Hitler: Ascent, 1889-1939 (191 page)

10 
See Speer,
Erinnerungen
, pp. 99f., 101f., 103f.; Dietrich,
12 Jahre mit Hitler
, p. 223; Schroeder,
Er war mein Chef
, pp. 176f.; Albert Speer,
“Alles was ich weiss”: Aus unbekannten Geheimdienstprotokollen vom Sommer 1945
, ed. Ulrich Schlie, Munich, 1999, pp. 237f.; Joachim Fest,
Hitler: Eine Biographie
, Frankfurt am Main, Berlin and Vienna, 1973, pp. 713f., 722. For Gerdy Troost’s biography and her role in the Third Reich see Timo Nüsslein,
Paul Ludwig Troost 1878–1934
, Vienna, Cologne and Weimar, 2012, pp. 175–83.

11 
Traudl Junge,
Bis zur letzten Stunde: Hitlers Sekretärin erzählt ihr Leben
, Munich, 2002, p. 91. On Hitler’s paintings in the Great Hall see Birgit Schwarz,
Geniewahn: Hitler und die Kunst
, Vienna, Cologne and Weimar, 2009, pp. 159–73.

12 
See Schroeder,
Er war mein Chef
, p. 177; Junge,
Bis zur letzten Stunde
, pp. 67, 69f.;
Das Hitler-Bild: Die Erinnerungen des Fotografen Heinrich Hoffmann
, ed. Joe J. Heydecker, St. Pölten and Salzburg, 2008, p. 176; Joachimsthaler,
Hitlers Liste
, pp. 501, 503.

13 
See Schroeder,
Er war mein Chef
, pp. 178f.; Junge,
Bis zur letzten Stunde
, pp. 67f.; Heinrich Hoffmann,
Hitler wie ich ihn sah: Aufzeichnungen seines Leibfotographen
, Munich and Berlin, 1974, p. 159; Speer,
Erinnerungen
, p. 102.

14 
Rochus Misch,
Der letzte Zeuge: “Ich war Hitlers Telefonist, Kurier und Leibwächter,
” Zurich and Munich, 2008, p. 96. See also Anna Plaim and Kurt Kuch,
Bei Hitlers: Zimmermädchen Annas Erinnerungen
, Munich, 2005, pp. 38f.; Joachimsthaler,
Hitlers Liste
, p. 458.

15 
See Nerin E. Gun,
Eva Braun-Hitler: Leben und Schicksal
, Velbert und Kettwig, 1968, p. 82.

16 
Quoted in Görtemaker,
Eva Braun
, p. 92.

17 
Hans Baur,
Ich flog Mächtige der Erde
, Kempten im Allgäu, 1956, p. 113.

18 
Speer,
Erinnerungen
, p. 59.

19 
Ibid.; contrary to this see Gun,
Eva Braun-Hitler
, p. 85; Schroeder,
Er war mein Chef
, p. 172; Joachimsthaler,
Hitlers Liste
, pp. 300, 442.

20 
See the receipts in BA Berlin-Lichterfelde, NS 26/2557 (for 1932), NS 26/115 und NS 26/120 (for 1933/34).

21 
As in Gun,
Eva Braun-Hitler
, pp. 91f.; see Schroeder,
Er war mein Chef
, p. 164; Joachimsthaler,
Hitlers Liste
, pp. 300, 442.

22 
See, with the party rally in 1935 incorrectly dated, Schroeder,
Er war mein Chef
, p. 165; Ernst Hanfstaengl,
Zwischen Weissem und Braunem Haus: Erinnerungen eines politischen Aussenseiters
, Munich, 1970, p. 165; Joachimsthaler,
Hitlers Liste
, pp. 301f., 456f.; Görtemaker,
Eva Braun
, pp. 144f.; Guido Knopp,
Geheimnisse des “Dritten Reiches,
” Munich, 2011, p. 313. Gun (
Eva Braun-Hitler
, p. 94) does not discuss why Angela Raubal was removed from the Berghof. She also cites the wrong year, 1936.

