Hitler’s First Love

Adolf Hitler’s first love, in Vienna, was a Jewish girl called Stefanie but, lacking the courage, he never spoke to her. Instead, he wrote love poems about her which his youthful friend, the poor August Kubizek, had to endure.

Hitler extolled the virtues of men remaining celibate until the age of 25. He was both repulsed and fascinated by prostitutes and although he preached that only men of inferior races went to prostitutes he obliged Kubizek to accompany him on numerous trips into Vienna’s red light districts. Rumours persisted that Hitler caught syphilis from a Jewish prostitute. In the early 1920s, Hitler’s driver spoke of them cruising the Munich nightclubs.

Once he had become a national figure, Hitler’s relations with women were always marred by his belief that he was wedded to his mission. A wife would not only be a distraction; it could damage his popularity in the eyes of his female fans. Evidence of Hitler’s popularity amongst women first surfaced during his trial following the failed Munich Putsch in which daily the courtroom was jammed with female admirers. On the day of sentencing, it was festooned with flowers.

In 1926 the 37-year-old Hitler began seeing a sixteen-year-old called Maria (or ‘Mitzi’) Reiter. But his dedication to his mission caused her to be sidelined. Depressed by his lack of attention, Reiter tried to commit suicide.

Hitler and his niece

In 1929 Hitler started on a relationship, maybe intimate, with the daughter of his half-sister, 20-year-old Geli Raubal. Raubal moved into Hitler’s Munich flat and Hitler became obsessed with his niece and boiled over in rage when she started dating his driver, who was immediately sacked (although later re-instated). Hitler started controlling every aspect of Raubal’s life. On 19 September 1931, she was found dead in Hitler’s flat. Aged 23, she had shot herself. Devastated, Hitler became more withdrawn. Heinrich Hoffman, Hitler’s official photographer, later stated that Raubal’s death ‘was when the seeds of inhumanity began to grow inside Hitler’.

Mrs Hitler

Eva Braun worked as a photographic assistant and model for Hoffman and it was through him she met the 40-year-old Hitler as a 17-year-old in 1929. Their relationship began soon after Raubal’s suicide and possibly before. Raubal’s jealousy of Braun has been mooted as a possible cause of his niece’s suicide. Braun, like Mitzi before her, was sidelined. Again, Hitler’s lack of attention resulted in an attempted suicide. Twice Braun tried, once by shooting herself, the second time by poison. Although Hitler looked after her materially, Braun was usually marginalised and only Hitler’s immediate circle knew of her existence. As the end of the war approached Braun refused to leave Hitler’s side and joined him inside the bunker beneath the Reich Chancellery. Finally, aged 33, Braun was allowed to marry her man. Within 40 hours they were dead.

Rupert Colley.

Read more in The Clever Teens’ Guide to Nazi Germany, available as ebook and paperback (80 pages) on Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Waterstone’s, Apple Books and other stores.

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And so in Munich, Hitler planned his overthrow, or putsch, of the Bavarian government followed by a ‘March on Berlin’. The date set, Sunday 11 November 1923, was an auspicious anniversary – five years on from Germany’s defeat in the war, and, on a more practical level, being a Sunday, a day when the armed forces and police were on reserve strength. (Pictured is Hitler and his Munich entourage including, second from right, Ernst Röhm).

A Beer Hall in Munich

But when Hitler learned about, and indeed was invited to, a public meeting in a Munich beer hall on the evening of 8 November, hosted by government figures such as Gustav Ritter von Kahr, leader of the Bavarian Government, and the Bavarian chiefs of police and army, the opportunity was too perfect to pass by. At his side were Hermann Goring and Rudolf Hess.

The National Revolution Has Begun

As the meeting progressed, Hitler’s armed corps of bodyguards, the SA, silently surrounded the building. With the bulk of his men in place, others noisily barged into the beer hall, interrupting proceedings and shouting ‘Heil Hitler’.

A machine gun was hauled in and the audience, fearing a massacre, cowered and hid beneath their chairs. Hitler took his cue and, brandishing a revolver, charged to the front, leaped onto a chair and, firing two shots into the ceiling, declared that he was the new leader of the German government and that the ‘National revolution (had) begun’. He then forced the three men on the stage, Kahr and his chiefs, into a side room, apologised to them for the inconvenience, and promised them prestigious jobs in his new Germany.

Returning to the stage, Hitler delivered a rousing speech, winning over his audience who applauded ecstatically. They applauded with equal enthusiasm when Hitler’s famous co-conspirator, General Erich von Ludendorff, made his appearance. Ludendorff, as the joint head of Germany’s military during the First World War, was well-known and respected, and Hitler hoped that with Ludendorff as his mascot it would win him support. It seemed to be working.

Ludendorff’s task was to persuade Kahr and his chiefs to support the revolution and join the March on Berlin. After some reluctance, the three men eventually acquiesced.

Meanwhile, elsewhere in the city, the SA, led by Hitler’s confidant, Ernst Rohm, was successfully securing vital strong points. Hitler, his speech done and his audience converted, left the beer hall to check on progress.

