Hitler: Ascent, 1889-1939 (182 page)

123 
Goebbels,
Tagebücher
, part 1, vol. 3/1, p. 250 (entry for 21 June 1935). See ibid., p. 249 (entry for 19 June 1935): “We’re getting close to our goal of an alliance with England. The key is to keep working, doggedly and tirelessly.” On 4 Feb. 1936, Hitler received the former air minister Lord Londonderry in the Chancellery and played the role of the good host. “It was almost as though the suitor Hitler were wooing prudish Britannia,” recalled Hitler’s interpreter Schmidt.
Als Statist
, p. 355. On Londonderry’s visit to Berlin see Kershaw,
Making Friends with Hitler
, pp. 132–40.

124 
Goebbels,
Tagebücher
, part 1, vol. 3/1, p. 279 (entry for 19 Aug. 1935).

125 
See Petersen,
Hitler–Mussolini
, pp. 377–9; Hans Woller,
Geschichte Italiens im 20. Jahrhundert
, Munich, 2010, pp. 144f.; Winkler,
Geschichte des Westens
, vol. 2, pp. 708–11.

126 
See Aram Mattioli,
Experimentierfeld der Gewalt: Der Abessinienkrieg und seine internationale Bedeutung 1935–1941
, Zurich, 2005; further,
idem
, “Entgrenzte Kriegsgewalt: Der italienische Giftgaseinsatz in Abessinien 1935–1936,” in
Vierteljahrshefte für Zeitgeschichte
, 51 (2003), pp. 311–38.

127 
On 17 July 1935, a representative of the Ethiopian king appeared in Berlin and asked Germany, under strict confidentiality, “to immediately arm the king’s troops so that they could put up as much resistance as possible to the Italians.” Neurath suggested that Hitler grant that request and give the king weapons worth 3 million marks. Bülow to Neurath, 18 July 1935; Neurath to Hitler, 20 July 1935; BA Koblenz, N 1310/10.

128 
Marie-Luise Recker,
Die Aussenpolitik des Dritten Reiches
, Munich, 1990, p. 12.

129 
Goebbels,
Tagebücher
, part 1, vol. 3/1, p. 313 (entry for 19 Oct. 1935).

130 
Quoted in Falanga,
Mussolinis Vorposten
, p. 62.

131 
Goebbels,
Tagebücher
, part 1, vol. 3/1, p. 232 (entry for 15 May 1935).

132 
See Falanga,
Mussolinis Vorposten
, pp. 62–4.

133 
Esmonde M. Robertson, “Hitler und die Sanktionen des Völkerbunds,” in
Vierteljahrshefte für Zeitgeschichte
, 26 (1978), pp. 237–64 (quotation on p. 254). See Schmidt,
Die Aussenpolitik des Dritten Reiches
, p. 189; Rauscher,
Hitler und Mussolini
, p. 234.

134 
Goebbels,
Tagebücher
, part 1, vol. 3/1, p. 341 (entry for 6 Dec. 1935).

135 
Hassell to Foreign Ministry, 6 Jan. 1936; Esmonde M. Robertson, “Zur Wiederbesetzung des Rheinlands 1936,” in
Vierteljahrshefte für Zeitgeschichte
, 10 (1962), pp. 178–205 (at pp. 188–90). See Petersen,
Hitler–Mussolini
, pp. 466–71.

136 
Goebbels,
Tagebücher
, part 1, vol. 3/1, p. 366 (entry for 21 Jan. 1936). As early as mid-December 1935, after talking to Hitler, Britain’s ambassador Phipps had noted that the chancellor probably intended to remilitarise the Rhineland as soon as an opportunity presented itself. See Kershaw,
Making Friends with Hitler,
p. 134. See Neurath’s minutes of the talks on 13 Dec. 1935;
ADAP, Series C
, vol. 4, part 2, no. 462; see also the cabinet meeting on 13 Dec. 1935:
Die Regierung Hitler
, vol. 2, part 2, no. 281, p. 987; Goebbels,
Tagebücher
, part 1, vol. 3/1, p. 347 (entry for 15 Dec. 1935).

137 
Hassell’s notes of 14 Feb. 1936; reprinted in Robertson, “Zur Wiederbesetzung des Rheinlands,” pp. 192f.

138 
Hassell,
Römische Tagebücher und Briefe
, p. 126 (dated 23 March 1936). According to Hassell’s notes, Hitler declared at the beginning of the meeting: “I’ve summoned you to discuss a decision I’m about to take that will perhaps be significant for Germany’s entire future!” ibid.

139 
Hossbach,
Zwischen Wehrmacht und Hitler
, p. 84.

140 
Hassell’s minutes of the Berlin talks of 19 Feb. 1936; reprinted in Robertson, “Zur Wiederbesetzung des Rheinlands,” pp. 194–6. See Hassell,
Römische Tagebücher und Briefe
, pp. 127f. (dated 23 Feb. 1936).

