Hitler

by Volker Ullrich

  172 Speer, Erinnerungen, p. 175; see idem, Spandauer Tagebücher, p. 247 (entry for 2 Nov. 1950).

  173 Sereny, Albert Speer, p. 186.

  174 Hitler, Monologe, p. 101 (dated 21/22 Oct. 1941), p. 318 (dated 11/12 March 1942). On the renaming of Berlin as “Germania,” see Hitlers Tischgespräche im Führerhauptquartier, ed. Henry Picker, Stuttgart, 1976, p. 366 (dated 8 June 1942).

  175 Goebbels, Tagebücher, part 1, vol. 5, p. 345 (entry for 15 June 1938). On the above see the German News Agency, 27 Jan. 1938. The programme for the redesign of Berlin is reprinted in Dülffer et al., Hitlers Städte, pp. 134–41; see also the articles in Deutsche Bauzeitung, 2 Feb. 1938, in the weekly newspapers Koralle, 22 May 1938, and Berliner Illustrierte, 15 Dec. 1938, quoted in Friedrich, Die missbrauchte Hauptstadt, pp. 486–9.

  176 Speer, Spandauer Tagebücher, p. 31 (entry for 1 Nov. 1946). See Schlie (ed.), Albert Speer, p. 57: “He always said his fondest wish was to see his construction projects completed.” Hitler intended to celebrate completion in 1950 with a World Fair to be held at “a gigantic site along the River Havel.” Goebbels, Tagebücher, part 1, vol. 4, p. 347 (entry for 7 Oct. 1937).

  177 Goebbels, Tagebücher, part 1, vol. 5, p. 333 (entry for 4 June 1938).

  178 Minutes of a meeting with the General Building Inspector on 14 Sept. 1938; reprinted in Breloer, Die Akte Speer, pp. 92–5 (quotations on pp. 93, 94). See Susanne Willems, Der entsiedelte Jude: Albert Speers Wohnu​ngsma​rktpo​litik für den Berliner Hauptstadtbau, Berlin, 2000, pp. 71ff.

  179 Willems, Der entsiedelte Jude, pp. 86f.

  180 Facsimile of the decree of 15 June 1940 in Breloer, Die Akte Speer, p. 100. See Speer, Erinnerungen, pp. 188, 192.

  181 See Schmidt, Albert Speer, pp. 199–206; Willems, Der entsiedelte Jude, pp. 158ff.; Breloer, Die Akte Speer, pp. 199–206.

  182 Willi Schelkes, notes on a “visit from the Führer” dated 15 March 1941; reprinted in Breloer, Die Akte Speer, pp. 121–4 (quotations on pp. 122, 123, 124).

  183 Speer, Erinnerungen, p. 116.

  184 See Angela Schönberger, Die Neue Reichskanzlei: Zum Zusammenhang von natio​nalso​ziali​stischer Ideologie und Architektur, Berlin, 1981, pp. 37–44; Dietmar Arnold, Neue Reichskanzlei und “Führerbunker”: Legende und Wirklichkeit, Berlin, 2005, pp. 62–7. On the demolition of the Gau headquarters see Goebbels, Tagebücher, part 1, vol. 5, pp. 41f. (entry for 8 Dec. 1937).

  185 Hitler’s speech at the topping-out ceremony of the New Chancellery, 2 Aug. 1938; Schönberger, Die Neue Reichskanzlei, pp. 177–82 (quotation on pp. 179f.).

  186 Hitler’s speech at the official opening of the New Chancellery, 9 Jan. 1939; ibid., pp. 183–6 (quotation on p. 186). On the opening celebrations see the German News Agency report of 9 Jan. 1939; BA Berlin-Lichterfelde, R 43 II/1054.

  187 Speer, Erinnerungen, p. 117. On the rooms in the New Chancellery see the brochure, “Der Erweiterungsbau der Reichskanzlei: Einweihung am 9. Januar 1939,” as well as Otto Meissner’s instructions of 22 Feb. 1939 with reference to the description of the Führer’s official rooms in the rebuilt Chancellery; BA Berlin-Lichterfelde, R 43 II/1054. See also Fest, Speer, pp. 144–6; Wilderotter, Alltag der Macht, pp. 310–12; Schönberger, Die Neue Reichskanzlei, pp. 87–114; Arnold, Neue Reichskanzlei, pp. 93–100. On the Breker sculptures see Trimborn, Arno Breker, pp. 222f.

