Such buildings as have survived can still be glimpsed occasionally, in Berlin, Düsseldorf and Munich, for instance. Their massive yet elegantly simple facades evoke the trust in eternity with which they were conceived.
His buildings were by no means always monumental, but included housing projects for workers. Newly wed couples with children received generous loans with 10-year repayment conditions, so that they could buy their own house with garden or a large flat. At the birth of a child a quarter of the loan was forgiven. If they had four children, repayment was entirely cancelled. In keeping with his concerns for the average worker, Hitler instituted, already in late 1933, the Kraft durch Freude organisation, a subsidiary of the Deutsche Arbeiter Front (National Socialist trades union), which guaranteed workers holidays and relaxation. These holidays included cruises (four ships) and purpose built, beach-front apartments.
I want the worker to be assured of a sufficient vacation and that everything should go towards ensuring that this vacation as well as the rest of his free time be a real recovery. I wish this because I want a people with strong nerves, as one can only achieve great policies with a people which keep their nerves. (Hitler quoted by Robert Ley, “Durchbruch der sozialen Ehre,” S. 208, Frommann 1992, S. 108)
His views on art were pronounced and definitive and rather middle-class. Art that did not express a positive sense of beauty, in human form or landscape, which could be described as abstract or even “decadent,” was considered a result of foreign influence and outlawed. It probably offended his sense of the vigorous spirit with which he sought to inspire Germany. Some of the artists he championed, like Arno Breker, were destined to be acclaimed beyond Germany’s borders. Through his participation in the building and the collection of the Haus der Kunst, in Munich, he also personally supported the careers of many young artists.
A glimpse into his private life shows how all too human he was:
It was evening – we were still discussing the buildings in Weimar. At the same time, I noticed his anxiety. He had asked several times for the time: Has Miss Braun called? …he called a secretary: Why didn’t Miss Braun drive back with you? - She still had errands to do… I’m worried, she should have been here long ago, I hope nothing has happened! At last Fräulein Braun arrived with her friend. They had driven slowly and had stopped for a cup of coffee on the way. I was worried all the time, couldn’t you have called? Adolf Hitler introduced me…I gained new insights and impressions, I got to know a Miss Braun, but likewise an Adolf Hitler who was very concerned about her. (Hermann Giesler “Ein anderer Hitler,” S. 132)
His musical preferences were for the great composers, but also for opera and operettas. Wagner, Bruckner or Werner Egk shared time with Fritz Lehar (“The Merry Wives of Windsor”).
His tastes in decoration were traditional: the “Berghof” was evidence of his liking for costly carpets and tapestries. Although he had no personal bank account, his income from the sale of “Mein Kampf” and from stamps which carried his likeness allowed him to collect paintings and sculpture.
Hitler’s home, like that of any celebrity, enjoyed the attentions of the media:
There is nothing pretentious about his little estate. It is one that any merchant might possess in these lovely hills. All visitors are shown their host’s model kennels, where he keeps magnificent Alsatians. Some of his pedigree pets are allowed the run of the house, especially on days when he gives a “Fun Fair” for the local children. He delights in the society of brilliant foreigners, especially painters, singers and musicians. As host he is a droll raconteur. Every morning at nine he goes out for a talk with his gardeners about their day’s work. These men, like the chauffeur and air-pilot, are not so much servants as loyal friends. A life-long vegetarian at table, his kitchen plots are both varied and heavy with produce. Even in his meatless diet, he is something of a gourmet. He is his own decorator, designer and furnisher, as well as architect. (Homes & Gardens magazine, November 1938)
All in all, while his vision, his willpower and his extraordinary achievements marked him as sui generis, he remained a rather ordinary Austrian in at least one of his daily habits: the “Gemütlichkeit” of afternoon tea. Hence, the photographs of him at tea with Eva Braun, Unity Mitford and others. Tea cakes were indispensable. Anyone who has ever enjoyed Austrian or Bavarian cake can understand this.
