Hitler: Ascent, 1889-1939 (143 page)

82 
Wilfried Daim,
Der Mann, der Hitler die Ideen gab:
Jörg Lanz von Liebenfels
, new and revised edition, Vienna, 1994.

83 
Quoted in Hamann,
Hitlers Wien
, p. 499.

84 
Hanisch, “I was Hitler’s Buddy,” p. 271. See also Franz Jetzinger, “Meine Erlebnisse mit Hitler Dokumenten,” notes dated 12 July 1953: “There is hardly a trace of anti-Jewish hatred in his periods in Linz and Vienna.” IfZ München, ZS 325.

85 
Hamann,
Hitlers Wien
, p. 498.

86 
For a summary see ibid., pp. 239–41.

87 
Konrad Heiden,
Adolf Hitler: Das Zeitalter der Verantwortungslosigkeit: Eine Biographie
, Zurich, 1936, p. 28.

88 
Recording of the owner of Kafee Kubata, Marie Wohlrabe, from 11 June 1940, and statements of the woman serving at the till, Maria Fellinger, on 17 June 1940; BA Berlin-Lichterfelde, NS 26/17a. Analysed in Kershaw,
Hitler: Hubris,
p. 620f.n87.

89 
See Hamann,
Hitlers Wien
, p. 568.

90 
For Rudolf Häusler’s biography see ibid., pp. 566–8; Machtan,
Hitlers Geheimnis
, pp. 67ff.

91 
Facsimile of the registration form in Joachimsthaler,
Korrektur
, p. 17.

92 
Hitler
, Mein Kampf
, p. 138.

93 
See David Clay Large,
Where Ghosts Walked: Munich’s Road to the Third Reich
, New York and London, 1997, pp. 3–42.

94 
See Schwarz,
Geniewahn
, pp. 70f.

95 
Hitler
, Mein Kampf
, p. 139.

96 
Erich Mühsam,
Unpolitische Erinnerungen: Mit einem Nachwort von Hubert van den Berg
, Hamburg, 1999, p. 89.

97 
Hitler,
Monologe
, p. 115 (dated 29 Oct. 1941). For Heilmann & Littmann see Schwarz,
Geniewahn
, pp. 76f.

98 
Hans Schirmer’s report reprinted in Joachimsthaler,
Korrektur
, pp. 84f.; see further reports from the NSDAP main archive by people who bought paintings in Munich on pp. 85–9.

99 
On Hitler’s escape from registering for the draft, see the description and documents in Jetzinger,
Hitlers Jugend
, pp. 253–65.

100 
First published in ibid., pp. 262–4 (see p. 273 for the facsimile of the letter); also in Hitler,
Sämtliche Aufzeichnungen
, no. 20, pp. 53–5. On the attempt by the SS to gain possession of Hitler’s military record after the
Anschluss
, see Franz Jetzinger, “Meine Erlebnisse mit Hitler-Dokumenten.”

101 
Jetzinger,
Hitlers Jugend
, p. 265.

102 
Quoted in Joachimsthaler,
Korrektur
, pp. 78f.

3
The Experience of War

1 
Adolf Hitler,
Mein Kampf. Vol. 1: Eine Abrechnung
, 7th edition, Munich, 1933, p. 179. See Hitler’s explanation from 14 April 1926: “I wore a soldier’s grey uniform for almost six years. Of my time on Earth, these six years will remain not only my most eventful but also my most cherished years.” Adolf Hitler,
Reden, Schriften, Anordnungen—Februar 1925 bis Januar 1933. Vol. 1: Die Wiedergründung der NSDAP Februar 1925–Juni 1926
, ed. and annotated Clemens Vollnhals, Munich, London, New York and Paris 1992, no. 123, p. 383.

2 
This is also quite rightly emphasised in Ian Kershaw,
Hitler 1889–1936: Hubris
, London, 1998, p. 73. Thomas Weber’s contrary thesis—that the First World War did not form Hitler but rather that he remained fully open and malleable—is unconvincing; Thomas Weber
, Hitler’s First War: Adolf Hitler, the Men of the List Regiment, and the First World War
, Oxford and New York, pp. 254, 345. After he was shunted off as a consul general to San Francisco in January 1939, Hitler’s former adjutant Fritz Wiedemann used the trans-Atlantic crossing aboard the MS
Hamburg
to jot down his key memories. Wiedemann summarised what Hitler had said upon appointing him before Christmas in 1933: “Emphasised importance of war and revolution for own development. Said, ‘Otherwise I would have likely made an excellent architect.’ ” BA Koblenz, N 1720/4.

3 
Hitler,
Mein Kampf
, p. 174.

4 
Kurt Riezler,
Tagebücher, Aufsätze und Dokumente
, ed. and introduced Karl Dietrich Erdmann, Göttingen 1972, p. 183 (entry for 7 July 1914). On the German Reich leadership’s risky politics during the July 1914 crisis see Volker Ullrich,
Die nervöse Grossmacht: Aufstieg und Untergang des deutschen Kaiserreichs 1871–1918
, Frankfurt am Main, 1997, pp. 250–63.

