275 Quoted in Krüger, Die Olympischen Spiele 1936, p. 229.
276 Klemperer, Tagebücher 1933–1941, pp. 291f.
277 Domarus, Hitler, vol. 1, part 2, pp. 638, 645f. See Friedländer, Das Dritte Reich und die Juden, vol. 1, p. 201.
278 Klemperer, Tagebücher 1933–1942, p. 305 (entry for 14 Sept. 1936). See Cohn, Kein Recht, nirgends, vol. 1, p. 353 (entry for 11 Sept. 1936); Thomas Mann, Tagebücher 1937–1939, ed. Peter de Mendelssohn, Frankfurt am Main, 1980, p. 38 (entry for 10 March 1937): “Why in God’s name this prostration before something so obviously pathetic?”
17 Dictatorship by Division, Architecture of Intimidation
1 Sefton Delmer, Die Deutschen und ich, Hamburg, 1963, p. 182.
2 See Otto Dietrich, 12 Jahre mit Hitler, Munich, 1955, pp. 39, 249.
3 See Lutz Graf Schwerin von Krosigk, Es geschah in Deutschland: Menschenbilder unseres Jahrhunderts, Tübingen and Stuttgart, 1951, p. 199.
4 Lammers’s statement in the “Wilhelmstrasse trial” on 3 Sept. 1948; quoted in Dieter Rebentisch, “Hitlers Reichskanzlei zwischen Politik und Verwaltung,” in idem and Karl Teppe (eds), Verwaltung contra Menschenführung im Staat Hitlers, Göttingen, 1986, p. 68. See also sworn statement by Wilhelm Brückner, June 1954: “Hitler wanted a man who was not burdened from the start by party intrigues and who could bring a top level of judicial qualifications to the job.” IfZ München, ED 100/43.
5 Friedrich Hossbach, Zwischen Wehrmacht und Hitler 1934–1938, 2nd revised edition, Göttingen, 1965, p. 43.
6 Albert Speer, Erinnerungen: Mit einem Essay von Jochen Thies, Frankfurt am Main and Berlin, 1993, p. 48.
7 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. 60f.
8 Karl Wilhelm Krause, 10 Jahre Kammerdiener bei Hitler, Hamburg, 1949, p. 22. Otto Dietrich spoke in the questioning of 26 May 1947 of an “unbroken life of travel”; IfZ München, ZS 874. See Dietrich, 12 Jahre mit Hitler, p. 161. On Hitler’s “travel mania” see Joachim Fest, Hitler: Eine Biographie, Frankfurt am Main, Berlin and Vienna, 1973, pp. 612, 737; Marlies Steinert, Hitler, Munich, 1994, p. 123.
9 Speer, Erinnerungen, p. 59. See Wiedemann’s shorthand notes dated 25 Feb. 1939: “Whenever he travelled from Berlin to Munich, his first stop was Troost’s studio, then his own apartment, a meal in the Osteria, and the office for construction in the Bavarian Interior Ministry.” BA Koblenz, N 1720/4. On Hitler’s typical routine during his visits to Munich see also Max Wünsche’s daily diaries dated 18 June, 25 June, 2 July, 6 July, 21 July 1938; BA Berlin-Lichterfelde, NS 10/125; Dietrich, 12 Jahre mit Hitler, pp. 200–2.
10 See Hans Wilderotter, Alltag der Macht: Berlin Wilhelmstrasse, Berlin, 1998, p. 74.
11 Die Tagebücher von Joseph Goebbels. Part 1: Aufzeichnungen 1923–1941, ed. Elke Fröhlich, Munich, 1998, vol. 2/3, p. 360 (entry for 22 Jan. 1934). See Timo Nüsslein, Paul Ludwig Troost 1878–1934, Vienna, Cologne and Weimar, 2012, pp. 67f.; on the state funeral on 24 Jan. 1934, see ibid., pp. 160f. In September 1941, Hitler still described Troost as “the greatest architect of our time.” Reports by Werner Koeppen, p. 1 (dated 6 Sept. 1941).
