Bombing Hitler Read online

  As might be expected, the main celebration always took place in Munich. The nighttime general assembly before the Feldherrnhalle began after Hitler’s speech in the Bürgerbräukeller; the rousing words were accompanied by lighting effects. Sheathed in red and brown, there were funerary columns in the ancient Egyptian style, each topped with a large shallow vessel containing a burning flame. Attached to the columns were plaques, each containing the words “Last Roll Call” and the name of one of the sixteen killed at the Putsch. Thus the religious ur-experience of the numinous became a public staged event, a theatrical production for the masses, with a political purpose.

  Grief was transformed into glorification of the victims; reflecting on the historic defeat became a celebration of Nazi triumph. This moral and political exploitation culminated in the call to emulate those who had died. During this period, the dead were in general considered to be the greatest—there was, apparently, nothing finer than to die for the “movement.” Anyone at all who lost his life had sacrificed himself for Hitler so that Hitler could live on and be Germany’s salvation. There were no tears of widows or children here. Everything was manly, bursting with the will to prevail. The faces were stony; all were silent. Except for Hitler, the high priest of the party, no one was called upon to speak. There they were, the rank and file in huge formations as if cast in bronze—thousands of boots, their stamping like the gigantic drumbeats of a death march.

  The Party insinuated itself into the spiritual history of salvation. The Christian religion served as a model; Christian liturgy was constantly plundered in the design of theatrical events. It was only a short symbolic step from the sacrifices of the Alte Kämpfer and those fallen to the sacrificial death of Jesus: the historic defeat became the Good Friday of the Party, and the victory its Resurrection, a national Easter. In this scenario the notion of “victory” could be expanded: first the acquisition of power, soon a victory over England, and at the end victory over all the evil forces in the world until Germany finally achieved salvation. This inversion of defeat and death into victory and new life draws upon Pauline theology—it is on the cross, in death, that the victory of faith has its foundations.

  On November 9 around noontime, columns of men clad in brown and in black moved in—the Hitler Youth, accompanied by the somber thump of the Landsknecht drums. The only evidence of the cult remaining at the Feldherrnhalle was a memorial, which was guarded year round by two SS sentries. A sixteen-gun salute was fired in honor of the sixteen who died in the Putsch. For the first time, the procession from the Bürgerbräukeller to the Feldherrnhalle did not take place—too many Alte Kämpfer were at the front. Moreover, the wreckage that was once the hall was now in the hands of the Special Commission; with the extensive damage, it had lost its sacred character. The leaders, under the command of Rudolf Hess, subsequently proceeded to Königsplatz for the laying of the wreath. Three years before, the sixteen sarcophagi had been brought here and placed in the two pantheons located on the narrow side of the newly remodeled square. At Königsplatz, Hess welcomed individually the family members of those killed in 1923.

  Two days later, on November 11, it is necessary to hold another ceremony in the same style. On the evening of the previous day at 9:45 p.m., a procession begins that takes the seven coffins with the victims of the assassination attempt to lie in state. By 9:00 p.m., three hundred Hitler Youth are waiting in the courtyard of the Residenz with torches, ready to accompany the coffins, which are to be placed at the Hofgartentor by 9:40. The coffins are followed by fourteen Alte Kämpfer carrying seven wreaths from Hitler.

  At 10:00 p.m., accompanied by the roll of drums, the Combat Support Force appears, surrounding the square and thus making it into a “holy space.” The procession of torchbearers and Alte Kämpfer bearing wreaths moves to the square before the Feldherrnhalle. The SS presents arms and a marching band plays the Präsentiermarsch. The wreath bearers place their wreaths at the coffins, and then step behind the coffins. Now the SA guard takes up its position and remains there the entire night.

  Official ceremony for the victims of the assassination attempt in the Bürgerbräukeller— November 11,1939, at the Feldherrnhalle.

