The Third Reich

by Thomas Childers

  “so-called better classes are seen”: Police Report to the Hanoverian Interior Minister, quoted in Childers, The Nazi Voter (Chapel Hill, 1983), p. 130.

  majority government of the Weimar era: Mommsen, The Rise and Fall of Weimar Democracy, p. 282.

  for the approaching battle: Childers, The Nazi Voter, pp. 135–38.

  the party’s campaign directives: Stachura, Gregor Strasser and the Rise of Nazism (London, 1983); and Paul, Aufstand der Bilder (Bonn, 1990), pp. 64–68.

  “a man who burns like a flame”: Heiden, Der Fuehrer, p. 289.

  had reached the boiling point: Stachura, Gregor Strasser and the Rise of Nazism, p. 61.

  “but lets things happen”: Goebbels, Tagebücher, March 16, 1930.

  “Forever putting things off!”: Ibid., June 29, 1930.

  had resolved itself: Stachura, Gregor Strasser and the Rise of Nazism, pp. 165–71.

  “country with propaganda material”: Nazi Propaganda circular of August 5, 1930, NSDAP Hauptarchiv (HA), 701/1529.

  coordinating the party’s propaganda activities: Goebbels, Tagebücher, March 18, 1932.

  “parties of enslaving capitalism”: Paul, Aufstand der Bilder, pp. 95–99.

  closely monitored and coordinated: RPL circular of July 4, 1932, Nationalsozialistisches Hauptarchiv (NSDAP HA)/15/289; RPL circular of April 2,1932, NSDAP HA/15286.

  serve the party well in the following campaigns: Childers, The Nazi Voter, p. 138.

  “to expedite the death of this system”: Stachura, Gregor Strasser and the Rise of Nazism, p. 76.

  “these miserable Twenty-Five Points”: Heiden, Der Fuehrer, p. 410.

  “have never seen before”: Paul, Aufstand der Bilder, pp. 91, 283.

  he didn’t trust Stennes: Goebbels, Tagebücher, August 24, 1930.

  “Stennes is a traitor”: Goebbels, Tagebücher, August 30 and September 1, 1930.

  their fighting spirit essential: Ibid., September 1, 1930.

  ready to erupt again at any moment: Ralf Georg Reuth, Goebbels (San Diego, 1993), pp. 118–19.

  “judgment day for the Young parties”: Childers, The Nazi Voter, p. 317.

  “joy and fighting spirit”: Goebbels, Tagebücher, September 15, 1930, p. 239.

  “the pestilence of Jewish department stores”: Hans Buchner, “Die sozialkapitalistischen Konsumvereine,” Nationalsozialistische Bibliothek (1929), pp. 42–59; also Childers, The Nazi Voter, pp. 151–52; and “Gewerbetreibende, Handwerker,” Der Angriff, May 7, 1928.

  the Nazis claimed, had been fulfilled: “An den deutschen Bauern,” Der Angriff, May 7, 1928; “Bauern!,” NS leaflet, Bayerisches Hauptstaatsarchiv (BHStA), Abt. V, F 9.

  less class bound, more dangerous: The consensus in the recent literature is reflected in Childers, The Nazi Voter; Richard Hamilton, Who Voted for Hitler? (Princeton, 1982); and Jürgen Falter, Hitlers Wähler (Munich, 1991).

  yielded the same desolate view: Childers, The Nazi Voter, pp. 180–81.

  “hunger, misery, and slavery”: “Der Youngverrat der Marxisten,” Der Angriff, July 7, 31, 1930.

  “tradition of class conflict”: See, for example, “Ein Wort an die KPD-Proleten!” “Bürger und Proletarier,” and “Wo steht die Arbeiter Jugend!,” all in Der Angriff, August 24, 1930; July 21, 1930; and July 3, 1930.

  “Jews in the German Fatherland”: Report of the Polizeiverwaltung Bocholt, September 1, 1930, to the Regierungspräsident; also Landrat Lüdinghause an Regierungspräsidenten, August 30, 1930, Staatsarchiv Münster, Nationalsozialismus, VII-67, Bd. 1.