12 See Joachim Fest, Speer: Eine Biographie, Berlin, 1999, pp. 21–50.
13 Speer, Erinnerungen, p. 43. See Fest, Speer, p. 52.
14 See Nicolaus von Below, Als Hitlers Adjutant 1937–45, Mainz, 1980, p. 28; Krause, 10 Jahre Kammerdiener, p. 34f.; Christa Schroeder, Er war mein Chef: Aus dem Nachlass der Sekretärin von Adolf Hitler, ed. Anton Joachimsthaler, 3rd edition, Munich and Vienna, 1985, pp. 59–61; Rochus Misch, Der letzte Zeuge: “Ich war Hitlers Telefonist, Kurier und Leibwächter,” Zurich and Munich, 2008, pp. 73–7; Steinert, Hitler, pp. 325f.
15 See Karl Brandt’s testimony about Wihelm Brückner and Julius Schaub (20 Sept. 1945); BA Koblenz, N 1128/33; Below, Als Hitlers Adjutant, pp. 29f., 71, 90; Schroeder, Er war mein Chef, pp. 37, 42, 44f., 46, 53f.; Krause, 10 Jahre Kammerdiener, pp. 23–7; Heinz Linge, Bis zum Untergang: Als Chef des Persönlichen Dienstes bei Hitler, ed. Werner Maser, Munich, 1982, pp. 24f.; Ernst Hanfstaengl, Zwischen Weissem und Braunem Haus: Erinnerungen eines politischen Aussenseiters, Munich, 1970, pp. 309f.; Olaf Rose (ed.), Julius Schaub: In Hitlers Schatten, Stegen, 2005, pp. 21, 51.
16 Linge, Bis zum Untergang, p. 59.
17 The list of gifts for the years 1935 and 1936 is reprinted in Anton Joachimsthaler, Hitlers Liste: Ein Dokument persönlicher Beziehungen, Munich, 2003, pp. 12–15. The thank you letter for the gift of flowers at New Year 1934 (from Victoria von Dirksen, Margarete Frick, Cornelia Popitz and others) in BA Berlin-Lichterfelde, NS 10/123. On Hitler’s pleasure at giving gifts see Schoeder, Er war mein Chef, pp. 55f.; Dietrich, 12 Jahre mit Hitler, p. 197.
18 Goebbels, Tagebücher, part 1, vol. 3/2, p. 85 (entry for 17 May 1936). See ibid., p. 85 (entry for 18 May 1936): “Sometimes the Führer is somewhere else entirely. He suffers greatly.” Hitler attended Schreck’s funeral in Münchel-Gräfelding on 19 May 1936, and he also saw to it that Schreck’s gravestone was maintained. See BA Berlin-Lichterfelde, NS 10/121. See also Hanfstaengl’s note about Schreck’s burial: “A. H. in a peaked cap like Puss in Boots with his Gauleiter, office directors and other brown armadillos crowding around him. Depressing! A pack of gangsters.” BSB München, Nl Hanfstaengl Ana 405, Box 27.
19 Hossbach, Zwischen Wehrmacht und Hitler, p. 22. See Schwerin von Krosigk’s essay on Hitler’s personality (c.1945): “His benevolence can give way to an outbreak of anger or terrifying severity with surprising suddenness”; IfZ München, ZS 145, vol. 5.
