Hitler: Ascent, 1889-1939 (189 page)

91 
See ibid., p. 251; Kube,
Pour le mérite und Hakenkreuz
, pp. 140f.; Christopher Kopper,
Hjalmar Schacht: Aufstieg und Fall von Hitlers mächtigstem Bankier
, Munich and Vienna, 2006, pp. 266f., 306.

92 
See Kube,
Pour le mérite und Hakenkreuz
, pp. 142f.; Kopper,
Hjalmar Schacht
, p. 308.

93 
According to Göring’s memorandum to Krogmann; Carl Vincent Krogmann,
Es ging um Deutschlands Zukunft 1932–1939: Erlebtes täglich diktiert von dem früheren Regierenden Bürgermeister in Hamburg
, Leoni am Starnberger See, 1976, pp. 272f.

94 
Goebbels,
Tagebücher
, part 1, vol. 3/2, p. 74 (entry for 3 Feb. 1936); see also ibid., p. 73 (entry for 2 May 1936): “The Führer came out vigorously against Schacht. He’s now in for a hard time.” Speer also remembered a loud altercation between Hitler and Schacht in 1936; Speer,
Erinnerungen
, p. 111.

95 
Ministerial Council meeting with Göring, 12 May 1936;
Die Regierung Hitler
, vol. 3, no. 89, pp. 317–24 (quotation on p. 320). See also Göring to the ministerial council meeting on 27 May 1936: “All measures are to be considered from the perspective of how we can be certain of being able to wage war.” Ibid., no. 93, pp. 339–44 (quotation on p. 340).

96 
Wilhelm Treue, “Hitlers Denkschrift zum Vierjahresplan 1936,” in
Vierteljahrshefte für Zeitgeschichte
, 3 (1955), pp. 184–210 (quotation on p. 210).

97 
Ministerial council meeting with Göring, 4 Sept. 1936;
Die Regierung Hitler,
vol. 3, no. 138, pp. 500–4 (quotations on pp. 503, 504). Wiedemann quoted Göring as saying in late 1936: “My Führer, if I see things correctly, a major war within the next five years is unavoidable. You surely won’t object if I subordinate all the measures I take to this perspective.” Wiedemann, “Einzelerinnerungen,” notes made in San Francisco, 28 March 1939; BA Koblenz, N 1720/4.

98 
See Kube,
Pour le mérite und Hakenkreuz
, pp. 157f.; Tooze,
The Wages of Destruction
, p. 223.

99 
Goebbels,
Tagebücher
, part 1, vol. 3/2, p. 252 (entry for 15 Nov. 1936). The propaganda minister was impatient with Hitler for delaying Schacht’s dismissal: “I believe the Führer won’t be able to avoid getting rid of him. So let’s get on with it.” Ibid., vol. 4, p. 58 (entry for 19 March 1937). For his sixtieth birthday on 22 Jan. 1937, Hitler gave Schacht a valuable painting by Spitzweg. Schacht thanked Hitler the following day in an effusive telegram: “Among the many considerations I received on the day, your expression of trust in me was my greatest honour and source of joy.” BA Berlin-Lichterfelde, NS 10/34.

100 
Kopper,
Hjalmar Schacht
, p. 323; see Kube,
Pour le mérite und Hakenkreuz
, p. 189.

101 
Die Regierung Hitler
, vol. 4, no. 124, p. 454n6. On Hermann Göring’s creation of the Reich Works see Tooze,
The Wages of Destruction,
pp. 230–9.

102 
On the discussion of 20 Jan. 1939 see Hjalmar Schacht,
76 Jahre meines Lebens
, Bad Wörishofen, 1953, pp. 495f.; Ulrich von Hassell,
Vom anderen Deutschland: Aus den nachgelassenen Tagebüchern 1938–1944
, Frankfurt am Main, 1964, pp. 41f. (entry for 25 Jan. 1939). See also Goebbels,
Tagebücher
, part 1, vol. 6, p. 233 (entry for 20 Jan. 1939); Kopper,
Hjalmar Schacht
, pp. 315–18.

103 
Memorandum from the Reichsbank directorate to Hitler, 7 Jan. 1939; quoted in Kopper,
Hjalmar Schacht
, pp. 326f.

104 
BA Berlin-Lichterfelde, NS 6/71; see Max Domarus,
Hitler: Reden und Proklamationen 1932–1945. Vol. 1: Triumph. Part 1: 1932–1934
, Munich, 1965, p. 257.

105 
See Peter Longerich,
Hitlers Stellvertreter:
Führung der Partei und Kontrolle des Staatsapparats durch den Stab Hess und die Partei-Kanzlei Bormanns
, Munich, 1992, p. 8; Peter Diehl-Thiele,
Partei und Staat im Dritten Reich: Untersuchungen zum Verhältnis von NSDAP und allgemeiner Staatsverwaltung. Studienausgabe
, Munich, 1971, p. 208.

