Hitler 1889-1936: Hubris

  41. Reich Chancellor Kurt von Schleicher speaking in the Berlin Sportpalast, 15 January 1933

  42. A photo taken of Hitler in the Kaiserhof Hotel, Berlin, in January 1933, just before his appointment as Chancellor, to test how he looked in evening dress

  43. The ‘Day of Potsdam’, 21 March 1933: a deferential Hitler bows to Reich President von Hindenburg

  44. SA violence against Communists in Chemnitz, March 1933

  45. The boycott of Jewish doctors, April 1933. The stickers read: ‘Take note: Jew. Visiting Forbidden’

  46. An elderly Jew being taken into custody by police in Berlin, 1934

  47. Hindenburg and Hitler on their way to the rally in Berlin’s Lustgarten on the ‘Day of National Labour’, 1 May 1933. The following day, the trades union movement was destroyed

  48. Hitler with Ernst Röhm at a parade of the SA in summer 1933, as problems with the SA began to emerge

  49. The Führer cult: a postcard, designed by Hans von Norden in 1933, showing Hitler in a direct line from Frederick the Great, Otto von Bismarck, and Paul von Hindenburg. The caption reads: ‘What the King conquered, the Prince shaped, the Field Marshal defended, the Soldier saved and united’

  50. The Führer cult: ‘The Führer as animal-lover’, postcard, 1934

  51. Hitler justifying the ‘Röhm purge’ to the Reichstag, 13 July 1934

  52. Hitler, Professor Leonhard Gall, and architect Albert Speer inspecting the half-built ‘House of German Art’ in Munich. Undated cigarette-card, c. 1935

  53. Hitler with young Bavarians. Behind him (right) in Bavarian costume, Hitler-Youth leader Baldur von Schirach. Undated photograph

  54· The Mercedes-Benz showroom at Lenbachplatz, Munich, April 1935

  55. Hitler during a visit to the Ruhr in 1935, accompanied (left to right) by his Valet, Karl Krause, and the leading industrialists Albert Vögler, Fritz Thyssen, and Walter Borbet, all important executives of the United Steel Works

  56. ‘Hitler in his Mountains’: cover of a Heinrich Hoffmann publication of 1935, featuring 88 photographs of the Führer in picturesque settings

  57. The swearing-in of new recruits at the Feldherrnhalle in Odeonsplatz, Munich, on the anniversary of the putsch, 7 November 1935

  58. German troops entering the demilitarized Rhineland across the Hohenzollern Bridge in Cologne, 7 March 1936

  GLOSSARY OF ABBREVIATIONS

  AdR

  Akten der Reichskanzlei

  ADGB

  Allgemeiner Deutscher Gewerkschaftsbund (General German Trade Union Federation)

  AG

  Arbeitsgemeinschaft (Working Community)

  AO

  Auslandsorganisation (Foreign Organization of the Nazi Party)

  BAK

  Bundesarchiv Koblenz (German Federal Archives)

  Bayern

  Bayern in der NS-Zeit, ed. Martin Broszat et al., 6 vols., Munich, 1977–83

  BDC

  Berlin Document Center

  BDM

  Bund Deutscher Mädel (League of German Girls; girls’ organization within the Hitler Youth Movement)

  BHStA

  Bayerisches Hauptstaatsarchiv (Bavarian Main State Archive)

  BVP

  Bayerische Volkspartei (Bavarian People’s Party)

  DBFP

  Documents on British Foreign Policy, 1919–1939, 2nd Series, 1930–1937, London, 1950–57

  DAF

  Deutsche Arbeitsfront (German Labour Front)

  DAP

  Deutsche Arbeiterpartei (German Workers’ Party)

  DBS

  Deutschland-Berichte der Sozialdemokratischen Partei Deutschlands, 1934–1940,7 vols., Frankfurt am Main, 1980

  DDP

  Deutsche Demokratische Partei (German Democratic Party)

  DGFP

  Documents on German Foreign Policy, 1918–1945, Series C (1933–1937) The Third Reich: First Phase, London, 1957–66

  DNF

  Deutschnationale Front (German National Front)

  DNVP

  Deutschnationale Volkspartei (German National People’s Party)

  Domarus

  Max Domarus (ed.), Hitler. Reden und Proklamationen 1932–1945, 2 vols., in 4 parts, Wiesbaden, 1973

  DRZW

  Das Deutsche Reich und der Zweite Weltkrieg, 6 vols, so far published, ed. Militärgeschichtliches Forschungsamt, Stuttgart, 1979–

  DSP

  Deutschsozialistische Partei (German-Socialist Partv)

  DVFB

  Deutschvölkische Freiheitsbewegung (German Folkish (= ethnic-nationalist) Freedom Movement)

