82 Quoted in Döring, “Parlamentarischer Arm,” p. 279.
83 On the atmosphere of latent civil war during the final years of the Weimar Republic, see Dirk Blasius, Weimars Ende: Bürgerkrieg und Politik 1930–1933, Frankfurt am Main, 2008, pp. 22ff.; Andreas Wirsching, Vom Weltkrieg zum Bürgerkrieg? Politischer Extremismus in Deutschland und Frankreich 1918–1933/39: Berlin und Paris in Vergleich, Munich, 1999, pp. 575ff.
84 See Peter Longerich, Die braunen Bataillone: Geschichte der SA, Munich, 1989, pp. 116ff.
85 As in Hitler’s letter to Interior Minister Groener, 14 Nov. 1931; 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. 71, pp. 198–203 (quotation on p. 200). See also Hitler’s letter to Brüning of 13 Dec. 1931, in which he writes of “pure self-defence…against the terror of Communist murderers.” Ibid., doc. 94, p. 271.
86 See Goebbels, Tagebücher, part 1, vol. 2/1, p. 230 (entry for 1 Sept. 1930): “At 2 a.m. a telegram from Berlin. SA stormed and destroyed headquarters.” On the first Stennes revolt see Longerich, Die braunen Bataillone, pp. 102–4; idem, Goebbels, pp. 134–7; Wirsching, Vom Weltkrieg zum Bürgerkrieg?, pp. 459f.
87 Hitler, Reden, Schriften, Anordnungen, vol. 3, part 3, doc. 100, pp. 378f. (entry for 1 Sept. 1930).
88 Goebbels, Tagebücher, part 1, vol. 2/1, p. 231 (entry for 3 Sept. 1930).
89 See Longerich, Die braunen Bataillone, pp. 81 ff., 115ff.
90 Hitler, Reden, Schriften, Anordnungen, vol. 4, part 1, doc. 59, pp. 200f.
91 Goebbels, Tagebücher, part 1, vol. 2/1, p. 357 (entry for 4 March 1931). See ibid., p. 373 (entry for 28 March 1931: “Something foul in the SA again. Stennes isn’t letting up.”).
92 Hitler, Reden, Schriften, Anordnungen, vol. 4, part 1, doc. 67, pp. 229f. (dated 7 March 1931).
93 Goebbels, Tagebücher, part 1, vol. 2/1, p. 377 (entry for 2 April 1931). Hitler’s order of 30 March 1931 in Hitler, Reden, Schriften, Anordnungen, vol. 4, part 1, doc. 72, pp. 236f.
94 Quoted in Kershaw, Hitler: Hubris, p. 349.
95 Hitler, Reden, Schriften, Anordnungen, vol. 4, part 1, doc. 79, pp. 246–8 (quotation on p. 247).
96 Ibid., doc. 80, pp. 248–58 (quotations on pp. 254, 255, 256, 258). In an angry letter of 13 April 1931 to Julius Friedrich Lehmann, the Pan-Germanic League’s main publisher, Hitler complained about the reporting on the Stennes affair in the Deutsche Zeitung newspaper, which he accused of maliciously taking up a position against him. Not even the “Jewish press,” fumed Hitler, had behaved “so disgracefully” in this case (ibid., doc. 93, pp. 290–2). On 21 April 1931, the chairman of the Pan-Germanic League, Heinrich Class, sent Hugenberg a copy of the letter, which, as he noted showed “the putative saviour of Germany at the apex of megalomania, hotheadedness, impoliteness and lack of judgement.” Class asked: “What will become of this?” BA Koblenz, N 1231/36.
97 Goebbels, Tagebücher, part 1, vol. 2/1, p. 387 (entry for 17 April 1930).
98 Deuerlein, Aufstieg, pp. 345, 366. See also Hess, Briefe, p. 406 (dated 24 Oct. 1930).
99 See Andreas Heusler, Das Braune Haus: Wie München zur “Hauptstadt der Bewegung” wurde, Munich, 2008, pp. 132–8; Hitler’s call to members of 26 May 1930 in Hitler, Reden, Schriften, Anordnungen, vol. 3, part 3, doc. 50, pp. 207–9.
