Iron Kingdom : The Rise and Downfall of Prussia, 1600-1947 (142 page)

39.
Nicholas Hope, ‘Prussian Protestantism’, in Dwyer,
Modern Prussian History
, pp. 188–208. The standard works on the Union in this period are Daniel R. Borg,
The Old Prussian Church and the Weimar Republic. A Study in Political Adjustment 1917–1927
(Hanover and London, 1984) and Kurt Nowak,
Evangelische Kirche und Weimarer Republik: zum politischen Weg des deutschen Protestantismus zwischen 1918 und 1932
(Göttingen, 1981).

40.
Comment by General-Superintendent Walter Kähler, cited in Baranowski,
Sanctity of Rural Life
, p. 96.

41.
For a survey of these groups, see Friedrich Wilhelm Kantzenbach,
Der Weg der evangelischen Kirche vom 19. bis zum 20. Jahrhundert
(Gütersloh, 1968), esp. pp. 176–8.

42.
Cited in Doris L. Bergen,
Twisted Cross. The German Christian Movement in the Third Reich
(Chapel Hill, WI, 1996), p. 28.

43.
Clark,
Politics of Conversion
, pp. 286–7.

44.
Committee of the Berlin Society for the Promotion of Christianity Among the Jews to all Consistories and Provincial Church Councils, 5 December 1930, Evangelisches Zentralarchiv Berlin, 7/3648.

45.
Richard Gutteridge,
Open Thy Mouth for the Dumb! The German Evangelical Church and the Jews
(Oxford, 1976), p. 42. On the conference of 1927 and the development of
völkisch
religion, see Kurt Scholder,
The Churches and the Third Reich, 1. Preliminary History and the Time of Illusions 1918–1934
, trans. J. Bowden (London, 1987), pp. 99–119. The outstanding study on ‘German Christianity’ is Bergen,
Twisted Cross
. On Protestant academics, see Marijke Smid, ‘Protestantismus und Antisemitismus 1930–1930’, in Jochen-Christoph Kaiser und Martin Greschat (eds.),
Der Holocaust und die Protestanten
(Frankfurt/Main, 1988), pp. 38–72, esp. pp. 50–55; Hans-Ulrich Thamer, ‘Protestantismus und “Judenfrage” in der Geschichte des Dritten Reiches’, in ibid., pp. 216–40. On the Protestant press, see Ino Arndt, ‘Die Judenfrage im Lichte der evangelischen Sonntagsblätter 1918–1933’, Ph.D. thesis, University of Tübingen (1960).

46.
See Manfred Gailus,
Protestantismus und Nationalsozialismus. Studien zur Durchdringung des protestantischen Sozialmilieus in Berlin
(Cologne, 2001); id., ‘Deutsche, Christen, Olias, Olias! Wie Nationalsozialisten die Kirchengemeinde Alt-Schöneberg eroberten’, in id. (ed.),
Kirchgemeinden im Nationalsozialismus: sieben Beispiele aus Berlin
(Berlin, 1990), pp. 211–46.

47.
Stephan Malinowski,
Vom König zum Führer: Sozialer Niedergang und politische Radikalisierung im deutschen Adel zwischen Kaiserreich und NS-Staat
(Berlin, 2003), p. 208.

48.
Cited in ibid., p. 221.

49.
Kossert,
Ostpreussen
, p. 267.

50.
Malinowski,
Vom König zum Führer
, pp. 212–28; see also Klaus Theweleit,
Männerrhantasien
(Hamburg, 1980) – a surprising number of the ego-narratives analysed by Theweleit stem from noblemen. On the penetration of the agrarian milieu, see Baranowski,
Sanctity of Rural Life
, pp. 145–76.

51.
Malinowski,
Vom König zum Führer
, p. 239.

52.
On the strength of the ‘Führer’ idea among Prussian nobles, see ibid., pp. 246, 247, 251, 253, 257–9.

53.
Diary entries of June 1926 and March 1928, cited in Eckart Conze,
Von deutschem Adel.
Die Grafen von Bernstoff im zwanzigsten Jahrhundert
(Munich, 2000), pp. 164, 166.

54.
Jürgen W. Falter,
Hitlers Wähler
(Munich, 1991), pp. 110–23.

55.
Marcus Funck, ‘The Meaning of Dying: East-Elbian Noble Families as “Warrior-Tribes” in the Nineteenth and Twentieth Centuries’, trans. Gary Shockey, in Greg Eghigian and Matthew Paul Berg,
Sacrifice and National Belonging in Twentieth-century Germany
(Arlington, TX, 2002), pp. 26–63, here p. 53. On Nazi votes in East-Elbia as a whole, see Falter,
Hitlers Wähler
, pp. 154–63.