Memo from today: October 22, 2014, talking of tea, shock-horror in tiny Switzerland when the country’s largest supermarket chain confessed to selling—unbeknownst to them—likenesses of Hitler and Mussolini on the covers of small containers of cream for coffee. The supermarket’s spokesman described this as an “unacceptable” and “unforgivable mistake.” Presumably, some incurable little goody-goody had taken offence. The excitement is just denunciation for the sake of denunciation. The manufacturers had merely intended these to join other historical figures, for people who collect such things. Hitler and Mussolini were undeniably historical figures, they were also dictators, like many others, previous and contemporary, so what distinguishes them from others of their like? Well, you see, there is this story about the Jews... Meanwhile Jews and their multiple organizations are shaking with laughter as the gentiles tie themselves in knots yet again, just to avoid being called “anti-Semitic.”
A very few insightful and trustworthy analyses of Hitler’s life exist; it would be superfluous and presumptuous of me to add to them, but why should this man, powerful as he was for a brief period, still matter at all? There have been dictators before and after him. He is important because he most manifestly recognized the greatest threat to mankind, and tried to corral it, with a view to expelling it, after Germany had won the war. He spoke of “abschieben” (deportation) or “hinauswerfen” “throwing out”/expulsion (Henry Picker, “Hitler’s Tischgespräche,” p. 644).
We are resolved to stop the settlement of an alien people which has known how to seize all the leading positions for itself and to deport it. (Hitler’s speech, 30th January, 1939.) Contrary to all fabrications, that was, in fact, his intention. That was “the final solution.”
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In Gottfried Feder’s words, under Point 1. b) Racial policy: The expulsion of Jews and all non-Germans from all responsible positions of public life. The prohibition of immigration of Eastern Jews and of other parasitical foreigners. Undesirable foreigners and Jews may be deported. (The national and economic programme of the NSDAP, Gottfried Feder, The German State on a National and Social Foundation, p. 42)
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I hope to see the term “Jews” completely extinguished through the possibility of a mass emigration of all Jews to Africa or into another colony. (Himmler, memorandum to Hitler, May 28,1940, Institut für Zeitgeschichte, Vierteljahreshefte für Zeitgeschichte, Jahrgang 5 (1957), Heft 2)
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The German nation, moreover, was rapidly falling under the control of its alien elements. In the last days of the pre-Hitler regime there were twenty times as many Jewish government officials in Germany as had existed before the war. Israelites of international attachments were insinuating themselves into key positions in the German administrative machine. (The Daily Mail, July, 10th, 1933)
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In the all-important administration of Prussia, any number of strategic positions came into the hands of Hebrews. A telephone conversation between three Jews in Ministerial offices could result in the suspension of any periodical or newspaper in the state. The Jews came in Germany to play in politics and administration that same considerable part that they had previously won by open competition in business, trade, banking, the Press, the arts, the sciences and the intellectual and cultural life of the country. And thereby the impression was strengthened that Germany, a country with a mission of its own, had fallen into the hands of foreigners. (Edgar Mowrer, Berlin correspondent for the Chicago Daily News, “Germany Puts the Clock Back,” published as a Penguin Special and reprinted five times between December 1937 and April 1938)
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During the Weimar years many outstanding performers in concerts and theatre as well as scientists were Jewish, but they never dominated and were more than balanced by Germans of equal or superior stature. In literature, however, in the arts as well as in the left-leaning part of the press their influence became all encompassing and pernicious. With it, the deterioration of civility, speech and social behaviour became endemic. Nothing, of course, compared with what we are witnessing today, but one must remember that seventy years ago the standards of propriety were vastly different when compared with the present. The constant assault on the sensibilities and moral values which were held dear by the majority of patriotic Germans created a backlash within the parties from the centre to the radical right. “Anti-Semitism” was again on the rise. (Heinz Weichardt, Under Two Flags, memories of National Socialist Germany, by a half-Jewish German, 1995)
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In the Berlin (of pre-Hitler years) most of the theatres were Jewish-owned or Jewish-leased, most of the leading film and stage actors were Jews, the plays performed were often by German, Austrian or Hungarian Jews and were staged by Jewish film producers, applauded by Jewish dramatic critics in Jewish newspapers. The Jews are not cleverer than the Gentiles, if by clever you mean good at their jobs. They ruthlessly exploit the common feeling of Jews, first to get a foothold in a particular trade or calling, then to squeeze the non-Jews out of it. It is not true that Jews are better journalists than Gentiles. They held all the posts on those Berlin papers because the proprietors and editors were Jewish. (Douglas Reed, Disgrace Abounding, 1939, pp238-9).
