Hitler
Page 121
54 See Pyta, Hindenburg, p. 814.
55 Becker, Hitlers Machtergreifung, p. 117.
56 François-Poncet, Als Botschafter in Berlin, p. 21. See also Papen’s comment to Cardinal Michael Faulhaber, 1 March 1933: “The National Socialists are all keyed up right now, but after the elections, they’ll calm down.” Becker, Hitlers Machtergreifung, pp. 113f.
57 Werner Jochmann, Nationalsozialismus und Revolution: Ursprung und Geschichte der NSDAP in Hamburg 1922–1933. Dokumente, Frankfurt am Main, 1963, p. 425.
58 Hedda Kalshoven, Ich denk so viel an Euch: Ein deutsch-holländischer Briefwechsel 1920–1949, Munich, 1995, p. 169 (dated 10 March 1933).
59 Quoted in Ian Kershaw, The Hitler Myth: Image and Reality in the Third Reich, Oxford, 1987, p. 52.
60 Becker, Hitlers Machtergreifung, pp. 116f.
61 Kessler, Das Tagebuch, vol. 9, p. 550 (entry for 5 March 1933).
62 See Jürgen Falter, Thomas Lindenberger and Siegfried Schumann, Wahlen und Abstimmungen in der Weimarer Republik: Materialien zum Wahlverhalten 1919–1931, Munich, 1986, pp. 41, 44.
63 Ebermayer, Denn heute gehört uns Deutschland, p. 35 (dated 5 March 1933). See Kesssler, Das Tagebuch, vol. 9, p. 350 (entry for 6 March 1933): “Despite unprecedented pressure and the complete paralysis of their propaganda, the Social Democrats only lost 100,000 votes and the KPD only one million. That’s an amazing and admirable demonstration of the indomitability of the ‘Marxist Front.’ ”
64 Goebbels, Tagebücher, part 1, vol. 2/3, p. 141 (entry for 6 March 1933).
65 Sackett’s report to Foreign Minister Hull, 9 March 1933; Becker, Hitlers Machtergreifung, p. 135.
66 Goebbels, Tagebücher, part 1, vol. 2/3, p. 138 (entry for 2 March 1933) See also Schwerin von Krosigk’s recording for a BBC programme on German history between 1918 and 1933 (1966): “In the first time Hitler in fact seemed to be a man whom one could get on. He was very polite; when things were discussed in the cabinet he kept to the subject; he did not mind contradiction and he did not interfere with the work of the ministries.” BA Koblenz, N 1276/37.
67 Schwerin von Krosigk, essay on Hitler’s personality (c.1945); Ifz München, ZS 145, vol. 5; see also Lutz Graf Schwerin von Krosigk, Es geschah in Deutschland: Menschenbilder unseres Jahrhunderts, Tübingen and Stuttgart, 1951, p. 199.
68 Cabinet meeting on 7 March 1933; Die Regierung Hitler, part 1, vol. 1, no. 44, pp. 159–66 (quotations on pp. 160, 161).
69 Cabinet meeting on 11 March 1933; ibid., no. 56, pp. 193–5.
70 Goebbels, Tagebücher, part 1, vol. 2/3, p. 145 (entry for 12 March 1933), p. 147 (entry for 15 March 1933).
71 Quoted in Peter Longerich, Joseph Goebbels: A Biography, London, 2015, p. 212.
72 Cabinet meeting on 7 March 1933; Die Regierung Hitler, part 1, no. 44, p. 160.
73 Goebbels, Tagebücher, part 1, vol. 2/3, p. 142 (entry for 8 March 1933), p. 143 (entry for 9 March 1933).
74 See Volker Ullrich, “Wohlverhalten um jeden Preis: Die ‘Machtergreifung’ in Hamburg und die Politik der SPD,” in Angelika Ebbinghaus and Karl-Heinz Roth (eds), Grenzgänge: Heinrich Senfft zum 70. Geburtstag, Lüneburg, 1999, pp. 303–18; Ursula Büttner, “Der Aufstieg der NSDAP,” in Hamburg im “Dritten Reich,” ed. Forschungsstelle für Zeitgeschichte in Hamburg, Göttingen, 2005, pp. 59–62.
75 See Broszat, Der Staat Hitlers, pp. 135–7; Thamer, Verführung und Gewalt, p. 260; Frei, Der Führerstaat, pp. 55f.
76 G. Heim to Hindenburg, 10 March 1933; Die Regierung Hitler, part 1, vol. 1, no. 54, pp. 190f. On the fall of Bavaria see Falk Wiesemann, Die Vorgeschichte der nationalsozialistischen Machtübernahme in Bayern 1932/33, Berlin, 1975.
