109. Hamann, Wien, 249f.
110. Ibid., 271ff. There is supposedly a report for the period February–April 1912, which appeared in Czech in the Brünn journal Moraský Ilustrovany Zpravoda. According to Hamann, the author is authentic, but the report does not contain anything significantly new. The book by Josef Grein, which appeared in 1947 is, however, pure fantasy, despite the fact that Heim was definitely living in the hostel in the Meldemannstrasse in 1910. See Hamann, Wien, 275ff.
111. Ibid., 250; Jetzinger, Jugend, 226ff.
112. BAB, NS 26/17a, Karl Honisch: Wie ich im Jahre 1913 Hitler kennenlernte, 31 May 1939. Printed in Joachimsthaler, Weg, 52–9; see also Hamann, Wien, 272f.
113. MK, 106ff.
114. Ibid., 134ff. and 74f.
115. Ibid., 13 and 118.
116. Ibid., 119.
117. Ibid., 82.
118. Ibid.
119. Ibid., 80ff.
120. Ibid., 1.
121. Henry Picker, Hitlers Tischgespräche im Führerhauptquartier. Entstehung, Struktur und Folgen des Nationalsozialismus (Berlin, 1997), 5 April 1942, evening.
122. MK, 93f.
123. Ibid., 135.
124. Whiteside, Socialism, 236ff.
125. MK, 110ff., quote 110.
126. Ibid, 106ff.
127. Ibid., 59, 107 and 109, on Lueger also 58f., 74 and 132f.
128. John W. Boyer, Karl Lueger (1844–1910). Christlichsoziale Politik als Beruf (Weimar, 2010).
129. MK, 59ff.
130. Ibid., 130ff.
131. Ibid., 61.
132. Ibid., 69f.
133. In his later speeches and writings there are passages that are similar to the ideas of the Viennese Germanic mystic, Guido von List, who tried to assert the racial superiority of an ‘Aryan’ master race from the far north. See Hamann, Wien, 301f. List’s most important disciple, Lanz von Liebenfels, who demanded in numerous works that this heroic, noble race must be protected from the inferior race of half apes through planned racial breeding, was the main person claiming that he had influenced Hitler. See ibid., pp. 316ff. It is entirely plausible, but not provable and not claimed by Hitler, that, during his Vienna period, he became familiar with the anti-Semitism of Houston Chamberlain, whose main work, Die Grundlagen des 19. Jahrhunderts, was published in Vienna in 1899. It is certainly true that Pan-German literature quoted Chamberlain extensively. See ibid., 288. However, he could only have come across Chamberlain’s work as such for the first time in Munich, possibly through Dietrich Eckart. A programmatic speech by Hitler in 1920 has many similarities with Chamberlain’s ideas. See JK, No. 136. However, according to Hamann, the attempt to achieve a precise reconstruction of Hitler’s debt to individual authors is a hopeless task. See Hamann, Wien, 333,
134. Joachimsthaler, Weg, 77ff. There is a lengthy description of his first stay in Munich by his first landlady, Anna Popp, which was published in 1934 in a very pro-Nazi English publication. See Heinz A. Heinz, Germany’s Hitler (London, 1934). The whole book is based to a considerable extent on such personal memories and was intended to familiarize the reader with Hitler as a person. The very fact that, in accordance with the version in Mein Kampf, the landlady shifts the date of Hitler’s stay in Munich from 1913 to 1912 shows that the whole Heinz project was part of the official construction of the Hitler legend.
135. Joachimsthaler, Weg, 83ff.
136. MK, 138ff., in the chapter about his pre-war stay in Munich (quote 170); JK, No. 325.
137. Joachimsthaler, Weg, 77ff.
138. MK, 138f. His decision to move to Munich may also have been influenced by the idea that Munich was a haven for artists who had failed in Vienna. See Schwarz, Geniewahn, 68ff.
139. Hitler, Monologe, 20 October 1941. Schwarz, Geniewahn, 82ff., points out that Hitler’s idea of becoming an architect followed models like Rubens, Markert, Semper, Klenze, and above all Schinkel, who combined architecture, the decorative arts, and painting.
140. Army file in Jetzinger, Jugend, 253ff.; for a summing up see Joachimsthaler, Weg, 27f. See also JK No. 20.
141. The reporting during the first days of August by both the Social Democratic Münchener Post and the middle-class Münchener Zeitung convey this ambivalent impression and emphasize above all the concern felt by broad sections of the public.
