Hitler

by Volker Ullrich

  8 Konrad Heiden, Adolf Hitler: Das Zeitalter der Veran​twort​ungsl​osigkeit. Eine Biographie, Zurich, 1936, pp. 330, 333.

  9 Dietrich, 12 Jahre mit Hitler, pp. 15, 24f.

  10 Albert Speer, Erinnerungen: Mit einem Essay von Jochen Thies, Frankfurt am Main and Berlin, 1993, p. 37; idem, Spandauer Tagebücher, Munich, 2002, p. 634 (entry for 4 May 1965); see also the corrected manuscript of the Erinnerungen (second edition), chapter 1, on “Hitler’s Qualities”: “He could be kindly yet at the same time pitiless and unjust. He might appear loyal and honest and simultaneously amoral. Those around him saw him as a benevolent patriarch, but he could commit crimes with infernal determination.” BA Koblenz, N 1340/384. On Hitler’s “many faces” see François-Poncet, Als Botschafter in Berlin, pp. 356f.

  11 Hanfstaengl, Zwischen Weissem und Braunem Haus, p. 218.

  12 Joachim Scholtyseck, Der Aufstieg der Quandts: Eine deutsche Unternehmerdynastie, Munich, 2011, pp. 265f. The banker Eduard Heydt felt much the same way. To Count Harry Kessler he described Hitler “as the proverbial ‘amiable fellow’ of the minor civil servant type who by no means made a deep impression when you spoke with him.” Harry Graf Kessler, Das Tagebuch. Vol. 9: 1926–1937, ed. Sabine Gruber and Ulrich Ott with Christoph Hilse and Nadin Weiss, Stuttgart, 2010, p. 399 (entry for 12 Dec. 1931).

  13 Sefton Delmer, Die Deutschen und ich, Hamburg, 1963, p. 115.

  14 Dorothy Thompson, Kassandra spricht: Antifaschistische Publizistik 1932–1942, Leipzig and Weimar, 1988, p. 41. See Bella Fromm, Als Hitler mir die Hand küsste, Berlin, 1993, p. 111 (dated 30 March 1933): “An average-looking man of small stature.”

  15 William S. Shirer, Berliner Tagebuch: Aufzeichnungen 1934–41, transcribed and ed. Jürgen Schebera, Leipzig and Weimar 1991, p. 23 (entry for 4 Sept. 1934). See François-Poncet, Als Botschafter in Berlin, p. 146, on being received by Hitler on 8 April 1933: “When I observed him up close in moments of calm, I was struck by…how average and unimpressive his facial features are, although I reminded myself that it’s precisely this insignificance that appeals to the masses who celebrate and find their own reflection in him.”

  16 Lutz Graf Schwerin von Krosigk, Es geschah in Deutschland: Menschenbilder unseres Jahrhunderts, Tübingen and Stuttgart, 1951, p. 193.

  17 Hanfstaengl, Zwischen Weissem und Braunem Haus, p. 83. See Hanfstaengl’s unpublished memoirs, p. 63: “ ‘Don’t worry,’ he said. ‘I’m not creating a new fashion. In time, people will come to imitate me.’ ” BSB München, Nl Hanfstaengl Ana 405, Box 47. Rudolf Hess’s mother too disliked Hitler’s moustache. Hess promised that he would read her letter to Hitler. “But it won’t make the slightest difference,” Hess wrote. “He is the most stubborn person I know!” Rudolf Hess to his parents, 9 June 1925; BA Bern, Nl Hess, J1.211-1989/148, 35.

  18 Christa Schroeder, Er war mein Chef: Aus dem Nachlass der Sekretärin von Adolf Hitler, ed. Anton Joachimsthaler, 3rd edition, Munich and Vienna, 1985, p. 72.