  188 Speer, Erinnerungen, p. 128.

  18 The Berghof Society and the Führer’s Mistress

  1 Die Tagebücher von Joseph Goebbels. Part 1: Aufzeichnungen 1923–1941, ed. Elke Fröhlich, Munich, 1998, vol. 3/2, p. 132 (entry for 17 July 1936). See ibid., p. 123 (entry for 4 July 1936): “The Führer is happy because the Berghof is finished. I will be with him as of 15 July with my family.”

  2 Albert Speer, Erinnerungen: Mit einem Essay von Jochen Thies, Frankfurt am Main and Berlin, 1993, p. 59. On the purchase of Haus Wachenfeld see the title deeds of the Munich Notary’s Office VI dated 26 June 1933 and Max Amann’s letter to Julius Schaub, 28 May 1934; BA Berlin-Lichterfelde, NS 10/117. See also Anton Joachimsthaler, Hitlers Liste: Ein Dokument persönlicher Beziehungen, Munich, 2003, p. 294; Ulrich Chaussy, Nachbar Hitler: Führerkult und Heimatzerstörung am Obersalzberg, 6th revised and extended edition, Berlin, 2007, p. 44.

  3 See Speer, Erinnerungen, p. 99; Chaussy, Nachbar Hitler, pp. 110f., 137; Joachimsthaler, Hitlers Liste, p. 304. See the architect Alois Degano’s final bill of 17 July 1936; BA Berlin-Lichterfelde, NS 10/117.

  4 For full details see Chaussy, Nachbar Hitler, pp. 94–107, 121–30; Otto Dietrich, 12 Jahre mit Hitler, Munich, 1955, pp. 211–14; Speer, Erinnerungen, p. 98; Jochen von Lang, Der Sekretär: Martin Bormann. Der Mann, der Hitler beherrschte, 3rd revised edition, Munich and Berlin, 1987, pp. 102, 105f.; Volker Koop, Martin Bormann: Hitlers Vollstrecker, Vienna, Cologne and Weimar, 2012, pp. 27, 31, 33.

  5 Handwritten memoirs of Therese Linke, cook on the Obersalzberg from 1933 to 1939 (undated, post-1945); IfZ München, ZS 3135. See Dietrich, 12 Jahre mit Hitler, pp. 212f.; Christa Schroeder, Er war mein Chef: Aus dem Nachlass der Sekretärin von Adolf Hitler, ed. Anton Joachimsthaler, 3rd edition, Munich and Vienna, 1985, p. 175; Speer, Erinnerungen, pp. 60f., 98; Karl Wilhelm Krause, 10 Jahre Kammerdiener bei Hitler, Hamburg, 1949, p. 40; Heike B. Görtemaker, Eva Braun: Leben mit Hitler, Munich, 2010, pp. 147.

  6 Dietrich, 12 Jahre mit Hitler, p. 212.

  7 Ibid., p. 211. Hitler’s servant Heinz Linge quoted the Führer saying of Bormann: “This mole has moved mountains overnight.” Heinz Linge, Bis zum Untergang: Als Chef des Persönlichen Dienstes bei Hitler, ed. Werner Maser, Munich, 1982, p. 44.

  8 Goebbels, Tagebücher, part 1, vol. 3/2, pp. 222 (entry for 22 Oct. 1936), 316 (entry for 5 Jan. 1937). On Bormann’s rise see Robert Ley, “Gedanken um den Führer” (1945); BA Koblenz, N 1468/4; transcript of an interview with Nicolaus von Below dated 7 Jan. 1952; IfZ München, ZS 7.