77 See Peter Longerich, Heinrich Himmler: Biographie, Munich, 2008, pp. 159f.; Robert Gerwarth, Reinhard Heydrich: Biographie, Munich, 2011, pp. 89ff .
78 Domarus, Hitler, vol. 1, part 1, p. 222; See David Clay Large, Where Ghosts Walked: Munich’s Road to the Third Reich, New York and London, 1997, p. 237.
79 Die Regierung Hitler, part 1, vol. 1, no. 80, p. 276 (dated 31 March 1933), no. 93, p. 312 (dated 7 April 1933). See Broszat, Der Staat Hitlers, pp. 143f.; Frei, Der Führerstaat, p. 57. In a letter to Interior Minister Frick on 29 March 1933, Hugenberg protested that the drive to “disable the Communists” was being used to undermine the position of the DNVP in the state parliaments. Hugenberg wrote of his impression that “our agreement that the fresh election, which I never wanted, would not impact on any of the parties involved was increasingly being pushed into the background.” BA Koblenz, N 1231/36.
80 Rumbold to Foreign Secretary Simon, 12 April 1933; Becker, Hitlers Machtergreifung, p. 228. See Broszat, Der Staat Hitlers, p. 145; Frei, Der Führerstaat, p. 58.
81 Klemperer, Tagebücher 1933–1941, p. 8 (entry for 10 March 1933).
82 Diels, Lucifer ante portas, p. 255. On the SA violence after 5 March see Thamer, Verführung und Gewalt, pp. 264–6; Peter Longerich, Die braunen Bataillone: Geschichte der SA, Munich, 1989, pp. 168–71; Evans, The Coming of the Third Reich, pp. 346–8.
83 Kessler, Das Tagebuch, vol. 9, p. 552 (entry for 8 March 1933). See Klemperer, Tagebücher 1933–1941, p. 9 (entry for 10 March 1933): “No one dares to say anything. Everyone’s afraid.”
84 Heuss, In der Defensive, pp. 118f. (dated 14 March 1933).
85 Domarus, Hitler, vol. 1, part 1, pp. 219, 221.
86 Hitler to Papen, 11 March 1933; Die Regierung Hitler, part 1, vol. 1, no. 58, pp. 204–8. By contrast, immediately after 30 Jan. 1933, Hitler and Papen interacted “in a manner that could hardly have been more cordial.” Duesterberg’s memoirs, p. 197; BA Koblenz, N 1377/47.
87 From recent literature see Robert Sigel, “Das KZ Dachau und die Konstituierung eines rechtsfreien Raumes als Ausgangspunkt des nationalsozialistischen Terrorsystems,” in Andreas Wirsching (ed.), Das Jahr 1933: Die nationalsozialistische Machtergreifung und die deutsche Gesellschaft, Göttingen, 2009, pp. 156–68; Ludwig Eiber, “Gewalt im KZ Dachau: Vom Anfang eines Terrorsystems,” in ibid., pp. 169–81. See also Wolfgang Benz and Barbara Diestel, Der Ort des Terrors: Geschichte der nationalsozialistischen Konzentrationslager. Vol. 2: Frühe Lager, Munich, 2005, pp. 233–74.
88 Jochmann, Nationalsozialismus und Revolution, p. 431.
89 Haffner, Geschichte eines Deutschen, p. 225.
90 Goebbels, Tagebücher, part 1, vol. 2/3, p. 134 (entry for 24 Feb. 1933).
91 See Armin Nolzen, “Der ‘Führer’ und seine Partei,” in Dietmar Süss and Winfried Süss (eds), Das “Dritte Reich”: Eine Einführung, Munich, 2008, pp. 56f.
92 Ebermayer, Und heute gehört uns Deutschland, p. 34 (dated 5 March 1933). See the report by the U.S. Consul General in Berlin, George S. Messersmith, 25 April 1933: “One of the most extraordinary features of the situation to an objective observer, is the fact that so many clear-thinking and really well-informed persons appear to have lost their balance and are actively approving of measures and policies which they previously condemned as fundamentally dangerous and unsound.” 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, pp. 369f. (quotation on p. 370).
93 Goebbels, Tagebücher, part 1, vol. 2/3, p. 223 (entry for 7 July 1933). See also Frank Bajohr, “Ämter, Pfründe, Korruption: Materielle Aspekte der nationalsozialististischen Machtergreifung,” in Wirsching (ed.), Das Jahr 1933, pp. 185–99.
