Hitler

by Peter Longerich

  76. Deuerlein (ed.), Hitler-Putsch, Doc. 61.

  77. Kriebel, however, was present, representing the Kampfbund as a whole.

  78. Deuerlein (ed.), Hitler-Putsch, Doc. 68; Hitler-Prozess, 161 (Hitler statement). On the military training of Nazis by the Reichswehr see in detail Hoegner, Hitler und Kahr, 105ff.

  79. Gordon, Hitlerputsch, 229.

  80. Ibid., 230; Hitler-Prozeß, 859f. (Seisser statement).

  81. Ibid., 736ff. (Lossow statement).

  82. Gordon, Hitlerputsch, 230.

  83. Hitler-Prozeß, 737.

  84. Madden, ‘Composition’, 34 and 93 (the author estimates the number of members at the beginning of 1923 at 8,100).

  85. Michael Kater, ‘Zur Soziographie der frühen NSDAP’, in VjZ 19 (1971), 124–59.

  86. From 13 April onwards, the announcement ‘our Führer Adolf Hitler will speak’ appeared regularly in the Völkischer Beobachter.

  87. See Kershaw, Hitler, 1, 234ff.: JK, Nos 493, 521, 533.

  88. Ibid., No. 525.

  89. Ibid., No. 544.

  90. Ibid., No. 561.

  91. Ibid., No. 580.

  92. Ibid., No. 583a.

  93. VB, 1 November 1922: ‘Männer und Waschweiber’.

  94. In Saxony the intervention occurred on 23 October, the ‘Reich execution’, in other words the appointment of a Reich commissioner, on 29 October; in Thuringia the troops marched in on 6 November, whereupon the communist ministers withdrew from the government. For details see Heinrich August Winkler, Revolution, 655ff.

  95. Gordon, Hitlerputsch, 231; Hitler-Prozess, 78 (Weber statement) and 859 (Seisser statement).

  96. Gordon, Hitlerputsch, 224f.; Seysser notes, 3 November 1923, in Deuerlein (ed.), Hitler-Putsch, Doc. 79.

  97. Gordon, Hitlerputsch, 231ff.

  98. Report of the 2nd Prosecutor Dr Ehard, 14 December 1923, about Hitler’s interrogation the previous day (BHStA, Ehard Papers 94), in Hitler-Prozess, 299–307, quote 304.

  99. Hitler-Prozeß, Doc. 6 (in the appendix to Part 1). On Hitler’s statement see ibid., 47ff. Hitler claimed the two men were dead. See also Gordon, Hitlerputsch, 235.

  100. For the events in the Bürgerbräukeller see Gordon, Hitlerputsch, 253ff.; for a reconstruction of the events see in particular Hitler-Prozeß, 309ff. (Indictment) and 49ff. (Hitler’s statement).

  101. Ibid., 310f. (Indictment); JK, Nos 594 and 595 (quote).

  102. Gordon, Hitlerputsch, 262ff.

  103. Ibid., 61ff.

  104. Ibid., 261.

  105. Walter, Kriminalität, 120ff.

  106. Gordon, Hitlerputsch, 299f.; Walter, Kriminalität, 135f.

  107. Gordon, Hitlerputsch, 298.

  108. Ibid., 281ff.

  109. Ibid., 313ff. Two other putschists were killed during an exchange of fire at the military district headquarters.

  110. The policeman who arrested him found him wearing white pyjamas and completely abstracted. See Otto Gritschneder, Bewährungsfrist für den Terroristen Adolf H. Der Hitler-Putsch und die bayerische Justiz (Munich, 1990), 33. During his interrogation by the prosecutor, Hitler himself said that he had been initially prostrated by physical and mental anguish. See Hitler-Prozess, 59. On the arrest see Hanfstaengl, Haus, 5f. and 148ff.

  The Trial and the Period of the Ban

  1. Published in Hitler-Prozeß, 299ff.; see Kershaw, Hitler, 1, 269ff.

  2. The memorandum, which has not survived, was available during the trial. See Hitler-Prozeß, 63f.; Othmar Plöckinger, Geschichte eines Buches. Adolf Hitlers ‘Mein Kampf’, 1922–1945 (Munich, 2006), 21.

