3. through the report of the neurologist, Otfried Förster, who is supposed to have told two American colleagues that he had seen the medical notes in 1932. See, in particular, Gerhard Köpf, ‘Hitlers psychogene Erblindung. Geschichte einer Krankenakte’ in Nervenheilkunde 24 (2005), 783–90; Bernhard Horstmann, Hitler in Pasewalk. Die Hypnose und ihre Folgen (Düsseldorf, 2004); Rudolph Binion, ‘. . . dass ihr mich gefunden habt’. Hitler und die Deutschen, 19ff. However, these theories have been convincingly refuted by Jan Armbruster, ‘Die Behandlung Adolf Hitlers im Lazarett Pasewalk 1918. Historische Mythenbildung durch einseitige bzw. spekulative Pathographie’, in Journal für Neurologie, Neurochirurgie und Psychiatrie 10/4 (2009), 18–23.
Back in Munich: Politicization
1. Kriegsarchiv München (KAM), No. 4470/7111, Hitler’s personal file; Weber, Krieg, 305ff.; Joachimsthaler, Weg,184ff.; Othmar Plöckinger, Unter Soldaten und Agitatoren. Hitlers prägende Jahre im deutschen Militär 1918–1920 (Paderborn, 1920), 29.
2. Karl Bosl (ed.), Bayern im Umbruch. Die Revolution von 1918, ihre Voraussetzungen, ihr Verlauf, und ihre Folgen (Munich and Vienna, 1969); Allan Mitchell, Revolution in Bayern 1918/1919. Die Eisner-Regierung und die Räterepublik (Munich, 1967); Bernhard Grau, Karl Eisner 1867–1919. Eine Biographie (Munich, 2001).
3. KAM, 2. Inf.Rgt., Bund 19, Doc. 2, Order, 13 December 1918, on the election of barracks councillors on 17 December 1918, who relieved the provisional councillors of the immediate revolutionary period, see Plöckinger, Soldaten, 30ff.
4. KAM, 2. Inf.Rgt., Ersatzbataillon, Bund 7, battalion Order, 4 December 1918, Punkt 23; 2nd Inf.Rgt./I. u. II. First Btl., Bund 19, Orders, 3 and 4 December 1918, on Hitler’s being ordered to Traunstein; on the recollections of Ernst Schmidt, who was at Traunstein with Hitler see Heinz A. Heinz, Germany’s Hitler (London, 1934), 97ff. See also Franz Haselbeck, ‘Das Gefangenenlager Traunstein-Au’ in Jahrbuch des Historischen Vereins für den Chiemgau zu Traunstein 7 (1995), 241–90; Plöckinger, Soldaten, 34ff., 286–90. In Hitler, MK, 226, Hitler creates the impression that he had escaped to Traunstein to avoid the revolution, which he loathed.
5. Plöckinger, Soldaten, 35f.
6. See KAM, 2nd Inf.Rgt., Bund 19, Doc 7, battalion orders, February and March 1919, for the battalion’s service rota, for example for guard duty at the main train station. See Joachimsthaler, Weg, 195ff.; Plöckinger, Soldaten, 37.
7. KAM, Nr. 4470/7111, Hitler’s military personal file: Transfer to the demobilization company on 12 February 1919; 2nd Inf.Rgt., Bund 19, Doc. 3, Regimental order of 14 February 1919 to establish a demobilization battalion on 18 February 1919. Doc. 7 reveals the new title from 20 February. The 2nd Demobilization Company, which Hitler joined, was subordinated to the battalion on 4 March 191 (ibid.). See also Joachimsthaler, Weg, 186ff.
8. KAM, 2. Inf.Rgt., Bund 19, Doc 7: In the orders of the Demobilization Battalion to the 2nd demobilization company for a meeting on 4 April attended by Hitler in his function as a representative of his company he was referred to as Hüttler. The representatives were nominated on 1 April. Hitler was evidently nominated subsequently as a reserve. Joachimsthaler’s supposition in Weg, 198f. that Hitler had already been elected around 15 February cannot be confirmed from the documents and contradicts the more recent detailed research by Plöckinger, Soldaten.
9. Ibid., 44.
10. KAM, 2nd Inf.Rgt., Bund 19, Doc 7: In a rider by the propaganda department to the regimental order of 7 February 1919, referring to the meeting of representatives in the city commandant’s office on 21 February for a talk and discussion on the subject of ‘Parliament or Councils?’ In the battalion order of 4 April 1919 the representatives were ordered to participate in briefings on the three Socialist parties and to attend a memorial ceremony for Kurt Eisner. See Joachimsthaler, Weg, 202.