94 Bella Fromm, Als Hitler mir die Hand küsste, Berlin, 1993, p. 131 (dated 21 May 1933).
95 Delmer, Die Deutschen und ich, p. 179.
96 Antoni Graf Sobanski, Nachrichten aus Berlin 1933–1936, Berlin, 2007, p. 31.
97 See Die Regierung Hitler, part 1, vol. 1, no. 192, p. 658 (entry for 13 July 1933).
98 Ibid., no. 56, p. 195n10 (entry for 11 March 1933). Goebbels commented: “A fantastic boost to our prestige!” Goebbels, Tagebücher, part 1, vol. 2/3, p. 144 (
entry for 12 March 1933).
99 Ebermayer, Denn heute gehört uns Deutschland, p. 75 (dated 9 May 1933). See ibid., p. 86 (dated 16 May 1933). In May 1933, when Ebermayer’s books were banned, everyone distanced themselves from him as if he were “a leper.” “It’s incomprehensible how cowardly people are,” Ebermayer complained.
100 See Haffner, Geschichte eines Deutschen, pp. 197–204.
101 See Goebbels, Tagebücher, part 1, vol. 2/3, p. 148 (entry for 17 March 1933): “Discussed the plan for 21 March. It will be huge”; p. 149 (entry for 18 March 1933): “The entire Potsdam celebration is ready. It will be huge and classic.”
102 On the following see Klaus Scheel, Der Tag von Potsdam, Berlin, 1993; Hoegen, Der Held von Tannenberg, pp. 384–93; Pyta, Hindenburg, pp. 820–4.
103 See Goebbels, Tagebücher, part 1, vol. 2/3, p. 152 (entry for 21 March 1933).
104 François-Poncet, Als Botschafter in Berlin, p. 108.
105 See Pyta, Hindenburg, p. 822.
106 Reprinted in Walther Hubatsch, Hindenburg und der Staat: Aus den Papieren des Generalfeldmarschalls und Reichspräsidenten von 1878 bis 1934, Göttingen, 1966, p. 374. Goebbels commented: “The old man is like a stone memorial. He read out his message. Succinctly and imperiously.” Tagebücher, part 1, vol. 2/3, p. 153 (entry for 23 March 1933).
107 Heuss, In der Defensive, p. 126 (dated 22 March 1933).
108 Domarus, Hitler, vol. 1, part 1, pp. 226–8.
109 Goebbels, Tagebücher, part 1, vol. 2/3, p. 153 (entry for 23 March 1933).
110 Pyta, Hindenburg, p. 824. Heinrich Brüning (Memoiren 1918–1934, Stuttgart, 1970, p. 657) also recalled that Hindenburg occasionally wiped a tear from his eye with his brown gloves.”
111 Kalshoven, Ich denk so viel an Euch, pp. 182f. (dated 22 March 1933).
112 Ebermayer, Und heute gehört uns Deutschland, pp. 46f. (dated 21 March 1933). See Duesterberg’s memoirs, p. 205: “Even otherwise clear-eyed people were swept away, intoxicated.” BA Koblenz, N 1377/47.
113 Pyta, Hindenburg, p. 824. See also Wolfram Pyta, “Geteiltes Charisma: Hindenburg, Hitler und die deutsche Gesellschaft im Jahre 1933,” in Wirsching (ed.), Das Jahr 1933, pp. 47–69 (at p. 54).
114 Schirach, Ich glaubte an Hitler, p. 168. See also Hans Frank, Im Angesicht des Galgens: Deutung Hitlers und seiner Zeit auf Grund eigener Erlebnisse und Erkenntnisse, Munich and Gräfelfing, 1953, p. 129, who quoted Hitler saying on 30 Jan. 1933 that he hoped he would be able to “win over” Hindenburg.
115 Goebbels, Tagebücher, part 1, vol. 2/3, p. 131 (entry for 17 Feb. 1933). See Brüning, Memoiren, p. 650, who wrote that by mid-February 1933 the news from the Hindenburg residence was that “the Reich President’s previous rejection of Hitler had turned into incipient fondness.” On 12 March 1933, Hindenburg wrote to his daughter: “The patriotic upswing is pleasing. May God preserve our unity.” Pyta, Hindenburg, p. 808.