The Gullible Old General

During Hitler’s absence, Kahr and his chiefs confirmed to Ludendorff their newfound allegiance and asked permission to leave in order to issue orders. Ludendorff, always trusting of fellow men in uniforms, gave his approval. Hitler, on his return, was furious that Ludendorff should have been so gullible.

Across the city scuffles continued throughout the night and confusion reigned as night turned into day. In the morning, Hitler ordered a march through the city to meet Rohm who, earlier, had seized the offices of the city’s War Ministry. With the chastised Ludendorff at his side and about 2,000 men behind him, Hitler set off. But in front of the Feldherrenhalle (the Field Marshals’ Hall) in central town, their way was blocked by a contingent of police. A gunfight ensued and four police officers and sixteen Nazis were killed. Ludendorff marched towards the police lines and was promptly arrested; Goring was badly injured but made his escape (eventually to Austria); and Hitler, falling to the ground, dislocated his shoulder.

Hitler managed to escape to a friend’s house, where, suicidal, he wrote various letters, including one where he handed over the leadership of the party to Alfred Rosenberg.

But Hitler’s luck was about to run out. He was arrested. The Munich Putsch had failed.

Hitler’s Trial

Opening on 26 February 1924 and lasting 24 days, Hitler’s trial offered him his biggest platform to date. Outside Bavaria Hitler was little known. But following the trial, Hitler’s name had become known throughout Germany.

I alone bear the responsibility

Presiding over the proceedings, the Minister of Justice, Franz Gurtner, was, at heart, a Nazi sympathiser, as were the judges. Whilst Ludendorff lied about having anything to do with the putsch and treated the judges as subordinates on the parade ground, Hitler declared his guilt with pride, appealing to the nationalistic patriotism of his listeners: ‘I alone bear the responsibility,’ he told the bench, ‘but I am not a criminal because of that … There is no such thing as treason against the November criminals’. (Hitler was referring to the German politicians that had surrendered in November 1918).

Hitler Guilty

The nation waited for the verdict. Ludendorff was acquitted. Hitler was found guilty and sentenced to five years. Given the evidence against him, an acquittal for Hitler risked the case going to the higher court where judges made of sterner stuff would not have tolerated Hitler’s long speeches and where the maximum penalty for high treason, the death penalty, would have been a distinct possibility. Thus the sentence of five years was deemed extremely light. Sentenced to the Landsberg prison, Hitler was spared prison uniform and permitted to wear his Lederhosen, granted a spacious room, and greeted by the prison wardens with a ‘Heil Hitler’, whilst his fellow prisoners would wait at the table before mealtime until Hitler had sat down.

My 4 1/2 Year Struggle Against Lies, Stupidity and Cowardice

Although frequently depressed and talking of suicide, Hitler used his time in prison constructively, dictating to Hess his autobiographical, ideological rant Mein Kampf. Published on 18 July 1925, it was originally entitled My 4 1/2 Year Struggle Against Lies, Stupidity and Cowardice; the new title being suggested by his publisher.

Hitler served only eight months of his five-year sentence and by the time of his release he had converted most of the prison staff and his fellow prisoners to National Socialism. Immediately on his release, he took up the reins of his party, and visited the Bavarian president, Dr Held, and promised that from then on the Nazi party would respect the legal process. The ban placed on the party within the province following the putsch was lifted, and Held boasted to his colleagues that he had tamed the wild beast. Little did he know…

Postscripts:

Gustav Ritter von Kahr was made to pay for his treachery – he was murdered during the ‘Night of the Long Knives‘ in June 1934.

Ernst Rohm, head of the SA, became increasingly a menace and potential threat to Hitler and was the main reason and victim of the ‘Night of the Long Knives’.

Rudolf Hess was also sentenced for his part in the Munich Putsch and served alongside Hitler.

Alfred Rosenberg had been a member of the German Workers’ Party, forerunner to the Nazi Party, from its inception in January 1919, joining it even before Hitler, who joined in the October. Hitler’s handing over of power to Rosenberg following his arrest was a shrewd move. At the risk of the party disintegrating, he knew Rosenberg, lacking the necessary credentials, would make a poor leader and pose no threat to his own leadership. Sure enough, on Hitler’s release from prison, Rosenberg stepped aside.

The proprietors of the Munich beer hall claimed for the damages: 143 broken beer mugs, 80 broken glasses, 98 stools, 148 pieces of cutlery, plus two unsightly holes in the ceiling.

November 8th and 9th became important occasions in the Nazi calendar as the sixteen ‘blood martyrs’ that died that night at the Munich Putsch were solemnly commemorated each year on the 8th. On the 9th, re-enactments were held of the dramatic events. The flag carried that night, stained with the blood of the Nazi martyrs, the ‘blood flag’, became a symbolic relic of the regime.