56.
Kossert,
Ostpreussen
, p. 266.

57.
Gotthard Jasper,
Die gescheiterte Zähmung. Wege zur Machtergreifung Hitlers 1930–1934
(Frankfurt/Main, 1986), pp. 55–87; Schulze, ‘Democratic Prussia’, pp. 224–5.

58.
Lessmann,
Schutzpolizei
, p. 285.

59.
Richard Bessel,
Political Violence and the Rise of Nazism. The Storm Troopers in Eastern Germany (1925–1934)
(London, 1984), pp. 29–31; Ulrich Herbert,
Best: Biographische Studien über Radikalismus, Weltanschauung und Vernunft 1903–1989
(Bonn, 1996), pp. 249–51.

60.
On the scale of violence in this period and its effects on the political climate; see Richard J. Evans,
The Coming of the Third Reich
(London, 2003), pp. 269–75.

61.
Heinrich August Winkler,
Der Weg in die Katastrophe. Arbeiter und Arbeiterbewegungen in der Weimarer Republik 1930 bis 1933
(Bonn, 1987), p. 514.

62.
Karl Dietrich Bracher,
Die Auflösung der Weimarer Republik: Eine Studie zum Problem des Machtverfalls in der Demokratie
(Villingen, 1960), pp. 511–17.

63.
Under the terms of the Weimar constitution, the Reichstag was not obliged to accept indefinitely an unpopular emergency decree. After a certain period, the decree could be thrown out by a majority vote against it.

64.
Hagen Schulze,
Otto Braun oder Preussens demokratische Sendung. Eine Biographie
(Frankfurt/Main, 1981), pp. 623, 627.

65.
Citation from Schulze, ‘Democratic Prussia’. On Gayl’s role, see also Horst Möller,
Weimar. Die unvollendete Demokratie
(Munich, 1997), p. 304; Martin Broszat,
Die Machtergreifung. Der Aufstieg der NSDAP und die Zerstörung der Weimarer Republik
(Munich, 1984), pp. 145–56; Schulze,
Otto Braun
, pp. 735–44.

66.
Möller, ‘Weimar’, p. 304.

67.
On the dissolution, see Möller,
Weimar
, pp. 57–78; Bracher,
Die Auflösung der Weimarer Republik
, pp. 491–526; Rudolf Morsey, ‘Zur Geschichte des “Preussenschlags” ’,
Vierteljahrshefte für Zeitgeschichte
, 9 (1961), pp. 430–39; Andreas Dorpalen,
Hindenburg and the Weimar Republic
(Princeton, NJ, 1964), pp. 341–7.

68.
Cited in Heinrich,
Geschichte Preussens
, p. 496; cf. Otto Braun,
Von Weimar zu Hitler
(2nd edn, New York, 1940), pp. 409–11.

69.
Kloosterhuis (ed.),
Preussisch Dienen und Geniessen
, p. 433; Schulze,
Otto Braun
, pp. 584–60, 689–71.

70.
Lessmann,
Schutzpolizei
, pp. 302–18.

71.
Josef Goebbels,
Vom Kaiserhof zur Reichskanzlei. Eine historische Darstellung in Tagebuchblättern (Vom 1. Januar 1932 bis zum 1. Mai 1933)
, pp. 131, 132–3.

72.
Evans,
Coming of the Third Reich
, p. 284.

73.
Evans,
Rituals of Retribution
, pp. 613–14.

74.
Goebbels, Diary entry of 22 July 1932, in id.,
Vom Kaiserhof zur Reichskanzlei
, p. 133.

75.
Papen’s plan was not as stupid as it now looks. He had planned that soon after its formation, the new cabinet would place an enabling law (
Ermächtigungsgesetz
) before the Reichstag. This was a law which gave the government the power to initiate legislation for a certain period of time. With Hitler’s help, Papen believed there would be no problem raising the two-thirds majority needed to get the law through the Reichstag. The deadlock between cabinet and Reichstag could at last be broken. And since laws would be passed by a vote
within
the cabinet, the conservative majority provided a guarantee that the Nazis would be held in check by their conservative colleagues. Papen did not foresee the radicalization that followed the Reichstag fire and the role of the Nazi political machine in intimidating and marginalizing conservative, nationalist political leaders.

