Hitler: Ascent, 1889-1939 (201 page)

252 
Schmidt,
Statist auf diplomatischer Bühne
, pp. 400f.; see Alan Bullock,
Hitler: A Study in Tyranny
, London, 1990, pp. 457f. (according to Kirkpatrick); Goebbels,
Tagebücher
, part 1, vol. 6, p. 107 (entry for 23 Sept. 1938).

253 
Schmidt,
Statist auf diplomatischer Bühne
, p. 402. Goebbels’s contention that in his letter Chamberlain “had basically expressed his agreement with Hitler’s demands” was apparently based on a willful misunderstanding.
Tagebücher
, part 1, vol. 6, p. 108 (entry for 24 Sept. 1938).

254 
Shirer,
Berliner Tagebuch
, p. 133 (entry for 22 Sept. 1938).

255 
Goebbels,
Tagebücher
, part 1, vol. 6, p. 109 (entry for 24 Sept. 1938).

256 
See Henderson,
Fehlschlag einer Mission
, p. 178; Schmidt,
Statist auf diplomatischer Bühne
, p. 404.

257 
Schmidt,
Statist auf diplomatischer Bühne
, pp. 404f.; see Goebbels,
Tagebücher
, part 1, vol. 6, pp. 109f. (entry for 24 Sept. 1938); Weizsäcker,
Erinnerungen
, p. 185.

258 
Schmidt,
Statist auf diplomatischer Bühne
, pp. 405f.; see Bullock,
Hitler
, p. 460 (according to Kirkpatrick’s notes).

259 
Goebbels,
Tagebücher
, part 1, vol. 6, p. 113 (entry for 26 Sept. 1938).

260 
Schmidt,
Statist auf diplomatischer Bühne
, p. 407; see Henderson,
Fehlschlag einer Mission
, p. 181; Bullock,
Hitler
, p. 461 (according to Kirkpatrick’s notes).

261 
Shirer,
Berliner Tagebuch
, p. 137 (entry for 26 Sept. 1938); see Groscurth,
Tagebücher eines Abwehroffiziers
, p. 124 (entry for 26 Sept. 1938): “A speech by the Führer in the evening. Terrible, ignoble bellowing.”

262 
Domarus,
Hitler
, vol. 1, part 2, pp. 923–32 (quotations on pp. 925, 927, 930, 932). Goebbels described Hitler’s tirade as “a psychological masterpiece.”
Tagebücher
, part 1, vol. 6, p. 166 (entry for 27 Sept. 1938).

263 
Shirer,
Berliner Tagebuch
, pp. 137f. (entry for 26 Sept. 1938).

264 
Schmidt,
Statist auf diplomatischer Bühne
, pp. 408f.; Henderson,
Fehlschlag einer Mission
, pp. 182f.; Bullock,
Hitler
, pp. 463f. (according to Kirkpatrick’s notes).

265 
See Goebbels,
Tagebücher
, part 1, vol. 6, p. 116 (entry for 27 Sept. 1938): “Question: are the English bluffing or are they serious? Answer: they’re bluffing.”

266 
Ibid., p. 118 (entry for 28 Sept. 1938).

267 
See Ruth Andreas-Friedrich,
Der Schattenmann: Tagebuchaufzeichnungen 1938–1945
, Frankfurt am Main, 1983, pp. 9–11 (entry for 27 Sept. 1938); Shirer,
Berliner Tagebuch
, pp. 138f. (entry for 27 Sept. 1938); Henderson,
Fehlschlag einer Mission
, pp. 183f.

268 
See Kershaw,
The Hitler Myth
, pp. 135–7; Frank Bajohr and Christoph Strupp (ed.),
Fremde Blicke auf das “Dritte Reich”: Berichte ausländischer Diplomaten über Herrschaft und Gesellschaft in Deutschland 1933–1945
, Göttingen, 2011, pp. 491f. Even a convinced Hitler supporter such as Ilse Hess was asking at the end of Sept. 1938, “whether in a couple of years the Sudetenland would have fallen into our laps like ripe fruit in any case, without our risking so much right now.” But she added: “And the Führer knows what is right.” Ilse Hess to Rudolf Hess, 28 Sept. 1938. BA Bern, Nl Hess, J1.211-1989/148, 61.

269 
Goebbels,
Tagebücher
, part 1, vol. 6, p. 125 (entry for 2 Oct. 1938). In Wiedemann’s recollection, Goebbels said over lunch at the Reich Chancellery on 28 Sept. 1938: “My Führer, you saw the division marching through Berlin. If you think the German people are ready for war, then you’re fooling yourself.” Wiedemann’s shorthand notes, 25 Feb. 1939; BA Koblenz, N 1720/4.

