Hitler

by Peter Longerich

  8. Meissner, Staatssekretär, 279; Decrees on the dissolution of the Reichstag and on new elections in Reichsgesetzblatt (RGBl. 1933 I, 45).

  9. Regierung Hitler 1, No. 5; Domarus 1, 191ff.; on the proclamation see also Kershaw, Hitler, 1, 558f.

  10. Schulz, Brüning, 1000ff.

  11. Domarus 1, 195f.; on Brecht’s speech see Frankfurter Zeitung (FZ), 3 February 1933 (2nd morning edn).

  12. The decree is dated 6 February 1933 in RGBl. 1933 I, 43.

  13. Regierung Hitler 1, Nos 2, 9, 11, and 13. See also Schulze, Braun, 780ff.; Bracher, Stufen, 94ff.

  14. Apart from the parliament, the ‘three-man committee’, composed of the prime minister and the presidents of the parliament and the state council, could also order the dissolution. In his position as Braun’s replacement as prime minister, together with the Nazi president of the parliament, Papen now had a majority in this body.

  15. RGBl. 1933 I, 35ff.; Regierung Hitler 1, Nos 11 and 9. This provision was a so-called ‘decree in a drawer’ (ibid., No. 3), which the Papen cabinet had already drawn up during the BVG strike in November 1932. See Bracher, Stufen, 91ff.; Winkler, Weg, 867ff.

  16. In the manuscript replaced by ‘to be exterminated’.

  17. The speech exists in several versions. The most recently discovered one, quoted here, derives from the KPD’s intelligence operation and had already reached Moscow by 14 February. See Andreas Wirsching, ‘“Man kann nur Boden germanisieren”. Eine neue Quelle zu Hitlers Rede vor den Spitzen der Reichswehr am 3. Februar 1933’, in VfZ 49 (2001), 517–51. This version essentially confirms the well-known version in note form produced by Lieutenant-General Kurt Liebmann. See Thilo Vogelsang, ‘Neue Dokumente zur Geschichte der Reichswehr 1930–1933’, in VfZ 2 (1954), 397–436. See also Klaus-Jürgen Müller, Das Heer und Hitler. Armee und nationalsozialistische Regime 1932–1940 (Stuttgart, 1969), 11ff.

  18. The second Reichswehr armaments programme envisaged enabling the Reichswehr to fight a limited defensive war by 1938. See Michael Geyer, ‘Das zweite Rüstungsprogramm (1930 bis 1934)’, in Militärgeschichtliche Mitteilungen (MGM) 17 (1975), 121–86.

  19. Hitler had emphasized that if possible the Reichswehr should not be deployed to crush a general strike, to which Blomberg responded positively in a brief note. See Regierung Hitler 1, No. 1.

  20. Ibid., No. 17. In the cabinet meeting the discussion was about the construction of a reservoir in Upper Silesia.

  21. Ibid. On Hitler’s cautious approach to economic matters see Adam J. Tooze, Ökonomie der Zerstörung. Die Geschichte der Wirtschaft im Nationalsozialismus (Munich, 2007), 61.

  22. Geyer, ‘Rüstungsprogramm’.

  23. Regierung Hitler 1, No. 19. In addition to the 140 million there was 360 million for the federal states and local authorities. In March 1933 this emergency programme was increased by 100 million Reich marks, which were to be used for the rearmament programme. See ibid., No. 67. On the final allocation of the money see Jürgen Stelzner, Arbeitsbeschaffung und Wiederaufrüstung 1933–1936. Nationalsozialistische Beschäftigungspolitik und Aufbau der Wehr- und Rüstungswirtschaft (Bamberg, 1976), 67. The 50 million offered to the Reichswehr on 9 February had not hitherto figured in the plans, but was allocated for the so-called reorganization of the peacetime army.

  24. Hans-Jürgen Rautenberg, Deutsche Rüstungspolitik vom Beginn der Genfer Abrüstungskonferenz bis zur Wiedereinführung der Allgemeinen Wehrpflicht 1932–1935 (Bonn, 1973), 212ff.