20 Krause, 10 Jahre Kammerdiener, p. 61.
21 Ibid., p. 27. On the above see Schroeder, Er war mein Chef, pp. 60, 83.
22 Wiedemann, Der Mann, pp. 235f.; see below p. 747.
23 On 23 June 1937, Hanfstaengl responded from London to the numerous congratulations and telegrams he had received on his fiftieth birthday the previous February; BSB München, Nl. Hanfstaengl Ana 405, Box 46. The Nazi leadership were concerned that Hanfstaengl might reveal intimate details from Hitler’s inner circle and tried in vain to convince him to return to Germany. See sworn statements by Julius Schaub and Wilhelm Brückner from August 1949; IfZ München, ED 100/43; Speer, Erinnerungen, p. 141; Hanfstaengl, Zwischen Weissem und Braunem Haus, pp. 362ff.; Lothar Machtan, Hitlers Geheimnis: Das Doppelleben eines Diktators, Berlin, 2001, pp. 343ff. Further, Goebbels, Tagebücher, part 1, vol. 3/2, p. 368 (entry for 11 Feb. 1937), vol. 4, pp. 47 (entry for 12 March 1937), 53 (entry for 16 March 1937), 59 (entry for 20 March 1937), 91 (entry for 13 April 1937), 97 (entry for 16 April 1937), vol. 5, p. 105 (entry for 19 Jan. 1938). See also Hanfstaengl’s correspondence with Lammers, Julius Streicher and Wilhelm Brückner in December 1937 concerning Kurt Lüdecke’s book I Knew Hitler, which had been published the previous month by Charles Scribner in New York. Hanfstaengl demanded that Hitler personally rehabilitate him, threatening to reveal things “that might not be so pleasant for certain gentlemen.” BA Berlin-Lichterfelde, R 43 II/889b. See the facsimile of a handwritten, threatening letter to Hitler on 12 Feb. 1939 in Machtan, Hitlers Geheimnis, pp. 351–3. In August 1939 “in the name of the Führer,” Martin Bormann offered to give Hanfstaengl a “suitable position” and to take over all “financial responsibilities” arising from his exile, if he agreed to return to Germany. Hanfstaengl did not take up the offer. He demanded a written document in which Hitler assumed “ultimate responsibility” for the wrong that had been done to him, which the dictator refused to provide. See Bormann to Hanfstaengl, 15 Aug. 1939 and Hanfstaengl’s answer on 18 Aug. 1939; BSB München, Nl Hanfstaengl, Ana 405, Box 40.
24 See Krause, 10 Jahre Kammerdiener, pp. 12–14.
25 See Speer, Erinnerungen, p. 47; Wilderotter, Alltag der Macht, p. 72; Sven Felix Kellerhoff, Hitlers Berlin: Geschichte einer Hassliebe, Berlin and Brandenburg, 2005, p. 110.
26 Dietrich, 12 Jahre mit Hitler, p. 152.
27 See Wiedemann, Der Mann, p. 68; Hanfstaengl, Zwischen Weissem und Braunem Haus, p. 311; Dietrich, 12 Jahre mit Hitler, p. 152.
28 Speer, Erinnerungen, p. 132; see Baldur von Schirach, Ich glaubte an Hitler, Hamburg, 1967, p. 237.
29 Krause, 10 Jahre Kammerdiener, p. 15.
30 See Birgit Schwarz, Geniewahn: Hitler und die Kunst, Vienna, Cologne and Weimar, 2009, pp. 138f. See that page for a photograph of the dining room and a reproduction of the painting.
31 According to the description by Ribbentrop’s private secretary, Reinhard Spitzy, So haben wir das Reich verspielt: Bekenntnisse eines Illegalen, 2nd edition, Munich and Vienna, 1987, p. 125. See Wilderotter, Alltag der Macht, p. 124.
32 See Speer, Erinnerungen, p. 133; Dietrich, 12 Jahre mit Hitler, pp. 252f.; Hanfstaengl, Zwischen Weissem und Braunem Haus, pp. 311f.; Wiedemann, notes on “daily life”; BA Koblenz, N 1720/4.
