Becoming Hitler

by Thomas Weber

  27. Wits, A807/Aa/1952–1953, certified copy, dated February 15, 1957, of Else Boepple’s statutory declaration of June 13, 1935; A807/Aa15, Koerber to Lentze, April 28, 1946; A807/Dg, “Personalnotiz Victor v. Koerber,” undated.

  28. For references, see, for example, Kershaw, Hitler, vol. 1, 167; Ullrich, Hitler, loc. 2908.

  29. The near consensus since the mid-1970s has been that until 1924 Hitler saw himself as a “drummer” and that there was no evolution of his self-image from the time he entered politics until his coup; see Tyrell, Trommler, passim, in particular, 165. For variations of the argument, see Mommsen, “Hitler”; Kershaw, Hitler, vol. 1, chap. 6; Franz-Willing, Hitlerbewegung, 6; Haffner, Anmerkungen, loc. 332; Auerbach, “Lehrjahre,” 19, 29, 44; Ullrich, Hitler, loc. 2908, 3646; Longerich, Hitler, 10, 90–91, 98–99, 112ff., 126–127. Herbst, Charisma, loc. 2191–2395, leaves open as to whether Hitler genuinely already saw himself as Germany’s Mussolini and messiah by November 1923.

  30. Koerber, Hitler, 5, 9, 13.

  31. For a claim to the contrary, see Tyrell, Trommler, 155ff.

  32. It is commonly argued that it was not Hitler but others from his Munich entourage who invented his charisma, who labeled him as a German messiah, and who had to push him to accept that role; see, for example, Mommsen, “Hitler”; Longerich, Hitler, 10, 90–99, 112ff., 126–127.

  33. Koerber, Hitler, 4, 11ff.

  34. Ibid., 6–7.

  35. Hitler had compared his party to Jesus in a speech given on April 21, 1921, and had described Jesus as his role model (Vorbild) in his speeches of November 2, 1922, and December 17, 1922; see Hitler, Aufzeichnungen, 367, 718, 769. In an interview with William Donovan from the spring of 1923, he had compared himself to Jesus; see Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, October 19, 2016, “Völkischer Erlöser.”

  36. NARA, RG263/3, OSS Report, December 1942, 13; RPR-TP, 45-Hanfstaengl-1, “Helen Niemeyer’s ‘Notes,’ 1939/1940.”

  37. RPR-TP, 45-Hanfstaengl-1, “Helen Niemeyer’s ‘Notes,” 1939/1940.”

  38. There has been a tendency for scholars to take literally quotes by Hitler in which he explicitly or implicitly refers to himself as a “drummer,” not allowing that he was doing so for tactical gain; see, for example, Tyrell, Trommler, 117, 157; Auerbach, “Lehrjahre,” 29; Longerich, Hitler, 90–91; Ullrich, Hitler, loc. 2898.

  39. Wits, Koerber, A807, Ab/Ludendorff, letters from Ludendorff to Koerber, and draft notes sent by Ludendorff to Koerber.

  40. See Ludecke, Hitler, 59–62.

  41. Koerber, Hitler, 11.

  42. Wits, Koerber, A807/Dg, “Personalnotiz Victor v. Koerber,” undated.

  43. Shakespeare, Julius Caesar, Act 1, scene 2, 226–228 and 233–250.

  44. Wits, A807/Ab, Crown Prince William, Koerber to Crown Prince Wilhelm, July 12, 1926.

  45. Wits, A807/Aa, Undated, Koerber to his former German teacher, undated (written in the early 1930s, prior to 1933); A807/Ab/Ullstein, letter exchange with Fritz, Hermann, Louis, Franz, Heinz, Frederik, Margarete, and Rudolf Ullstein; A807/Ab/Erhardt, Koerber to Kapitaen Ehrhardt, March 6, 1931 (second quote); A807/Ab/Muckermann, Koerber to Pater Muckermann, March 8, 1932; A807/Dg, “Personalnotiz Victor v. Koerber,” undated; “Kurzer Lebensabriss,” November 11, 1954; TSS, “Mein Lebenslauf,” undated; TSS, “Biographische Daten Victor v. Koerber,” undated (first quote); A807/Df, undated TSS memo, by Victor von Koerber.

  46. Wits, A807/Aa/1956–1957, Koerber to Innenminister Hubert Biernat, January 7, 1957; A807/Aa/1956–1957, Koerber to Ernst Deuerlein, September 22, 1959; A807/Aa/1968–1969, Koerber to Dr. Döderlein, February 7, 1969; Wits, A807, Dg, TSS, “Mein Lebenslauf,” May 15, 1947.

