Hitler's Private Library

by Timothy W. Ryback

  132 “RACIAL GüNTHER”: Gerwin Strobl, “The Bard of Eugenics: Shakespeare and Racial Activism in the Third Reich,” Journal of Contemporary History 34, no. 3 (July 1999): 328.

  134 J. F. LEHMANN VERLAG: Gary D. Stark, “Publishers and Cultural Patronage in Germany, 1890–1933,” German Studies Review, 1, no. 1 (February 1978): 66.

  135 THE HUNGARIAN SCHOLAR: Ambrus Miskolczy, Hitler’s Library (Budapest: Central European University Press, 2003), p. 20.

  136 “DISTINCTIVE FINE PENCIL”: Ibid., p. 22.

  136 “IT WOULD BE MORE TYPICAL”: Ibid., p. 21.

  136 Hitler’S OWN THEORY OF READING: Adolf Hitler, Mein Kampf, trans. Ralph Manheim (New York: Houghton Mifflin, 1998), p. 36.

  137 “THE MAN IS A GENIUS”: Goebbels, Tagebücher, band 3, February 1, 1938, p. 1195.

  137 “BOOKS, ALWAYS MORE”: Alfred Kubizek, Adolf Hitler, Mein Jugendfreund (Graz: Leopold Stocker Verlag, 1953), p. 244.

  137 ANOTHER EARLY Hitler ASSOCIATE: Brigitte Hamann, Hitlers Wien: Lehrjahre eines Diktators (Munich: Piper Verlag, 1996), p. 576.

  137 “DEADLY SERIOUS BUSINESS”: Kubizek, Adolf Hitler, p. 244.

  138 “A TOPIC THAT HE HAD READ”: Christa Schröder, Er war mein Chef (Munich: Herbig Verlag, 2002), p. 177.

  138 “Hitler, EXCESSIVELY EXACTING”: Ibid.

  139 THIS PROCESS IS: For all quoted passages in Lagarde, see Paul Lagarde, Deutsche Schriften (Munich: J. F. Lehmanns Verlag, 1934).

  BOOK SIX: Book Wars

  144 “THE HORRIFIC CRUCIFIXES”: Alfred Rosenberg, Der Mythus des 20. Jahrhundert: Eine Wertung der seelisch-geistigen Gestaltenkämpfe unserer Zeit (Munich: Hohenichen Verlag, 1935), p. 701.

  144 “RECOMMENDED” TITLES: Dominik Burkard, Häresie und Mythus des 20. Jahrhunderts: Rosenbergs nationalsozialistische Weltanschauung vor dem Tribunal der Römischen Inquisition (Paderborn: Ferdinand Schöningh Verlag, 2005), p. 43.

  144 “RECENTLY, I HEARD THAT THE TWO”: Ludwig Volk, ed., Akten Kardinal Michael von Faulhabers (Mainz: Mathias-Grünewald Verlag), vol. 1, p. 842.

  144 “I DON’T WANT THAT BOOK”: Conversation between Hitler and Schulte recorded in Bernhard Stasiewski, ed., Akten deutscher Bischöfe über die Lage der Kirche 1933–1945, band I (Mainz: Mathias-Grünewald Verlag), pp. 539–40. Schulte’s full report on the meeting can be found in Konrad Repgen and Reihe A. Quellen, eds., Veröffentlichungen der Kommission für Zeitgeschichte, band 5 (Mainz: Mathias-Grünewald Verlag), pp. 539–40.

  146 ON THE NIGHT OF JUNE 30: The Hitler library contains three books that preserve traces of the infamous “Night of the Long Knives.” The commemorative volume of the Beer Hall Putsch is dedicated to Hitler “in loyal obedience” by Gregor Strasser, who was shot dead through his prison cell window that night; another volume, about Silesian storm troopers, is inscribed to Hitler by Edmund Heines, the SA man who was found in bed with a young man in a hotel room and shot on the spot. The third book, a seventy-five-page treatise on “Indo-Aryan metaphysics” based on the Bhagavad Gita, was given to Hitler in the aftermath of the bloody purge “as a sign of loyalty in these most difficult times” from its author, Wilhelm Hauer, founder of the pro-Nazi German Faith Movement.