  Christianity and the Catholic Church: Klaus Schölder, Die Kirchen und das Dritte Reich, vol. 1 (Frankfurt, 1977), pp. 167–69.

  This would prove to be a tall order: Childers, The Nazi Voter, pp. 188–91.

  Brüning’s emergency rule: Mommsen, The Rise and Fall of Weimar Democracy, pp. 357–63.

  parliamentary government in Germany: Evans, The Coming of the Third Reich, pp. 275–76; Bracher, Auflösung, p. 373.

  the story and the official interpretation: Report on Nazi activities in Westphalia, Polizeipräsident Bochum an Regierungspräsidenten, September 11, 1930, Westphalisches Staatsarchiv, Münster, XII-67, Bd. 1. See also Longerich, Die braunen Bataillone, 117–18.

  into the Valhalla of Nazi heroes: Jay W. Baird, To Die for Germany (Bloomington, IN, 1990), pp. 73–90.

  pitch-perfect propaganda for the party: Ibid., pp. 83–84.

  There would be no Nazi Putsch: Horn, Der Marsch zur Machtergreifung, pp. 330–34.

  “heads will roll”: Heiden, Der Fuehrer, pp. 405–6.

  “against the sentiments of the SA”: Stennes, quoted in Peter Langerich, Die Braunen Bataillone, p. 110.

  party bosses in Munich and their local functionaries: Longerich, Die braunen Bataillone, pp. 102–3, 109–12.

  “party has had to go through”: Goebbels, Tagebücher, February 1 and March 31, 1931.

  “Supreme Leader of your SA, Adolf Hitler”: Hitler. RSA, p. 258.

  episode continued to simmer: Kershaw, Hitler, vol. I, pp. 349–50.

  “but a band of rough fighters”: Toland, Adolf Hitler, p. 250; Longerich, Die braunen Bataillonen, pp. 109–10, 147–48.

  by year’s end, 260,000: See Röhm, Memoiren des Stabschefs Röhm; and Longerich, Die braunen Bataillone.

  administering it to the patient: See William L. Patch, Jr., Heinrich Brüning and the Dissolution of the Weimar Republic (Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 2006).

  too little, too late: Mommsen, The Rise and Fall of Weimar Democracy, pp. 396–97.

  they were apt to throw rocks: Michael Burleigh, The Third Reich (New York, 2000), pp. 137–38.

  a membership of almost 1.5 million: Martin Broszat, Der Staat Hitlers. Grundlegung und Entwicklung seiner inneren Verfasung (Munich: Deutscher Taschenbuch Verlag, 1971), pp. 49–52. See also Michael Kater, The Nazi Party (Oxford, 1983).

  “intensify our propaganda work”: Rundschreiben Gau Rheinland, May 9, 1931, Landesarchiv Koblenz, 403/16734.

  Goebbels gloated: Goebbels, Tagebücher, December 11, 13, and 14, 1930.

  nostalgic yearning, hardly existed: See Erich Weitz, Weimar Germany: Promise and Tragedy (Princeton, 2009).

  “in the Jewish backwash”: Hitler’s views of art, and especially modern art, which he branded as reflections of Jewish-Bolshevist influence, are reflected most vividly in two similar speeches given in March 1933 and at the Nuremberg party rally in September 1934. See Norman H. Baynes, The Speeches of Adolf Hitler: April 1922–August 1938 (Oxford, 1946, reissued in New York, 1968), pp. 568; 569–92.

  opportunity for national exposure: Kershaw, Hitler, vol. I, pp. 310–11.

  in traditional conservative circles: Ibid., pp. 356–57.

  in fact, all private property: Boxheim Documents, Ibid.

  “the blood plans of Hessen”: Vorwärts, November 26, 1931.

  “to take an illegal step”: Mommsen, The Rise and Fall of Weimar Democracy, pp. 424–25.

  this remained a mystery: Turner, German Big Business and the Rise of Hitler, pp. 213–14.

  leadership of the state: Mommsen, The Rise and Fall of Weimar Democracy, p. 342.

  seemed one of calculated ambiguity: Ibid., p. 180ff.