In 1935, Hitler had the martyrs reburied in front of the Field Marshals’ Hall in a  Temple of Honour’, adorned with flags and sarcophagi. The ceremony, on the anniversary in 1935, was accompanied by muffled drums and mournful parades down torchlit streets and the display of the blood flag.

Today in front of the Field Marshals’ Hall is a simple plaque to the four policemen who died that night (pictured). The inscription reads: To the members of the Bavarian Police, who gave their lives opposing the National Socialist coup on 9 November 1923.

Rupert Colley.

Read more in The Clever Teens’ Guide to Nazi Germany, available as ebook and paperback (80 pages) on Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Waterstone’s, Apple Books and other stores.

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In 1907, Hitler moved to Vienna while August Kubizek remained in Linz to work as an apprentice for his father’s upholstery business which was destined to become his trade. But Hitler somehow managed to persuade Kubizek’s father to allow Gustl to join him in Vienna and be allowed to pursue his musical ambitions.

Vienna

Thus the two friends were reunited and shared a room in Vienna. But while Kubizek was successful in his application to the Vienna Music Conservatory, Hitler failed twice to get a place at the Vienna Academy of Fine Arts. So ashamed of his failure that for a while Hitler kept it hidden from his friend.

In 1912, Kubizek went back to Linz for a brief visit. He returned to Vienna to find Hitler had moved out and had left no forwarding address. He was not to see Hitler again until 26 years later, in 1938.

Kubizek embarked on what promised to be a successful musical career but cut short by the outbreak of the First World War in 1914. Following the war, he became a council official.

The Reunion

In 1938, Hitler, by now the most powerful man in Germany, was paying a visit to his hometown of Linz when he agreed to meet up with Kubizek. They met in a hotel lounge and reminisced for an hour. Hitler offered to revive his old friend’s musical career but Kubizek, by now 50-years-old, declined the offer. But he did accept Hitler’s offer of funding his three sons through music school, and for years to come Hitler would send birthday presents to Kubizek’s elderly mother.

August Kubizek reminded Hitler of an occasion when, together in Linz, they went to see a performance of Wagner’s Rienzi. Hitler had come out mesmerized, as if in a trance. Hitler gripped Kubizek’s hands and “spoke of a mission that he was one day to receive from our people, in order to guide them out of slavery, to the heights of freedom.” Hitler remembered the occasion well, looked wistfully at his old friend and said, “It began at that hour …”

‘My Childhood Friend’

In 1939 and 1940 Hitler invited Kubizek to sit with him at the Bayreuth Festival in Bavaria, an annual celebration of the music of Richard Wagner. The occasions were, according to Kubizek in words reminiscent of Hitler’s style, the “happiest hours of my earthly existence.” Thus their friendship ended where it had begun thirty years before.

In 1951 August Kubizek wrote his memoirs, Adolf Hitler, My Childhood Friend, in which he which he declared, “No power on earth could compel me to deny my friendship with Adolf Hitler.”

He died, aged 68, on 23 October 1956, the very day the Hungarian Revolution broke out.

Rupert Colley.

Read more in The Clever Teens’ Guide to Nazi Germany, available as ebook and paperback (80 pages) on Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Waterstone’s, Apple Books and other stores.

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Count Stauffenberg loses faith

A fervent supporter of Hitler, 36-year-old Count Claus von Stauffenberg had fought bravely during the Second World War for the Fuhrer. Fighting in Tunisia in 1943, Stauffenberg was badly wounded, losing his left eye, his right hand and two fingers of his left. Once recovered, Stauffenberg was transferred to the Eastern Front where he witnessed the atrocities firsthand which made him question his loyalty. As it became increasingly apparent that Germany would not win the war, Stauffenberg lost faith in Hitler and the Nazi cause.

At some point in early 1944, Stauffenberg joined a group of German officers intent on bringing the war to a quick end and negotiating peace with the Allies. Their biggest obstacle was of course Hitler.

But the plotters received a bit of luck when Stauffenberg was appointed to the staff of the Reserve Army, reporting directly to General Friedrich Fromm, another officer who had lost faith in the Nazi cause. When Stauffenberg was invited to a meeting in Hitler’s Wolf’s Lair in Rastenburg, East Prussia, for 20 July, the opportunity seemed perfect.

The conspirators hatched their plan, codenamed Valkyrie, and crucial to its success was Stauffenberg’s proximity to Hitler.

‘I Am Alive, I Am Alive’

About to attend the meeting, Stauffenberg, lacking time to prepare two devices, only managed to prepare one bomb. With it set to detonate after ten minutes, Stauffenberg entered the meeting room at the Wolf’s Lair and found Hitler poring over a large air reconnaissance report from the Eastern Front spread across a table. The Count placed his briefcase beneath the map table and, as prearranged, received a phone call, necessitating his immediate attention and departure. (Picture: five days before the event, a photograph taken at the Wolf’s Lair with Stauffenberg, far left, Hitler, and Wilhelm Keitel, right).

Whilst Stauffenberg made good his escape, an attendant, with his foot, pushed the briefcase further under the heavy oak table so that when, at 12.42, the two-pound bomb went off, the thickness of the wood spared Hitler the main thrust of the explosion.

