Berlin 1936

by Oliver Hilmes

  The arrest of the Jewish man and the woman’s coldhearted reaction to it leave a deeply disturbing impression on Wolfe, who is filled with hatred and anger at the people responsible for such injustice. He then remembers the promise he made to Heinz Ledig on the final day of the Olympic Games: someday he’ll write a book about his experiences in the Third Reich.

  As soon as he’s back in New York, he immediately sits down to work. Before long he has published an autobiographical short story entitled “I Have a Thing to Tell You.” On the one hand, the story is a love letter to Berlin; on the other it’s a vivid final reckoning with the Nazis and their regime. Ernst Rowohlt, Heinz Ledig, Thea Voelcker and his fellow passengers from the train all feature in the text in barely fictionalized guise. When Ledig reads a prepublication excerpt from the story in an American newspaper in the spring of 1937, he can’t believe his eyes. Wolfe has remembered conversations with him, Rowohlt and other Berlin friends with amazing accuracy. What will happen if officials from the Propaganda Ministry read it and figure out who the thinly veiled inspirations for the fictional characters are? It wouldn’t be difficult to put two and two together and draw a connection with the Rowohlt publishing house. In a hastily convened emergency meeting, Ledig, Rowohlt, Ernst von Salomon, Martha Dodd and other friends of Wolfe discuss the danger they potentially face because of the story’s publication. Dodd bursts into tears and advises the others to leave Germany as soon as possible, but the others never seriously consider it. “After rocking his upper body back and forth the whole time like a polar bear,” Salomon will later recall, “Rowohlt suddenly beamed with relief and bellowed, ‘Ho, ho…nothing can happen to me! All I ever said was: Cheers!’ ” After some further discussion, Wolfe’s friends decide that they shouldn’t panic. They should just wait and see how things develop. But the fear remains.

  Thomas Clayton Wolfe dies of tuberculosis on 15 September 1938 at the age of 37. Disappointed and tired of life, Thea Voelcker overdoses on sleeping pills in August 1941. Ernst Rowohlt lives to drink countless further bottles of Mosel. After the Second World War, he resumes publishing, first in Stuttgart, then in Hamburg, and becomes one of the most important cultural figures in the young Federal Republic of Germany. One of his biggest hits is Ernst von Salomon’s autobiography Der Fragebogen (The Questionnaire). After Rowohlt dies in 1960, his illegitimate son Heinz Ledig takes over the publishing house. Salomon dies in August 1972, Martha Dodd in August 1990, and Heinrich-Maria (Heinz) Ledig-Rowohlt in February 1992.

  The very Thursday that the world learns of the death of the American writer Thomas Wolfe, the British prime minister, Neville Chamberlain, boards a plane to southern Germany. His destination is the Obersalzberg near Berchtesgaden. At Hitler’s Alpine retreat, he will negotiate with the German dictator about the Sudetenland in an attempt to stop Germany’s expansionism and fend off a new world war. But his efforts will only delay, not prevent that catastrophe.

  Acknowledgments

  I received a lot of help in my work, and I would particularly like to express my heartfelt gratitude to all the employees of the archives and collections I consulted, especially Annette Thomas and Gisela Erler at the Landesarchiv Berlin, who were always willing to guide me through their institution’s holdings.

  I would also like to thank Thomas Rathnow and Jens Dehning at my German publisher, Siedler Verlag; my Munich editor Karen Guddas; and Ditta Ahmadi, who did her usual excellent job in the aesthetic presentation of words and photographs. My agent Barbara Wenner was my constant support in word and deed. I’m very grateful to her.

  For various reasons, I also want to thank Christian Becker, Shareen Blair Brysac, Christine Casapicola, Dr. Elke Fröhlich, Armin Fuhrer, Dr. Heike Görtemaker, Professor Dr. Manfred Görtemaker, Professor Ulrich Gröner, Andrea Hofmann, Dr. Florian Huber, Dr. Emanuel Hübner, Dorothea Hütte, Dr. Hans Kitzmüller, Dr. Jürgen May, Dr. Steven B. Rogers, Jutta Rosenkranz, Dr. Claus W. Schäfer, Michael Töteberg, Professor Dr. Michael Tsokos, Beatrice Vierneisel, Annegret Wilke, Ilse Zellermayer and Gisela Zoch-Westphal.

