How to Be a Dictator

by Frank Dikotter

  The sentence for high treason was surprisingly short, a mere five years, further reduced to thirteen months, but it was still long enough to allow Hitler to write his political biography. By the time he was released, a few days before Christmas 1924, the bulk of the manuscript entitled Mein Kampf was finished. The volume appeared in the summer of 1925, although not until 1933 would it become a bestseller.

  Mein Kampf summarised much of what Hitler had said in his beer-hall speeches. Behind every one of the country’s woes, be it a corrupt parliamentary system or the threat of communism, there lay a Jewish hand. His programme was clear: abrogate the Versailles Treaty, remove the Jews, punish France, build a greater Germany and invade the Soviet Union for ‘living space’ (Lebensraum). But Mein Kampf also contained elements of the Hitler legend. A genius child, a voracious reader, a born orator, an unrecognised artist driven by destiny to change the fate of a people. A man overcome by a passion like no other, one that allowed him to recognise the words that would ‘open the gates to a people’s heart like the blows of a hammer’. A man chosen by heaven as a messenger of its will. As a close follower put it, Hitler was an oracle, a Traumlaller, one who speaks prophetically in his dreams.12

  The oracle was silenced. The state of Bavaria banned Hitler from speaking in public as he emerged from prison a free man. The Völkischer Beobachter was proscribed, his party closed down. Most of these restrictions were lifted in February 1925, but as late as 1927 propaganda posters showed the Führer muzzled by bandages with the words ‘Forbidden to Speak’, as Hitler portrayed himself as a persecuted patriot.13

  Hitler turned to photography the moment he stepped through the studded iron gate of Landsberg Prison. Heinrich Hoffmann was waiting outside to record the event for posterity, but a prison guard threatened to confiscate his camera. Hitler posed instead in front of the old city gate, standing by the running board of the Daimler-Benz, looking resolutely at the camera, his moustache neatly clipped, hair slicked back. The picture was published around the world.14

  Hitler could not be heard, but was now seen throughout the ranks and beyond, as Hoffmann published three picture books between 1924 and 1926. The last volume, entitled Germany’s Awakening in Word and Image, portrayed the leader as a saviour: ‘A man stood up from among the people, spreading the gospel of love for the Fatherland.’ Posters appeared, some of them showing a crowd of listeners waiting expectantly for the saviour to appear.15

  On the way back to Munich, Hoffmann asked Hitler what he intended to do next. ‘I shall start again, from the beginning.’ The party was resurrected and given a new location in the Brienner Strasse, soon referred to as the ‘Brown House’. Hitler designed every detail, including the red leather chairs with the crest of the sovereign eagle, copied from ancient Rome, embossed on their backs. On either side of the entrance, two bronze tablets bore the names of those who had lost their lives during the Beer Hall Putsch, now seen as ‘martyrs to the movement’.16

  But membership lagged. Not until 1927 did enrolment reach 57,000, the number attained before the putsch. These were the years of political eclipse, as the economy recovered, assisted by a new currency that tamed inflation and a flood of capital from the United States. Government stabilised. Germany was brought back into the international fold as it entered the League of Nations in 1926. Historians, with hindsight, would call these years the ‘Golden Age of Weimar’.

  So lukewarm was support for the NSDAP that the ban on speaking was lifted in March 1927. But despite all the theatrics around Hitler’s public appearances, with music blaring, flags unfurled and banners waving, and followers with their hands outstretched to greet the leader, many seats remained empty. His rhetorical skills were intact, but his message no longer held the same appeal. The movement was in the doldrums.17

  Yet even as his popular appeal stalled his image as a god-like figure spread among his followers. Joseph Goebbels, an ambitious, intelligent man with a deformed right foot who had only just joined the party, wondered in October 1925, ‘Who is this man? Half commoner, half God! Truly Christ or only John the Baptist?’ He was not alone. Even as attendance was below what had been expected at the first party rally in Nuremberg, held in the summer of 1927, the SA in their brown shirts enthusiastically celebrated their leader, who had choreographed the entire event: ‘faith in the Führer,’ he proclaimed to the assembled masses, ‘and not the weakness of the majority is decisive.’ Within the ranks of the party, the ‘Heil Hitler’ greeting became compulsory, symbol of a personal connection with the leader.18