  147 “THE BOOK SCORNS”: Burkard, Häresie und Mythus, p. 75.

  149 “THAT WHICH I MAINTAIN”: See epilogue to Studien zum Mythus des 20. Jahrhunderts, Kirchlicher Anzeiger für Erzdiözese Köln (Cologne: Badhemdruck, 1935).

  149 BY 1935, THE BOOK: Rosenberg, Der Mythus, pp. 67–70.

  150 “in L’OSSERVATORE”: Burkard, Häresie und Mythus, p. 179.

  151 “THUS AND IN THIS SENSE”: Ibid.

  152 “THERE YOU HAVE MADE”: Alois C. Hudal, Römische Tagebücher (Stuttgart: Leopold Stocker Verlag, 1976), p. 119.

  152 “THE SWASTIKA HERE”: At least two alleged press interviews with Grüner appeared in the summer of 1933, one in France and one in Germany, both of questionable authenticity. Grüner was eighty-two years old and, according to monastery records, growing senile. Nevertheless, there was a popular impression that the swastika at the Lambach monastery, carved in the mid-nineteenth century and inspired by an abbot’s visit to India, was the source of Hitler’s inspiration for the use of the swastika. Lambach became known as the Monastery of the Swastika. Hitler himself never referenced Lambach as an inspiration for the swastika, instead crediting other sources.

  153 “AND THE POWER”: Hitler speech, February 10, 1933.

  153 “THAT A PRELATE”: Franz von Papen, Der Weisheit eine Gasse (Innsbruck: Paul List Verlag, 1952), p. 431.

  153 “BOOK OF BISHOP HUDAL”: Joseph Goebbels, Joseph Goebbels Tagebücher, band 3: 1935–1939, ed. Ralf Georg Reuth (Munich: Piper Verlag, 1999), June 19, 1936, p. 962.

  154 “IN ORDER TO KEEP”: Burkard, Häresie und Mythus, p. 210. 154 he “endorsed” the book: Hudal, Römische Tagebücher, p. 132.

  154 “IF I HAD NOT”: Burkard, Häresie und Mythus, p. 211.

  154 “HIS SPEECH IS A”: Goebbels, Tagebücher, band 3, September 25, 1935, p. 892.

  155 “TRIALS AGAINST THE CATHOLIC CHURCH”: Ibid., October 21, 1936, p. 993.

  155 “‘A JEW REMAINS’”: Volk, ed., Akten Kardinal Michael von Faulhabers, October 23, 1936, pp. 179–80.

  156 FAULHABER NOTED: Burkard, Häresie und Mythus, p. 45.

  156 THE OBERSALZBERG WAS: See the report on Faulhaber’s meeting with Hitler, November 4, 1936, 11:00 a.m. to 2:00 p.m., recorded in Volk, ed., Akten Kardinal Michael von Faulhabers, pp. 184–94.

  159 “HAD REALLY LET”: Goebbels, Tagebucher, band 3, November 10, 1936, p. 1006.

  160 “IN THE END, I SUCCEEDED”: Papen, Der Weisheit eine Gasse, p. 432.

  161 “AS THE AUTHOR HIMSELF”: Hudal, Römische Tagebücher, p. 129.

  BOOK SEVEN: Divine Inspiration

  163 IN THE EARLY 1930S: Walter Langer Report, Memorandum from Edward Deuss to Professor Crane Brinton, “Recollections of Adolf Hitler Gained from Personal Contact, Interviews and on Airplane Campaign Tours with Hitler from September 1931–May 1933,” Box 1, undated, p. 1, National Archives, College Park, Maryland.

  163 Hitler’S “ASPIRATIONS”: “Zur Entstehung und Bedeutung der Entwürfe zu Hitlers Buch ‘Mein Kampf,’” lecture, Seventh International Congress of the Gesellschaft der Forensic Schriftuntersuchung, Dr. Othmar Plöckinger, Salzburg, Austria, 2007.

