I went to Munich. I was curious because someone had said to me, "You must hear Adolf Hitler some time." And now destiny again takes a hand. This tragedy can only be grasped by those whose vision is not limited to the material, but who can perceive those higher vibrations which even today have not had their full outcome.

I went to the Munich Bürgerbräukeller. Adolf Hitler was speaking there. I had only heard his name. I had never seen the man before. And there I sat, an unknown among unknowns. I saw this man shortly before midnight, after he had spoken for 3 hours, drenched in perspiration, radiant. My neighbor said he thought he saw a halo around his head; and I, Gentlemen, experienced something which transcended the commonplace. When he finished his speech, an inner voice bade me get up. I went to the platform. When Adolf Hitler came down, I approached him and told him my name. ⁵⁰

On Saturday, October 14, at 8 a.m., a special train for members of the NSDAP will depart from the Munich train station for Coburg. All members of the SA as well as other male party members are requested to take part in the trip. . . . Quarters in Coburg will be taken care of. . . . Local groups are to bring along their flags. The meeting will certainly be an unforgettable memory for every participant. ⁵¹

The band struck up. With flying banners, preceded by eight stalwart Bavarians, huge roughnecks from the Chiemgau, in leather shorts, who carried alpenstocks, but kept their rubber clubs and knives hidden, we moved forward. Hitler and the seven of us in his entourage followed the standard-bearers, and behind us moved the seven hundred men. We swept along the platform, through the undercut and out upon the station square. There we met a great storm of insults from a crowd collected by the Reds to hoot [at] us. Disappointed by our success in flouting the order, they hurled every sort of name at us. We were "murderers, bandits, criminals, hoodlums." ⁵⁴

At the fire station, they were ready to turn the hoses onto us but just didn't, at the critical moment. Stones, however, began to fly around. Then things got hotter. The Reds set upon us with iron rods and cudgels. That was going a bit too far. Hitler swung round, flourished his walking-stick (that was the signal), and we flung ourselves upon our assailants. We were unarmed save for our fists, but we put up so good a fight that within fifteen minutes not a Red was left to be seen . . . . They rained tiles on us from the roof and windows, and tore up the cobblestones for missiles. I got a thundering blow on the head which had to be attended to before I could carry on. I only found out afterwards how serious the wound was.

Sometimes a man's muscles do his thinking. I sprang from the ranks toward a fellow who was lunging at me with his club uplifted . . . but at the same moment, our entire column had turned on our assailants.

For nearly a quarter of an hour it was an outright battle, man to man. At first the police took no sides, striking at everyone with impartial vigour. But soon, probably because they shared our enthusiastic dislike for the street rabble, most of them took our side, and before long we were masters of the field. . . .

When the fracas was over, I would not have exchanged my own bruises for medals. I had felt until then that the rank and file did not quite accept me. Now I was one of them. Seeing that one brawls as well in an English suit as in shoddy clothes, they forgave me my tailor. ⁵⁵

Today there are complaints about general misery. It is severe and pressing, but perhaps it has been given to us by Fate as a bit of good fortune. For peoples who lose their character and honor deserve no good fortune, no happy existence. Today, so-called prosperity would be a misfortune. We would forget all humiliation: there would be no more complaining about France if things were going well for us. Our people does not yet deserve earthly goods . . . . the slogan that says that the economy as such could elevate us must be dropped. It is not the economy which builds a state, but rather a people creates its own economy. Day after day we must preach to all Germans a change of character . . . . As long as the world has existed, history has been made by minorities . . . .

Germany and Europe will collapse unless a force arises which stands up for truth and conscience. Scientific knowledge does us no good today, but faith instead, Our [swastika] symbol is not the identification of an organization, but rather a victory banner. It will and must fly above the palace in Berlin and the peasant's hut alike. . . . Resurrection through readiness to act is our answer for the great German Fatherland which is coming! ⁵⁶

Certainly in the years 1918-1919 the founding of a multitude of new groups, parties, etc., calling themselves ‘Patriotic,’ was a natural phenomenon of the time, for which the founders were not at all responsible. By 1920 the National Socialist German Labor Party had slowly crystallized from all these parties and had become supreme. There could be no better proof of the sterling honesty of certain individual founders than the fact that many of them decided, in a really admirable manner, to sacrifice their manifestly less successful movements to the stronger movement, by joining it unconditionally, and dissolving their own.