  Hitler himself was an astute judge of character. As an early believer recalled, he could size up a person at first glance, almost like an animal picking up a scent, sorting those who had ‘boundless trust and quasi-religious faith’ from those who retained a critical distance. The former were pitted against each other, the latter discarded as soon as they were no longer of use.19

  Mein Kampf was mocked by enemies, but treated like the Bible by followers. The book repeatedly asserted that geniuses were not found through general elections. ‘A camel can pass through the eye of a needle sooner than a great man can be discovered by an election.’ His followers saw themselves as apostles who could see even as the minds of unbelievers were blinded. In an open letter to Hitler on the concept of leadership, written in 1928, Goebbels repeated this view, pointing out that ‘The great leader cannot be elected. He is there when he must be there.’ A leader was not chosen by the masses, a leader liberated the masses. The leader was the one, in times of great doubt, to point the way towards belief. ‘You are the first servant in the battle for the future,’ he continued, suggesting that the leader surround himself with a small group of true men who would roam the country to preach the faith to those who had fallen into despair. A year later, as Hitler turned forty on 20 April 1929, he ascribed to the ideal leader a combination of character, willpower, ability and luck. Hitler already had three of these qualities. His lucky star, Goebbels predicted, would soon shine.20

  The party’s fortunes turned before the end of the year. On 3 October 1929 Gustav Stresemann, a pillar of Weimar democracy, died. A few weeks later Wall Street crashed, sending waves of panic selling around the world. Unemployment soared, passing the three million mark within months to culminate at six million by 1932. Faith in democracy dissolved, inflation took hold, and a sense of despair and hopelessness spread. Hitler was the man of the hour.21

  A huge propaganda campaign was launched. Whereas other parties were content with a postal appeal or a newspaper advertisement, the Nazis engaged in intense and incessant activities. Hitler had always stressed the importance of the spoken word, and in 1930 one thousand professionally trained speakers fanned out to spread the message, reaching every hamlet. Rallies were organised, meetings held, posters and flyers distributed and swastikas painted on sidewalks.

  The party was preaching to the converted, however. Among large parts of the population a wall of resistance existed that their propaganda could not break. The NSDAP referred to itself as ‘the Hitler movement’, as the figure of the Führer was the one propaganda element that was genuinely effective among a number of disaffected shopkeepers, Protestant farmers and war veterans. While the Nazis’ electoral share shot up from 2.6 to 18.3 per cent between May 1928 and September 1930, supporters of rival political parties, in the words of historian Richard Bessel, ‘remained remarkably immune to the influence of the cult which was built up around Hitler’.22

  In September 1931 Hitler’s half-niece Geli Raubal shot herself in the chest with his Walther pistol. Two years earlier she had moved into her uncle’s apartment in Munich, and her suicide at the age of twenty-three immediately sparked rumours of sexual violence, possibly even murder. It was a publicity disaster, as the press also reminded readers of the homosexuality of SA leader Ernst Röhm. Far from being the party of family values, the NSDAP, enemies of the Nazis alleged, was a collection of sexual deviants.23

  Six months later Heinrich Hoffmann published a photograph collecti
on entitled The Hitler Nobody Knows. It humanised the image of the Führer. Baldur von Shirach, head of the Hitler Youth, provided a foreword. Hitler, he explained, was not only a leader, but also a ‘great and good man’. Few people realised that he cultivated simple, spartan habits and worked ceaselessly towards the greater good: ‘His capacity for work is extraordinary.’ He had no vices. ‘It is scarcely known that Hitler is a teetotaller, a non-smoker and a vegetarian.’ His hobbies were history and architecture. He read voraciously, boasting a library of 6,000 books, ‘all of which he has not just perused, but also read’. Hitler was fond of children and kind to animals. The cover showed a relaxed Führer reclining in an alpine meadow with a shepherd by his side. A hundred candid photographs showed Hitler as a baby, Hitler as artist, Hitler at home, Hitler at work, Hitler at leisure, Hitler reading, chatting, hiking, smiling.24