  25. Paul, Aufstand, 111ff. On the election campaign see also Bracher, Stufen, 108ff.

  26. Regierung Hitler 1, No. 17.

  27. Domarus 1, 202f.

  28. Ibid., 203ff. (quote); on the speech see Kershaw, Hitler, 1, 573ff.

  29. Ansgar Diller, Rundfunkpolitik im Dritten Reich (Munich, 1980), 65ff.; Regierung Hitler 1, No. 17; Eugen Hadamovsky, ‘Großkampftage der Rundfunkpropaganda. Vom 30. Januar bis zum “Tage der erwachenden Nation” ’, in Hadamovsky, Dein Rundfunk. Das Rundfunkbuch für alle Volksgenossen (Munich, 1934), 82–90; Longerich, Goebbels, 213.

  30. Erich Matthias, ‘Die Sozialdemokratische Partei Deutschlands’ in Matthias and Rudolf Morsey (eds), Das Ende der Parteien 1933 (Düsseldorf, 1960), 153; Siegfried Bahne, ‘Die Kommunistische Partei Deutschlands’, in Matthias and Morsey (eds), Ende, 699ff.; Winkler, Weg, 876ff.; Johann Wachtler, Zwischen Revolutionserwartung und Untergang. Die Vorbereitung der KPD auf die Illegalität in den Jahren 1929–1933 (Frankfurt a. M., Berne, and New York, 1983), 190ff. Allan Merson, Kommunistischer Widerstand in Nazideutschland (Bonn, 1999) 44ff. (for February); Kurt Koszyk, Zwischen Kaiserreich und Diktatur. Die sozialdemokratische Presse von 1914 bis 1933 (Heidelberg, 1958), 49f. (for the Social Democratic Press). The KPD’s main newspaper, Die Rote Fahne, was banned from 5–7 February, then again from 11–25 February 1933 and after the Reichstag fire. See Jürgen Stroech, ‘Zur Herstellung und Verbreitung der illegalen Rote Fahne 1933–1938’, in Beiträge zur Geschichte der Arbeiterbewegung 19 (1977), 81f.

  31. Regierung Hitler 1, No. 22 (outside the formal agenda); Domarus 1, 210ff.

  32. Morsey, ‘Deutsche Zentrumspartei’, 348ff.

  33. Germania, 22 and 23 February 1933.

  34. Domarus 1, 223.

  35. Gerhard Schulz, Die Anfänge des totalitären Maßnahmestaates (Frankfurt a. M., 1974), 91ff. and 154f. According to Hans Buchheim, ‘Die organisatorische Entwicklung der politischen Polizei in Deutschland in den Jahren 1933 und 1934’, in Gutachten des Instituts für Zeitgeschichte vol. 1 (Munich, 1958), 307f., in February thirteen, in March twelve police presidents were dismissed.

  36. UF 9, No. 1980b.

  37. Ibid., No. 1980c; Bracher, Stufen, 116.

  38. Regierung Hitler 1, No. 30; RGBl. 1933 I, 85ff.

  39. On 17 February he spoke in the Dortmund Westfalenhalle, on the 19th, after a brief trip to Munich for meetings, in the Cologne exhibition hall, on the 24th at the celebration of the Party’s foundation in the Hofbräuhaus in Munich and then in the exhibition halls. On the following day he appeared in Nuremberg. See Domarus 1, 212 and 214f.

  40. Turner, Großunternehmer, 393ff.; Hitler’s speech in International Military Tribunal: Der Prozess gegen die Hauptkriegsverbrecher vor dem Internationalen Militärgerichtshof 14. Oktober 1945 bis 1. Oktober 1946 (IMT), 42 vols (Nuremberg, 1947–1949) 35, 203-D, 42ff., and 204-D, 48; Goebbels TB, 21 February 1933.

  41. At the trial at the Leipzig Supreme Court, which lasted from September to December 1933, van der Lubbe was the only one convicted and he was sentenced to death. On the trial see Dieter Deiseroth (ed.), Der Reichstagsbrand und der Prozess vor dem Reichsgericht (Berlin, 2006).

  42. On the controversy see Fritz Tobias, Der Reichstagsbrand – Legende und Wirklichkeit (Rastatt, 1962); Uwe Backes et al., Reichstagsbrand – Aufklärung einer historischen Legende (Munich and Zurich, 1986); Ulrich von Hehl, ‘Die Kontroverse um den Reichstagsbrand’, in VfZ 36 (1988), 259–80; Walther Hofer et al., Der Reichstagsbrand – Eine wissenschaftliche Dokumentation (Freiburg i. Br., 1992); Hans Schneider, Neues vom Reichstagsbrand? Eine Dokumentation. Ein Versäumnis der deutschen Geschichtsschreibung (Berlin, 2004); Deiseroth (ed.), Reichstagsbrand; Sven Felix Kellerhoff, Der Reichstagsbrand. Die Karriere eines Kriminalfalls (Berlin, 2008).