  3. Ibid., 30f.; BAB, NS 26/1212.

  4. During the trial Hitler created the impression that he had come to Munich ‘in order to train as an architect’. He had given up this idea under the impression of his Pasewalk experience. See Hitler-Prozeß, 19 (quote) and 21.

  5. See his hints at the start of the proceedings in ibid., 14.

  6. Bayerische Kurier (BK), 27 February 1924.

  7. Hitler-Prozeß, 20ff., Quote 20.

  8. Ibid., 41f.

  9. Ibid., 1014, 1017, and 1024.

  10. Ibid., 805ff.

  11. Ibid., 915.

  12. Ibid., 1034. At least Hitler was reprimanded by the chairman of the judges for this remark.

  13. Ibid., 1017.

  14. Gritschneder, Bewährungsfrist, 47.

  15. Hitler-Prozeß, 45 and 63.

  16. Ibid., 1023; on Neithardt see Bernhard Huber, ‘Georg Neithardt – nur ein unpolitischer Richter?’, in Marita Krauss (ed.), Rechte Karrieren in München. Von der Weimarer Zeit bis in die Nachkriegsjahre (Munich, 2010), 95–113.

  17. BK, 1 March 1923, ‘Angeklagte und Ankläger’.

  18. Hitler-Prozeß, 1197f.

  19. Ibid., 1585. For Hitler’s self-perception as ‘Führer’ at the time see also Kershaw, Hitler, 1, 275.

  20. Hitler-Prozeß, 1573ff.

  21. Ibid., 1581.

  22. Ibid., 1591.

  23. Ibid., Doc. 10 (in the appendix to Part 1). For criticisms of the judicial failures see, in particular, Gritschneder, Bewährungsfrist, 48ff.

  24. BK, 2 April 1924; Kölnische Volkszeitung, 5 April 1924; Berliner Tageblatt (BT), April 1924; Münchener Post, 4 April 1924.

  25. Ernst Hanfstaengel in Haus, 157, writing about the food that was sent to the prisoners, refers to the prison as a delicatessen. See also Fobke’s report about their daily routine in Werner Jochmann, Nationalsozialismus und Revolution. Ursprung und Geschichte der NSDAP in Hamburg 1922–1933. Dokumente (Frankfurt a. M., 1963), Doc. 26 and Hans Kallenbach, Mit Adolf Hitler auf Festung Landsberg. Nach Aufzeichnungen des mitgefangenen Oberleutnant a. D. Hans Kallenbach, ed. Ulf Uweson (Munich, 1933).

  26. On the list of visitors see SAM, StAnw. 14344, Report on the prison.

  27. Tyrell (ed.), Führer, No. 26.

  28. Hitler, Monologe, 3/4 February 1942.

  29. See MK, 226ff., quote 231f. The fact that Hitler was referring to himself in this passage is clear from the interpretation in Tyrell, Trommler, 167ff.

  30. Völkischer Kurier (VK), 25 April 1924, ‘Eine glänzende Hitlergeburtstagsfeier’.

  31. Georg Schott, Das Volksbuch von Hitler (Munich, 1924).

  32. Heinrich Hoffmann (ed.), Deutschlands Erwachen in Bild und Wort. Photographische Zeitdokumente. Text by Marc Sesselmann (Munich, 1924), 16.

  33. Plöckinger, Geschichte, 32.

  34. Gordon, Hitlerputsch, 446.

  35. David Jablonsky, The Nazi Party in Dissolution. Hitler and the Verbotszeit 1923–1924 (London and Totowa, NJ, 1989), 54f.

  36. Kershaw, Hitler, 1, 283; Georg Franz-Willing, Putsch und Verbotszeit der Hitlerbewegung November 1923–Februar 1925 (Preussisch Oldendorf, 1997), 214ff.

  37. Jablonsky, Nazi Party, 55; Deuerlein (ed.), Hitler-Putsch, No. 229; Franz-Willing, Putsch, 229f.

  38. Ibid., 228.

  39. Donald R. Tracey, ‘Der Aufstieg der NSDAP bis 1930’, in Detlev Heiden and Günther Mai (eds), Thüringen auf dem Weg ins ‘Dritte Reich’ (Erfurt, 1996), 65–93 (69f.); Jablonsky, Nazi Party, 57.