Billows of black smoke poured from the windows of the meeting room, and staggering out leaning on each other were two men, their clothes torn to shreds, their skin blackened, and their hair singed. One of them was General Wilhelm Keitel, the other was Hitler himself, muttering “What was that? I am alive, I am alive!”

Arrest him immediately

Hitler was examined – contusion on the left arm, damage to his eardrums and wooden splinters in his legs from the floorboards. (His trousers were torn to shreds, as seen in the picture below). Considering his proximity to the bomb his survival was miraculous. So superficial his injuries he was able to keep an appointment that afternoon with Italian leader, Benito Mussolini, meeting him in person at the local railway station and shaking Il Duce’s hand with his left. Hitler himself put his survival down to the hand of providence. Germany, the fates dictated, would win the war and Hitler’s life had been spared to ensure it.

Others had been more seriously injured and taken to hospital. Four of them later died. The movements of all were scrutinised and it soon became apparent that Stauffenberg, seen leaving hurriedly in his car, was the culprit. “Arrest him immediately!” bellowed Hitler.

Hitler is dead

Early afternoon, Thursday 20 July 1944 – Count Claus von Stauffenberg, believing that he had successfully killed Hitler, returned to Berlin. The first part of the operation had been successfully completed. Now he issued the codeword, Valkyrie, the instruction for the Reserve Army to place Germany under a state of emergency. General Friedrich Fromm, Stauffenberg’s senior officer within the Reserve Army, informed local commanders that a new administration would be formed.

However, one of those commanders, Major Remer, received a telephone call directly from Hitler where the Fuhrer informed the Major that, contrary to popular rumour, he was still very much alive – and in control.

When it became obvious that the coup had failed, Fromm, in an attempt to distance himself from the conspirators, ordered the arrest and immediate execution of Stauffenberg. The Count was detained and duly shot, along with three others, at one in the morning, just over 12 hours after the bomb had gone off, and hastily buried in the grounds of the War Ministry.

Himmler takes control

But it did Fromm little good. Once Heinrich Himmler, Hitler’s SS boss, had arrived in Berlin, he re-established control of the city and the mass arrests began, and among the first to be arrested was Fromm. He also ordered the exhumation of Stauffenberg’s body. The Count’s final resting place has since remained a mystery – until recently.

Many committed suicide rather than face Nazi justice. The ringleaders were rounded up and hanged by piano wire, their deaths recorded onto film and the films sent to the Wolf’s Lair for Hitler to watch at his pleasure. Over the coming months, more than 7,000 were arrested, of whom 4,980 were executed. Fromm remained imprisoned until 12 March 1945, when he too was shot.

Rommel’s fateful choice

The highest-ranking victim of this post-July purge was one of Hitler’s favourite and most ablest generals, Erwin Rommel. Rommel, who shared the same birthday as Stauffenberg, 15 November, although not directly involved, had previously voiced sympathy for the plan. Once his endorsement came to light, he was given the option of honourable suicide or subjecting himself to the humiliation and the kangaroo court of Nazi justice, and his family deported to a concentration camp. He chose the former and, on 14 October 1944, accompanied by two generals sent by Hitler, poisoned himself. He was, as promised, buried with full military honours, his family pensioned off.

Aftermath

Those who had been at Hitler’s side in the conference room on 20 July were awarded a specially-made ‘Wounded Medal’, either in black, silver or gold, that bore Hitler’s signature and the date (pictured). It was, for the remaining months of the war, the ultimate badge of loyalty and honour.

The buildings that made up the Wolf’s Lair were demolished soon after the war but today, on the site, is a memorial stone dedicated to Stauffenberg – the “bravest of the best” as Churchill described the fallen Count.

Rupert Colley.

Read more in The Clever Teens’ Guide to Nazi Germany, available as ebook and paperback (80 pages) on Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Waterstone’s, Apple Books and other stores.

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The earlier chapters concern Hitler’s upbringing, his formative years in Linz, Vienna, and Munich, his desire to be an artist, and his service during the First World War. Then begins the sledgehammer prose – some 600 pages of it. The book has not seen the light of day in Germany since the end of the Second World War but, contrary to popular belief, it is not banned there. Using the Swastika and the Nazi salute for non-educational purposes is forbidden in Germany but not the purchase or reading of the central ideological tenet of Hitler’s thinking. However, the state of Bavaria, which seized the copyright to Mein Kampf after the war, has steadfastly refused to re-publish the book fearing it could fuel racial tensions and be exploited by neo-Nazi groups.

‘My 4½ Year Struggle Against Lies, Stupidity and Cowardice’

Hitler was serving a jail term following his failed attempt to seize power in the 1923 Beer Hall Putsch. He was tried for high treason and could have faced the death penalty but got away with a lenient sentence of five years. In the event, he served less than nine months, being released in December 1924. Although frequently depressed and talked of suicide, Hitler used his time in prison constructively, dictating to his deputy, Rudolph Hess, his autobiographical, ideological tirade. Published in two volumes, the first on 18 July 1925, and the second in 1926, Mein Kampf was originally entitled ‘My 4½ Year Struggle Against Lies, Stupidity and Cowardice‘; the new title being suggested by his publisher.