  163 HELENE HANFSTAENGL: John Toland, Adolf Hitler (New York: Doubleday, 1976), p. 12.

  164 “I BELIEVE THE GOOD LORD”: Paula Hitler, postwar debriefing interview, copy in the Archiv zur Zeitgeschichte des Obersalzberg, Berchtesgaden.

  164 “I CONFRONTED THE PROFESSOR”: Adolf Hitler, Monologe im Führerhauptquartier, stenographed by Heinrich Heim, ed. Werner Jochmann (Hamburg: Albrecht Knaus Verlag), p. 103.

  164 “THE WORST BLOW”: Ibid., p. 41.

  164 “THERE EXISTS IN EVERY”: Ibid., p. 40.

  165 “A HUNDRED AND SIXTY-NINE OF THEM”: Hitlers Tischgespräche im Führerhauptquartier, stenographed by Henry Picker (Berlin: Ullstien Verlag, 1999), p. 101.

  168 “WHOEVER GOES FAR”: Bertold Otto, Der Zukunftsstaat als sozialistische Monarchie (Berlin: Putkammer und Mühlbrecht, 1910), p. 391.

  168 “THAT WHICH DISTINGUISHES”: Hitler, Monologe, p. 302.

  168 “WHAT I PHYSICALLY”: Carl Ludwig Schleich, Die Weisheit der Freude (Berlin: Rowohlt Verlag, 1924), p. 93.

  168 “OUR BODY”: See Ernst Schertel, Magie: Geschichte, Theorie, Praxis (Prien: Anthropos Verlag, 1923), p. 56.

  169 “EVEN IF YOU TAKE”: Hitler, Monologe, p. 149.

  171 I HOPE YOU HAD”: Carl J. Burckhardt, Meine Danziger Mission, 1937–1939 (Munich: Verlag Georg D. W. Callwey, 1960). Burckardt includes in his memoir the verbatim exchange with Hitler that he prepared as a report to the League of Nations following the meeting with Hitler, pp. 264–70.

  174 “A VIEW OF THE UNTERSBERG”: Hitler, Monologe, p. 204.

  174 “YES, I AM CLOSELY”: Ibid., p. 207.

  175 “ALL MY GREAT”: Ibid., p. 2
07.

  177 “AT FIRST WE”: Nicolaus von Below, Als Hitlers Adjutant, 1937–1945 (Mainz: Hase und Koehler Verlag, 1980), p. 183.

  180 “WE WILL AT BEST”: Hitler, Monologe, p. 40.

  181 “GENIUS AND TALENT”: Schleich, Die Weisheit der Freude, p. 26.

  182 “GENIUS BELONGS TO”: Ibid., p. 27.

  182 “EVERYTHING OF THE MIND”: Schertel, Magie, p. 69.

  182 “TRULY EKTROPIC”: Ibid., p. 63.

  183 “EUROPEAN HUMAN TYPE”: Ibid., pp. 34–35.

  184 “ON THE OTHER SIDE”: Max Domarus, Reden und Proklamationen, 1932–1945, vol. 2 (Munich: Süddeutscher Verlag, 1965), p. 1234.

  184 “OUR ENEMIES HAVE”: Ibid.

  184 “ESSENTIALLY, IT DEPENDS”: Ibid.

  185 “GOAL: EXTERMINATION OF”: Franz Halder, Kriegstagebuch, band I vom Polenfeldzug bis zum Ende der Westoffensive (Stuttgart: W. Kohlhammer Verlag, 1962), pp. 22–25.

  BOOK EIGHT: Frontline Reading, 1940

  191 “KANNENBERG WAS NOT”: Christa Schröder, Er war mein Chef (Munich: Georg Müller Verlag, 1985), pp. 53–54.