141 
Hassell,
Römische Tagebücher und Briefe
, p. 127 (dated 23 Feb. 1936). See Robertson, “Zur Wiederbesetzung des Rheinlands,” p. 203.

142 
Goebbels,
Tagebücher
, part 1, vol. 3/1, p. 383 (entry for 21 Feb. 1936).

143 
Ibid., pp. 388f. (entry for 29 Feb. 1935).

144 
Ibid., vol. 3/2, p. 30 (entry for 2 March 1936).

145 
Ibid., p. 31 (entry for 4 March 1936). According to Goebbels’s notes, Blomberg, Fritsch, Raeder and Ribbentrop took part in the meeting alongside him.

146 
Ibid., p. 33 (entry for 6 March 1936).

147 
Akten der Reichskanzlei: Die Regierung Hitler. Vol. 3: 1936
, ed. Friedrich Hartmannsgruber, Munich, 2002, no. 39, p. 165.

148 
Goebbels,
Tagebücher
, part 1, vol. 3/2, p. 35 (entry for 8 March 1935).

149 
François-Poncet,
Als Botschafter in Berlin
, p. 257. The memorandum is reprinted in
ADAP, Series C
, vol. 5/1, enclosure to no. 3, pp. 14–17. See also Claus W. Schäfer,
André François-Poncet als Botschafter in Berlin 1931–1938
, Munich, 2004, pp. 255–8.

150 
Shirer,
Berliner Tagebuch
, p. 56 (entry for 7 March 1936).

151 
Domarus,
Hitler
, vol. 1, part 2, pp. 583–97 (quotation on p. 594). On the reaction of the deputies, see Shirer’s vivid description: “Now the six hundred deputies, personal appointees all of Hitler, little men with big bodies and bulging necks and cropped hair and pouched bellies and brown uniforms and heavy boots, little men of clay in his fine hands, leap to their feet like automatons…Their hands are raised in slavish salute, their faces now contorted with hysteria, their mouths wide open, shouting, shouting, their eyes, burning with fanaticism, glued on the new god, the Messiah.”
Berliner Tagebuch
, p. 57 (entry for 7 March 1936).

152 
Schmidt,
Als Statist
, p. 320. Hans Frank,
Im Angesicht des Galgens: Deutung Hitlers und seiner Zeit auf Grund eigener Erlebnisse und Erkenntnisse
, Munich and Gräfelfing, 1953, p. 211, remembered a similar statement when travelling with Hitler from Cologne to Berlin at the end of the month: “I’ve never had to withstand the sort of fear I have in these past days of the Rhineland action. If the French had been serious about their threats, it would have been a massive political defeat for me…Am I glad [they weren’t], thank God! How happy I am that everything went smoothly!” In January 1942, Hitler recalled: “If another man had been in my place on 13 [
sic
] March, he would have lost his nerve! It was only my stubbornness and audacity that got us through.” Hitler,
Monologe
, p. 140, dated 27 Jan. 1942. On Hitler’s nervousness in the days following 7 March, see Albert Speer,
Erinnerungen: Mit einem Essay von Jochen Thies
, Frankfurt am Main and Berlin, 1993, pp. 85f.; Hossbach,
Zwischen Wehrmacht und Hitler
, p. 20.

153 
Thomas Mann,
Tagebücher 1935–1936
, p. 272 (entry for 11 March 1936). See also Lahme,
Golo Mann
, p. 107

154 
Goebbels,
Tagebücher
, part 1, vol. 3/2, p. 36 (entry for 8 March 1936).

155 
Shirer,
Berliner Tagebuch
, p. 59 (entry for 8 March 1936).

156 
Quoted in Schmidt,
Die Aussenpolitik des Dritten Reiches
, p. 201.

157 
Goebbels,
Tagebücher
, part 1, vol. 3/2, p. 46 (entry for 21 March 1936).

158 
Deutschland-Berichte der Sopade
, 3 (1936), p. 460. See Kershaw,
The Hitler Myth
, pp. 126–9.

159 
Goebbels,
Tagebücher
, part 1, vol. 3/2, p. 52 (entry for 31 March 1936). A detailed survey of Hitler’s campaign trail in March 1936 and of the programme of the rallies in BA Berlin-Lichterfelde, NS 10/125.

160 
Otto Dietrich,
12 Jahre mit Hitler
, Munich, 1955, p. 45.

161 
Martha Dodd,
Nice to meet you, Mr. Hitler! Meine Jahre in Deutschland 1933 bis 1937
, Frankfurt am Main, 2005, p. 232.

162 
In a top-level meeting in the Chancellery on 26 Nov. 1935, Hitler said that he could not tell how long German rearmament would last, but that it would probably take “3 to 4 years.”
Die Regierung Hitler
, vol. 2, part 2, no. 267, p. 948.