100 Timo Nüsslein, Paul Ludwig Troost, 1878–1934, Vienna, Cologne and Weimar, 2012, pp. 69f. On the relationship between Hitler and Troost see ibid., pp. 66–76.
101 Goebbels, Tagebücher, part 1, vol. 2/1, p. 202 (entry for 20 July 1930), p. 280 (entry for 12 Nov. 1930), p. 353 (entry for 26 Feb. 1931). See Nüsslein, Paul Ludwig Troost, pp. 103f.; Heusler, Das Braune Haus, pp. 142f.
102 Hitler, Reden, Schriften, Anordnungen, vol. 4, part 1, doc. 61 (dated 21 Feb. 1931), pp. 206–18 (quotation on p. 214).
103 Hess, Briefe, pp. 408f. (dated 10 March 1930). On the renovations see Nüsslein, Paul Ludwig Troost, pp. 82–7; Heusler, Das Braune Haus, pp. 146f.
104 Frank, Im Angesicht des Galgens, pp. 93f.; see also Heusler, Das Braune Haus, pp. 159f. In an interview dated 13 March 1964, vol. 2, Hermann Esser said that more or less all meetings in the Brown House were carried out standing; BayHStA München, Nl Esser. In his testimony from July 1968, Stennes confirmed that part of Hitler’s nature was “to plan things such that no one knows which direction he’s headed in and only he himself was acquainted with all his contacts.” IfZ München, ZS 1147. On the furnishing of Hitler’s office see Birgit Schwarz, Geniewahn: Hitler und die Kunst, Vienna, Cologne and Weimar, 2009, pp. 118f.
105 Goebbels, Tagebücher, part 1, vol. 2/1, p. 163 (entry for 24 May 1930), p. 353 (entry for 26 Feb. 1931). See also ibid., p. 202 (entry for 20 July 1930): “Horrible middle-of-the-road cretins”; p. 371 (25 March 1931): “Horrible to see him mingling with these philistines”; p. 394 (28 April 1931): “The people surrounding Hitler. Gruesome!”; p. 153 (12 May 1930): “The most primitive company.”
106 See Stefan Krings, Hitlers Pressechef Otto Dietrich 1897–1952: Eine Biographie, Göttingen, 2010, pp. 103–5.
107 Heusler, Das Braune Haus, pp. 156f.
108 Erich Mühsam, “Jedem das Seine,” in Die Welt am Montag, 1 June 1931; reprinted in idem, Ein Lesebuch: Sich fügen heisst lügen, ed. Marlies Fritzen, Göttingen, 2003, pp. 244f.
109 See Hans Otto Eglau, Fritz Thyssen: Hitlers Gönner und Geisel, Berlin, 2003, pp. 127f.
110 See ibid., pp. 87, 96, 105, 108, 117, 122–7; Henry A. Turner, Die Grossunternehmer und der Aufstieg Hitlers, Berlin, 1986, pp. 177, 180, 184f. In a letter of 30 Dec. 1931, Thyssen informed Hugenberg that he was “friends with Göring.” BA Koblenz, N 1231/39. On Göring’s role as Hitler’s representative in Berlin, see the transcript of his testimony from 20 July 1945: “The Führer entrusted me with this office because back then I was the only one in the party with enough contacts to represent the party in society.” IfZ München, ZS 428.
111 See Christopher Kopper, Hjalmar Schacht: Aufstieg und Fall von Hitlers mächtigstem Bankier, Munich and Vienna, 2006, pp. 173–7.