  191 “EVENING WITH THE FüHRER”: Joseph Goebbels, Joseph Goebbels Tagebücher, band 3: 1935–1939, ed. Ralf Georg Reuth (Munich: Piper Verlag, 1999), August 22, 1938, p. 1257.

  191 “SOME 7,000 VOLUMES”: See Appendix A, p. 235.

  192 “RUMMAGING THROUGH”: Adolf Hitler, Mein Kampf, trans. Ralph Manheim (New York: Houghton Mifflin, 1998), p. 6.

  192 “IN THESE YEARS”: Interview with Hermann Esser, 1.4.1964. Vol. 1; copy in Archiv zur Zeitgeschichte des Obersalzberg, Berchtesgaden.

  193 “HE SORT OF”: Ibid.

  194 Hitler’S OLDEST EXTANT: Ernst Moritz Arndt, Katechismus für den deutschen Krieg- und Wehrmann, worin gelehret wird, wie ein christlicher Wehrmann seyn und mit Gott in den Streit gehen soll (Cologne: H. Rommerskirchen, 1815).

  196 WALLS WERE SO THIN: See Wilhem Keitel, Mein Leben: Pflichterfüllung bis zum Untergang: Hitlers Feldmarschall und chef des Oberkommandos der Wehrmacht in Selbstzeugnissen (Berlin: Edition, 1998) p. 265.

  196 “AFTER THE ELIMINATION”: Percy E. Schramm, ed., Die Berichte des Oberkommandos der Wehrmacht 1939–1945, band I (Munich: Verlag für Wehrwissenschaften, 2004), p. 141.

  198 “WHAT DOES HE”: Keitel, Mein Leben, p. 228.

  198 “I RECALL ONLY”: Ibid., p. 253.

  199 “AN UNIMAGINATIVE KNOCKOFF”: Franz Halder, Hitler als Feldherr (Linz: Johann Schönleitner Verlag, 1949), p. 27.

  199 “MY OPERATION IS”: Ibid., p. 193.

  200 “REICHENAU HAS THE ORDER”: Ibid., p. 301.

  200 “HE RAGES AND YELLS”: Ibid., p. 302.

  200 “HE LACKED THE”: Erich von Manstein, Verlorene Siege (Bonn: Bernhard und Graefe Verlag, 2004), p. 123.

  200 “THE SELF-ASSUREDNESS”: Ibid., p. 39.

  201 “IT IS BETTER IF”: Eberhard Jäckel and Axel Kuhn, eds., Hitler: Sämtliche Aufzeichnungen, 1905–1924 (Stuttgart: Deutsche Verlags-Anstalt, 1980), p. 1202.

  201 “HE HAD AN EXCEPTIONAL”: Otto Dietrich, Zwölf Jahre mit Hitler (Cologne: Atlas Verlag, 1955), p. 93.

  201 “A REFERENCE TO”: Halder, Hitler als Feldherr, p. 21.

  202 “ETERNAL DOUBTS”: Erich von Manstein, Verlorene Siege (Bonn: Bernard und Graefe Verlag, 2004), p. 75.

  202 “Hitler WAS WONT”: Albert Speer, Spandau: The Secret Diaries (New York: Macmillian, 1976), p. 347.

  202 “BUT THEN AGAIN”: Rochs, Heinrich von Schlieffen, p. 51.

  204 “WHEN THE NEWS”: Adolf Hitler, Monologe im Führerhauptquartier, stenographed by Heinrich Heim, ed. Werner Jochmann (Hamburg: Albrecht Knaus Verlag), p. 92.

  BOOK NINE: Hitler’s History of the Second World War

  210 MEMORY NO LONGER: Werner Maser, Hitlers Briefe und Notizen: Sein Weltbild in handshriftlichen Dokumenten (Düsseldorf: Econ Verlag, 1973), p. 201.

  211 “THE RUSSIAN”: For Halder’s recounting of the incident, Franz Halder, Hitler als Feldherr (Linz: Johann Schönleitner Verlag, 1949), p. 52.