  43. Goebbels TB, 28 February 1933. The telephone call is confirmed by Hanfstaengl, Haus., 294f.

  44. See the issue of 1 March (N), ‘Jetzt wird rücksichtslos durchgegriffen’.

  45. Regierung Hitler 1, No. 32.

  46. Ibid., No. 34; RGBl. 1933 I, 83. Even if, as Otto Diels recalls, Hitler had an almost hysterical fit of rage on the evening of the fire, his decisions that followed were by no means impulsive or uncontrolled. See Rudolf Diels, Lucifer ante portas. Zwischen Severing und Heydrich (Stuttgart, 1950), 194; Kershaw, Hitler, 1, 581f.

  47. These provisions were repeated in a further decree of 28 February against treason against the German people and high treasonable activities. See RGBl. 1933 I, 85.

  48. Wachtler, Revoluti
onserwartung, 204ff. In the literature the figure of 10,000 people arrested in Prussia is often given, including 1,500 in Berlin alone, which has not been entirely confirmed. See, for example, Otto Winzer, Zwölf Jahre Kampf gegen Faschismus und Krieg. Ein Beitrag zur Geschichte der Kommunistischen Partei Deutschlands 1933 bis 1945 (Berlin, 1955), 30. Horst Duhnke, Die KPD von 1933 bis 1945 (Cologne, 1972), 104, gives a total of 4,000–10,000 arrests during the period from the end of February/March 1933. On the crushing of the KPD see also Winkler, Weg, 880f.

  49. Koszyk, Kaiserreich, 50.

  50. Winkler, Weg, 891.

  51. Knut Bergbauer, Sabine Fröhlich, and Stefanie Schüler-Springorum, Denkmalsfigur. Biographische Annäherung an Hans Litten (1903–1938) (Göttingen, 2008), 229ff.; Bruno Frei, Carl von Ossietzky: eine politische Biographie (Berlin, 1978), 208ff.; Kai-Britt Albrecht, ‘Renn, Ludwig’, in Neue Deutsche Biographie, 21 (2003), 426f.; Chris Hirte, Erich Mühsam. Eine Biographie (Freiburg i. Br., 2009), 303. Kisch, a Czech citizen, was the only one set free after a few days. See Klaus Haupt, Egon Erwin Kisch (1885–1948). Der Rasende Reporter aus dem Prager ‘Haus zu den zwei goldenen Bären’ (Teetz/Berlin, 2008), 38f.

  52. Domarus 1, 216f.

  53. On the speech see VB (M), 8 March 1933, ‘Die Glocken von Königsberg’.

  54. See the reports on the meeting in Der Angriff on 4 and 6 March 1933, and the VB (B), 5/6 March 1933, ‘Der Freiheitstag der erwachten Nation’.

  55. FZ (M), 6 March 1933, ‘Der Verlauf des Sonntags in Berlin’. The same picture is conveyed by the election leader of the Vossische Zeitung (VZ) of 4 March 1933 (A) and the local reports of the Berliner Tageblatt (BT) of 6 March 1933 (A).

  56. Regierung Hitler 1, No. 44.

  57. Thamer, Verführung, 260ff.; Bracher, Stufen, 190ff.

  58. Goebbels TB, 9 March 1933.

  59. Henning Timpke (ed.), Dokumente zur Gleichschaltung des Landes Hamburg 1933 (Frankfurt a. M., 1964), 15ff.; Ursula Büttner and Werner Jochmann, Hamburg auf dem Weg ins Dritte Reich. Entwicklungsjahre 1931 bis 1933 (Hamburg, 1983), 33ff.

  60. Timpke (ed.), Dokumente, 31.

  61. Goebbels TB, 9 March 1933; see also 8 March 1933 on the start of the coordination process in Baden.

  62. The meeting between Schäffer and Hindenburg is recorded in a note of Meissner’s dated 21 February. See Regierung Hitler 1, No. 23. On the conversation between Held and Hitler see Falk Wiesemann, Die Vorgeschichte der nationalsozialistischen Machtübernahme in Bayern 1932–1933 (Berlin, 1975), Doc. 2.

