Deep Dive
Shownotes Transcript
Munich, August 30th, 1932. At the Palatial Hotel Continental, a party of guests is shown to its table in the Grand Dining Room. Dinner at the Continental is an elegant affair: dinner jackets, evening dresses, haute cuisine. Beneath the chandeliers a string quartet plays. The head of the party from a noble family is quite at home in the surroundings, though he's not averse to roughing it.
He has seen action as an Imperial cavalryman, a war reporter, and later as an infantryman in the trenches of the Western Front. Back home in Britain, he has since sought a career as a Member of Parliament. Though he is somewhat out in the cold, he likes to busy himself with his pet projects. He paints, he writes, he is an historian. He is also partial to a brandy and a cigar. Over the summer, Winston Churchill has been touring the battlefields of Europe.
researching his ancestor, the first Duke of Marlborough. In 1704, the English general scored a tremendous military victory, not far from here, at the Battle of Blenheim. As Churchill's party take their seats, they're joined by another man. He is a tall, chivalrous Bavarian, impeccably mannered, who speaks flawless English with an American accent. Ernst Hamstengel, known to all as "Puzzi",
Hamstengel, a member of the Nazi party, has been keen to introduce Churchill to his boss, his Fuhrer, one Adolf Hitler. He feels it most important that the two men meet. He has a sense that Churchill is not yet a spent force. He has arranged for the Nazi leader to join them after dinner for coffee. As the evening wears on, Hamstengel eyes his watch. Conscious of Hitler's slack timekeeping, he excuses himself and hurries to fetch him. His apartment is close by.
He is shocked, however, to find his Fuhrer quite unready. Hitler is unkempt. He has on a filthy old jacket. He's unshaven. He clearly has no intention of going. Hamstengel protests. Please, don't embarrass him. Hitler will appear rude if he doesn't show up. But Adolf Hitler has no regard for Winston Churchill. What on earth would I talk to him about? He shrugs. He is in opposition, and no one pays any attention to him, replies Hamstengel.
People say the same about you. In Munich, as it turns out, Churchill has been overheard making blunt comments about Nazi anti-Semitism. Indeed, over dinner, Hamstangl has skillfully batted the subject away. Hitler is in no mood for a public spat. Thus, Hitler lost his only chance at meeting me, Churchill recorded in his diary. Later on, when he was all-powerful, I was to receive several invitations from him,
But by then, a lot had happened. From Neuser: This is Real Dictators. Following the death of Geli Raubel, Adolf Hitler throws himself into his work. The avoidance of scandal over his niece's suicide has enabled him to pick up where he left off. The stunning election results in 1930 have made the Nazis the second biggest party in the Reichstag. In the ongoing electoral merry-go-round, there's every chance the Nazis can build on their success.
This is no time to ease off, knows Hitler. They must keep up the pressure, sustain the momentum. There are those in hindsight who will say that millions were duped by Hitler. The bigger fools right now are those who think they can manipulate him, use him to their own ends, perhaps even tame him. Enter General Kurt von Schleicher, chief among those who believe they can play the Nazi leader. Schleicher comes from noble stock. He fancies himself.
Every morning, for all to see, he takes his horse for a turn around the Tiergarten, Berlin's famous park. He is, as far as he's concerned, very important. His self-belief comes from the fact that he has embedded himself deeply into the corridors of power. He is the man who has President Hindenburg's ear. Schleicher has in effect become Hindenburg's unofficial advisor, a puppet master.
The more senile Hindenburg becomes, and he's pushing 85, the more Schleicher cements his position as the power behind the throne. Schleicher has a similar dream to the Nazis, that of a right-wing nationalist dictatorship, only with himself in charge, not Hitler. Adolf Hitler, he determines, will be his useful idiot, someone on whose shoulders he can climb
On October 14, 1931, Schleicher invites Hitler to Berlin for an audience with his president, to flash some real power in front of him, to put him in his place. The towering 6'6" Hindenburg, with his huge belly and booming voice, is still an intimidating physical specimen. Hitler is no shrinking violet, but even he is taken aback.
As ever though, Hitler rebounds. He barks over Hindenburg with a tedious monologue about Nazi ambitions, German honor, and all the usual injustices. For one used to giving orders, the insubordination merely irritates the old Field Marshal. In private, Hindenburg dismisses Hitler as the Bohemian Corporal, and he tells him to his face the best Hitler can ever hope for in politics is to head up the postal department.