  212 “YOU WILL BUILD”: Hermann Giesler, Ein anderer Hitler (Leoni am Starnsverger: Druffel Verlag, 1977), p. 390.

  212 “I LIVE AND WORK”: Ibid., p. 402.

  212 “IT JUST DOESN’T WORK”: Ibid., p. 404.

  212 “MY NERVES ARE SHOT”: Max Domarus, Reden und Proklamationen, 1932–1945, vol. 2 (Munich: Süddeutscher Verlag, 1965), p. 1911.

  212 “THE BITTER FIGHTING”: Die Berichte des Oberkommandos der Wehrmacht 1939–1945, band 3, 1 Januar 1942 bis 31 Dezember 1942 (Munich: Verlag für Wehrwissenschaft, 2004), p. 292.

  214 “KEEP IN MIND”: See Sven Hedin, Ohne Auftrag in Berlin (Tübingen: Internationaler Universitätsverlag, 1950), pp. 85–86.

  214 “AFTERNOON WITH THE FüHRER”: Joseph Goebbels, Joseph Goebbels Tagebücher, band 3: 1935–1939, ed. Ralf Georg Reuth (Munich: Piper Verlag, 1999), October 24, 1942, p. 1337.

  215 “IT IS THIS SATANICALLY”: Sven Hedin, Amerika im Kampf der Kontinente (Leipzig: Brockhaus Verlag, 1942), p. 111.

  216 “THE VICTOR WILL”: Ian Kershaw, Hitler, 1936–1945: Nemesis (New York: W. W. Norton, 2000), p. 209.

  216 “NO QUESTION IS”: Hedin, Amerika, p. 42.

  217 “A HEALTHY SOCIAL POLICY”: Ibid., p. 46.

  217 “ALL OF ADOLF”: Ibid., p. 48.

  217 “IT IS RARE”: Ibid., p. 64.

  218 “MOST HONORABLE HERR”: Reprinted in Hedin, Ohne Auftrag in Berlin, pp. 277–78.

  220 “WE ARE FIGHTING”: For Hitler’s speech, November 9, 1942, see Domarus, Reden und Proklamationen, p. 1933–1940. 222 most “miserable” speech: Domarus, Reden und Proklamationen, p. 1932.

  222 “EVERYONE KNOWS THAT”: Joseph Goebbels, Joseph Goebbels Tagebücher, band 4: 1940–1942, ed. Ralf Georg Reuth (Munich: Piper Verlag, 1999), November 9, 1942,p. 1830.

  222 “NOW THIS IS”: For a detailed account of the developments leading up to this turning point in the war, see Tim Clayton and Phil Craig, The End of the Beginning (London: Coronet Books, 2002).

  BOOK TEN: A Miracle Deferred

  223 BIOGRAPHY OF FREDERICK THE GREAT: Thomas Carlyle, History of Friedrich II. of Prussia, called Frederick the Great in Four Volumes (London: Chapman and Hall, 1858), vol. 4, book 20, p. 438. See this edition for all subsequent Carlyle quotes relating to Frederick the Great.

  224 “THERE HAS NEVER BEEN”: Max Domarus, Reden und Proklamationen, 1932–1945, vol. 2 (Munich: Süddeutscher Verlag, 1965), p. 2212.

  225 “PROVIDE RESISTANCE”: Ibid.

  225 BEFORE GOEBBELS COULD GIVE: Joseph Goebbels, Joseph Goebbels Tagebücher, band 5: 1943–1945, ed. Ralf Georg Reuth (Munich: Piper Verlag, 1999), p. 2127.

  225 “IT MUST ALSO BE”: Ibid., March 12, 1945, p. 2149.

  226 I AM A DESERTER: For a description of the last days of the war see Joseph Goebbels, Joseph Goebbels Tagebücher 1945: Die letzen Aurzeichnungen (Hamburg: Hoffman und Campe, 1977), February 25, 1945, pp. 196–207.

  228 “A TIRED CROWD”: Ibid., p. 206.