  9 See Horst Möller, Volker Dahm and Hartmut Mehringer (eds), Die tödliche Utopie: Bilder, Texte, Dokumente. Daten zum Dritten Reich, 3rdrd edition, Munich, 2001, pp. 42, 68; Chaussy, Nachbar Hitler, pp. 83f.; Gitta Sereny, Albert Speer: His Battle with the Truth, new edition, London, 1996, pp. 117f.; Margarete Nissen, Sind Sie die Tochter Speer?, Munich, 2005, p. 16.

  10 See Speer, Erinnerungen, pp. 99f., 101f., 103f.; Dietrich, 12 Jahre mit Hitler, p. 223; Schroeder, Er war mein Chef, pp. 176f.; Albert Speer, “Alles was ich weiss”: Aus unbekannten Gehei​mdien​stpro​tokollen vom Sommer 1945, ed. Ulrich Schlie, Munich, 1999, pp. 237f.; Joachim Fest, Hitler: Eine Biographie, Frankfurt am Main, Berlin and Vienna, 1973, pp. 713f., 722. For Gerdy Troost’s biography and her role in the Third Reich see Timo Nüsslein, Paul Ludwig Troost 1878–1934, Vienna, Cologne and Weimar, 2012, pp. 175–83.

  11 Traudl Junge, Bis zur letzten Stunde: Hitlers Sekretärin erzählt ihr Leben, Munich, 2002, p. 91. On Hitler’s paintings in the Great Hall see Birgit Schwarz, Geniewahn: Hitler und die Kunst, Vienna, Cologne and Weimar, 2009, pp. 159–73.

  12 See Schroeder, Er war mein Chef, p. 177; Junge, Bis zur letzten Stunde, pp. 67, 69f.; Das Hitler-Bild: Die Erinnerungen des Fotografen Heinrich Hoffmann, ed. Joe J. Heydecker, St. Pölten and Salzburg, 2008, p. 176; Joachimsthaler, Hitlers Liste, pp. 501, 503.

  13 See Schroeder, Er war mein Chef, pp. 178f.; Junge, Bis zur letzten Stunde, pp. 67f.; Heinrich Hoffmann, Hitler wie ich ihn sah: Aufzeichnungen seines Leibfotographen, Munich and Berlin, 1974, p. 159; Speer, Erinnerungen, p. 102.

  14 Rochus Misch, Der letzte Zeuge: “Ich war Hitlers Telefonist, Kurier und Leibwächter,” Zurich and Munich, 2008, p. 96. See also Anna Plaim and Kurt Kuch, Bei Hitlers: Zimmermädchen Annas Erinnerungen, Munich, 2005, pp. 38f.; Joachimsthaler, Hitlers Liste, p. 458.

  15 See Nerin E. Gun, Eva Braun-Hitler: Leben und Schicksal, Velbert und Kettwig, 1968, p. 82.

  16 Quoted in Görtemaker, Eva Braun, p. 92.

  17 Hans Baur, Ich flog Mächtige der Erde, Kempten im Allgäu, 1956, p. 113.

  18 Speer, Erinnerungen, p. 59.
r />   19 Ibid.; contrary to this see Gun, Eva Braun-Hitler, p. 85; Schroeder, Er war mein Chef, p. 172; Joachimsthaler, Hitlers Liste, pp. 300, 442.

  20 See the receipts in BA Berlin-Lichterfelde, NS 26/2557 (for 1932), NS 26/115 und NS 26/120 (for 1933/34).

  21 As in Gun, Eva Braun-Hitler, pp. 91f.; see Schroeder, Er war mein Chef, p. 164; Joachimsthaler, Hitlers Liste, pp. 300, 442.

  22 See, with the party rally in 1935 incorrectly dated, Schroeder, Er war mein Chef, p. 165; Ernst Hanfstaengl, Zwischen Weissem und Braunem Haus: Erinnerungen eines politischen Aussenseiters, Munich, 1970, p. 165; Joachimsthaler, Hitlers Liste, pp. 301f., 456f.; Görtemaker, Eva Braun, pp. 144f.; Guido Knopp, Geheimnisse des “Dritten Reiches,” Munich, 2011, p. 313. Gun (Eva Braun-Hitler, p. 94) does not discuss why Angela Raubal was removed from the Berghof. She also cites the wrong year, 1936.