116 Hitlers Tischgespräche im Führerhauptquartier, ed. Henry Picker, Stuttgart, 1976, p. 328 (dated 21 May 1942). On the change in the relationship between Hitler and Hindenburg see also Otto Dietrich, 12 Jahre mit Hitler, Munich, 1955, p. 41; Friedrich Hossbach, Zwischen Wehrmacht und Hitler 1934–1938, 2nd revised edition, Göttingen, 1965, p. 12; Schwerin von Krosigk, in his essay on Hitler’s personality (c.1945) wrote that Hitler and Hindenburg had initially treated one another with “great reserve,” but that “a relationship of great mutual respect and deep trust” had grown over the course of one-and-a-half years of working together. IfZ München, ZS 145, vol. 5.
117 Papen, Der Wahrheit eine Gasse, pp. 295, 309.
118 Meissner’s minutes on Schäffer’s meeting with the Reich president, 17 Feb. 1933; Die Regierung Hitler, part 1, vol. 1, no. 23, pp. 87–90 (quotations on p. 89). Meissner sent his minutes to State Secretary Lammers in the Reich Chancellory with the message: “I allow myself…to emphasise that the Reich president defended the Reich chancellor against certain contentions made by State Secretary Schäffer with great warmth and vigour.” Ibid., p. 87n1. In a letter to Reichstag Deputy Ritter von Lex on 15 March 1933, Schäffer denied—“categorically on my word of honour”—having made derogatory remarks about Hitler during the audience with Hindenburg on 17 Feb. He also pointed out that as early as Nov. 1932 he had offered “a very positive personal opinion of the Reich chancellor.” Ritter von Lex passed the letter to Hitler on that very day. BA Berlin-Lichterfelde, NS 1/123.
119 Hitlers Tischgespräche, p. 329 (dated 21 May 1942).
120 Goebbels, Tagebücher, part 1, vol. 2/3, p. 153 (entry for 23 March 1933).
121 Pyta, Hindenburg, p. 825. In a handwritten note on 30 Jan. 1934 Hindenburg expressed to Hitler his “sincere respect for your passionate work and your great achievements.” Deutsches Nachrichtenbüro no. 207 dated 30 Jan. 1934; BA Berlin-Lichterfelde, R 43 II/959.
122 Pyta, “Geteiltes Charisma,” p. 61.
123 Thamer, Verführung und Gewalt, p. 272.
124 Cabinet meeting on 15 March 1933; Die Regierung Hitler, part 1, vol. 1, no. 60, pp. 212–17 (quotations on pp. 214, 216).
125 Cabinet meeting on 20 March 1933; ibid., no. 68, pp. 238–40. See Thamer, Verführung und Gewalt, pp. 274f.; Frei, Der Führerstaat, pp. 61f.
126 Text in Rudolf Morsey (ed.), Das “Ermächtigungsgesetz” vom 24. März 1933: Quellen zur Geschichte und Interpretation des “Gesetzes zur Behebung der Not von Volk und Reich,” new revised and expanded edition, Düsseldorf, 2010, no. 34, pp. 70f.
127 Wilhelm Hoegner, Der schwierige Aussenseiter: Erinnerungen eines Abgeordneten, Emigranten und Ministerpräsidenten, Munich, 1959, p. 92.
128 Domarus, Hitler, vol. 1, part 1, pp. 229–37; excerpts in Morsey, Das “Ermächtigungsgesetz,” no. 28, pp. 50–6.
129 See Carl Severing, Mein Lebensweg: Vol. 2, Cologne, 1950, pp. 384f.
130 Morsey, Das “Ermächtigungsgesetz,” pp. 43, 57, 82. See Brüning, Memoiren, pp. 656, 658f.; see also Josef Becker, “Zentrum und Ermächtigungsgesetz,” in Vierteljahrshefte für Zeitgeschichte, 9 (1961), pp. 195–210.
131 Domarus, Hitler, vol. 1, part 1, pp. 239–41; excerpts in Morsey, Das “Ermächtigungsgesetz,” no. 30, pp. 58–60.
132 See Friedrich Stampfer, Erfahrungen und Erkenntnisse, Cologne, 1957, p. 268; Fest, Hitler, p. 562; Winkler, Der Weg in die Katastrophe, p. 905.