This is especially true in regard to Julius Streicher, who was at that time the protagonist of the German Socialist party in Nuremberg. The National Socialist German Labour Party had been founded with similar aims in view, but quite independently of the other. I have already said that Streicher, then a teacher in Nuremberg, was the chief protagonist of the German Socialist Party. He had a sacred conviction of the mission and future of his own movement. As soon, however, as the superior strength and stronger growth of the National Socialist Party became clear and unquestionable to his mind, he gave up his work in the German Socialist Party and called upon his followers to fall into line with the National Socialist German Labor Party, which had come out victorious from the mutual contest, and [to] carry on the fight within its ranks for the common cause. The decision was personally a difficult one for him, but it showed a profound sense of honesty. ⁵⁹

Adolf Hitler wrote in his book, Mein Kampf, that it must have cost me a great effort to hand over to him the movement which I had created in Nuremberg . . . . Yes, I am proud of it; I forced myself to hand over to Hitler the movement which I had created in Franconia. This Franconian movement gave the movement, which Adolf Hitler had created in Munich and southern Bavaria, a bridge to northern Germany. That was my doing . . . . I went to Munich; and before the public on the platform I handed over my movement to the Fuehrer . . . . No other conference took place with Adolf Hitler or any other person. I returned to Nuremberg and went on making speeches. ⁶⁰

Then one day, on a Sunday in November or October of 1922, the demand having been made again by the Entente for the extradition of our military leaders, at a protest demonstration in Munich-I went to this protest demonstration as a spectator, without having any connection with it. Various speakers from parties and organizations spoke there. At the end, Hitler too, was called for. I had heard his name once before, briefly, and wanted to hear what he had to say. He declined to speak, and it was pure coincidence that I stood nearby and heard the reasons for his refusal. He did not want to disturb the unanimity of the demonstration; he could not see himself speaking, as he put it, to these tame, bourgeois pirates. He considered it senseless to launch protests with no weight behind them. This made a deep impression on me; I was of the same opinion. ⁶⁴

The most active political force in Bavaria at this time is the National Socialist Labor Party. Less a political party than a popular fascisti . . . . It has recently acquired a political influence quite disproportionate to its actual numerical strength . . . . His ability to influence a popular assembly is uncanny. In private conversation he disclosed himself as a forceful and logical speaker, which, when tempered with a fanatical earnestness, made a very deep impression on a neutral listener . . . . ⁷³

The question whether Hitler's National Socialists can play a role in Germany equivalent to the role of the Fascisti in Italy can still not be answered with any degree of certainty. In the limited area of Bavaria, south of the Danube, Hitler's success cannot be gainsaid . . . . It is believed that not only in Munich but in all Germany, there is a fertile field even among the factory workers for a national movement . . . .

It seems hardly probable, furthermore, that with the results already achieved, there will be any lack of money for the propagation of the idea of a national dictatorship. These facts, coupled with the magnetism and oratorical ability of the National Socialist leader, speak for a rapid and consistent development of the German "Fascisti." ⁷⁴

"Really," I replied. "What's his name?"

"Adolf Hitler."

"You must have the name wrong," I said. "Don't you mean Hilpert, the German nationalist fellow, although I can't say I see anything particularly remarkable in him."

"No, no," Truman Smith insisted. "Hitler. There are quite a lot of placards up announcing a meeting this evening . . . . I have the impression he is going to play a big part and whether you like him or not he certainly knows what he wants . . . . He really seems to have a sense of direction which none of the others have. They gave me a press ticket for this meeting this evening, and now I shall not be able to go. Could you possibly have a look at him for me and let me know your impression?" ⁷⁵

There seemed to be a lot of people of the concierge or small-shopkeeper class, a sprinkling of the former officer and minor- civil-servant type, a tremendous number of young people and the rest artisans, with a high proportion of the spectators in Bavarian national costume . . . .