  Nazi economic thinking: Full text of the Düsseldorf speech in Domarus, ed., Hitler Speeches, vol. 1, pp. 88–114; reactions of the industrialists present in Turner, German Big Business and the Rise of Hitler, 210–19; and Bullock, Hitler, pp. 161–63.

  especially the DNVP and DVP: Turner, German Big Business and the Rise of Hitler, p. 21ff.

  loans or direct contributions: Ibid. Local reports on funding in Staatsarchiv, Münster, August 28 and 30, 1930, Landrat Ludwingshausen to Regional President; Police report on NS meeting in Coesfled (1931) to Regional President; Police report on NS Wahlversammlung in Beckum, September 9, 1930; Landrat report on Nazi activities in Ludwighausen, September 10, 1930; “Arbeiter sieht eure Führer,” Bayerisches Hauptstaatsarchiv (BHstA), A, F 11-NS 1930.

 
Chapter 5: Making Germany Great Again

  “We must give it to him”: Goebbels, Tagebücher, January 30, 1932.

  “Hitler is hesitating too long”: Goebbels, Tagebücher, February 20 and 22, 1932.

  “End it now!”: Sonderschreiben der RPL an alle Gaue und Gaupropagandaleitungen, February 20, 1932.

  “Poor Hindenburg”: Goebbels, Tagebücher, February 3 and 12, 1932.

  would evaluate them: Paul, Aufstand der Bilder, pp. 70–79.

  No detail was to be ignored: See the RPL communiqué for the fall Reichstag campaign, HA/14/263, and the RPL circulars of March 1, 1932, HA/15/287; July 4, 1932, NSDAP HA/12/288; and June 16, 1932, HA/15/289.

  He also carried a revolver: Hanfstaengl, Hitler, p. 176.

  well-choreographed appearances: See, for example, descriptions of Hitler’s Deutschlandflug in Paul, Aufstand der Bilder, pp. 204–10, and Hanfstaengl, Hitler, p. 178.

  It was time for new leadership: “Wer Hindenburg wählt, wählt Brüning,” NS leaflet, HA/15/287.

  “Evening should find us joyful”: Goebbels, Tagebücher, March 13, 1932.

  “In that he is great”: Goebbels, Tagebücher, March 14, 1932.

  “wagered beyond his means”: Ernst Hanfstaengl, Zwischen Weissem und Braunem Haus (Munich, 1970), pp. 270–71.

  “I will lead it”: Völkischer Beobachter, March 14, 1932.

  to precisely these groups: RPL circular, March 3–23, 1932, HA/16/290.

  “for the emergency decrees”: See the “Anordnung für die 2. Wahlgang und die kommende Preussenwahl),” Reg. Münster, Abt. N11, Nr. 67, Bd. 3, Staatsarchiv Münster.

  series of leaflets: BA/NSD 13/7.

  “to show me wrong”: “Mein Programm,” April 2, 1932; full text in Hitler. RSA, vol. 1, p. 2.

  a half million people: Otto Dietrich, Mit Hitler an die Macht. Persönliche Erlebnisse mit meinem Führer (Munich, 1934), pp. 65–70.

  “a springboard for the Prussian elections”: Goebbels, Tagebücher, April 11, 1932, p. 259.

  “the war of 1914–1918”: Delmer, who was the Berlin correspondent of the London Daily Express, spoke fluent German and in 1932 managed to gain Hitler’s trust. Why Hitler allowed him such close access remained a mystery to Delmer. Sefton Delmer, Trail Sinister, vol. I (London, 1961), p. 153.

  varied sorts made the rounds: Almost all of what is known about Hitler’s relationship with Geli is based on speculation and innuendo, especially the testimony Otto Strasser, a bitter enemy of Hitler’s, gave to the OSS in 1943 and in his book, Hitler und ich (Constance, 1948). See also Ronald Hayman, Hitler and Geli (New York, 1998).

  well into the Third Reich: Kershaw, Hitler, vol. I, pp. 352–55. See also Heike B. Görtemaker, Eva Braun: Life with Hitler (New York, 2011).

