114. See Douglas L. Hewlett, Hitler et les Femmes: Le journal intime d’Eva Braun (Paris, 1948); Paul Tabori, ed., The Private Life of Adolf Hitler: The Intimate Notes and Diary of Eva Braun, (London, 1949). See also Alison Leslie Gold, The Devil’s Mistress: The Diary of Eva Braun, the Woman Who Lived and Died with Hitler—A Novel (Boston, 1997); Alan Bartlett, The Diary of Eva Braun (Bristol, 2000).
115. Eva Braun, diary, February 6, 1935, in Gun, Eva Braun, p. 83.
116. Goebbels, diary entries of January 31 and February 4, 1935, in Die Tagebücher von Joseph Goebbels, Teil I, vol. 3/I, pp. 177 and 179.
117. See Eva Braun, diary, February 15, 1935, in Gun, Eva Braun, pp. 84–85.
118. Paul Ludwig Troost (b. 1878) died on January 21, 1934, in Munich. Gerhardine “Gerdy” Troost (1904–2003), who joined the NSDAP in 1932, and Leonhard Gall were in charge of renovating Hitler’s apartment. Gerdy Troost was named a professor by Hitler on April 20, 1937, and in 1938 published a work with the title Das Bauen im Neuen Reich [Construction in the New Reich].
119. Eva Braun, diary, February 15, 1935, in Gun, Eva Braun, p. 84. These dates agree with Goebbels’s diary, where he records under February 10 and 18 that Hitler left Berlin for Munich (Die Tagebücher von Joseph Goebbels, Teil I, vol. 3/I, pp. 182f. and 186).
120. See Goebbels, diary entry, March 2, 1935 (“Hitler in Munich”), in Die Tagebücher von Joseph Goebbels, Teil I, vol. 3/I, p. 193.
121. Eva Braun, diary, March 4, 1935, in Gun, Eva Braun, pp. 85–86. See also Goebbels, diary entry, March 4, 1935 (“We are not going to the Munich city ball”), in Die Tagebücher von Joseph Goebbels, Teil I, vol. 3/I, pp. 193f.
122. Eva Braun, diary, March 4, 1935, in Gun, Eva Braun, pp. 85–86. See also Goebbels, diary entry, March 4, 1935 (“Midnight together in Berlin”), in Die Tagebücher von Joseph Goebbels, Teil I, vol. 3/I, pp. 193f. According to Goebbels, Hitler sat with him at the hotel before his departure.
123. Paul Schmidt, Statist auf diplomatischer Bühne 1923–1945 (Bonn, 1953), pp. 295f.
124. See Kershaw, Hitler 1889–1936, p. 550.
125. See Eva Braun, diary, March 16, 1935, in Gun, Eva Braun, p. 87. See also Goebbels, diary entry, March 16, 1935, in Die Tagebücher von Joseph Goebbels, Teil I, vol. 3/I, p. 200, which says Hitler “suddenly” returned to Berlin that morning.
126. See Eva Braun, diary, March 11, 1935, in Gun, Eva Braun, pp. 86–87. The Czech-German movie star Anny Ondra presumably stopped in Munich to promote her movie Knock-out, produced by Bavaria Film AG (with Ondra-Lamac-Film GmbH).
127. Max Schmeling, Erinnerungen (Frankfurt am Main, 1977), pp. 275ff.
128. Ibid., pp. 293f. In the same year, Bavaria Film AG in Munich produced the documentary film Schmeling gegen Hamas [Schmeling vs. Hamas]: see Dorothea Friedrich, Max Schmeling und Anny Ondra: Ein Doppelleben (Berlin, 2001). In the Nazi state, the “trained, healthy body fit for service” became the “epitome of the German, Aryan person”; see Ralf Schäfer, “Fit für den Führer,” in Vorwärts-Zeitblende 3 (April 2007).
129. William L. Shirer, Berlin Diary: The Journal of a Foreign Correspondent, 1934–1941 (Baltimore, 2002 [1st ed., New York, 1941]), p. 31; Eva Braun, diary, March 16, 1935, in Gun, Eva Braun, p. 87. See also Kershaw, Hitler 1889–1936, pp. 550f.
130. Earlier, the hotel was home to meetings of the “Germanenorden,” an anti-Semitic group founded in 1912. The hotel still stands at 17 Maximilianstrasse, under the name Kempinski Four Seasons. See “Projekt eines NS-Dokumentationszentrums in München,” http://www.stmuk.bayern.de/blz/gutachten.pdf.