  19 Klaus Mann, Der Wendepunkt: Ein Lebensbericht, Frankfurt am Main, 1963, p. 228.

  20 Speer, Spandauer Tagebücher, p. 40 (entry for 30 Nov. 1946).

  21 Karl Alexander von Müller, Mars und Venus: Erinnerungen 1914–1918, Stuttgart, 1954, p. 338. Theodor Duesterberg wrote in his unpublished memoirs (p. 189) of “peculiar wolf eyes.” BA Koblenz, N 1377/47.

  22 Brigitte Hamann, Winifred Wagner oder Hitlers Bayreuth, Munich and Zurich, 2002, p. 209.

  23 Otto Wagener, Hitler aus nächster Nähe: Aufzeichnungen eines Vertrauten 1929–1932, ed. Henry A. Turner, Frankfurt am Main, Berlin and Vienna, 1978, p. 43; see also ibid., p. 56, where Wagener stressed “his large bottomless eyes.” After the Second World War, the cook on the Obersalzberg, Therese Linke, also recalled Hitler’s “very strong handshake” and his “compelling gaze.” Linke added: “It always made you feel so strange.” IfZ München, ZS 3135.

  24 Schroeder, Er war mein Chef, p. 71.

  25 Peter Sprengel, Gerhart Hauptmann: Bürgerlichkeit und grosser Traum. Eine Biographie, Munich, 2012, p. 669.

  26 Heiden, Hitler: Das Zeitalter der Veran​twort​ungsl​osigkeit, p. 336.

  27 Martha Dodd, Nice to meet you, Mr. Hitler! Meine Jahre in Deutschland 1933 bis 1937, Frankfurt am Main, 2005, p. 77.

  28 H. St. Chamberlain to Hitler, 7 Oct. 1923; BA Koblenz, N 1128/16.

  29 Schwerin von Krosigk, Es geschah in Deutschland, p. 193. See also Schwerin von Krosigk’s notes on Hitler’s personality (c.1945), in which he writes of “the fineness and beauty of his hands, which were surely the hands of an artist”; IfZ München, ZS 145, vol. 5. H(ubert) R. Knickerbocker, Deutschland so oder so?, Berlin, 1932, p. 207, also described Hitler as having the “hands of an artist.”

  30 Quoted in Rüdiger Safranski, Ein Meister aus Deutschland: Heidegger und seine Zeit, Munich and Vienna, 1994, p. 274.

  31 Quoted in Claudia Schmölders, Hitlers Gesicht: Eine physiognomische Biographie, Munich, 2000, p. 60.

  32 Sönke Neitzel, Abgehört: Deutsche Generäle in britischer Gefangenschaft, 1942–1945, Berlin, 2005, doc. 3, p. 92.

  33 Thomas Mann, “Bruder Hitler” (1939) in An die gesittete Welt: Politische Schriften und Reden im Exil, Frankfurt am Main, 1986, p. 255. Heinrich Class wrote in his unpublished memoirs of Hitler’s “hysterical eloquence.” Johannes Leicht, Heinrich Class, 1968–1953: Die politische Biographie eines Alldeutschen, Paderborn, 2012, p. 288.

  34 Heiden, Hitler: Das Zeitalter der Veran​twort​ungsl​osigkeit, p. 331.

  35 Otto Strasser, Hitler und ich, Konstanz, 1948, p. 85. See also Ernst Niekisch, “Hitler—ein deutsches Verhängnis” (1931), in idem, Politische Schriften, Cologne and Berlin, 1965, pp. 21f., who describes Hitler as the “biggest demagogue” Germany ever produced: “He was instinctively driven to the element he made his very own—the mass event.” Or as Veit Valentin (Geschichte der Deutschen, Berlin, 1947; new edition, Cologne, 1991, p. 594) succinctly put it: “Adolf Hitler is German genius in the form of a demagogue.”

  36 Schwerin von Krosigk, Es geschah in Deutschland, p. 194; see Schwerin von Krosigk to Fred L. Casmir, 11 Aug. 1960: “Hitler had an intuition for what moved people internally and expressed it succinctly. His listeners felt understood and were swept away, melting into one with the speaker.” BA Koblenz, N 1276/40.