  “and you belong to me”: Hitler. RSA, pp. 54–56.

  “against centralization and godlessness”: RPL circular to Prussian Gauleitungen, April 2, 1932, in HA/15/286; and circular of the Wahlpropagandaleitung Bayern, April 1932, HA/30/576.

  a Nazi majority was in sight: Childers, The Nazi Voter, pp. 208–9.

  “agrarian Bolshevism”: Mommsen, The Rise and Fall of Weimar Democracy, pp. 431–33.

  put to productive use: Ibid., pp. 428–29.

  to be all too true: André François-Poncet, The Fateful Years: Memoirs of a French Ambassador in Berlin, 1931–1938, translation, Howard Fertig (New York, 1972), p. 23.

  “We’re all very happy”: Kershaw, Hitler, vol. I, p. 367; Goebbels, Tagebücher, May 30, 1932.

  “the iron roofs of latrines”: Christopher Isherwood, The Berlin Stories (New York, 1935), 2008 edition, p. 86.

  “Bloody Sunday” came as a shock: Mommsen, The Rise and Fall of Weimar Democracy, p. 442.

  “from power once and for all”: Denkschrift der RPL zur Reichstagswahl 1932, June 18, 1932, in HA/15/289.

  humiliating international oppression?: Hitler. RSA, vol. 8, p. 8.

  developed at headquarters: Bernard Köhler, “Arbeitsbeschaffung in Politik und Propaganda,” Unser Wille und Weg, Heft 10 (1932), p. 303.

  political plight on target: Michael Geyer, “Reichswehr, NSDAP and the Seizure of Power,” in Peter D. Stachura, ed., The Nazi Machtergreifung (London, 1983), p. 111.

  storms of applause: Hitler speech, Eberswalde, July 26, 1932, Hitler. RSA, vol. 8, pp. 274–75.

  country’s popular picture press: See “Die Rassenfrage ist der Schüssel zur Weltgeschichte” from the Illustriert Beobachter, December 10, 1932.

  “of this Jew Republic”: “Das Heckerlied.” See also Longerich, Die braunen Bataillone, pp. 121–22; and Eberhard Frommann, Die Lieder der NS-Zeit, Untersuchungen zuer nationalsozialistischen Liederpropaganda von den Anfängen bis zum Zweiten Weltkrieg (Cologne, 1999).

  appeared with regularity: BA, NSD, 13/7.

  “Jewish religion up to contempt”: Goebbels, Tagebücher, January 7, 1932, p. 101; and Christian T. Barth, Goebbels und die Juden (Paderborn, 2003), pp. 56–77.

  and there is much truth to that: Allen, The Nazi Seizure of Power, p. 71.

  “but quickly burns out”: Childers, The Nazi Voter, pp. 267.

  “and contradictory currents”: “Der völkischer Block,” NS circular, February 8, 1923, BA, ZSg I, 45/13.

  have been posed ten years later: Thomas Childers, “The Middle Classes and National Socialism,” in David Blackbourn and Richard Evans, eds., The German Bourgeoisie: Essays on the Social History of the German Middle Class from the Late Eighteenth to the Early Twentieth Century (London, 1991), pp. 318–37.

  elements of the working class: Falter, Hitlers Wähler, pp. 198–230; Childers, The Nazi Voter, pp. 243–49.

  a work in progress: Childers, The Nazi Voter, pp. 258–61. The Gauleiter’s report of March 15, 1932, is found in BA/NS22/105.

  between thirty and forty: Only the Communists could match the NSDAP’s youthful character. See Martin Broszat, Der Staat Hitlers. Grundlegung und Entwicklung seiner inneren Verfassung, second edition, 1971, pp. 49–50.

  the League of German Girls: In 1932 the BdM claimed nine thousand members. Claudia Koonz, Mothers in the Fatherland: Women, the Family and Nazi Politics (New York: St. Martin’s Press, 1987), p. 112. See also Michael Kater, Hitler Youth, (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2004), pp. 70–112.

  trying to stay afloat: Childers, The Nazi Voter, pp. 224–28.

  emancipation from emancipation: Julia Sneeringer, Winning Women’s Votes (Chapel Hill, 2002).