270 
Hitler to Chamberlain, 27 Sept. 1938; reprinted in Henderson,
Fehlschlag einer Mission
, pp. 343–6 (quotation on p. 346). See Bullock,
Hitler
, pp. 465f.; Schmidt,
Statist auf diplomatischer Bühne
, pp. 409f.

271 
Die Weizsäcker-Papiere
, p. 170 (notes from October 1939 with a look back at 1938/39), p. 144 (dated 27 Sept. 1938).

272 
Ulrich von Hassell,
Vom anderen Deutschland: Aus den nachgelassenen Tagebüchern 1938–1944
, Frankfurt am Main, 1964, p. 19 (entry for 29 Sept. 1938); see Goebbels,
Tagebücher
, part 1, vol. 6, p. 119 (entry for 29 Sept. 1938): “Yesterday: dramatic day.”

273 
Schmidt,
Statist auf diplomatischer Bühne
, p. 410. The above quotation in Wiedemann,
Der Mann
, p. 178.

274 
Schmidt,
Statist auf diplomatischer Bühne
, p. 411; see François-Poncet,
Als Botschafter in Berlin
, p. 333; Schäfer,
André François-Poncet als Botchafter in Berlin
, pp. 309f.

275 
See Schmidt,
Statist auf diplomatischer Bühne
, pp. 411f.; see Falanga,
Mussolinis Vorposten
, pp. 107f.

276 
See Henderson,
Fehlschlag einer Mission
, p. 187; Schmidt,
Statist auf diplomatischer Bühne
, p. 413; Falanga,
Mussolinis Vorposten
, p. 108.

277 
See Below,
Als Hitlers Adjutant
, p. 128; Henderson,
Fehlschlag einer Mission
, pp. 189f.; François-Poncet,
Als Botschafter in Berlin
, p. 335.

278 
François-Poncet,
Als Botschafter in Berlin
, pp. 336f. According to Weizsäcker, Hitler was “revolted by the whole conference…He was never one for
par inter pares
.”
Die Weizsäcker-Papiere 1933–1950
, p. 172 (notes from October 1939).

279 
Schmidt,
Statist auf diplomatischer Bühne
, p. 414.

280 
See
Die Weizsäcker-Papiere 1933–1950
, pp. 171f. (notes from October 1939); Weizsäcker,
Erinnerungen
, pp. 188f.

281 
Text of the Munich Agreement in Domarus,
Hitler
, vol. 1, part 2, pp. 942f.

282 
Shirer,
Berliner Tagebuch
, p. 140 (entry for 30 Sept. 1938). On 1 Oct. 1938, Golo Mann wrote in his diary: “The end of France. The good people just don’t realise that.” Tilmann Lahme,
Golo Mann: Biographie
, Frankfurt am Main, 2009, p. 141.

283 
Goebbels,
Tagebücher
, part 1, vol. 6, p. 122 (entry for 30 Sept. und 1 Oct. 1938).

284 
Schmidt,
Statist auf diplomatischer Bühne
, p. 417; text of the communiqué in Domarus,
Hitler
, vol. 1, part 2, p. 946.

285 
Goebbels,
Tagebücher
, part 1, vol. 6, p. 125 (entry for 2 Oct. 1938).

286 
Engel,
Heeresadjutant bei Hitler
, p. 40 (dated 1 Oct. 1938).

287 
Below,
Als Hitlers Adjutant
, p. 138.

288 
Schmidt,
Statist auf diplomatischer Bühne
, pp. 417f.

289 
Hamann,
Winifred Wagner
, p. 377.

290 
Deutschland-Berichte der Sopade
, 5 (1938), pp. 942, 943.

291 
Erich Kordt,
Nicht aus den Akten…Die Wilhelmstrasse in Frieden und Krieg. Erlebnisse, Begegnungen und Eindrücke 1928–1945
, Stuttgart, 1950, p. 260.

292 
Wilhelm Treue, “Rede Hitlers vor der deutschen Presse (10 November 1938),” in
Vierteljahrshefte für Zeitgeschichte
, 6 (1958), p. 182.

293 
Deutschland-Berichte der Sopade
, 5 (1938), pp. 393f.; see Mann,
Tagebücher 1937–1939
, p. 303 (entry for 2 Oct. 1938): “The better part of the world is in deep desperation.”

294 
See the convincing account by Müller,
Generaloberst Ludwig Beck
, pp. 366–8, which corrects previous research.

295 
See Hartmann,
Halder
, pp. 101–15; Rainer A. Blasius,
Für Grossdeutschland gegen den Krieg: Ernst von Weizsäcker in den Krisen um die Tschechoslowakei und Polen 1938/39
, Cologne and Vienna, 1981, pp. 45, 55f.

