Hitler

by Peter Longerich

  11. Gerhard Stoltenberg, Politische Strömungen im schleswig-holsteinischen Landvolk 1918–1933. Ein Beitrag zur politischen Meinungsbildung in der Weimarer Republik (Düsseldorf, 1962), esp. 107ff.

  12. RSA 2, Doc. 203.

  13. Ibid., Doc. 254; see Kershaw, Hitler, 1, 385.

  14. Heinrich August Winkler, Mittelstand, Demokratie und Nationalsozialismus. Die politische Entwicklung von Handwerk und Kleinhandel in der Weimarer Republik (Cologne, 1972), 167ff.

  15. On the early history of the NSDStB see Anselm Faust, Der nationalsozialistische Deutsche Studentenbund. Studenten und Nationalsozialismus in der Weimarer Republik, vol. 1 (Düsseldorf, 1973), 36ff.

  16. RSA 2, Doc. 73.

  17. Ibid., Doc. 195.

  18. A pamphlet that was distributed among members of the leagues in 1927 referred to the ‘general recognition of Hitler as being at present . . . the simplest and best solution to the whole leadership issue’. See Ernst Ritter (ed.), Reichskommissar für Überwachung der öffentlichen Ordnung und Nachrichtensammelstelle im Reichsministerium des Innern. Lageberichte (1920–1929) und Meldungen (1929–1933) (Microfiche, 1979), No. 123.

  19. BAB, NS 23/374, Bouhler circular, 7 May 1928.

  20. See, for example, RSA 2, Doc. 280; RSA 3/1, Docs 13 and 70.

  21. See, for example, RSA 3/2, Docs 2, 6, 17, and 23.

  22. RSA 2, Doc. 235.

  23. Lewis Hertzman, DNVP: Right-Wing Opposition in the Weimar Republic 1918–1924 (Lincoln Nebr., 1963); BAB, R 72/273, Circular from the headquarters of the Stahlhelm, dated 18 September 1928, referring to the decision of the executive committee of 9 March 1924.

  24. On anti-Semitism in the Weimar Republic see Dirk Walter, Antisemitische Kriminalität und Gewalt. Judenfeindschaft in der Weimarer Republik (Bonn, 1999); Michael Wildt, Volksgemeinschaft als Selbstermächtigung. Gewalt gegen Juden in der deutschen Provinz 1919 bis 1939 (Hamburg, 2007), 69ff.

  25. He first used the term on 29 January 1928. See RSA 2, Doc. 225; see also ibid., Docs 230 and 244.

  26. Ibid., Doc. 258.

  27. Ibid., Doc. 268.

  28. For the text of the poster see ibid., Doc. 278, note 9.

  29. Ibid., Doc. 278.

  30. Falter, Lindenberger, and Schumann, Wahlen, 89ff.

  31. RSA 2, Doc. 279.

  32. Kershaw, Hitler, 1, 393f.; Stoltenberg, Strömungen, 147ff.; Police report of 13 March 1929 about the burial of a victim published in Deuerlein, Aufstieg, 299ff. See also two articles in VB, 16 and 17 March 1929, which were signed by Hitler, but which, in view of the language, had at the least been heavily edited (RSA 3/2, Doc. 9f.).

  33. Stephanie Merkenich, Grüne Front gegen Weimar. Reichs-Landbund und agrarischer Lobbyismus 1918–1933 (Düsseldorf, 1998), esp. 255f.; Stoltenberg, Strömungen, 128ff.

  34. RSA 2, Doc. 280.

  35. New edition by Gerhard L. Weinberg in the form of vol. 2 A of the RSA.

  36. Ibid., 123.

  37. Ibid., 181.

  38. Ibid., 182ff.

  39. See the commentary by the editor, Weinberg (ibid. XXIf.), who also refers to other possible reasons.

  40. On the USA see ibid., 84ff. (quote 92); on Germany’s leadership role 181.

  41. RSA 3/1, Doc. 2.

  42. Ibid., Doc. 87.

  43. Ibid., Doc. 91; RSA 3/2, Doc. 38.

  44. Ibid., Docs 30, 32, and 37.

  45. RSA 3/1, Doc. 91.

  46. Gustav Stresemann, ‘Die Entwicklung des Berliner Flaschenbiergeschäfts. Eine wirtschaftliche Studie’, Dissertation, Leipzig, 1900.