  47. Wits, A807/De2, TSS, “Kurzer Bericht,” by Victor von Koerber, undated; A807/Dg, translation of F. N. Mason-MacFarlane’s memorandum, August 7, 1938; regarding Wiedemann, see Weber, HFW, passim.

  48. Wits, A807/Aa/1968–1969, Deutsche Botschaft, Berne, to Koerber, September 30, 1968; A807/Ab/Ullstein, letter “To whom it may concern,” by F. C. L. Ullstein, May 20, 1946; Ab/Ullstein, “Bestätigung” by Margarete Ullstein, May 20, 1946; Ab/Ullstein, Koerber to Frederik Ullstein, June 29, 1967 (quote); A807/Ba, “Opfer des Faschismus-Ausweis”; A807/Dg, TSS, “Biographische Daten Victor v. Koerber,” undated; A807/Dg, “Kurzer Lebensabriss,” November 11, 1954; TSS, “Mein Lebenslauf,” undated; TSS, “Biographische Daten Victor v. Koerber,” undated; TSS, “Hauptlebensdaten nach Aktenlage,” undated.

  Chapter 13: Hitler’s First Book

  1. Bayerlein, Oktober, Dokument 31; Firsov, “Oktober,” 35–58 (quote, 44).

  2. Firsov, “Oktober,” 47–49; Bayerlein, Oktober, Dokument 36.

  3. Firsov, “Oktober,” 49.

  4. For a claim to the contrary, see Conze, “Dictator,” 135.

  5. Firsov, “Oktober,” 50; Wirsching, Weimarer Republik, 14.

  6. Quoted in Kellerhoff, Mein Kampf, 17.

  7. RPR-TP, 45-Hanfstaengl-1, “Helen Niemeyer’s ‘Notes,’ 1939/1940”; Wölfflin to his sister, and to Anna Buehler-Koller, November 4, 1923, reproduced in Gantner, Wölfflin, 363–364 (quotes).

  8. Deuerlein, Hitler, 53.

  9. Krebs, Tendenzen, 124–125; Kühlwein, Warum, 83.

  10. Tröbst, Soldatenleben, vol. 10, loc. 28.

  11. Ibid., loc. 74.

  12. Ibid., loc. 0–158.

  13. Ibid., loc. 162.

  14. Ibid., loc. 170.

  15. In January 1925, when Weber was released from Landsberg fortress, Hitler composed and signed a note for his “friend Friedrich”; see BHStA/V, NL Lehmann/4.12, note signed by Hitler, January 1925.

  16. Tröbst, Soldatenleben, vol. 10, loc. 162.

  17. Ibid., loc. 235.

  18. Ibid., loc. 225.

  19. Ibid., loc. 244.

  20. Ibid., loc. 244–300.

  21. Ibid., loc. 280–290, 305 (quote), 335.

  22. Ibid., loc. 335–379.

  23. Kellerhoff, Mein Kampf, 17; Kraus, Geschichte, 691.

  24. Nickmann, “Hitler-Ludendorff-Putsch,” 42; Kraus, Geschichte, 694.

  25. BHStA/V, NL Lehmann/4.5, Lehmann to Erich Ludendorff, December 19, 1923.

  26. Friedman, Germany, 353; Kreß von Kressenstein, Türken, 249; Kraus, Geschichte, 693.

  27. Paul Oestreicher papers, letter, Rudolf Degwitz to Paul Oestreicher, December 12, 1937; “Lebenslauf.”

  28. SAM, Spruchkammerakte, Bleser, Erich.

  29. RPR-TP, 45-Hanfstaengl-1, Toland’s interview with Niemeyer and Egon Hanfstaengl, October 19, 1971; “Helen Niemeyer’s ‘Notes,’ 1939/1940.”

  30. RPR-TP, 45-Hanfstaengl-1, “Helen Niemeyer’s ‘Notes,’ 1939/1940.”

  31. Ibid.

  32. Ibid.

  33. Ibid.

  34. Ibid.; Toland-Niemeyer interview, October 19, 1971. The story that Helene Hanfstaengl executed a jujitsu maneuver to get the gun out of Hitler’s hand is an invention by her husband; see, for example, RPR-TP, 45-Hanfstaengl-1, Toland-Egon Hanfstaengl interview, September 2, 1971.

  35. RPR-TP, 45-Hanfstaengl-1, Toland-Helen Niemeyer interview, October 19, 1971.

  36. Ibid., “Helen Niemeyer’s ‘Notes,’ 1939/1940.”

  37. Fleischmann, Hitler, 23, 27–33, 72, 417.

  38. NARA, RG263/3, OSS Report, December 1942.

  39. IFZ, ZS33/1, Gedächtnisprotokoll Maria Enders, December 11, 1951; Joachimsthaler, Liste, 215–220.

  40. Deuerlein, Aufstieg, 203; Fleischmann, Hitler, 71; Goebbels, Tagebücher, i (2004 ed.), 48, entry for November 10, 1923 (quote).