33 Speer, Erinnerungen, p. 133; 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, p. 51.
34 Dietrich, 12 Jahre mit Hitler, p. 253. The diplomat Ulrich von Hassell noted after a meal in the Reich Chancellery in 1936: “All in attendance hung on his every word and repeated what he said.” Ulrich von Hassell, Römische Tagebücher und Briefe 1932–1938, ed. Ulrich Schlie, Munich, 2004, p. 144 (entry for 26 July 1936). See Wiedemann’s shorthand notes dated 25 Feb. 1939: “The conversation at mealtimes was conducted almost exclusively by the Führer. The others listened and agreed. It was basically impossible to raise any objections no matter how well founded they might have been.” BA Koblenz, N 1720/4.
35 Albert Speer, “Alles was ich weiss”: Aus unbekannten Geheimdienstprotokollen vom Sommer 1945, ed. Ulrich Schlie, Munich, 1999, p. 39.
36 See Speer, Erinnerungen, p. 138; Dietrich, 12 Jahre mit Hitler, pp. 253f.; Hanfstaengl, Zwischen Weissen und Braunem Haus, p. 318; Linge, Bis zum Untergang, pp. 105, 120f.; Heinrich Hoffmann, Hitler wie ich ihn sah: Aufzeichnungen seines Leibfotographen, Munich and Berlin, 1974, pp. 170f. See also Peter Longerich, Joseph Goebbels: A Biography, London, 2015, pp. 251f; Wilderotter, Alltag der Macht, pp. 124f.
37 See Speer, Erinnerungen, p. 142; Schlie (ed.), Albert Speer, p. 39; Krause, 10 Jahre Kammerdiener, p. 16; Schroeder, Er war mein Chef, p. 74; Wiedemann, Der Mann, pp. 69f.; Hans Baur, Ich flog Mächtige der Erde, Kempten im Allgäu, 1956, pp. 98f.; Dietrich, 12 Jahre mit Hitler, p. 248.
38 See Krause, 10 Jahre Kammerdiener, p. 19; Wiedemann, Der Mann, p. 77; Hanfstaengl, Zwischen Weissem und Braunem Haus, pp. 334f.; Baur, Ich flog Mächtige der Erde, pp. 128f.
39 Speer, Erinnerungen, p. 143; see Below, Als Hitlers Adjutant, p. 33; Krause, 10 Jahre Kammerdiener, p. 19.
40 See Krause, 10 Jahre Kammerdiener, p. 19.
41 Speer, Erinnerungen, p. 143; see Below, Als Hitlers Adjutant, p. 33.
42 Krause, 10 Jahre Kammerdiener, p. 20. For examples see also Max Wünsche’s daily diaries dated 19 June 1938 (9 p.m.): “The Führer found the film Capriccio particularly bad (manure of the strongest sort).” BA Berlin Lichterfelde, NS 10/125. On Hitler’s favourite actors see Speer, Erinnerungen, p. 49.
43 For example, see Goebbels, Tagebücher, part 1, vol. 2/3, pp. 332 (entry for 7 Dec. 1933), 377 (entry for 24 Feb. 1934), 384 (entry for 9 March 1934); vol. 3/1, pp. 35 (entries for 16 and 18 April 1934); 50 (entry for 19 May 1934). Max Wünsche’s daily diaries dated 16 June 1938: “The Propaganda Ministry is to be informed as to the Führer’s opinion every time he watches a film.” BA Berlin-Lichterfelde, NS 10/125. See the reports filed by Hitler’s assistants about his opinions in 1938 in BA Berlin-Lichterfelde, NS 10/44. For the 1936 list of films the Propaganda Ministry sent almost every day to Schaub or Wiedemann, see BA Berlin-Lichterfelde, NS 10/42.
