Hitler

by Peter Longerich

  10. Ibid., Doc. 87.

  11. Ibid., Doc. 86.

  12. Ibid., Doc. 171.

  13. Goebbels TB, 28 June 1932.

  14. The speech was published as a pamphlet: Gregor Strasser: Arbeit und Brot! Reichstagsrede am 10. Mai 1932 (Munich, 1932).

  15. Kissenkoetter, 137ff.

  16. Wagener, Hitler, 478ff.; Turner, Großunternehmer, 298f.; see also the report by Emil Helfferich, one of those attending the meeting, in Helfferich, 1932–1946. Tatsachen. Ein Beitrag zur Wahrheitsfindung ( Jever, 1969), 1932–1946, 13ff.

  17. BAB, NS 22, Goebbels/Dietrich letter to all Party agencies, 4 June 1932, BAB, NS 22, to all Gauleiters and Gau propaganda chiefs, 27 June 1932, as well as individual directives, 5 July 1932; BAB, NS 26/289, undated memorandum concerning the Reichstag election and various signed circulars from the Reich propaganda headquarters; see also Paul, Aufstand, 100ff.

  18. BAB, NS 26/89, Memorandum of the Reich propaganda headquarters concerning the Reichstag election of 1932.

  19. Ibid., Circular from the Reich propaganda headquarters to all Gau, propaganda, and press departments, 19 July 1932.

  20. VB (Bayern), 13 July 1932, ‘Des Führers Freiheitsflug über Deutschland beginnt’ (headline), and reports between 17 and 31 July 1932.

  21. RSA 5/1, Docs 112–162.

  22. Ibid., Doc. 158.

  23. Individual examples in ibid., Doc. 121, note. 6; see also Winkler, Weg, 643f.

  24. RSA 5/1, Doc. 122.

  25. Ibid., Doc. 148.

  26. Goebbels TB, 9 July 1932.

  27. Winkler, Weimar, 486.

  28. Léon Schirmann, Altonaer Blutsonntag, 17. Juli 1932. Dichtungen und Wahrheit (Hamburg, 1994).

  29. Winkler, Weimar, 489f.

  30. Decree of the Reich President concerning the Restoration of Public Safety and Order within the Territory of the State of Prussia 20 July 1932 in Reichsgesetzblatt (RGBl.) 1932 I, 377; Karl Heinz Minuth (ed.), Das Kabinett von Papen (1932). Akten der Reichskanzlei (Munich, 1989), Nos 57 and 59.

  31. Schulz, Brüning, 920ff.

  32. Goebbels TB, 21 to 23 July 1932.

  33. Falter, Wähler, 110ff.

  34. Ibid., 136ff.

  35. Goebbels TB, 3 August 1932.

  36. Papen declared on 1 August in an interview with Associated Press: ‘The time has now come for the national socialist movement to cooperate in rebuilding the fatherland’, an initial attempt to get the NSDAP to tolerate or join his government. See Schulthess’ Europäischer Geschichtskalendar 1932, 136.

  37. On the contacts between the Nazis and Schleicher see also If Z, ED 93, Schäffer, Confidential report 5 August 1932.

  38. Goebbels TB, 7 August 1932. The conversation took place on 6 August.

  39. Hubatsch, Hindenburg, No. 87; Kabinett von Papen, No. 99; see also If Z, ED 93, vol. 22a, Schäffer Diary, 10 August 1932.

  40. Goebbels TB, 12 August 1932. The negative attitude is clear from Meissner’s notes about the previous meetings concerning the question of forming the government. See Hubatsch, Hindenburg, No. 87.

  41. On the wave of violence see Longerich, Geschichte, 156f.; for details see the daily reports in the Vossiche Zeitung (VZ) after 2 August 1932.

  42. Decree of the Reich President against Political Terror, Decree of the Reich Government concerning the Creation of Special Courts, and the Decree of the Reich President concerning the Securing of Internal Peace, all dated 9 August 1932 (RGBl. 1932 I, 403ff.). For details on the process see Kabinett von Papen, No. 98.

  43. Paul Kluke, ‘Der Fall Potempa’, in VjZ 5 (1957), 279–97; Richard Bessel, ‘The Potempa Murder’, in Central European History 10 (1977), 241–54.