  37 Knickerbocker, Deutschland so oder so?, p. 206.

  38 Rudolf Hess, Briefe 1908–1933, ed. Rüdiger Hess, Munich and Vienna, 1987, p. 355 (dated 27. Nov. 1924). In his account of a three-hour-long speech by Hitler in Nuremberg on 3 Dec. 1928 Rudolf Hess reported that the senior civil servant who monitored the meeting for the police had “thrown all caution to the winds” and joined in the applause. At the end, “out of sheer excitement,” he had shaken Julius Streicher’s hand and “declared his faith in the tribune.” Rudolf Hess to Ilse Hess, 4 Dec. 1928; BA Bern, Nl Hess, J1.211-1989/148, 41.

  39 Golo Mann, Erinnerungen und Gedanken: Eine Jugend in Deutschland, Frankfurt am Main, 1986, p. 382. See Schwerin von Krosigk to Fred L. Casmir: “Even those who didn’t want to fall under the spell of [Hitler’s] magic had to fight against his elixir.” BA Koblenz, N 1276/40. On Golo Mann’s opposition to National Socialism prior to 1933 see Tilmann Lahme, Golo Mann: Biographie, Frankfurt am Main, 2009, pp. 70–3.

  40 Hanfstaengl, Zwischen Weissem und Braunem Haus, p. 36. See Hans Frank, Im Angesicht des Galgens: Deutung Hitlers und seiner Zeit auf Grund eigener Erlebnisse und Erkenntnisse, Munich and Gräfelfing, 1953, p. 39: “His vocal organ sometimes sounded hoarse and switched strangely with drastic contrasts in volume. Sentences that began calmly would suddenly leap impressively in tone at a certain word or when they came to their conclusion.” As he was still speaking without microphone, at larger meetings Hitler was forced to talk so loudly that he sometimes lost his voice. Rudolf Hess told Ilse Pröhl about one such incident, at the exhibition hall in Essen, in a letter of 29 April 1927; BA Bern, Nl Hess, J1.211-1989/148, 39.

  41 Baldur von Schirach, Ich glaubte an Hitler, Hamburg, 1
967, p. 20.

  42 Schwerin von Krosigk, Es geschah in Deutschland, p. 220. See Hanfstaengl’s unpublished memoirs, p. 60: “He had marked theatrical abilities and also a sharp comic eye.” BSB München, Nl Hanfstaengl Ana 405, Box 47. On Hitler’s acting talents see also Heinz Schreckenberg, Hitler: Motive und Methoden einer unwahrscheinlichen Karriere. Eine biographische Studie, Frankfurt am Main, 2006, pp. 100–7.

  43 Albert Krebs, Tendenzen und Gestalten der NSDAP: Erinnerungen aus der Frühzeit der Partei, Stuttgart, 1959, p. 133.

  44 Schwerin von Krosigk to Fred L. Casmir, 11 Aug. 1960; BA Koblenz, N 1276/40.

  45 Frank Bajohr and Christoph Strupp (eds), Fremde Blicke auf das “Dritte Reich”: Berichte ausländischer Diplomaten über Herrschaft und Gesellschaft in Deutschland 1933–1945, Göttingen, 2011, p. 436. On the different roles which Hitler played during his speeches, see Gudrun Brockhaus, Schauder und Idylle: Faschismus als Erlebnisangebot, Munich, 1999, p. 226.

  46 Robert Coulondre, Von Moskau nach Berlin: Erinnerungen des französischen Botschafters, Berlin, 1950, p. 310. After their meeting, Coulondre asked: “What kind of a person is this infernal Hitler really?”

