Hitler

by Peter Longerich

  17. Longerich, Geschichte, 48.

  18. Ibid., 51; Jablonsky, Nazi Party, 155 and 170f.; Lüdecke, Hitler, 259; Werner, SA, 305ff.; Röhm, Geschichte, 337ff.

  19. Rosenberg, Letzte Aufzeichnungen. Ideale und Idole der nationalsozialistischen Revolution (Göttingen, 1955), 114; see also his comment to Lüdecke in Rosenberg, Hitler, 257f. For the speech see RSA 1, Doc. 6. See also Jablonsky, Nazi Party, 168; Horn, Marsch, 220.

  20. Ibid., 216f.

  21. Ibid., 218. VK, 8 March 1925, ‘Auflösung der Ortsgruppe München der Nationalsozialistischen Freiheitsbewegung’, and 10 March 1925, ‘Auflösung des Völkischen Blocks’.

  22. RSA 1, Docs 7 and 9.

  23. Ibid., Doc. 11; MNN, 9 March 1925, ‘Versammlungs-Verbot’. See also VB, 14 March 1925, ‘Unsere Beschwerde gegen das Versammlungsverbot’.

  24. According to Tyrell (ed.), Führer, 107f., based on reports in the VB, Hitler was banned from speaking in Bavaria from 9 March 1925 to 5 March 1927; in Baden from April 1925 to 22 April 1927; in Prussia from 25 September 1925 to 23 September 1928; in Hamburg from 8 October 1925 to 23 March 1927; in Anhalt from 30 October 1925 to November 1928; in Saxony from February 1926 to January 1927; in Oldenburg from February 1926 to 22 May 1926; in Lippe from March 1926, and in Lübeck from March 1926 to 19 May 1927. See also Horn, Marsch, 222.

  25. On this see RSA 2, Doc. 9, references in the notes; Horn, Marsch, 219; VK, 1 May 1925, ‘Gründung des National-sozialen Volksbundes’.

  26. Goebbels TB, 23 February 1925; Gerhard Schildt, ‘Die Arbeitsgemeinschaft Nord-west. Untersuchungen zur Geschichte der NSDAP 1925/26’, Dissertation. Freiburg, 1964, 32ff. on Hamm and Harburg; Markus März, Nationale Sozialisten in der NSDAP. Strukturen, Ideologie, Publizistik und Biographien des national-sozialistischen Straßer-Kreises von der AG Nordwest bis zum Kampf-Verlag 1925–1930 (Graz, 2010), 83ff.

  27. Udo Kissenkoetter, Gregor Straßer und die NSDAP (Stuttgart, 1978), 20f.; Peter Hüttenberger, Die Gauleiter. Studie zum Wandel des Machtgefüges in der NSDAP (Stuttgart, 1969), 15ff.; Schildt, Arbeitsgemeinschaft, 36ff.

  28. Ibid.; Hüttenberger, Gauleiter, 13ff.

  29. Horn, Marsch, 225.

  30. Hüttenberger, Gauleiter, 21.

  31. Schildt, Arbeitsgemeinschaft, 40 and 45. Goebbels TB, 3 August and 28 September 1925.

  32. Partly reproduced in Schildt, Arbeitsgemeinschaft, 38.

  33. RSA 1, Doc. 52. See Philipp Bouhler, Kampf um Deutschland. Ein Lesebuch für die deutsche Jugend (Munich, 1938), 79f.; RSA 4/1, Doc. 61.

  34. RSA 1, Doc. 52. See Ulrich Wörtz, ‘Programmatik und Führerprinzip. Das Problem des Straßer-Kreises in der NSDAP. Eine historisch-politische Studie zum Verhältnis von sachlichem Programm und persönlicher Führung in einer totalitären Bewegung’, Dissertation, Erlangen, 1966, 75; Schildt, Arbeitsgemeinschaft, 47. The statutes of 21 August 1925 laid down in §3: ‘Membership of the association shall be acquired through the completion of the National Socialist German Workers’ Party membership form and the payment of a membership fee . . .’ (RSA 1, Doc. 64).

  35. Ibid., Docs 48–51 and Docs 54–61; Goebbels TB, 14 July 1925, on Hitler’s appearance on 12 July 1925 in Weimar.

  36. RSA 1, Doc. 51.

  37. Ibid., Docs 51 and 54f.

  38. Ibid., Doc. 63f.

  39. Goebbels TB, 23 February 1925.

  40. Ibid., 21 August 1925; BAB, NS 1/340, Strasser to Goebbels, 29 August 1925, and reply, 31 August 1925.

  41. On the Working Group see Jochmann, Nationalsozialismus, Doc. 66; Schildt, Arbeitsgemeinschaft; Horn, Marsch, 232ff.; Wörtz, Programmatik, 78ff.; März, Sozialisten, 93ff.