  44. Goebbels TB, 11 August 1932.

  45. Ibid., 14 August 1932; Pyta, Hindenburg, 718f.; Pünder, 141.

  46. Goebbels TB, 14 August 1932; Kabinett von Papen, No. 101; see also Schulz, Brüning, 963.

  47. For details see Kabinett von Papen, No. 101, notes 5 and 102.

  48. Goebbels TB, 14 and 15 August 1932.

  49. VB (R), 17 August 1932. On the NSDAP crisis at the end of 1932 see Dietrich Orlow, The History of the Nazi Party, 1 (Newton Abbot, 1971), 286ff.; Horn, Marsch, 363ff.

  50. On the coalition negotiations see Schulz, Brüning, 945 and 958; Rudolf Morsey (ed.), Die Protokolle der Reichstagsfraktion und des Fraktionsvorstands der deutschen Zentrumspartei 1926–1933 (Mainz, 1969), 315ff.; on the willingness of the leadership of the Centre to negotiate see ibid. No. 8; If Z, ED 93, Schäffer-TB, 11 August, concerning a meeting with Brüning. On the motives of the Nazi leadership see Goebbels TB, 14 August 1932.

  51. RSA 5/1, Docs 174 and 175 (quote).

  52. Goebbels TB, 26 August 1932. At a meeting with Schleicher Goebbels came to the conclusion that the former was continuing to pursue the idea of a presidential cabinet to include the Nazis only in order to lure the Party into a trap and to be able to dissolve the Reichstag. The only thing left was the ‘bitter idea of a coalition with the Centre in order to put Hindenburg and Schleicher under pressure’. Goebbels reported to Hitler along these lines. See ibid., 27 and 28 August 1932.

  53. Ibid., 26 August 1932. On the meeting between Brüning and Strasser see Brüning, Memoiren, 623; Rudolf Morsey, Der Untergang des politischen Katholizismus. Die Zentrumspartei zwischen christlichem Selbstverständnis und ‘nationaler Erhebung’ 1932/33 (Stuttgart/Zurich, 1977), 61.

  54. Joint declaration by the Centre and the NSDAP of 1 September 1932, published in Schulthess’ 1932, 151. There are various indications of the start of negotiations. See If Z, ED 93, Confidential message to Schäffer, 21 October 1932; ibid., vol. 22, Schäffer-TB, 1 September 1932, on the meeting with Brüning see Morsey (ed.), Protokolle, No. 707. On the negotiations see Morsey, ‘Die Deutsche Zentrumspartei’, in Erich Matthias and Morsey (eds), Das Ende der Parteien 1933 (Düsseldorf, 1960), 320f.; Morsey, Untergang, 60ff.; Schulz, Brüning, 967ff.

  55. Goebbels TB, 30 August 1932. Brüning confirmed in his memoirs that at this meeting he had offered to mediate between the NSDAP and the central committee of the Centre Party (623f.). See also Schulz, Brüning, 968; Morsey, Untergang, 61, dates the start of the negotiations between the Centre and the Nazis to 28 August.

  56. Kabinett von Papen, No. 120; Winkler, Weimar, 518f.

  57. Goebbels TB, 1–9 September 1932.

  58. Ibid., 9 and 11 September 1932. Morsey, Untergang, 61ff. on the negotiations and 65ff. on the subsequent attempt by the Centre to ‘hide their tracks’. On the plan to bring down Hindenburg see also Pyta, Hindenburg, 736.

  59. Brüning, Memoiren, 625f.

  60. On the negotiations see Morsey (ed.), Protokolle, No. 709.

  61. Pyta, Hindenburg, 737. The law, which was planned as a law to implement Article 51 finally, in December 1932 under altered circumstances, took the form of a law altering the constitution. See RGBl. 1932 I, 547.

  62. Goebbels TB, 13 August 1932; Die Verhandlungen des Reichstags, 6. Wahlperiode, 13ff. The Centre Party parliamentary group believed that, in view of the majority held by the NSDAP and KPD, there was no point in opposing the dissolution. See Morsey (ed.), Protokolle, No. 711.

  63. Schulz, Brüning, 973 and 993f.

  64. Goebbels TB, 14 September 1932.

  65. Paul, Aufstand, 104ff.; BAB, NS 26/263, Strictly confidential information from the Reich propaganda headquarters of 20, 25, and 27 October 1932.