  23 Goebbels, Tagebücher, part 1, vol. 3/1, p. 122 (entry for 19 Oct. 1934). On 28 Aug. 1934, Joseph and Magda Goebbels, together with their daughter Helga, visited the Obersalzberg and met Frau Raubal, who was “very nice” to them. Ibid., p. 99 (29 Aug. 1934). In mid-October 1934, Goebbels wondered why Hitler was no longer inviting him and his wife to dinner: “We have the feeling that someone has turned him against us. That has hurt us both.” Ibid., p. 119 (entry for 15 Oct. 1934).

  24 Ibid., pp. 216f. (entry for 13 April 1935).

  25 Ibid., p. 329 (entry for 15 Nov. 1935).

  26 Angela Hammitzsch to Rudolf Hess, 22 May 1936; BA Bern, Nl Hess, J1.211-1993/300, Box 6. Hess invited Hitler’s half-sister to stay with him when she came to Munich. Hess to Angela Hammitzsch, 22 June 1936; ibid. On Angela Raubal’s wedding see Schroeder, Er war mein Chef, p. 165; Joachimsthaler, Hitlers Liste, p. 303.

  27 See Goebbels, Tagebücher, part 1, vol. 4, p. 59 (entry for 19 March 1937): “Had a long talk with Frau Raubal. The Führer’s reserve hurts a lot. Otherwise she’s quite happy with her husband.” In June 1937, Hitler and Goebbels met with Angela Hammitzsch in Dresden and had an “enjoyable lively evening.” Ibid., p. 196 (25 June 1937). According to Therese Linke, Angela Raubal also spent a few days again on the Obersalzberg with her husband, presumably in the late 1930s; IfZ München, ZS 3135. Max Wünsche’s appointment book contains an entry for Frau Hammitzsch’s visit on 7 Oct. 1939. BA Berlin-Lichterfelde, NS 10/591.

  28 As in Görtemaker, Eva Braun, p. 116; see Knopp, Geheimnisse des “Dritten Reiches,” pp. 313f.

  29 Goebbels, Tagebücher, part 1, vol. 3/1, p. 177 (entry for 31 Jan. 1935). See ibid., p. 179 (entry for 4 Feb. 1935): “Long talk with the Führer. Personal things. He spoke of women, marriage, love and loneliness. I’m probably the only one he talks to like this.”

  30 Reprinted in Gun, Eva Braun-Hitler, pp. 190f.; facsimile of the letter ibid., between pp. 192 and 193. On the existence of the bunker in Wasserburgstrasse 12 see ibid., p. 121.

  31 See Görtemaker, Eva Braun, pp. 101f.

  32 Ilse Fucke-Michels to Nerin E. Gun, 8 April 1967; facsimile in Gun, Eva Braun-Hitler, p. 69.

  33 Werner Maser, Adolf Hitler: Legende—Mythos—Wirklichkeit, 12th edition, Munich and Esslingen, 1989, pp. 332–75. Maser introduces the diary with the remark that it has “more to say about Hitler’s relations with women than most substantial ‘reports’ and interpretations by ‘initiated’ observers and ostensibly well-informed biographers’ (p. 331). Anna Maria Sigmund, too, sees the fragmentary diary as a “mirror of Eva Braun’s psyche”; Anna Maria Sigmund, Des Führers bester Freund: Adolf Hitler, seine Nichte Geli Raubal und der “Ehrenarier” Emil Maurice—Eine Dreiecksbeziehung, Munich, 2003, p. 170.

  34 Joachimsthaler, Hitlers Liste, p. 444; see also on p. 447 a sample of Eva Braun’s handwriting. See also Eva Braun to Ilse Hess from the Obersalzberg, 2 Jan. [1938]; BA Bern, Nl Hess, J2.211-1993/300, Box 2. Facsimile in Görtemaker, Eva Braun, p. 90.

  35 See Görtemaker, Eva Braun, pp. 313f. (notes 119–22, 125, 131). Wilhelm Brückner’s extremely terse entries in his notebook for the year 1935 support Eva Braun’s claim. The notebook, which historians have yet to analyse thoroughly, is preserved at the Bundesarchiv Berlin-Lichterfelde, NS 26/1209.

