Hitler- a Life
1
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© Peter Longerich 2019
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First published as Hitler: Biographie
by Siedler Verlag © Peter Longerich, 2015
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Acknowledgements
I should like to express my thanks to everyone who helped me write and
publish this biography. It could not have been written without the sup-
port of the staff of the various archives and libraries I consulted. I am very
grateful to them all, and in particular, once again, to the staff at the Institute
for Contemporary History in Munich for their tireless efforts.
In the early stages of this book I had the opportunity to discuss its sub-
ject’s personality with a group of psychoanalysts in Hamburg and a circle of
psychotherapists and psychoanalysts in Munich. I am grateful for the help
I received from Sabine Brückner-Jungjohann, Christiane Adam, Gundula
Fromm, Ulrich Knocke, Rüdiger Kurz, Astrid Rutezki, Dirk Sieveking and
Gudrun Brockhaus, Falk Stakelbeck, Heidi Spanl, and Corinna Werntz.
My sincere thanks go to Thomas Rathnow and Jens Dehning of Siedler
Press and to all their colleagues at Siedler, and also to Daniel Bussenius and
Jonas Wegerer for their work in editing the text.
Munich, October 2015
Contents
Abbreviations
x
Introduction 1
Prologue: A Nobody
7
I. TH E PU BLIC SELF
1. Back in Munich: Politicization
49
2. Joining the Party
63
3. Hitler becomes Party Leader
82
4. The March to the Hitler Putsch
98
5. The Trial and the Period of the Ban
120
II. CR E ATING A PU BLIC IM AGE
6. A Fresh Start
143
7. Hitler as a Public Speaker
164
8. A New Direction
173
9. Conquering the Masses
191
10. Strategies
224
11. On the Threshold of Power
247
III. ESTA BLISHING TH E R EGIM E
12. ‘The Seizure of Power’
279
13. First Steps in Foreign Policy
333
14. ‘Führer’ and ‘People’
346
15. Breaking out of the International System
358
16. Becoming Sole Dictator
368
viii
Contents
IV. CONSOLIDATION
17. Domestic Flashpoints
403
18. Initial Foreign Policy Successes
415
19. The Road to the Nuremberg Laws
425
20. A Foreign Policy Coup
438
21. ‘Ready for War in Four Years’ Time’
447
22. Conflict with the Churches and Cultural Policy
477
23. Hitler’s Regime 500
V. SMOK ESCR E EN
24. Resetting Foreign Policy
527
25. From the Blomberg–Fritsch Crisis to the Anschluss
540
26. The Sudeten Crisis
555
27. After Munich
584
28. Into War
612
VI. TRIUMPH
29. The Outbreak of War
651
30. Resistance
674
31. War in the West
689
32. Diplomatic Soundings
705
33. The Expansion of the War
718
34. Operation Barbarossa
741
35. The Radicalization of Jewish Policy
763
36. The Winter Crisis of 1941/42
777
37. The Pinnacle of Power
796
38. Hitler’s Empire 827
VII. DOW NFA LL
39. The Turning Point of the War and Radicalization
845
40. With His Back to the Wall
878
Contents ix
41. Defeat Looms
905
42. 20 July 1944
914
43. Total War
924
44. The End
935
Conclusion 949
Notes
967
Bibliography
1215
Illustrations
1287
Index
1289
Abbreviations
(A)
Abendausgabe (evening edition)
AA
Auswärtiges Amt (Foreign Office)
ADAP
Akten zur deutschen auswärtigen Politik
AHA
Allgemeines Heeresamt
(B)
Berlin edition
BAB
Bundesarchiv, Abt. Berlin
BAF
Bundesarchiv, Abt. Freiburg
BAK
Bundesarchiv, Abt. Koblenz
BDC
Berlin Document Center
BDM
Bund Deutscher Mädel
BHStA
Bayrisches Hauptstaatsarchiv
BK
Bayerischer Kurier
BMP
Bayerische Mittelpartei
BT
Berliner Tageblatt
BVG
Berliner Verkehrsbetriebe
BVP
Bayerische Volkspartei
CŠR
Tschechoslowakische Republik (Cěskoslovensk. republika)
DAF
Deutsch
e Arbeitsfront
DAP
Deutsche Arbeiterpartei
DAZ
Deutsche Allgemeine Zeitung
DBFP
Documents on British Foreign Policy
DDP
Deutsche Demokratische Partei
DNB
Deutsches Nachrichtenbüro
DNVP
Deutschnationale Volkspartei
Domarus
Hitler, Adolf, Reden und Proklamationen 1932–1945, ed.