Hitler never forgets, and he certainly never forgives. To the man on the street, dealings in faraway meeting rooms are of little consequence. With the Great Depression biting and unemployment at 40%, putting bread on the table is the only thing that counts. Professor Thomas Weber
"Germany can no longer deal with all these fragmentations and tensions and disagreements within its system. There is suddenly a new stage for people on the radical right and on the radical left who promise to find a totally different answer, who's just saying we need a totally new Germany." Strategically, Hitler makes a clever move. From now on, he will conduct himself as if he is already leader of the nation.
in the way he acts, the way he talks. He is the Führer, and don't you forget it. If people start to regard him as such, then he is only one step away from it in actuality. On New Year's Day 1932, Hitler holds a press conference in Munich, in which he actually declares that God is on his side, which, if true, is one hell of a coup by his PR people. Back in Berlin, Hindenburg has not thought things through,
When dressing down his Bohemian corporal, he had neglected the fact that just around the corner loom the presidential elections. His seven-year term is almost up. There are abundant reasons why Hindenburg shouldn't run again, not least because he will be 92 when the next stint ends. But the gruff old duffer will brook no dissent. He is standing, he bellows, and that's that. Oh, and that Hitler fellow. We're going to need his support.
At Nazi Central, buoyed by the electoral gains of 1930, a thought emerges. What if Hitler were to run against Hindenburg? The old president's place as the father of the nation has always been taken for granted. Yes, running against him could split the right-wing vote. It may even allow a moderate to sneak through. But what if? Hitler is holding talks with a bunch of eminent business leaders.
members of a group known as the Kepler Circle. While discussing the Nazi economic program, Hitler slips something else into the conversation. If he were to run for president, just hypothetically speaking, could he count on their support? He throws them a juicy bone. Back him in his bid for the presidency, he says, and he will do them a big favor. He will abolish the trade unions. So much for being champion of the working man.
The industry leaders give him their blessing. Leading lights from the mining, steel, chemical, rubber and shipping industries are all in his pocket. Deutsche Bank give the Nazis their approval, as do the giant insurance firm Allianz. AEG, Bosch and Siemens will soon heed the Nazi call, as will the arms manufacturer Krupp. Hitler is still not sure. Yes, the presidency is the most prestigious post,
But the sure route to absolute power lies in becoming Chancellor, where Parliament can be suspended and direct rule decreed. So Hitler knows that in early 1932 there will be new presidential elections. But the challenge for him is that he has got to run against Paul von Hindenburg. If you're Hitler, you wouldn't want to run against him, but you would want to run against a liberal or left-wing candidate.
But he decides to run against Hindenburg, maybe in part because he just thinks that that will give him even more exposure. In the same way that today, often American politicians enter the presidential race, even though they know that they ultimately will not get the nomination, but they still know that it will actually help them to get more prominence and ultimately to get in a position of influence. It is Goebbels, finally, who persuades Hitler to go for it.
Hindenburg, with great smugness, has already declared his own candidacy. To him it's a foregone conclusion. And so, on February 27th, Hitler tosses his cap into the ring. It's a late call. The elections are only two weeks away. It'll mean a blitzkrieg campaign. Against a backdrop of street violence, dole queues and soup kitchens, the battle commences. They are quite a contrast.
The big old field marshal with his pickle-harbour helmet, walrus moustache and greatcoat straining at the belt. Hindenburg is a walking caricature of Prussian militarism. Sword dangling, chest awash with medals. His illustrious military career extends as far back as the Austro-Prussian War of 1866. Opposing him is the humble little corporal. But that's exactly how the Nazis want to play it.
They are a party not of the entitled, not even of the country, but of the people, the Volk. Where Hindenburg rambles about old Prussian glories, Hitler keeps his message simple: it's about freedom and bread. Goebbels sums it up with another neat slogan: "Honor Hindenburg, vote Hitler." There is a fly in the ointment. Remember when Hitler renounced his Austrian citizenship back in 1925? He has been stateless ever since.
not yet German at all. In fact, he is not legally permitted to run for high office. Fortunately, there's been a bit of chicanery. On February 25th, the Minister of the Interior of the State of Brunswick appoints Hitler as a special attaché. Upon Hitler is conferred the citizenship of Brunswick and with it, automatically, of the Weimar Republic. Adolf Hitler has spent his whole life fantasizing about this moment.