  40. Ibid., 10 and 22.

  41. Kershaw, Hitler 1, 283f.

  42. Jablonsky, Nazi Party, 60 and Appendix B of the agreement in English translation.

  43. Ibid., 60 and 63.

  44. Ibid., 64f.

  45. Mathias Rösch, Die Münchner NSDAP 1925–1933. Eine Untersuchung zur inneren Struktur der NSDAP in der Weimarer Republik (Munich, 2002), 548 (the percentages used by Rösch refer to those entitled to vote and were converted by the author).

  46. Rudolf Buttmann, Bayerische Politik 1924–1928 (Munich, 1928), 10ff.

  47. BK, 7 April 1924.

  48. Rösch, NSDAP, 548.

  49. Jablonsky, Nazi Party, 86ff.

  50. Ibid., 89; Jochmann, Nationalsozialismus, Doc. 16f.

  51. Jablonsky, Nazi Party, 89.

  52. Ibid., 93; Jochmann, Nationalsozialismus, Doc. 17 and Doc. 19.

  53. Deuerlein, Aufstieg, 235f. He was compell
ed to repeat this request at the end of the month.

  54. Jablonsky, Nazi Party, 96.

  55. BAB, NS 26/857, Streicher/Esser circular, 29 July 1924, published in Tyrell (ed.), Führer, No. 31; Jablonsky, Nazi Party, 98ff.; Kershaw, Hitler, 1, 289.

  56. Rosenberg objected to this in particular in his Weimar speech in August. See Jochmann, Nationalsozialismus, Doc. 30.

  57. Tyrell (ed.), Führer, No. 29a, uses the statement in the Mecklenburger Warte, 9 July 1924.

  58. Jochmann, Nationalsozialismus, Doc. 28.

  59. Ibid., Doc. 29.

  60. Jablonsky, Nazi Party, 80; Werner, SA, 199ff.; Röhm, Geschichte, 321.

  61. Jablonsky, Nazi Party, 90; Werner, SA, 206ff.; Longerich, Geschichte, 46; Röhm, Geschichte, 324.

  62. Ibid., 325, Jablonsky, Nazi Party, 99ff.

  63. Röhm, Geschichte, 325ff.; Gritschneder, Bewährungsfrist, 110ff. On the Frontbann see Jablonsky, Nazi Party, 116f., 126f. and 131ff.; Werner, SA, 245ff.

  64. Jochmann, Nationalsozialismus, Docs. 29–32; Jablonsky, Nazi Party, 103ff.

  65. Werner Jochmann, Nationalsozialismus, Doc. 33. Fobke himself criticized Hitler’s ‘obsession with neutrality’. Hitler was convinced he would be released on 1 October. See Jablonsky, Nazi Party, 111.

  66. Jochmann, Nationalsozialismus, Doc. 34; Jablonsky, Nazi Party, 111.

  67. VK, 8 August 1924; Jablonsky, Nazi Party, 112.

  68. Huber, Verfassungsgeschichte, 502f.

  69. Frankfurter Zeitung (FZ) (A), 19 August 1924, Leading article; VK, 17/18 August 1924. On the meeting see also Goebbels TB, 19 and 20 August 1924; Jablonsky, Nazi Party, 118ff.

  70. Jochmann, Nationalsozialismus, Docs 36–38; Jablonsky, Nazi Party, 124f.

  71. Jochmann, Nationalsozialismus, Doc. 43; Jablonsky, Nazi Party, 129ff.

  72. Jochmann, Nationalsozialismus, Doc. 46; Jablonsky, Nazi Party, 136f.

  73. Jochmann, Nationalsozialismus, Doc. 51f.

  74. Jablonsky, Nazi Party, 146; Jochmann, Nationalsozialismus, Doc. 56.

  75. Jablonsky, Nazi Party, 135 and 139ff.; Tyrell (ed.), Führer, No. 34; Franz-Willing, Putsch, 273.

  76. BK, 1/2 November 1924, ‘Der Streit im “völkischen Lager” ’. See Jablonsky, Nazi Party, 141f.

  77. Hanfstaengel, Haus, 163.

  78. For the interpretation of the book see, above all, Eberhard Jäckel, Hitlers Weltanschauung. Entwurf einer Herrschaft (Stuttgart, 1991); Axel Kuhn, Hitlers außenpolitisches Programm. Entstehung und Entwicklung 1919–1939 (Stuttgart, 1970); Klaus Hildebrand, Deutsche Außenpolitik. Kalkül oder Dogma? (Stuttgart, Berlin, and Cologne, 1990); Andreas Hillgruber, Hitlers Strategie. Politik und Kriegführung 1940/1941 (Frankfurt a. M., 1965). The programmatic character of the book was disputed above all by the so-called structuralist school in the 1970s and 1980s. This view is represented predominantly by Kershaw, Hitler, I, 298ff. While the main focus of Plöckinger’s study, Geschichte, is the book’s reception, it also contains significant information on MK’s origins as well as its publication.