  41. BHStA/V, NL Lehmann, Lehmann to Kahr, November 16, 1923.

  42. BHStA/V, NL Lehmann/8.2, diary, Melanie Lehmann, entry for November 25, 1923 (first quote); Tröbst, Soldatenleben, vol. 10, loc. 850 (second quote).

  43. Gutachten des Obermedizinalrats Dr. Josef Brinsteiner über [… ] Adolf Hitler, January 8, 1924, reproduced in Fleischmann, Hitler, 92 (quote); Neumann/Eberle, Hitler, 84; RPR-TP, 45-Hanfstaengl-2, Toland-Hanfstaengl interview, September 6, 1971. Han
fstaengl stated that his source for Hitler’s expectation that revolution in Russia had been imminent had been Emil Maurice as well as other people who had been incarcerated together with Hitler.

  44. Quoted in Kellogg, Roots, 140.

  45. Deuerlein, Aufstieg, 224–225.

  46. Fleischmann, Hitler, 40; see, for example, Heiden, Fuehrer, 143, 148.

  47. Gruchmann/Weber, Hitler-Prozess, vol. 4, 1574–1575.

  48. IfZ, ZS-177/1-8, Freiherr von Siegler’s memorandum about his conversation with Franz von Pfeffer, February 20, 1953; IfZ, ZS-177/1-25, Heinrich Bennecke’s memorandum about his conversation with Franz von Pfeffer, October 25, 1959; IfZ, ZS-177/1-39-58, Pfeffer, “Die Bewegung,” February 1968; Museen der Stadt Nürnberg, Faszination, 26.

  49. Noakes/Pridham, Nazism, vol. 1, 35.

  50. Goebbels, Tagebücher, vol. 1 (2004 ed.), 107, entry for March 13, 1924.

  51. Ibid., 107–108, entries for March 15 and 17, 1924.

  52. Ibid. 109–110, entries for March 20 and 22, 1924.

  Chapter 14: Lebensraum

  1. LOC/RBSCD, B2798.C45 1921, dedication written into Hitler’s copy of Chamberlain, Houston Stewart, Immanuel Kant: Die Persönlichkeit als Einführung in das Werk, 4th ed. (Munich: F. Bruckmann, 1921); Fleischmann, Hitler, 519; Hamann, Wagner, 72; Hanfstaengl, Haus, 157; Hanfstaengl, Missing Years, 114; Rudolf Heß to Ilse Pröhl, May 18, 1924, reproduced in Heß, Briefe, 326; Kallenbach, Landsberg.

  For claims that Bruckmann and Hitler had already encountered each other earlier and that she had already opened the doors to Munich’s upper society prior to the putsch, see, for example, Kershaw, Hitler, vol. 1, 187–188; Bullock, Hitler and Stalin, 80–83; Fest, Hitler, 195–196, 199; Maser, Legende, 195; Richardi, Hitler, 356–357; Ludecke, Hitler, 95–96; Toland, Hitler, 134; Conradi, Piano Player, 49; Herbst, Charisma, loc. 1972; Range, 1924, 37. By contrast, Heiden, Hitler: A Biography, 99–100, argued that the doors of Munich’s society had remained closed to Hitler.

  2. Ludecke, Hitler, 216.

  3. Hamann, Wagner, 72 (quote).

  4. Fleischmann, Hitler, 40–49, 85 (quote), 240, 285, 312, 521, 526; Weber, HFW, 157; Läpple, Hitler, 65; Hartmann, “Einleitung,” 19.

  5. Düren, Minister, 46; Plöckinger, Geschichte, 39; Hartmann, “Einleitung,” 13–16, 37.

  6. Wilson, Hitler, 48; Phelps, “Arbeiterpartei,” 985. See also Riecker, November, 88. In fact, an essay that went into the writing of Mein Kampf was entitled “Warum mußte ein 8. November kommen?” (Why Was November 8 Inevitable?); see Hartmann, “Einleitung,” 13.

  7. Ignatieff, Fire, 26.

  8. Weber, HFW.

  9. Plöckinger, Geschichte, 76ff.

  10. Kellerhoff, Mein Kampf, 63; Hitler, Monologe, 205, monologue of January 16/17; Chaussy/Püschner, Nachbar, 36.

  11. Töppel, “Volk,” 29–30.

  12. See also Range, 1924, 217.

  13. Hitler, MK, 636.

  14. Goebbels, Tagebücher, vol. 1 (2004 ed.), 339, 365, entries for August 10 (quote) and October 14, 1925; Weinberg, “Image,” 1006; Wilson, Hitler, 47.