  DVFP

  Deutschvölkische Freiheitspartei (German Folkish Freedom Party)

  DVP

  Deutsche Volkspartei (German People’s Party)

  Gestapo

  Geheime Staatspolizei (Secret State Police)

  GS

  Gendarmerie-Station (police station)

  GVG

  Großdeutsche Volksgemeinschaft (Greater German National Community)

  HA

  NSDAP-Hauptarchiv (the Nazi Party’s archive, microfilm collection: see ΝSDAP-Hauptarchiv. Guide to the Hoover Institution Microfilm Collection, compiled by Grete Heinz and Agnes F. Peterson, Stanford, 1964)

  Hitler-Prozeß

  Der Hitler-Prozeß 1924. Wortlaut der Hauptverhandlung vor dem Volksgericht München I, Teil I, ed. Lothar Gruchmann and Reinhard Weber, assisted by Otto Gritschneder, Munich, 1997

  HJ

  Hitlerjugend (Hitler Youth)

  HMB

  Halbmonatsbericht (Fortnightly Report)

  IfZ

  Institut für Zeitgeschichte, München (Institute of Contemporary History, Munich)

  IML/ZPA

  Institut für Marxismus-Leninismus, Zentrales Parteiarchiv (East Berlin, GDR)

  IMT

  Trial of the Major War Criminals before the International Military Tribunal, 42 vols., Nuremberg, 1947–9

  JK

  Eberhard Jäckel and Axel Kuhn (eds.), Hitler. Sämtliche Aufzeichnungen 1905–1924, Stuttgart, 1980

  JMH

  Journal of Modern History

  KPD

  Kommunistische Partei Deutschlands (Communist Party of Germany)

  LB

  Lagebericht (Situation Report)

  MB

  Monatsbericht (Monthly Report)

  MF/OF

  Mittelfranken/Oberfranken (Middle and Upper Franconia, administrative regions of Bavaria)

  MK

  Adolf Hitler, Mein Kampf, 876–880th reprint, Munich, 1943

  MK Watt

  Adolf Hitler, Mein Kampf, London, 1969, trans, by Ralph Manheim, with an introduction by D. C. Watt, paperback edition, London, 1973

  Monologe

  Adolf Hitler: Monologe im Führerhauptquartier 1941–1944. Die Aufzeichnungen Heinrich Heims, ed. Werner Jochmann, Hamburg, 1980

  NA

  National Archives, Washington

  Nbg

  Nürnberg (Nuremberg)

  NCA

  Nazi Conspiracy and Aggression, ed. Office of the United States Chief of Counsel for Prosecution of Axis Criminality, 9 vols, and 2 supplementary vols., Washington D.C., 1946–8

  NB/OP

  Niederbayern/Oberpfalz (Lower Bavaria/Upper Palatinate, administrative regions of Bavaria)

  NSBO

  Nationalsozialistische Betriebszellenorganisation (Nazi Factory Cell Organization)

  NSDAP

  Nationalsozialistische Deutsche Arbeiterpartei (Nazi Party)

  NSDStB

  Nationalsozialistischer Deutscher Studentenbund (National Socialist German Students’ Federation)

  NSFB

  Nationalsozialistiche Freiheitsbewegung (National Socialist Freedom Movement)

  NSFP

  Nationalsozialistische Freiheitspartei (National Socialist Freedom Party)

  NS-Hago

  Nationalsozialistische Handwerks-, Handels-und Gewerbeorganisation (Nazi Craft, Commerce, and Trade Organization) r />
  OB

  Oberbayern (Upper Bavaria)

  Pd Mü.

  Polizeidirektion München (Munich Police Administration)

  PRO

  Public Record Office

  RGBl

  Reichsgesetzblatt

  RGO

  Revolutionäre Gewerkscharts-Opposition (Revolutionary Trade Union Opposition; Communist trades union organization)

  RP

  Regierungspräsident (Government President, head of state regional administration)

  RSA

  Hitler. Reden, Schriften, Anordnungen: Februar 1925 bis Januar 1933, ed. Institut für Zeitgeschichte, 5 vols., in 12 parts, Munich/London/New York/Paris, 1992–8

  S

  Schwaben (Swabia)

  SA

  Sturmabteilung (Storm Troop)

  SD

  Sicherheitsdienst (Security Service)

  Sopade

  Sozialdemokratische Partei Deutschlands (exiled SPD executive based in Prague (1933–8), then Paris (1938–40), and from 1940 onwards in London)

  SS

  Schutzstaffel (lit. Protection Squad)

  SPD

  Sozialdemokratische Partei Deutschlands (Social Democratic Party of Germany)

  StA

  Staatsarchiv (State Archive)

  StdF

  Stellvertreter des Führers (Führer’s Deputy)

  TBJG

  Die Tagebücher von Joseph Goebbels. Sämtliche Fragmente, Teil I, Aufzeichnungen 1924–1941, 4 Bde., ed. Elke Fröhlich, Munich etc., 1987

  Tb Reuth

  Joseph Goebbels. Tagebücher 1924–1945, 5 Bde., ed. Ralf Georg Reuth, Munich/Zurich, 1992.