  47 Krebs, Tendenzen und Gestalten, p. 133.

  48 Levetzow to Donnersmarck, 20 Nov. 1931; Gerhard Granier, Magnus von Levetzow: Seeoffizier, Monarchist und Wegbereiter Hitlers. Lebensweg und ausgewählte Dokumente, Boppard am Rhein, 1982, p. 316. Hermine had already read the second volume of Mein Kampf by the beginning of 1927. The themes had “interested her very much,” she wrote to Elsa Bruckmann on 10 Feb. 1927; Miriam Käfer, “Hitlers frühe Förderer aus dem Grossbürgertum: Das Verlegerehepaar Elsa und Hugo Bruckmann,” in Marita Krauss (ed.), Rechte Karrieren in München: Von der Weimarer Zeit bis in die Nachkriegsjahre, Munich, 2010, p. 61.

  49 Delmer, Die Deutschen und ich, p. 117; see Dietrich, 12 Jahre mit Hitler, p. 245; Lothar Machtan, Der Kaisersohn bei Hitler, Hamburg, 2006, pp. 220 ff., 309ff.

  50 Prince August Wilhelm to Rudolf Hess, 21 Sep. 1934; BA Bern, Nl Hess, J1.211-1993/300, Box 1. On Hitler’s contempt for the Hohenzollern see, for example, Die Tagebücher von Joseph Goebbels. Part 1: Aufzeichnungen 1923–1941, ed. Elke Fröhlich, Munich, 1998, vol. 2/3, pp. 181 (entry for 5 May 1933), 331 (entry for 6 Dec. 1933). After Hitler and Göring had visited the royal castle, the crown princess is supposed to have told the servants to “open the windows [and air the place out].” Hitler later heard of this, which only bolstered his antipathy towards the crown prince and princess. Wiedemann, individual recollections, San Francisco, 28 March 1939, BA Koblenz, N 1740/4

  51 See Hanfstaengl, Zwischen Weissem und Braunem Haus, p. 226; Duesterberg memoirs, p. 189; BA Koblenz, N 1377/47.

  52 Krebs, Tendenzen und Gestalten, pp. 148, 135.

  53 Ernst von Weizsäcker, Erinnerungen, Munich, 1950, p. 199.

  54 Speer, Spandauer Tagebücher, p. 634 (entry for 4 May 1965).

  55 Schroeder, Er war mein Chef, p. 67. See Frank, Im Angesicht des Galgens, p. 95: “a master of imitating the way other people talked.” After Hindenburg’s death, Hitler enjoyed imitating his deep voice. See Henrik Eberle and Mathias Uhl (eds), Das Buch Hitler: Geheimdossier des NKWD für Josef W. Stalin aufgrund der Verhörprotokolle des Persönlichen Adjutanten Hitlers, Otto Günsche, und des Kammerdieners Heinz Linge, Moskau 1948/49, Bergisch Gladbach, 2005, pp. 49f.

  56 Krebs, Tendenzen und Gestalten, p. 129.

  57 Goebbels, Tagebücher, part 1, vol. 3/2, p. 300 (entry for 21 Dec. 1936). Hitler also often performed his impressions in Wagner’s company. See Hamann, Winifred Wagner, pp. 313, 387.

  58 Speer, Spandauer Tagebücher, p. 199 (entry for 3 March 1947).

  59 Hanfstaengl, Zwischen Weissem und Braunem Haus, p. 165.

  60 Hanskarl Hasselbach, one of Hitler’s personal physicians, testified after the war that Hitler had possessed “a phenomenal memory in all areas,” such as he “had never encountered in any other human being.” IfZ München, ZS 242. See also Robert Ley, “Gedanken um den Führer” (1945): “Adolf Hitler had a powerful concentration like no other—his memory never deserted him.” BA Koblenz, N 1468/4.

  61 See Fritz Wiedemann, Der Mann, der Feldherr werden wollte: Erlebnisse und Erfahrungen des Vorgesetzten Hitlers im 1. Weltkrieg und seines späteren persönlichen Adjutanten, Velbert and Kettwig 1964, pp. 78f.