112 Fromm, Als Hitler mir die Hand küsste, p. 32 (dated 12 Feb. 1930).
113 Kopper, Hjalmar Schacht, p. 189.
114 Hjalmar Schacht, 76 Jahre meines Lebens, Bad Wörishofen, 1953, p. 351. See Kopper, Hjalmar Schacht, pp. 188f. On the role of Stauss see Turner, Grossunternehmer, pp. 174f. Hitler had spoken with Stauss in Göring’s apartment as early as the end of September 1930. See Goebbels, Tagebücher, part 1, vol. 1/2, p. 251 (entry for 30 Sept. 1930).
115 Goebbels, Tagebücher, part 1, vol. 2/1, p. 319 (entry for 6 Jan. 1931).
116 Schacht, 76 Jahre, p. 351. On the meeting of 5 Jan. 1931 see also Kopper, Hjalmar Schacht, pp. 189–91; Eglau, Fritz Thyssen, pp. 120–2; Turner, Grossunternehmer, p. 176.
117 Schacht, 76 Jahre, p. 352.
118 Otto Wagener, Hitler aus nächster Nähe: Aufzeichnungen eines Vertrauten 1929–1932, ed. Henry A. Turner, Frankfurt am Main, Berlin and Vienna, 1978, p. 398.
119 Goebbels, Tagebücher, part 1, vol. 2/1, p. 327 (entry for 18 Jan. 1931); Hess, Briefe, pp. 405f. (dated 24 Oct. 1930).
120 See, for example, Carl von Ossietzky: “In his early years, Adolf Hitler may have acted out of a genuine ignorance. Today he’s only a creature of industry.” Sämtliche Schriften, vol. 5, p. 435 (dated 9 Sept. 1930). Kurt Hiller wrote in Die Weltbühne, 23 Sept. 1930, p. 468: “National Socialism has been bought off by the industrialists who act according to the principle ‘divide and conquer’ and fragment the proletariat into warring factions.”
121 See Turner, Grossunternehmer, pp. 139–53.
122 See Kolb, Die Weimarer Republik, p. 122.
123 See Turner, Grossunternehmer, pp. 157, 164. In a parliamentary faction meeting in June 1929, Göring sneered to Feder: “You know yourself that your economic policies aren’t binding for the party.” G. Feder’s diaries, vol. 11 (en
try for 4 June 1929); IfZ München, ED 874.
124 Turner, Grossunternehmer, p. 165.
125 Wagener, Hitler aus nächster Nähe, p. 443.
126 See Turner, Grossunternehmer, p. 160. The meeting was arranged by Admiral Magnus von Levetzow, Kaiser Wilhelms II’s political attaché, who had been a follower of the Nazi movement since September 1930. See Gerhard Granier, Magnus von Levetzow: Seeoffizier, Monarchist und Wegbereiter Hitlers: Lebensweg und ausgewählte Dokumente, Boppard am Rhein, 1982, pp. 153f.
127 Stefan Frech, Wegbereiter Hitlers? Theodor Reismann-Grone: Ein völkischer Nationalist, 1863–1949, Paderborn, 2009, p. 288.
128 Hitler, Reden, Schriften, Anordnungen, vol. 3, part 3, doc. 36, pp. 141–4 (quotation on p. 144). See Turner, Grossunternehmer, pp. 10f.; Manfred Asendorf, “Hamburger Nationalklub, Keppler-Kreis, Arbeitsstelle Schacht und der Aufstieg Hitlers,” in 1999: Zeitschrift für Sozialgeschichte des 19. und 20. Jahrhunderts, 2 (1987), pp. 123–6.
129 Goebbels, Tagebücher, part 1, vol. 2/1, pp. 366, 371 (entries for 17 and 25 March 1931). Comment about Repuke quoted in Dirk Stegmann, “Zum Verhältnis von Grossindustrie und Nationalsozialismus 1930–1933,” in Archiv für Sozialgeschichte 13 (1973), p. 419. See also Turner, Grossunternehmer, pp. 168f.; Longerich, Goebbels, p. 144.