  UF

  Unterfranken (Lower Franconia)

  VB

  Völkischer Beobachter

  VfZ

  Vierteljahrshefte für Zeitgeschichte

  VVM

  Vaterländische Vereine Münchens (Patriotic Associations of Munich)

  VVVB

  Vereinigte Vaterländische Verbände Bayerns (United Patriotic Associations of Bavaria)

  NOTES

  REFLECTING ON HITLER

  1. The title of the masterly analysis by Eric Hobsbawm, Age of Extremes. The Short Twentieth Century, 1914–1991, London, 1994.

  2. An attempt to speculate counter-factually on how different world history would have been had Hitler been killed when the car in which he was travelling was struck by a large lorry in 1930 is offered by Henry A. Turner, Geißel des Jahrhunderts. Hitler und seine Hinterlassenschaft, Berlin, 1989. The accident is described in Otto Wagener, Hitler aus nächster Nähe. Aufzeichnungen eines Vertrauten 1929–1932, ed. Henry A. Turner, 2nd edn, Kiel, 1987, 155–6.

  3. Karl Marx, The Eighteenth Brumaire of Louis Bonaparte, Moscow, 1954, 10.

  4. A number of general analyses of the history of the Third Reich in recent years have made impressive advances in synthesizing and interpreting a vast outpouring of detailed research. These include: Hans-Ulrich Thamer, Verführung und Gewalt. Deutschland 1933–1945, Berlin, 1986; Norbert Frei, National Socialist Rule in Germany: the Führer State 1933–1945, Oxford/Cambridge Mass., 1993 (an extended version in English of the original German edition, Der Führerstaat. Nationalsozialistische Herrschaft 1933 bis 1945, Munich, 1987); Jost Dülffer, Deutsche Geschichte 1933–1945. Führerglaube und Vernichtungskrieg, Stuttgart/Berlin/Cologne, 1992 (Engl.: Nazi Germany 1933–1945: Faith and Annihilation, London, 1996); Karlheinz Weißmann, Der Weg in den Abgrund 1933–1945, Berlin, 1995; Klaus P. Fischer, Nazi Germany: a New History, London, 1995; and, a particularly valuable interpretative synthesis, Ludolf Herbst, Das nationalsozialistische Deutschland 1933–1945, Frankfurt am Main, 1996.

  5. See the comment, still thought-provoking, of Wolfgang Sauer, ‘National Socialism: Totalitarianism or Fascism?’, American Historical Review, 73 (1967–8), 404–24; here 408: ‘In Nazism, the historian faces a phenomenon that leaves him no way but rejection, whatever his individual position. There is literally no voice worth considering that disagrees on this matter… Does not such fundamental rejection imply a fundamental lack of understanding?’

  6. This was the essential criticism of the incisive review of Joachim C. Fest, Hitler. Eine Biographie, Frankfurt am Main/Berlin/Vienna, 1973, by Hermann Graml, ‘Probleme einer Hitler-Biographie. Kritische Bemerkungen zu Joachim C. Fest’, VfZ, 22 (1974), 76–92. Graml regards (78, 84) the problems posed by the writing of a biography of Hitler – integrating a history of the individual into an analysis of his impact on German society – as ‘insoluble’. A harsh judgement on biographies of Hitler in general, in a thoughtful and interesting approach to the social sources of Hitler’s power, was also offered by Michael Kater, ‘Hitler in a Social Context’, Central European History, 14 (1981), 243–72, here esp. 243–6. A less pessimistic evaluation is provided by Gregor Schöllgen, ‘Das Problem einer Hitler-Biographie. Überlegungen anhand neuerer Darstellungen des Falles Hitler’, Neue politische Literatur, 23 (1978), 421–34, reprinted in Karl Dietrich Bracher, Manfred Funke, and Hans-Adolf Jacobsen (eds.), Nationalsozialistische Diktatur 1933–1945. Eine Bilanz, Bonn, 1983, 687–705.

  7. Gerhard Schreiber, Hitler. Interpretationen 1923–1983. Ergebnisse, Methoden und Probleme der Forschung, Darmstadt, 1984, 13.