Much of Mein Kampf is devoted to race; the need for a pure race of German Aryans untainted by the blood of different ethnic groups. The Aryan race was of the highest order, the ‘bearers of culture’; the Jewish race of the lowest. ‘The whole existence (of the Jews) is based on one great single lie… that they are a religious community while actually they are a race – and what a race!’

Hitler’s stated aim was to eliminate the ‘hydra of World Jewry’ from society. Jews are referred to throughout the book by various unpleasant metaphors: parasites, germs, vermin. He expounded at length on the need for Lebensraum, the provision of extra living space for the growth of the German population at the expense of the Slavic races of Eastern Europe. Hitler took Darwin’s concept of the ‘survival of the fittest’, nature’s continual struggle for life or death, and applied it to race. For the Aryan race to survive, not only had it to prove itself as the strongest, but it was necessary to stamp out weaker, inferior races. And of course, no ‘race’ was as inferior or as weak as the Jew.

Rupert Colley.

Read more in The Clever Teens’ Guide to Nazi Germany, available as ebook and paperback (80 pages) on Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Waterstone’s, Apple Books and other stores.

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Geli Raubal was the daughter of Hitler’s half-sister, Angela. Angela and Adolf grew up together; both products of the same father, Alois Hitler, and his second and third wives respectively.

Uncle Alf

In 1928, Hitler offered his sister the position of housekeeper in his Bavarian mountain retreat. Angela arrived with her two daughters, Elfriede and nineteen-year-old Angela, known as Geli. Hitler immediately took a shine to the carefree Geli and, in order to remove her from her mother’s watchful eye, installed her in his Munich apartment. Nineteen years Hitler’s junior, she was, according to one of Hitler’s aides, ‘of medium size, well developed, had dark, rather wavy hair, and lively brown eyes… it was simply astonishing to see a young girl at Hitler’s side.’

Geli, who called Hitler ‘Uncle Alf’, had been born in Linz; the town Hitler always considered his hometown, on 4 June 1908.

Hitler liked to be seen with his attractive niece, taking her to meetings, and to restaurants and theatres, but their relationship was a stormy one. Both were consumed by jealousy – Geli of Hitler’s relationship with a seventeen-year-old Eva Braun, a model for Hitler’s photographer, Heinrich Hoffman; and Hitler by Geli’s flirtatious conduct and numerous admirers. Indeed, Hitler once told Hoffman, ‘I love Geli and could marry her.’

Instead, Hitler controlled her life and dictated whom she was allowed to see and when. Geli found her uncle’s overbearing influence suffocating. He refused Geli permission to move to Vienna to study music (Vienna was where, as a young man, Hitler twice unsuccessfully applied to the art academy).

When Hitler suspected Geli of dating his chauffeur, an ex-convict called Emil Maurice, he flew into a rage and had the man sacked (although he was at some point later re-instated). What we don’t know for sure was whether Hitler had a sexual relationship with his niece. His sexuality has always been a subject of debate – was he homosexual or even asexual? Hitler often maintained he was wedded to the German nation and had no time for women. (He only married Eva Braun in the bunker beneath the Reichstag in Berlin just forty hours before their joint suicide in 1945.)

Sickened

With regards to Geli, Wilhelm Stocker, an SA officer, decades later, wrote, ‘She admitted to me that at times Hitler made her do things in the privacy of her room that sickened her but when I asked her why she didn’t refuse to do them she just shrugged and said that she didn’t want to lose him to some woman that would do what he wanted.’ The ‘things’ that ‘sickened’ her, so speculation has it, included sexual games involving urination.

In 1929, Hitler wrote Geli an explicit letter. The letter, had it been exposed to the press, would have spelled the end of Hitler’s career. It fell to a Catholic priest, Father Bernhard Stempfle, a fervent anti-Semite who had helped Hitler edit his biographical Mein Kampf, to rescue the letter. (Fr Stempfle would later fall victim to Hitler’s purge, the Night of the Long Knives, probably for simply knowing too much about Hitler’s deepest secrets. His body was found in a forest near Munich with a broken neck and three bullets in the heart).

For the last time – no

On the afternoon of 18 September 1931, witnesses heard Hitler and Geli have a row. As he got into his car to go to a meeting ahead of attending a conference in Hamburg, Hitler was heard shouting, ‘For the last time – no.’ After Uncle Alf’s angry departure, staff at the apartment heard Geli stomping around and may have heard a noise that sounded like a shot from a revolver.

The following morning, when Geli failed to emerge for breakfast, they knocked on her door, but found it locked from the inside. When there was no answer, they either broke the door down or called in a locksmith (accounts vary). The exact sequence of events is unclear. Inside they found Geli lying face down in a pool of blood with a single bullet wound to her heart. The gun, lying nearby, had been Hitler’s revolver. It looked like suicide. Yet, on the writing desk, was an upbeat letter Geli was in the process of writing to a friend. It was left unfinished in midsentence.