106 
See Longerich,
Hitlers Stellvertreter
, pp. 10f.; Diehl-Thiele,
Partei und Staat im Dritten Reich
, pp. 208f. For Martin Bormann’s biography see Jochen von Lang,
Der Sekretär: Martin Bormann. Der Mann, der Hitler beherrschte
, 3rd revised edition, Munich and Berlin, 1987; Volker Koop,
Martin Bormann: Hitlers Vollstrecker
, Vienna, Cologne and Weimar, 2012.

107 
On the power struggle between Hess/Bormann and Ley see Longerich,
Der Stellvertreter
, pp. 14–16; Diehl-Thiele,
Partei und Staat im Dritten Reich
, pp. 209–12.

108 
Ley to Hess, 20 June 1939; quoted in Diehl-Thiele,
Staat und Partei im Dritten Reich
, pp. 237f.

109 
Bormann to Ley, 17 Aug. 1939; cited in ibid., p. 240.

110 
Text of the law of 1 Dec. 1933 in Sösemann,
Propaganda
, vol. 1, no. 119, p. 167.

111 
Quoted in Diehl-Thiele,
Partei und Staat im Dritten Reich
, p. 20.

112 
See Longerich,
Hitlers Stellvertreter
, pp. 18–20; Diehl-Thiele,
Partei und Staat im Dritten Reich
, pp. 231–4.

113 
See Diehl-Thiele,
Partei und Staat im Dritten Reich
, pp. 42–4. Text of the law of 7 April 1933 in Sösemann,
Propaganda
, vol. 1, no. 74, p. 119.

114 
Text of the law of 30 Jan. 1934 in ibid., no. 138, p. 197. See Diehl-Thiele,
Partei und Staat im Dritten Reich
, p. 61; Broszat,
Der Staat Hitlers
, p. 151.

115 
Frick to Lammers, 4 June 1934; Lammers to Frick, 27 June 1934; quoted in Diehl-Thiele,
Partei und Staat im Dritten Reich
, p. 69; see Broszat,
Der Staat Hitlers
, pp. 152f.

116 
See Diehl-Thiele,
Staat und Partei im Dritten Reich
, pp. 70–3; Broszat,
Der Staat Hitlers
, p. 157. Text of the laws of 30 Jan. 1935 in Sösemann,
Propaganda
, vol. 1, no. 234, pp. 297f.

117 
Die Regierung Hitler
, vol. 4, no. 21, p. 68. See Broszat,
Der Staat Hitlers
, p. 361.

118 
Hitler,
Monologe
, p. 50 (dated 1/2 Aug. 1941). On Hitler’s aversion to bureaucrats see, for example, Goebbels,
Tagebücher
, part 1, vol. 5, p. 59 (entry for 18 Dec.1937): “Lawyers are
a priori
idiots.”

119 
Frank Bajohr,
Parvenüs und Profiteure: Korruption in der NS-Zeit
, Frankfurt am Main, 2001, pp. 21–9 (quotation on p. 27). See also
idem
, “Ämter, Pfründe, Korruption,” in Andreas Wirsching (ed.),
Das Jahr 1933: Die nationalsozialistische Machtergreifung und die deutsche Gesellschaft
, Göttingen, 2009, p. 191. In a letter to Hitler on 4 Jan. 1935, a man from Leipzig complained that favouritism was shown to “old street fighters” when jobs were handed out. Without being a member of the party, it was impossible to get work. “This is a situation,” the man wrote, “that the leading heads of the NSDAP used to condemn in the sharpest terms as the economy of socialist party membership.” BA Berlin-Lichterfelde, NS 51/73.

120 
Haffner,
Germany: Jekyll & Hyde
, p. 43.

121 
Guido Knopp,
Geheimnisse des “Dritten Reiches,
” Munich, 2011, pp. 146f. (see also the facsimile of the tax demand of 20 Oct. 1934). On Hitler’s tax exemption see also Wulf C. Schwarzwäller,
Hitlers Geld: Vom armen Kunstmaler zum millionenschweren Führer
, Vienna, 1998, pp. 158–60.

122 
See Gerd R. Ueberschär and Winfried Vogel,
Dienen und Verdienen: Hitlers Geschenke an seine Eliten
, Frankfurt am Main, 1999, pp. 39–52, 92; Speer,
Erinnerungen
, p. 100; Below,
Als Hitlers Adjutant
, p. 83.

123 
See Schwarzwäller,
Hitlers Geld
, pp. 195–8; Knopp,
Geheimnise des “Dritten Reiches,
” pp. 178f.; Speer,
Erinnerungen
, pp. 100f.; Dietrich,
12 Jahre mit Hitler
, p. 211; Koop,
Martin Bormann
, pp. 25, 34f.