296 
See Gerd R. Ueberschär, “Die Septemberverschwörung 1938 und Widerstandsbewegungen bis zum Kriegsbeginn,” in
idem
,
Für ein anderes Deutschland: Der deutsche Widerstand gegen den NS-Staat 1933–1945
, Frankfurt am Main, 2006, pp. 37f.

297 
Goebbels,
Tagebücher
, part 1, vol. 6, p. 127 (entry for 3 Oct. 1939); see ibid., p. 139 (entry for 10 Oct. 1938): “The Führer wants to break up the Czechs, either by war or through peaceful means.” Around the same time, Weizsäcker told Hassell that Hitler had said that “the Czech problem will have to be liquidated within a few months.” Hassell,
Vom anderen Deutschland
, p. 21 (entry for 10 Oct. 1938).

298 
Domarus,
Hitler
, vol. 1, part 2, pp. 954–6.

299 
Goebbels,
Tagebücher
, part 1, vol. 6, p. 158 (entry for 24 Oct. 1938); see ibid., p. 234 (entry for 21 Jan. 1939): “Wiedemann is going to California as a consul general. He lost his nerve in the crisis.”

300 
Schacht to Wiedemann, 18 March 1939 (addressed from the Hotel Monte Verita in Ascona); BA Koblenz, N 1720/8. See ibid. for numerous further documents expressing individuals’ regrets that Wiedemann was leaving Hiter’s service. On 23 Feb. 1939 Wiedemann set sail on the MS
Hambur
g from Bremen to New York.

301 
Hassell,
Vom anderen Deutschland
, pp. 23f. (entry for 15 Oct. 1938).

302 
Ibid., p. 24 (entry for 23 Oct. 1938). See also François-Poncet’s view in Schäfer,
André François-Poncet als Botschafter in Berlin
, p. 311.

303 
ADAP, Series D
, vol. 4, no. 81, p. 90; also reprinted in Domarus,
Hitler
, vol. 1, part 2, pp. 960f.

304 
Text of the declaration in Domarus,
Hitler
, vol. 1, part 2, p. 982. For the back story see Michalka,
Ribbentrop und die deutsche Weltpolitik
, pp. 259–64; Hildebrand,
Das vergangene Reich
, pp. 674f.

305 
Goebbels,
Tagebücher
, part 1, vol. 6, p. 246 (entry for 1 Feb. 1939).

306 
Text of the speech in Jost Dülffer, Jochen Thies and Josef Henke,
Hitlers Städte: Baupolitik im Dritten Reich. Eine Dokumentation
, Cologne and Vienna, 1978, pp. 289–313. See also the report of the 10 Feb. 1939 speech by General Hans Jordan (based on notes). The decisive passage read: “An officer shouldn’t only be a ‘soldier.’ Today, wars between people are ‘world-view wars.’ For that reason, today’s warrior has to be suffused by his world view.” IfZ München, ED 57.

307 
Engel,
Heeresadjutant bei Hitler
, p. 45 (dated 18 Feb. 1939).

308 
Goebbels,
Tagebücher
, part 1, vol. 6, pp. 279f. (entry for 11 March 1939).

309 
Ibid., p. 283 (entry for 13 March 1939).

310 
See the minutes of State Secretary Hewel on the talks between Hitler and Tiso, 13 March 1939;
ADAP, Series D
, vol. 4, no. 202, pp. 212–14: Goebbels,
Tagebücher
, part 1, vol. 6, p. 285 (entry for 14 March 1938): Hitler told Tiso in no uncertain terms that “Slovakia’s historical hour has come. If the Slovaks do nothing, they’ll be swallowed by the Hungarians.”

311 
See Goebbels,
Tagebücher
, part 1, vol. 6, p. 286 (entry for 15 March 1938); Below,
Als Hitlers Adjutant
, p. 151.

312 
See Below,
Als Hitlers Adjutant
, p. 152; Goebbels,
Tagebücher
, part 1, vol. 6, p. 287 (entry for 15 March 1938): “The Führer made them wait until midnight, which slowly but surely softened them up. That’s what was done to us in Versailles.”

313 
See Schmidt,
Statist auf diplomatischer Bühne
, pp. 427, 429.

314 
See Below,
Als Hitlers Adjutant
, p. 152.

315 
Schmidt,
Statist auf diplomatischer Bühne
, pp. 429f.; see the minutes by State Secretary Hewel on the meeting of 15 March 1939;
ADAP, Series D
, vol. 4, no. 228, pp. 229–34.

316 
See Schmidt,
Statist auf diplomatischer Bühne
, pp. 430f.; Speer,
Erinnerungen
, p. 130; Hoffmann,
Hitler wie ich ihn sah
, pp. 98f.; Goebbels,
Tagebücher
, part 1, vol. 6, p. 287 (entry for 15 March 1938): “Negotiations were conducted with raw bitterness. Hacha passed out once.”