Hitler 1889-1936: Hubris

Defence Ministry staff, on the advice of legal theorists, that a loophole in the Weimar Constitution might allow the cabinet, even after defeat in a vote of confidence, to remain in office indefinitely as a caretaker government unless the other parties could agree on an alternative Chancellor and government (Turner,
Hitler’s Thirty Days to Power,
I18–21, 124–5).
    226 . Ribbentrop, 23.
    227 . Winkler,
Weimar,
581–3, 587–9.
    228 .
Akten der Reichskanzlei. Das Kabinett von Schleicher,
ed. Anton Golecki, Boppard am Rhein, 1986, 306–11, Nr.71–2; Papen, 237–8; Winkler,
Weimar,
584–6.
    229 .
Schulthess’ Europäischer Geschichtskalender 1933,
Bd. 74, Munich, 1934, 28–30;
AdR, Kabinett von Schleicher,
316–19, Nr.77. And see Winkler,
Weimar,
586.
    230 . Papen, 239. And see
AdR, Kabinett von Schleicher,
318.
    231 . Ribbentrop, 25.
    232 . Winkler,
Weimar,
584.
    233 . Ribbentrop, 24–5.
    234 . Papen, 239; Winkler,
Weimar,
589. In a third meeting, Fritz Schäffer, the head of the ΒVP, probably speaking on behalf of the Zentrum as well as his own party, was prepared to support a parliamentary government under Hitler. But, as earlier, this proposal had no chance of meeting the approval of the Nazi leader.
    235 . Papen, 239.
    236 . Ribbentrop, 25; Papen, 241: Hitler was told on 29 January that the President would not appoint him Reich Commissar for Prussia.
    237 .
AdR, Kabinett von Schleicher,
318; Papen, 240; Winkler,
Weimar,
589.
    238 . Papen, 240; Winkler,
Weimar,
590.
    239 . Papen, 241; Deuerlein,
Aufstieg,
417; Winkler,
Weimar,
590–91.
    240 .
TBJG,
I.2, 355 (30 January 1933, unpubl.); 357 (31 January 1933, unpubl.).
    241 . Papen, 241.
    242 . Hubatsch, 347 (18 November 1932).
    243 . Theodor Duesterberg,
Der Stahlhelm und Hitler,
Wolfenbüttel/Hanover, 1949, 38–9. Support from the Stahlhelm, the conservative veterans’ organization, was still not guaranteed. While Seldte had been won over, Duesterberg remained irked by earlier Nazi insults about his ‘non-Aryan’ background. His backing for the cabinet was only assured on the morning of 30 January, when Hitler expressed his regrets for the attacks on Duesterberg by his party and, with tears in his eyes, gave the Stahlhelm deputy leader his word that he had not instigated them (Duesterberg, 40; Winkler,
Weimar,
592). It did not take Hugenberg long to realize the error of his ways. The very day after Hitler’s appointment to the Chancellorship, he was reported as saying: ‘Yesterday, I did the most stupid thing of my life. I joined forces with the greatest demagogue in world history’ (cit. in Gerhard Ritter,
Carl Goerdeler und die deutsche Widerstandsbewegung,
Stuttgart, 1956, 64. And see Larry EugeneJones, ‘“The Greatest Stupidity of My Life”. Alfred Hugenberg and the Formation of the Hitler Cabinet, January 1933’,
Journal of Contemporary History,
27 (1992), 63–87).
    244 . Papen, 242.
    245 . Lutz Graf Schwerin von Krosigk, Es
geschah in Deutschland,
Tübingen/Stuttgart, 1951, 147. To the arch-conservative opponent of the Nazis, Ewald von Kleist-Schmenzin, who would later pay for his principled opposition with his life, Papen asserted that within two months he would have Hitler pushed into a corner. Kleist-Schmenzin was duly scathing at such a presumption (Bodo Scheurig,
Ewald von Kleist-Schmenzin. Ein Konservativer gegen Hitler,
Frankfurt am Main, 1994, 121).
    246 .
TBJG,
I.2, 355 (30 January 1933, unpubl.).
    247 . Ribbentrop, 26; Winkler,
Weimar,
590–91.
    248 .
TBJG,
I.2, 355–6 (30 January 1933, unpubl.). Hitler still vividly recalled Alvensleben’s news in his story of the takeover of power, told on 21 May 1942 in his ‘Special Train’
en route
to Berlin (Picker, 364).
    249 . Papen, 242–3; Duesterberg, 39; Winkler,
Weimar,
591–2.
    250 . Papen, 243–4; Duesterberg, 40–41; Meissner,
Staatssekretär,
269–70; Winkler,
Weimar,
592.
    251 .
AdR, Kabinett von Schleicher,
322–3; Meissner,
Staatssekretär,
270. Remarkably, it was the first time that the Finance Minister, Schwerin von Krosigk, had seen Hitler. Half an hour before arriving in the Reich Chancellery, he had thought Papen, not Hitler, was to be sworn in as Chancellor
(AdR, Kabinett von Schleicher,
321–3. Krosigk,
Es geschah in Deutschland,
I93; Turner,
Hitler’s Thirty Days to Power,
I56–7).
    252 . Meissner,
Staatssekretär,
270; Papen 244; Hans Otto Meissner, 30.
Januar 1933. Hitlers Machtergreifung,
Munich 1979, 275–6 (Hindenburg’s reply – see 388