133 Goebbels, Tagebücher, part 1, vol. 2/3, p. 154 (entry for 25 March 1933).
134 Domarus, Hitler, vol. 1, part 1, p. 242–6; excerpts in Morsey, Das “Ermächtigungsgesetz,” no. 30, pp. 60–3.
135 See Morsey, Das “Ermächtigungsgesetz,” no. 30, pp. 63–6.
136 Frei, Der Führerstaat, p. 61.
137 Cabinet meeting on 24 March 1933; Die Regierung Hitler, part 1, vol. 1, no. 72, p. 248.
138 See Thamer, Verführung und Gewalt, pp. 279–82; Broszat, Der Staat Hitlers, p. 117; Pyta, Hindenburg, p. 826.
139 Goebbels, Tagebücher, part 1, vol. 2/3, p. 154 (entry for 25 March 1933). See Schwerin von Krosigk to Lutz Böhme, 8 May 1975: “The law was one step, but probably also the most important on the path of legality, towards converting political power into the absolute rule of a single man.” BA Koblenz, N 1276/42.
140 See Saul Friedländer, Das Dritte Reich und die Juden: Die Jahre der Verfolgung 1933–1939, Munich, 1998, vol. 1, pp. 30f.; Peter Longerich, Politik der Vernichtung: Eine Gesamtdarstellung der nationalsozialistischen Judenverfolgung, Munich and Zurich, 1998, pp. 26–30; Michael Wildt, Volksgemeinschaft als Selbstermächtigung: Gewalt gegen Juden in der deutschen Provinz 1919 bis 1939, Hamburg, 2007, pp. 107ff., 115ff. See also the documents in Otto Dov Kulka and Eberhard Jäckel (eds), Die Juden in den geheimen Stimmungsberichten 1933–1945, Düsseldorf, 2004, doc. 1–6, pp. 45–9.
141 Quoted in Wildt, Volksgemeinschaft als Selbstermächtigung, p. 108.
142 See the article in the New York Times of 27 March 1933; reprinted in Die Verfolgung und Ermordung der europäischen Juden durch das nationalsozialistische Deutschland 1933–1945. Vol. 1: D
eutsches Reich 1933–1937, ed. Wolf Gruner, Munich, 2008, doc. 14, pp. 92–7.
143 See Eckart Conze, Norbert Frei, Peter Hayes and Moshe Zimmermann, Das Amt und die Vergangenheit: Deutsche Diplomaten im Dritten Reich und in der Bundesrepublik, Munich, 2010, pp. 25–9.
144 Goebbels, Tagebücher, part 1, vol. 2/3, p. 156 (entry for 27 March 1933). See ibid, p. 157 (entry for 28 March 1933): “I dictated a strongly worded appeal to counteract the horrific campaign by the Jews. The mere announcement of this appeal caused that mishpoke to buckle. This is the way to deal with them.”
145 Reprinted in Die Verfolgung und Ermordung der europäischen Juden, vol. 1, doc. 17, pp. 100–4 (quotations on pp. 102f.).
146 Cabinet meeting on 29 March 1933; Die Regierung Hitler, part 1, vol. 1, no. 78, pp. 270f.
147 Cabinet meeting on 31 March 1933; ibid., no. 80, pp. 276f.
148 Quoted in Gianluca Falanga, Mussolinis Vorposten in Hitlers Reich: Italiens Politik in Berlin 1933–1945, Berlin, 2008, p. 27.
149 Haffner, Die Geschichte eines Deutschen, pp. 154f.
150 Ibid., p. 138.
151 Rumbold’s report to Foreign Secretay Simon, 13 April 1933; Becker, Hitlers Machtergreifung, p. 232. See also the report from U.S. Consul General George S. Messersmith of 3 April 1933: “The boycott was not generally popular with the German people according to the best information which the Consulate General can secure up to this time…This is no indication that the feeling against the Jews has in any sense died down, but merely that the popular opinion does not approve of a measure which even the man in the street realizes may be destructive of the internal economic life and seriously affect Germany’s foreign trade.” Bajohr and Strupp (eds), Fremde Blicke auf das “Dritte Reich,” p. 364.
152 For a summary of the public’s reaction see Hannah Ahlheim, “Deutsche, kauft nicht bei Juden!” Antisemitischer Boykott in Deutschland 1924 bis 1935, Göttingen, 2011, pp. 254–62.
153 Klemperer, Tagebücher 1933–1941, p. 15 (entry for 30 March 1933). See Willy Cohn, Kein Recht, nirgends: Tagebuch vom Untergang des Breslauer Judentums 1933–1941, ed. Norbert Conrads, Cologne, Weimar and Berlin, 2006, p. 25 (entry for 1 April 1933): “the Dark Ages.” Kurt F. Rosenberg: “Einer, der nicht mehr dazugehört”: Tagebücher 1933–1937, ed. Beate Meyer and Björn Siegel, Göttingen, 2012, p. 89 (entry for 1 May 1933): “Is that the people of poets and thinkers? We were proud to be part of it and give it our strength and best intentions.”