11. KAM, 2nd Inf.Rgt./I. u. II. Ers. Btl., Bund 7, order 15 February 1919. It is quite possible that Hitler took part in this demonstration.
12. On the further course of the revolution see Bosl (ed.), Bayern; Grau, Eisner; Georg Köglmeier, Die zentralen Rätegremien in Bayern 1918/19. Legitimation – Organization – Funktion (Munich, 2001); Johannes Merz, ‘Auf dem Weg zur Räterepublik. Staatskrise und Regierungsbildung in Bayern nach dem Tode Eisners (Februar–März 1919)’ in Zeitschrift für Bayerische Landesgeshichte 66 (2003), 541–84; Mitchell, Revolution; Michael Seligmann, Aufstand der Räte. Die erste bayerische Räterepublik vom 7. April 1919 (Grafenau-Döffingen, 1989).
13. KAM, 2nd Inf.Rgt., Bund 19, Doc. 3, Rgt. Orders, order 25 February 1919. Weber, Krieg, p. 332, follows here the interpretation of the ZDF documentary ‘Hitler’ (Knopp/Remy) of 1995. The photo taken by Hoffmann is, for example, published in Ralf Reuth, Hitlers Judenhass. Klischee und Wirklichkeit (Munich and Zurich, 2009), 88.
14. Mitchell, Revolution, 290ff.; Köglmeier, Rätegremien, 288ff.; Seligmann, Aufstand, 105ff.
15. Joachimsthaler, Weg, 206f.
16. On the first Räterepublik: see Mitchell, Revolution, 305ff.; Seligmann, Aufstand, 207ff.; Köglmeier, Rätegremien, 316ff.
17. On the communist Räterepublik see ibid., 344ff.; Mitchell, Revolution, 318ff.
18. KAM, 2nd Inf.Rgt., Bund 19, Doc. 7, battalion order, 16 April 1919, with the election results of the 2nd Company for the battalion’s council: Blüml 30, Hittler 19 votes. The file contains successive demobilization lists for the months of February to April, showing that Hitler’s remaining in the battalion would have been seriously jeopardized had he not been elected. On the election and the varied political views of the soldier representatives see Plöckinger, Soldaten, 48ff. For the other references to Hitler’s activities see Joachimsthaler, Weg, 199ff.
19. MK, 226; Plöckinger, Soldaten, 64.
20. JK, No. 269. In fact, not only Esser but a considerable number of later Nazis were Social Democrats or even further to the left during the Revolution. See Joachimsthaler, Weg, 187f.
21. Hitler, Monologe, 21 September 1941 and 1 February 1942.
22. See, for example, Heinrich Hillmayr, Roter und Weißer Terror in Bayern nach 1918. Ursachen, Erscheinungsformen und Folgen der Gewalttätigkeiten im Verlauf der revolutionären Ereignisse nach dem Ende des Ersten Weltkrieges (Munich, 1974), 78ff.
23. KAM, 2nd Inf.Rgt., Bund 19, Doc. 6a, order from the Munich city commandant’s office 7 May1919.
24. KAM, Nr. 4470/7111, Hitler’s personal file; Joachimsthaler, Weg, 221. KAM, 2nd Inf.Rgt., Bund 19, Doc. 6a, order from the city commandant’s office, 7 May 1919, according to which the soldiers to be demobilized were to be examined for possible involvement in Spartakist, Bolshevik, or communist activities, and order from the city commandant’s of 9 May 1919 concerning the immediate convening of the commissions of investigation. Ibid., Doc. 3, regimental order of 9 May 1919: ‘The investigation and demobilization commission is to be composed of Lieutenant Merklin, Sergeant-Major Kleber, Corporal Hitler’. On the work of the commission see Plöckinger, Soldaten, 86ff.
25. SAM, SprkAkte Amann K 20, Interrogation of Amann, 6 December 1946.
26. Plöckinger, Soldaten, 92f.
27. SAM, Staatsanwaltschaften Nr. 1979, Criminal proceedings against Georg Dufter, Protocol of the proceedings on 17 June 1919. Hitler is referred to here as Hiedler; see also Plöckinger, Soldaten, p 97.