  42. BAB, NS 1/340, Goebbels, Report for Strasser 11 September 1925, reproduced in Schildt, Arbeitsgemeinschaft, VIIIff.

  43. BAB, NS 1/340, Strasser to Goebbels (on the preparations for the meeting) and NS 26/899, Fobke circular, 11 September 1925; Goebbels TB, 11 September 1925. For the meeting on 10 September see Schildt, Arbeitsgemeinschaft, 105ff.; Wörtz, Programmatik, 80f.

  44. Goebbels TB, 30 September and 2 October 1925.

  45. Jochmann, Nationalsozialismus, Doc. 67. The statutes were agreed by the working group (AG) on 22 November in Hannover. See Schildt, Arbeitsgemeinschaft, 112f.

  46. Goebbels TB 26 October 1925; Schildt, Arbeitsgemeinschaft, 108.

  47. On Strasser’s draft programme see ibid., 127ff.; BAB, NS 26/896, published in Reinhard Kühnl, ‘Zur Programmatik der nationalsozialistischen Linken: Das Straßer-Programm von 1925/1926’, in VjZ 14 (1966), 317–33; on the meeting in Hannover see März, Sozialisten, 102ff. and 164ff.

  48. Ibid., 110.

  49. Jochmann, Nationalsozialismus, Doc. 71.

  50. Schildt, Arbeitsgemeinschaft, 140ff.; März, Sozialisten, 114ff.

  51. Goebbels TB, 25 January 1926.

  52. Otto Strasser had strongly opposed compensation for the German princes in the Nationalsozialistischen Briefe of 15 December 1925, writing under the pseudonym Ulrich von Hutten. On the issue of compensation for the princes see Otmar Jung, Direkte Demokratie in der Weimarer Republik. Die Fälle ‘Aufwertung’, ‘Fürstenenteignung’, ‘Panzerkreuzerverbot’ und ‘Youngplan’ (Frankfurt a. M., 1989), 49ff.; Ulrich Schüren, Der Volksentscheid zur Fürstenenteignung 1926. Die Vermögensauseinandersetzung mit den depossedierten Landesherren als Problem der deutschen Innenpolitik unter besonderer Berücksichtigung der Verhältnisse in Preussen (Düsseldorf, 1978). For the decisions see Jochmann, Nationalsozialismus, Doc. 72.

  53. Albrecht Tyrell, ‘Gottfried Feder and the NSDAP’, in Peter D. Stachura (ed.), The Shaping of the Nazi State (London, 1978), 69f.

  54. Peter Longerich, Joseph Goebbels. Biographie (Munich, 2010), 76ff.

  55. RSA 1, Doc. 101. According to Goebbels’s diary (TB, 15 February), on this occasion Hitler was also advocating an alliance with Britain, but the manuscript version of the speech makes no mention of it.

  56. RSA 1, Doc. 101; Goebbels TB, 15 February 1926. See also Horn, Marsch, 240ff.; Schildt, Arbeitsgemeinschaft, 155; Kershaw, Hitler, 1, 353; März, Sozialisten, 126ff.; Wörtz, Programmatik, 97ff.

  57. See Kershaw, Hitler, 1, 357.

  58. Jochmann, Nationalsozialismus, Doc. 74.

  59. Schildt, Arbeitsgemeinschaft, 169ff.

  60. Goebbels TB, 13 April 1926.

  61. VB, 10 April 1926.

  62. See BAB, BDC, Oberstes Parteigericht, Karl Kaufmann file, Kaufmann to Heinemann; an excerpt is published in Tyrell (ed.), Führer, No. 53.

  63. Goebbels TB, 19 April 1926.

  64. Peter D. Stachura, ‘Der Fall Strasser’ in Stachura, The Shaping of the Nazi State, 50; Kissenkoetter, Strasser, 30f.

  65. Longerich, Goeb/bels, 81.

  66. RSA 1, Doc. 143f.

  67. Ibid., Doc. 145. The speech was published as a special edition of the VB. On the membership meeting see Kershaw, Hitler 1, 358f.

  68. This is referred to in various entries in Goebbels’s diary between 3 May and 14 June 1926; see Longerich, Goebbels, 83.

  69. Goebbels TB, 16–21 June 1926. On Hitler’s appearances during these days see RSA 1. For the membership meeting see Docs. 152–155 and 157f.