  15. For claims to the contrary, see, for example, Bullock, Hitler and Stalin, 140; Töppel, “Volk,” 9; Pätzold/Weißbecker, Hitler, 109.

  16. Hitler, Monologe, 43 (quote); Hitler, Kritische Ausgabe, 89; Kellerhoff, Mein Kampf, 16.

  17. Hitler, Monologe, 262; Kellerhoff, Mein Kampf, 68 (quote). See also Hartmann, “Einleitung,” 27.

  18. Kellerhoff, Mein Kampf, 193ff.

  19. Hitler, Monologe, 262. The claim that Mein Kampf did not offer anything new (see Kershaw, Hitler, vol. 1, 241; Töppel, “Volk,” 2) is thus not supported by the facts.

  20. The frequent claim (see, e.g., Museen der Stadt Nürnberg, Faszination, 27) that Mein Kampf expressed exactly the same ideas which Hitler had already propagated prior to the putsch is not supported by the facts.

  21. Hitler, MK, 950.

  22. Ibid, 936.

  23. Kellerhoff, Mein Kampf, 83.

  24. RPR-TP, “Haushofer, Karl,” interrogation transcript, ca. October 5, 1945. Hipler’s claim that Haushofer was Hitler’s ideological teacher and the spiritual rector of National Socialism (see Hipler, Lehrmeister, 211) is based on unfounded speculation.

  25. Hitler, MK, 939–940. I altered the translation of the Reynal & Hitchcock edition of Mein Kampf to be closer to the German original.

  26. Hitler, MK, 950–951.

  27. Goebbels, Tagebücher, vol. 2 (2005 ed.), 7, entry for April 13, 1926.

  28. Antoine Vitkine’s claim that no country was mentioned as often as France in Mein Kampf is not supported by the facts; see Vitkine, Mein Kampf, 45–46, 123, 303n8. For the frequency of references to France, see https://archive.org/stream/Mein-Kampf2/HitlerAdolf-MeinKampf-Band1Und2855.Auflage1943818S.djvu.txt http://voyant-tools.org.

  29. LOC/RBSCD, Hitler’s copy of Hans Günther’s book; Kellerhoff, Mein Kampf, 81; Töppel, “Volk,” 21.

  30. A number of surviving draft notes allow us to date the evolution of Hitler’s ideas presented in his chapter on “Volk und Raum”; see Beierl/Plöckinger, “Neue Dokumenten,” 290–295, 315–318; Hartmann, Mein Kampf, vol. 1, 734–859; Töppel, “Volk.”

  31. The analysis provided here is based on the digital copy of Mein Kampf available at http://archive.org/details/Mein-Kampf2 and was carried out with the help of Voyant Tools (http://voyant-tools.org).

  32. Hitler, Mein Kampf: Kritische Edition, 437, 693 (the page numbers refer to those of the original German edition of Mein Kampf).

  33. See also Jäckel, Weltanschauung; Zehnpfennig, Hitler.

  34. Goebbels, Tagebücher, ii (2005 ed.), 140, entry for October 16, 1926 (quote); Franz-Willing, Hitlerbewegung, 86–87.

  35. Heusler, Haus, 110, 117, 122–125.

  Epilogue

  1. “Frescos and Murals,” http://www.lewisrubensteinartist.com/gallery2/main.php?g2_itemId=18; Colleen Walsh, “The Return of the Murals,” Harvard Gazette, March 8, 2012, http://news.harvard.edu/gazette/story/2012/03/the-return-of-the-murals/; “Our Building,” Center for European Studies, https://ces.fas.harvard.edu/about-us/history/our-building; for Rubenstein’s family roots, see the 1920 United States Federal Census, enumeration districts 223, 323, available on Ancestry.co.uk, all accessed on November 6, 2016.

  2. See, for example, “Auf dem Podium sitzen keine Götter mehr,” Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, September 26, 2016; “‘Der Führerglaube hielt bis 1944’: Interview mit Historiker Hans-Ulrich Thamer,” Rheinische Post, October 16, 2010, http://www.rp-online.de/kultur/der-fuehrerglaube-hielt-bis-1944-aid-1.2002410, accessed on November 6, 2016.

  3. For the DNVP end of the story, see Ziblatt, Conservative Political Parties.

  4. Quoted in Hartmann, Mein Kampf, 208n172.

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