  The coffins are placed in front of the hall; from a vessel within the hall, a commemorative flame casts an eerie light. “Germany is cloaked in darkness,” proclaimed a grandiloquent article in the Völkischer Beobachter, “since this brazen declaration of war. In the smoldering flame from this single vessel, our pain—the collective pain of all Germans—appears to burn unabated.” A swastika-emblazoned flag drapes each coffin. “Motionless, SA men stand silent watch.” Then for hours on end the people of Munich file past the coffins. As they pass, in their thoughts they “hold discourse with the dead, and a manly answer to the eternal question ‘Why?’ may be found in these solemn moments.” The dark night and the single flame are the stuff of mass religious spectacle—the square is “a vast nighttime cathedral.”

  In the darkness, a mystical bond is established: “The never-ending queue of mourners continues quietly past. From the darkness of the city it emerges, moving into the mournful light of the flame, then disappearing again into the darkness. And so it is: A great people pays its last respects to the mortal remains of the victims and lays down its thoughts, its pain, and its sadness there with the dead. We, all of us, were in this procession.” This marks the end of the lying in state on November 10.

  For the official ceremony on the following day, November 11, orders have been issued to fly all flags at half staff on public buildings throughout the Reich. At private residences flags are hoisted to half staff as well. At the Feldherrnhalle, the “altar of the movement,” it is reported that ten thousand people have gathered—for a city the size of Munich, this is a relatively small number. Starting at ten o’clock that morning, honor guards of the Party, including the Reich Labor Service with spades on their shoulders, march from the north across Ludwigstrasse onto Theatinerstrasse. From the south come units from the SS, the Wehrmacht and the Luftwaffe. The SA guard standing night watch over the coffins is relieved. Approaching from Residenzstrasse are the hearses, each escorted by a dozen Alte Kämpfer; accompanying the hearse of the waitress killed in the attack are members of the Nazi Women’s League.

  The organization of the assembly in the “holy space” originates at the Feldherrnhalle. Located directly in front of the hall is the podium for the main speaker, Hess. Arranged in a row before the podium are the seven coffins—the eighth victim has not yet died—and beside each coffin an Alter Kämpfer, or a woman from the Nazi Women’s League. Seated on chairs before the coffins are the family members of the victims and, in two groups, guests of honor of the government, the Party, and the military.

  Shortly before 11:00 a.m. the Grossdeutsche Rundfunk (Greater German Radio) begins its broadcast. Millions are listening. At first it is difficult to make out anything but a few commands being barked out, such as “Formations, attention!” or “Present arms!” and the sound of boots slapping the pavement. The Alte Kämpfer march in from the Hofgartentor in the rear, and then the family members of those killed take their seats on the chairs in front of the coffins.

  Next the holiest of objects is carried in: the Blutfahne (Blood flag), the flag from the 1923 Putsch, spattered with the blood of those shot during the confrontation. It is carried here by Grimminger, a participant in the 1923 Putsch and a Nazi Party city council member. As the Blutfahne enters the Feldherrnhalle and is planted in front of a large pylon in the “altar room” behind the central arch, the Prasentiermarsch is played. Then there is silence, in anticipation of the arrival of Hess and Brückner, Hitler’s adjutants. An announcer fills the time by giving the names of the deceased and highlights of their political biographies. They were all, according to the announcer, “fervent defenders of the ideas of the Führer.”

  The bells on the nearby Theatinerkirche strike eleven; the congregation is assembled and the Party church service can begin. The second announcer proclaims: “Flanke
d by the deputy Führer and Gauleiter Wagner, Adolf Hitler himself now returns to his fallen comrades. The Führer is here.” There is some movement in the crowd, evidence of joyous feelings as Hitler appears, wearing a field-gray overcoat and a black band of mourning on his left arm.

  There follows a lengthy pause. Silently, Hitler assumes the position of the high priest—only he may enter the space between the family members and the coffins. The announcer: “Adolf Hitler stands before the victims torn from our midst by a cowardly act of murder.” During the entire speech by Hess—over half an hour—Hitler stands motionless. Then softly, the orchestra starts to play a melody beloved by the German culture of mourning of that time, “Aase’s Death” by Edvard Grieg.