  66. Turner, Großunternehmer, 335.

  67. Ibid., 344f.

  68. Paul, Aufstand, 249f.

  69. RSA 5/2, Doc. 5.

  70. Hitler’s election speeches in RSA 5/1, Doc. 187, and RSA 5/2, Docs 6–11, 13f, 16–22, 24f., 27–40, and Docs 42–60.

  71. Ibid., Doc. 15.

  72. Winkler, Weg, 765ff.; Klaus Rainer Röhl, Nähe zum Gegner. Kommunisten und Nationalsozialisten im Berliner BVG-Streik von 1932 (Frankfurt a. M. and New York, 1994).

  73. RSA 5/2, Doc. 58.

  74. Ibid., Doc. 61.

  75. Kabinett von Papen, No. 214. On
the other meetings see ibid., Nos 211–13; Schulz, Brüning, 1013f.

  76. Kabinett von Papen, No. 215; Schulz, Brüning, 1014f.

  77. On the preparations for the meeting see Goebbels TB, 19 November 1932.

  78. Kabinett von Papen, No. 222. On this meeting and what followed see Pyta, Hindenburg, 753ff.; Meissner, Staatssekretär, 247ff.

  79. RSA 5/2, Doc. 67.

  80. Goebbels TB, 22 November 1932; Pyta, Hindenburg 756f.; Kabinett von Papen, No. 224.

  81. RSA 5/2, Docs 67 and 69.

  82. Ibid., Docs 68–70; Hubatsch, Hindenburg, Nos 97 and 99.

  83. RSA 5/2, Doc. 69.

  84. Goebbels TB, 21 and 22 November 1932; in its Partei-Correspondenz the BVP had been very critical but not totally opposed to a Hitler chancellorship. See the Bayerische Kurier (BK), 22 November 1932, ‘Eine neue Lage.’, which Hitler immediately interpreted as a rejection.

  85. RSA 5/2, Doc. 69.

  86. Kabinett von Papen, No. 228.

  87. Hubatsch, Hindenburg, No. 99.

  88. Kabinett von Papen, No. 232. See also Goebbels TB, 24 November 1932.

  89. Ibid., 29 November 1932.

  90. Ibid., 1 December 1932.

  91. RSA 5/2, Doc. 74.

  92. Goebbels TB, 1 December 1932. Ott is wrongly referred to in this entry as Otte.

  93. Ibid., 2 December 1932. In the later version published by him he added to the word ‘toleration’ the half sentence ‘but that was out of the question’. In fact, at the beginning of December 1932, the Nazi leadership regarded this solution as a feasible option.

  94. Hubatsch, Hindenburg, No. 103.

  95. Kabinett von Papen, No. 239 b; for the war game see If Z, ZS 279, Ott note, 1946. On Schleicher’s soundings see Karl Dietrich Bracher, Die Auflösung der Weimarer Republik. Eine Studie zum Problem des Machtverfalls in der Demokratie (Königstein i.Ts., 1978), 667ff.; Thilo Vogelsang, Reichswehr, Staat und NSDAP. Beiträge zur deutschen Geschichte 1930–1932 (Stuttgart, 1962), 318ff.; Kissenkoetter, Straßer, 162ff.; Friedrich Karl von Plehwe, Reichskanzler Kurt von Schleicher. Weimars letzte Chance gegen Hitler (Frankfurt a. M. and Berlin, 1990), 234ff.; Irene Strenge, Kurt von Schleicher. Politik im Reichswehrministerium am Ende der Weimarer Republik (Berlin, 2006), 182ff.

  96. Goebbels TB, 6 December 1932.

  97. See, for example the report of the Tägliche Rundschau of 8 December 1932. Local government election results are poorly documented.

  98. Goebbels TB, 6 December 1932.

  99. For details see Longerich, Goebbels, 200ff.

  100. Moreover, motions for the introduction of winter aid for the unemployed and for the suspension of the whole emergency decree of 4 September 1932 were sent back to the committees. See Winkler, Weimar, 560.

  101. On 3 December the Schleicher cabinet had already discussed the question of whether, as the chancellor put it, ‘one couldn’t relax the domestic emergency decree a bit’. See Anton Golecki (ed.), Das Kabinett von Schleicher 1932/3. Akten der Reichskanzlei (Munich, 1986), No. 1. These efforts led to the Reich President’s Emergency Decree for the Maintenance of Domestic Peace of 19 December 1932, through which, among other things, the emergency decrees of 14 and 28 June, of 9 August, and of 2 November 1932 were suspended. See RGBl. 1932 I, 548, and the Reich government’s decree of the same day suspending the special courts (ibid., 550).