  Finally I offer huge thanks to my parents Ilona and Wilfried Hilmes and—last, but not least—to Peter Franzek.

  Notes

  Saturday, 1 August 1936

  “directors of a flea circus”: Elke Fröhlich (ed.), Die Tagebücher von Joseph Goebbels, Part I, Vol. 3/II, Munich, 2001, p. 146.

  “first man who crosses my path”: Harry Graf Kessler, Das Tagebuch: Vierter Band 1906–1914, Stuttgart, 2005, pp. 590f.

  “beggars rampant in Garmisch”: Richard Strauss to Municipal Council Garmisch, 1 Feb. 1933, copy in BAB, R 8076/236.

  “makes work for idle hands”: Willi Schuh (ed.), Richard Strauss—Stefan Zweig: Briefwechsel, Frankfurt/Main, 1957, p. 90.

  “important that he like it”: Richard Strauss to Hans Heinrich Lammers, 20 Dec. 1934, copy in BAB, R 43II/729.

  “I’m starving!”: Hannes Trautloft, Als Jagdflieger in Spanien: Aus dem Tagebuch eines deutschen Legionärs, Berlin, 1940, p. 15.

  “It’s raining slightly”: Fröhlich (ed.), Die Tagebücher von Joseph Goebbels, Part I, Vol. 3/II, p. 146.

  “radio proposals, photographers, etc….”: Richard S. Kennedy and Paschal Reeves (eds.), The Notebooks of Thomas Wolfe, Vol. 2, Chapel Hill, 1970, p. 748.

  “people I’ve met in Europe”: Thomas Wolfe to Maxwell Perkins, 23 May 1935, in Elizabeth Nowell (ed.), The Letters of Thomas Wolfe, New York, 1956, p. 460.

  “sound of music in the air”: Thomas Wolfe, You Can’t Go Home Again, New York, 2011, p. 528.

  “such as the Buddha or Messiahs use”: ibid, p. 533.

  “learn this sentence by heart”: “Alle Welt ist begeistert. Die Boykott-Bewegung gegen Hitlers Olympiade 1936 in Berlin scheiterte,” in Der Spiegel, No. 5/1980, p. 123.

  “That fellow really can compose”: Fröhlich (ed.), Die Tagebücher von Joseph Goebbels, Part I, Vol. 3/II, p. 112.

  “Handshake with Hitler”: Franz Trenner (ed.), Richard Strauss: Chronik zu Leben und Werk, Vienna, 2003, p. 573.

  “just as smoothly for war”: cited from “Alle Welt ist begeistert,” p. 116.

  “his eyes were filled with tears”: Stephan Tauschitz to Guido Schmidt, 5 Aug. 1936, ÖSTA/ADR, Neues Politisches Archiv, Politische Berichte Berlin, No. 176/1936.

  “can be found for this accusation”: BAB, NS 10/51.

  Sunday, 2 August 1936

  “daily reports as ordered”: BAB, R 58/2322.

  “That’s the terrible thing!”: Fröhlich (ed.), Die Tagebücher von Joseph Goebbels, Part I, Vol. 3/II, p. 147.

  “in front of the Führer”: “Olympiasiegerin Tilly Fleischer grüsst die Leser der Nachtausgabe,” in Berliner illustrierte Nachtausgabe, 2 Aug. 1936.

  “Adolf + I with oak”: Reinhard Rürup (ed.), 1936: Die Olympischen Spiele und der Nationalsozialismus, Berlin, 1996, p. 182.

  “have got over it somehow”: Horst Winter, Dreh dich noch einmal um: Erinnerungen des Kapellmeisters der Hoch- und Deutschmeister, Vienna, 1989, p. 26.

  “gestures stimulating intercourse”: Vernehmung Hanns Curth, LAB, A Pr.Br.Rep. 030–02-05 No. 20.

  Monday, 3 August 1936

  “ ‘I think it’s time to go’ ”: Mascha Kaléko, “Der nächste Morgen,” from idem, Das lyrische Stenogrammheft: Kleines Lesebuch für Grosse, © Rowohlt Taschenbuch Verlag GmbH, Reinbek bei Hamburg 1978; digital rights © dtv Verlagsgesellschaft, Munich 2015.

  “And that’s for the best”: Fröhlich (ed.), Die Tagebücher von Joseph Goebbels, Part I, Vol. 3/II, p. 148.