The seeds of inhumanity

There was no inquest into her death nor an autopsy. The passage of the bullet was not consistent with suicide, yet suicide was the verdict. There were several rumours – that her nose was broken, that she was pregnant.

The first police officer on the scene, Heinrich Muller (pictured), was seen pocketing the letter and the pistol into his coat. He was later appointed head of the Gestapo. An anti-Nazi journalist, Fritz Gerlich, claimed that Hitler never did leave for his meeting, and that he and Geli had lunch together at a local restaurant. On returning to their apartment, they had a row that resulted in Geli’s death. (Gerlich once defined the Nazi Party as: ‘Enmity with neighbouring nations, tyranny internally, civil war, world war, lies, hatred, fratricide and boundless want.’. Gerlich and, apparently, the owner of the restaurant, was another killed during the Night of the Long Knives.)

When Hitler was told of his niece’s death, by Rudolf Hess, he fell into a deep depression, almost comatose, and talked of taking his own life. Colleagues kept watch over him. He became a vegetarian because, apparently, the sight of meat reminded him of her corpse. Her bedroom was sealed off and maintained as a shrine. Each year, on the anniversaries of her birth and her death, the room was decked with flowers.

How Geli’s mother, Angela, reacted to the news is not recorded but one can imagine. She stayed on working for Hitler until, in 1936, she left his employ to marry an architect. Hitler, upset by her departure, did not send a wedding present.

Heinrich Hoffman, Hitler’s official photographer, later stated that Raubal’s death ‘was when the seeds of inhumanity began to grow inside Hitler’.

Sixteen months after the death of Geli Raubal, on 30 January 1933, Hitler was appointed chancellor.

Rupert Colley.

Read more in The Clever Teens’ Guide to Nazi Germany, available as ebook and paperback (80 pages) on Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Waterstone’s, Apple Books and other stores.

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The death of Hitler: In January 1945, with the Soviet Red Army bearing down on Germany, Hitler left his HQ in East Prussia and moved back to Berlin and into the Reich Chancellery. A month later, he went underground into the Chancellery’s air-raid shelter, a cavern of dimly-lit rooms made of solid, high-quality concrete.

Hitler’s Health 

During his last few months, Hitler’s health deteriorated rapidly. In February 1945, after so many years of shouting and screaming, he had to have an operation on his vocal cords which, following the operation, obliged him to stay silent for a whole week.

Despite the implorations of his staff, Hitler refused to leave Berlin, and finally, realising the war was truly lost, he decided to end his life. Shuffling around with a stoop, Hitler looked much older than his fifty-six years. A new pain in his eye required daily doses of cocaine drops, and, perhaps from the onset of Parkinson’s disease, his left hand shook constantly. His eyesight had become so poor he had to have his documents written in extra-large print on specially-made ‘Fuhrer’ typewriters.

He ate poorly – devouring large portions of cake. He’d fallen out with many of his senior colleagues – in particular Hermann Goring and Heinrich Himmler, both of whom he accused of treachery and ordered to be arrested on sight and court-martialled. Joseph Goebbels, however, remained loyal to the last, broadcasting to the nation, demanding greater effort and sacrifice against the enemy.

Hitler the General

In his final days, Hitler ordered a scorched-earth policy throughout eastern Germany and the destruction of anything that could be of use to the Soviets. What happened to the German citizen was not of Hitler’s concern – as far as Hitler was concerned, they had proved themselves unworthy of him.

From within the bunker, Hitler continued to dictate operations but his grip on reality had deserted him. He refused to listen to the glum reports from the front and ordered a constant stream of counterattacks deploying non-existent troops and refusing the troops that did exist room to retreat and re-group.

On his 56th (and final) birthday on 20 April 1945, a group of nineteen Hitler Youth boys lined up in the Chancellery garden for Hitler to inspect and decorate with Iron Crosses. Lined up from the eldest to the youngest, Hitler, with his shaking left hand behind his back, shook hands with each child, pinching the cheek of the last, the youngest child, a 12-year-old boy called Alfred Czech.  ‘The Führer shook my hand,’ said Mr Czech decades later, ‘then he pinched my left cheek. He told me, “Keep it up!” I certainly had the feeling that I had done something remarkable.’ Hitler delivered a short speech and thanked them for their bravery before shuffling back into the bunker. It was to be Hitler’s last appearance in public.

Hitler and Eva

A week later, just past midnight on 29 April, in a ten-minute ceremony, Hitler married his long-term partner, Eva Braun (pictured). Twenty-three years his junior, the German people knew nothing of her. Her presence, although not a secret amongst the Nazi hierarchy, was not something Hitler wished publicized lest it should diminish the adoration of Germany’s women. Goebbels and Martin Bormann stood as witnesses as a hastily-found registrar nervously asked the couple whether they were of pure Aryan descent and free of hereditary diseases.