142. Thomas Weber, Hitlers erster Krieg. Der Gefreite Hitler im Weltkrieg – Mythos und Wahrheit (Berlin, 2011), 30f.; Joachimsthaler, Weg, 98ff.
143. MK, 177.
144. Joachimsthaler, Weg, 100ff. It is possible that he had applied to another regiment beforehand and been rejected. His claim that, as an Austrian citizen, he had successfully appealed directly to King Ludwig III for admission to the Bavarian army seems implausible. See MK, 179. The report of the Bavarian military archive of 13 October 1924 about Hitler’s admission to the Bavarian army is printed in Joachimsthaler, Weg, 103ff., Staatsarchiv München (SAM), StAnw. München, 13099, and in facsimile on p. 109 of Hitler’s military personal file: Kriegsarchiv München (KAM), No. 4470/7111.
145. Hitler, Monologe, 13 October 1941, Midday.
146. Weber, Krieg, 31f.
147. Ibid., 35f.
148. For the quote see JK, No. 24: KAM, RIR 16, Bund 12, KTB 1. Btl., 8–10 October 1914; Franz Rubenbauer, ‘Der Sturm auf Ypern. Freiwillige vor!’ in Fridolin Solleder (ed.), Vier Jahre Westfront. Die Geschichte des Regiments List. Reserve-Infanterie-Regiment 16 (Munich, 1932), 8ff. For the history of the regiment see also Walther Beckmann, Bayerisches Reserve-Infanterie-Regiment Nr. 16 ‘Regiment List’ (Berlin, 1939); ‘Erinnerungen’; List-Regiment. On the excessive demands placed on the troops see also KAM, RIR 16, Bund 3, Appendices to the KTB, 1 October–30 November 1914, Excerpt from KTB of the 10th Company (Graf Bassenheim), 3–17 October and 20 October, where the author complained that ‘discipline had become very poor because of the marches and excessive demands’. Weber, Krieg, 41f. Joachimsthaler, Weg, 114f.
149. JK, No. 26. On transport see: KAM, RIR 16, Bund 12, KTB 1. Btl., 21 October 1914. See Joachimsthaler, Weg, 115. On the cheering crowds see also Weber, Krieg, 44f.
150. KAM, RIR 16, Bund 12, KTB 1. Btl., 23/24 October 1914.
151. Joachimsthaler, Weg, 118; Weber, Krieg, 62ff.
152. KAM, RIR 16, Bund 3, Appendices to the KTB, 1 October–30 November 1914, Excerpt from KTB 10th Company (Graf Bassenheim), 29 October 1914; If Z, MA 732, NSDAP-Hauptarchiv, No. 47, Report of Raab, a member of the regiment Raab to the NS-Hauptarchiv (Uetrecht), 5 August 1939. See also Weber, Krieg, 68.
153. On the acquaintanceship see Joachimsthaler, Weg, 88f.
154. JK, No. 30, Orthography, punctuation, and grammar as in the copy. He had described the same battle to Joseph Popp in letters of 3 December 1914 and 26 January 1915 (Nos 26 and 29).
155. MK, 180f.
156. The legend is based on a section of the German Army report of 11 November 1918: Karl Unruh, Langemarck. Legende und Wirklichkeit (Koblenz, 1986). See also Joachimsthaler, Weg, 122; Weber, Krieg, 65.
157. Rubenbauer, ‘Tage der Ruhe in Werwick-Comines’, in Solleder, Vier Jahre, 62; Weber, Krieg, 71f. Thus, Hitler’s assertion in his letter to Joseph Popp of 3 December 1914 (JK, No. 26), according to which there were only 611 men left out of originally 3,600, can be regarded as plausible.