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Marx himself is a Jew and is surrounded by a crowd of little, more or less intelligent, scheming, agile, speculating Jews, just as Jews are everywhere — commercial and banking agents, writers, politicians, correspondents for newspapers of all shades; in short, literary brokers, just as they are financial brokers, with one foot in the bank and the other in the socialist movement, and their arses sitting upon the German press. They have grabbed hold of all newspapers, and you can imagine what a nauseating literature results. These Jewish writers are particularly remarkable in their creation of cowardly, hateful and perfidious insinuation.
Well, this whole Jewish world, comprising a single exploiting sect, a kind of blood sucking people, a kind of organic destructive collective parasite, going beyond not only the frontiers of states, but of political opinion, this world is now, at least for the most part, at the disposal of Marx on the one hand, and of Rothschild on the other... This may seem strange. What can there be in common between socialism and a leading bank? The point is that authoritarian socialism, Marxist communism, demands a strong centralisation of the state. And where there is centralisation of the state, there must necessarily be a central bank, and where such a bank exists, the parasitic Jewish nation, speculating on the Labour of the people, will always find a way to exist. (Mikhail Bakunin, Staatlichkeit und Anarchie/”Statism and Anarchy,” Ullstein, 1972)
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In reality, this would be for the proletariat a barrack-regime, under which the workingmen and the workingwomen, converted into a uniform mass, would rise, fall asleep, work, and live at the beat of the drum. The privilege of ruling would be in the hands of the skilled and the learned, with a wide scope left for profitable crooked deals carried on by the Jews, who would be attracted by the enormous extension of the international speculations of the national banks. (Mikhail Bakunin, Historia judaica, Volumes 12–14, Verlag von Julius Kittls Nachfolger, p. 101 ; Wheen, Francis (1999), Karl Marx, Fourth Estate, p. 340)
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Ullstein’s was a kind of super-trust; the largest organization of its kind in Europe, and probably in the world. They published four daily papers in Berlin alone, among these the venerable Vossische Zeitung, founded in the eighteenth century, and the B.Z. am Mittag, an evening paper. Apart from these, Ullstein’s published more than a dozen weekly and monthly periodicals, ran their own news service, their own travel agency, etc., and were one of the leading book publishers. The firm was owned by the brothers Ullstein - they were five, like the original Rothschild brothers, and like them also, they were Jews. (Arthur Koestler, The God that Failed, 1950, p 31).
