Berlin Diary: The Journal of a Foreign Correspondent 1934-1941

by William L. Shirer

  BERLIN, October 9

  We’ve taken a comfortable studio flat in the Tauenzienstrasse. The owner, a Jewish sculptor, says he is getting off for England while the getting is good—probably a wise man. He left us a fine German library, which I hope I will get time to use. We get a little tired of living in flats or houses that other people have furnished, but the migrant life we lead makes it impossible to have our own things. We were lucky to get this place, which is furnished modernly and with good taste. Most of the middle-class homes we’ve seen in Berlin are furnished in atrocious style, littered with junk and knick-knacks.

  LATER.—On my eight o’clock call to the Paris office tonight, they told me that the King of Yugoslavia had been assassinated at Marseille this afternoon and that Louis Barthou, the French Foreign Minister, had been badly wounded. Berlin will not be greatly disappointed, as King Alexander seemed disposed to work more closely with the French bloc against Germany, and Barthou had been doing some good work in strengthening French alliances in eastern Europe and in attempting to bring Russia in on an Eastern Locarno.

  BERLIN, November 15

  Not much news these days. Have been covering the fight in the Protestant church. A section of the Protestants seem to be showing more guts in the face of Gleichschaltung (co-ordination) than the Socialists or Communists did. But I think Hitler will get them in the end and gradually force on the country a brand of early German paganism which the “intellectuals” like Rosenberg are hatching up. Went tonight to one of Rosenberg’s Bierabends which he gives for the diplomats and the foreign correspondents once a month. Rosenberg was one of Hitler’s “spiritual” and “intellectual” mentors, though like most Balts I have met he strikes me as extremely incoherent and his book Mythus of the Twentieth Century, which sells second only to Mein Kampf in this country, impresses me as a hodge-podge of historical nonsense. Some of his enemies, like Hanfstängl, say he narrowly missed being a good Russian Bolshevist, having been in Moscow as a student during the revolution, but that he ran out on it because the Bolshies mistrusted him and wouldn’t give him a big job. He speaks with a strong Baltic accent which makes his German difficult for me to understand. He had Ambassador Dodd at his table of honour tonight, and the professor looked most unhappy. Bernhard Rust, the Nazi Minister of Education, was the speaker, but my mind wandered during his speech. Rust is not without ability and is completely Nazifying the schools. This includes new Nazi textbooks falsifying history—sometimes ludicrously.

  BERLIN, November 28

  Much talk here that Germany is secretly arming, though it is difficult to get definite dope, and if you did get it and sent it, you’d probably be expelled. Sir Eric Phipps, the British Ambassador, whom I used to see occasionally in Vienna when he was Minister there (he looks like a Hungarian dandy, with a perfect poker face), but whom I have not seen here yet, returned from London yesterday and is reported to have asked the Wilhelmstrasse about it. Went out to a cheap store in the Tauenzienstrasse today and bought a comical-looking ready-made suit of “tails” for our foreign press ball at the Adlon Saturday night. A dinner jacket, I was told, was not enough.

  BERLIN, December 2

  The ball all right. Tess had a new dress and looked fine. Goebbels, Sir Eric Phipps, François Poncet, Dodd, and General von Reichenau, the nearest thing to a Nazi general the Reichswehr has and on very good terms with most of the American correspondents, were among those present. Von Neurath was supposed to be there, but there was some talk of his being displeased with the seating arrangements—a problem with the Germans every time you give a party—and I didn’t see him all evening. We danced and wined until about three, ending up with an early breakfast of bacon and eggs in the Adlon bar.

  BERLIN, January 14, 1935

  The good Catholics and workers of the Saar voted themselves back into the Reich yesterday. Some ninety per cent voted for reunion—more than we had expected, though no doubt many were afraid that they would be found out and punished unless they cast their ballot for Hitler. Well, at least one cause of European tension disappears. Hitler has said, and repeated in a broadcast yesterday, that the Saar was the last territorial bone of contention with France. We shall see….