He is, at last, officially a German. As the days count down, Hitler embarks on another massive speaking tour. There are gimmicks deployed, pioneering ones. The Nazis mount loudspeakers on trucks that roll through the streets of Germany, broadcasting the party's message. There are 50,000 gramophone records of Hitler's speeches mailed out.
Hitler makes a publicity film that is projected at night in public squares across the country, the first ever party political broadcast. There will soon be a budget people's radio on offer, the Volkshimpfinger, the people's receiver, so you can invite Uncle Dolph into your parlor. As a brand, the Nazis are becoming something else. They are not just a party but a movement.
selling a lifestyle and one with serious merch. There are Nazi buttons, badges, mugs, ashtrays, Hitler posters, and all featuring that trademark logo, the broken armed cross of the swastika, copied with the most supreme of ironies from an ancient Hindu peace symbol. Professor Claudia Kuhns. Germany had trading cards that came with chewing gum, tobacco, candy.
And the Nazi Party produced albums that people could fill in with color cards of the Nazi Party leadership, of Hitler's childhood, cards showing Nazi Party doctrine. And so you got the album for free. And every time you bought a particular brand of cigarettes, you would get a trading card. And some were more rare than others. And so this was popular. It integrated consumerism with politics.
With the Horst Wessel song already bagged as an anthem, Putzi Heimstengel comes up with a chant that the faithful can use at rallies. A fan of American football from his time in the US, he is inspired by the yell that resounded across the bleachers at his old university: "Har-vord, har-vord!" It becomes: "Sieg Heil, Sieg Heil!" The stiff, right-arm salute goes with it. The length of time one is able to sustain it becomes a mark of one's manhood.
It's said that Hitler can keep it up for seven hours. In this new Nazi universe, no detail is left to chance. In an effort to spruce themselves up, a clothes designer is brought in. Enter a man named Hugo Boss, whose fashions are already getting some attention. A Nazi Party member and personal sponsor of the SS, Hugo Boss works wonders with his favorite unit's uniform.
He has his seamstresses knock up a tight-fitting, all-black ensemble of tunic, jodhpurs and jackboots, one that promotes an upright posture. Incorporated into the design is an old Prussian regimental badge, a skull emblazoned on the cap. Throw in the lightning bolt motif, the figure-hugging leathers, and this is racy stuff, only one whip away from S&M. Professor Nicholas of Shaughnessy,
What you have is consistency and control across the brand signifiers. Everything from uniforms to typeface to symbols to rituals. There is an extraordinary degree of coherence and coordination. The interesting question is why. It's partially answered by Hitler himself.
He apparently spent hours in Munich public library digging up symbols and signs to use. He paid huge attention to matters of symbolism. And this was what he was all about. None of its original, not the fascist salute, the Sieg Heil or anything else. But there is a consistency, a coordination, a house style. And in particular, we mentioned Hugo Boss. They really did understand male vanity.
There's a photograph of Major General Fortune surrendering the Scottish division to Erwin Rommel in 1940 in France, and the contrast couldn't be more great. General Fortune is wearing a kind of baggy boiler suit, and Rommel is dressed to the nines in tight-fitting, well-tailored, field-grey uniform with the Iron Cross dangling seductively over his chest.
and absolutely screaming supremacy and hubris with the boots and all of it. They costumed the nation. Nazism is a very male thing, and they really get it at so many levels, which other regimes just don't. It's a visual feast. It really leaves the brain reeling. And that is the whole point, to anesthetize consciousness. That is what they achieved. The Nazis have thought of everything.
There are plans in place for a utilitarian Nazi vehicle, a people's car, the Volkswagen. Its prototype, nicknamed the Beetle due to its bug-like shape, will be commissioned in April 1934. The Volkswagen will be designed for the new superhighways, the Autobahns, soon to be crisscrossing the land. Hitler will shovel the inaugural soil in a few months.
Remember that the Nazis had television. This is the extraordinary thing. The large part of Nazi television was rediscovered after the collapse of the Berlin Wall because these tapes were all in East Germany. It's absolutely fascinating to see their television, to see the peroxide blonde lady newsreader and so forth. Some of it is beyond satire, but it is actually important for another reason, that the television was unedited.