131. Eva Braun, diary, April 1, 1935, in Gun, Eva Braun, p. 87. According to Goebbels, Hitler arrived in Munich only on that Sunday (diary entry, April 1, 1935, in Die Tagebücher von Joseph Goebbels, Teil I, vol. 3/I, pp. 210f.)
132. Albert Speer, quoted in Fest, Die unbeantwortbaren Fragen, pp. 84f.
133. Schmidt, Statist auf diplomatischer Bühne, p. 307.
134. See Thamer, Der Nationalsozialismus, pp. 286ff.
135. See Richard Walther Darré, Aufzeichnungen 1945–1948, vol. 3, Bl. 407f., ED 110, IfZ Munich. Darré’s statements cannot be verified and are clearly based on rumor. He even says that “Eva Braun’s star” began to rise only in 1935, after Laffert turned Hitler down (Bl. 408).
136. See Stephan Malinowski, Vom König zum Führer: Deutscher Adel und Nationalsozialismus (Berlin, 2003), pp. 554f. See also Heinz Höhne, Der Orden unter dem Totenkopf: Die Geschichte der SS (Bindlach, 1990 [1st ed., Munich, 1984]), p. 127; Joachimsthaler, Hitlers Liste, pp. 203ff.
137. See Sigrid v. Laffert, NSDAP-Questionnaire, Gau Berlin, May 9, 1938, BA PK [formerly Berlin Document Center], G0424, Bl. 2370/71. The place of residence is given there as 11 Margaretenstrasse in Berlin W. 9.
138. See Heinz Linge, Bis zum Untergang: Als Chef des Persönlichen Dienstes bei Hitler, ed. Werner Maser (Munich, 1982), p. 97; “Kundgebung 1. Mai 1934, Berlin, Tempelhofer Feld,” in Heinrich Hoffmann Photo Archive, hoff-9030, BSB Munich.
139. In 1940, Sigrid von Laffert married the diplomat Johannes Bernhard Graf von Welczek, who became the attaché of the German Embassy in Madrid in 1941.
140. See Dr. Dieter Leithäuser, “Der Stimmbandpolyp des A. H. Patient A., zwischen Tinnitus und Heiserkeit,” http://www.zieleit.de/artikel/spurensuche/0001.html (last update: 8/20/2000). Eicken received an honorarium of 260,000 reichsmarks for the procedure. Cf. “Hitler’s Throat,” Time, November 14, 1938, which quotes Eicken as saying: “The Chancellor had convinced that he had cancer.” See also Speer, Inside the Third Reich, p. 104; Kershaw, Hitler 1889–1936, pp. 549f.
141. Eva Braun, diary, May 28, 1935, in Gun, Eva Braun, p. 90.
142. See Goebbels, diary entry of May 29, 1935, in Die Tagebücher von Joseph Goebbels, Teil I, vol. 3/I, p. 239. Henriette von Schirach mentions only one suicide attempt by Eva Braun, in Der Preis der Herrlichkeit, p. 25.
6. THE MYTH OF THE “FÜHRER,” OR HERR HITLER IN PRIVATE
1. See Gun, Eva Braun, p. 102; Schroeder, Er war mein Chef, p. 164. See also Eva Braun, registration card, August 24, 1935, Az. 3012/3231.o/2009, State Archives, Munich.
2. Hitler’s sister Paula, however, admitted after the war that she met Eva Braun for the first time at the 1934 NSDAP convention (“Besprechung zwischen Herrn Albrecht und Frl. Paula Hitler,” Berchtesgaden, May 26, 1945, in MA 1298/10, microfilm, Various Documents DJ-13 [David Irving], IfZ Munich).
3. See Peter Reichel, Der schöne Schein des Dritten Reiches: Faszination und Gewalt des Faschismus, 3rd ed. (Munich and Vienna, 1996), pp. 116ff. See also Siegfried Zelnhefer, Die Reichsparteitag der NSDAP (Nürnberg, 1991); likewise Markus Urban, Die Konsensfabrik: Funktion und Wahrnehmung der NS-Reichsparteitag 1933–1941 (Göttingen, 2007), pp. 64ff.
4. “Gesetz über das Reichsbürgerrecht” and “Gesetz zum Schutz des deutschen Blutes und der deutschen Ehre,” in Reichsgesetzblatt 1935 I, pp. 1,146–1,147. See Kershaw, Hitler 1889–1936, pp. 566ff.