That night, following the subdued and rather surreal marital celebrations, Hitler dictated his last political testament and private will to his secretary, where, in the former, he drew up the makeup of the government following his death. The admiral, Karl Donitz, was named as his successor, not as ‘Fuhrer’ but as president, and Goebbels as Chancellor.

Death of Hitler

That same day, Hitler made preparations for his death. 200 litres of benzene were delivered into the bunker. Hitler insisted that his body be burnt, not wanting his corpse to finish up in Soviet hands like an “exhibit in a cabinet of curiosities”. He also ordered the testing of the newly-arrived batch of cyanide capsules. The chosen victim was Hitler’s much-loved Alsatian dog, Blondi.

On 30 April, with the Soviets only 300 metres away, Goebbels tried one last time to convince the Fuhrer to leave Berlin but Hitler had already made it plain a week earlier, bellowing at his generals, “If you gentlemen think I’m going to leave Berlin you are very much mistaken. I’d rather blow my brains out”.

Near four o’clock, after a round of farewells, Hitler and his wife of forty hours retired to his study. Hitler wore upon his tunic, his Iron Cross (First Class) and his Wounded Badge of the First World War. His entourage waited nervously outside. A shot was heard. Hitler had shot himself through the right temple. Braun was also dead. She had swallowed the cyanide. The pistol Hitler had used was the same one that his niece, Geli Raubal, had used when she committed suicide almost 14 years before.

The bodies, covered in blankets, were carried out into the Chancellery garden. There, with artillery exploding around them and neighbouring buildings ablaze, Hitler’s wishes were honoured – the benzene was poured on the corpses and set alight. With the bodies blazing, the entourage gave one final Hitler salute before scampering back into the bunker.

The official announcement, the following day, stated that “Hitler had fallen at his command post fighting to his last breath against Bolshevism and for Germany”.

He had come to power as German Chancellor, aged 43, in January 1933. But with the death of Hitler, the Third Reich, which was meant to last a thousand years, had come to an end after just twelve.

Rupert Colley.

Read more in The Clever Teens’ Guide to Nazi Germany, available as ebook and paperback (80 pages) on Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Waterstone’s, Apple Books and other stores.

 

The post The Death of Hitler – a summary first appeared on Rupert Colley.

The post The Death of Hitler – a summary appeared first on Rupert Colley.

On 30 January 1933, Hitler was appointed Chancellor within a coalition government, achieving what he had striven for since 1923 – power through legitimate means.

The Reichstag Fire

Barely a month after Hitler’s appointment came the Reichstag Fire, started by 24-year-old Marinus van der Lubbe, a Dutch arsonist who may or may not have been a communist. Rumours persisted that it was the Nazis themselves that set the parliament building ablaze.

Either way, Hitler, who saw it as a “God-given signal”, made political capital of it, blaming the communists, having all political opponents rounded up and beaten, and put into ‘protective custody’. President Paul von Hindenburg (pictured with Hitler), increasingly senile, accepted Hitler’s request following the fire for a decree suspending all political and civil liberties as a ‘temporary’ measure for the ‘protection of the people and state’. These temporary measures were never revoked.

In March the last parliamentary elections took place. Only Hitler, it was claimed, could save Germany from the communists, and the SA, using violence and intimidation, silenced all other parties. The Nazis polled 44% of the vote, not enough for a majority but enough to squash any future political resistance.

The Enabling Act

The post of Chancellor was one that lasted four years before another election. But Hitler requested more than the prerequisite amount of time to deal with the nation’s problems. He proposed the Enabling Act in order to allow him greater time, and to dispense with the constitution and the electoral system. Constitutionally, Hitler needed a two-thirds majority to pass the act. Having bullied and threatened any potential opposition into silence, the Reichstag convened in the Berlin Opera House, its grand hall lined with Stormtroopers. Only the Socialist Democrats were brave enough to vote against the proposal but the Enabling Act was easily passed by 441 votes to 84.

There would be no more elections nor a constitution to keep Hitler in check. The Reichstag had, in effect, voted away its power.

Within a matter of weeks, it had become illegal to criticise the government. A new secret police force was established, the Gestapo, which immediately began arresting ‘unreliable’ persons. Dachau, the first concentration camp which opened within weeks of the Nazis coming to power, catered for their custody. Trade unions were banned, freedom of the press curtailed, and all other political parties declared illegal, leaving only the Nazi party. Germany had become a one-party state with Hitler its dictator.

The first anti-Jew laws: ‘Non-citizens.’

With the Enabling Act in place, the first of over 400 anti-Jewish measures was introduced. Now classed as ‘Non-Aryans’, the Jews were banned from teaching, receiving a university education, working in the civil service, the media, the military, and from owning businesses. Books by Jewish authors were banned, including works by Karl Marx and Sigmund Freud. The Jewish population suffered daily torment and anti-Semitic hysteria triggered a mass exodus of Jews from Germany. Of the half million Jews in Germany in 1933, about 320,000 had emigrated by 1939, amongst them Albert Einstein and Marlene Dietrich. Many of those who remained suffered during the state-sponsored pogrom unleashed by Joseph Goebbels on November 1938, an event remembered by the name Kristallnacht. Many emigrated to the USA but others chose Western or Eastern Europe where, once the war had broken out, they were soon caught in the Nazi war machine.