28. On the reconstruction of political life under the military regime see Bruno Thoss, Der Ludendorff-Kreis 1919–1923. München als Zentrum der mitteleuropäischen Gegenrevolution zwischen Revolution und Hitler-Putsch (Munich, 1978), 86ff.; Horst G.W. Nusser, Konservative Wehrverbände in Bayern, Preußen und Österreich, 1918–1933 (Munich, 1973), 75ff.; Hans Fenske, Konservatismus und Rechtsradikalismus in Bayern nach 1918 (Bad Homburg v.d.H., 1969), 62ff.; Hillmayr, Terror, 158ff.; Plöckinger, Soldaten, 66.
29. On the political atmosphere in Munich after the crushing of the Räterepublik see Fenske, Konservatismus, 62ff.
30. On this see the information in the annotated list in Rudolf von Sebottendorf, Bevor Hitler kam. Urkundliches
aus der Frühzeit der nationalsozialistischen Bewegung (Munich, 1933).
31. Uwe Lohalm, Völkischer Radikalismus. Die Geschichte des Deutschvölkischen Schutz- und Trutz-Bundes (Hamburg, 1970), 15ff. To begin with the organization was called the Deutscher Schutz- und Trutz-Bund.
32. Ibid., 122ff.
33. Ibid, 290ff.
34. Münchener Beobachter (MB,) 17 May 1919, published the appeal by the Deutsche Bürgervereinigung, signed by Eckart, on the front page. For details on this organization see Max Engelman, ‘Dietrich Eckart and the Genesis of Nazism’, PhD Washington University, St. Louis, MO, 1971, 142ff.
35. On his speaking activities see Lohalm, Radikalismus, 127. On Feder’s ideas see Gottfried Feder, Das Manifest zur Brechung der Zinsknechtschaft des Geldes [1919] (Munich, 1932); Feder, ‘Das Radikalmittel’ in Süddeutsche Monatshefte 16 (1919), 307–20.
36. On Lehmann see Rainer Hering, Konstruierte Nation. Der Alldeutsche Verband 1890 bis 1939 (Hamburg, 2003), 480; Bundesarchiv Berlin (BAB), NS 26/865a, Hering Diary, according to which Lehmann reported to the Thule Society on 19 October 1919 on an encounter with Ludendorff in Berlin.
37. Elina Kiiskinen, Die Deutschnationale Volkspartei in Bayern (Bayerische Mittelpartei) in der Regierungspolitik des Freistaats während der Weimarer Zeit. Von nationaler Erneuerung zu nationalem Untergang (Munich, 2005), 45ff., quote 48.
38. Dirk Walter, Antisemitische Kriminalität und Gewalt. Judenfeindschaft in der Weimarer Republik (Bonn, 1999), 23ff.
39. Stefan Meining, ‘Ein erster Ansturm der Antisemiten: 1919–1923’, in Douglas Bokovoy (ed.), Versagte Heimat. Jüdisches Leben in Münchens Isarvorstadt 1914–1945 (Munich 1994), 59ff. Four hundred Jews were to be expelled, but, because of the temporizing policy of the Interior Ministry, in the end only eight of them were.
40. Material on anti-Semitism in the second half of 1919 can be found in particular in KAM, Gruppenkdo. 4, No. 204, Jewbaiting; SAM, PolDir. 6697, Reports on the public mood. See also Reuth, Judenhass, 135ff.; Walter, Kriminalität, 24f. and 52ff.; Plöckinger, Soldaten, 185ff.
41. In the older literature it was assumed that Hitler took part in the first course. Othmar Plöckinger interpreted a diary entry of Gottfried Feder’s to mean that Hitler participated in the second course. See Othmar Plöckinger, ‘Adolf Hitler als Hörer an der Universität München im Jahre 1919. Zum Verhältnis zwischen Reichswehr und Universität’, in Elisabeth Kraus (ed.), Die Universität München im Dritten Reich. Aufsätze. Part 2 (Munich, 2008), 13–47 (34); MK, 227ff. For the order to attend the third course see KAM Auflösungsstab 102, Bund 2, Doc. 3, 2nd Inf.Rgt., 2 July 1919 (now Auflösungsstäbe 25), Reports of the commander of the demobilization office of the 2nd Inf.Rgt., List of participants, 7 July 1919. See Plöckinger, Soldaten, 107f. This correction also fits in with Müller’s recollections. He claims to have encountered Hitler in the lecture theatre on the Promenadenplatz, where Course III in fact took place. See Karl Alexander von Müller, Mars und Venus. Erinnerungen 1914–1919 (Munich, 1954), 338.