  47. RSA 3/1, Doc. 89.

  48. RSA 3/2, Doc. 4.

  49. RSA 3/1, Doc. 84.

  50. RSA 3/2, Doc. 83.

  51. Hitler to the cleric Magnus Gött, 2 March 1927, published in Paul Hoser, ‘Hitler und die katholische Kirche. Zwei Briefe aus dem Jahre 1927’, in VjZ 42 (1994), 487ff. Gött was a supporter of the NSDAP, but was concerned about atheistic tendencies in the Party. Hitler told him that he considered it in general unfortunate if religion in whatever form became mixed up in politics.

  52. RSA 2, Doc. 183.

  53. RSA 3/2, Doc. 4. The letter from the Investigation and Conciliation Committee, included here as an appendix, referred to a review by Dinter of Count Reventlow’s book ‘Die Gottfrage der Deutschen’; see also note 6.

  54. RSA 3/1, Doc. 13.

  55. Dinter’s reply to Hitler, 19 August 1928, published in Geisteschristentum 1, Appendix, 369f. On the treatment of the motion at the leadership meeting see Kissenkoetter, Strasser, 38f.

  56. Hitler to Dinter, 27 August 1928, published in Geisteschristentum, 1, 370.

  57. Reply from Dinter’s private secretary to Hess 30 August 1928, published in ibid., 371f.

  58. Hess to Dinter, telegram of 31 August 1928, published in ibid., 372.

  59. Ibid., 373ff.

  60. Telegram from Hitler to Dinter, 8 October 1928, published in ibid., 375; also in RSA 3/1, Doc. 33.

  61. Geisteschristentum 1, 379f.; also RSA 3/1, Doc. 35.

  62. VB, Directive, 26 July 1928 and 27 July 1928, ‘Kein Reichsparteitag 1928’.

  63. RSA 3/1, Doc. 12 (quote) and Doc. 14f. on two further addresses on 2 September 1928; see also Goebbels TB, 1 September 1928.

  64. RSA 3/1, Docs. 16–22 with the individual regulations and Doc. 25. See also Kissenkoetter, Straßer, 38f.

  65. The thesis put forward by Stachura in ‘Wendepunkt’, that the switch from an urban to a rural strategy was agreed at the leadership meeting, is no longer tenable in view of the documents now available (RSA und Goebbels TB). In his diary entries of 1 and 4 September Goebbels emphasizes the banality of most of the contributions. Also, ‘A lot of strife in the Party.’

  66. RSA 3/1, Doc. 23.

  67. Kurt Pätzold and Manfred Weissbecker, Geschichte der NSDAP 1920–1945 (Cologne, 2009), 108f.

  68. See Tyrell (ed.), Führer, 352.

  69. RSA 3/1, Doc. 93.

  70. Joachim Albrecht, Die Avantgarde des ‘Dritten Reichs’. Die Coburger NSDAP während der Weimarer Republik 1922–1933 (Frankfurt a. M., 2005), 116ff.

  71. RSA 3/2, Doc. 49.

  72. März, Sozialisten, 278ff. In 1926/27 Mücke had been a deputy in the Saxon parliament. See Andreas Hofer, Kapitänleutnant Hellmuth von Mücke. Marineoffizier – Politiker – Widerstandskämpfer. Ein Leben zwischen den Fronten (Marburg, 2003); Horn, Marsch, 255; Kühnl, Linke, 221ff.

  73. Volker Berghahn, Der Stahlhelm. Bund der Frontsoldaten 1918–1935 (Düsseldorf, 1966), 118ff.; Jung, Demokratie, 109ff.

  74. Longerich, Goebbels, 130ff.; Goebbels TB, 24 and 28 March, as well as 5, 6, 16, and 30 April 1929.

  75. Der Angriff, 13 May 1929, ‘Gegen die Reaktion’, and 27 May 1929, ‘Einheitsfront’.

  76. RSA 3/2, Doc. 29.

  77. Ibid., Doc. 50f.; see also Jung, Demokratie, 110.

  78. RSA 3/2, Doc. 55.

  79. März, Sozialisten, 269ff.

  80. RSA 3/2, Doc. 56.

  81. Ibid., Doc. 60. Hitler repeated here word for word the directive for the specialist committees issued in 1926. In the announcement for the 1929 Party Rally dated 1 March 1929 he had already issued a reminder that Party Rallies were not ‘occasions for fruitless discussions, as was the case with other parties, but demonstrations comprehensible to everybody of the determination and the strength of this ideology and its organization’. See ibid., Doc. 1.