130 See Wagener, Hitler aus nächster Nähe, pp. 478–80; Turner, Grossunternehmer, p. 172.
131 See Stegmann, “Zum Verhältnis,” pp. 418f.; Turner, Grossunternehmer, pp. 178, 181f.
132 See Oron James Hale, “Adolf Hitler: Taxpayer,” in American Historical Review, 60 (1955), pp. 830–42; Turner, Grossunternehmer, pp. 185f.
133 See Turner, Grossunternehmer, pp. 186f.; see also Hitlers Tischgespräche im Führerhauptquartier, ed. Henry Picker, Stuttgart, 1976, p. 423 (dated 6 July 1942); Hanfstaengl, Zwischen Weissem und Braunem Haus, p. 216.
134 See Turner, Grossunternehmer, pp. 187f.; see also Hitler’s statement dated 7 April 1932 in Adolf Hitler, Reden, Schriften, Anordnungen—Februar 1925 bis Januar 1933. Vol. 5: Von der Reichspräsidentenwahl bis zur Machtergreifung April 1932–Januar 1933. Part 1: April 1932–September 1932, ed. Klaus A. Lankheit, Munich, 1996, doc. 19, pp. 36f. On Hitler’s new Berlin residence see Friedrich, Die missbrauchte Hauptstadt, pp. 291–4.
135 Winkler, Weimar, p. 421.
136 Thea Sternheim, Tagebücher, vol. 2, p. 362 (entry for 13 July 1931). See Goebbels, Tagebücher, part 1, vol. 2/2, p. 57 (entry for 15 July 1931): “Danatbank is closing its counters. Panic on the markets and in the economy. A giant scandal.”
137 See Falter et al., Wahlen und Abstimmungen, pp. 100, 94, 95.
138 Goebbels, Tagebücher, part 1, vol. 2/1, p. 328 (entry for 18 Jan. 1931), p. 407 (entry for 17 May 1931).
139 Hitler, Reden, Schriften, Anordnungen, vol. 4, part 2, doc. 12, pp. 39f. (dated 21 July 1931).
140 Ibid., doc. 20, pp. 65–7 (quote on p. 66). The previous quote in ibid., p. 67n15.
141 Goebbels, Tagebücher, part 1, vol. 2/2, pp. 73f. (entry for 10 Aug. 1931).
142 See Walter, Antisemitische Kriminalität und Gewalt, pp. 211–21 (quotations on pp. 213, 218); Wirsching, Vom Weltkrieg zum Bürgerkrieg?, pp. 463f.; Friedrich, Die missbrauchte Hauptstadt, pp. 319–25.
143 Hitler, Reden, Schriften, Anordnungen, vol. 5, part 2, doc. 31, pp. 104–6 (quotation on pp. 105f.) and report by the Munich police headquarters on Hitler’s speech in ibid., p. 106n16.
144 Hess, Briefe, p. 414 (dated 9 Sept. 1931).
145 Astrid Pufendorf, Die Plancks: Eine Familie zwischen Patriotimus und Widerstand, Berlin, 2006, p. 252. On Hindenburg’s plans in the autumn of 1931 see Pyta, Hindenburg, pp. 629f. See also Brüning, Memoiren, p. 386, who wrote that Hindenburg spoke generally on 13 Sept. 1931 about the need to “move more to the right.”
146 Goebbels, Tagebücher, part 1, vol. 2/2, p. 116 (entry for 5 Oct. 1931). See Longerich, Goebbels, p.162f.
147 Quoted in Deuerlein, Aufstieg, p. 355. See Thilo Vogelsang, Reichswehr, Staat und NSDAP: Beiträge zur deutschen Geschichte 1930–1932, Stuttgart, 1962, pp. 135–7. See also Die Deutschnationalen und die Zerstörung der Weimarer Republik: Aus dem Tagebuch von Reinhold Quaatz 1928–1933, ed. Hermann Weiss and Paul Hoser, Munich, 1989, p. 157 (entry for 20 Oct. 1931): “Schleicher characterised Hitler precisely as a dreamer and an unstable character, even if full of patriotic desires.”