You see the overweight stormtroopers milling around. You see Gauleiters fluffing their lines in interviews and so forth. The high polish which we see retrospectively in all their media products is missing. And this is the frightening thing, that they created a media legacy like none other in history, with which to beguile future generations if they're actually not taught about the Nazis.
They can be easily taken in by all those uniforms, that amazing army, by those rallies, those songs. There is no body of material from any other regime quite like that to beguile future generations. The Nazis are dynamic campaigners. In the effort to unseat Hindenburg,
Hitler and Goebbels make at least one major speech daily, sometimes two or three, zipping around Germany to proclaim the party message. By contrast, the Hindenburg campaign is sluggish. And there are mischievous rumours that his own son, Oskar, has slapped his old man in the face by joining the Social Democrats, that two of his daughters are socialists, even if completely fabricated.
Hindenburg spends more time firefighting these problems than taking on Hitler. But on election day, Sunday, March the 13th, as the tellers begin their count, Hindenburg appears to be narrowly in the lead and starting to pull away. That night, Hitler sits in Munich's Café Heck, waiting on the news. At an hour after midnight, it comes. Despite their monumental effort, Hindenburg has sealed it.
18 million votes to Hitler's 11 million. He is, however, just a whisker short of a majority. There must be a runoff between the two men. A new date is set for April 10th. Hitler has a look of scorn for those who failed him. This time, he will run the campaign himself, and they will begin this instant. The runoff campaign does not get off to a good start. Now it's the Nazis who are hit by scandal.
The Münchner Post, a social democratic paper, has come into possession of some letters, correspondence between Ernst Röhm, head of the SA, and his psychologist. In them, Röhm confesses to his homosexuality. It's already an open secret among friends, including Hitler, but this public admission threatens to derail the Nazi bandwagon. The spin doctors go into overdrive, assuring that Röhm is not a threat to decent society.
Hitler will have to pull out all the stops, speak, campaign, kiss babies, kiss women, like never before. He will embark on a speaking tour across the nation. It will be known as Hitler über Deutschland, Hitler over Germany. If t-shirts existed back then, they'd have printed them up. While dreary old Hindenburg drones away with fireside chats, Hitler takes to the air, dive-bombing the fatherland in his chartered plane, the Deutschlandflug.
In his four airborne campaigns mounted in 1932, Hitler addresses a staggering 148 mass rallies, sometimes speaking to audiences of 30 or 40 thousand. He is reaching parts that no politician has ever reached. He is hailed, worshipped by ecstatic crowds which have been worked up into a frenzy. Flags, trumpets, flaming torches, eagles, the explosion of red, white and black banners.
Amid the grim greyness of starving Weimar, this is a pageant of noise and color. There is a psychology to each performance. Hitler refuses to appear until the sun is going down. He keeps his public waiting for hours, cranking up the anticipation. The sight of his plane descending from the clouds provokes an orgy of adulation.
The deliberately slow journey from the airstrip to the gig, standing up at his open-topped Mercedes, nodding acknowledgement, arm erect, is a spectacle in itself. Children are thrust forward to hand him flowers. Bouquets rain down from the windows. Women scream themselves silly. They weep uncontrollably. They faint. This is Hitler-mania.
He was indeed a groundbreaker, and I really do think the rock star is a relevant metaphor. I really do. It's so similar. He can make speeches in five different cities in a single day. The important thing about this is it establishes a personal connection to Hitler for millions of Germans. They actually see him. This is the real point. They see him, they hear him in the flesh, alive.
It will all be captured on film over the coming months for a forthcoming movie, Leni Riefenstahl's Triumph of the Will.
Many described it as like having a deep sense of prayer. They describe it as a church. This is the frightening thing. People use the language of spiritual awakening to evoke these events. It's not surprising that rock stars have alighted on the Nuremberg rally as a fascinating parallel to themselves. I mean, David Bowie and Mick Jagger, I think, watched Triumph of the Will nine times together.
At the show, after the journeyman warm-up act, often Rudolf Hess, Hitler will make his long-awaited appearance. He begins in soft, engaging terms, eliciting the nods, the "jaas" and the general acceptance of his theme, gaining the audience's trust, throwing out a few mocking barbs at his opponents. Then slowly he builds to his crescendo.