  62 See Hanskarl von Hasselbach’s memorandum: “Hitlers Kenntnisse und geistige Fähigkeiten” (27 Sept. 1945); BA Koblenz, N 1128/33; Nicolaus von Below, Als Hitlers Adjutant 1937–45, Mainz, 1980, p. 150.

  63 See Heinrich Hoffmann, Hitler wie ich ihn sah: Aufzeichnungen seines Leibfotographen, Munich and Berlin, 1974, p. 160; Karl Wilhelm Krause, 10 Jahre Kammerdiener bei Hitler, Hamburg, 1949, pp. 46f. Hitler acquired the 1933 navy calendar from Franz Eher Verlag in October 1932. See the receipt in BA Berlin-Lichterfelde, NS 26/2557.

  64 On this see Manfred Koch-Hillebrecht, Homo Hitler: Psychogramm eines Diktators, Munich, 1999, pp. 93ff. (“Hitler als Eidetiker”).

  65 Schroeder, Er war mein Chef, p. 76.

  66 Wagener, Hitler aus nächster Nähe, p. 149.

  67 See Hanfstaengl, Zwischen Weissem und Braunem Haus, p. 45; Schroeder, Er war mein Chef, p. 76.

  68 Dietrich, 12 Jahre mit Hitler, p. 165. See Hanfstaengl, Zwischen Weissem und Braunem Haus, p. 55.

  69 Hess, Briefe, p. 267 (dated 11 April 1921), p. 324 (dated 16 May 1924).

  70 Wagener, Hitler aus nächster Nähe, p. 80.

  71 Goebbels Tagebücher, part 1, vol. 2/3, p. 55 (entry for 9 Nov. 1932). See ibid., vol. 2/2, p. 361 (entry for 11 Sept. 1932), vol. 3/1, p. 386 (entry for 27 Feb. 1936), vol. 3 /2, p. 133 (entry for 17 July 1936). See Wilhelm Brückner’s memorandum of August 1945: “A. H. a brilliant mind, who autodidactically acquired fantastic knowledge in all areas as a youth.” IfZ München, ED 100/43.

  72 Karl Alexander von Müller, Im Wandel einer Welt: Erinnerungen. Vol. 3: 1919–1932, ed. Otto Alexander von Müller, Munich, 1966, pp. 302f.; see also the note from K. A. v. Müller: “Encountered Hitler repeatedly at the Bruckmanns. He had an immense but completely arbitrarily collected corpus of knowledge.” BayHStA München, Nl K. A. v. Müller 101.

  73 Hess, Briefe, p. 346 (dated 23 July 1924). Rudolf Hess to his parents, 29 April 1927; BA Bern, Nl Hess, J1.211-1989/148, 39.

  74 See Schwerin von Krosigk’s essay on Hitler’s personality (c.1945); IfZ München, ZS 145, vol. 5; transcript of an interview with Heinrich Hoffmann dated 5 Dec. 1953; IfZ München, ZS 71.

  75 Wagener, Hitler aus nächster Nähe, p. 57. Müller (Im Wandel einer Welt, p. 303) wrote of a “Caliban-esque fury against the ‘arrogance of the educated.’ ” In conversation with Hans Frank, Hitler expressed his utter contempt for “the entire contradictory pretensions of professors and university priests” (Im Angesicht des Galgens, p. 47).

  76 Wiedemann, Der Mann, p. 194

  77 Hitler to W. Poppelreuther, 4 July 1932; BA Berlin-Lichterfelde R 43 II/959. Hitler raised no objections to this letter being reprinted in Poppelreuther’s book, Hitler, der politische Psychologe (1933). Lammers to W. Poppelreuther, 10 Nov. 1933; ibid.