  “the spoken or written word”: Hildegard Passow, “Die propagandistische Erfassung und Bearbeitung der Frau,” Unsere Wille und Weg, Heft 5, May 1932; and the guidelines for the organization and work of women’s groups in East Prussia, “Richtlinien für die Organisation und Arbeit der Frauengruppen,” May 1930, Geheime Staatsarchiv Preussischer Kulturbesitz (GStAB), Berlin, XXHA, Rep. 240, B 31.

  searching for alternatives: Childers, The Nazi Voter, p. 259ff; Helen Boak, “ ‘Our Last Hope’: Women’s Votes for Hitler—A Reappraisal,” German Studies Review 12 (1989), pp. 289–310.

  “Now action!”: Goebbels, Tagebücher, August 1, 1932.

  Chapter 6: The Nazis Hit a Wall

  “be a terrible setback”: Goebbels, Tagebücher, August 8, 1932.

  “are carried from office”: Goebbels, Tagebücher, July 6, 1932.

  “the purpose of the exercise”: Goebbels, Tagebücher, August 8, 1932.

  “one iron in the fire”: Ibid.

  “a grotesque absurdity”: Goebbels, Tagebücher, August 13, 1932.

  “his oath and his conscience”: Full text in Domarus, ed., Hitler Speeches, vol. 3, p. 152.

  “has come to naught”: Goebbels, Tagebücher, August 13, 1932.

  “ ‘Next time I won’t vote’ ”: Tätigskeitsbericht der RPL, August 1932, BA/55/38; BA, Sammlung Schumacher/382.

  violence to unparalleled heights: Richard Bessel, Political Violence and the Rise of Nazism (New Haven, 1984).

  “was possible is our duty”: Ibid.

  “has no rights at all”:
Hitler. RSA, Berlin speech, August 29, 1932.

  stumbled off that line: Bessel, Political Violence and the Rise of Nazism, pp. 75–96.

  “The elections have no value”: Stimmungsbericht der RPL, BA/NS22/347.

  “demand an act of deliverance”: National Archives (NA), Series T-81, Reel 1, frames 11565, Untergruppe Ostholstein, September 24, 1932; and 105001, Untergruppe Baden, September 22, 1932. For a vivid description of the desperate financial situation of many Storm Troopers, see Jeremy Noakes, The Nazi Party in Lower Saxony, 1921–1933 (Oxford, 1971), pp. 182–85.

  “debased in this way”: NA-T81, 106209, Gruppe Mitte, Dessau, September 22, 1932; and NA-T81, 105199, Untergruppe München-Oberbayern, September 22, 1932. See also the report of Untergruppe Magdeburg-Anhalt, September 22, 1932, NA-T081, 105212.

  “the wavering middle class”: RPL Communiqué, October 27, 1932, HA/14/263.

  hardly do to alienate them: “Bemerkungen zur Propaganda für den Reichstagswahlkampf, undated, NA-T-81, 11427–432.

  “and that is Hitler and the NSDAP”: RPL Streng vertrauliche Information, No. 11, October 20, 1932, BA 26/263.

  “they’d have been lost forever”: Goebbels, Tagebücher, November 2, 1932.

  “and that one must therefore vote NSDAP”: RPL Communiqué, October 20, 1932, HA/14/263.

  Crowds were smaller: Domarus, ed., Hitler Speeches, vol. 3, pp. 169–74.

  “allow them to take it away from us again”: Hitler. RSA, speech in Königsberg, October 17, 1932.

  “the old momentum”: See Childers, The Nazi Voter, p. 210; For Goebbels’s concern about the party’s flagging energy, see RPL communiqué of October 20, HA/14/263.

  “throw into the fray”: Goebbels, Tagebücher, November 1, 1932, Aufzeichnunen, Teil 1, p. 267.

  “word of another defeat”: Goebbels, Tagebücher, November 6, 1932, Aufzeichnungen, Teil 1, p. 172.

  “We have suffered a blow”: Goebbels, Tagebücher, November 6, 1932.