  82. Goebbels referred here to discussions about ‘the Mücke case’. See Goebbels TB, 2 August 1929.

  83. Tyrell (ed.), Führer, No. 131. Rehm Motion in If Z, MA 1550 (NSDAP-Hauptarchiv, No. 391).

  84. RSA 3/2, Doc. 61 (quote) and Doc. 64f.

  85. Ibid., Doc. 45 and Doc. 62. See also Zelnhefer, Reichsparteitage, 34ff. and 39ff., and the personal impressions of Otto Wagener, who was a guest. See Wagener, Hitler, 7ff.

  86. RSA 3/2, Doc. 63.

  87. Zelnhelfer, Reichsparteitage, 44ff.

  Conquering the Masses

  1. Goebbels TB, 19 and 22 September 1
929; on the negotiations see Jung, Demokratie, 111ff.

  2. Ibid., 116f.

  3. RSA 3/2, Doc. 88.

  4. Ibid., Doc. 89 and (on the accusation), Doc. 91.

  5. Ibid., Doc. 99.

  6. Goebbels TB, 20, 21, 23, and 28 October 1929.

  7. Longerich, Goebbels, 127ff.

  8. On the position of the Party’s left wing see März, Nationale Sozialisten, 249ff.

  9. Jung, Demokratie, 128ff.; Turner, Grossunternehmer, 141.

  10. Jung, Demokratie, 122ff.

  11. RSA 3/3, Docs 19 and 6.

  12. Brandenburg: 5.6 per cent, Hanover: 6.8 per cent, Wiesbaden: 8.2 per cent, Saxony 5.8 per cent, Schleswig-Holstein 10.3 per cent; see Falter, Lindenberger, and Schumann, Wahlen, 102ff.

  13. On the fruitful concept of milieu and the decline of milieus in the Weimar period see Cornelie Rauh-Kühne, Katholisches Milieu und Kleinstadtgesellschaft. Ettlingen 1918–1939 (Sigmaringen, 1991); Wolfram Pyta, Dorfgemeinschaft und Parteipolitik 1918–1933. Die Verschränkung von Milieu und Parteien in den protestantischen Landgebieten Deutschlands in der Weimarer Republik (Düsseldorf, 1996); Helge Matthiesen, Bürgertum und Nationalsozialismus in Thüringen. Das bürgerliche Gotha von 1918 bis 1930 ( Jena, 1994); Matthiesen, Greifswald in Vorpommern. Konservatives Milieu im Kaiserreich, in Demokratie und Diktatur 1900–1990 (Düsseldorf, 2000); Siegfried Weichlein, Sozialmilieus und politische Kultur in der Weimarer Republik. Lebenswelt, Vereinskultur, Politik in Hessen (Göttingen, 1996); Oded Heilbronner, Die Achillesferse des deutschen Katholizismus (Gerlingen, 1998); Joachim Kuropka (ed.), Grenzen des katholischen Milieus. Stabilität und Gefährdung katholischer Milieus in der Endphase der Weimarer Republik und in der NS-Zeit (Münster, 2013). In Das konservative Milieu, Vereinskultur und lokale Sammlungspolitik in ost- und westdeutschen Regionen (1900–1960) (Göttingen, 2002) Frank Bösch provides an explanation, according to which the crisis did not lead to a collapse of the conservative milieu but rather to its mobilization, which was then exploited politically by the NSDAP.

  14. Udo Kissenkoetter, Straßer, 48ff.; VB, 12 September 1929 on the creation of the Organization Department II; Tyrell (ed.), Führer befiehl, No. 132 and Nos 150a and 150b.

  15. On the world economic crisis see Theo Balderston, The Origins and Course of the German Economic Crisis, November 1923 to May 1932 (Berlin, 1993); Harold James, Deutschland in der Weltwirtschaftskrise 1924–1936 (Stuttgart, 1988); Charles P. Kindleberger, Die Weltwirtschaftskrise 1929–1939 (Munich, 1973); Rainer Meister, Die große Depression. Zwangslagen und Handlungsspielräume der Wirtschafts- und Finanzpolitik in Deutschland 1929–1932 (Regensburg, 1991); Albert Ritschl, Deutschlands Krise und Konjunktur1924–1934. Binnenkonjunktur, Auslandsverschuldung und Reparationsproblem zwischen Dawes Plan und Transfersperre (Berlin, 2002).