23 
Goebbels,
Tagebücher
, part 1, vol. 3/1, p. 122 (entry for 19 Oct. 1934). On 28 Aug. 1934, Joseph and Magda Goebbels, together with their daughter Helga, visited the Obersalzberg and met Frau Raubal, who was “very nice” to them. Ibid., p. 99 (29 Aug. 1934). In mid-October 1934, Goebbels wondered why Hitler was no longer inviting him and his wife to dinner: “We have the feeling that someone has turned him against us. That has hurt us both.” Ibid., p. 119 (entry for 15 Oct. 1934).

24 
Ibid., pp. 216f
.
(entry for 13 April 1935).

25 
Ibid., p. 329 (entry for 15 Nov. 1935).

26 
Angela Hammitzsch to Rudolf Hess, 22 May 1936; BA Bern, Nl Hess, J1.211-1993/300, Box 6. Hess invited Hitler’s half-sister to stay with him when she came to Munich. Hess to Angela Hammitzsch, 22 June 1936; ibid. On Angela Raubal’s wedding see Schroeder,
Er war mein Chef
, p. 165; Joachimsthaler,
Hitlers Liste
, p. 303.

27 
See Goebbels,
Tagebücher
, part 1, vol. 4, p. 59 (entry for 19 March 1937): “Had a long talk with Frau Raubal. The Führer’s reserve hurts a lot. Otherwise she’s quite happy with her husband.” In June 1937, Hitler and Goebbels met with Angela Hammitzsch in Dresden and had an “enjoyable lively evening.” Ibid., p. 196 (25 June 1937). According to Therese Linke, Angela Raubal also spent a few days again on the Obersalzberg with her husband, presumably in the late 1930s; IfZ München, ZS 3135. Max Wünsche’s appointment book contains an entry for Frau Hammitzsch’s visit on 7 Oct. 1939. BA Berlin-Lichterfelde, NS 10/591.

28 
As in Görtemaker,
Eva Braun
, p. 116; see Knopp,
Geheimnisse des “Dritten Reiches,
” pp. 313f
.

29 
Goebbels,
Tagebücher
, part 1, vol. 3/1, p. 177 (entry for 31 Jan. 1935). See ibid., p. 179 (entry for 4 Feb. 1935): “Long talk with the Führer. Personal things. He spoke of women, marriage, love and loneliness. I’m probably the only one he talks to like this.”

30 
Reprinted in Gun,
Eva Braun-Hitler
, pp. 190f.; facsimile of the letter ibid., between pp. 192 and 193. On the existence of the bunker in Wasserburgstrasse 12 see ibid., p. 121.

31 
See Görtemaker,
Eva Braun
, pp. 101f.

32 
Ilse Fucke-Michels to Nerin E. Gun, 8 April 1967; facsimile in Gun,
Eva Braun-Hitler
, p. 69.

33 
Werner Maser,
Adolf Hitler: Legende—Mythos—Wirklichkeit
, 12th edition, Munich and Esslingen, 1989, pp. 332–75. Maser introduces the diary with the remark that it has “more to say about Hitler’s relations with women than most substantial ‘reports’ and interpretations by ‘initiated’ observers and ostensibly well-informed biographers’ (p. 331). Anna Maria Sigmund, too, sees the fragmentary diary as a “mirror of Eva Braun’s psyche”; Anna Maria Sigmund,
Des Führers bester Freund: Adolf Hitler, seine Nichte Geli Raubal und der “Ehrenarier” Emil Maurice—Eine Dreiecksbeziehung
, Munich, 2003, p. 170.

34 
Joachimsthaler,
Hitlers Liste
, p. 444; see also on p. 447 a sample of Eva Braun’s handwriting. See also Eva Braun to Ilse Hess from the Obersalzberg, 2 Jan. [1938]; BA Bern, Nl Hess, J2.211-1993/300, Box 2. Facsimile in Görtemaker,
Eva Braun
, p. 90.