158. Weber, Krieg, 69ff.; Joachimsthaler, Weg, 122f.; Rubenbauer, ‘Sturm’.
159. Rubenbauer, ‘Im Schützengraben vor Messines’, in Solleder, Vier Jahre; Joachimsthaler, Weg, 124.
160. Rubenbauer, ‘Oostaverne-Wytschaete’, in Solleder, Vier Jahre; Joachimsthaler, Weg, 128.
161. Ibid., 129; Weber, Krieg, 72ff.
162. Hitler, Monologe, 1 August 1942: ‘and then everything was washed out’. Weber, Krieg, 77.
163. JK, No. 29, Orthography, punctuation, and grammar as in the copy.
164. Wiedemann, ‘Der zweite Kriegswinter bei Fromelles’, in Solleder, Die Jahre., esp. p. 99. See also the files of the regimental doctor (KAM, RD 6, Bund 147, Akt 6 und 11); Weber,
Krieg, 78ff. and 97f.
165. KAM, No. 4470/7111, Hitler’s personal file; Joachimsthaler, Weg, 123f.; Weber, Krieg, 75.
166. Ibid., 129ff.; Balthasar Brandmayer, Zwei Meldegänger (Überlingen am Bodensee, 1932) 54f., 70f., 77f., and 92f. Hitler’s wartime comrade Lippert also reported to the NS Party archive on 28 March 1940 that Hitler had taken many messages to the commander of Bat. I/16, Major Leb, at his command post immediately behind the front line (BAB, NS 26/47).
167. For details see Weber, Krieg, 296ff.
168. Fritz Wiedemann, Der Mann, der Feldherr werden wollte. Erlebnisse und Erfahrungen des Vorgesetzten Hitlers im 1. Weltkrieg und seines späteren Persönlichen Adjutanten (Velbert/Kettwig, 1964), 23ff. On Hitler’ experience as a runner see Weber, Krieg, 187ff.; BAB, NS 26/47, descriptions by his regimental comrades, Heinrich Lugauer, Hans Bauer, and Karl Lippert provided to the NS Hauptarchiv and dated 26 February, 15 May 1940, and 28 March respectively. On Lippert see Joachimsthaler, Weg, 340. KAM, RIB 12, Bund 25, 1, contains a list of the NCOs and men in lodgings in Fournes (i.e. in private accommodation), in which Hitler is mentioned by name. On this and on Hitler’s wartime painting see Joachimsthaler, Weg, 133ff.
169. Wiedemann, Mann, 24; SAM, SprkAkte Amann K 20, Interrogation, 5 November 1947. On the possible reasons for his failure to be promoted see Weber, Krieg, 191ff.
170. Georg Eichelsdörfer, ‘Sturm auf das beilförmige Waldstück’, in Solleder, Vier Jahre, 75. Weber, Krieg, 76, refers to a report by W., ‘Osttaverne-Wytschaete’, 36, which was written earlier.
171. KAM, No. 4470/7111, Hitler’s personal file, and RIR 16, KTB of 12 December 1914; List Regiment, 3, Joachimsthaler, Weg, 129; Weber, Krieg, 77.
172. JK, No. 26.
173. KAM, KTB 1. Btl., 12 March 1915, and KTB RIR 16, Bund 12, 12 March 1915. Georg Eichelsdörfer, ‘Die Schlacht bei Neuve Chapelle’, in Solleder, Vier Jahre; Brandmayer, Meldegänger, 19ff.; Weber, Krieg, 105ff.
174. Solleder, ‘Zwischen’; KAM, RIR 16, KTB 1. Btl., and KTB RIR 16, 20 March 1915; Joachimsthaler, Weg, 133ff.; Weber, Krieg, 129ff.
175. Wiedemann, ‘Der zweite Kriegswinter bei Fromelles’, in Solleder, Vier Jahre; on the period in Fromelles see in detail Weber, Krieg, 111ff.
176. KAM, KTB 1. Btl., 9 and 10 May 1915; Georg Eichelsdörfer, ‘Das Gefecht bei Fromelles, 9. und 10. Mai 1915’, in Solleder, Vier Jahre; Weber, Krieg, 118ff.
177. KAM, RIR 17, KTB, 1. Btl., 19 and 20 July 1915; Fritz Wiedemann, ‘Das Gefecht bei Fromelles am 19. und 20. Juli 1916’, in Solleder, Vier Jahre; Weber, Krieg, 196ff.; Joachimsthaler, Weg, 162.