  “Now she’s inconsolable”: Elke Fröhlich (ed.), Die Tagebücher von Joseph Goebbels, Part I, Vol. 2/II, Munich, 2004, p. 133.

  “a woman born as a Jew”: “Wir gratulieren, Herr Goebbels!” Die Rote Fahne, 18 Dec. 1931.

  “gruesome person”: Elke Fröhlich (ed.), Die Tagebücher von Joseph Goebbels, Part I, Vol. 2/III, Munich, 2004, p. 115.

  “nauseous”: ibid., p. 150.

  “wretched hypocrite”: Fröhlich (ed.), Die
Tagebücher von Joseph Goebbels, Part I, Vol. 2/II, p. 63.

  “We’ve separated internally”: Elke Fröhlich (ed.), Die Tagebücher von Joseph Goebbels, Part I, Vol. 3/I, Munich, 2005, p. 67.

  “recover from this”: Fröhlich (ed.), Die Tagebücher von Joseph Goebbels, Part I, Vol. 3/II, p. 147.

  “two-day visits”: Hans Bohrmann and Gabriele Toepser-Ziegert (eds.), NS-Presseanweisungen der Vorkriegszeit: Edition und Dokumentation, Vol. 4/1936, Munich, 1993, p. 830.

  “make it to the top three?”: “Borchmeyer im Endlauf,” Olympia-Zeitung, 4 Aug. 1936.

  “shaking hands with this Negro”: Baldur von Schirach, Ich glaubte an Hitler, Hamburg, 1967, p. 217.

  “and other sporting competitions”: Albert Speer, Erinnerungen, Berlin, 2007, p. 86.

  “which preaches racial hatred”: BAB, R 58/2320.

  “should be mentioned occasionally”: Bohrmann and Toepser-Ziegert (eds.), NS-Presseanweisungen der Vorkriegszeit, pp. 831f.

  “in Montparnasse and not in Berlin”: “Tumult im Luxusrestaurant,” Berliner Herold, 11 Nov. 1934.

  “by different standards”: Yvonne Fürstner to Lieselotte Meigs, 15 Nov. 1935, in LAB, A Rep. 358–02 No. 118497.

  “of Bornemannstrasse 3”: BAB, NS 10/51.

  “Very nice!”: Thomas Mann, Tagebücher. 1935–1936, ed. Peter de Mendelssohn, Frankfurt/Main, 1978, p. 344f.

  “my large intestine”: ibid, p. 350.

  Tuesday, 4 August 1936

  “splendid Rüdesheimer Riesling”: Thomas Wolfe, “Brooklyn, Europa und ich,” Die Dame, Illustrierte Mode-Zeitschrift, Issue 3/1939, pp. 41f.

  “arrived at Tempelhof shunting yard”: BAB, NS 10/51.

  “Will Owens win a second gold?”: B.Z. am Mittag, 4 Aug. 1936, p. 1.

  “who he’s up against?”: Jeremy Schaap, Triumph: The Untold Story of Jesse Owens and Hitler’s Olympics, Boston, 2007, p. 200.

  the sort of story: “Jesses Märchen,” Der Spiegel, No. 1/2015, p. 105.

  “ ‘to give my best!’ ”: Luz Long, “Mein Kampf mit Owens,” in Kai-Heinrich Long, Luz Long—eine Sportlerkarriere im Dritten Reich: Sein Leben in Dokumenten und Bildern, Hildesheim, 2015, pp. 101f.

  “without any culture over there?”: Fröhlich (ed.), Die Tagebücher von Joseph Goebbels, Part I, Vol. 3/II, p. 149.

  “embrace a Negro”: Long, Luz Long—eine Sportlerkarriere im Dritten Reich, p. 208.

  “during the Olympic Games”: BAB, R 58/2320.

  “spaghetti and macaroni”: “Speisekarte für Olympia-Gäste,” Berliner Lokal-Anzeiger, 17 July 1936.

  “the English and the Dutch”: “Speisekarte für Olympia-Gäste,” Berliner Lokal-Anzeiger, 14 July 1936.

  “the glory of their history and art”: “Wir sprachen Thomas Wolfe,” Berliner Tageblatt, 5 Aug. 1936.

  “as a woman could be”: Wolfe, You Can’t Go Home Again, p. 530.

  “here is a friend”: Thea Voelcker to Thomas Wolfe, 20 Oct. 1936, HLB.

