90. Goebbels TB, 30 September 1930 (about the 29th).
91. Schulz, Brüning, 179ff.; Heinrich Brüning, Memoiren 1918–1934 (Stuttgart, 1970), 191ff., wrongly gives the date of the meeting as 6 October. On this see also Gottfried Treviranus, Das Ende von Weimar. Heinrich Brüning und seine Zeit (Düsseldorf and Vienna, 1968), 161.
92. Goebbels TB, 6 October 1930.
93. Ibid., 12 October 1930.
94. Winkler, Weimar, 392ff.
95. Ibid., 399ff.
96. Ibid., 398.
97. On the financing of the NSDAP see Turner, Großunternehmer; Turner, and Horst Matzerath, ‘Die Selbstfinanzierung der NSDAP’, in Geschichte und Gesellschaft 1 (1977), 59–92.
98. Turner, Großunternehmer, 157.
99. Ibid., 157f.
100. RSA 4/1, Doc. 17.
101. Turner, Großunternehmer, 164,
102. RSA 4/1, Doc. 36.
103. Turner, Großunternehmer, 162.
104. Ibid., 177ff.
105. Wagener, Hitler, 45ff.
106. Der Angriff, 28 September 1930, ‘Weiter arbeiten’, and 12 October 1930, ‘Wirtschaftsprogramm’.
107. At the end of 1929 Hitler had already established a commission that was supposed to produce a ‘Guide to National Socialist Economic Theory’ (RSA 3/2, Doc. 117). Wagener, at the time still SA chief of staff, recalls a meeting with Hitler, Strasser, and Gauleiter Adolf Wagner in the ‘early summer’ of 1930 to discuss economic matters. See Wagener, Hitler, 105ff. On 2 and 3 August 1930 Organization Department II under Hierl had a meeting to discuss basic economic issues. See Joachim Petzold, ‘Wirtschaftsbesprechungen der NSDAP in den Jahren 1930 und 1931’, in Jahrbuch für Wirtschaftsgeschichte (1982), 200ff.
108. On its establishment see Avraham Barkai, Das Wirtschaftssystem des Nationalsozialismus. Der historische und ideologische Hintergrund 1933–1936 (Cologne, 1977), 31ff.
109. Ralf Banken, ‘“An der Spitze aller Künste steht die Staatskunst”. Das Protokoll der NSDAP-Wirtschaftsbesprechungen Februar/März 1931’, in Johannes Bähr and Ralf Banken (eds), Wirtschaftssteuerung durch Recht im Nationalsozialismus. Studien zur Entwicklung des Wirtschaftsrechts im Interventionsstaat des’ Dritten Reichs’ (Frankfurt a. M., 2006), 545ff.
110. Ibid., 548ff.
111. Economic meetings of the Party leadership in February and March 1931, BAB, NS 51/10, edited by Banken, in ‘Spitze’. The document of 16/17 February had already been edited with other documents from the same file. See Petzold, ‘Wirtschaftsbesprechungen’. For further meetings see BAB, NS 22/1, 18 May 1931, on the topic, according to the invitation, of ‘Revising social legislation, in particular social security’; ibid., 10 June 1931, according to the invitation, on the topic of ‘Trade Policy’; ibid., ‘The result of the meetings of 26 November and 1 December 1931 re: Economic issues: profit sharing, policy towards profit, social security, settlement policy, corporatism, trades union questions, regulation of wage, salary, and labour issues, technical training (through the corporate bodies), social security, and welfare. Participation in legal decisions affecting economic issues.’
112. Goebbels TB, 13 and 16 March 1931 (quote); Longerich, Goebbels, 154f.; Wagener’s paper is published in Avraham Barkai, ‘Wirtschaftliche Grundanschauungen und Ziele der NSDAP. Ein unveröffentliches Dokument aus dem Jahre 1931’, in Jahrbuch des Instituts für Deutsche Geschichte 7 (1978), 373ff.
113. Turner, Großunternehmer, 170ff.
114. Hans Reupke, Der Nationalsozialismus und die Wirtschaft (Berlin, 1931).
115. Goebbels TB, 17 March 1931; Reupke, Nationalsozialismus; also, opposed to Reupke see Goebbels TB, 23 and 28 March1931.