  16. März, Sozialisten, 285f.

  17. RSA 3/3, Doc. 11.

  18. Günter Neliba, ‘Wilhelm Frick und Thüringen als Experimentierfeld für die nationalsozialistische Machtergreifung’, in Detlev Heiden and Günther Mai (eds), Thüringen auf dem Weg ins ‘Dritte Reich’ (Erfurt, 1996), 96ff.

  19. RSA 3/3, Doc. 10.

  20. Ibid., Doc. 11.

  21. Neliba, ‘Frick’, 99ff.

  22. Frick’s decree for the purging of cultural life of 5 April 1930 was entitled ‘Against Negro Culture. For German Ethnicity’.

  23. Neliba, ‘Frick’, 110; Hildegard Brenner, Die Kunstpolitik des Nationalsozialismus (Reinbek b. Hamburg, 1963), 28ff.

  24. Neliba, ‘Frick’, 114ff.

  25. 1929: 39 speeches, 1930: 72 (according to the RSA).

  26. RSA 3/3, Doc. 57. His refusal to comment on current political issues is also evident in RSA 3/2, Doc. 106; RSA 3/3, Doc. 63.

  27. RSA 3/2, Doc. 61.

  28. RSA 3/2, Doc. 106 (quote); RSA 3/3, Docs 44, 61, and 69; RSA 4/1, Doc. 5.

  29. RSA 3/2, Doc. 106.

  30. RSA 3/3, Doc. 57.

  31. Ibid., Doc. 61.

  32. Ibid., Docs 59 and 69.

  33. Ibid., Doc. 18.

  34. RSA 3/2, Doc. 103.

  35. Numbers of unemployed in Balderston, Origins, 2.

  36. Heinrich August Winkler, Weimar 1918–1933. Die Geschichte der ersten deutschen Demokratie (Munich, 1993), 359ff.

  37. Goebbels TB, 1 and 2 April 1930.

  38. On the DNVP see Gerhard Schulz, Von Brüning zu Hitler. Der Wandel des politischen Systems in Deutschland 1930–1933 (Berlin/New York, 1992), 41ff.

  39. RSA 3/3, Doc. 31.

  40. Goebbels TB, 4 and 5 April 1930. On the exit from the Reich Committee see Horn, Marsch, 259.

  41. Goebbels TB, 10 and 12 April 1930; Winkler, Weimar, 378.

  42. Goebbels TB, 13 April 1930; for a similar statement after the failed vote of no confidence see ibid., 4 April 1930.

  43. On this conflict see März, Sozialisten, 145ff.; Longerich, Goebbels, 99f. and 112f.

  44. For example in the article ‘Hinein in den Staat’, which he gave Hitler to read in December 1929, but only published after the break with the NSDAP in July 1930. See Patrick Moreau, Nationalsozialismus von links. Die ‘Kampfgemeinschaft Revolutionärer Nationalsozialisten’ und die ‘Schwarze Front’ Otto Straßers 1930–1935 (Stuttgart, 1985), 29f.

  45. For details see Longerich, Goebbels, 135ff. See also the numerous entries in the Goebbels diaries between January and April 1930, which show, in particular, Goebbels’s disappointment at Hitler’s lack of support. He in turn commented on the Kampf-Verlag in the VB on 5 and 16 February 1930.

  46. Moreau, Nationalsozialismus, 30.

  47. For Goebbels’s criticism see Goebbels TB, 28 April 1930. For Hitler’s speech see RSA 3/3, Doc. 38.

  48. Goebbels TB, 2 and 3 May 1930.

  49. See ibid., 3 and 4 May 1930. On the Strasser crisis see also Kershaw, Hitler, 1, 412ff.

  50. Goebbels TB, 20, 22, and 24 May 1930. ‘He appears completely rootless and unorganic, an intellectual white Jew, a completely incompetent organizer, an archetypal Marxist’ (22 May 1930).

  51. Otto Strasser, Ministersessel oder Revolution? Eine wahrheitsgemäße Darstellung meiner Trennung von der NSDAP (Berlin, 1933); Tyrell (ed.), Führer, 314; Moreau, Nationalsozialismus, 30ff.