  “the women seen there”: Die Dame, Issue 16/1936, pp. 33f.

  “at Monbijoustrasse 2”: BAB, NS 10/51.

  “as best they could”: Die Olympischen Spiele 1936, Vol. 2, Berlin 1936, p. 120.

  Wednesday, 5 August 1936

  “ ‘they all know the truth’ ”: Ernst von Salomon, Der Fragebogen, Reinbek, 2003, pp. 273f.

  “read from their faces”: Stephan Tauschitz to Guido Schmidt, 5 Aug. 1936, ÖSTA/ADR, Neues Politisches Archiv, Politische Berichte Berlin, No. 175/1936.

  “s’ink it str-a-a-nge?”: cited in Kennedy, The Notebooks of Thomas Wolfe, Vol. 2, p. 834.

  “turn your nose up at”: H. P. Tillenburg, “Klirrender Stahl im Kuppelsaal: Wir besuchen die olympischen Amazonen,” Olympia-Zeitung, 7 Aug. 1936.

  “inflammatory pamphlets were found”: BAB, R 58/2320.

  “that’s for sure”: Fröhlich (ed.), Die Tagebücher von Joseph Goebbels, Part I, Vol. 3/II, p. 150.

  “a halo of importance”: Bella Fromm, Als Hitler mir die Hand küsste, Berlin, 1993, p. 250.

  “you old cow”: Jürgen Trimborn, Riefenstahl: Eine deutsche Karriere, Berlin, 2002, p. 256.

  “make his exit”: Carl Zuckmayer, Geheimreport, Munich, 2007, pp. 93f.

  “pre-1870, that is”: Salomon, Der Fragebogen, p. 277.

  “you are that woman!”: Martha Dodd, Meine Jahre in Deutschland 1933–1938: Nice to meet you, Mr. Hitler!, Frankfurt/Main, 2005, p. 74.

  fluttered around his groin like a butterfly: Shareen Blair Brysac, Mildred Harnack und die Rote Kapelle: Die Geschichte einer ungewöhnlichen Frau und einer Widerstandsbewegung, Berlin, 2003, p. 229.

  “so I yelled”: cited in David Herbert Donald, Look Homeward: A Life of Thomas Wolfe, Boston, 1987, p. 386.

  Thursday, 6 August 1936

  “velvety as Oxford sward”: Wolfe, You Can’t Go Home Again, p. 540.

  “austere royal Prussian pomp”: Heinrich Maria Ledig-Rowohlt, “Thomas Wolfe in Berlin,” in Der Monat. Eine internationale Zeitschrift für Politik und geistiges Leben, Oct. 1948, p. 74.

  “I enlightened him”: Fröhlich (ed.), Die Tagebücher von Joseph Goebbels, Part I, Vol. 3/II, p. 151.

  “ ‘You’re right’ ”: Alfred Rosenberg, Die Tagebücher von 1934 bis 1944, ed. Jürgen Matthäus and Frank Bajohr, Frankfurt/Main, 2015, pp. 186f.

  “liked him and his wife at once”: Documents on British Foreign Policy 1919–1939, Second Series, Vol. 17, London, 1979, p. 768.

  “what he meant by it”: ibid., pp. 767f.

  “with racial perspectives”: Bohrmann and Toepser-Ziegert (eds.), NS-Presseanweisungen der Vorkriegszeit, p. 853.

  “I could find anywhere”: Fröhlich (ed.), Die Tagebücher von Joseph Goebbels, Part I, Vol. 3/II, p. 151.

  “it won’t cloud our friendship”: Fröhlich (ed.), Die Tagebücher von Joseph Goebbels, Part I, Vol. 2/II, p. 98.

  “good to one another”: ibid., p. 100.

  “the way I like him best”: Fröhlich (ed.), Die Tagebücher von Joseph Goebbels, Part I, Vol. 3/II, p. 151.

  “particularly transparent”: “Deutsch—nicht Schachteldeutsch!” Berliner Lokal-Anzeiger, 6 Aug. 1936.

  “the Olympics as camouflage”: Fromm, Als Hitler mir die Hand küsste, p. 250.

  “Every sentence hit its mark”: Fröhlich (ed.), Die Tagebücher von Joseph Goebbels, Part I, Vol. 3/II, p. 151f.