In his heavy boots, dark suit and leather waistcoat, semi-stiff white collar and odd little moustache, he [Hitler] really did not look very impressive. . . . However, when Drexler introduced him to a roar of applause, Hitler straightened up and walked past the press table with a swift, controlled step, the unmistakable soldier in mufti . . . . the atmosphere in the hall was electric . . . . There was almost a note of Viennese coffeehouse conversation in the grace of some of his phrases and the sly malice of his insinuations. There was no doubt of his Austrian origin . . . .

He scored his points all round the compass. First he would criticize the Kaiser as a weakling and then he rounded on the Weimar republicans for conforming with the victors' demands, which were stripping Germany of everything but the graves of her war dead. There was a strong note of appeal to the ex-servicemen in his audience. ... He dwelt at length on patriotism and national pride . . . . he thundered at the Communists and Socialists for desiring the disruption of German traditions . . . .

[In case of hecklers] Then Hitler would raise his right hand, as if catching a ball, or would fold his arms and with one or two words bring the audience over to his side. His technique resembled the thrusts and parries of a fencer, or the perfect balance of a tightrope walker. Sometimes he reminded me of a skilled violinist, who, never coming to the end of his bow, always left just the faint anticipation of a tone - a thought spared the indelicacy of utterance.

Hitler had been talking for sixty minutes. I looked round at the audience. Where was the nondescript crowd I had seen only an hour before? What was suddenly holding these people, who on the hopeless incline of the falling mark were engaged in a daily struggle to keep themselves within the line of decency? The hubbub and chattering had stopped and they were drinking in every word. Only a few yards away there was a young woman, her eyes fastened on the speaker. Transfigured as though in some devotional ecstasy, she had ceased to be herself, and was completely under the spell of Hitler's despotic faith in Germany's future greatness . . . .

I was really impressed beyond measure by Hitler . . . . With his incredible gifts as an orator, he was clearly going to go far, and from what I had seen of his entourage there seemed no one likely to bring home to him the picture of the outside world he manifestly lacked, and in this I felt I might be able to help . . . .

Naive and yet forceful, obliging and yet uncompromising, he stood, face and hair soaked in perspiration, his semi-stiff collar, fastened with a square, imitation gold safety-pin, [as if he had] melted to nothing. While talking, he dabbed his face with a handkerchief, glancing worriedly at the many open exits through which came the draughts of a cold November night. ⁷⁶

The fellow turned out to be an exquisite young man who suffered tortures at such intimate contact with the rough masses. Attending incognito, of course, he received such a jostling ... that he became almost ill; the close air overwhelmed him, and possibly he was frightened to learn that the lower classes could think and talk. I gave him up as a possible Nazi fighter. Nearly in tears, he fled outside to his Mercedes. ^[77

Ernst Hanfstaengl of Harvard fame, who was hearing Hitler for the first time and was enthralled by the sheer artistry of his show, saw me leaving. Taking advantage of our slight acquaintance, he edged up for an introduction and drove away with us.

So violent are Hitler's fulminations against the Jews that a number of prominent Jewish citizens are reported to have sought safe asylums in the Bavarian highlands, easily reached by fast motor cars, whence they could hurry their women and children when forewarned of an anti-Semitic St. Bartholomew's night. ⁷⁹

Hitler could always be relied upon to lay on the charm when around children. How much of this was the typical calculation of the politician-nothing so endears a voter than to have a candidate dote after their child-and how much was a real love of children is difficult to quantify. While it is true that he continued this behavior long past the point where he had any need to worry about elections, it is also true that he had no compunctions when it came to sending children to fight the Red Army besieging Berlin in 1945. Nevertheless, it is an established fact that Hitler could be exceedingly charming when he had a mind to be, and he was always in this mind when it came to the wives, daughters, and granddaughters of his supporters. Sincerity is difficult to gauge in any human being, and in Hitler it is even more difficult to do so.