  79. MK, 321.

  80. For the characterization of the ideal ‘Führer’ see, in particular, MK, 650ff. A party organized on the basis of the Führer principle would succeed ‘with mathematical certainty’, 662. See also Schwarz, Geniewahn, 89ff.; on the fusion of the concept of the genius with the Führer principle after the First World War see Jochen Schmidt, Geschichte des Genie-Gedankens, 2 (Darmstadt, 1985), 194ff.

  81. BAB, NS 26/2247, Advertising brochure of the Eher-Verlag with an overview of the impending book. Plöckinger, Geschichte, 42, assumes it appeared in June 1924.

  82. In spring 1924 the Austrian and Bavarian authorities were still agreed on Hitler’s deportation, but later the Austrian federal chancellor, Seipel, went back on this agreement on the grounds that Hitler had lost his Austrian citizenship by serving in the Bavarian army. See Donald Cameron Watt, ‘Die bayerischen Bemühungen um Ausweisung Hitlers 1924’, in VjZ 6 (1958), 270–80; Österreichisches Staatsarchiv, Archiv der Republik, BKA/AA, GZI. 130.622/1932–52 Varia-15VR, Upper Austrian provincial government to the Munich police headquarters, 20 April 1924; BKA/AA, Personalia Adolf Hitler, Minute 27 October 1924, re: Remarks about Hitler.

  83. During the period of his imprisonment at least, Hitler wrote the manuscript in his own hand, which is clear from numerous references Plöckinger has put together in Geschichte. There is no evidence for contributions to the content from Hess, Maurice, or anybody else in Hitler’s entourage. The idea that he dictated the book to Hess or Maurice is incorrect; the rhetorical style of the book is intentional. Hess and the editor of the Völkischer Beobachter, Stolzing-Cerny, only helped with publishing aspects. See Plöckinger Geschichte, 71f. and 121ff.

  84. Various general statements by Hitler, when looked at more closely, can be seen as comments on internal Party discussions going on at the time about such matters as the reform of the Party programme, the issue of Nazi trade unions, and the relationship between the Party and the SA (Ibid., 105ff.).

  85. MK, 772ff., quote 780.

  86. Plöckinger, Geschichte, 90ff.

  87. Ibid., 52, makes the point that Hitler introduced the term ‘Lebensraum’ into the manuscript shortly after Hess had asked Karl Haushofer for a definition of the concept following discussions among the prisoners about it. See Wolf Rüdiger Hess (ed.), Rudolf Hess, Briefe 1908–1933 (Munich, 1987), No. 348, to Ilse Pröhl, 10 July 1924.

  88. MK, 372.

  89. Ibid., 772.

  90. JK, No. 305.

  91. Ibid., No. 167.

  92. Ibid., No. 422.

  93. Ibid., No. 452.

  94. On the reassessment of Anglo–German relations from the end of 1922 onwards see ibid., No. 422. Hitler argued that the Anschluss with Austria was possible only with the support of Italy and Britain, although he left the future relationship with Britain open. See ibid., No. 452. In his conversation with Scharrer, Hitler stated that they must exploit Anglo–French rivalry. Britain would not allow Germany to ‘regain its former high status’, but would allow it ‘some elbow room’. See also ibid., No. 512; Hitler-Prozeß, 188f.

  95. JK, No. 626; see Kershaw, Hitler, 1 324f.

  96. MK, 138ff., quote 154.

  97. Ibid., 687ff.

  98. Ibid., 707ff.

  99. Ibid., 720ff., quote 724.

  100. Ibid., 742 and 757.

  101. Ibid., 751 and 743.

  102. F. Lenz, ‘Die Stellung des Nationalsozialismus zur Rassenhygiene’, in Archiv für Rassen- und Gesellschafts-Biologie einschliesslich Rassen- und Gesellschafts-Hygiene 25 (1931), 302: ‘I have heard that, of the serious books on racial hygiene, Hitler has read the second edition of Baur-Fischer-Lenz during his confinement in Landsberg’. Hitler’s remarks reflect some passages in the book. Lenz was basing his assertion on Hitler’s statements on the matter in Mein Kampf, 441ff.