  102. Kabinett von Schleicher, No. 5.

  103. He visited Goebbels on 4, 5, and 6 December. On 7 December he appeared at a soirée at Leni Riefenstahl’s. See Goebbels TB, 5–8 December 1932.

  104. On the letter see Peter D. Stachura, ‘“Der Fall Straßer”. Gregor Straßer, Hitler and National Socialism, 1930–1933’, in Stachura, The Shaping of the Nazi State (London, 1978), 113ff. On this event see also Vossische Zeitung (VZ), 9 December 1932, ‘Konflikt Hitler–Straßer’ (headline); VZ, 10 December 1932, Konrad Heiden: ‘Schach oder matt? Gregor Straßers Rebellion’ (Leading article).

  105. RSA 5/2, No. 87. See also Goebbels TB, 9 December 1932, from which it is clear that this speech of Hitler’s should not be confused with that of the following day, as is also clear from Kershaw’s account in Hitler, 1, 496ff.

  106. Goebbels TB, 9 December 1932.

  107. RSA 5/2, Doc. 86.

  108. Tyrell (ed.), Führer, 369f.; RSA 5/2, Doc. 93f. and Docs 96–98.

  109. Ibid., Doc. 99, second part: Doc. 106 (quote). See also Hitler’s directive of 14 December 1932 (Doc. 93), according to which the memo should go only to top Party functionaries.

  110. Goebbels TB, 10 December 1932. The text of Hitler’s speeches has not survived.

  111. RSA 5/2, Doc. 100.

  112. Jutta Ciolek-Kümper, Wahlkampf in Lippe. Die Wahlkampfpropaganda der NSDAP zur Landtagswahl am 15. Januar 1933 (Munich, 1976); Goebbels TB, 5–15 January 1933.

  113. See Otto Dietrich, Mit Hitler in die Macht. Persönliche Erlebnisse mit meinem Führer (Munich, 1934), 173ff.

  114. Heinrich Muth, ‘Das “Kölner Gespräch” am 4. Januar 1933’, in Geschichte in Wissenschaft und Unterricht 37 (1986), 463–80.

  115. Goebbels TB, 10 January 1933.

  116. Henry Ashby Turner, Hitlers Weg zur Macht. Der Januar 1933 (Munich, 1997), 70ff. (on the basis of a reconstruction from three reports: (a) and (b) from the journalists Dertinger and Reiner, (c) from an unknown hand published in ibid., 247ff.).

  117. Kabinett von Schleicher, No. 56.

  118. Pyta, Hindenburg, 780; Meissner, Staatssekretär, 261f.

  119. Kabinett von Schleicher, Nos 50 and 51 (the resolution is recorded in note 16).

  120. Meissner, Staatssekretär, 251f. on Strasser’s reception by Hindenburg at the beginning of January. On the project of a Strasser vice-chancellorship see Schulz, Brüning, 1041f.; Turner, Weg, 116f.

  121. Kabinett von Schleicher, No. 54.

  122. Ciolek-Kümper, Wahlkampf.

  123. Goebbels TB, 17 January 1933; Rudolf Jordan, Erlebt und Erlitten. Weg eines Gauleiters von München bis Moskau (Leoni am Starnberger See, 1971), 90.

  124. Turner, Weg, 153ff.; Pyta, Hindenburg, 785ff. Joachim von Ribbentrop, Zwischen London und Moskau. Erinnerungen und Letzte Aufzeichnungen (Leoni am Starnberger See, 1953), 39, mentions Hitler, Frick, Göring, Körner, Meissner, Hindenburg, and Papen as his guests. According to this account Papen agreed to push through Hitler’s chancellorship. On the meeting see Meissner, Staatssekretär, 263f. He does not, however, mention his own presence.

  125. Goebbels TB, 25 January 1933.

  126. Turner, Weg, 157f.

  127. Ibid., 164f.; Pyta, Hindenburg, 772ff.

  128. Turner, Weg, 180; Ribbentrop, London, 39; Goebbels TB, 26 January 1933.

  129. Turner, Weg, 182; Ribbentrop, London, 40; Schmidt-Hannover, Umdenken, 332. According to Goebbels TB, 28 January 1933, Hugenberg wanted Schmidt as Hitler’s state secretary and the DNVP press spokesman, Hans Brosius, as the new government’s press spokesman. Also the Berlin police should be subordinated to the Reichswehr.

