Hitler: Ascent, 1889-1939 (160 page)

111 
See Christopher Kopper,
Hjalmar Schacht: Aufstieg und Fall von Hitlers mächtigstem Bankier
, Munich and Vienna, 2006, pp. 173–7.

112 
Fromm,
Als Hitler mir die Hand küsste
, p. 32 (dated 12 Feb. 1930).

113 
Kopper,
Hjalmar Schacht
, p. 189.

114 
Hjalmar Schacht,
76 Jahre meines Lebens
, Bad Wörishofen, 1953, p. 351. See Kopper,
Hjalmar Schacht
, pp. 188f. On the role of Stauss see Turner,
Grossunternehmer
, pp. 174f. Hitler had spoken with Stauss in Göring’s apartment as early as the end of September 1930. See Goebbels,
Tagebücher
, part 1, vol. 1/2, p. 251 (entry for 30 Sept. 1930).

115 
Goebbels,
Tagebücher
, part 1, vol. 2/1, p. 319 (entry for 6 Jan. 1931).

116 
Schacht,
76 Jahre
, p. 351. On the meeting of 5 Jan. 1931 see also Kopper,
Hjalmar Schacht
, pp. 189–91; Eglau,
Fritz Thyssen
, pp. 120–2; Turner,
Grossunternehmer
, p. 176.

117 
Schacht,
76 Jahre
, p. 352.

118 
Otto Wagener,
Hitler aus nächster Nähe: Aufzeichnungen eines Vertrauten 1929–1932
, ed. Henry A. Turner, Frankfurt am Main, Berlin and Vienna, 1978, p. 398.

119 
Goebbels,
Tagebücher
, part 1, vol. 2/1, p. 327 (entry for 18 Jan. 1931); Hess,
Briefe
, pp. 405f. (dated 24 Oct. 1930).

120 
See, for example, Carl von Ossietzky: “In his early years, Adolf Hitler may have acted out of a genuine ignorance. Today he’s only a creature of industry.”
Sämtliche Schriften
, vol. 5, p. 435 (dated 9 Sept. 1930). Kurt Hiller wrote in
Die Weltbühne
, 23 Sept. 1930, p. 468: “National Socialism has been bought off by the industrialists who act according to the principle ‘divide and conquer’ and fragment the proletariat into warring factions.”

121 
See Turner,
Grossunternehmer
, pp. 139–53.

122 
See Kolb,
Die Weimarer Republik
, p. 122.

123 
See Turner,
Grossunternehmer
, pp. 157, 164. In a parliamentary faction meeting in June 1929, Göring sneered to Feder: “You know yourself that your economic policies aren’t binding for the party.” G. Feder’s diaries, vol. 11 (entry for 4 June 1929); IfZ München, ED 874.

124 
Turner,
Grossunternehmer
, p. 165.

125 
Wagener,
Hitler aus nächster Nähe
, p. 443.

126 
See Turner,
Grossunternehmer
, p. 160. The meeting was arranged by Admiral Magnus von Levetzow, Kaiser Wilhelms II’s political attaché, who had been a follower of the Nazi movement since September 1930. See Gerhard Granier,
Magnus von Levetzow: Seeoffizier, Monarchist und Wegbereiter Hitlers: Lebensweg und ausgewählte Dokumente,
Boppard am Rhein, 1982, pp. 153f.

127 
Stefan Frech,
Wegbereiter Hitlers? Theodor Reismann-Grone: Ein völkischer Nationalist, 1863–1949
, Paderborn, 2009, p. 288.

128 
Hitler,
Reden, Schriften, Anordnungen
, vol. 3, part 3, doc. 36, pp. 141–4 (quotation on p. 144). See Turner,
Grossunternehmer
, pp. 10f.; Manfred Asendorf, “Hamburger Nationalklub, Keppler-Kreis, Arbeitsstelle Schacht und der Aufstieg Hitlers,” in
1999: Zeitschrift für Sozialgeschichte des 19. und 20. Jahrhunderts
, 2 (1987), pp. 123–6.

129 
Goebbels,
Tagebücher
, part 1, vol. 2/1, pp. 366, 371 (entries for 17 and 25 March 1931). Comment about Repuke quoted in Dirk Stegmann, “Zum Verhältnis von Grossindustrie und Nationalsozialismus 1930–1933,” in
Archiv für Sozialgeschichte
13 (1973), p. 419. See also Turner,
Grossunternehmer
, pp. 168f.; Longerich,
Goebbels
, p. 144.

130 
See Wagener,
Hitler aus nächster Nähe
, pp. 478–80; Turner,
Grossunternehmer
, p. 172.

131 
See Stegmann, “Zum Verhältnis,” pp. 418f.; Turner,
Grossunternehmer
, pp. 178, 181f.

132 
See Oron James Hale, “Adolf Hitler: Taxpayer,” in
American Historical Review
, 60 (1955), pp. 830–42; Turner,
Grossunternehmer
, pp. 185f.