  36 Entry dated 6 Feb. 1935; Gun, Eva Braun-Hitler, pp. 70f.; Maser, Adolf Hitler, pp. 332–7.

  37 Entry dated 18 Feb. 1935; Gun, Eva Braun-Hitler, pp. 73f.; Maser, Adolf Hitler, pp. 340–5.

  38 Entry dated 4 March 1935; Gun, Eva Braun-Hitler, pp. 74f,; Maser, Adolf Hitler, pp. 344–51. On Goebbels’s presence in Munich see Goebbels, Tagebücher, part 1, vol. 3/1, pp. 193f. (entry for 4 March 1935).

  39 Entry dated 11 March 1935; Gun, Eva Braun-Hitler, pp. 75f.; Maser, Adolf Hitler, pp. 352–7.

  40 Entry dated 16 March 1935; Gun, Eva Braun-Hitler, p. 36; Maser, Adolf Hitler, pp. 356f.

  41 Entry dated 1 April 1935; Gun, Eva Braun-Hitler, p. 76; Maser, Adolf Hitler, pp. 358f. Speer told Gitta Sereny that he also saw Eva Braun “blush deeply” over dinner at the Hotel Vier Jahreszeiten “when Hitler silently handed her an envelope as he passed.” Braun later told Speer that there was money in the envelope and Hitler had also behaved like that on other occasions in public. Sereny, Albert Speer, p. 192f. In conversation with Joachim Fest, Speer said the incident happened in 1938; Joachim Fest, Die unbeantwortbaren Fragen: Notizen über Gespräche mit Albert Speer zwischen 1966 und 1981, Reinbek bei Hamburg, 2005, p. 84. It is possible that Speer’s memory was faulty and that he recalled an incident in 1935 as recorded by Eva Braun in her “diary.”

  42 Entry dated 29 April 1935; Gun, Eva Braun-Hitler, p. 76; Maser, Adolf Hitler, pp. 360f.

  43 Entry dated 10 May 1935; Gun, Eva Braun-Hitler, p. 77; Maser, Adolf Hitler, pp. 362f.

  44 Goebbels, Tagebücher, part 1, vol. 3/2, p. 205 (entry for 6 Oct. 1936); see ibid., pp. 206 (entry for 7 Oct. 1936): “The Führer is very moved.” On Unity Mitford, see her letters to her sister Diana from 1935 to 1939, which she signed with “Heil Hitler,” in Charlotte Mosley (ed.), The Mitfords: Letters between Six Sisters, London, 2007, pp. 54–6, 63–5, 68f., 75f., 113, 116, 125–7, 128f., 130–2, 137; see also Joachimsthaler, Hitlers Liste, pp. 507–40; Knopp, Geheimnisse des “Dritten Reiches,” pp. 306–11.

  45 See Nicolaus von Below, Als Hitlers Adjutant 1937–45, Mainz, 1980, p. 82. On 3 Sept. 1939, after Britain declared war on Germany, Mitford tried to commit suicide. This took place in Munich and not, as is often claimed, on a park bench in the English Garden, but at Königinstrasse 15. She was taken to hospital, badly injured and with a bullet in her brain. Hitler paid for her treatment and visited Mitford in hospital on 8 Nov. 1939. In Dec. 1939, she was transferred to a clinic in Bern, and in January 1940 she returned to England. She died on 28 May 1948 from the aftereffects of her attempted suicide. See Joachimsthaler, Hitlers Liste, pp. 534–40; Knopp, Geheimnisse des “Dritten Reiches,” p. 311.