35 
See Görtemaker,
Eva Braun
, pp. 313f. (notes 119–22, 125, 131). Wilhelm Brückner’s extremely terse entries in his notebook for the year 1935 support Eva Braun’s claim. The notebook, which historians have yet to analyse thoroughly, is preserved at the Bundesarchiv Berlin-Lichterfelde, NS 26/1209.

36 
Entry dated 6 Feb. 1935; Gun,
Eva Braun-Hitler
, pp. 70f.; Maser,
Adolf Hitler
, pp. 332–7.

37 
Entry dated 18 Feb. 1935; Gun,
Eva Braun-Hitler
, pp. 73f.; Maser,
Adolf Hitler
, pp. 340–5.

38 
Entry dated 4 March 1935; Gun,
Eva Braun-Hitler
, pp. 74f,; Maser,
Adolf Hitler
, pp. 344–51. On Goebbels’s presence in Munich see Goebbels,
Tagebücher
, part 1, vol. 3/1, pp. 193f. (entry for 4 March 1935).

39 
Entry dated 11 March 1935; Gun,
Eva Braun-Hitler
, pp. 75f.; Maser,
Adolf Hitler
, pp. 352–7.

40 
Entry dated 16 March 1935; Gun,
Eva Braun-Hitler
, p. 36; Maser,
Adolf Hitler
, pp. 356f.

41 
Entry dated 1 April 1935; Gun,
Eva Braun-Hitler
, p. 76; Maser,
Adolf Hitler
, pp. 358f. Speer told Gitta Sereny that he also saw Eva Braun “blush deeply” over dinner at the Hotel Vier Jahreszeiten “when Hitler silently handed her an envelope as he passed.” Braun later told Speer that there was money in the envelope and Hitler had also behaved like that on other occasions in public. Sereny,
Albert Speer
, p. 192f. In conversation with Joachim Fest, Speer said the incident happened in 1938; Joachim Fest,
Die unbeantwortbaren Fragen: Notizen über Gespräche mit Albert Speer zwischen 1966 und 1981
, Reinbek bei Hamburg, 2005, p. 84. It is possible that Speer’s memory was faulty and that he recalled an incident in 1935 as recorded by Eva Braun in her “diary.”

42 
Entry dated 29 April 1935; Gun,
Eva Braun-Hitler
, p. 76; Maser,
Adolf Hitler
, pp. 360f.

43 
Entry dated 10 May 1935; Gun,
Eva Braun-Hitler
, p. 77; Maser,
Adolf Hitler
, pp. 362f.

44 
Goebbels,
Tagebücher
, part 1, vol. 3/2, p. 205 (entry for 6 Oct. 1936); see ibid., pp. 206 (entry for 7 Oct. 1936): “The Führer is very moved.” On Unity Mitford, see her letters to her sister Diana from 1935 to 1939, which she signed with “Heil Hitler,” in Charlotte Mosley (ed.),
The Mitfords: Letters between Six Sisters
, London, 2007, pp. 54–6, 63–5, 68f., 75f., 113, 116, 125–7, 128f., 130–2, 137; see also Joachimsthaler,
Hitlers Liste
, pp. 507–40; Knopp,
Geheimnisse des “Dritten Reiches,
” pp. 306–11.

45 
See Nicolaus von Below,
Als Hitlers Adjutant 1937–45
, Mainz, 1980, p. 82. On 3 Sept. 1939, after Britain declared war on Germany, Mitford tried to commit suicide. This took place in Munich and not, as is often claimed, on a park bench in the English Garden, but at Königinstrasse 15. She was taken to hospital, badly injured and with a bullet in her brain. Hitler paid for her treatment and visited Mitford in hospital on 8 Nov. 1939. In Dec. 1939, she was transferred to a clinic in Bern, and in January 1940 she returned to England. She died on 28 May 1948 from the aftereffects of her attempted suicide. See Joachimsthaler,
Hitlers Liste
, pp. 534–40; Knopp,
Geheimnisse des “Dritten Reiches,
” p. 311.