  “unite the peoples of Europe”: “Festlicher Abend in der Staatsoper,” Berliner Lokal-Anzeiger, 7 Aug. 1936.

  “major feat of propaganda”: Fröhlich (ed.), Die Tagebücher von Joseph Goebbels, Part I, Vol. 3/II, p. 151f.

  “are impressed?”: Willy Brandt, Erinnerungen, Frankfurt/Main, 1989, p. 110.

  “even moderate resistance”: Paul Schmidt, Statist auf diplomatischer Bühne 1923–45: Erlebnisse des Chefdolmetschers im Auswärtigen Amt mit den Staatsmännern Europas, Bonn, 1953, p. 325.

  “within four years”: Wilhelm Treue, “Hitlers Denkschrift zum Vierjahresplan 1936,” Vierteljahrshefte für Zeitgeschichte 3/2 (1955), p. 210.

  “No culprit located”: BAB, R 58/2320.

  “his mother’s opinion”: Ledig-Rowohlt, “Thomas Wolfe in Berlin,” p. 74.

  “personal answers only”: Berliner Lokal-Anzeiger, 6 Aug. 1936.

  Friday, 7 August 1936

  “Long live the maidens of Germany!”: “Sven Hedin besucht ein Arbeitsdienstlager,” Berliner Lokal-Anzeiger, 7 Aug. 1936.

  “no one did voluntarily”: Jewish prisoner Alfred Lomnitz, cited in Günter Morsch (ed.), Sachsenhausen: Das “Konzentrationslager bei der Reichshauptstadt,” Berlin, 2014, p. 27.

  “They are too many in number”: Lernen Sie das schöne Deutschland kennen: Ein Reiseführer, unentbehrlich für jeden Besucher der Olympischen Spiele zu Berlin, copy in BAB, R 58/2320.

  “from the Olympic Games in Berlin”: Trautloft, Als Jagdflieger in Spanien, pp. 20f.

  “Then there will be some shooting”: Fröhlich (ed.), Die Tagebücher von Joseph Goebbels, Part I, Vol. 3/II, p. 152.


  233,748 oranges: all statistics from Amtlicher Bericht 11. Olympiade Berlin 1936, Berlin, 1937, Vol. 1, pp. 234–45.

  “agreement on basic questions”: “Unterrichtung über Rassengesetze,” Natio­nalsoz­ialist­ische Parteikorrespondenz, 7 Aug. 1936.

  “a piece of mass suggestion”: Fröhlich (ed.), Die Tagebücher von Joseph Goebbels, Part I, Vol. 3/II, p. 152.

  “athletes’ first names”: Bohrmann and Toepser-Ziegert (eds), NS-Presseanweisungen der Vorkriegszeit, p. 860.

  “speed that was astounding”: Wolfe, You Can’t Go Home Again, p. 531.

  “lasted a lifetime”: Salomon, Der Fragebogen, pp. 265f.

  “be over soon”: Fröhlich (ed.), Die Tagebücher von Joseph Goebbels, Part I, Vol. 3/II, p. 153.

  Saturday, 8 August 1936

  “extraordinarily bad”: Bohrmann and Toepser-Ziegert (eds.), NS-Presseanweisungen der Vorkriegszeit, p. 864.

  “There was nothing”: cited in Rürup, 1936, p. 141.

  “anyone and everyone”: Oskar Böhmer, cited in Patricia Pientka, Das Zwangslager für Sinti und Roma in Berlin-Marzahn: Alltag, Verfolgung und Deportation, Berlin, 2013, p. 77.

  “even a pistol”: www.theguardian.com/​sport/​blog/​2011/​now/​24/​forgotten-story-football-1936-olympics.

  “But Germany is completely innocent”: Fröhlich (ed.), Die Tagebücher von Joseph Goebbels, Part I, Vol. 3/II, p. 156.

  “but spectators too”: “Schwarze Kunst Basketball,” Der Angriff, 8 Aug. 1936.

  “Marvelous World of Illusions”: Berliner Lokal-Anzeiger, 6 Aug. 1936.

  “swank magazines”: Carl von Ossietzky, “Gontard,” in Die Weltbühne, 16 Dec. 1930.

  “we were so up to date”: Fritz Schulz-Reichel, cited in Knud Wolffram, Tanzdielen und Vergnügungspaläste: Berliner Nachtleben in den dreissiger und vierziger Jahren, Berlin, 2001, p. 189.