Hitler 1889-1936: Hubris

Plewnia, 66–71.
    118 . Tyrell,
Trommler,
23.
    119 . By 1923 Eckart was no longer in favour and in March was left greatly embittered by his dismissal as editor of the
Völkischer Beobachter.
He rarely saw Hitler thereafter, and took no part in the putsch. He became increasingly ill, and died towards the end of the year. The dedication of
Mein Kampf
to Eckart was pro forma – directed at the many who knew full well Hitler’s early indebtedness to Eckart (Tyrell,
Trommler,
194 n.70).
    120 . Franz-Willing,
Hitlerbewegung,
179–80, 190.
    121 . Tyrell,
Trommler, 110
, 177. As Tyrell
(Trommler,
110) points out, Grandel also brought the supporters from the Schutz- und Trutzbund that he had built up in Augsburg into the NSDAP after he himself had joined the party in August 1920.
    122 . BHStA, Abt.V, Slg. Personen, Anton Drexler, copy of Drexler’s draft letterto Hitler, end of January 1940, 3 (partly printed in Deuerlein,
Aufstieg,
128–9). (See also Tyrell,
Trommler,
175–7.)
    123 .
JK,
277–8.
    124 . Tyrell,
Trommler,
38, 42, 206 n.189.
    125 . Deuerlein,
Aufstieg,
136.
    126 . Gustave Le Bon’s study, published in France in 1895 and in English translation as
The Crowd
a year later, had appeared in a German edition,
Psychologie der Massen,
in 1908. A few days before Hitler joined the DAP, in September 1919, a lengthy article in the
VB
had drawn attention to a published lecture by a Dr J.R. Roßbach, a Munich nerve specialist, on ‘The Soul of the Masses. Psychological Reflections on the Emergence of Popular Mass Movements’
(Die Massenseele. Psychologische Betrachtungen über die Entstehung von Volks-(Massen)-Bewegungen (Revolutionen)).
Roßbach made frequent use of quotations from Le Bon, and summarized his findings in pithy language. There are striking similarities between Roßbach’s phraseology and that of Hitler in his comments on the psychology of the masses. Perhaps Hitler was drawn from Roßbach to read Le Bon’s own work. But what does seem likely is that he read Roßbach and was influenced by him. (See Tyrell,
Trommler,
54–6.)
    127 . Tyrell,
Trommler,
42–64, for the above.
    128 . In April, the Reparations Commission reassessed the payments at 132,000 million Gold Marks (Kolb,
Weimarer Republik,
44), which Hitler must have had in mind when he spoke in
Mein Kampf
of ‘the insane sum of a hundred milliard [thousand million] gold marks’ (
MK,
558).
    129 . The Circus Krone’s manager was said to have been a party member who charged a much reduced rent for the hire of the hall (Toland, 109, but without any supportive evidence).
    130 .
MK
, 558–62;
JK,
311–12. In his own account, Hitler states that, following the Circus Krone triumph, he booked the hall for two more successful meetings in the coming two weeks. While the NSDAP did go on to use the hall increasingly for major rallies, the next meeting there did not take place until 6 March 1921, the one thereafter on 15 March. These were, however, the next two meetings after the one described by Hitler
(JK,
335ff, 353ff.). The early meetings in the Circus Krone, and how nervous Hitler had felt about them, figured in his frequent reminiscences during the Second World War about the ‘good old days’ of the party’s history. See, for example, his comments to Goebbels on the occasion of Heydrich’s state funeral (
TBJG,
11, 4, 492 (10 June 1942)).
    131 .
JK,
312; Deuerlein,
Aufstieg,
129–30.
    132 .
MK
, 562.
    133 . Based on
JK,
279–538.
    134 . Ernst Hanfstaengl, 15
Jahre mit Hitler. Zwischen Weißem und Braunem Haus,
2nd edn, Munich/Zurich, 1980, 52–3.
    135 . Tyrell,
Trommler,
40–41.
    136 . Hoffmann, 50.
    137 .Auerbach, ‘Hitlers politische Lehrjahre’, 20–21.
    138 . Hanfstaengl, 15
Jahre,
49.
    139 . Hanfstaengl, 15
Jahre,
49–52.
    140 . Hanfstaengl, 15
Jahre,
52.
    141 . Deuerlein,
Hitler,
53.
    142 . Deuerlein,
Aufstieg,
132–4.
    143 . Tyrell,
Trommler,
208 n.215, cit.
VB,
9 September 1920.
    144 . Tyrell,
Trommler,
40 (reports of two visitors to Munich from the Deutschsozialistische Partei in February 1921); Deuerlein,
Aufstieg,
139 (an extract from the anonymous pamphlet circulated by Hitler’s enemies in the party in July 1921, entitled ‘Adolf Hitler – Verräter’).
    145 .
JK,
529–30. He said nothing about fees received from the articles he wrote in 1921 in the
VB,
though he claimed in July 1921 that he lived from his earnings as a ‘writer’
(Schriftsteller) (JK,
448).
    146 . Tyrell,
Trommler,
216 n.209, citing
Münchener