  BERLIN, February 25

  Diplomatic circles and most of the correspondents are growing optimistic over a general settlement that will ensure peace. Sir John Simon, the British Foreign Minister, is coming to Berlin. A few days ago Laval and Flandin met the British in London. What they offer is to free Germany from the disarmament provisions of the peace treaty (though Hitler secretly is rapidly freeing himself) in return for German promises to respect the independence of Austria and all the other little countries. The French here point out, though, that Hitler has cleverly separated Paris and London by inviting the British to come here for talks, but not the French. And simple Simon has fallen for the bait.

  SAARBRÜCKEN, March 1

  The Germans formally occupied the Saar today. There has been a pouring rain all day, but it has not dampened the enthusiasm of the local inhabitants. They do have the Nazi bug, badly. But I shall come back here in a couple of years to see how they like it then—the Catholics and the workers, who form the great majority of the population. Hitler strode in this afternoon and reviewed the S.S. and the troops. Before the parade started, I stood in the stand next to Werner von Fritsch, commander-in-chief of the Reichswehr and the brains of the growing German army. I was a little surprised at his talk. He kept up a running fire of very sarcastic remarks—about the S.S., the party, and various party leaders as they appeared. He was full of contempt for them all. When Hitler’s cars arrived, he grunted and went over and took his place just behind the Führer for the review.

  BERLIN, March 5

  Something has gone wrong with the drive for a general settlement. Simon was supposed to arrive here day after tomorrow for his talks with the Germans, but this morning von Neurath told the British that Hitler had a cold and asked Simon to postpone his trip. A little investigation in the Wilhelmstrasse this afternoon revealed it’s a “cold diplomatique.” The Germans are sore at the publication in London yesterday of a Parliamentary White Paper initialled by Prime Minister MacDonald and commenting on the growing rearmament of Germany in the air. The Germans are especially peeved at this passage which they say is in the paper: “This [German air force] rearmament, if continued at the present rate, unabated and uncontrolled, will aggravate the existing anxieties of the neighbours of Germany and may consequently produce a situation where peace will be in peril. His Majesty’s government have noted and welcomed the declarations of the leaders of Germany that they desire peace. They cannot, however, fail to recognize that not only the forces but the spirit in which the population, and especially the youth of the country, are being organized, lend colour to, and substantiate, the general feeling of insecurity which has already been incontestably generated.”

  All of which is true enough, but the Nazis are furious and Hitler refuses to see Simon.

  BERLIN, March 15

  Simon, it’s now announced, will come here March 24. But all is not well. Göring has told the Daily Mail, which through Lord Rothermere, its owner, and Ward Price, its roving correspondent—both pro-Nazi—has become a wonderful Nazi mouthpiece and sounding-board, that Germany is building up a military air force. This is the first time he has publicly admitted it. Today it was stated here that Göring as Minister of Air will be under von Blomberg, Minister of Defence, thus putting the stamp of approval of the army on his job of creating a new German air force. Tonight the Wilhelmstrasse people protested against France’s increasing the period of conscription for the French army.

  BERLIN, March 16

  At about three o’clock this afternoon the Propaganda Ministry called excitedly and asked me to come at five to a press conference at which Dr. Goebbels would make a statement of the “utmost importance.” When I got there about a hundred foreign correspondents were crowded into the conference room, all a little high strung, but none knowing wh
y we had been convoked. Finally Goebbels limped in, looking very important and grave. He began immediately to read in a loud voice the text of a new law.2 He read too fast to take it down in long-hand but there was no need for that. Hitler had of his own accord wiped out the military sections of the Versailles Treaty, restored universal military service and proclaimed the formation of a conscript army of twelve army corps or thirty-six divisions. Louis Lochner of A.P., Ed Beattie of U.P., Pierre Huss of INS, and Gordon Young of Reuter’s leaped to their feet and made for the telephones in the hall, not waiting for the rest of Dr. Goebbels’s words. Finally the little Doktor finished. Two or three officials remained to answer questions, but it was plain they were afraid to say any more than was contained in the official communiqué. How many men would the new army have? Thirty-six divisions, they said. How many men in a German division? That depends, they said. And so on.