133 
See Turner,
Grossunternehmer
, pp. 186f.; see also
Hitlers Tischgespräche im Führerhauptquartier
, ed. Henry Picker, Stuttgart, 1976, p. 423 (dated 6 July 1942); Hanfstaengl,
Zwischen Weissem und Braunem Haus
, p. 216.

134 
See Turner,
Grossunternehmer
, pp. 187f.; see also Hitler’s statement dated 7 April 1932 in Adolf Hitler,
Reden, Schriften, Anordnungen—Februar 1925 bis Januar 1933. Vol. 5: Von der Reichspräsidentenwahl bis zur Machtergreifung April 1932–Januar 1933. Part 1: April 1932–September 1932
, ed. Klaus A. Lankheit, Munich, 1996, doc. 19, pp. 36f. On Hitler’s new Berlin residence see Friedrich,
Die missbrauchte Hauptstadt
, pp. 291–4.

135 
Winkler,
Weimar
, p. 421.

136 
Thea Sternheim,
Tagebücher
, vol. 2, p. 362 (entry for 13 July 1931). See Goebbels,
Tagebücher
, part 1, vol. 2/2, p. 57 (entry for 15 July 1931): “Danatbank is closing its counters. Panic on the markets and in the economy. A giant scandal.”

137 
See Falter
et al.
,
Wahlen und Abstimmungen
, pp. 100, 94, 95.

138 
Goebbels,
Tagebücher
, part 1, vol. 2/1, p. 328 (entry for 18 Jan. 1931), p. 407 (entry for 17 May 1931).

139 
Hitler,
Reden, Schriften, Anordnungen
, vol. 4, part 2, doc. 12, pp. 39f. (dated 21 July 1931).

140 
Ibid., doc. 20, pp. 65–7 (quote on p. 66). The previous quote in ibid., p. 67n15.

141 
Goebbels,
Tagebücher
, part 1, vol. 2/2, pp. 73f. (entry for 10 Aug. 1931).

142 
See Walter,
Antisemitische Kriminalität und Gewalt
, pp. 211–21 (quotations on pp. 213, 218); Wirsching,
Vom Weltkrieg zum Bürgerkrieg?
, pp. 463f.; Friedrich,
Die missbrauchte Hauptstadt
, pp. 319–25.

143 
Hitler,
Reden, Schriften, Anordnungen
, vol. 5, part 2, doc. 31, pp. 104–6 (quotation on pp. 105f.) and report by the Munich police headquarters on Hitler’s speech in ibid., p. 106n16.

144 
Hess,
Briefe
, p. 414 (dated 9 Sept. 1931).

145 
Astrid Pufendorf,
Die Plancks: Eine Familie zwischen Patriotimus und Widerstand
, Berlin, 2006, p. 252. On Hindenburg’s plans in the autumn of 1931 see Pyta,
Hindenburg
, pp. 629f. See also Brüning,
Memoiren
, p. 386, who wrote that Hindenburg spoke generally on 13 Sept. 1931 about the need to “move more to the right.”

146 
Goebbels,
Tagebücher
, part 1, vol. 2/2, p. 116 (entry for 5 Oct. 1931). See Longerich,
Goebbels
, p.162f.

147 
Quoted in Deuerlein,
Aufstieg
, p. 355. See Thilo Vogelsang,
Reichswehr, Staat und NSDAP: Beiträge zur deutschen Geschichte 1930–1932
, Stuttgart, 1962, pp. 135–7. See also
Die Deutschnationalen und die Zerstörung der Weimarer Republik: Aus dem Tagebuch von Reinhold Quaatz 1928–1933
, ed. Hermann Weiss and Paul Hoser, Munich, 1989, p. 157 (entry for 20 Oct. 1931): “Schleicher characterised Hitler precisely as a dreamer and an unstable character, even if full of patriotic desires.”

148 
Brüning,
Memoiren
, p. 391. See Hömig,
Brüning: Kanzler in der Krise
, pp. 397f.

149 
On Hitler’s meeting with Hindenburg of 10 Oct. 1931 see Pyta,
Hindenburg
, pp. 634–7. Further, Hitler,
Monologe
, p. 211 (dated 18 Jan. 1942): “I immediately crossed the bridge to becoming a soldier, but it was a huge challenge to cross the bridge into politics.”

150 
Brüning,
Memoiren
, p. 391; Ernst von Weizsäcker,
Erinnerungen
, Munich, 1950, p. 103; see Hömig,
Brüning: Kanzler in der Krise
, p. 398.

151 
Pyta,
Hindenburg
, p. 1014n43 und p. 634.

152 
Goebbels,
Tagebücher
, part 1, vol. 2/2, p. 121 (entry for 12 Oct. 1931). Hitler told Magnus von Levetzow that his “general estimation of the old man” was that he was “an unimportant but not unlikeable figure.” Granier,
Magnus von Levetzow
, p. 311 (dated 14 Oct. 1932). By contrast, among party comrades, Hitler supposedly described Hindenburg as “a trembling old man unable to take a leak.” Krebs,
Tendenzen und Gestalten
, p. 34.