44 Krause, 10 Jahre Kammerdiener, p. 21; see Wiedemann’s notes on “daily life”; BA Koblenz N 1740/4; Wiedemann, Der Mann, p. 78
45 Krause, 10 Jahre Kammerdiener, p. 49; Dr. Eduard Stadtler to Hitler, 13 Dec. 1933; BA Berlin-Lichterfelde, NS 10/120.
46 See Hossbach, Zwischen Wehrmacht und Hitler, p. 17; Krause, 10 Jahre Kammerdiener, p. 21.
47 See Baur, Ich flog Mächtige der Erde, pp. 124, 127f.; Krause, 10 Jahre Kammerdiener, p. 22; Hossbach, Zwischen Wehrmacht und Hitler, p. 18; Below, Als Hitlers Adjutant, pp. 39f.; Schroeder, Er war mein Chef, pp. 89, 345f.; Wiedemann, Der Mann, pp. 75f.
48 Dietrich, 12 Jahre mit Hitler, p. 162; see note by Fritz Wiedemann (undated): “It’s an utter fabrication that Hitler’s decisions were influenced by astrology, horoscopes or other such superstitions. He loathed such things.” BA Koblenz, N 1720/4.
49 See the hotel bills for 1931 and 1932 for the Hotels Elephant, Dreesen, Deutscher Hof, Hospiz Baseler Hof, Hospiz Viktoria, Bube’s Hotel Pension in BA Berlin-Lichterfelde, NS 26/2557. Further, Dietrich, 12 Jahre mit Hitler, pp. 163, 177, 179, 180, 184, 191, 194.
50 See ibid., pp. 182f.; Krause, 10 Jahre Kammerdiener, p. 22. In a general directive to upper-level Reich offices on 11 March 1936, the Propaganda Ministry ordered that “no news may be given to the press about the Führer’s travels or participation in events.” Only the press division of the Reich government or the press office of the NSDAP were allowed to release such information. BA Berlin-Lichterfelde, R 43 II/976e.
51 Dietrich, 12 Jahre mit Hitler, p. 162.
52 See Linge, Bis zum Untergang, p. 109; Krause, 10 Jahre Kammerdiener, p. 29.
53 Dietrich, 12 Jahre mit Hitler, p. 202.
54 See ibid., pp. 153, 251; Below, Als Hitlers Adjutant, pp. 32f.; Steinert, Hitler, pp. 326, 333; Ian Kershaw, Hitler 1936–1945: Nemesis, London, 2000, p. 33. During interrogation in 1945, Albert Speer spoke of “indeterminate form of command.” Schlie (ed.), Albert Speer, p. 29.
55 Dietrich, 12 Jahre mit Hitler, p. 253; see Hans Frank, Im Angesicht des Galgens: Deutung Hitlers und seiner Zeit auf Grund eigener Erlebnisse und Erkenntnisse, Munich and Gräfelfing, 1953, pp. 332f.
56 Ernst von Weizsäcker, Erinnerungen, Munich, 1950, pp. 201f.; see Wiedemann’s shorthand notes of 25 Feb. 1939: “After one of his long lectures, it was very difficult, if not impossible, to get clear decisions.” BA Koblenz, N 1720/4.
57 Kershaw, Hitler: Hubris, p. 578.
58 See ibid., pp. 665–7. In his memoirs Richard Walter Darré wrote of an “everyone-for-himself battle” that maintained “equilibrium between the dynamic strengths of the men involved in it” and thus served to stabilise Hitler’s power. Diaries 1945–1946, pp. 58f.; IfZ München, ED 110, vol. 1.
59 Deutschland-Berichte der Sopade, 1 (1934), p. 356.
60 See Hans Mommsen, “Hitlers Stellung im nationalsozialistischen Herrschaftssystem,” in Gerhard Hirschfeld and Lothar Kettenacker (eds), Der “Führerstaat”: Mythos und Realität, Stuttgart, 1981, pp. 43–5.
61 As in Sebastian Haffner, Germany: Jekyll & Hyde. Deutschland von innen betrachtet, Berlin, 1996, p. 36.
62 Karl Dietrich Bracher, Zeitgeschichtliche Kontroversen um Faschismus, Totalitarismus, Demokratie, Munich, 1976, p. 85.