5. See Heinrich Hoffmann Photo Archive, hoff-11588, BSB Munich.
6. On the expansion of Hoffman’s business, see Rudolf Herz, Hoffmann & Hitler, pp. 52ff.: “On March 1, 1943, there were more than three hundred people employed in the main office and ten sub-offices.” Sales reached over 15 million reichsmarks in 1943.
7. See Hanfstaengl, Zwischen Weissem und Braunem Haus, pp. 359f. See also announcement for the “Begrüssungsansprache des Auslandspressechefs der NSDAP,” in Hanfstaengl Papers, Ana 405, box 27, file 1935, BSB. See also Sigmund, Die Frauen der Nazis, p. 254. Cf. Reichsparteitag 1935: Programm, Polizeiliche Anordnungen, Sonstiges, ed. Polizeidirekton Nürnberg-Fürth, State Archives, Nuremberg, pp. 1ff.
8. See Reichsparteitag 1935, p. 6.
9. However, Speer wrote to George L. Mosse on March 5, 1973: “The cathedral of light was displayed for the first time during the 1935 convention, at the rally of Party functionaries, after an earlier attempt on Bückeberg the previous year (at the harvest festival) failed due to insufficient resources. There were only m
ovie spotlights available.” Albert Speer to George L. Mosse, n.p., March 5, 1973 (carbon copy), including “Anmerkungen zu [Notes to] George L. Mosse,” p. 4, in Albert Speer Papers, N 1340/39, BA Koblenz. See also Kershaw, Hitler 1889–1936, p. 568.
10. Herbert Döhring’s statements appear in Der Berghof—Hitler privat, parts 1 and 2 (DVD), ZeitReisen Verlag (Bochum, 2009).
11. Schroeder, Er war mein Chef, pp. 164f. Cf. Zdral, Die Hitlers, pp. 112ff.
12. Schroeder, Er war mein Chef, p. 165. See also Hanfstaengl, Hitler: The Missing Years, pp. 273–274. Hanfstaengl there claims, in the context of Eva Braun’s appearance at the 1935 convention: “Magda Goebbels, who thought she was the one woman to whom Hitler ought to pay attention, was ill-advised enough to make some disparaging remark [about Eva], which aroused Hitler to a fury. Magda was forbidden to enter the Chancellery for months…. In the end she was received again, but there was always a rivalry between the two women…. Each of them [stayed] in the besieged Führer-bunker as long as the other: to the end.” Joachimsthaler says as well, referring to Julius Schaub, that Eva Braun sat with Magda Goebbels among others on the VIP platform (Hitlers Liste, p. 456). In Anja Klabunde’s biography, however, there is no indication that Magda Goebbels was even at the convention, since she was very pregnant at the time; she checked into a Berlin hospital clinic even before the end of the convention, on September 15, 1935 (Magda Goebbels, p. 229).
13. Angela Hammitzsch [née Raubal] to Rudolf Hess, Oberlössnitz-Dresden, May 22, 1936 (original), in Rudolf Hess Papers J 1211 (–) 1993/300, vol. 6, file 90, BA Bern.
14. For example, it has been claimed that Hitler threw his half-sister out of the house because she advocated for one of the victims after the “Röhm Putsch” of June 30, 1934. See Henrik Eberle and Matthias Uhl, eds., Das Buch Hitler: Geheimdossier des NKWD für Josef W. Stalin, zusammengestellt aufgrund der Verhörprotokolle des Persönlichen Adjutanten Hitlers, Otto Günsche, und des Kammerdieners Heinz Linge (Bergisch Gladbach, 2005 [1st ed., Moscow, 1948/1949]), pp. 101f., and Linge, Bis zum Untergang, p. 79.
15. See the “Führer’s” invitation to Marga Himmler for the NSDAP convention of September 10–16, 1935, in Nuremberg, in Himmler Papers, N1126/20, Fol. 1, BA Koblenz; Hotel Kaiserhof Guest List, in Himmler Papers, N1126/20, Fol. 1, BA Koblenz. Eva Braun’s name does not appear on the list, nor does Magda Goebbels’s. See also Joachimsthaler, Hitlers Liste, p. 456, which says that Angela Raubal met Eva Braun at the Hotel Kaiserhof.