  70. Goebbels TB, 10 and 12 June and 6 July 1926. See also Longerich, Goebbels, 84f.; Albrecht Tyrell, ‘Führergedanke und Gauleiterwechsel. Die Teilung des Gaues Rheinland der NSDAP 1931’, in VjZ 23 (1975), 352.

  71. RSA 2, Doc. 3.

  72. Ibid., Doc. 1.

  73. Ibid., Doc. 3. This is similar to the statement in the ‘Basic Guidelines’ (Doc. 4).

  74. Tyrell (ed.), Führer, No. 57a; RSA 2, Docs. 6 and 4. For an account of the Party Rally see VB, 6 July 1926, ‘Weimar im Zeichen der kommenden Reichsflagge’; Kershaw, Hitler 1, 359.

  75. The motion put forward by the Pomeranian Nazi, Walther von Corswant, that the Party should no longer take part in elections was thus not considered by the special meeting on election issues. See RSA 2, Doc. 5. The Party leadership gave Hermann Fobke the opportunity to make a statement opposing participation in elections, to
which the meeting responded, as Hitler wished, by passing a motion opposing the further discussion of this issue. Buttmann then issued a statement to the effect that, while the Party remained opposed in principle to parliamentary politics, in the current situation participation in elections could be useful. See VB, 6 July 1926; Horn, Marsch, 272.

  76. RSA 2, Doc. 6. Although he was known to be prone to exaggerating, according to Goebbels there were as many as 15,000 there. See Goebbels TB, 7 July 1926.

  77. RSA 2, Doc. 6.

  78. Ibid., Doc. 7; Goebbels TB, 6 July 1926.

  79. Frankfurter Zeitung (FZ) (M), 15 July 1926, ‘Hakenkreuzler-Terror in Weimar’.

  80. Goebbels TB, 24 July to 1 August 1926.

  81. Nationalsozialistische Briefe, 15 September 1926, ‘Die Revolution als Ding an sich’.

  82. RSA 2, Doc. 29.

  83. Horn, Marsch, 243; Nationalsozialistische Briefe, 1 October 1926.

  84. RSA 2, Doc. 40.

  85. Ibid., Doc. 44.

  86. Ibid., Doc. 31.

  87. Ibid., Doc. 28, also Doc. 53. See also the distancing from the paramilitary leagues in MK, 603ff.; on this issue see Longerich, Geschichte, 65ff.

  88. Hitler had already established the incompatibility of membership of the Party and membership of the paramilitary leagues in his speech of 11 September 1926 and a specific ban in writing followed on 5 February 1927. See RSA 2, Doc. 75.

  89. On the use of this ambiguous tactic towards the paramilitary leagues in Thuringia see Tracey, ‘Aufstieg’, 81ff.; also Werner, SA, 433ff. On the paramilitary leagues see, in particular, James M. Diehl, Paramilitary Politics in Weimar Germany (Bloomington and London, 1977), 233ff.

  90. For the following characterization see, in particular, Kershaw, Hitler, 1, 358ff.

  91. Goebbels TB, 21 August, 30 September and 2 and 19 October 1925.

  92. Tyrell (ed.), Führer, No. 74 (Hitler was surrounded by a ‘Chinese wall’) and No. 82 on Hitler’s ‘contempt for humanity’; see also Lüdecke, Hitler, 250ff.

  93. On the rejection of open discussion within the Party see Albert Krebs, Tendenzen und Gestalten der NSDAP. Erinnerungen an die Frühzeit der Partei (Stuttgart, 1959), 131f.

  94. Hanfstaengl, Haus, 177.

  95. Ibid., 184f., refers in this context to Hitler’s dislike of being seen when not fully clothed (for example when bathing). He rejected ballroom dancing lessons since dancing was ‘an undignified activity . . . for a statesman’ (174).

  96. Rudolf Herz, Hoffmann und Hitler. Fotografie als Medium des Führer-Mythos (Munich, 1994), 94ff.

  97. Krebs, Tendenzen, 135.

  98. Kershaw, Hitler, 1, 364; see also Hitler, Monologe, 16/17 January 1942.

  99. RSA 6, Doc. 16.

  100. Oron James Hale, ‘Adolf Hitler: Taxpayer’, in American Historical Review 60 (1955), 837.

  101. Ibid., 836; RSA 6, Doc. 5 (re: tax declaration 1925).

  102. There is a considerable amount of evidence for this statement in a variety of formulations. See Joachimsthaler, Liste, 23ff.