  I walked up the Wilhelmstrasse with Norman Ebbutt of the London Times, by far the best-informed foreign correspondent here, and Pat Murphy of the Daily Express. Ebbutt seemed a little stunned by the news, but kept insisting that after all it was not new, that the Germans had been building up their army for more than a year. I hurried to my office in the Dorotheenstrasse, made some calls, and then sat down to write my head off. It was Saturday and at home the Sunday morning papers go to bed early.

  LATER.—Finished my story about ten p.m. and waited around the office to answer queries from New York. Hitler, I learn, acted with lightning speed, apparently on the inspiration that now was the time—if ever—to act and get by with it, and it looks as though he will. The Paris office told me tonight that the French were excited and were trying to get the British to do something, but that London was holding back. Hitler returned from his mountain retreat at Berchtesgaden early last evening and immediately convoked the Cabinet and the military leaders. The decision was made then, or rather communicated by Hitler to the others. There seems, so far as I can learn, to have been no hesitation by anyone, or if so, it was not expressed. Experts went to work to draft the law, and Hitler and Goebbels began to draw up two proclamations, one from the party, the other by the Führer to the German people.

  At one p.m. this afternoon Hitler again convoked the Cabinet and the military people and read to them the texts of the law and the two proclamations. According to one informant, the Cabinet members embraced one another after Hitler’s magic voice had died down. Grey-haired General von Blomberg then led all present in three lusty cheers for Hitler. It must have been one of the most undignified Cabinet meetings in German history. But these Nazis don’t rest on dignity—if they can get results. And the Junkers who are running the army will forget a lot—and swallow a lot—now that Hitler has given them what they want. A big crowd gathered in the Wilhelmplatz in front of the Chancellery this evening and cheered Hitler until he appeared at a window and saluted. Today’s creation of a conscript army in open defiance of Versailles will greatly enhance his domestic position, for there are few Germans, regardless of how much they hate the Nazis, who will not support it wholeheartedly. The great majority will like the way he has thumbed his nose at Versailles, which they all resented, and, being militarists at heart, they welcome the rebirth of the army.

  It is a terrible blow to the Allies—to France, Britain, Italy, who fought the war and wrote the peace to destroy Germany’s military power and to keep it down. What will London and Paris do? They could fight a “preventive” war and that would be the end of Hitler. The Poles here say Pilsudski is willing to help. But first reactions tonight—at least according to our Paris office—are all against it. We shall see.

  To bed tired, and sick at this Nazi triumph, but somehow professionally pleased at having had a big story to handle, Dosch being away, which left the job to me alone.

  BERLIN, March 17

  The first paragraph of my dispatch tonight sums up this extraordinary day: “This Heroes Memorial Day in memory of Germany’s two million war dead was observed today amid scenes unequalled since 1914 as rebirth of Germany’s military power brought forth professions of peace mixed with defiance.” The Germans call the day Heldengedenktag, and it corresponds to our Decoration Day. The main ceremony was at the Staatsoper at noon and it was conducted with all the colour which the Nazis know how to utilize. The ground floor of the Opera House was a sea of military uniforms, with a surprising number of old army officers who overnight must have dusted off their fading grey uniforms and shined up their quaint pre-war spiked helmets, which were much in evidence. Strong stage lights played on a platoon of Reichswehr men standing like marble statues and holding flowing war flags. Above them on a vast curtain was hung an immense silver and black Iron Cross. The proper atmosphere was created at once when the orchestra played Beethoven’s Funeral March, a moving piece, and one that seems to awaken the very soul of the German. Hitler and his henchmen were in the royal box, but he himself did not speak. General von Blomberg spoke for him, though it seemed to me that he was uttering words certainly penned by the Führer. Said Blomberg: “The world has been made to realize that Germany did not die of its defeat in the World War. Germany will again take the place she deserves among the nations. We pledge ourselves to a Germany which will never surrender and never again sign a treaty which cannot be fulfilled. We do not need revenge because we have gathered glory enough through the centuries.” As Hitler looked on approvingly, the general continued: “We do not want to be dragged into another world war. Europe has become too small for another world-war battlefield. Because all nations have equal means at their disposal for war, the future war would mean only self-mutilation for all. We want peace with equal rights and security for all. We seek no more.”

