Hitler 1889-1936: Hubris

illustration of the dangerous dismissal of Hitler by right-wing intellectuals. Spengler, made famous by his book on the decline of western civilization, became effectively the philosopher of the culturally pessimistic anti-democratic Right. His dislike of the vulgarity of the Nazis persisted, however, until his death in 1936.
    109 . Goebbels,
Kaiserhof,
217–18 (6 December 1932),
TBJG,
I.2, 294.
    110 . Stachura, ‘“Der Fall Strasser”’, 103, 108.
    111 . Turner,
German Big Business,
311–12.
    112 . Stachura, ‘“Der Fall Strasser”’, 90–91.
    113 . Stachura, ‘“Der Fall Strasser”’, 94–95; Turner,
German Big Business,
I48–9.
    114 . Turner,
German Big Business,
311–12.
    115 . Krebs, 191–2; Stachura, ‘“Der Fall Strasser”’, 96–7. Hans Zehrer, a politicaljournalist in his early thirties, had, together with a number of like-minded colleagues, used the periodical
Die Tat
since 15)29 to expound his views of the cleansing nature of Weimar’s crisis. He saw it as bringing about the end of capitalism and ushering in a new system of ‘national socialism’. In this, he was close to the ideas of Gregor Strasser. The
‘Tat
Circle’ developed links with General Schleicher in the summer of 1932. (Kurt Sontheimer, ‘Der Tatkreis’,
Vfz
, 7 (1959), 229–60; Benz-Graml,
Biographisches Lexikon,
375–6; Winkler,
Weimar,
525, 551; Mommsen, ‘Regierung ohne Parteien. Konservative Pläne zum Verfassungsumbau am Ende der Weimarer Republik’, in Winkler,
Staatskrise,
5–9, 15–17; Sontheimer,
Antidemokratisches Denken,
205–6, 268–9).
    116 . For Strasser’s inability to cope with probing questions on his economic ideas by the American journalist H. R. Knickerbocker, see Hanfstaengl, 15
Jahre,
281–2.
    117 . Tyrell,
Führer,
316.
    118 . In late August and September 1932, prompted by his good connections with Brüning, Strasser had pressed energetically for the NSDAP to come to terms with the Zentrum (Stachura, ‘“Der Fall Strasser”’, 101). On 23 March 1932, he had written to Graf Reventlow insisting that the party must be ready to enter coalitions (even if that could not be broadcast too loudly). And earlier still, in a letter to Gauleiter Schlange of Brandenburg on 12 September 1931, he had suggested that the way to power was via a ‘right-wing cabinet’ (Tyrell,
Führer,
316, 343–5).
    119 . Stachura,
Strasser,
I03.
    120 . Stachura, ‘“Der Fall Strasser”’, 97–100.
    121 . Wagener, 477–80; Stachura,
Strasser,
I03–4.
    122 . Frank, 108.
    123 . Goebbels,
Kaiserhof,
I54 (31 August 1932),
TBJG,
I.2, 235.
    124 . Goebbels,
Kaiserhof,
I56 (3 September 1932),
TBJG,
I.2, 236.
    125 . Goebbels,
Kaiserhof,
I59–60 (8 and 9 September 1932),
TBJG,
I.2, 238–9.
    126 . Goebbels,
Kaiserhof,
I69–70 (25 September 1932),
TBJG,
I.2, 248.
    127 . Stachura,
Strasser,
I08.
    128 . Hanfstaengl,
15 Jahre,
282.
    129 . Goebbels,
Kaiserhof,
216 (5 December 1932),
TBJG,
I.2, 292–3; Stachura,
Strasser,
I08.
    130 . Stachura,
Strasser,
I08–12; Stachura, ‘“Der Fall Strasser”’, 108–9.
    131 . Hinrich Lohse, ‘Der Fall Strasser’, unpubl. typescript, c.1960, Forschungsstelle für die Geschichte des Nationalsozialismus, Hamburg, sections 20–22.
    132 . Goebbels,
Kaiserhof,
218 (8 December 1932),
TBJG,
I.2, 295.
    133 . Text of the letter in Stachura, ‘“Der Fall Strasser”’, 113–15.
    134 . Lohse, section 23.
    135 . Lohse, sections 23–8. See Goebbels,
Kaiserhof,
219 (8 December 1932),
TBJG,
I.2, 295.
    136 .
TBJG,
I.2 295 (unpublished entry, 9 December 1932); the published version (Goebbels,
Kaiserhof,
220 (8 December 1932),
TBJG,
I.2, 296–7) adds ‘with the pistol’.
    137 .Goebbels,
Kaiserhof,
220 (8 December 1932),
TBJG,
I.2, 297–8.
    138 . Domarus, 166.
    139 . Lohse, section 30; Orlow, i.293–6.
    140 . Stachura, ‘“Der Fall Strasser”’, 112.
    141 . Lohse, sections 30–33, Domarus, 165; Stachura, ‘“Der Fall Strasser”’, 112; Orlow, i.293.
    142 . Domarus, 165;
TBJG, 1
.2, 299 (10 December 1932, unpubl.).
    143 .
TBJG,
I.2, 299 (10 December 1932, unpubl.).
    144 . Domarus, 166–7; Orlow, i.293; see Goebbels,
Kaiserhof,
226 (16 December 1932),
TBJG , 1
.2, 309; Lohse, section 31.
    145 . Stachura,
Strasser,
I16, 118–19.
    146 . Lohse, section 33;
TBJG, 1
.2, 340 (17 January 1933); Domarus, 180.
    147 . Goebbels,
Kaiserhof
243, (16 January 1933),
TBJG,
I.2, 340–41. The unpublished diary entry is more prosaic: ‘No more demand… He will end as nothing, as he