  63. Verbatim in ibid., 280f.

  64. Meissner, Staatssekretär, 316.

  65. On the take-over of power in Bavaria see Wiesemann, Vorgeschichte, 177ff.; Ortwin Domröse, Der NS-Staat in Bayern von der Machtergreifung bis zum Röhm-Putsch (Munich, 1974), 42ff. Held wrote an account immediately after these events, which was first published in 1948 and edited in Winfried Becker, ‘Die nationalsozialistische Machtergreifung in Bayern. Ein Dokumentarbericht Heinrich Helds aus dem Jahre 1933’, in Historisches Jahrbuch 112 (1992), 412–35.

  66. Horst Matzerath, Nationalsozialismus und kommunale Selbstverwaltung (Stuttgart, 1970), 66ff.

  67. Uwe Dietrich Adam, Judenpolitik im Dritten Reich (Düsseldorf, 1972), 46ff.; Avraham Barkai, Vom Boykott zur ‘Entjudung’. Der wirtschaftliche Existenzkampf der Juden im Dritten Reich (Frankfurt a. M., 1988), 23ff.; Helmut Genschel, Die Verdrängung der Juden aus der Wirtschaft im Dritten Reich (Göttingen, 1966), 43ff.; Peter Longerich, Politik der Vernichtung. Die Verfolgung und Ermordung der europäischen Juden 1933–1945 (Munich and Zurich, 1998), 26ff.

  68. VB (N), 10 March 1933, ‘Rücktritt des jüdischen Börsenvorstands gefordert’.

  69. VZ, 11 March 1933.

  70. Domarus 1, 219ff. See also the Reich Interior Minister’s edict of 13 March 1933, which forbade the ‘closing of and threats to individual retailers’ (BAB, 1501, 13859) and published in VZ, 13 March 1933, and VB, 14 March 1933. In a letter to Papen, who had complained about disruptive behaviour by members of the SA, Hitler defended his SA and SS against ‘the constant grumbling’. See Regierung Hitler 1, No. 5.

  71. See Gruchmann, Justiz, 124ff.; Horst Göppinger, Die Verfolgung der Juristen jüdischer Abstammung durch den Nationalsozialismus (Villingen (Schwarzwald), 1963), 21f.; Tillmann Krach, Jüdische Rechtsanwälte in Preußen. Über die Bedeutung der freien Advokatur und ihre Zerstörung durch den Nationalsozialismus (Munich, 1991), 172ff.

  72. Domarus 1, 220.

  73. Regierung Hitler 1, No. 56.

  74. Reich President’s edict concerning the provisional regulation of the raising of flags, 12 March 1933, in RGBl. 1933 I, 103; radio address in Domarus 1, 221f.

  75. Ibid., 222.

  76. Regierung Hitler 1, No. 56; RGBl. 1933 I, 104. On the background to the appointment and Goebbels’s expectations see Longerich, Goebbels, 211ff.; Goebbels TB, 14–16 March 1933.

  77. Edict 13 March 1933 in RGBl. 1933 I, 104.

  78. Ansgar Diller, Rundfunkpolitik, 76ff.

  79. Henning Rischbieter, ‘NS-Theaterpolitik’ in Thomas Eicher, Barbara Panse, and Rischbieter, Theater im ‘Dritten Reich’. Theaterpolitik, Spielplanstruktur, NS-Dramatik (Seelze-Veelbert, 2000).

  80. Decree concerning the Tasks of the Reich Ministry for Propaganda and Popular Enlightenment of 30 June 1933 in RGBl. 1933 I, 446. On Hitler’s support see Regierung Hitler 1, No. 196. On the organization of the propaganda ministry see Longerich, Goebbels, 230f.; see the continuing entries in Goebbels’s diary.

  81. BAB, R 55/414, Joint minutes of the propaganda ministry and the foreign ministry concerning the departmental meeting of 12 May 1933; Regierung Hitler 1, No. 138; Goebbels TB, 29 April, 5, 10, 11, 14, and 25 May, and 8 June 1933.

  82. Regierung Hitler 1, No. 65. Schacht was elected by the General Council of the Reichsbank on 16 March. See ibid., 231. On Luther’s resignation see Henry Picker, Hitlers Tischgespräche im Führerhauptquartier, Entstehung, Struktur, und Folgen des Nationalsozialismus (Berlin, 1997), 83ff., according to which Hitler dismissed Luther because the latter was unwilling adequately to finance his rearmaments plans. Luther disputed this account in his memoirs. See Luther, Vor dem Abgrund 1930–1933. Reichsbankpräsident in Krisenzeiten (Berlin, 1964), 304f. On the appointment of Reinhardt see Regierung Hitler 1, No. 80.