116. VB (B), 15/16 March 1931, ‘Jüdisches Allerlei’.
117. Goebbels TB, 25 March 1931.
118. RSA 4/2, Doc. 60.
119. BAB, NS 22/1, Report on the meeting of the Reich Economic Council on 27 April 1932 and circulars from Wagener to the members of the Economic Council 4 May 1932; Wagener, Hitler, 178ff.
120. On the appointment see Longerich, Geschichte, 107f.
121. RSA 4/1, Doc. 54.
122. Ibid., Doc. 59 (quote), similarly Doc. 62.
123. Ibid., Doc. 67.
124. Goebbels TB, 30 and 31 March 1931.
125. RSA 4/1, Doc. 73.
126. Der Angriff, 1 April 1931, ‘Hauptmann Stennes nicht abgesetzt!’ (headline); Vossische Zeitrung (VZ), 2 April 1931, ‘Führerkrise im Hitler-Lager’ (headline). On the Stennes revolt see Longerich, Geschichte, 111; Goebbels TB, 2 April 1931.
127. Ibid., 2 and 4 April 1931.
128. RSA 4/1, Doc. 79.
129. Ibid., Doc. 80.
130. Ibid., Doc. 81.
131. Ibid., Doc. 87.
132. Ibid., Docs 89 and 91.
133. Ibid., Doc. 102.
134. Goebbels TB, 28 April 1931. According to Goebbels’s entries of 22 and 25 April he had already toyed with the idea of resigning as Gauleiter.
135. Ibid., 10 and 20 May 1931.
136. Ibid., 9 May 1931.
137. Joseph Goebbels, ‘Der Nazi-Sozi’. Fragen und Antworten für den Nationalsozialisten (Munich, 1930), 18f.
138. RSA 4/1, Doc. 115. See also the detailed report in the VZ, 9 May 1931: ‘“Adolf Legalité”. Hitlers Bekenntnis’. On the confrontation in the court room see Knut Bergbauer, Sabine Fröhlich, and Stefanie Schüler-Springorum, Denkmalsfigur. Biographische Annäherung an Hans Litten (1903–1938) (Göttingen, 2008), 146ff.
139. Goebbels TB, 9 May 1931. Goebbels, ‘Nazi-Sozi’ (1931).
140. Brigitte Hamann, Winifred Wagner oder Hitlers Bayreuth (Munich and Zurich, 2006).
141. Hale, ‘Hitler’, 837.
142. Goebbels TB, 24 August 1931; for further details on the relationship see Longerich, Goebbels, in particular pp. 167ff.
143. Goebbels TB, 26 and 27 August 1931.
144. Ibid., 4 September 1931.
145. Ibid., 14 September 1931. During these days Goebbels had cut several pages referring to Magda out of his diary.
146. Ibid., 16 September 1931.
147. Ibid., 31 October 1931.
148. Wagener, Hitler, 392ff.
149. Joachimsthaler, Liste, 328.
150. Goebbels TB, 20 September 1931.
151. Österreichisches Staatsarchiv, Archiv der Republik, 04, 122291-14/1924, Bundespolizeidirektion Wien, 26 September 1931.
152. Goebbels TB, 5 February 1932.
Strategies
1. Figures on unemployment in Balderston, Origins, 2; on unemployment and its consequences see, in particular, Richard J. Evans and Dick Geary (eds), The German Unemployed. Experiences and Consequences of Mass Unemployment from the Weimar Republic to the Third Reich (London, 1987); Peter D. Stachura (ed.), Unemployment and the Great Depression in Weimar Germany (New York, 1986); Heinrich August Winkler, Der Weg in die Katastrophe. Arbeiter und Arbeiterbewegung in der Weimarer Republik 1930 bis 1933 (Berlin and Bonn, 1987), 19ff.
2. RSA, 4/1, Doc. 88.
3. Volker Berghahn, Der Stahlhelm. Bund der Frontsoldaten 1918–1935 (Düsseldorf, 1966), 169 and 172f.; Gerhard Schulz, Brüning, 433ff.
4. Goebbels TB, 24 August 1931.
5. Gerhard Granier, Levetzow, No. 35.
6. Schulz, Brüning, 494.
7. See the notes of the DNVP politician, Otto Schmidt-Hannover, who was present at the subsequent meetings in Otto Schmidt-Hannover, Umdenken oder Anarchie. Männer – Schicksale – Lehren (Göttingen, 1959), 274f.