153 
See Richter,
Deutsche Volkspartei
, pp. 713ff.; Reinhard Neebe,
Grossindustrie, Staat und NSDAP 1930–1933
, Göttingen, 1981, pp. 99–110; Winkler,
Weimar
, pp. 430f.

154 
Hitler,
Reden, Schriften, Anordnungen
, vol. 4, part 2, doc. 46, pp. 134–59 (quotations on pp. 143, 152). See also Hitler to Brüning, 13 Dec. 1931, Ibid., doc. 94, pp. 264–92 (particularly p. 287).

155 
See Schacht,
76 Jahre meines Lebens
, pp. 367f.; Kopper,
Hjalmar Schacht
, pp. 191–4.

156 
Turner,
Grossunternehmer
, p. 220. See also Erich von Gilsa to Paul Reusch, 13 Oct. 1931: “Noticeably, none of the true leaders of industry were present.” Schulz,
Von Brüning zu Hitler
, p. 559n825.

157 
Goebbels,
Tagebücher
, part 1, vol. 2/2, p. 121 (entry for 12 Oct. 1931).

158 
Hitler to Franz Seldte, 2 Dec. 1931; Hitler,
Reden, Schriften, Anordnungen
, vol 4, part 2, doc. 82, pp. 226–31 (quotation on p. 228). See Otto Schmidt-Hannover,
Umdenken oder Anarchie: Männer—Schicksale—Lehren
, Göttingen, 1959, p. 182, where Hitler in Bad Harzburg is described as “cocky and scatterbrained…like a cross between a prima donna and a Napoleon imitator.” On how the Harzburg rally came about and the events of the day, see the recent account by Larry Eugene Jones, “Nationalists, Nazis, and the Assault against Weimar: Revisiting the Harzburg Rally of October 1931,” in
German Studies Review
, 29 (2006), pp. 483–94 (particularly p. 488).

159 
Hitler,
Reden, Schriften, Anordnungen
, vol. 4, part 2, doc. 43 and 44, pp. 123–32 (quotation on p. 130). See Goebbels,
Tagebücher
, part 1, vol. 2/2, p. 122 (entry for 12 Oct. 1931), who described Hitler as “pale as a ghost” and “in bad form” but still “miles above everyone else.”

160 
Vossische Zeitung
, 28 Oct. 1931; BA Berlin-Lichterfelde, NS 26/87. In a letter to Otto Schmidt-Hannover on 3 January 1932, Hugenberg complained about “the ugly game that the National Socialists are playing with their former allies.” BA Koblenz, N 1231/39.

161 
On a car trip to the wedding of Magda and Joseph Goebbels on 19 Dec. 1931, Hitler told Victoria von Dirksen, an aristocrat who sympathised with the National Socialists, that he needed to assume power as soon as possible, which was “why he was looking around in all directions for allies.” He added that he would reach agreement with Hugenberg “when the moment was right.” See the letter from DNVP Press Officer Hans Brosius to Hugenberg (based on statements by Dirksen), 23 Dec. 1931; BA Koblenz, N 1231/192. On the role of the Dirksen Salon as a go-between connecting the traditional aristocracy and National Socialism, see Stephan Malinowski,
Vom König zum Führer: Sozialer Niedergang und politische Radikalisierung im deutschen Adel zwischen Kaiserreich und NS-Staat
, Berlin, 2003, pp. 554f.

162 
Hitler,
Reden, Schriften, Anordnungen
, vol. 4, part 2, doc. 48, pp. 159–64 (quotation on p. 160).

163 
Goebbels,
Tagebücher
, part 1, vol. 2/2, p. 128 (entry for 19 Oct. 1931).

164 
Deuerlein,
Aufstieg
, pp. 361f. On the “Boxheim documents” see Ulrich Herbert,
Best: Biographische Studien über Radikalismus, Weltanschauung und Vernunft 1903–1989
, Bonn 1996, pp. 112–19. See also Bracher,
Auflösung
, pp. 431–5; Schulz,
Von Brüning zu Hitler
, pp. 604–8; Winkler,
Weimar
, pp. 433f.

165 
Quoted in Herbert,
Best
, p. 116.

166 
Thea Sternheim,
Tagebücher
, vol. 2, p. 379 (entry for 27 Nov. 1931).

167 
Quoted in Schulz,
Von Brüning zu Hitler
, p. 608.

168 
Report in
The Times
of 5 Dec. 1931 on Hitler’s press conference; Hitler,
Reden, Schriften, Anordnungen
, vol. 4, part 2, doc. 83, pp. 231–5. See ibid., doc. 91, pp. 256–9 (Hitler’s article of 11 Dec. 1931, originally conceived to be a speech on American radio).