46 
See Görtemaker,
Eva Braun
, pp. 109–11. Sigrid von Laffert was also among the women who caught Hitler’s eye. In a handwritten letter from the spa resort of Bad Doberan on 20 July 1934, she thanked Hitler “for the charmingly done-up hamper with its wonderful contents and for your kind lines…They made me hugely happy.” BA Berlin-Lichterfelde, NS 10/123. In Wilhelm Brückner’s notebook for 1935, Laffert’s birthday on 18 Jan. was explicitly noted. BA Berlin-Lichterfelde, NS 26/1209. Max Wünsche wrote on 16 June 1938 (7:30 p.m.): “Tea with Baroness Laffert.” BA Berlin-Lichterfelde, NS 10/125. In July 1938, Hitler paid for an operation that Laffert required. See the exchange of letters between her and Fritz Wiedemann in BA Koblenz, N 1720/7. Max Wünsche’s calendar shows visits by Sigrid von Laffert to Hitler for 13 Dec. and 19 Dec. 1939. BA Berlin-Lichterfelde, NS 10/591. Laffert married the diplomat Johann Bernhard von Welczek in December 1940. On Victoria von Dirksen and Sigrid von Laffert see Joachimsthaler,
Hitlers Liste
, pp. 203–12; Martha Schad,
Sie liebten den Führer: Wie Frauen Hitler verehrten
, Munich, 2009, pp. 55–77.

47 
On 23 May 1935 Wilhelm Brückner just noted “Berlin Operation”; BA Berlin-Lichterfelde, NS 26/1209. On the operation see Hans-Joachim Neumann and Henrik Eberle,
War Hitler krank? Ein abschliessender Befund
, Bergisch-Gladbach, 2009, pp. 172f.; Ulf Schmidt,
Hitlers Arzt Karl Brandt: Medizin und Macht im Dritten Reich
, Berlin, 2009, pp. 133f.; Görtemaker,
Eva Braun
, p. 111. Goebbels,
Tagebücher
, part 1, vol. 3/1, p. 238 (entry for 27 May 1935): “Hitler can’t speak at all. He’s in treatment. He writes down what he wants to say”; p. 250 (21 June 1935): “He’s completely recovered. We were afraid he had throat cancer. It was just a harmless growth. Thank, thank, thank God!” During the campaigns of 1932, having overtaxed his voice in the past, Hitler hired the opera singer Paul Stieber-Devrient to help him improve his breathing technique. See Werner Maser (ed.),
Paul Devrient: Mein Schüler Adolf Hitler: Das Tagebuch seines Lehrers
, Munich, 2003.

48 
Entry dated 28 May 1935; Gun,
Eva Braun-Hitler
, p. 78; Maser,
Adolf Hitler
, pp. 368–75.

49 
See Gun,
Eva Braun-Hitler
, pp. 78f.; Görtemaker,
Eva Braun
, p. 112.

50 
Goebbels,
Tagebücher
, part 1, pp. 239 (entry for 29 May 1935), 242 (entry for 5 June 1935): “The Führer is staying in Munich.” See also Wilhelm Brückner’s diary entries between 27 May and 12 June 1935; BA Berlin-Lichterfelde, NS 26/1209.

51 
See Görtemaker,
Eva Braun
, p. 112; Joachimsthaler,
Hitlers Liste
, pp. 424–6. In a letter to Hitler on 7 Sept. 1935 Friedrich Braun complained that his family had been “torn apart…because my two daughters Eva and Gretl have moved into an apartment you put at their disposal, and I as the head of the family have been presented with a fait accompli.” Gun,
Eva Braun-Hitler
, pp. 87f.