8. RSA 4/2, Doc. 27.
9. Maximilian Terhalle, Deutschnational in Weimar. Die politische Biographie des Reichstagsabgeordneten Otto Schmidt(-Hannover) 1888–1971 (Cologne, 2009), 276f.
10. Goebbels TB, 5 October 1931.
11. Winkler, Weimar, 430.
12. Heinrich Brüning, Memoiren 1918–1934 (Stuttgart, 1970), 391.
13. Granier, Levetzow, No. 36.
14. Brüning, Memoiren, 430.
15. Granier, Levetzow, No. 36; Goebbels TB, 12 October 1931; Brüning, Memoiren, 391; Wolfr
am Pyta, Hindenburg. Herrschaft zwischen Hohenzollern und Hitler (Munich, 2007), 636f.
16. Frankfurter Zeitung (FZ), 10 October (announcement of Hitler’s visit to Hindenburg) and 11 October 1931, ‘Hitlers Besuch beim Reichspräsidenten’.
17. Pyta, Hindenburg, 631; Brüning, Memoiren, 391f. See also Goebbels TB, 12 October 1931.
18. Larry Eugene Jones, ‘Nationalists, Nazis and the Assault against Weimar. Revisiting the Harzburg Rally of October 1931’, in German Studies Review 29 (2006), 483–494; Schulz, Brüning, 554ff. See also Granier, Levetzow, No. 3.
19. UF 8, Nos. 1784a and c; Ilse Maurer and Udo Wengst (eds), Politik und Wirtschaft in der Krise, 1930–1932. Quellen zur Ära Brüning (Düsseldorf, 1980), No. 341.
20. Christoph Kopper, Hjalmar Schacht. Aufstieg und Fall von Hitlers mächtigsten Bankier (Munich, 2006), 191ff. Schacht’s speech is documented in UF 8, No. 1784d.
21. VB, 13 October 1931, ‘An der Spitze des Kampfes zur Überwindung des herrschenden Systems marschiert die N.S.D.A.P.!’ (headline), and 14 October 1931, ‘Die Kampfansage von Harzburg’.
22. Terhalle, Schmidt, 288.
23. RSA 4/2, Doc. 46.
24. Schulz, Brüning, 560ff.; Martin Schumacher, Mittelstandsfront und Republik. Die Wirtschaftspartei – Reichspartei des deutschen Mittelstandes, 1919–1933 (Düsseldorf, 1972), 148.
25. A further meeting with Schleicher on 22 October 1931 did not result in progress. Speculations in the liberal press prompted Hitler to issue a denial and the Army Ministry a statement in which the contacts between Hitler and Schleicher were downplayed. See RSA 4/2, Doc. 65; FZ, 30 October 1931, ‘Adolf Hitler bei General Schleicher’.
26. RSA 4/2, Doc. 48 (quote) and Doc. 49.
27. Granier, Levetzow, No. 37.
28. Winkler, Weimar, 434; Schulz, Brüning, 604ff.
29. RSA 4/2, Doc. 76, note 5.
30. Ibid., Doc. 78.
31. Ibid., Doc. 82.
32. Ibid., Docs 83, 87, 89, and 97–99.
33. RSA 4/3, Doc. 15. See also Turner, Großunternehmer, 261ff.; Schulz, Brüning, 733f.
34. Turner, Großunternehmer, 269f.
35. Ibid., 290ff.; see also the documentation compiled by Kurt Koszyk, ‘Paul Reusch und die “Münchner Neuesten Nachrichten”. Zum Problem von Industrie und Presse in der Endphase der Weimarer Republik’, in VfZ 20 (1972), 75–103.
36. On Schacht’s office see Neebe, Großindustrie, 122ff.
37. Turner, Großunternehmer, 293ff.; on the creation of the working group see also Emil Helfferich, 1932–1946. Tatsachen. Ein Beitrag zur Wahrheitsfindung ( Jever, 1969).
38. Turner, Großunternehmer, 244ff.; Hartmut Berghoff and Cornelia Rauh-Kühne, Fritz K. Ein deutsches Leben im zwanzigsten Jahrhundert (Stuttgart, 2000).
39. See Goebbels’s shocked response in ‘Uniform- und Abzeichenverbot. Facta in Deutschland. Der Anfang von Ende’ (Goebbels TB, 9 December 1931).