148 Brüning, Memoiren, p. 391. See Hömig, Brüning: Kanzler in der Krise, pp. 397f.
149 On Hitler’s meeting with Hindenburg of 10 Oct. 1931 see Pyta, Hindenburg, pp. 634–7. Further, Hitler, Monologe, p. 211 (dated 18 Jan. 1942): “I immediately crossed the bridge to becoming a soldier, but it was a huge challenge to cross the bridge into politics.”
150 Brüning, Memoiren, p. 391; Ernst von Weizsäcker, Erinnerungen, Munich, 1950, p. 103; see Hömig, Brüning: Kanzler in der Krise, p. 398.
151 Pyta, Hindenburg, p. 1014n43 und p. 634.
152 Goebbels, Tagebücher, part 1, vol. 2/2, p. 121 (entry for 12 Oct. 1931). Hitler told Magnus von Levetzow that his “general estimation of the old man” was that he was “an unimportant but not unlikeable figure.” Granier, Magnus von Levetzow, p. 311 (dated 14 Oct. 1932). By contrast, among party comrades, Hitler supposedly described Hindenburg as “a trembling old man unable to take a leak.” Krebs, Tendenzen und Gestalten, p. 34.
153 See Richter, Deutsche Volkspartei, pp. 713ff.; Reinhard Neebe, Grossindustrie, Staat und NSDAP 1930–1933, Göttingen, 1981, pp. 99–110; Winkler, Weimar, pp. 430f.
154 Hitler, Reden, Schriften, Anordnungen, vol. 4, part 2, doc. 46, pp. 134–59 (quotations on pp. 143, 152). See also Hitler to Brüning, 13 Dec. 1931, Ibid., doc. 94, pp. 264–92 (particularly p. 287).
155 See Schacht, 76 Jahre meines Lebens, pp. 367f.; Kopper, Hjalmar Schacht, pp. 191–4.
156 Turner, Grossunternehmer, p. 220. See also Erich von Gilsa to Paul Reusch, 13 Oct. 1931: “Noticeably, none of the true leaders of industry were present.” Schulz, Von Brüning zu Hitler, p. 559n825.
157 Goebbels, Tagebücher, part 1, vol. 2/2, p. 121 (entry for 12 Oct. 1931).
158 Hitler to Franz Seldte, 2 Dec. 1931; Hitler, Reden, Schriften, Anordnungen, vol 4, part 2, doc. 82, pp. 226–31 (quotation on p. 228). See Otto Schmidt-Hannover, Umdenken oder Anarchie: Männer—Schicksale—Lehren, Göttingen, 1959, p. 182, where Hitler in Bad Harzburg is described as “cocky and scatterbrained…like a cross between a prima donna and a Napoleon imitator.” On how the Harzburg rally came about and the events of the day, see the recent account by Larry Eugene Jones, “Nationalists, Nazis, and the Assault against Weimar: Revisiting the Harzburg Rally of October 1931,” in German Studies Review, 29 (2006), pp. 483–94 (particularly p. 488).
159 Hitler, Reden, Schriften, Anordnungen, vol. 4, part 2, doc. 43 and 44, pp. 123–32 (quotation on p. 130). See Goebbels, Tagebücher, part 1, vol. 2/2, p. 122 (entry for 12 Oct. 1931), who described Hitler as “pale as a ghost” and “in bad form” but still “miles above everyone else.”
160 Vossische Zeitung, 28 Oct. 1931; BA Berlin-Lichterfelde, NS 26/87. In a letter to Otto Schmidt-Hannover on 3 January 1932, Hugenberg complained about “the ugly game that the National Socialists are playing with their former allies.” BA Koblenz, N 1231/39.