Fanatics, Hooligans and Eccentrics

The British Ambassador to Germany watched these developments with increasing alarm and, having seen Hitler rip up the constitution, wrote: “We are living in a country (Germany) where fanatics, hooligans and eccentrics have got the upper hand.”

Rupert Colley.

Read more in The Clever Teens’ Guide to Nazi Germany, available as ebook and paperback (80 pages) on Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Waterstone’s, Apple Books and other stores.

The post The Enabling Act – a brief outline first appeared on Rupert Colley.

The post The Enabling Act – a brief outline appeared first on Rupert Colley.

At the time Hitler had taken upon himself the responsibility of looking after his 21-year-old niece, Geli Raubal. The exact relationship between uncle and niece has never been properly ascertained except that Hitler was overly-possessive and jealous of the company she kept. On 18 September 1931, Raubal committed suicide by shooting herself with Hitler’s pistol.

Hitler’s relationship with Eva Braun began soon after Raubal’s death and possibly before. Raubal’s jealousy of Braun has been mooted as a possible cause of her suicide.

The Invisible Woman

Germany, as a nation, never knew of Braun’s existence as Hitler went to great lengths to keep her hidden from view. He was, as he often remarked, primarily wedded to the German people and wanted to maintain his popularity amongst German women, whose adoration for Hitler sometimes contained a sexual dimension.

Thus the relationship proved difficult for Braun who was devoted to the Fuhrer. Twice she tried to commit suicide, once by shooting herself, the second time by poison. Neither occasion could be regarded as a serious attempt at ending her life but a desperate cry for attention. Concerned, Hitler amply provided for her so that materially at least Braun was very comfortable. But still, she remained marginalised. She spent much of her time with Hitler in his mountain retreat, the Berchtesgaden, but was only reluctantly accepted by the wives of other senior Nazis. When visitors and dignities arrived Braun had to make herself scarce.

She had no interest in politics and spent time with her friends or, if alone, reading romantic novels and watching films. Braun liked to wear make-up, smoke and sunbathe nude – all of which Hitler thoroughly disproved of but, surprisingly, lacked the assertiveness to stop. Albert Speer later described Braun at the Berchtesgaden as ‘silent and miserable’.

Even unto death

But she remained devoted. In 1944 Braun wrote to Hitler, ‘From our first meeting I swore to follow you anywhere even unto death.’ True to her word, in 1945 she joined Hitler in the bunker beneath the Reich Chancellery in Berlin and despite many opportunities to evacuate remained at his side.

On 28 April 1945, Hitler finally married Braun. Joseph Goebbels and Martin Bormann stood as witnesses as the hastily-found registrar asked the marrying couple whether they were of pure Aryan descent and free of any hereditary diseases. The reception was brief and awkward.

The following day. Hitler dictated his personal will and testament. In it, he wrote,

‘I have now decided, before the closing of my earthly career, to take as my wife that girl who, after many years of faithful friendship, entered, of her own free will, the practically besieged town in order to share her destiny with me. At her own desire, she goes as my wife with me into death. It will compensate us for what we both lost through my work in the service of my people’.

Forty hours after becoming husband and wife, with the Soviet Red Army only metres away, the couple committed suicide – Hitler by shooting himself through the temple. The pistol he used was the same as his niece had used almost 14 years before. Braun bit into a cyanide capsule. She was 33.

The bodies, covered in blankets, were carried out into the Chancellery garden. There, with artillery exploding around them and neighbouring buildings ablaze, Hitler’s wishes were honoured – benzene was poured on the corpses and set alight. With the bodies blazing, the entourage gave one final Hitler salute before scampering back into the bunker.

Rupert Colley.

Read more in The Clever Teens’ Guide to Nazi Germany, available as ebook and paperback (80 pages) on Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Waterstone’s, Apple Books and other stores.

The post Eva Braun – a brief biography first appeared on Rupert Colley.

The post Eva Braun – a brief biography appeared first on Rupert Colley.

1932 Germany saw the rise of the Nazi party into a prominent political force. The Weimar government had failed its people and, following the worldwide depression, Germany was in economic ruin, people’s livelihoods shattered and the nation still burdened with the humiliation of the post-First World War Treaty of Versailles. Germans, fearful of Communists and Jews, looked for an alternative and that alternative lay in Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party.

Rupert Colley

Read more in The Clever Teens’ Guide to Nazi Germany, available as ebook and paperback (80 pages) on Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Waterstone’s, Apple Books and other stores.

The post Hitler appointed Chancellor first appeared on Rupert Colley.

The post Hitler appointed Chancellor appeared first on Rupert Colley.