Max Domarus
DSP
Deutschsozialistische Partei
DStP
Deutsche Staatspartei
DVFP
Deutschvölkische Freiheitspartei
FRUS
Foreign Relations of the United States
Abbreviations xi
FZ
Frankfurter Zeitung
Gestapo
Geheime Staatspolizei (Secret State Police)
Goebbels TB
The Diaries of Joseph Goebbels
GPU
Vereinigte staatliche politische Verwaltung
(Gossudarstwennoje Polititscheskoje Uprawlenije)
Gruppenkdo. Gruppenkommando
GVG
Grossdeutsche Volksgemeinschaft
GWU
Geschichte in Wissenschaft und Unterricht
HJ
Hitlerjugend (Hitler Youth)
HL Heeresleitung
HSSPF
Höherer SS- und Polizeiführer
IfZ
Institut für Zeitgeschichte, Munich
IMT
International Military Tribunal
Inf.Rgt. Infanterieregiment
JK
Hitler. Sämtliche Aufzeichnungen 1905–1924, ed. Eberhard
Jäckel and Axel Kuhn
KAM
Kriegsarchiv München
KdF
Kraft durch Freude
Kp. Kompanie
KPD
Kommunistische Partei Deutschlands
KPdSU
Kommunistische Partei der Sowjetunion
KTB
Kriegstagebuch (war diary)
KTB OKW
Kriegstagebuch des Oberkommandos der Wehrmacht
(Wehrmachtführungsstab)
KTB Seekriegsleitung Das Kriegstagebuch der Seekriegsleitung
k.u.k.
kaiserlich und königlich
KZ Konzentrationslager
LA Berlin
Landesarchiv Berlin
LHA
Landeshauptarchiv Linz
LT
Linzer Tagespost
(M)
Midday edition; in the case of VB, Munich edition
MB
Münchener Beobachter
MGM
Militärgeschichtliche Mitteilungen
MK
Hitler, Adolf, Mein Kampf
MNN
Münchner Neueste Nachrichten
Ms. Manuskript
MSPD
Mehrheitssozialdemokratische Partei Deutschlands
(N)
Norddeutsche Ausgabe (North-German edition)
xii
Abbreviations
NARA
US National Archives and Records Administration,
Washington
NL
Nachlass (private papers)
NS nationalsozialistisch/Nationalsozialismus
NSBO
Nationalsozialistische Betriebszellenorganisation
NSDAP
Nationalsozialistische Deutsche Arbeiterpartei
NSDStB
Nationalsozialistischer Deutscher Studentenbund
NSFB
Nationalsozialistische Freiheitsbewegung
NSKK
Nationalsozialistisches Kraftfahrkorps
NSV
Nationalsozialistische Volkswohlfahrt
NZZ
Neue Zürcher Zeitung
OA Oberabschnitt
OA Moskau
Osobyi Archive, Moskow
OB
Oberbefehlshaber (commander-in-chief )
OBdH
Oberbefehlshaber des Heeres (c-in-c of the army)
OKM
Oberkommando der Marine (navy high command)
OKW
Oberkommando der Wehrmacht (armed forces high
command)
ÖStA
Österreichisches Staatsarchiv
PA
NS-Presseanweisungen der Vorkriegszeit
PAA
Politisches Archiv des Auswärtigen Amtes, Berlin
PolDir. Polizeidirektion
PrGS
Preussische Gesetzsammlung
(R) Reichsausgabe
RAD Reichsarbeitsdienst
RDI
Reichsverband der Deutschen Industrie
RFM Reichsfinanzministerium
RFSS Reichsführer-SS
RGBl. Reichsgesetzblatt
RIB Reserve-Infanterie-Brigade
RIR Reserve-Infanterie-Regiment
RM Reichsmark
RMBliV
Reichsministerialblatt für die innere Verwaltung
RMI
Reichsministerium des Innern
RPL Reichspropagandaleitung
RSA
Hitler, Adolf, Reden, Schriften, Anordnungen
RSHA Reichssicherheitshauptamt
RVE
Reichsvereinigung Eisen
Abbreviations xiii
SA Sturmabteilung
SAM
Staatsarchiv München
SD Sicherheitsdienst
Sopade
Sozialdemokratische Partei Deutschlands im Exil
Sopade
Deutschland-Berichte der Sozialdemokratischen Partei
Deutschlands Sopade 1934–1940
SPD
Sozialdemokratische Partei Deutschlands
SprkAkte Spruchkammerakte
SS Schutzstaffel
StA Riga
Staatsarchiv, Riga
StAnw. Staatsanwaltschaft
StJb
Statistisches Jahrbuch für das Deutsche Reich
TB
Tagebuch (diary)
TP Tagesparole
TWC
Trials of War Criminals before the Nuernberg Military Tribunals
UF
Ursachen und Folgen. Vom deutschen Zusammenbruch 1918 und
1945 bis zur staatlichen Neuordnung Deutschlands in der
Gegenwart, ed. Herbert Michaelis and Ernst Schraepler
USPD
Unabhängige Sozialdemokratische Partei Deutschlands
UWW
Unser Wille und Weg
VB
Völkischer Beobachter
VEJ
Die Verfolgung und Ermordung der europäischen Juden durch das
nationalsozialistische Deutschland 1933–1945
