb. 1942).
129 Martynkewicz, Salon Deutschland, pp. 409–11.
130 Hanfstaengl, Zwischen Weissem und Braunem Haus, pp. 163f. See also the account of Christmas Eve in Hanfstaengl’s unpublished memoirs, pp. 128f.; BSB München, Nl Hanfstaengl Ana 405, Box 47.
131 First newsletter to local group leaders and VB representatives in Bavaria, 31 Dec. 1924; BA Berlin-Lichterfelde, NS 26/88.
132 Emil Hamm to Hermann Fobke, 11 Jan. 1925; Plöckinger, Geschichte eines Buches, p. 65.
133 BayHStA München, Nl Held 730. See Adalbert Volck to Hermann Fobke, 15 Jan. 1925: “Hitler has to step up before the end of the year. Now those who are indecisive and complaining are doing the talking.” BA Berlin-Lichterfelde, NS 26/899.
8 Führer on Standby
1 Ernst Hanfstaengl, Zwischen Weissem und Braunem Haus: Erinnerungen eines politischen Aussenseiters, Munich, 1970, p. 167. Hanfstaengl originally wrote in his unpublished memoirs (p. 125): “The next time I’m not going to fall off the high wire.” BSB München, Nl Hanfstaengl Ana 405, Box 47.
2 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, 1992, doc. 50, p. 99 (dated 12 June 1925).
3 Ibid., doc. 51, p. 102 (dated 14 June 1925). See ibid., doc. 54, p. 105 (dated 5 July 1925), doc. 55, p. 116 (dated 8 July 1925): “That is why this city is holy ground for me and the movement.”
4 See Peter Longerich, Deutschland 1918–1933: Die Weimarer Republik, Hannover, 1995, pp. 160ff., 231ff.; Heinrich August Winkler, Weimar 1918–1933: Die Geschichte der ersten deutschen Demokratie, Munich, 1993, pp. 306ff.