5 
Hitler,
Mein Kampf
, p. 176. Later, with an eye towards the outbreak of the First World War, Hitler declared: “The most devastating thing for the German government is not that it did not want war, but that in fact it was manoeuvred into war against its own volition.” Adolf Hitler,
Reden, Schriften, Anordnungen—Februar 1925 bis Januar 1933. Vol. 2: Vom Weimarer Parteitag bis zur Reichstagswahl Juli 1926–Mai 1928. Part 1: Juli 1926–Juli 1927
, ed. and annotated Bärbel Dusik, Munich, London, New York and Paris, 1992, no. 104, p. 256 (dated 17 April 1927).

6 
First reprinted in Egmont Zechlin, “Bethmann Hollweg, Kriegsrisiko und SPD,” in
Der Monat
, no. 208 (1966), p. 32.

7 
See
Das Hitler-Bild: Die Erinnerungen des Fotografen Heinrich Hoffmann
, ed. Joe J. Heydecker, St. Pölten and Salzburg, 2008, p. 49. This is a reprint of a series based on audio recordings that appeared, starting in November 1954, in
Münchner Illustrierte
magazine.

8 
Quoted in Anton Joachimsthaler,
Korrektur einer Biographie: Adolf Hitler 1908–1920
, Munich, 1989, p. 101.

9 
When Hitler happened to see the photo at Hoffmann’s studio, he reportedly remarked: “I too was in that crowd!” Hoffmann promptly enlarged the image and succeeded in locating Hitler. The photographer later recalled: “The photo quickly became world-famous. There was hardly a newspaper in Germany or abroad that did not publish it. We had to make thousands and thousands of prints to satisfy the demand.” Heydecker
, Hoffmann- Erinnerungen
, p. 50. See also, Heinrich Hoffmann,
Hitler wie ich ihn sah: Aufzeichnungen seines Leibfotographen
, Munich and Berlin, 1974, pp. 32f. Recently the authenticity of the photographs has been doubted: see Sven Felix Kellerhof, “Berühmtes Hitler-Foto möglicherweise gefälscht,” in
Die Welt
, 14 Oct. 2010. On Hoffman’s darkroom see Rudolf Herz,
Hoffmann & Hitler: Fotografie als Medium des Führer-Mythos
, Munich, 1994, p. 26ff.; Heike B. Görtemaker,
Eva Braun: Leben mit Hitler
, Munich, 2010, pp. 14ff.

10 
Hitler,
Mein Kampf
, p. 177.

11 
Stefan Zweig,
Die Welt von Gestern: Erinnerungen eines Europäers
, Stuttgart and Hamburg, p. 254.

12 
Erich Mühsam,
Tagebücher 1910–1924
, ed. and with an afterword by Chris Hirte, Munich, 1994, pp. 101, 109 (entries for 3/4 and 11 Aug. 1914).

13 
Quoted in Bernd Ulrich and Benjamin Ziemann (eds),
Frontalltag im Ersten Weltkrieg: Wahn und Wirklichkeit
, Frankfurt am Main, 1994, p. 31. See also Benjamin Ziemann,
Front und Heimat:
Ländliche Kriegserfahrungen in Bayern 1914–1923
, Essen, 1997, pp. 41ff.

14 
Richard J. Evans (ed),
Kneipengespräche im Kaiserreich: Die Stimmungsberichte der Hamburger Politischen Polizei 1892–1914
, Reinbek by Hamburg, 1989, p. 415 (dated 24 and 29 July 1917).

15 
Thomas Mann, “Gedanken im Kriege,” in
Essays II: 1914–1916
, ed. and with critical commentary by Hermann Kurzke, Frankfurt am Main, 2002, p. 32.

16 
Hitler,
Mein Kampf
, p. 177.

17 
See ibid., p. 179.

18 
See the detailed account in Joachimsthaler,
Korrektur
, pp. 102–9, which is based on research done by Bavarian officials in 1924.

19 
See ibid., p. 113.

20 
See ibid., p. 114; Weber,
Hitler’s First War
, pp. 21–4; Fritz Wiedemann,
Der Mann, der Feldherr werden wollte: Erlebnisse und Erfahrungen des Vorgesetzten Hitlers im 1. Weltkrieg und seines späteren persönlichen Adjutanten
, Velbert and Kettwig, 1964, p. 18.

21 
Hitler to A. Popp, 20 Oct. 1914; Adolf Hitler,
Sämtliche Aufzeichnungen 1905–1924
, ed. Eberhard Jäckel with Axel Kuhn, Stuttgart, 1980, no. 24, p. 59.