  130. Ribbentrop, London, 40f.

  131. Kabinett von Schleicher, No. 71f.

  132. Turner, Weg, 184f., according to Ribbentrop, London, 41; see also Papen, Wahrheit, 267ff.

  133. Turner, Weg, 185.

  134. Ibid., 186f.

  135. Ibid., 190f.

  136. Papen, Wahrheit, 271; Kirstin A. Schäfer, Werner von Blomberg. Hitlers erster Feldmarschall. Eine Biographie (Paderborn, 2006, 97f.).

  137. Turner, Weg, 192f.; Ribbentrop, London, 42.

  138. Turner, Weg, 193ff.

  139. Schmidt-Hannover, Umdenken, 334f.; Turner, Weg, 195f.; Theodor Duesterberg, Der Stahlhelm, und Hitler (Hamelin, 1950), 40f. Schmidt-Hannover, Umdenken, 334, makes it clear that the meeting took place on the 29th and not, as Duesterberg has it, on the 26th. See also Ewald von Kleist-Schmenzin, ‘Die letzte Möglichkeit’, in Politische Studien 10 (1959) (the piece was written in 1934).

  140. Turner, Weg, 202ff.; Goebbels TB, 30 January 1933.

  141. To Blomberg’s chief of staff, Walt
er von Reichenau, who had asked Hitler about his ideas on foreign policy and defence, to which Hitler had replied in December (‘Hitler’s letter’) – and to the chaplain of the military district, Ludwig Müller.

  142. Pyta, Hindenburg, 784.

  143. On the appointment of commissars see Friedrich Hartmannsgruber (ed.), Regierung Hitler 1933–1945, 7 vols (Berlin and Munich, 1983–2015), 1, No. 14.

  144. His proposal at the cabinet meeting of 3 February 1933 in ibid., No. 11.

  145. Turner, Weg, 198ff.

  146. Ibid., 204ff.; Duesterberg, Stahlhelm, 42.

  147. Turner, Weg, 206ff.; Duesterberg, Stahlhelm, 43; Papen, Wahrheit, 275f. (with the false assertion that this was the first time that Hitler had demanded new elections); Meissner, Staatssekretär, 269f.

  The Seizure of Power

  1. Kershaw, Hitler, 1, 547ff.; Hans Ulrich Thamer, Verführung und Gewalt. Deutschland 1933–1945 (Berlin, 1986), 232.

  2. Karl Dietrich Bracher, Stufen der Machtergreifung (Frankfurt a. M., 1983). From the extensive relevant literature see also Thamer, Verführung, 232ff.; Kershaw, Hitler 1, 547ff.; Irene Strenge, Machtübernahme; 1933 – alles auf legalem Weg? (Berlin, 2002); Michael Kissener (ed.), Der Weg in den Nationalsozialismus 1933/34 (Darmstadt, 2009); Andreas Wirsching (ed.), Das Jahr 1933. Die nationalsozialistische Machteroberung und die deutsche Gesellschaft (Göttingen, 2009).

  3. Regierung Hitler 1; Kershaw, Hitler, 1, 555.

  4. Goebbels TB, 31 January 1933; Papen, 297.

  5. On the negotiations see Rudolf Morsey, ‘Hitlers Verhandlungen mit der Zentrumsführung am 31. Januar’, in VfZ 9 (1961), Doc. 1f.; Morsey (ed.), Die Protokolle der Reichstagsfraktion und des Fraktionsvorstands der deutschen Zentrumspartei 1926–1933 (Mainz, 1969), 613; Max Domarus, Adolf Hitler, Reden und Dokumentationen 1932–1945. Kommentiert von einem deutschen Zeitgenossen, 2 vols (Neustadt a. d. Aisch, 1963), 1, 190f.; Walther Hofer, Der Nationalsozialismus – Dokumente 1933–1945 (Frankfurt a. M., 1957), 50f. See also Brüning, Memoiren, 648; Bracher, Stufen, 82ff.; Detlef Junker, Die deutsche Zentrumspartei und Hitler 1932–1933. Ein Beitrag zur Problematik des politischen Katholizismus in Deutschland (Stuttgart, 1969), 156ff.

  6. Regierung Hitler 1, No. 2.

  7. Ibid. (quote). On Gürtner see Lothar Gruchmann, Justiz im Dritten Reich 1933–1940. Anpassung und Unterwerfung in der Ära Gürtner (Munich, 1988), 9ff.; his appointment (basically a confirmation of his existing position) followed on 1 February. See Regierung Hitler 1, No. 1, Note 2.