42. Plöckinger, Soldaten, 100.
43. MB, 24 May 1919, ‘Thule-Gesellschaft’. The article states that, during the final phase of the Councils’ regime, Captain Karl Mayer had taken over the military organization in Munich in collaboration with the Thule.
44. Joachimsthaler, Weg, 221ff.; on Mayr see ibid., p. 225 and p. 360; on the information department and its activities see Fenske, Konservatismus, 85ff. The alleged memoirs of Mayr, ‘Boss’, are not a reliable source. According to Plöckinger, Soldaten, 331, in September 1919 Mayr also passed on the so-called Gemlich letter to Eckart. According to Georg Franz-Willing, Ursprung der HitlerBewegung. 1919–1922 (Preußisch Oldendorf, 1974), 54, Mayr corresponded with Eckart in September concerning a list of subscribers to Auf gut deutsch.
45. Plöckinger, Soldaten, 240f. The Heimatdienst Bayern had been established separately from the Reichszentrale für Heimatdienst and was not its Bavarian offshoot, as was previously thought. See Klaus W. Wippermann, Politische Propaganda und staatsbürgerliche Bildung. Die Reichszentrale für Heimatdienst in der Weimarer Republik (Bonn, 1976). The leading figure was the publicist, Fritz Gerlich, a later opponent of Hitler, who was murdered on 30 June 1934.
46. Auf gut deutsch appeared from December 1918 onwards, at first weekly, later irregularly. From the fifth issue Bothmer provided regular, often anti-Semitic, contributions. To begin with Eckart had written all the articles himself. On the link between Bothmer und Eckart see Engelman, ‘Eckart’, 94ff.
47. Course III was – exceptionally – divided into officers (IIIa) and other ranks (IIIb). On the programmes see KAM, Gruppenkdo. 4, Nr. 312; Plöckinger, Soldaten, 108.
48. If Z, ED 874, Feder-Tagebuch, 12 and 14 July (officers’ course) and 15 July 1919 (other ranks’ course).
49. On the programmes of Courses I and II see Deuerlein, ‘Hitlers Eintritt. in die Politik und die Reichswehr’, in Vierteljahrshefte für Zeitgeschichte (Vf Z) 7 (1959), Doc. 2. On the activities of the Information Department see Joachimsthaler, Weg, 223ff. and 227ff. On the courses see KAM, Gruppenkdo. 4, Nr. 307, Command, 28 May 1919, Directives of 13 June 1919, letter from Bothmer re: Fees for Course I and report of 2 July 1919 (published in Joachimsthaler, Weg, 237ff.).
50. For details see Plöckinger, Soldaten, 210ff.
51. The historian, Karl Alexander von Müller, who was evidently recruited as a lecturer on the course for a short time reported in his memoirs that, after his talk, he had spotted Hitler surrounded by a small group. See Müller, Mars, 338.
52. Hitler’s name can be found in various Information Commando lists. See KAM, Gruppenkdo. 4, No. 309, list of participants at Lechfeld with 26 names and a list of 22 July 1919 with 23 names; No. 315, Lechfeld list with 27 names, of which one was crossed out. Undated list of propaganda people with 70 names and Bestell-Liste II. For details see Plöckinger, Soldaten, 121.
53. KAM, Gruppenkdo. 4, No. 309, Report by Captain Lauterbach, 19 July 1919. List with 23 names (among them Hitler’s) and list of ‘Kdo Beyschlag’ with a total of 26 names. On the training course see Joachimsthaler, Weg, 24ff. For more detail see Plöckinger, Soldaten, 113ff.
54. Ibid., 122.
55. KAM, Gruppenkdo. 4, No. 309, Reports of the commander of the Guard Commando Lieutenant Bendt, 21 and 25 August 1919, and excerpts from the reports of the course participants published in Deuerlein, ‘Eintritt’, Docs. 7–9. It is clear from Bendt’s report of 25 August that the indoctrination was restricted to the permanent staff of the camp. See also ibid., provisional report on the course of 19–20 August, infantry soldier Beyschlag, 22 August 1919.
56. Plöckinger, Soldaten, 130ff. and 138.
57. KAM, Gruppenkdo. 4, No. 314, Gemlich letter and Mayr’s accompanying letter.
58. For details see Plöckinger, Soldaten, 331ff. Plöckinger points out that in the literature distributed by the Reichswehr at that time anti-Semitism and anti-Bolshevism were not necessarily linked (248 and 341f.), which could explain why, while he was a soldier, Hitler was relatively cautious in his public statements on this matter.