16. See “Adjutantur des Führers, 20. Juni 1936,” H 124 00 363 (54), in Akten der Partei-Kanzlei der NSDAP.
17. See “Eva Braun im Kreise der Mitarbeiter und Freunde Heinrich Hoffmanns auf einer Fotografie anlässlich seines Geburtstages am 12. September 1935,” in Heinrich Hoffmann Photo Archive, hoff-11583/hoff-11588, BSB Munich.
18. Ilse Hess to Helene Hess, Hohenlychen, August 28, 1935 (carbon copy), in Rudolf Hess Papers, J 1211 (–) 1993/300, vol. 17, file 226 (H–Z), Swiss Federal Archives, Bern.
19. Hanfstaengl, Zwischen Weissem und Braunem Haus, p. 359.
20. Lambert, The Lost Life of Eva Braun.
21. Hanfstaengl, Zwischen Weissem und Braunem Haus, pp. 243 and 359.
22. See Plöckinger, Geschichte eines Buches, pp. 30 and 36; Ernst Hanfstaengl, Hitler: The Missing Years (London, 1957), p. 127. See also Conradi, Hitler’s Piano Player, pp. 77ff.
23. Ernst Hanfstaengl to State Secretary Lammers, London, December 9 [and 24], 1937, in R 43 II/889b, Bl. 20 and 22, National Archive [Bundesarchiv, or BA], Berlin (hereafter cited as BA Berlin); Ernst Hanfstaengl to Julius Streicher, London, December 19, 1937, in R 43 II/889b, Bl. 25–31, BA Berlin. See also Conradi, Hitler’s Piano Player, pp. 241ff.
24. See Conradi, Hitler’s Piano Player, pp. 341ff. See also Office of Strategic Services, “Adolf Hitler,” December 3, 1942, p. 4, in CIA Special Collections, National Archives of the United States, Washington, DC; and Michael S. Bell, “The Worldview of Franklin D. Roosevelt: France, Germany, and the United States Involvement in World War II in Europe” (dissertation, University of Maryland, College Park, 2004), pp. 333 and 393.
25. See here Leonidas E. Hill, “The Published Political Memoirs of Leading Nazis, 1933–1945,” in Political Memoir: Essays on the Politics of Memory, ed. George Egerton (London, 1994), pp. 225ff.
26. See Gun, Eva Braun, p. 103; Fritz [Friedrich] Braun, statement of December 1, 1947, Öffentliche Sitzung der Spruchkammer München, in Denazification Court Records, box 188, State Archives, Munich.
27. See Gun, Eva Braun, p. 103.
28. Henrietta von Schirach, Frauen um Hitler, pp. 227f. The date of the incident cannot be determined from Schirach’s account.
29. See Gun, Eva Braun, pp. 101–104.
30. See Richard J. Evans, David Irving, Hitler, and Holocaust Denial: Pressures on Hitler’s Entourage After the War, electronic edition http://www.holocaustdenialontrial.org/trial/defense/evans/530bB.
31. See Gun, Eva Braun, p. 104.
32. “Hitlers Schwiegereltern vor Gericht: Vater Braun war gegen das ‘schlampige Verhältnis,’ ” Die Welt, August 2, 1947, p. 3.
33. “Der öffentliche Kläger bei der Spruchkammer, Munich, 9. Juli 1947, Klageschrift gegen Franziska Katharina Braun,” in Denazification Court Records, box 188, State Archives, Munich.
34. “Hitlers Schwiegereltern vor Gericht”
35. Fritz Braun, statement of December 1, 1947. A Czech newspaper had published a picture of Eva Braun, describing her as “Hitler’s Madame Pompadour.” See Joachimsthaler, Hitlers Liste, p. 426.
36. “Hitlers Schwiegereltern vor Gericht.”
37. Fritz Braun, statement of December 1, 1947.
38. See Gun, Eva Braun, p. 105; Joachimsthaler, Hitlers Liste, pp. 424f. See also Sigmund, Die Frauen der Nazis, pp. 252f.
39. See the photograph of Königsplatz, Munich, September 5, 1935, in Heinrich Hoffmann Photo Archive, hoff-11463, BSB Munich.
40. See Speer, Inside the Third Reich, pp. 88.; Kershaw, Hitler 1889–1936, p. 574.
41. See Sigmund, Die Frauen der Nazis, p. 252.
42. Adolf Hitler, “Mein privates Testament, 29. April 1945,” in Werner Maser, Hitlers Briefe und Notizen: Sein Weltbild in handschriftlichen Dokumenten (Düsseldorf, 1988), pp. 213ff. See also Gun, Eva Braun, pp. 266, where the will is mentioned, but not the passage referring to Franziska Braun.