22 
Hitler,
Mein Kampf
, p. 180.

23 
Hitler to A. Popp, 20 Oct. 1914; Hitler,
Sämtliche Aufzeichnungen
, no. 24, p. 59.

24 
Ibid., no. 25, p. 59.

25 
Adolf Hitler,
Monologe im Führerhauptquartier 1941–1944: Die Aufzeichnungen Heinrich Heims
, ed. Werner Jochmann, Hamburg, 1980, pp. 407f. (dated 23 March 1944). See
Die Tagebücher von Joseph Goebbels. Part 1: Aufzeichnungen 1923–1941
, ed. Elke Fröhlich, Munich, 1998–2006, vol. 5, p. 253 (entry for 10 April 1938): “The Führer told of how the song ‘Die Wacht am Rhein’ had moved him when he crossed over [the river] for the first time in October 1914.”

26 
Hitler to J. Popp, 3 Dec. 1914; Hitler,
Sämtliche Aufzeichnungen
, no. 26, p. 60.

27 
Based on John Horne and Alan Kramer,
Deutsche Kriegsgreuel 1914: Die umstrittene Wahrheit
, Hamburg 2004, pp. 65–72.

28 
See Joachimsthaler,
Korrektur
, p. 120.

29 
Hitler to E. Hepp, 5 Feb. 1915; Hitler,
Sämtliche Aufzeichnungen
, no. 30, pp. 64–9.

30 
Hitler’s account tallies with the numbers in the official regiment history. Its fighting strength had decreased to a mere 750 men and non-commissioned officers and 4 officers. This means that of the regiment’s 3,000 soldiers, around 70 per cent fell or were wounded in battle. See Fridolin Solleder (ed.),
Vier Jahre Westfront: Geschichte des Regiment List RIR 16
, Munich, 1932, p. 60. See Weber,
Hitler’s First War
, pp. 48f.

31 
Hitler,
Mein Kampf
, p. 130f. See also a letter by Rudolf Hess from 29 June 1924: “Yesterday, the tribune told stories from 1914 that were so vivid and fascinating that I felt overwhelmed.” BA Bern, Nl Hess; quoted in Othmar Plöckinger,
Geschichte eines Buches: Adolf Hitlers “Mein Kampf” 1922–1945
, Munich, 2006, p. 48.

32 
R. Hess to I. Pröhl, 29 June 1924; Rudolf Hess,
Briefe 1908–1933
, ed. Rüdiger Hess, Munich and Vienna, 1987, p. 342.

33 
Hitler to J. Popp, 26 Jan. 1915; Hitler,
Sämtliche Aufzeichnungen
, no. 29, p. 63.

34 
See Wiedemann,
Der Mann
, p. 24; Balthasar Brandmayer,
Zwei Meldegänger
, Bruckmühl, 1932, p. 48.

35 
Hitler to J. Popp, 3 Dec. 1914; Hitler,
Sämtliche Aufzeichnungen
no. 26, p. 60.

36 
The incident is described in Hitler’s letter to E. Hepp, 22 Jan. 1915; ibid., no. 27, p. 68.

37 
Hitler to J. Popp, 3 Dec. 1914; ibid., no. 26, p. 61.

38 
Hitler to J. Popp, 26 Jan. 1915; ibid., no. 29, pp. 63f.

39 
Hitler to E. Hepp, 5 Feb. 1915; ibid., no. 30, pp. 68f.

40 
Quoted in Michael Jürgs,
Der kleine Frieden im Grossen Krieg. Westfront 1914: Als Deutsche, Franzosen und Briten gemeinsam Weihnachten feierten
, Munich, 2003, p. 43.

41 
Ibid., p. 87. See Weber,
Hitler’s First War
, p. 61.

42 
Statement by Heinrich Lugauer, a runner in RIR. 16, on 5 Feb. 1940; BA Berlin-Lichterfelde, NS 26/47. See Weber,
Hitler’s First War
, p. 63.

43 
Hitler,
Monologe
, p. 46 (entry for 24/25 July 1941). See ibid., p. 71 (entry for 25/26 Sept. 1941): “I’m infinitely grateful that I experienced the war as I did.” Goebbels,
Tagebücher
, part 1, vol. 2/1, p. 203 (entry for 21 July 1930): “Boss told us about the war. It’s his favourite topic and one that never runs dry.”

44 
Adolf Hitler,
Reden, Schriften, Anordnungen—Februar 1925 bis Januar 1933. Vol. 3: Zwischen den Reichstagswahlen Juli 1928–September 1930. Part 3: Januar 1930–September 1930
, ed. Christian Hartmann, Munich, 1994, doc. 116, p. 430 (dated 16 Sept.1930). See Otto Wagener,
Hitler aus nächster Nähe: Aufzeichnungen eines Vertrauten 1929–1932
, ed. Henry A. Turner, Frankfurt am Main, Berlin and Vienna, 1978, p. 142: Wagener recounts Hitler saying that, after reading a book on the Battle of the Somme, he only then fully understood “why someone would lie in a dirty hole and hold out.” See also Hess,
Briefe
, p. 263 (dated Aug. 1920): “From the very beginning to the end of the war, Hitler was on the frontlines as a common soldier.”