178. In MK, 209, Hitler conveys the impression that he had been wounded at the front and dates the event as 7 October. On the dating of 5 October see Joachimsthaler, Weg, 163 with the evidence from the military documents; Weber, Krieg, 208f.; Wiedemann, Mann, 29; Brandmayer, Meldegänger, 85 (he was not, however, present at the wounding). See also Wiedemann, ‘Die Sommeschlacht’, in Solleder, Vier Jahre.; KAM, KTB, 1. Bl., 5 October 1916 and for the following days of the attack.
179. On the whole journey see MK, 211.
180. Kershaw, Hitler 1, pp. 134f., considers such early anti-Semitic outbursts by Hitler plausible. Weber, Krieg, p. 239, however, points out that there is no solid documentary evidence that Hitler was a committed anti-Semite at the beginning of 1917.
181. JK, No. 47; Wiedemann, Mann, 30; Joachimsthaler, Weg, 167; Weber, Krieg, 246.
182. Ibid., 247f.
183. Freiherr von Tubeuf, ‘Das Regiment hört auf den Namen Tubeuf’, in Solleder, Vier Jahre, 275ff. KAM, RIR 16, Bund 9, Doc: Einsatz des Regt. in der Fünftagesschlacht bei Arras vom 11. bis 17. Mai 1917 (Appendices) and doc.: Ablösung des 16. Inf. Regiments am 11. Mai 1917 (Regimentsbefehl zur Ablösung des 20. Durch das 16. Rgt.); Weber, Krieg, 247ff.
184. Ibid., 252ff.
185. Ibid., 253 and 260ff.; KAM, RIB 12, KTB, Bund 1, June and July 1917; RIR 16, Bund 9, Doc.: battle reports 31 July/1 August 1917 and doc.: Reports 31 July–1 August 1917; Tubeuf, Regiment., 281ff.
186. Weber, Krieg, 264 and 269; KAM, No. 4470/7111, Hitler’s personal file.
187. He sent various postcards from there: JK, No. 50–53. Joachimsthaler, Weg, S. 169; Weber, Krieg, 269ff.
188. Ibid., 274ff.; Tubeuf, ‘Regiment’, esp. pp. 296ff., 298. On the losses see Egid Gehring, ‘Am Schicksalsstrom Deutschlands. Stimmungsbilder aus der zweiten Marneschlacht im Juli 1918’, in Solleder, Vier Jahre, 316–24.
189. If Z, ED 100/86, Letter from the deputy commander of the regiment von Godin of 31 July 1918, to the 12. Reserve Infantry Brigade, published in Joachimsthaler, Weg, 173f.
190. Weber, Krieg, 285ff.; Hitler, Monologe, 10/11 November 1941.
191. Weber, Krieg, 126ff., brings together various statements about Hitler’s courage. See, in particular the collection in the Party archive (If Z, MA 732); Ignaz Westenkirchen in the English language propaganda publication Heinz, Hitler, 64ff.; Hans Mend, Adolf Hitler im Felde (Diessen vor München, 1931); Brandmayer, Meldegänger. In 1922 Hitler himself collected positive references from former superiors BAB, NS 26/17a, Battalion commander Lieutenant-Colonel Freiherr von Lüneschloss, 20 February 1922 (who, however, only knew of Hitler’s achievements from hearsay). BAB, NS 26/1223, Regimental commander Friedrich Petz, February 1922 (copy), published in Joachimsthaler, Weg, p. 159; BAB NS 26/17a, Oberst von Spatny, 10 March 1922, and the statement by Lieutenant-Colonel Freiherr von Tubeuf, 20 March 1922. On these officers see Joachimsthaler, Weg, pp. 159, 167f., and 347. Hitler’s former regimental commander Baligand testified in Hitler’s favour in the 1924 trial (published in ibid., p. 154) and for Christmas 1931 sent him a copy of the regimental history with a personal dedication. See Timothy Ryback, Hitlers Bücher. Seine Bibliothek – sein Denken (Cologne, 2010), 39. Michael Schlehuber, as a Social Democrat, i.e. a political opponent, also pointed out in 1932 that Hitler had been a good soldier. See Weber, Krieg, p. 135, with a quote from Volksgemeinschaft, 7 March 1932. On Schlehuber see Joachimsthaler, Weg, 339. However, during the early 1930s, a number of former comrades complained that Hitler had occupied a relatively privileged position. See note 208. The story that was often put about in the Third Reich that Hitler had captured a number of prisoners in summer 1918 is untrue. The origin of this legend is clear from Baligand’s report in the official regimental history: in summer 1918 a six-man patrol from the regiment captured 18 prisoners. See Maximilian von Baligand, ‘Ende wie Anfang’, in Solleder, Vier Jahre, p. 336. This disproves Weber’s speculation in Krieg, 289f. that Lieutenant Gutman was the leader of this daring coup.