  229 AS A PIONEER OF: Thomas Carlyle, On Heroes, Hero-Worship, and the Heroic in History (London: Chapman and Hall, 1894), pp. 1–2.

  229 CARLYLE HATED: Thomas Carlyle, Selected Writings, edited and introduction by Alan Shelston (New York: Penguin Books, 1971), p. 31.

  229 A CRITIC ONCE CLAIMED: Ibid., p. 21.

  229 “THE CHIEF INSPIRER”: Carlyle, Selected Writings, p. 8.

  230 “IT IS WONDROUS”: Lothar Gruchmann and Reinhard Weber, eds., Der Hitler-Prozess, 1924 (Munich: K. G. Saur, 1999), 4:1578.

  230 “THERE IS MUCH”: Adolf Hitler: Reden, Schriften und Anordnungen, band 2, Teil I, p. 425.

  230 “IF THE GERMAN PEOPLE”: Domarus, Reden und Proklamationen, August 4, 1944, p. 2139.

  230 “IT IS NOT NECESSARY”: Albert Speer, Inside the Third Reich: Memoirs, trans. Richard and Cara Winston (New York: Macmillan, 1970), p. 440.

  233 “PSYCHOLOGICAL AND LUMINOUS”: Max Osborn, Berlin (Leipzig: Seemann Verlag, 1909), p. 192.

  233 “WHEN I ARRIVED”: S
peer, Inside the Third Reich, p. 463.

  233 “IN THIS HOUR”: Domarus, Reden und Proklamationen, p. 2224.

  234 “I DON’T HAVE”: Nicolaus von Below, Als Hitlers Adjutant, 1937–1945 (Selent: Pour le Mérite, 1999), p. 409.

  234 “WAS LITERALLY OBSESSED”: Ian Kershaw, Hitler, 1936–1945: Nemesis (New York: W. W. Norton, 2001), p. 792.

  236 “IT IS UNTRUE”: Werner Maser, Hitlers Briefe und Notizen: Sein Weltbild in handscriftlichen Dokumenten (Düsseldorf: Econ Verlag, 1973), pp. 356–59.

  237 “IT’S ALL RIGHT, YOU”: Interview with Traudl Junge, July 2001. See also Traudl Junge, Bis zur letzten Stunde. Hitlers Sekretärin erzählt ihr Leben (Berlin: Ullstein Verlag, 2003).

  239 THE PROPHECIES: Carl Loog, Die Weissagungen des Nostradamus: Erstmalige Auffindung des Chiffreschlüssels und Enthüllung der Prophezeihungen über Europas Zukunft und Frankreichs Glück und Niedergang, 1555–2200, 4–5 ed. (Pfullingen in Württemberg: Johannes Baum Verlag, 1921). Quotations from Loog on pp. 68–70.

  AFTERWORD: The Fates of Books

  242 “THESE WORDS HAVE BEEN”: Walter Benjamin, Illuminations, ed. Hannah Arendt, trans. Harry Zohn (London: Fontana Press, 1992), pp. 62–63.

  244 “SHOWED EVIDENCE: Neil Baldwin, Henry Ford and the Jews: The Mass Production of Hate (New York: Public Affairs, 2002), p. 182.

  244 “TO THE LEFT”: Antony Penrose, ed., Lee Miller’s War (London: Thames and Hudson, 2005), p. 191.

  245 “AT THE FAR END”: Confidential intelligence report by the U.S. Army Twenty-first Counterintelligence Corps, dated May 1945, detailing the bunker complex beneath the Berghof; copy in Archiv zur Zeitgeschichte des Obersalzberg, Berchtesgaden.

  246 BY MAY 25: Florian Beierl, Hitlers Berg (Berchtesgaden: Beierl Verlag, 2005), p. 164.

  ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

  Adolf Hitler was an unsystematic book collector. He never engaged a professional librarian to organize or catalogue his books, delegating these responsibilities to housekeepers and adjutants. It has been left to a handful of postwar librarians and scholars to impose their own sense of order and significance on the surviving portions of his private library.