163 
Domarus,
Hitler
, vol. 1, part 2, p. 606. On the change in the way Hitler saw himself during the year of 1936, see Kershaw,
Hitler: Hubris
, pp. 590f; Thamer,
Verführung und Gewalt
, p 540; Wendt,
Grossdeutschland
, pp. 105, 110; Evans,
The Third Reich in Power
, p. 637.

16
Cult and Community

1 
Max Domarus,
Hitler: Reden und Proklamationen 1932–1945. Vol. 1: Triumph. Part 2: 1935–1938,
Munich, 1965, pp. 643, 641.

2 
Victor Klemperer,
Ich will Zeugnis ablegen bis zum letzten: Tagebücher 1933–1941,
ed. Walter Nowojski with Hadwig Klemperer, Berlin, 1995, p. 340 (entry for 27 March 1937); see ibid., p. 373 (entry for 17 Aug. 1937): “I’m increasingly coming to believe that Hitler truly embodies the soul of the German people, that he truly is Germany and that for that reason he will rightfully persist in the future.”

3 
Deutschland-Berichte der Sozialdemokratischen Partei Deutschlands (Sopade) 1934–1940
, ed. Klaus Behnken, Frankfurt am Main, 1980, 2 (1935), p. 653 (dated 15 June 1935).

4 
Hans-Ulrich Wehler,
Deutsche Gesellschaftsgeschichte 1914–1949
, Munich, 2003, p. 676. In his notes “Thoughts concerning the Führer,” written in his Nuremberg jail cell in 1945, Robert Ley concluded: “If a people and its leader ever truly became one, it was Adolf Hitler and the German people.” BA Koblenz, N 1468/4.

5 
According to Leipzig anatomist Hermann Voss, quoted in Götz Aly,
Hitlers Volksstaat: Raub, Rassenkrieg und nationaler Sozialismus
, Frankfurt am Main, 2005, p. 49.

6 
Werner Jochmann,
Nationalsozialismus und Revolution: Ursprung und Geschichte der NSDAP in Hamburg 1922–1933. Dokumente
, Frankfurt am Main, 1963, pp. 426 (dated 28 Feb. 1933), 427 (dated 1 March 1933). See also the letter from Hess’s parents to Rudolf and Ilse Hess, early May 1933: “[Hitler’s] name is now on everybody’s lips as the saviour of Germany and thus of the whole world.” BA Bern, Nl Hess, J1.211-1989/148, 51.

7 
Hedda Kalshoven,
Ich denk so viel an Euch: Ein deutsch–holländischer Briefwechsel 1920–1949
, Munich, 1995, pp. 169 (dated 10 March 1933), 197 (dated 4 May 1933), 199 (dated 17 May 1933). The Hamburg banker Cornelius von Berenberg-Gossler confided to his diary that the notoriously reserved inhabitants of the city were “blindly in love with Hitler.” Cited in Frank Bajohr, “Die Zustimmungsdiktatur: Grundzüge nationalsozialistischer Herrschaft in Hamburg,” in Angelika Ebbinghaus and Karsten Linne (eds),
Kein abgeschlossenes Kapitel: Hamburg im “Dritten Reich,
” Hamburg, 1997, p. 108.

8 
Paul Dinichert to Federal Counsellor Giuseppe Motta, 17 Nov. 1933; Frank Bajohr and Christoph Strupp (eds),
Fremde Blicke auf das “Dritte Reich”: Berichte ausländischer Diplomaten über Herrschaft und Gesellschaft in Deutschland 1933–1945
, Göttingen, 2011, p. 392. “The press worships Hitler like a combination of God and His prophets,” noted Victor Klemperer,
Tagebücher 1933–1941
, p. 54 (entry for 6 Sept. 1933).

9 
For example see the municipality of Wackerberg bei Tölz, 10 May 1933: Beatrice und Helmut Heiber (eds),
Die Rückseite des Hakenkreuzes: Absonderliches aus den Akten des Dritten Reiches
, Munich, 1993, p. 126; Quedlingburg, 20 Apil 1933: Henrik Eberle (ed.),
Briefe an Hitler: Ein Volk schreibt seinem Führer. Unbekannte Dokumente aus Moskauer Archiven—zum ersten Mal veröffentlicht
, Bergisch-Gladbach, 2007, p. 264; the Assocation of Thuringian Towns, 18 April 1933; the town Werl, 26 April 1933; Bremen, 8 May 1933: BA Berlin-Lichterfelde, R 43 II/959; Berlin and Munich:
Die Tagebücher von Joseph Goebbels. Part 1: Aufzeichnungen 1923–1941
, ed. Elke Fröhlich, Munich, 1998, vol. 2/4, part 3, p. 315 (entry for 15 Nov. 1933). For Hitler’s further honorary citizenships between 1935 and 1938 see BA Berlin-Lichterfelde, NS 51/79. In a public announcement of 22 May 1933, the Führer’s office asked for understanding that it could not immediately answer “the great number of requests that arrived every day for Hitler to accept honorary citizenships and certificates thereof.” BA Berlin-Lichterfelde, NS 51/80.