63 Adolf Hitler, Monologe im Führerhauptquartier 1941–1944: Die Aufzeichnungen Heinrich Heims, ed. Werner Jochmann, Hamburg, 1980, p. 82 (dated 14 Oct. 1941).
64 See Otto Dietrich’s testimony of 20 Sept. 1947; IfZ München, ZS 874; Dietrich, 12 Jahre mit Hitler, p. 129: “He systematically filled posts twice and assigned overlapping tasks without defining individual responsibilities.”
65 See Mommsen, “Hitlers Stellung,” p. 51; Hans-Ulrich Thamer, Verführung und Gewalt: Deutschland 1933–1945, Berlin, 1986, p. 340; Hans-Ulrich Wehler summarises the long-running debate among scholars on the monocracy or polyarchy of the NS system in Deutsche Gesellschaftsgeschichte 1914–1949, Munich, 2003, pp. 623–6.
66 See above p. 490.
67 See Stefan Krings, Hitlers Pressechef Otto Dietrich 1897–1952: Eine Biographie, Götting
en, 2010, pp. 222ff.
68 On what follows see Lothar Gruchmann, “Die ‘Reichsregierung’ im Führerstaat: Stellung und Funktion des Kabinetts im nationalsozialistischen Herrschaftssystem,” in Günter Doeker and Winfried Steffani (eds), Klassenjustiz und Pluralismus: Festschrift für Ernst Fraenkel zum 75. Geburtstag, Cologne, 1973, pp. 187–223 (figures on p. 192). See also Martin Broszat, Der Staat Hitlers: Grundlegung und Entwicklung seiner inneren Verfassung, Munich, 1969, pp. 350f.; Akten der Reichskanzlei: Die Regierung Hitler, Vol. 5 (1938), ed. Friedrich Hartmannsgruber, Munich, 2008, p. xvi. In November 1938, Hitler told Lammers he intended to convene the cabinet again between 10 and 15 Dec., but nothing came of it. Lammers to the Reich ministers, 26 Nov. 1938; BA Berlin-Lichterfelde, NS 10/25.
69 Schwerin von Krosigk to Lennart Westberg, 24 Feb. 1976; BA Koblenz, N 1276/36.
70 Cabinet meeting on 30 Jan. 1937, Akten der Reichskanzlei: Die Regierung. Hitler, Vol. 4 (1937), ed. Friedrich Hartmannsgruber, Munich, 2005, no. 23, pp. 73f.; Goebbels, Tagebücher, part 1, vol. 3/2, p. 353 (entry for 21 Jan. 1937).
71 See Broszat, Der Staat Hitlers, pp. 358f.; Ian Kershaw, Hitler: Profiles in Power, revised edition, London, 2000, p. 113; Wilderotter, Alltag der Macht, pp. 215f.
72 See Kershaw, Hitler: Profiles in Power, p. 136; Wilderotter, Alltag der Macht, pp. 216–19; Wehler, Deutsche Gesellschaftsgeschichte 1914–1949, pp. 633, 635.
73 See Robert Ley, “Gedanken um den Führer” (1945): “The Führer loved to see two people competing for a single area [of responsibility]. He was convinced that got results.” BA Koblenz, N 1468/4. See also Albert Speer under questioning in 1945: “He largely followed the ancient principle of divide and conquer.” Schlie (ed.), Albert Speer, p. 34.
74 Die Regierung Hitler, part 1, vol. 2, no. 254, p. 972; see Broszat, Der Staat Hitlers, pp. 328–32.
75 On Organisation Todt see Franz W. Seidler, Die Organisation Todt: Bauen für Staat und Wehrmacht 1938–1945, Bonn, 1998.
76 See Detlev Humann, “Arbeitsschlacht”: Arbeitsbeschaffung und Propaganda in der NS-Zeit 1933–1939, Göttingen, 2011, pp. 366–400; Broszat, Der Staat Hitlers, pp. 332–4.
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