192. MK, 181.
193. JK, No. 27 and No. 30, orthography as in the copy.
194. Hitler, Monologe, 25/26 September 1941.
195. Weber, Krieg, 165ff.; Brandmayer, Meldegänger, 103; BAB, NS 26/47, Einsendung Lippert, 28 March 1940.
196. The story of Hitler having allegedly had a son during the war, which was put about by Werner Maser in the 1970s, is unsupported by evidence. See Weber, Krieg, p. 167; Joachimsthaler, Weg, pp. 159f. Jean Paul Mulders in his book, Auf der Suche nach Hitlers Sohn. Eine Beweisaufnahme (Munich, 2009) refers to a DNA analysis he had carried out, which disproves the claim of a relationship between Hitler and the person concerned. Machtan’s claim in Lothar Machtan, Hitlers Geheimnis. Das Doppelleben eines Diktators (Berlin, 2001), that Hitler was homosexual lacks proof and will not be considered further here. The key document, the report of the alleged witness, Hans Mend, is highly unreliable. See note 203.
197. Brandmayer, Meldegänger, 102f.
198. SAM, SprkAkte Amann K 20, also Wiedemann, Mann, 27; there are numerous similar comments in the memoirs of his regimental comrades, Lugauer, Lippert, and Bauer. See note 168; Weber, Krieg, pp. 187ff.
199. A collection of the relevant material is in Joachimsthaler, Weg, 143ff.
200. Hitler, Monologe, 22/23 January 1942.
201. Weber, Krieg, 193ff.
202. Brandmayer, Meldegänger, 90f.
203. Ibid., 41. The
later assertions by Hitler’s army comrades, Hans Mend and Ignaz Westenkirchner, that Hitler had already expressed anti-Semitic sentiments during the war must be considered unreliable. Mend’s book, published in 1931 (Hitler, 17 and 60f ) was a glorification of Hitler. There is also a very negative assessment of Hitler by Mend, a fraudster convicted of falsifying documents. See Weber, Krieg, 185f.; Machtan, Geheimnis, 81ff. Westenkircher’s statements are only recorded in Heinz’s propaganda piece (Heinz, Hitler, 74) See Weber, Krieg, 239. Pyta, Hitler, 125ff., has discovered that Hitler maintained comradely contacts with German Jewish members of his regiment.
204. MK, 182.
205. JK, No. 30, orthography as in the copy.
206. See Weber, Krieg, 144f.
207. MK, 182.
208. Weber, Krieg, 136ff., with detailed contemporary quotes. On an anonymous correspondent, whom Weder identifies as Korbinian Rutz see also Joachimsthaler, Weg, 150ff.; US National Archives and Records Administration Washington (NARA) T 581–1, Ferdinand Widmann’s, letter to Hitler, 9 March 1932.
209. Joachimsthaler, Weg, 174 (KAM, No. 4470/7111, Hitler’s personal file); Weber, Krieg, 291.
210. Joachimsthaler, Weg, 174; Weber, Krieg, 293; MK, 219.
211. Ibid., 220.
212. Baligand, ‘Ende’, 336 describes the gas attack on the regimental staff. See also MK, 220f. On his gas injury see Joachimsthaler, Weg, 174f.; Weber, Krieg, 293f.
213. MK, 223ff. The claim often repeated in the literature (most recently in Weber, Krieg, 294f.) that his temporary blindness was a psychological response, a kind of war hysteria, cannot be proved any more than can the assertion that he was hypnotized during his treatment, which might explain the change in his personality. These speculations are all based on his medical notes, which have not survived but have supposedly been indirectly recorded: 1. in the novel, Der Augenzeuge (The Witness) by the émigré author, Ernst Weiss, who allegedly based his narrative on the report of the psychiatrist, Edmund Forster, who is supposed to have treated Hitler in Pasewalk;
2. through the statements of the émigré doctor, Karl Kroner, who gave a description of Hitler’s treatment by Forster to the American secret service;
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