40. Tilman Koops (ed.), Die Kabinette Brüning I und II. Akten der Reichskanzlei (Boppard am Rhein, 1982–1990), No. 599; Pyta, Hindenburg, 649. Brüning claimed in his memoirs that, surprised by this meeting, he had threatened to resign on account of ‘these unconstitutional negotiations’. See Memoiren, 467.
41. Kabinette Brüning I und II, No. 617. On the attempts to achieve an extension of his term of office see Schulz, Brüning, 704ff.
42. Kabinette Brüning I und II, No. 626. See also Pyta, Hindenburg, 653f.
43. Brüning, Memoiren, 501.
44. Goebbels TB, 10 und 11 January 1932; Brüning, Memoiren, 504f.
45. For the relevant correspondence see Kabinette Brüning I und II, Nos 623 and 642; RSA 4/3, Docs 6, 8, and 12. On the background see Goebbels TB, 12 January 1932.
46. Ibid., 13 January 1932. See also the note by the German Nationalist politician Reinhold Quaatz of 14 January, for whom Hitler’s behaviour was a debacle. See Hermann Weiss and Paul Hoser (eds), Reinhold G. Quaatz. Die Deutschnationalen und die Zerstörung der Weimarer Republik. Aus dem Tagebuch von Reinhold Quaatz (Munich, 1989), 168ff.
47. For this assessment see in particular Schulz, Brüning, 710f.
48. RSA 4/2, Doc. 84.
49. Longerich, Goebbels, 178f.
50. Goebbels TB, 20 and 28 January and 3 and 10 February 1932.
51. RSA 4/3, Doc. 23.
52. Goebbels TB, 23 February 1932; Der Angriff, 23 February 1932, ‘Schluss jetzt! Deutschland wählt Hitler!’ (headline); VZ, 23 February 1932 (M), ‘Hitler und Duesterberg proklamiert’.
53. RSA 4/3, Doc. 28.
54. Goebbels TB, 1 March 1932.
55. BAB, NS 26/287, Memo by the Party’s Reich propaganda HQ, 13 March 1932; Paul, Aufstand, 95ff. and 248ff.
56. RSA 4/3, Docs. 29, 32–41, 43, and 45.
57. Ibid., Doc. 41.
58. Ibid., Doc. 34.
59. Ibid., Doc. 32f. and Doc. 43.
60. Ibid., Doc. 45, see Doc. 38.
61. Goebbels TB, 14 March 1932.
62. RSA 4/3, Doc. 47f.
63. Goebbels TB, 16 March 1932.
64. Ibid., 20 March 1932.
65. RSA 4/3, Doc. 55 (quote), Doc. 56.
66. See the reporting in Der Angriff, which headlined this topic between 2 and 7 April 1932.
67. Hans Baur, Ich flog Mächtige der Erde (Kempten, 1956), 81ff.
68. Schulz, Brüning, 758.
69. Julius K. Engelbrechten, Eine braune Armee ensteht. Die Geschichte der Berlin-Brandenburger SA (Munich, 1937), 212.
70. RSA 4/3, Doc. 52 (quote) and Doc. 53f.
71. Excerpts appeared in the SPD supporting the Münchener Post of 9 March 1932.
72. Goebbels TB, 7 March 1932.
73. RSA 5/1, Doc. 15.
74. Ibid., Docs 30f. and 32 (for the word ‘victory’).
75. In the book version of his diaries, published in 1934 under the title Kaiserhof, Goebbels altered those passages that did not fit in with the image of a confident and decisive ‘Führer’ and included passages in which he praised Hitler’s gifts of leadership. See in detail Longerich, Goebbels, 741f.
76. RSA 5/1, Doc. 1.
77. See the report of the British military attaché, Colonel Thorne, in UF 8, No. 1821b.
78. Goebbels TB, 15 April 1932. There are already references to the impending ban in the entries for 12 and 13 April 1932.
79. RSA 5/1, Doc. 36.
80. Ibid., Doc. 57.
81. Ibid., Doc. 51 (quote), Doc. 38 (16 April) to Doc. 63 (23 April); see also the reporting in the VB from 17 to 24 April 1932.