  103. Ibid., 213ff.; on the innocence of the relationship see Hanfstaengl, Haus, 64f.

  104. Joachimsthaler, Liste, 356. This chapter is based on the statements made by Frau Schultze, née Klein, to Joachimsthaler or rather to Christa Schroeder (from whom Joachimsthaler heard them).

  105. Ibid., 177ff.; Hitler, Monologe, 16/17 January 1942.

  106. Joachimsthaler, Liste, 341 (however, only with limited information); Goebbels TB, 24 August, also 8 and 10 September 1927. The vague remark by Wagener in Otto Wagener, Hitler aus nächster Nähe. Aufzeichnungen eines Vertrauten 1929–1932 (Frankfurt/M, 1978), 98, that Hitler felt ‘something more . . . than affection’ is an example of the rumours circulating in the NSDAP at the time.

  107. Joachimsthaler, Liste, 203ff. In Goebbels’s diary there are various references to her presence in Hitler’s entourage, for example, on 19 December 1932.

  108. Joachimsthaler, Liste, passim.

  109. Ibid., 362f.; Akten Partei-Kanzlei, Regest 11158, Letter from Hertha Oldenbourg (Starnberg) to Hitler’s adjutant Wiedemann, 18 November 1935, with a reference to a postcard sent jointly with the ‘little princess’ to Hitler.

  110. Joachimsthaler, Liste, 309ff.; Anna Maria Sigmund, Des Führers bester Freund. Adolf Hitler, seine Nichte Geli Raubal und der ‘Ehrenarier; Emil Maurice – Eine Dreiecksbeziehung (Munich, 2003).

  111. Joachimsthaler, Liste, 322.

  112. Goebbels TB, 31 January 1930 (Munich); Hanfstaengl, Haus, 237.

  113. Goebbels TB, 15 January and 6 March 1931.

  114. Ibid., 22 November 1929.

  115. Ibid., 2 August 1929.

  116. Ibid., 8 and 10 September 1927, 30 March, 15, 17, and 19 November 1928, also 3 May 1930.

  117. Ibid., 20 July 1930.

  118. Ibid., 19 October 1928.

  Hitler as a Public Speaker

  1. VB, 29 July 1925, Hess directive concerning the recording of speeches in shorthand.

  2. Horn, Marsch, 221f.

  3. Kershaw, Hitler, 1, 369f.

  4. RSA 1 Doc. 72; RSA 2, Doc. 67.

  5. On ‘Jewish Marxism’ see RSA 1, Doc. 76; RSA 2, Docs 80 and 140.

  6. RSA 1, Doc. 72.

  7. RSA 2, Doc. 159.

  8. Ibid., Doc. 59 (quote) and Doc. 60.

  9. Ibid., Docs 53, 67–69, and 84.

  10. RSA 1, Doc. 72.

  11. Ibid., Doc. 94.

  12. See, for example, RSA 2, Docs 67 and 197, also Docs 96, 243, and 248.

  13. RSA 1, Doc. 103; see Kershaw, Hitler, 1, 367.

  14. RSA 1, Doc. 157.

  15. RSA 2, Doc. 55.

  16. Ibid., Doc. 56.

  17. Ibid., Doc. 112.

  18. Ibid., Doc. 201.

  19. Tyrell (ed.), Führer, No. 41.

  20. RSA 2, Doc. 83; Deuerlein, Aufstieg, 268.

  21. RSA 2, Doc. 84. The VB referred to an audience of 7,000, but the police reporter noted only 4,500.

  22. Kershaw, Hitler, 1, 375. According to Rösch, Münchener NSDAP, 209, 60 per cent of the NSDAP mass meetings in 1927 were poorly, 20 per cent moderately, and only 15 per cent well attended.

  23. See below p. 173.

  24. RSA 2, Doc. 222.

  25. MK, 757.

  26. RSA 2, Docs 160 and 221.

  27. Ibid., Docs 94, 119, and 187.

  28. According to Otto Wagener, Hitler, 17, Hitler could not be understood at the 1929 Reich Party Rally because of the lack of loudspeakers. The British correspondent, Sefton Delmer, was present at one of Hitler’s Berlin speeches (he gives the date as February 1929): ‘It was by no means easy to gather what the man with the red face and agitated features, speaking with a hoarse voice in an Austrian accent, was so passionately trying to get across. Either the microphones were badly placed or he hadn’t yet mastered the art of public speaking.’ See Delmer, Die Deutschen und ich (Hamburg, 1962) 102f. See also: Cornelia Epping-Jäger, ‘Lautsprecher Hitler. Über eine Form der Massenkommunikation im Nationalsozialismus’, in Gerhard Paul and Ralf Schock (eds), Sound des Jahrhunderts. Geräusche, Töne, Stimmen 1889 bis Heute (Bonn, 2013); Hitler, Monologe, 4 January 1942, midday.