A volcano of rage, arms jerking, his fringe flopping forward, till his audience are all but ready to run out and storm the barricade on his behalf. Much has been said about Hitler's spontaneity, his ability to speak off the cuff, but make no mistake about it, every line, every gesture has been rigorously rehearsed, hours spent in front of the mirror.
What you have is essentially a trained actor. His trainer was Heinrich Hoffmann, his court photographer. And there is an amazing sequence of Hitler doing different poses for Hoffmann. All of it was pre-rehearsed to an exquisite degree. It actually begins in very low key and works gradually up to very high key.
And then finally there is release in a kind of screaming ecstasy. I don't wish to draw analogies, but one could if one were crude. Here's a man, the core of whose life was grand opera, who was obsessed with it from an early age. And what you have is an operatic performance. Hitler is a man for all seasons. He will have studied his audience, pitching his message accordingly, sometimes in a suit, sometimes as an S.A. Brownshirt.
Sometimes in a non-specific military uniform, just something that Hugo's team has thrown together. What we see is a serial role playing. Hitler is the ultimate party comrade. He's also the First World War veteran, the everyman of the Western Front, the great survivor when so many died.
He is the messianic preacher, the evangelist. He is the sober suited businessman. There is never, in other words, a universal Hitler." A profuse sweater, Hitler can lose up to five pounds in weight during the course of a show. His shirt drenched over the three or four hours that he usually speaks. It's a condition of his performance that a local sponsor provide him with a private bathroom afterwards so that he can soak in the tub.
Under the lectern are 20 small bottles of mineral water, a standard rider. Sometimes, in hot weather, there is a block of ice placed there to keep him cool. And, as a pièce de résistance, there is a lighting console at his fingertips. Hitler was actually able to dim and raise the lighting, changing the colors according to mood. What Henderson, Sir Neville Henderson, the British ambassador, does,
is observe the stage management of the Nuremberg rallies, the lighting effects. What Hitler does is create what I think is Henderson's phrase, a cathedral of light.
by getting military searchlights from all over Germany and literally aiming them into the sky. What Henderson actually says is, look, I was in Tsarist Russia as a diplomat. None of it, nothing I ever saw in the great cultural glories of Tsarist Russia remotely rivaled a Nuremberg rally. And he said that for anyone who's seen a Nuremberg rally, it's like nothing they ever encountered on Earth, and it changes them.
Despite the superhuman effort, despite pulling out all the stops, Hitler just doesn't have enough to carry the vote. Not this time. On April 10th, the old field marshal sneaks victory in the runoff. Hindenburg once again is president.
So ultimately Hitler's gamble didn't work out. So what he now does is he thinks that he really needs to put all his efforts into competing in the parliamentary elections. And so if he can't be president, he needs to become chancellor. Shortly after the presidential election, there was another kick in the teeth. Chancellor Brüning, remember him, enacts a decree banning the SA and the SS.
Hitler's private army, his paramilitaries, are verboten. Fortunately, string-pulling Schleicher thinks this is a bad idea. He needs the Nazis in Feinfettel, especially if he's going to piggyback on them to form his own right-wing government. The Nazis are merely little children who need to be led by the hand, as he puts it. Hindenburg demands Chancellor Brüning's resignation. Schleicher suggests they seek out someone better suited to the task. His choice is Franz von Papen.
He is another old Prussian landowner, an ex-cavalry officer, someone more in tune with their thinking. In Hindenburg's mind, a gentleman. The last thing Papen wants is to be Chancellor, but Hindenburg appeals to the soldier within him. When the fatherland calls, Prussia knows only one response: obedience. Hitler assures that his Nazis will support Papen, as long as he lifts this stupid paramilitary ban, which Papen swiftly does. It's a bad move.
