HITLER
A Biography
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© Peter Longerich 2019
First published in German by Sielder Verlag as Hitler: Biographie, 2015
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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Names: Longerich, Peter, author. | Noakes, Jeremy, translator. | Sharpe, Lesley, 1952– translator.
Title: Hitler : a biography / Peter Longerich ; translated by Jeremy Noakes and Lesley Sharpe.
Description: New York, NY : Oxford University Press, [2019] | Includes bibliographical references and index.
Identifiers: LCCN 2019015905| ISBN 9780190056735 (hardback : alk. paper) | ISBN 9780198796091 (UK edition : alk. paper) | ebook ISBN 9780190057145
Subjects: LCSH: Hitler, Adolf, 1889–1945. | Heads of state—Germany—Biography. | Germany—Politics and government—1933–1945. | National socialism. | Holocaust, Jewish (1939–1945)
Classification: LCC DD247.H5 L5613 2019 | DDC 943.086092 [B]—dc23 LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2019015905
1 3 5 7 9 8 6 4 2
Printed by LSC Communications, United States of America
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 support 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 subject’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
Introduction
Prologue: A Nobody
I. The Public Self
1. Back in Munich: Politicization
2. Joining the Party
3. Hitler Becomes Party Leader
4. The March to the Hitler Putsch
5. The Trial and the Period of the Ban
II. CReating A Public Image
6. A Fresh Start
7. Hitler as a Public Speaker
8. A New Direction
9. Conquering the Masses
10. Strategies
11. On the Threshold of Power
III. Establishing the Regime
12. ‘The Seizure of Power’
13. First Steps in Foreign Policy
14. ‘Führer’ and ‘People’
15. Breaking out of the International System
16. Becoming Sole Dictator
IV. Consolidation
17. Domestic Flashpoints
18. Initial Foreign Policy Successes
19. The Road to the Nuremberg Laws
20. A Foreign Policy Coup
21. ‘Ready for War in Four Years’ Time’
22. Conflict with the Churches and Cultural Policy
23. Hitler’s Regime
V. Smokescreen
25. From the Blomberg–Fritsch Crisis to the Anschluss
26. The Sudeten Crisis
27. After Munich
28. Into War
VI. TRiumph
29. The Outbreak of War
30. Resistance
31. War in the West
32. Diplomatic Soundings
33. The Expansion of the War
34. Operation Barbarossa
35. The Radicalization of Jewish Policy
36. The Winter Crisis of 1941/42
37. The Pinnacle of Power
38. Hitler’s Empire
VII. Downfall
39. The Turning Point of the War and Radicalization
40. With His Back to the Wall
41. Defeat Looms
42. 20 July 1944
43. Total War
44. The End
Conclusion
Notes
Bibliography
Illustrations
Index
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
ČSR Tschechoslowakische Republik (Československ. republika)
DAF Deutsche 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
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 Komm
unistische 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)
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
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 framework 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 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 answerable to him. This consistently personalized leadership style gave him the opportunity to intervene largely at will in the most diverse areas, and, as the scholarship of the last two decades in particular has demonstrated, he made liberal use of these opportunities. However, as the structures of power in Hitler’s regime were diffuse, there is no consolidated and comprehensive collection of sources relating to Hitler’s exercise of that power; it is the mosaic produced by the numerous studies of specific areas that reveals Hitler’s decision-making as wide-ranging and frequently informal. It is becoming increasingly evident that in a whole series of key political areas he really did hold the reins and involve himself (though with varying degrees of intensity at different times and in different spheres) in matters of detail, o
n top of dealing with the business of day-to-day politics. This will become clear not only in the realm of foreign policy, but also in particular with regard to the persecution of the Jews and the Nazi state’s eugenic policies, constitutional issues, rearmament (along with efforts to balance its economic impact), Church and cultural policy, propaganda, and a complex set of issues connected with managing the Party. During the war new areas were added: the military command of the Wehrmacht and its supplies and equipment, as well as matters of importance to the home front such as food supplies and female labour.
In the course of time Hitler created for himself immense scope for his own activity and indeed in some areas of politics he was virtually autonomous. He was capable of deciding on war or peace, he established the foundations of the European continent’s ‘new order’ as he saw fit, and he made arbitrary decisions about genocide and other programmes of mass murder on the basis of ‘racial’ factors. Yet although this freedom of action Hitler enjoyed was probably unique in modern European history, it nevertheless arose from historical preconditions and was certainly not limitless.
The most important of these preconditions was the emergence of an extreme right-wing mass movement as a reaction to defeat in war, revolution, and the Versailles Treaty, and to the world economic crisis and the failure of democracy to tackle this crisis. Additional potent factors present in German society and in particular among the elites – nationalism, authoritarianism, racism, militarism, revisionist attitudes in foreign policy, and imperialism – could be exploited by this mass movement, once it had come to power. And not least among the historical factors that smoothed the way for Hitler was the fact that countervailing forces, in the first instance inside Germany itself and then later within the European context, were incapable of putting up adequate resistance, did not exist at all, or failed. Thus Hitler really was in a position, first in Germany in 1933/34 and then in Europe during 1938–41, to create tabula rasa and to realize many of his plans in the power vacuum that had come about through the destruction of established orders.
Hitler acted not simply as a ‘catalyser’ or ‘medium’ for historical processes that existed independently of him.1 Rather, he shaped these in a very distinct and highly individual manner by channelling, reinforcing, and concentrating existing forces and energies, while mobilizing dormant but potential ones, and by exploiting ruthlessly the weakness or passivity of his opponents and deliberately destroying them. Although in the process he took account of tactical considerations, his political priorities were unambiguous: from the beginning of his career the notion of an empire [‘Reich’] ordered on racial lines was central. For two and a half decades he never wavered from this. With regard to the external borders and the structure of this empire, however, and to the time-scale and means to achieve this aim he proved extraordinarily flexible. Hitler’s political strategy can no more be explained by positing a ‘programme’ or a ‘phased plan’ (which was a central element in the interpretation advanced by the ‘intentionalist’ school of historians2) than it can by the notion of some kind of unbridled opportunism.3 The challenge is rather to account for this special blend in Hitler of obsession with a utopian goal combined at times with unscrupulous pragmatism; the latter propensity could amount almost to a reversal of ends and means. The figure who emerges is not so much a political strategist or ideologue as above all a ruthless, hands-on politician. I argue in this biography that critical turning points in Hitler’s policies cannot be seen as the result of external constraints and structural determinants but were the product of decisions he forced through in the face of resistance and significant retarding factors.