He was delighted with my wife, who was blond and beautiful and American. He accepted very readily when she said how pleased we would be if he would come to coffee or dinner at the flat. Soon he was visiting us frequently, pleasant and unassuming in his too-small blue serge suit. He was respectful, even diffident and very careful to adhere to the forms of address still de rigueur in Germany between-what shall I say?-people of lower rank when speaking to those of better education, title or academic attainment. The only striking things about him were an extraordinary luminous quality in his blue eyes and his sensitive hands, plus of course very definite gifts of expression in conversation.

He was at the time a slim, shy, young man, with a far-away look in his very blue eyes. He was dressed almost shabbily-a cheap white shirt, black tie, a worn dark blue suit, with which he wore an incongruous dark brown leather vest, a beige-colored trench coat, much the worse for wear, cheap black shoes, and a soft, old, greyish hat. His appearance was quite pathetic." ⁸⁰

I played a Bach fugue, to which he sat listening in a chair, nodding his head in vague non-interest. Then I started the prelude to the Meistersinger. This was it. This was Hitler's meat. He knew the thing absolutely by heart and could whistle every note of it in a curious penetrating vibrato, but completely in tune. He started to march up and down the hall, waving his arms as if he were conducting an orchestra. He really had an excellent feeling for the spirit of the music, certainly as good as many a conductor. This music affected him physically, and by the time I had crashed through the finale he was in splendid spirits, all his worries gone.

After that we had innumerable sessions together . . . . In the end it always had to be Wagner, Meistersinger, Tristan und Isolde, and Lohengrin. I must have played them hundreds of times, and he never grew tired of listening. He had a very genuine knowledge and appreciation of Wagner's music, which he had picked up somewhere, probably in his Vienna days, long before I knew him.

He could sprawl for hours like a crocodile dozing in the Nile mud, or a spider immobile in the center of its web. He would chew his nails, look boredly [sic] into space, and sometimes whistle. As soon as some person of interest-and there was no one he did not find interesting for a time-joined his company, you could almost see him mobilizing his internal machinery. The sonar pings of inquiry would go out and within a short time he had a clear image of the secret yearnings and emotions of his partner. The pendulum of conversation would start to move faster, and the person would be hypnotized into believing that there lay in Hitler immense depths of sympathy and understanding. He had the most formidable power of persuasion of any man or woman I have ever met, and it was almost impossible to avoid being enveloped by him. ⁸¹

The National Socialists reject the popular phrase of the "Revision of the Peace of Versailles" as such a revision might perhaps bring a few numerical reductions in the so-called "obligations"; but the entire German people would still be, just as before, the slave of other nations . . . . We demand equality for the German people with other nations, the cancellation of the peace treaties of Versailles and St. Germain . . . .

But National Socialism still believes that its principles and ideology-though in individual methods of fight according to various racial conditions-will be directives far beyond the borders of Germany for the inevitable fights for power in other countries of Europe and America. There too, a clear line of thought must be drawn, and the racial-nationalistic fight against the everywhere-similar loan-capitalistic and Marxist-internationalism must be taken up. National Socialism believes that once the great world battle is concluded, after the defeat of the present epoch, there will be a time when the swastika will be woven into the different banners of the Germanic peoples as the Aryan symbol of rejuvenation. ⁸⁴

Judging others by themselves, the English, who are blinded by their loyalty, have always thought that the Germans did not abide by their pledges inscribed in the Versailles Treaty because they had not frankly agreed to them . . . . We, on the contrary, believe that if Germany, far from making the slightest effort to carry out the treaty of peace, has always tried to escape her obligations, it is because until now she has not been convinced of her defeat . . . . We are also certain that Germany, as a nation, resigns herself to keep her pledged word only under the impact of necessity. ⁸⁶

 
 
 





Written by Walther Johann von Löpp

Copyright © 2011-2013 All Rights Reserved
 

Edited by Levi Bookin — Copy Editor

European History and Jewish Studies



 
 
 
 
 



  
  
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