Hitler 1889-1936: Hubris

schlecht sitzender Krawatte, der nichts wie Kunst im Kopf hatte, immer zu spät kam. Glänzender Redner von suggestiver Wirkung.’)
(IfZ, ΖS 128, Gerhard Roßbach).
    115 . Hanfstaengl, 15
Jahre,
48–9; Franz-Willing,
Ursprung,
289–90; Auerbach, ‘Hitlers politische Lehrjahre’, 33–4and n.150.
    116 . Friedelind Wagner,
The Royal Family of Bayreuth,
London, 1948, 8–9; interview with Friedelind Wagner in NA,
Hitler Source Book,
933. On the same occasion, at the end of September 1923, Hitler had met Wagner’s son-in-law, the now aged racist writer Houston Stewart Chamberlain, who subsequently wrote Hitler an effusive letter, saying that he had ‘transformed the condition of his soul at one fell swoop’, and ‘that Germany should have brought forth a Hitler in the time of its greatest need’ was proof of its continued vitality as a nation. (IfZ, MA-743 (= HA, 52/1210), letter of Chamberlain to Hitler, 7 October 1923. And see Auerbach, 34 and n.151.) Hitler still spoke fulsomely in the middle of the war of his admiration for the Wagner family, especially Winifred. He pointed out that he had never been introduced to the aged and blind widow of Richard Wagner, Cosima, although she lived for some time after he had first gone to Bayreuth
(TBJG,
II/4, 408 (30 May 1942)).
    117 . For funding and patrons, see Maser,
Frühgeschichte,
396–412; Franz-Willing,
Ursprung, 266–99; and
Henry Ashby Turner,
German Big Business and the Rise of Hitler,
New York/Oxford, 1985, 59–60, who provides the most reliable assessment of the Nazis’ sources of income at this time. Franz-Willing, 266–8, 280, 299 and Turner, 59–60, emphasize the contribution from ordinary members. For the continued reliance of the party on funding from its own members in the run-up to power, see Henry A. Turner and Horst Matzerath, ‘Die Selbstfinanzierung der NSDAP 1930–32’,
Geschichte und Gesellschaft,
3 (1977), 59–92.
    118 . This is emphasized, for the period prior to the takeover of power, by Richard Bessel, ‘The Rise of the NSDAΡ and the Myth of Nazi Propaganda’,
Wiener Library Bulletin,
33 (1980), 20–29, esp. 26–7.
    119 . Hanfstaengl, 15
Jahre,
70, 76.
    120 . Lüdecke, 78–9.
    121 . Hanfstaengl, 15
Jahre,
65.
    122 . Hanfstaengl, 15
Jahre,
60. This format began, according to Hanfstaengl, on 29 August 1923. The VB, still in serious financial trouble in the second half of 1921, was able through financial assistance of Nazi patrons – Bechstein had supported it two or three times – to appear as a daily from 8 February 1922. (Hanfstaengl, 15
Jahre,
60; Oron J. Hale,
The Captive Press in the Third Reich,
Princeton, 1964, 29–30; Franz-Willing,
Ursprung,
277–8, 289).
    123 . See the biographical comments in Franz-Willing,
Ursprung,
197.
    124 . Franz-Willing,
Ursprung,
266 n.214, 281–8; and see Maser,
Frühgeschichte,
397–412.
    125 .Turner, 50–55; Franz-Willing,
Ursprung,
288. Turner, 54, points out that, other than a dubious passage in Thyssen’s ghost-written memoirs, the evidence points towards the donation being made to Ludendorff, and that Hitler most likely gained only the similar sort of portion that was given to others.
    126 . Franz-Willing,
Ursprung,
291.
    127 . Deuerlein,
Putsch,
63.
    128 . Deuerlein,
Putsch,
62.
    129 . Franz-Willing,
Ursprung,
296–7. On Gansser, see Turner, 49, 51–2, and 374–5 n.4.
    130 . Franz-Willing,
Ursprung,
297.
    131 . Auerbach, ‘Hitlers politische Lehrjahre’, 31–2; Franz-Willing,
Ursprung,
281.
    132 .
JK,
725–6.
    133 . Lüdecke, no.
    134 . Auerbach, ‘Hitlers politische Lehrjahre’, 36 n.162; Maser,
Frühgeschichte, 376;
Michael Kater,
The Nazi Party. A Social Profile of Members and Leaders, 1919–1945,
Oxford, 1983, 19–31, 243; and see Kater, ‘Soziographie’, 39.
    135 . See Hanfstaengl, 15
Jahre,
85.
    136 . Franz-Willing,
Ursprung,
357–8.
    137 . Winkler,
Weimar,
194; Franz-Willing,
Krisenjahr,
102.
    138 . Winkler,
Weimar,
189; Hans Mommsen,
Die verspielte Freiheit. Der Weg der Republik von Weimar in den Untergang,
Frankfurt am Main/Berlin, 1989, 143. The execution of one saboteur, Albert Schlageter, on 26 May 1923, led to nationalist demonstrations of sympathy throughout Germany and was used by Nazi propaganda to create a martyr for the cause of the movement. See Franz-Willing,
Krisenjahr,
102, 139–41. Hitler was at first uninterested in taking part. He was on holiday in Berchtesgaden with Eckart and Drexler, and had ‘Other worries’ (Hanfstaengl,