Germany is sucked further into the vortex of political violence. On one night in Altona, a suburb of Hamburg, 18 policemen are killed and nearly 300 wounded in a night of shooting and mayhem. Weimar's infamous Article 48 is invoked yet again. Emergency rule. This time it's Papen who is governing by decree. The suspension of parliament triggers the inevitable: more elections. If there is to be a Nazi rapture,
And this is the moment. On Sunday, July 31st, the polls produced the result that seems inevitable. The Nazis win 13.7 million votes, with over 37% of all ballots cast. They are now the biggest party in the Reichstag. And Hitler can put himself forward, legitimately, to be appointed Chancellor. There are plenty who don't want Hitler to have the job. Even Hermann Göring prefers power by stealth.
advancing in a broad alliance with other nationalist parties. But Hitler is not a man for half-throttle. His SA are out in force. There are stormtroopers on every street corner. They have members embedded deep within the police force. One false move, and Hitler will click his fingers. He has a gun to Germany's head. Though a creature of Munich, Hitler is spending an increasing amount of time in Berlin now, away from their southern HQ.
The Nazi party installs itself at the Hotel Kaiserhof, a de facto brown house north. Hitler's presence in the capital merely increases the pressure on Hindenburg. But on August 13th, the old Field Marshal declares that Hitler can have the vice-chancellorship at most. Hitler says no, he'd rather be in opposition. He rages at Papen for humiliating him. He tells Hamstengel, driving away from the meeting, "I would rather besiege a fortress than be a prisoner of it."
Hitler returns to his one true home, his alpine retreat, the Berghof, the only place where he can ever really relax, his fortress of solitude. To hell with the petty mandarins of the capital. Why should he go cap in hand when he holds all the cards? Hitler is head of Germany's biggest political party. The Nazis dominate the Reichstag. Plus, there's the not insignificant matter of his private army on the streets. Do they not get it?
Sure enough, the first emissary arrives. He is a friend of Papen's, a businessman in his mid-thirties. His name is Joachim von Ribbentrop. Ribbentrop will be another to fall under Hitler's spell. He will soon abandon everything to run away with the Nazi circus. Within a few short years, he will become Hitler's foreign minister. For now, however, Ribbentrop tries to smooth things over. Hitler and Papen got off on the wrong foot.
if they could just give it another chance. Up in Berlin, the new Reichstag is in session. To demonstrate their suitability for governance, the Nazi deputies are on their best behavior. They are rewarded with the post of President of the Reichstag, roughly equivalent to the Speaker. The job is given to one Hermann Göring. He is a man with little sense of parliamentary fair play and, quite often, of reality. We haven't talked much about Hermann Göring of late,
In earlier episodes, he'd figured prominently. As a World War I fighter ace, a member of the legendary Red Baron Squadron, he'd brought a bit of pizzazz to the embryonic Nazis, a bit of derring-do. In 1928, he became one of the first Nazi Reichstag deputies. Professor Helen Roche,
You get this term that's used of really high-ranking Nazis, goldfasan or golden pheasant, you know, because they're puffing themselves up with all of these fake medals and crazy uniforms. And Goering is like the archetypal golden pheasant. You have these stories of he'll go to this event and he'll change his uniform four times because he just loves looking swish in crazy uniforms.
Alongside Hitler at the infamous Beer Hall Putsch, Göring had been wounded, shot in the groin. Fleeing the country with his wife, Karin, a Swedish aristocrat, Herrmann had returned to Stockholm. His addiction to morphine and violent behavior saw him put in a straitjacket in an asylum there, though he has, he assures, fully recovered. Arrogant beyond belief, Göring does not find it difficult making enemies. He is about to come into his own.
with a spectacular piece of political theatre. On September 12th, the Communists table a motion of no confidence in Chancellor Papen's cabinet. Papen decides to circumvent it with another push at ruling by emergency decree. This move can only be facilitated, however, with the approval of President Hindenburg. Papen rushes from the chamber to secure Hindenburg's signature. He returns to find that Göring is already proceeding with the vote.
The outraged Papen storms up and waves the signed document under Göring's nose, before slamming it down on the table. But a grinning Göring simply pretends not to see him. With 512 votes to 42 in favour of the motion, Göring's blind eye causes Papen's government to fall. To say that the German public has no appetite for another election is an understatement. The political parties too are burnt out.
As Goebbels puts it, "The Nazi Party is in danger of winning itself to death." And then something else happens. On November 1st, word reaches Adolf Hitler that Eva Braun has shot herself. Eva Braun, if you recall, had caught Hitler's eye as a 17-year-old. After Mitzi Reitler and of course Geli Raubel, Braun is the third young woman in five years to attempt to take her life over Hitler. Hitler too has been on suicide watch on several occasions,
It seems that Brown shot herself in the neck with her father's pistol, failing to land the fatal wound but nicking an artery. She then telephoned Hitler's personal physician. He has, to the Fuhrer's relief, kept the information away from the public. Eva had been jealous, it is said, a recurring theme of the female devotion that Hitler has been garnering on his travels. Hitler visits Eva in hospital, armed with flowers.