  52. Ibid., 35f.; Goebbels TB, 12, 14, and 23 June 1930.

  53. Andreas Wagner, ‘Machtergreifung’ in Sachsen. NSDAP und Staatliche Verwaltung 1930–1935 (Cologne, 2004), 106f.

  54. Goebbels TB, 26 June to 1 July 1930.

  55. Der Angriff, 3 July 1930, published a letter from Hitler dated 30 June 1930, in which the Party leader authorized him to carry out a ‘ruthless purge’ of the Berlin Party organization.

  56. See his declaration in the VB, 3 July 1930; Goebbels TB, 1 July 1930; Kissenkoetter, Strasser, 44f.; Moreau, Nationalsozialismus, 36ff.

  57. Goebbels TB, 3 July 1930.

  58. RSA 3/3, Doc. 70.

  59. Wagner, ‘Machtergreifung’, 108f.

  60. On the dissolution of the Reichstag and the background to it see Winkler, Weimar, 378ff.; Schulz, Brüning, 103ff.

  61. Goebbels TB, 20 July 1930.

  62. Ibid.

  63. RSA 4/1, Doc. 61.

  64. RSA 3/3, Doc. 79 (quote). See also Goebbels’s report in Der Angriff, 2 August 1930, ‘Es kann losgehen’.

  65. BAB, NS 18/5010, Goebbels’s survey in the Gaus, May 1930; see also Daniel Mühlenfeld, ‘Zur Bedeutung der NS-Propaganda für die Eroberung staatlicher Macht und die Sicherung politischer Loyalität’, in Christian A. Braun, Michael Mayer, and Sebastian Weitkamp (eds), Deformation der Gesellschaft? Neue Forschungen zum Nationalsozialismus (Berlin, 2008), 98.

  66. On the election campaign see Dirk Lau, ‘Wahlkämpfe der Weimarer Republik: Propaganda und Programme der politischen Parteien bei den Wahlen zum Deutschen Reichstag von 1924 bis 1930’, unpublished dissertation, Mainz, 1995, 420ff.; David Andrew Hacket, ‘The Nazi Party in the Reichstag election of 1930’, Dissertation, University of Wisconsin, 1971; Gerhard Paul, Aufstand der Bilder. Die NS-Propaganda vor 1933 (Bonn, 1990
), 90f.; BHStA, Varia, 1425, Circular, 15 August 1930.

  67. Paul, Aufstand, 92.

  68. For the audience numbers see RSA 3/3, Doc. 90: between 10,000 and 20,000 in Cologne (12 August); Doc. 96: between 13,000 and 15,000 in Ludwigshafen (26 August); Doc. 112: between 20,000 and 25,000 in Breslau (12 September).

  69. Ibid., Doc. 87, similarly: Doc. 90.

  70. Ibid., Doc. 90; similarly: Doc. 86.

  71. Ibid., Doc. 90.

  72. Ibid., Doc. 112.

  73. Ibid., Docs 86, 90, and 92.

  74. Turner, Großunternehmer, 144ff.

  75. Ibid., 136ff.; for the Reichsverband der Deutschen Industrie distancing itself from the NSDAP during the 1930 election see Reinhard Neebe, Großindustrie, Staat und NSDAP 1930–1933. Paul Silverberg und der Reichsverband der deutschen Industrie in der Krise der Weimarer Republik (Göttingen, 1981), 73ff.

  76. Georg Schröder, ‘Das nationalsozialistische Wirtschaftsprogramm’, in Der Arbeitgeber, 15 July 1930: ‘Industrie’.

  77. Goebbels TB, 8 August 1930.

  78. Ibid., 30 August 1930; see also Longerich, Goebbels, 171ff.

  79. Goebbels TB, 30 August 1930; Der Angriff, 31 August 1930: headline: ‘Der Sieg wird unser sein!’

  80. Goebbels TB, 1 September 1930.

  81. RSA 3/3, Docs 99 and 101f.

  82. Ibid., Doc. 100.

  83. Jürgen Falter, Hitlers Wähler (Munich, 1991), 110ff.

  84. Ibid., 139ff. and 169ff.

  85. On non-churchgoing Catholics see, for example Heilbronner, Achillesferse.

  86. Falter, Wähler, 194ff.

  87. RSA 3/3, Doc. 123.

  88. Goebbels TB, 23 September 1930.

  89. Gerhard Granier, Magnus von Levetzow: Seeoffizier, Monarchist und Wegbereiter Hitlers. Lebensweg und ausgewählte Dokumente (Boppard am Rhein, 1982), No. 30 (quotes); Schulz, Brüning, 178f.; Turner, Grossunternehmer, 159f.