  8. Guido Knopp, Hitler. Eine Bilanz, Berlin, 1995, 9.

  9. The essential survey is that of Schreiber, Hitler. Interpretationen; a more recent critical and thoughtful assessment of the interpretations advanced by biographers of Hitler is provided by John Lukacs, The Hitler of History, New York, 1997. See also Ron Rosenbaum, ‘Explaining Hitler’, New Yorker, 1 May 1995, 50–70. For further evaluations of the differing approaches, see Klaus Hildebrand, Das Dritte Reich, Munich/Vienna, 1979, 132–46, and Ian Kershaw, The Nazi Dictatorship. Problems and Perspectives of Interpretation, 3rd edn, London, 1993, chs. 4–6. Earlier historiographical analyses and attempts to address the problem of the ‘Hitler factor’ were provided by: Klaus Hildebrand, ‘Der “Fall” Hitler’, Neue politische Literatur, 14 (1969), 375–86; Klaus Hildebrand, ‘Hitlers Ort in der Geschichte des Preußisch-Deutschen Nationalstaates’, Historische Zeitschrift, 217 (1973), 584–631; Wolf-Rüdiger Hartmann, ‘Adolf Hitler: Möglichkeiten seiner Deutung’, Archiv für Sozialgeschichte, 15 (1975), 521–35; Eberhard Jäckel, ‘Rückblick auf die sogenannte Hitler-Welle’, Geschichte in Wissenschaft und Unterricht, 28 (1977), 695–710; Andreas Hillgruber, ‘Tendenzen, Ergebnisse und Perspektiven der gegenwärtigen Hitler-Forschung’, Historische Zeitschrift, 226 (1978), 600–621; Wolfgang Mich-alka, ‘Wege der Hitler-Forschung’, Quaderni di storia, 8 (1978), 157–90, and 10 (1979), 125–51; John P. Fox, ‘Adolf Hitler: the Continuing Debate’, International Affairs (1979), 252–64; and William Carr, ‘Historians and the Hitler Phenomenon’, German Life and Letters, 34 (1981), 260–72.

  10. Alan Bullock, Hitler: a Study in Tyranny, revised edn, Harmondsworth, 1962, 804. Bullock later completely revised his early views (see Rosenbaum, 67). The centrality of Hitler’s ideology is fully incorporated into the analysis in Alan Bullock, Hitler and Stalin. Parallel Lives, London, 1991.

  11. See, for example, the comment of Karl Dietrich Bracher, ‘The Role of Hitler: Perspectives of Interpretation’, in Walter Laqueur (ed.), Fascism. A Reader’s Guide, Harmondsworth, 1979, 193–212, here 201: ‘It was indeed Hitler’s Weltanschauung and nothing else that mattered in the end, as is seen from the terrible consequences of his racist anti-semitism in the planned murder of the Jews.’ In the realm of foreign policy, the programmatic driving-force of Hitler’s ideology is most strongly emphasized by Klaus Hildebrand, Deutsche Außenpolitik 1933–1945. Kalkül oder Dogma?, 4th edn, Stuttgart/Berlin/Cologne, 1980, 188–9. The internal coherence of Hitler’s ideas was fully illustrated for the first time by Eberhard Jäckel, Hitlers Weltanschauung. Entwurf einer Herrschaft, Tübingen, 1969, extended and revised 4th edn, Stuttgart, 1991.

  12. Cit. H. R. Trevor-Roper, The Last Days of Hitler, 3rd edn, London, 1962, 46.

  13. This stan
dard line of GDR historiography was nowhere more expressively captured than by Wolfgang Ruge, ‘Monopolbourgeoisie, faschistischer Massenbasis und NS-Programmatik’, in Dietrich Eichholtz and Kurt Gossweiler (eds.), Faschismusforschung. Positionen, Probleme, Polemik, Berlin (East), 1980, 125–55, who saw (141) Mein Kampf as having ‘the role of a testimonial (Empfehlungsschreiben) to the great captains of industry (Wirtschaftskapitäne)’, and spoke (144) of Hitler as the ‘star agent’ (Staragenten) of’ the most extreme monopolists (Monopolherren)’ of big business. The full version of this interpretation is brought out in Wolfgang Ruge, Das Ende von Weimar. Monopolkapital und Hitler, Berlin (East), 1983, where Hitler is referred to (334, 336) as the ‘compliant creature’ (willfährige Kreatur) of the ‘backers’ (Hintermänner) from big business. Given such a premiss built into official state ideology, no biography of Hitler was possible in the GDR. Two historians who had produced the only general history of the Nazi Party to be published during the existence of the GDR (Kurt Pätzold and Manfred Weißbecker, Geschichte der NSDAP, Cologne, 1981; originally Hakenkreuz und Totenkopf. Die Partei des Verbrechens, Berlin (East), 1981) have subsequently brought out a personalized study of the German Dictator which had been impossible in their former State, expressly emphasizing (589) ‘that the fascist Leader was no marionette’ (Kurt Pätzold and Manfred Weißbecker, Adolf Hitler. Eine politische Biographie, Leipzig, 1995).