124 
See Bajohr,
Parvenüs und Profiteure
, pp. 62–70; Speer,
Erinnerungen
, p. 231.

125 
See Hanfstaengl,
Zwischen Weissem und Braunem Haus
, p. 325: “By the summer of 1933 party comrades, whom I had visited for years in modest top-floor apartments, had moved into splendid, luxurious villas and were throwing their weight around as party big-wigs.”

126 
Wiedemann,
Der Mann
, p. 196. When Wiedemann spoke to Hitler in the summer of 1935 about the demoralising effects of rampant corruption, Hitler answered: “Oh, Wiedemann, people always think I can act completely freely and do whatever I please. But I’m only a human being who is driven by destiny, whose actions are in some respects prescribed.” Wiedemann’s shorthand notes dated 25 Feb. 1939; BA Koblenz, N 1720/4.

127 
Albert Speer,
Spandauer Tagebücher
, Munich, 2002, p. 202 (entry for 16 March 1949).

128 
Domarus,
Hitler
, vol. 1, part 2, p. 719 (dated 7 Sept. 1937).

129 
Speech in the House of German Art in Munich, 10 Dec. 1938; ibid., p. 983. See Wiedemann,
Der Mann
, p. 88.

130 
Adolf Hitler,
Mein Kampf. Vol. 1: Eine Abrechnung
, 7th edition, Munich, 1933, pp. 290f.

131 
Rudolf Hess,
Briefe 1908–1933
, ed. Rüdiger Hess, Munich and Vienna, 1987, p. 327 (dated 18 May 1924). Even prior to the 1923 putsch, during a social event at the Scheubner-Richters, Hitler had effused about the construction projects he had in mind for Berlin. Transcript of an interview with Mathilde Scheubner-Richter dated 9 July 1952; IfZ München, ZS 292.

132 
Hess,
Briefe
, p. 369 (dated 7 July 1925), p. 395 (dated 18 Dec. 1928).

133 
Goebbels,
Tagebücher
, part 1, vol. 1/2, p. 113 (entry for 25 July 1926); vol. 2/1, p. 256 (entry for 9 Oct. 1930); vol. 2/2, pp. 116f. (entry for 5 Oct. 1931).

134 
Adolf Hitler,
Reden, Schriften, Anordnungen—Februar 1925 bis Januar 1933. Vol. 3: Zwischen den Reichstagswahlen Juli 1928–September 1930. Part 2: März 1929–Dezember 1929
, ed. Klaus A. Lankheit, Munich, 1994, doc. 21, p. 192 (dated 9 April 1929).

135 
Frank,
Im Angesicht des Galgens
, p. 130.

136 
Domarus,
Hitler
, vol. 1, part 1, p. 257 (dated 22 April 1933).

137 
Speer,
Erinnerungen
, p. 71; see also Speer,
Spandauer Tagebücher
, p. 135 (entry for 28 Dec. 1947): “He wanted to construct buildings for all eternity.” An article prepared by the Propaganda Ministry for
Time
magazine about Hitler as the initiator of massive construction projects read: “National Socialism wants to build its own stone monuments to last for centuries, nay, millennia.” Helmuth v. Feldmann to Wiedemann, 31 Jan. 1938 with the article enclosed; BA Koblenz, N 1720/6.

138 
Speer,
Erinnerungen
, p. 44.

139 
As in Fest,
Speer
, p. 63.

140 
The theory of an erotic element to Hitler and Speer’s relationship was first presented in Alexander Mitscherlich, “Hitler blieb ihm ein Rätsel: Die Selbstblendung Albert Speers,” in Adalbert Reif,
Albert Speer: Kontroversen um ein deutsches Phänomen
, Munich, 1978, pp. 466f.; see also Fest,
Hitler
, p. 716;
idem
,
Speer
, p. 60; Gitta Sereny,
Albert Speer: His Battle with the Truth
, new edition, London, 1996, pp. 109, 138f. In a letter to Hannah Arendt on 5 Jan. 1971, Fest wrote: “No doubt there was a strong erotic component.” Hannah Arendt and Joachim Fest,
Eichmann war von empörender Dummheit: Gespräche und Briefe
, eds Ursula Ludz and Thomas Wild, Munich and Zurich, 2011, p. 96.

141 
Speer,
Spandauer Tagebücher
, p. 128 (entry for 10 Dec. 1947).

142 
Ibid., p. 609 (entry for 19 Feb. 1964). The Faust/Mephisto analogy in Speer,
Erinnerungen
, p. 44. In his conversations with Fest, Speer repeatedly declared that he had fallen “head over heels” for Hitler. Joachim Fest,
Die unbeantwortbaren Fragen: Notizen über Gespräche mit Albert Speer zwischen 1966 und 1981
, Reinbek bei Hamburg, 2005, p. 30; see ibid., p. 196.

143 
Albert Speer, “Die Bauten des Führers (1936)”; reprinted in Heinrich Breloer, with Rainer Zimmer,
Die Akte Speer: Spuren eines Kriegsverbrechers
, Berlin, 2006, pp. 41–8 (quotation on p. 41).