  Clever words, and meant not only to assure the German people, who certainly don’t want war, but the French and British as well. For the French, the reference to “security”—a word that haunts the Quai d’Orsay. Hitler had Field Marshal von Mackensen, the only surviving field-marshal of the old army, at his side, the old man having dressed himself up in his Death-Head Hussars uniform. Present also, I noticed, was Crown Prince Wilhelm, though Hitler was careful not to have him in his box. Dodd was the only ambassador present, the British, French, Italian, and Russian envoys being conspicuous by their absence. Not even the Jap showed up. Dodd looked rather uncomfortable.

  After the opera “service” Hitler reviewed a contingent of troops. Not lacking was a battalion of air-force men in sky-blue uniforms who goose-stepped like the veterans they undoubtedly are—but are not supposed to be.

  It is worth noting, I think, the two proclamations issued yesterday, which, on re-reading in the Sunday morning newspapers, impress me more than ever in showing Hitler’s skill in presenting his fait accompli in the most favourable light to his own people while at the same time impressing outside world opinion not only that he is justified in doing what he has done, but that he is a man of peace. For example the pronouncement of the party: “…With the present day the honour of the German nation has been restored. We stand erect as a free people among nations. As a sovereign state we are free to negotiate, and propose to co-operate in the organization of peace.”

  Or Hitler’s own proclamation to the German people. It begins with the story he has told many times: Wilson’s Fourteen Points, the unfair peace treaty, Germany’s complete disarmament in a world where all the others are fully armed, Germany’s repeated attempt to reach an agreement with the others, and so on. And then: “In so doing [in proclaiming conscription] it proceeded from the same premises which Mr. Baldwin in his last speech so truthfully expressed: ‘A country which is not willing to adopt the necessary preventive measures for its own defence will never enjoy any power in this world, either moral or material.’”

  Then, to France: “Germany has finally given France the solemn assurance that Germany, after the adjustment of the Saar question, now no longer will make territorial demands upon France.”

  Finally, to Germans and the whole world: “…In this hour the German government
renews before the German people and before the entire world its assurance of its determination never to proceed beyond the safeguarding of German honour and the freedom of the Reich, and especially it does not intend in rearming Germany to create any instrument for warlike attack, but, on the contrary, exclusively for defence and thereby for the maintenance of peace. In so doing, the Reich government expresses the confident hope that the German people, having again obtained their own honour, may be privileged in independent equality to make their contribution towards the pacification of the world in free and open co-operation with other nations.”

  Every German I’ve talked to today has applauded these lines. One of the Germans in my office, no Nazi, said: “Can the world expect a fairer offer of peace?” I admit it sounds good, but Ebbutt keeps warning me to be very sceptical, which I hope I am.

  Talked to both our London and Paris offices tonight on the phone. They said the French and British are still trying to make up their minds. London said Garvin came out in the Observer with an editorial saying Hitler’s action occasioned no surprise and calling on Simon to go ahead with his Berlin visit. Beaverbrook’s Sunday Express warned against threatening Germany with force. Tomorrow, according to our office, the Times will take a conciliatory line. My guess is that Hitler has got away with it.