The doctors tell him the move was of an attention-seeking nature. "You hear? The girl did it for love of me," Hitler tells Heinrich Hoffmann. "I have given her no cause which could possibly justify such a deed." Hitler may have avoided scandal, but the incident has thrown his focus. Election fatigue is telling. In the next public ballot, the Nazis lose more than two million votes, along with 34 Reichstag seats.
They can still form a majority with alliances, but Hitler seems to have peaked. Hitler's extraordinary luck is about to come into play. When, months ago, the chancellorship was his, they had bloody-mindedly refused to give it to him. Now that he's on the slide, they will offer it to him on a plate. Dr. Chris Dillon
Hitler certainly benefits from the perception that he was at risk of becoming a busted flush. The Nazi vote drops for the first time in November 1932. And also in the essay as well, there are clear signs of demoralization. The conservative elites who make the misbegotten calculation they can now use Hitler to kind of to crack and destroy the Weimar system become even more kind of hubristic in their assumptions.
The situation suggests to them that actually he won't need to be tamed very much because he's already been ground down by necessity to participate in the political system and is losing votes. So the idea that Hitler's already emasculated by dwindling returns of the ballot box is crucial to the calculations of people like von Papen in January 1933. Papen, still chancellor, is struggling to keep a government together.
It would seem less risky now for him to bury the hatchet, to bring the Nazis into the fold. He needs their support. Meanwhile, a group of 39 prominent businessmen sign a letter of petition to the president. The outside pressure on Hindenburg to make Hitler Chancellor is beginning to bear, but Hindenburg still won't budge. Now it gets complicated. Hitler suggests they can all go whistle if they think they can fob him off with some subordinate role.
Papen meanwhile is on borrowed time. The sclerotic arteries of government are truly furred up. On November 17th, he offers to resign. Enter, once again, Kurt von Schleicher. The scheming Schleicher suggests a new course of action to Hindenburg. How about letting him have a crack at Chancellor? He is a general. He has the support of the army. He's non-aligned. If anyone can bring some solely needed discipline, Hindenburg approves.
On December 2nd, 1932, Kurt von Schleicher becomes the first and last general to be appointed Chancellor of the Weimar Republic. His first move is bold. Of all people, he invites Gregor Strasser to his home. Strasser is a senior Nazi, a one-time rival of Hitler. He is seen as the reasonable alternative. Plus, if they offer Strasser the vice chancellorship, it could split the Nazi party.
It just might make the Hitler problem go away. Strasser declines, citing disloyalty. In any case, when the Führer finds out about their clandestine meeting, Gregor Strasser is swiftly excommunicated. On January 4th, Hitler heads to Cologne. Here, he is to meet Pappen in secret, this time at the home of an influential banker, Kurt von Schroeder, one of Hitler's backers.
At Schroeder's house, a new proposal is put to Hitler to form a joint Papen-Hitler government. They can pool resources, share duties, and be rid of the mischievous Schleicher altogether. Hitler reiterates that he doesn't want to be second fiddle. It may be a secret rendezvous, but Hitler has tipped off a Nazi photographer. Outside Schroeder's front door, Hitler makes an ostentatious display of clasping Papen's hand and bidding him a cheerful adieu.
The cameraman has got his money shot. When the picture appears in the next day's papers, Schleicher is furious. His reign as Chancellor, only weeks old, is already proving disastrous. Hindenburg has all but abandoned him. Over the following days there are further meetings. Oskar Hindenburg, the President's son, is now involved as a sort of proxy for his elderly father. As too is Otto Meissner, the State Secretary.
In hindsight, everything Hitler did often looks so clever. But we also have to see how Karthik thinks the 1932 wars and that also Hitler often made false moves during that time. Had he not run for the German presidency, it would have been in many ways much easier to be appointed chancellor because now Hindenburg is really reluctant to make Hitler, the guy who had run against him, chancellor. But Hitler's hand continues to strengthen.