161 On a car trip to the wedding of Magda and Joseph Goebbels on 19 Dec. 1931, Hitler told Victoria von Dirksen, an aristocrat who sympathised with the National Socialists, that he needed to assume power as soon as possible, which was “why he was looking around in all directions for allies.” He added that he would reach agreement with Hugenberg “when the moment was right.” See the letter from DNVP Press Officer Hans Brosius to Hugenberg (based on statements by Dirksen), 23 Dec. 1931; BA Koblenz, N 1231/192. On the role of the Dirksen Salon as a go-between connecting the traditional aristocracy and National Socialism, see Stephan Malinowski, Vom König zum Führer: Sozialer Niedergang und politische Radikalisierung im deutschen Adel zwischen Kaiserreich und NS-Staat, Berlin, 2003, pp. 554f.
162 Hitler, Reden, Schriften,
Anordnungen, vol. 4, part 2, doc. 48, pp. 159–64 (quotation on p. 160).
163 Goebbels, Tagebücher, part 1, vol. 2/2, p. 128 (entry for 19 Oct. 1931).
164 Deuerlein, Aufstieg, pp. 361f. On the “Boxheim documents” see Ulrich Herbert, Best: Biographische Studien über Radikalismus, Weltanschauung und Vernunft 1903–1989, Bonn 1996, pp. 112–19. See also Bracher, Auflösung, pp. 431–5; Schulz, Von Brüning zu Hitler, pp. 604–8; Winkler, Weimar, pp. 433f.
165 Quoted in Herbert, Best, p. 116.
166 Thea Sternheim, Tagebücher, vol. 2, p. 379 (entry for 27 Nov. 1931).
167 Quoted in Schulz, Von Brüning zu Hitler, p. 608.
168 Report in The Times of 5 Dec. 1931 on Hitler’s press conference; Hitler, Reden, Schriften, Anordnungen, vol. 4, part 2, doc. 83, pp. 231–5. See ibid., doc. 91, pp. 256–9 (Hitler’s article of 11 Dec. 1931, originally conceived to be a speech on American radio).
169 Hanfstaengl, Zwischen Weissem und Braunem Haus, p. 258. See Hanfstaengl’s unpublished memoirs, p. 205: “He came in and spoke brilliantly, clearly, rationally and utterly convincingly.” BSB München, Nl Hanfstaengl Ana 405, Box 47.
170 Hubert R. Knickerbocker, Deutschland so oder so?, Berlin, 1932, pp. 207f. See also the report by Sefton Delmer, the Berlin correspondent for the Daily Express, on his first meeting with Hitler in May 1931. Sefton Delmer, Die Deutschen und ich, Hamburg, 1963, pp. 114–18, particularly p. 116.
171 Frederic M. Sackett to Henry L. Stimson, 7 Dec. 1931; quoted in Hitler, Reden, Schriften, Anordnungen, vol. 4, part 2, doc. 85, p. 239n4.
172 Dorothy Thompson, Kassandra spricht: Antifaschistische Publizistik 1932–1942, Leipzig and Weimar, 1988, pp. 41–3.
173 Klaus Mann, Der Wendepunkt: Ein Lebensbericht, Frankfurt am Main, 1963, pp. 228f. Mann remembered the meeting happening “around a year before Hitler came to power,” that is in early 1932. His diary, however, gives the date as 14 July 1932: “At the very next table Adolf Hitler in the stupidest sort of company. His inferiority is strikingly obvious. Extremely talentless. The fascination he exerts is the biggest embarrassment in history.” Klaus Mann, Tagebücher 1931 bis 1933, ed. Joachim Heimannsberg, Peter Laemmle and Winfried F. Schoeller, Munich, 1989, p. 64. See Uwe Naumann (ed.), “Ruhe gibt es nicht, bis zum Schluss.” Klaus Mann, 1906–1949: Bilder und Dokumente, Reinbek bei Hamburg, 1999, p. 132.
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