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If the question is still asked why National Socialism combats the Jewish element in Germany so fanatically, the answer can only be, because National Socialism wishes to establish a real community of the people. Since we are National Socialists, we can never suffer an alien race which has nothing to do with us to claim the leadership of our working people. (Adolf Hitler, quoted in N. H. Baynes, The Speeches of Adolf Hitler, Oxford University Press, 1942, Volume I, pp.735)
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Today, sixty years later and observing the precipitous decline of a typical multiracial and multicultural society, I am forced to conclude that it was exactly the racial and cultural unity of the Third Reich which enabled its people to survive the monstrous assault of their enemies and to arise again from the ashes of their nation. The present effort to destroy by all means this unity through the planned influx of millions of the unwashed garbage of the Third World and systematic destruction of all traditions in the mind of the present generation shows that Germany’s eternal enemies fully agree with me on this point. That this destruction proceeds under the direction of a Jewish dictator (Ignaz Bubis, head of the thirty to forty thousand strong Jewish community among eighty million Germans), who rules Germany solely through the strength of American bayonets, bodes ill for the future of that nation, if he should succeed in his nefarious plans. It is high time that Americans realize that they have been reduced to the unbecoming status of executioners for the all-powerful state of Israel. (Heinz Weichardt, Under Two Flags)
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We do not want reactionaryism, but recovery...we do not wish to persecute the Jews, but we demand German leadership, without Jewish influence, which is foreign to us, without Jewish activity behind the scenes, without Jewish capital interests. We do not seek a new war, for we know that Europe and the world can only recover when the leading old cultures heal themselves internally. But we are not afraid of war if mobilisation of German power should prove to be the ultimate means of restoring German freedom. (Gregor Strasser, NSDAP member of parliament, speech June 14, 1932)
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We are socialists; we are enemies, deadly enemies of the current capitalistic system with its exploitation of the economically weak, its unjust salaries, its immoral assessment of people according to their affluence and their money, instead of their responsibility and merits, and we are determined, come what may, to abolish it. (G. Strasser)
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We recognize private property. We recognize private initiative. We recognize our debts and our duty to pay them. We are against the nationalisation of industry. We are against the nationalisation of trade. We are against the Soviet command economy. (G. Strasser)
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We National Socialists do not want any agitation against religious denominations and no persecution of Christian Churches. However we demand the honest cooperation of the churches in the renewal of German culture...we do not want any party politics from priests. (G. Strasser)
Dr. Manfred Reifer, the well-known leader of the Jews in Bukowina, published an article in September, 1933 (Czernowitzer Allgemeine Zeitung) in which he wrote:
Whilst large sections of the German nation were struggling for the preservation of their faith, we Jews filled the streets of Germany with our vociferations. We supplied its Press with articles on the subject of its Christmas and Easter festivities and administered to its religious beliefs in the manner we considered suitable. We ridiculed the highest ideals of the German nation and profaned the matters which it holds sacred.
The organized Jewish exodus from Germany began already in 1933. Through the “Haavara” Agreement (August 25, 1933), National Socialists and Zionists collaborated in facilitating emigration to Palestine. Much later came the hardly known “Rublee-Wohlthat” Agreement of February 1939, in support of general e
migration of Jews from Germany, under the aegis of the Reichszentrale für jüdische Auswanderung, created by Göring on 11 February, 1939 (in response to Heydrich’s suggestion after the events of November 9, 1938), to accelerate Jewish expatriation.
Rublee was an American lawyer and the director of an international committee created to organize and fund Jewish emigration at the Evian Conference (July 1938). Rhodesia and British Guiana were among the destinations proposed. Rublee negotiated this agreement with Hjalmar Schacht of the Reichsbank and Hermann Göring’s secretary of state, Helmut Wohlthat. The coming of war limited its effects and led to the transport of Jews to the occupied eastern territories, where they were placed in camps to work for the armament industry.
The spring of 1939 saw Hitler’s last effort to solve the problems of the German Jews in a civilized manner. He sent Hjalmar Schacht, the president of the Reichsbank and architect of of the German recovery, to England for the purpose of negotiating a large loan which would enable Germany to let the remaining 250,000 Jews emigrate with their belongings and the necessary financial means to assure the required immigration visas. The governor of the Bank of England, Montagu Norman, along with many members of parliament, were agreeable to this scheme but it was immediately torpedoed by Chaim Weitzmann and the warmongers around Churchill, who had become a faithful servant of the Jewish banking hierarchy after they had saved him from bankruptcy from the loss of his fortunes in the crash of 1929. In earlier times he had been an outspoken anti-Jew. (Heinz Weichardt, Under Two Flags)
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