  46 See Görtemaker, Eva Braun, pp. 109–11. Sigrid von Laffert was also among the women who caught Hitler’s eye. In a handwritten letter from the spa resort of Bad Doberan on 20 July 1934, she thanked Hitler “for the charmingly done-up hamper with its wonderful contents and for your kind lines…They made me hugely happy.” BA Berlin-Lichterfelde, NS 10/123. In Wilhelm Brückner’s notebook for 1935, Laffert’s birthday on 18 Jan. was explicitly noted. BA Berlin-Lichterfelde, NS 26/1209. Max Wünsche wrote on 16 June 1938 (7:30 p.m.): “Tea with Baroness Laffert.” BA Berlin-Lichterfelde, NS 10/125. In July 1938, Hitler paid for an operation that Laffert required. See the exchange of letters between her and Fritz Wiedemann in BA Koblenz, N 1720/7. Max Wünsche’s calendar shows visits by Sigrid von Laffert to Hitler for 13 Dec. and 19 Dec. 1939. BA Berlin-Lichterfelde, NS 10/591. Laffert married the diplomat Johann Bernhard von Welczek in December 1940. On Victoria von Dirksen and Sigrid von Laffert see Joachimsthaler, Hitlers Liste, pp. 203–12; Martha Schad, Sie liebten den Führer: Wie Frauen Hitler verehrten, Munich, 2009, pp. 55–77.

  47 On 23 May 1935 Wilhelm Brückner just noted “Berlin Operation”; BA Berlin-Lichterfelde, NS 26/1209. On the operation see Hans-Joachim Neumann and H
enrik Eberle, War Hitler krank? Ein abschliessender Befund, Bergisch-Gladbach, 2009, pp. 172f.; Ulf Schmidt, Hitlers Arzt Karl Brandt: Medizin und Macht im Dritten Reich, Berlin, 2009, pp. 133f.; Görtemaker, Eva Braun, p. 111. Goebbels, Tagebücher, part 1, vol. 3/1, p. 238 (entry for 27 May 1935): “Hitler can’t speak at all. He’s in treatment. He writes down what he wants to say”; p. 250 (21 June 1935): “He’s completely recovered. We were afraid he had throat cancer. It was just a harmless growth. Thank, thank, thank God!” During the campaigns of 1932, having overtaxed his voice in the past, Hitler hired the opera singer Paul Stieber-Devrient to help him improve his breathing technique. See Werner Maser (ed.), Paul Devrient: Mein Schüler Adolf Hitler: Das Tagebuch seines Lehrers, Munich, 2003.

  48 Entry dated 28 May 1935; Gun, Eva Braun-Hitler, p. 78; Maser, Adolf Hitler, pp. 368–75.

  49 See Gun, Eva Braun-Hitler, pp. 78f.; Görtemaker, Eva Braun, p. 112.

  50 Goebbels, Tagebücher, part 1, pp. 239 (entry for 29 May 1935), 242 (entry for 5 June 1935): “The Führer is staying in Munich.” See also Wilhelm Brückner’s diary entries between 27 May and 12 June 1935; BA Berlin-Lichterfelde, NS 26/1209.

  51 See Görtemaker, Eva Braun, p. 112; Joachimsthaler, Hitlers Liste, pp. 424–6. In a letter to Hitler on 7 Sept. 1935 Friedrich Braun complained that his family had been “torn apart…because my two daughters Eva and Gretl have moved into an apartment you put at their disposal, and I as the head of the family have been presented with a fait accompli.” Gun, Eva Braun-Hitler, pp. 87f.

  52 See Görtemaker, Eva Braun, pp. 204f.; Joachimsthaler, Hitlers Liste, pp. 459–62; Gun, Eva Braun-Hitler, pp. 116f.

  53 See Görtemaker, Eva Braun, p. 202; Hoffmann, Hitler wie ich ihn sah, p. 136.

  54 On the furnishing of Eva Braun’s villa see Gun, Eva Braun-Hitler, pp. 117–20; Sigmund, Die Frauen der Nazis, pp. 172f.

  55 See Below, Als Hitlers Adjutant, pp. 81, 83; Henrik Eberle and Mathias Uhl (eds), Das Buch Hitler: Geheimdossier des NKWD für Josef W. Stalin aufgrund der Verhörprotokolle des Persönlichen Adjutanten Hitlers, Otto Günsche, und des Kammerdieners Heinz Linge, Moskau 1948/49, Bergisch Gladbach, 2005, pp. 62f.; Joachimsthaler, Hitlers Liste, p. 473. On Anni Winter’s role see also Schlie (ed.), Albert Speer, p. 236.