76.
Ewald von Kleist-Schmenzin, ‘Die letzte Möglichkeit’,
Politische Studien
, 10 (1959), pp. 89–92, here p. 92.

77.
Allan Bullock,
A Study in Tyranny
(rev. edn, London, 1964), p. 253.

78.
Spenkuch,
Herrenhaus
, pp. 561–2.

79.
Dietz Bering, ‘ “Geboren im Hause Cohn”. Namenpolemik gegen den preussischen Innenminister Albert Grzesinski’, in Dietz Bering and Friedhelm Debus (eds.),
Fremdes und Fremdheit in Eigennamen
(Heidelberg, 1990), pp. 16–52.

80.
For Grzesinski’s own account of his life, see Eberhard Kolb (ed.),
Albert Grzesinski. Im Kampf um die deutsche Republik. Erinnerungen eines Sozialdemokraten
(Munich, 2001). The most recent biography is Thomas Albrecht,
Für eine Wehrhafte Demokratie. Albert Grzesinski und die preussische Politik in der Weimarer Republik
(Bonn, 1999).

81.
Cited in Heinrich,
Geschichte Preussens
, p. 497.

82.
Schulze,
Otto Braun
, pp. 488–98.

83.
‘Marginal Prussians’ (
Randpreussen
) is the term coined by Gerd Heinrich to describe the conspirators of 1932; see
Geschichte Preussens
, p. 495.

84.
On Schleicher and his motivations, see Henry Ashby Turner, Jr,
Hitler’s Thirty Days to Power. January 1933
(London, 1996), pp. 19–21; Theodor Eschenburg, ‘Die Rolle der Persönlichkeit in der Krise der Weimarer Republik: Hindenburg, Brüning, Groener, Schleicher’,
Vierteljahrshefte für Zeitgeschichte
, 9 (1961), pp. 1–29. For a dissenting view that emphasizes Schleicher’s democratic and constitutional commitments, see Wolfram Pyta, ‘Konstitutionelle Demokratie statt monarchischer Restauration: Die verfassungspolitische Konzeption Schleichers in der Weimarer Staatskrise’,
Vierteljahrshefte für Zeitgeschichte
, 47 (1999), pp. 417–41.

85.
On this episode, see Craig,
Politics of the Prussian Army
, p. 372; cf. John Wheeler-Bennett,
Hindenburg: the Wooden Titan
(London, 1967), pp. 220–21.

86.
Vorwarts!
, 10 March 1932, cited in Winkler,
Der Weg
, p. 514; Evans,
Coming of the Third Reich
, p. 279.

87.
Frederick William I had initially planned that he and his wife would be entombed together in the crypt of the Garrison Church. But upon her death in 1757, his queen, Sophie Dorothea, was in fact interred in Berlin Cathedral. The space beside the king thus remained empty until it was occupied by the remains of his son on 18 August 1786.

88.
Elke Fröhlich (ed.),
Die Tagebücher von Joseph Goebbels. Sämtliche Fragmente
, Part 1,
Aufzeichnungen, 1924–1941
, vol. 2 (4 vols., Munich, 1987), pp. 393–4.

89.
Brendan Simms, ‘Prussia, Prussianism and National Socialism’, in Dwyer (ed.),
Modern Prussian History
, pp. 253–73.

90.
Werner Freitag, ‘Nationale Mythen und kirchliches Heil: Der “Tag von Potsdam” ’, in
Westfälische Forschungen
, 41 (1991), pp. 379–430.

91.
Goebbels, Diary entry of 21 March 1933, in
Vom Kaiserhof
, pp. 285–6.

92.
Fritz Stern,
The Politics of Cultural Despair: a Study in the Rise of the Germanic Ideology
(Berkeley, 1974), pp. 211–13.

93.
Adolf Hitler,
Mein Kampf
, trans. Ralph Manheim (London, 1992; reprint of the orig. edn of 1943), pp. 139, 141. The Prussian theme recurs in Hitler’s ‘Second Book’, a text he composed in 1928 as an appendix to the foreign political section of
Mein Kampf
, but never published; see Manfred Schlenke, ‘Das “preussische Beispiel” in Propaganda und Politik des Nationalsozialismus’,
Aus Politik und Zeitgeschichte. Beilage zur Wochenzeitung Das Parlament
, 27 (1968), pp. 15–27, here p. 16.