  29. BAB, NS 18/5502, Himmler circular, 31 March 1928.

  30. Rösch, NSDAP, 119. See Kershaw, Hitler, 1, 383, although he uses the figures in Tyrell (ed.), Führer, 225, and not those that have been established in the meantime and are contained in the RSA edition.

  31. Müller, Krieg, 171.

  32. BAB, NS 18/5502, questionnaires, directives, and extensive correspondence with the individual local branches. Directives published in Müller, Krieg, 173ff.

  33. Beate Behrens, Mit Hitler zur Macht. Aufstieg des Nationalsozialismus in Mecklenburg und Lübeck 1922–1933 (Rostock, 1998), 77f.; see also material in BAB, NS 18/5007.

  34. See Müller, Krieg, 178ff.

  35. Krebs, Tendenzen, 126f.

  36. Deuerlein, Aufstieg, 269ff.

  37. Krebs, Tendenzen, 126; Delmer (Die Deutschen, 103) noted t
hat Hitler perspired during a speech so much that his cheap blue suit dyed his shirt collar.

  38. On his exhaustion and retreat to his hotel see Krebs, Tendenzen, 127.

  39. In the state elections in Saxony on 31 October 1926 the Party achieved 1.6 per cent, in the state elections in Thuringia on 30 January 1927 3.5 per cent, and in the state elections in Mecklenburg-Schwerin on 22 May 1927 only 1.8 per cent. In Mecklenburg-Strelitz the DVFP secured 5 per cent (the NSDAP did not put up candidates); however, in the election of 29 January 1928 this had fallen to 3.8 per cent. The NSDAP secured 1.5 per cent on 9 October 1927 in Hamburg, 3.7 per cent in the state of Brunswick on 27 November 1927. See Jürgen Falter, Thomas Lindenberger, and Siegfried Schumann, Wahlen und Abstimmungen in der Weimarer Republik. Materialien zum Wahlverhalten 1919–1933 (Munich, 1986).

  A New Direction

  1. RSA 2, Docs 161–63. See also Siegfried Zelnhefer, Die Reichsparteitage der NSDAP. Geschichte, Struktur und Bedeutung der großen Propagandafeste im nationalsozialistischen Feierjahr (Nuremberg, 1991), 23ff.; Report of the Reich Commissar for the Supervision of Public Order published in Deuerlein, Aufstieg 279ff.

  2. RSA 2, Doc. 168, Notes; Zelnhefer, Reichsparteitage, 29ff.; the VB of 23 August 1927, in referring to 100,000 participants, absurdly exaggerated the number.

  3. On the Left after 1926 see März, Nationale Sozialisten, 219ff.; Reinhard Kühnl, Die nationalsozialistische Linke 1925–1930 (Meisenheim a. Glan, 1966).

  4. This is clear from an examination of the relevant statements in the collection in RSA 2.

  5. Horn, Marsch, 248ff.

  6. VB, 2 February 1927, Alfred Rosenberg, ‘Nationaler Sozialismus’, in Nationalsozialistische Briefe, 15 February 1927, Gregor Strasser, ‘Nationaler Sozialismus’ in ibid.

  7. RSA 2, Doc. 83 (quote), also Docs 89 and 112.

  8. Rösch, NSDAP, 157ff.; Longerich, Geschichte, 64. On Hitler’s attempts to mollify them see RSA 2, Docs 125, 130, and 218.

  9. RSA 2, Doc. 165. See Rösch, NSDAP, 167.

  10. Longerich, Himmler, 97ff. Kershaw’s claim in Hitler, 1, 384 that Hitler announced a ‘change of course’ towards trying to win over the middle class at a meeting of Gauleiters on 27 November 1927 is not confirmed by the summary of the speech he made there, which has survived. See RSA 2, Doc. 198; the comment by a functionary, Karl Dincklage, which is used by Kershaw as evidence for this (see Tyrell (ed.), Führer befiehl, 188), does not permit such a far-reaching conclusion to be drawn. Stachura’s claim that the decision to change course was substantially taken at the leadership meeting in September 1928 is also not tenable. See Peter D. Stachura ‘Der kritische Wendepunkt? Die NSDAP und die Reichstagswahlen vom 28. Mai 1928’, in VjZ 26 (1978), esp. 95f. On the meeting of leaders see below p. 184f. See also Rösch, NSDAP, 165ff.