  103. Ibid., 279.

  104. Ibid., 448.

  A Fresh Start

  1. Wolfgang Horn, Der Marsch zur Machtergreifung. Die NSDAP bis 1933 (Königstein i.Ts and Düsseldorf, 1980), 211.

  2. There are various sources for these two meetings: Theodor Doerfler maintained in an action for slander, which he, together with Drexler, brought against Hitler in 1926 that Hitler had tried to curry favour with Held. See RSA 2 Doc. 9. Hitler strongly disputed this, but not the dates for the meetings referred to by Doerfler – 21 and 22 December (the second date was revealed by the press reports of the trial). The content of the meetings is also clear from comments made by Hitler on the night of 3/4 February 1942 in Hitler, Monologe, from a circular by Hermann Fobke of 10 February 1925 in Jochmann, Nationalsozialismus, Doc. 61, and from Held’s statement to the Bavarian parliament on 15 December 1925, of which excerpts are contained in Tyrell (ed.), Führer, No. 36. The date of 4 January frequently referred to in the literature is almost certainly wrong.

  3. Wolfgang Martynkewicz, Salon Deutschland. Geist und Macht (Berlin, 2009), 407ff.; Norbert Borrmann, Paul Schultze-Naumburg 1869–1949. Maler, Publ
izist, Architekt. Vom Kulturreformer der Jahrhundertwende zum Kulturpolitiker im Dritten Reich. Ein Lebens- und Zeitdokument (Essen, 1989), 198. See also Müller, Wandel 3, 301ff.

  4. Münchener Post, 4 February 1925, published in Deuerlein, Aufstieg, 242f.; Tyrell (ed.), Führer, No. 37. See also the unsigned polemical article by Reventlow in the Reichswart, 7 February 1925, ‘Hitlers Frieden mit Rom’; see also Jablonsky, Nazi Party, 156; Horn, Marsch, 212ff.

  5. VK, 17 February 1924, ‘Eine Kundgebung der deutsch-völkischen Freiheitsbewegung’; see also Graefe’s statement of 18 February in the VK, in which he accused Hitler of going his own way with the refounding of his workers’ party. See Jablonsky, Nazi Party, 156.

  6. Jochmann, Nationalsozialismus, Doc. 61.

  7. VK, 13 February 1925, ‘Rücktritt der Reichsführerschaft der Nationalsozialistischen Freiheitsbewegung’; Horn, Marsch, 213; Jablonsky, Nazi Party, 158.

  8. The bans were automatically lifted with the suspension of the state of emergency by the Bavarian government’s decree of 14 February. See VK, 15 February 1925.

  9. Ibid., 17 February 1925.

  10. Tyrell (ed.), Führer, No. 39; see also Jochmann, Nationalsozialismus, Doc. 65. On the re-founding see Ian Kershaw, Hitler, 1 (Stuttgart, 1998), 341ff.

  11. RSA 1, Doc. 1.

  12. Ibid., Doc. 2.

  13. Hitler had already made the same point to Hess during his imprisonment. See Hess, Briefe No. 359, to Ilse Pröhl, 11 December 1924.

  14. Kershaw, Hitler, 1, 345f.; Noel D. Cary, ‘The Making of the Reich President, 1925. German Conservatism and the Nomination of Paul von Hindenburg’, in Central European History 23 (1990), 179–204; Hans-Jochen Hauss, Die erste Volkswahl des deutschen Reichspräsidenten. Eine Untersuchung ihrer verfassungspolitischen Grundlagen, ihrer Vorgeschichte und ihres Verlaufs unter besonderer Berücksichtigung des Anteils Bayerns und der Bayerischen Volkspartei (Lassleben and Kallmünz, 1965).

  15. RSA 1, Doc. 14 and Doc. 13. On Hitler’s tactics see Lüdecke, Hitler, 250ff.; Hanfstaengl, Haus, 179f.; Horn, Marsch, 218.

  16. RSA 1, Doc. 41.