59. Walter, Kriminalität, 34ff.
60. Heinrich Pudor, ‘Kultur-Antisemitismus oder Pogrom-Antisemitismus?’ in Deutscher Volksrat, 8 August 1919.
61. Plöckinger, Soldaten, 100ff. and 154f. Hitler can be shown to have been in the demobilization centre of the 2nd Inf.Rgt. since June (KAM, Nr. 4470/7111, Hitler’s personal file).
62. On the ‘stab in the back’ legend see Boris Barth, Dolchstoßlegenden und politische Desintegration. Das Trauma der deutschen Niederlage im Ersten Weltkrieg 1914–1933 (Düsseldorf, 2003); Rainer Sammet, ‘Dolchstoß’. Deutschland und die Auseinandersetzung mit der Niederlage im Ersten Weltkrieg (1918–1933) (Berlin, 2003).
63. On Hitler’s anti-Semitism at this time see Kershaw Hitler 1, 168ff. and 197ff. Kershaw claims that Hitler only combined the topics of anti-Semitism and anti-Bolshevism in the summer of 1920. However, in fact he had already described the Jews as being the instigators of the re
volution in his letter to Gemlich. Reuth’s claim in Judenhass that Kershaw largely ignored the post-war phenomenon of anti-Semitic anti-Bolshevism in order to sustain his thesis of substantial continuity in German political culture from the Second Empire to the Weimar Republic does not do justice to Kershaw’s nuanced argument (in particular 109ff.).
Joining the Party
1. Plöckinger, Soldaten, 140ff.
2. Ibid.,133ff. Plöckinger partly corrects the picture in Joachimsthaler, Weg 248ff.
3. Plöckinger, Soldaten, 151f. Baumann’s presence is questionable. His name was mentioned not by Hitler but by Drexler and Lotter; the latter’s statement cannot be verified by the surviving list of those present dated 12 September 1919, BAB, NS 26/80. Drexler’s statement of 1936 that Hitler’s first visit to the DAP and the dispute with Baumann might have taken place already in August 1919 also does not accord with it; ibid., NS 26/82, Memo. 23 January 1936.
4. BAB, NS 26/80, Attendance list; Plöckinger, Soldaten, 150. Bayerische Haupstaatsarchiv (BHStA) V, Slg. P 3071, Drexler, Curriculum Vitae, 12 March 1935 and letter to Hitler, January 1940, published in Geschichtswerkstatt Neuhausen e.V. (ed.), Neuhausen, 231ff. and 235ff.; BAB, NS 26/78, Lotter, 1935 lecture, published in Joachimsthaler, Weg, 249 and 252f., and NS 26/78/3, Drexler, letter to the NS-Hauptarchiv, 23 January 1936, published in part in ibid., 252ff. For Hitler’s own account see MK (Munich, 1936), 237f. See also BAB, NS 26/76, minutes of the first DAP meetings. On this issue see Albrecht Tyrell, Vom Trommler zum Führer. Der Wandel von Hitlers Selbstverständnis zwischen 1919 und 1924 und die Entwicklung der NSDAP (Munich, 1975) 27f.
5. For example in Franz-Willing, Ursprung, 97ff.; Hagen Schulze, Weimar. Deutschland 1917–1933 (Berlin, 1982), 331; Werner Maser, Der Sturm auf die Republik. Frühgeschichte der NSDAP (Frankfurt a. M, 1981), 157ff., to name only a few well-known works.
6. Hitler’s membership card had the number 555 (only numbers from 500 onwards had been issued in order to give the impression of a larger number of members). However, the first membership numbers did not correspond to the order in which people joined the Party, but instead were given out altogether at a particular point in time, namely at the turn of the year 1919/1920, to existing members in alphabetical order. From membership number 714 onwards the membership numbers were given out in chronological order (BAB, NS 26/230, Membership list). Hitler’s own claim to have been the seventh member to join the Party presumably refers to his role as a committee member. In this function he saw himself as the seventh member of the Party’s hitherto six-member executive committee, of which, however, he was not formally a member. See Joachimsthaler, Weg, 254ff., see also 257, facsimile of a letter from Lotter to the Hauptarchiv, 17 October 1941 [BAB, NS 26/78/3].
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