A provincial election in the small state of Lippe yields a good return for the Nazis. They appear to be on the rise again. And Hitler warns, there's a nugget of information they have stumbled upon yet to be shared. Turns out that dear President Hindenburg has been fiddling his taxes. It's the ace up Hitler's sleeve. Goebbels is practically soaring himself. Once we have the power, he crows, we will never give it up.
They will have to carry our dead bodies out of the ministries. On January 29th, with Schleicher scrambling for survival, Papen approaches Hindenburg. After careful reflection he says he is prepared to give his backing to Adolf Hitler as Chancellor and he's found a safe way to do it. He, Papen, will serve under Hitler as Vice-Chancellor. He will keep him in check.
In this proposed new partnership, a neutered Hitler will never be able to act unilaterally. There will be a cap too on the number of Nazi ministers in the new cabinet. The posts they get will be junior ones. It is presented officially as a cross-party coalition of nationalist parties, a cabinet of national salvation. Could Hindenburg live with that? Hindenburg has little choice. Schleicher is already toast.
The old man nods his approval and lets out a sigh. I already have one foot in the grave, he says, and I am not sure that I shall not regret this action in heaven later on. Dr. Paul Moore
One of the tragedies really of 1933 is that by the time Hitler becomes chancellor, his support actually seems to be waning. There's a real sense internally within the Nazi movement that perhaps we've missed our chance and that the moment's passed. So it's a real tragedy then that in January 1933, at a time where support for the Nazi movement is declining, it's at this moment that Hitler's maneuvered into power by essentially some establishment figures around Hindenburg and von Papen.
He's gifted the chancellorship at a time where in some ways the Nazi wave has broken. That day Hitler waits at Goebbels Berlin apartment. When Göring gets word of Hindenburg's decision, he rushes over to break the news. Hitler, beaming from ear to ear, must still make assurances. He gives some flannel about mutual cooperation. He promises that the next round of elections will definitely be the last. Little did they realize that Hitler means this quite literally.
Next morning, January 30th, with no official confirmation, Papen sets a deadline. The appointment must be made by 11 am. There are rumors of Schleicher raising troops. The whole thing could descend into civil war. At 10:35 am, Hitler and his cabinet join Papen on the short walk to the President's Palace. They march through the gardens in the snow and are shown up to an office where they wait for Hindenburg to call them in.
There's already bickering amongst the uncomfortable new bedfellows. Hitler is already arguing for more power. At last, the great office doors swing open. Hitler and the cabinet ministers enter. Hindenburg neither greets nor congratulates them, nor does he personally offer Hitler the top job. He simply cannot bring himself to utter the words. There is a swift swearing-in ceremony, finished in the style of a shotgun wedding, as one commentator puts it. Adolf Hitler?
One time street vagabond, ex-convict, is officially Chancellor of Germany. It all happened so quickly that Hitler forgot to summon his photographer Hoffmann. But outside there are cameras in abundance. The shutters click furiously as Hitler, standing up in his open-top Mercedes, pulls away past the gathered delirious crowds.
That evening at sundown, the SA and SS lead a victory march. The torch-lit parade proceeds past the government buildings, through the Tiergarten and under the Brandenburg Gate. They will coin a new phrase for this auspicious day: "Der Machter Greifung" – the seizure of power. From his window in the Chancellery, Hitler looks down. As Goebbels records in his diary:
It's almost like a dream, a fairy tale. The new Reich has been born. 14 years of work have been crowned with victory. The German revolution has begun. From his office, the bemused President Hindenburg surveys the same scene. That night, he receives a telegram. It's from General Ludendorff, a man who knows Hitler all too well. "By appointing Hitler Chancellor of the Reich," says Ludendorff,
you have handed over our sacred German fatherland to one of the greatest demagogues of all time. I prophesy to you, this evil man will plunge our Reich into the abyss and will inflict immeasurable woe upon our nation. Future generations will curse you in your grave for this action. In the next episode of Real Dictators, Hitler attacks his chancellorship, briefing his army chiefs to prepare for war. But first,
We must deal with the enemies at home. After the Reichstag building is set ablaze, Hitler will eliminate all political opposition. As Nazism infiltrates every aspect of life, his opponents will be dragged away to the first of the infamous camps. That's next time on Real Dictators.