  78 Speer, Spandauer Tagebücher, p. 523, entry for 3 May 1960.

  79 Hanfstaengl, Zwischen Weissem und Braunem Haus, pp. 174, 176.

  80 See Wagener, Hitler aus nächster Nähe, pp. 180–2; Hanfstaengl, Zwischen Weissem und Braunem Haus, pp. 175f.

  81 Transcript of an interview with Mathilde Scheubner-Richter dated 9 July 1952; IfZ München, ZS 292.

  82 Schirach, Ich glaubte an Hitler, p. 31.

  83 Hanfstaengl, Zwischen Weissem und Braunem Haus, p. 49. See interview with Hermann Esser dated 16 March 1964, vol. 1: one of Hitler’s “passions,” which he never lost, was for black patent leather shoes. BayHStA München, Nl Esser.

  84 Hess, Briefe, p. 299 (dated 15 July 1923).

  85 See Rudolf Herz, Hoffmann & Hitler: Fotografie als Medium des Führer-Mythos, Munich, 1994, pp. 104–6.

  86 See Hoffmann, Hitler, wie ich ihn sah, pp. 196f.

  87 See
ibid., p. 197; Heinz Linge, Bis zum Untergang: Als Chef des Persönlichen Dienstes bei Hitler, ed. Werner Maser, Munich, 1982, p. 67.

  88 Hanfstaengl, Zwischen Weissem und Braunem Haus, p. 174. See Hanfstaengl’s unpublished memoirs, p. 143; BSB München, Nl Hanfstaengl Ana 405, Box 47.

  89 Fromm, Als Hitler mir die Hand küsste, p. 91 (dated 10 Feb. 1933). See also Duesterberg’s memoirs, p. 197: “The new Reich chancellor struck me as being like an ‘apprentice waiter’ helping out in a borrowed tuxedo in a second-rate establishment…It was hard to suppress my laughter.” BA Koblenz, N 1337/44. See also Dodd, Nice to meet you, Mr. Hitler!, p. 77, who wrote of Hitler’s hesitancy whenever he was around his diplomatic corps.

  90 Facsimile of the handwritten letter in Anton Joachimsthaler, Hitlers Liste: Ein Dokument persönlicher Beziehungen, Munich, 2003, p. 362. For the Napoleon quote see Volker Ullrich, Napoleon, Reinbek bei Hamburg, 2004, p. 144. Here, too, Goebbels served as his master’s mouthpiece. On 21 Feb. 1936, after Hitler had once again spoken at length about the beginnings of the movement, Goebbels noted: “His life truly is a tale of adventure.” Tagebücher part 1, vol. 3/1, p. 383.

  91 Schroeder, Er war mein Chef, p. 55; see also Krause, 10 Jahre Kammerdiener, pp. 29f.; Linge, Bis zum Untergang, p. 107.

  92 See, for example, Goebbels, Tagebücher, part 1, vol. 3/2, p. 280 (entry for 6 Dec. 1936), vol. 4, p. 49 (entry for 13 March 1937), vol. 5, p. 374 (entry for 9 July 1938).

  93 Quoted in Leicht, Heinrich Class, p. 288.

  94 Delmer, Die Deutschen und ich, p. 116.

  95 Ulrich von Hassell, Römische Tagebücher und Briefe, 1932–1938, ed. Ulrich Schlie, Munich, 2004, p. 216. See Rudolf Diels, Lucifer ante portas…Es spricht der erste Chef der Gestapo, Stuttgart, 1950, p. 57: “Even when he was talking to a single individual, he spoke as if he were addressing tens of thousands of people. Even in one-on-one conversations, he lapsed into the gestures of a mass orator.”

  96 See Wagener, Hitler aus nächster Nähe, p. 72.

  97 Dietrich, 12 Jahre mit Hitler, p. 160; see Goebbels, Tagebücher, part 1, vol. 2/3, p. 293 (entry for 17 March 1933): “Hitler palavered. That’s when he feels most comfortable.” See also the note by Blomberg: “When he’s talking to one or two other people, he actually only ever holds monologues.” Kirstin A. Schäfer, Werner von Blomberg: Hitlers erster Feldmarschall. Eine Biographie, Paderborn, 2006, p. 119f.