82. Goebbels TB, 25 April 1932.
83. Ibid., 29 April 1932.
84. Pyta, Hindenburg, 690f.
85. Ibid., 685.
86. Hagen Schulze, Otto Braun oder Preussens demokratische Sendung. Eine Biographie (Berlin, 1977), 732.
87. Pyta, Hindenburg, 691; Brüning, Memoiren, 575ff.
88. Goebbels TB, 5 and 7 May 1932.
89. Ibid., 9 May 1932.
90. Ibid.
91. Politik und Wirtschaft, No. 498; Brüning, Memoiren, 586.
92. Goebbels TB, 13 May 1932. Goebbels claimed that the resignation was Schleicher’s first success and that the crisis was ‘deepening according to plan’. See ibid., 14May 1932. On Groener’s resignation see Schulz, Brüning, 820f.; Johannes Hürter, Wilhelm Groener. Reichswehrminister am Ende der Weimarer Republik (1928–1932) (Munich, 1993), 348ff.; Pyta, Hindenburg, 687ff.
93. RSA 5/1, Doc. 68.
94. Goebbels TB, 19 and 25 May 1932.
95. Ibid., 25 May 1932.
96. Ibid.
97. Hermann Pünder, Politik in der Reichskanzlei. Aufzeichnungen aus den Jahren 1929–1932 (Stuttgart, 1961), 126; Brüning, Memoiren, 593ff.; Otto Meissner, Staatssekretär unter Ebert, Hindenburg, Hitler. Der Schicksalsweg des deutschen Volkes von 1918 bis 1945, wie ich ihn erlebte (Hamburg, 1950), 224ff.; see also Schulz, Brüning, 853f.
98. Herbert Hömig, Das preußische Zentrum in der Weimarer Republik (Mainz, 1979), 258f.
99. Hans-Peter Ehni, Bollwerk
Preußen? Preußen-Regierung, Reich–Länder-Problem und Sozialdemokratie 1918–1932 (Bonn-Bad Godesberg, 1975), 247f.
100. RSA 5/1, Docs 69–75.
101. Goebbels TB, 28 May 1932.
102. On the background see Friedrich Martin Fiederlein, Der deutsche Osten und die Regierungen Brüning, Papen, Schleicher (Würzburg, 1967); Schulz, Brüning, 800ff.
103. Kabinette Brüning I und II, No. 773; Brüning, Memoiren, 597ff.; Pünder, Politik, 128f.; Schulz, Brüning, 843ff.
104. With 48.4 per cent of the votes. See Falter, Lindenberger, and Schumann, Wahlen, 100.
105. Walther Hubatsch, Hindenburg und der Staat. Aus den Papieren des Generalfeldmarschalls und Reichspräsidenten von 1878 bis 1934 (Göttingen, 1966), No. 84; Meissner, Staatssekretär, 232f. However, Meissner’s promise to provide the NSDAP with access to radio is referred to only in his memoirs, not in the note in his file. Following the meeting, Hitler also informed Goebbels. See Goebbels TB, 31 May 1932.
106. Ibid., 1 June 1932.
On the Threshold of Power
1. Interior Minister Gayl and Agriculture Minister Braun; see Gerhard Feldbauer and Joachim Petzold, ‘Deutscher Herrenklub’, in Dieter Fricke, Lexikon zur Parteiengeschichte. Die bürgerlichen und kleinbürgerlichen Parteien und Verbände in Deutschland (1789–1945), 2 (Leipzig, 1984), 107–15.
2. According to Papen in Franz von Papen, Der Wahrheit eine Gasse (Innsbruck, 1952), 187.
3. On the Papen government see Ulrike Hörster-Philipps, Konservative Politik in der Endphase der Weimarer Republik. Die Regierung Franz von Papen (Cologne, 1982); Joachim Petzold, Franz von Papen. Ein deutsches Verhängnis (Munich and Berlin, 1995).
4. RSA 5/1, Doc. 81; for his other appearances in Mecklenburg see ibid., Docs 76, 78f., and 82.
5. Hitler’s remark to Goebbels. See Goebbels TB, 5 June 1932.
6. Schulz, Brüning, 879f.
7. Goebbels TB, 7 June 1932. On the negotiations see Germania, 18 July 1932; on a conversation between the Centre party and Papen on 8 June see Ilse Maurer and Udo Wengst (eds), Politik und Wirtschaft in der Krise 1930–1932. Quellen zur Ära Brüning (Düsseldorf, 1980), No. 530b.
8. Goebbels TB, 5 June 1932.
9. RSA 5/1, Doc. 85.
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