Hitler
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Zehnpfennig, Barbara, Hitlers “Mein Kampf”: Eine Interpretation, 2nd edition, Munich, 2002
Zelnhefer, Siegfried, Die Reichsparteitage der NSDAP: Geschichte, Struktur und Bedeutung der grössten Propagandafeste im nationalsozialistischen Feierjahr, Nuremberg, 2002
Zimmermann, Peter, “Die Parteitagsfilme der NSDAP und Leni Riefenstahl,” in idem and Kai Hoffmann (eds), Geschichte des dokumentarischen Films in Deutschland. Vol. 3: “Drittes Reich” 1933–1945, Stuttgart, 2005.
Zitelmann, Rainer, Hitler: Selbstverständnis eines Revolutionärs, 2nd revised and expanded edition, Stuttgart, 1989
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Acknowledgements
I received a great amount of support during the extensive research that went into this book, and for that I owe many people my thanks. The first I should mention are the women and men at the archives who opened their doors and allowed me access to the treasures within: Torsten Zarwel at the Bundesarchiv in Berlin-Lichtenberg, Annegret Neupert at the Bundesarchiv in Koblenz, Dr. Klaus A. Lankheit at the Institut für Zeitgeschichte in Munich, Dr. Sylvia Krauss at the Bayerisches Hauptstaatsarchiv in Munich, Dr. Nino Nodia at the Bayerische Staatsbibliothek in Munich and Marlies Hertig at the Schweizerisches Bundesarchiv in Bern.
Mirjam Zimmer and Dr. Kerstin Wilhelms at Die Zeit newspaper were extraordinarily helpful in procuring literature for me. Karl-Otto Schütt repeatedly gave me access to books from the extensive holdings of the Bibliothek der Forschungsstelle für Zeitgeschichte in Hamburg.
Above all I would like to thank my friend Walter H. Pehle, the veteran history editor at the Fischer Verlag publishing house. He not only helped inspire the project but also thoroughly edited the manuscript and helped select the illustrations. His successor, Dr. Tanja Hommen, took over the coordination of the project as the book went to press. Dr. Peter Sillem, the publishing director of Fischer’s non-fiction department, was consistently encouraging throughout the various stages of this work. The S. Fischer Foundation provided a generous stipend that allowed me to do my archival research.
My greatest thanks, however, go to my family: my wife Gudrun and my son Sebastian. With them I had many enlightening conversations about this unpleasant topic, and their critical questions and objections have greatly helped shape the text.
Volker Ullrich
Hamburg, May 2013
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Hitler’s father, Alois Hitler, in his custom official’s uniform, c. 1880
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Hitler’s mother, Klara Hitler, c. 1885
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Hitler as a small child, 1891
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Class photo with the ten-year-old Adolf Hitler (top, middle), Leonding, 1899
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Hitler as a boy
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Hitler at a patriotic event in Munich’s Odeonplatz, 2 August 1914
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Hitler (right) with his comrades in Bavarian RIR 16, and his fox terrier “Foxl,” in 1915
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NSDAP flyer announcing Hitler’s appearance in Zirkus Krone on 11 January 1922
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One of the first portraits of Hitler by Heinrich Hoffmann, September 1923
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Hitler speaking in Munich’s Zirkus Krone in 1923, before the putsch
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Group photo of the defendants at Hitler’s trial, 1 April 1924: (from left to right) Heinz Pernet, Friedrich Weber, Wilhelm Frick, Hermann Kriebel, Erich Ludendorff, Hitler, Wilhelm Brückner, Ernst Röhm and Robert Wagner
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Hitler with fellow Landsberg inmates: (from left to right) Hitler, Emil Maurice, Hermann Kriebel, Rudolf Hess and Friedrich Weber
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Advertising brochure for Hitler’s book, early June 1924
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Hitler outside the Landsberg city gate after his release from prison, 20 December 1924
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Hitler wearing lederhosen and brown shirt in an unpublished photograph by Heinrich Hoffmann, spring 1927
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Hitler at a party rally in Weimar, 3–4 July 1926
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The Berlin Sportpalast during a National Socialist campaign event in September 1930
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Hitler is celebrated by supporters after his testimony at the Reich Court in Leipzig, 25 September 1930
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Alfred Hugenberg and Hitler, in a contemporary photomontage uniting the unequal partners in the Harzburg Front
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Hitler’s office in Munich’s Brown House, with a bust of Mussolini and a portrait of Friedrich the Great
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Eva Braun posing on a desk in Heinrich Hoffmann’s atelier in 1930
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Maria Reiter at the age of sixteen, when she first met Hitler. The dedication on the back of the photo reads “In eternal memory, your Mizzi Reiter, 26 August 1926.”
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Hitler’s niece Geli Raubal
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Hitler posing for the cameras of Richard Wagner’s grandsons, Wieland and Wolfgang, 1931
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Official photo announcing the continuation of the marriage between Joseph and Magda Goebbels, October 1938
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Publicity pamphlet advertising one of Hitler’s flying tours, 1932
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Hitler and Hermann Göring at a meeting of the Düsseldorf Industrial Club, 26 January 1933, at which Fritz Thyssen read a declaration ending with “Heil, Herr Hitler”
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The “Cabinet of National Concentration” on 30 January 1933: (sitting, left to right) Hermann Göring, Hitler, Franz von Papen; (standing, right) Alfred Hugenberg
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“The Day of Potsdam”: Hitler bows before President Paul von Hindenburg, 21 March 1933
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Three typical Hitler poses during his speech in Berlin’s Sportpalast on 10 February 1933
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Hitler digging the first turf for the construction of the autobahn near Darmstadt, 3 September 1933
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Hitler’s first meeting with Mussolini, Venice, 14 June 1934
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Supporters making the pilgrimage to the Berghof, Hitler’s residence on the Obersalzberg
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Albert Speer unveiling his ’ “Dome of Light” on the Zeppelin Field at the Nuremberg rally of 1936
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Leni Riefenstahl during the filming of Triumph of the Will, September 1934
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“Pillory parade” in Gelsenkirchen in August 1935
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Hitler enters Berlin’s Olympic Stadium, accompanied by members of the National and International Olympic Committees, 1 August 1936
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The planned North–South Axis in Berlin, with the central station and the triumphal arch in the foreground and the great, domed hall in the background
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Hitler, Albert Speer and Ludwig Ruff looking at blueprints and models for the Nuremberg rally site
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Hitler’s office in the New Reich Chancellery, 1939
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The concealable window in the Great Hall at the Berghof
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Hitler and Eva Braun on the Obersalzberg, autumn 1938
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Group photo from the Berghof New Year’s Eve party in 1938. Hitler is in the front row with Eva Braun to his left.
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Defaced windows of Jewish-owned businesses in Berlin, June 1938
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Onlookers watch as the Old Synagogue in Essen burns, 9 November 1938
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Mussolini in Berlin during his state visit, 27 September 1937
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Hitler speaks from the balcony of Vienna’s Hofburg Palace, 15 March 1938.
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Hitler at the German Gymnastics and Sports Festival in Breslau, 31 July 1938
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Czech president Emil Hácha with Hitler in his office at the New Reich Chancellery, 15 March 1939
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A military parade on Berlin’s new East–West Axis in honour of Hitler’s fiftieth birthday, 20 April 1939
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Hermann Göring congratulates Hitler in the name of the assembled Nazi leaders on his fiftieth birthday.
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