  The book appeared in March 1932, in the middle of a presidential campaign. Paul von Hindenburg, a highly respected field marshal aged eighty-four, had been persuaded to run against Hitler. On the first official day of the runoff election, Goebbels published a piece entitled ‘Adolf Hitler as a Human Being’. All the themes of the picture book were reinforced. ‘Hitler is by nature a good man,’ Goebbels testified. A ‘human being amongst other human beings, a friend to his comrades, a helpful promoter of every ability and of all talents’. He was kind and modest, which is why all those who knew him ‘not only as a politician, but also as a person’ were devoted to him. Emil Ludwig, a contemporary biographer, commented: ‘All that Hitler lacked, the Germans were persuaded to imagine by his disciple Goebbels.’25

  The good man showed himself to millions. Goebbels chartered an aeroplane, taking him to dozens of cities in a flying tour that popularised the Hitler cult. ‘Hitler over Germany’, the headlines screamed. The audience was kept waiting for hours, erupting in applause when Hitler finally descended from the clouds in his plane like a messiah. Young girls gave him flowers, local leaders paid their respects and SA bands played music. The crowds roared.26

  An election poster pithily titled ‘Hitler’ made him instantly recognisable, with his face appearing to float free in space, lightened by a dark background. But all the propaganda failed to win Hitler sufficient support to prevail in his presidential bid. Hindenburg won overwhelmingly to become President of the Reich, or head of state, in April. National elections were held a few months later. Hitler kept up the same relentless schedule. His exhausting flying tours finally paid off, as the NSDAP became the most important political party in July 1932, with 37.3 per cent of the electorate.

  Hindenburg nonetheless refused to name Hitler Chancellor of Germany, the equivalent of head of government. Rather than compromise, Hitler fumed, declining to join the governing cabinet. He toured the country to denounce the ‘reactionary clique’ in power in Berlin. Instead of embracing him, in what looked like a decline into oblivion, a more discriminating electorate gave the party less than a third of all votes in new elections held in November 1932. ‘The aura is gone … the magic has failed’, one newspaper observed. ‘A falling comet in the November fog’, another commented. Party members became disillusioned, leaving the ranks in the tens of thousands.27

  On 30 January 1933 Hitler became Chancellor of Germany. It was the result not so much of an electoral process as of a series of sordid backstage political transactions in which Hindenburg played the leading role. The ageing president did not trust Hitler, but detested his rival even more. When Kurt von Schleicher, last chancellor of the Weimar Republic, proposed to rule as de facto dictator to break parliamentary stalemate, Hindenburg appointed Hitler instead.

  Within weeks the Reichstag building where parliament convened was set on fire. Hitler used the incident to claim that a communist plot was in progress. Hindenburg, who did not trust the parliamentary system to contain the threat from the left, was persuaded to pass a decree suspending basic rights.

  Terror and propaganda now advanced hand in hand, as hundreds of thousands of brownshirts hunted down their opponents. The mayor of Stassfurt, a social democrat, was shot dead on 5 February 1933. Countless other leaders of the opposition were intimidated, beaten up or paraded through the streets on their way to prison. Still, the NSDAP failed to secure an absolute majority on election day in March 1933, winning only 43.9 per cent of the vote. An Enabling Act was passed the same month, giving Hitler unlimited powers for four years.28

  An even greater wave of terror followed. In May trade unions were dissolved, while in June all other political parties were disbanded. Violence did not target just political opponents or social outcasts, but was directed at all opponents of the Nazis. An estimated 100,000 people were detained without trial in 1933 alone. Hundreds died in custody. While many were subsequently released, their arrest had the desired effect, making fear a routine part of everyday life.29

  The moment Hitler became chancellor, some municipal authorities began demonstrating their zeal by renaming streets, squares, avenues, schools, stadiums or bridges after their leader. On 31 March 1933 the centre of Hanover became Adolf Hitler Square. Three days later a central avenue leading from the Charlottenplatz to the Wilhelm Palais in Stuttgart was christened Adolf Hitler Street. For good measure a middle school in the same city was called Adolf Hitler School. In Charlottenburg, Berlin, the local authorities renamed Chancellery Place in honour of the Führer on the occasion of his birthday on 20 April 1933. Within a few years even the smallest village had its obligatory Adolf Hitler Street. Many also had an Adolf Hitler Square.30