VfZ
Vierteljahrshefte für Zeitgeschichte
VK
Völkischer Kurier
VZ
Vossische Zeitung
YV
Yad Vashem
ZStL
Zentrale Stelle Lugwigsburg
1. M.
Erstes Morgenblatt (first morning edition)
2. M.
Zweites Morgenblatt (second morning edition)
Introduction
Arguably no individual in modern history has managed to accumulate
such immense power in such a relatively short space of time as Adolf
Hitler; no-one else has abused power so extravagantly and finally clung on
to it so tenaciously, to the point where his regime collapsed totally, with the
loss of millions of lives. Hitler is thus an extreme example of how personal
power can be acquired and monstrously abused – a phenomenon that bursts
the confines of a conventional historical biography. In Hitler’s case even the
interpretative model frequently employed by historians of exploring the
/> interaction of structural factors and individual personality is inadequate. For
we are dealing with a figure who did not exercise power within the frame-
work of established constitutional politics or the generally accepted rules of
a political system, but instead dismantled this framework and created new
structures of power to suit himself. These structures were indissolubly linked
to him personally, and indeed in general his dictatorship represented an
extraordinary example of personalized power. The regime’s ‘structures’ are
inconceivable without Hitler and Hitler is nothing without his offices.
Yet at the same time this dictatorship cannot be reduced to Hitler as an
individual or explained in anything like adequate terms by his biography.
We must instead adopt a much broader view that takes in the history of the
period as a whole: for example, the phenomenon of National Socialism, its
causes and roots in German history, and the relationship between Hitler and
‘the Germans’, to name but a few factors. While any interpretation that
dwells too much on Hitler himself risks falling into ‘Hitlerism’ and begins
to read like an apologia, any comprehensive examination of the historical
circumstances and conditions runs the opposite danger of losing sight of
Hitler as an agent and presenting him as a mere puppet of external forces, a
blank screen on which contemporary movements are projected. That would
result in Hitler, of all people, being marginalized as a figure of historical
2
Introduction
importance and his personal responsibility within this historical process
being obscured.
The main challenge of a Hitler biography is thus to explain how such an
extreme concentration of power in the hands of a single individual could
arise from the interplay of external circumstances and the actions of that
individual. On the one hand, it must present the forces that acted upon
Hitler and, on the other, those that were set in motion by him.
Contrary to a widely-held view, our present-day knowledge of National
Socialism is by no means complete or even close to being complete.
Historical research into National Socialism has developed many specialized
branches and is constantly bringing new knowledge to light on a very wide
range of aspects of the movement and the regime. One thing becomes clear
from looking at a cross-section of these studies, namely that Hitler was
actively involved in the most disparate areas of politics to a much greater
extent than has hitherto been generally assumed. He himself created the
conditions in which this could happen, by bringing about the step-by-step
fragmentation of the traditional state apparatus of power into its component
parts, ensuring that no new and transparent power structures developed, and
instead giving far-reaching tasks to individuals who were personally answer-
able to him. This consistently personalized leadership style gave him the