  83. Martin Sabrow, ‘Der “Tag von Potsdam”. Zur doppelten Karriere eines politischen Mythos’, in Christoph Kopke (ed.), Der Tag von Potsdam. Der 21. März 1933 und die Errichtung der nationalsozialistischen Diktatur (Berlin, 2013); Pyta, Hindenburg, 821ff.

  84. Originally it had been envisaged as taking place at the Potsdam City Palace. See Regierung Hitler 1, No. 32. On the preparation of the ceremonies see ibid., Nos 41 and 43; BAB, R 43II/291, Provisional Programme.

  85. This is the argument of Sabrow in ‘Tag von Potsdam’.

  86. Regierung Hitler 1, 158.

  87. Der Angriff, 21 and 22 March 1933; VB (B), 22 March 1933. On Hitler’s statement and the reply of the Church authorities see Domarus 1, 225.

  88. On the proceedings and the speech see ibid., 232 (quote).

  89. Regierung Hitler 1, No. 70 (on the preliminary meeting on 20 March see Goebbels TB, 21 March 1933); Reich President’s Decree for the Prevention of Malicious Attacks on the Government of the National Uprising, 21 March 1933. See RGBl. 1933 I, 135 and the Decree of the Reich Government for the Creation of Special Courts 21 March 1933. See ibid., 136ff.

  90. Regierung Hitler 1, Nos 44, 60, and 68.

  91. RGBl. 1933 I, 141.

  92. See Frick’s explanations to the cabinet on 15 March 1933 in Regierung Hitler 1, Nos 60 and 68, note 6.

  93. Bracher, Stufen, 213ff.; Thamer, Verführung, 272ff.; Winkler, Weg, 901ff. On the constitutional repercussions see Jörg Biesemann, Das Ermächtigungsgesetz als Grundlage der Gesetzgebung im nationalsozialistischen Staat. Ein Beitrag zur Stellung des Gesetzes in der Verfassungsgeschichte 1919–1945 (Münster, 1985). On Kaas’s informing the parliamentary group see Morsey (ed.), Protokolle, Nos 741–744 and 7
46.

  94. For the speech see Domarus 1, 229ff. (quote).

  95. Both speeches quoted from ibid. 239ff. See also Winkler, Weg, 905; according to Friedrich Stampfer in Erfahrungen und Erkenntnisse. Aufzeichnungen aus meinem Leben (Cologne, 1957), 268, the manuscript of Wels’s speech had been given to the press beforehand.

  96. Klaus Drobisch and Günther Wieland, System der Konzentrationslager 1933–1939 (Berlin, 1993), 39ff.

  97. On the protective custody regulations issued in 1933/34 see ibid., 25ff.; on the concept of protective custody see Martin Broszat, ‘Nationalsozialistische Konzentrationslager 1933–1945’, in Hans Buchheim et al., Anatomie des SS-Staates, 2 (Olten and Freiburg, 1965), 13ff.

  98. Estimate based on the assessments in Drobisch and Wieland, System, 38.

  99. Ibid., 43ff.

  100. Regierung Hitler 1, No. 82; for similar complaints from the Reich Bank on previous days see BAB, R 43 II/397. On assaults by the SA on members of chambers of commerce see Regierung Hitler 1, No. 88. BAB, R 43 II/1195 Frick circular, 13 March 1933, to the interior ministers of the states and to Reich commissars re the closure of and threats to retail businesses; Complaint from the Association of German Department Stores, 16 March 1933, re assault on the Wohl-Wert Verkaufsgesellschaft on 5 March 1933 in Dessau; Schacht to Lammers, 7 April 1933 concerning continuing interference in banks by Nazi organizations; Reich Bank directorate to the Justice Minister, 20 April 1933, re claims by ‘commissars’ for the property of firms; 26 April 1933, ditto. This indicates that the difficulties were continuing.

  101. The file BAB, R 43 II/1195, contains numerous complaints about such assaults on British, French, Greek, Italian, Yugoslav, Dutch, Polish, Soviet, Czech, and American citizens and diplomatic institutions.

  102. Hannah Ahlheim, Deutsche, kauft nicht bei Juden! Antisemitismus und politischer Boykott in Deutschland 1924 bis 1935 (Göttingen, 2011).