  People also wrote to honour the Führer. On 18 February Herr Weber, owner of a coffee and cake shop in Sondershausen, asked to be allowed to call his establishment the ‘Reich’s Chancellor A. Hitler’. The Führer declined. Three days later a rose breeder proposed to identity a new variety as ‘Adolf Hitler’, while an engineer wrote to christen a wind turbine in Berlin the ‘Adolf Hitler Tower’. An admirer from Düsseldorf baptised his daughter Hitlerine, while Adolfine, Hitlerike and Hilerine were also popular.31

  But there were no statues of Adolf Hitler. Unlike most other dictators, the Führer insisted that statues and monuments be reserved for the great historical figures of the past. He was a leader of the future.32

  Portraits of the Führer adorned every office, but outside the organs of the state demand for his image also rocketed. Some entrepreneurs asked for permission to use his name or profile to sell soap, cigars and sweets. Others bypassed the state altogether and produced bonbons or sausages in the shape of the swastika. To protect the ‘sacred nature and value’ of state symbols, Goebbels passed a law on 19 May 1933 forbidding any image of the Führer to circulate without the approval of the party.33

  Hitler was only chancellor, and next to his portrait was that of the president. Hitler made the best of his predicament, using Hindenburg’s aura to place himself in a direct line of great German leaders. On 30 January 1933, the two men had appeared side by side on the balcony in the Wilhelmstrasse, greeting some 60,000 brownshirts in a torchlit parade choreographed by Goebbels. Two months later, at the ceremonial opening of the Reichstag in Potsdam, Hitler bowed respectfully to Hindenburg as he received his blessing. The event was shown in every cinema.34

  By 1934 the brownshirts, who had done the dirty work, became increasingly vocal and demanded to be incorporated into the regular army. But conservative generals viewed them as thugs. Hitler had no wish to antagonise the military establishment. He also feared that Ernst Röhm, chief-of-staff of the SA, had become too powerful. On 30 June, in the Night of the Long Knives, he ordered his elite SS guards to purge the SA. Röhm was arrested and shot, along with dozens of other leaders, while thousands more were thrown into prison. Hindenburg, who retained control over the army as president, congratulated Hitler.

  The old field marshal died on 2 August 1934. An hour later the offices of President of the Reich and Chancellor of Germany were united in the person of the Führer, who now commanded the army. The traditional oath of loyalty to the office of the presi
dent was altered and given to Adolf Hitler in name by every soldier.35

  Hitler, having painstakingly built up his image as a charismatic leader, now sought a plebiscite for confirmation. The population was asked to vote on the merger of both offices on 19 August. There was a barrage of propaganda. Posters of Hitler were everywhere, with only one word: ‘Yes’. In Bavaria, where BMW had their factories, one observer noted: ‘Hitler on every bulletin board, Hitler in every display window, in fact Hitler in every window that one can see. Every tram, every window in every train wagon, every car window: Hitler looks through every window.’ In some places the brownshirts, who continued operations on a much-reduced scale after the purge, provided portraits for free, demanding that they be prominently exhibited. They returned within hours if their orders were not followed. Flags were also distributed and hung from windows. Households in central Dresden received instructions on the precise number of swastika flags they should display.36

  Ninety per cent of the electorate approved. Five million people had the courage to spoil the ballot or vote No. As the Jewish scholar Victor Klemperer confided to his diary, ‘One third said Yes out of fear, one third out of intoxication, one third out of fear and intoxication.’37

  The party’s annual rally followed the plebiscite. Since 1927 it had been held in Nuremberg, a small city in Bavaria with fortified buildings dating back to the Holy Roman Empire, considered to be the First Reich. The rallies had grown in size over the years, but none matched the ‘Rally of Unity and Strength’, as the gathering of 700,000 people was later called. As Hitler’s deputy Rudolph Hess announced during the opening ceremony: ‘This congress is the first to take place under the unlimited rule of National Socialism. It stands under the banner of Adolf Hitler as the highest and only leader of Germany, under the banner of the “Führer” as a concept embodied in state law.’ The rally concentrated on glorifying the Führer. Albert Speer, the party’s chief architect, built a huge field with a grandstand surrounded by 152 searchlights casting vertical beams into the night, creating what admirers called a Cathedral of Light around the Führer as he addressed vast formations of uniformed followers enthralled by his every word. As Hess summed up, ‘The Party is Hitler and Hitler is Germany just as Germany is Hitler!’38