43. Fritz Braun, statement of December 1, 1947. See also Eberle and Uhl, Das Buch Hitler, p. 352.
44. See Zdral, Die Hitlers, p. 207. See also Jürgen Hillesheim, Hitlers Schwester Paula Wolf und das “Dritte Reich” (Berlin, 1992).
45. Thus she wrote to Ilse Hess that Gauleiter Bürckel must “not disregard the laws and regulations still in effect. I know that Bürckel is in a difficult position, but his relations with his Austrians will not improve if incidents like this continue to arise.” Angela Hammitzsch to Ilse Hess, Dresden, January 22, 1940 (original), in Rudolf Hess Papers, J 1211 (–) 1993/300, vol. 6, file 90, BA Bern.
46. See Winfried Müller, Schulpolitik in Bayern im Spannungsfeld von Kultusbürokratie und Besatzungsmacht 1945–1949 (Munich, 1995), p. 74.
47. See PG—Zum Mitgliedschaftswesen der NSDAP (no year), BA Koblenz; Christoph Wagner, Entwicklung, Herrschaft und Untergang der nationalsozialistischen Bewegung in Passau 1920–1945 (Berlin, 2007), pp. 151f.
48. See Müller, Schulpolitik in Bayern, pp. 74f. In 1937, Wagner ordered that every teacher must participate “in every cooperative effort and every community organization in the Party or the State.” Fritz Braun himself later said that he faced increasing difficulties at his technical school (Fritz Braun, written declaration of July 21, 1947, in Denazification Court Records, box 188, State Archives, Munich). See Gun, Eva Braun, p. 149, according to which Fritz Braun had “obstinately refused” until then to join the party.
49. See Gun, Eva Braun, p. 159.
50. Kershaw, Hitler 1936–1945, p. 273.; Peter Steinbach and Johannes Tuchel, “Georg Elser,” http://www.ge
org-elser.de/Steinbach_Tuchel_Elser_Politische_Koepfe.pdf. A novel by Wolfgang Brenner, Führerlos [Führerless] (Berlin, 2008), addresses the question of what Hitler’s death at this point in time might have meant for the Nazi state and for the fate of Eva Braun.
7. THE MISTRESS AND THE INNER CIRCLE
1. Speer, Inside the Third Reich, pp. 91, 94. See also Joachim Fest, Speer: Eine Biographie (Berlin, 1999), p. 14; Susanne Willems, Der entsiedelte Jude: Albert Speers Wohnungsmarktpolitik für den Berliner Hauptstadtbau (Berlin, 2002), pp. 20ff.
2. Margret Nissen, Sind Sie die Tochter Speer?, p. 25.
3. Ibid.
4. Ibid., pp. 23f.
5. See ibid., p. 26.
6. Margarete Speer, quoted in Sereny, Speer, p. 193.
7. Margarete Speer, quoted in Fest, Die unbeantwortbaren Fragen, pp. 142 and 171.
8. See Speer, Inside the Third Reich, pp. 88 and 100. See also Speer, Spandau: The Secret Diaries, p. 132.
9. Speer, Inside the Third Reich, p. 88.
10. Speer, Albert Speer: Die Kransberg-Protokolle 1945, p. 119.
11. Speer, Inside the Third Reich, p. 93. See also Speer, quoted in Sereny, Albert Speer, p. 109: “I liked her right away and later we became good friends; she could use a friend.”
12. Fest, Speer, pp. 14f. and 462f.
13. Margarete Speer, quoted in Sereny, Albert Speer, p. 193.
14. See Sereny, Albert Speer, p. 405. Unlike Magda Goebbels, Margarete Speer—like Eva Braun—was not a member of the NSDAP.
15. See Sereny, Albert Speer, p. 235. See also Speer, Inside the Third Reich, pp. 146 and 257.
16. See Ulf Schmidt, Karl Brandt: The Nazi Doctor; Medicine and Power in the Third Reich (London, 2007), p. 88.
17. Albert Speer explained that Hitler, although he never participated in sports, “thought it was very important that youth be thoroughly trained athletically.” This corresponded to the ideal he drew from his understanding of ancient Greek culture. See Speer, Albert Speer: Die Kransberg-Protokolle 1945, p. 118. See also Schroeder, Er war mein Chef, pp. 173f. and 265.
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