  Rudolf Hess speaks with greater dignity than Hitler did in the Bürgerbräukeller—more slowly and evenly, in the manner of an experienced priest, with many repetitions for rhetorical emphasis. The Völkische Beobachter published an edited transcript of the speech, from which the repetitions are deleted.

  “At this time,” Hess intones, “the German people take their sad leave of the victims of a gruesome crime, a crime almost unparalleled in history.” On the one hand, the attack was a “ruthless act of murder”; on the other hand, the dead were victims of a preordained fate—they were “destined to die” at the Bürgerbräukeller. It was the loyalty of these seven, he proclaims, that made it possible for Hitler to “steer the movement through all storms.” Germany owes a debt of gratitude to the Alte Kämpfer, who have “made it possible to withstand this attack by foreign enemies.” It is only because of the Alte Kämpfer, says Hess, that Hitler was able to build the great Wehrmacht and liberate Germany.

  Hess addresses the dead directly with the bold assertion that “all of Germany” is in mourning, and with the stock promise never to forget. “Eternal is the river of blood that flows for Germany, eternal the commitment of German men to their people; thus, Germany, too, will be eternal—this Germany for which you gave your lives.”

  But Hess also manages to extract from these deaths some folk wisdom and political benefit—the attack has its good side. The deaths of these seven victims have served to “fully arouse the bitterness and the passion of the German people,” he says, adding: “The perpetrators of this crime have succeeded in teaching the German people to hate. They have heightened immeasurably the commitment of the German people to this battle that has been forced upon them, as well as its willingness to give its all to the cause.” The spirit prevailing among the German people, he goes on, is best expressed in the words of the wives of two of the victims. Hess does not shrink from exploiting the widows in their grief—it is after all the duty of the individual to subordinate himself to the overall political purpose. He declares that two of them had said: “What the death of our husbands means to us can be felt only by those who have lost their closest loved ones. But more important than the lives of our husbands is knowing that the Führer is alive.”

  No feelings are expressed for the bereaved—these are all reserved for Hitler’s deliverance. Hess then makes allusions to Hitler as Germany’s messiah: “With the miracle of his salvation, our faith has become unshakable: Providence has protected our Führer; and Providence will continue to protect our Führer, for it is Providence that sent him to us.” Next, as in Christian liturgy, comes a statement of faith, paralleling that of the Apostles’ Creed:

  In recent days, Providence has protected our Hitler from harm, as it protected him during his service in the World War—in the drumfire of the World War; as it protected him on the march to the Feldherrnhalle; as it protected him while he repeatedly risked his life in battle, and now in the Polish campaign. Providence was always at the side of the Führer; and whatever his enemies plotted against him, Providence ultimately turned all to his advantage and thereby to the advantage of the German people.

  As the faithful disciple of his lord, Hess is “of the rock-solid conviction that . . . this enormous crime, this war which was forced upon us, will turn out in favor of the Führer, in favor of Germany—in favor of Germany and of the entire world.” Hitler will bring about utopia for mankind and establish eternal peace—but apparently only for the Germans. “But to our enemies, the perpetrators of this crime, we call out: You attempted to take our Führer from us, but you brought him closer to us than ever. You wanted to make us weaker, but have only made us stronger than ever. You hoped you could rob us of our belief in the future, but have only strengthened our belief in a Providence which is on the side of Germany. You hoped you could take away our confidence in victory . . .” Never, Hess claims, have the German people been “more certain of victory” than on this day. At the end, Hess even challenges the netherworld: “And if you put the forces of Hell itself into motion, victory will still be ours. For victory will be our thanks to the dead.”

  Next the offerings to the victims are presented: the wreathbearers take position in front of the coffins and we hear the sounds of “Der gute Kamerad,” long the favorite song of the German military crowd. As soon as Hitler steps in front of one of the coffins, an honor guard standing in the Hofgarten fires off a salute, which echoes off the walls of the surrounding buildings. Hitler places a wreath of chrysanthemums at each coffin, then steps back and lifts his arm in salute.

  Then, very slowly, “Deutschland über alles” is played, followed by the Party anthem the “Horst Wessel Lied” at a much brisker tempo, intended after all the standing to put people in a marching mood. Hitler shakes hands with each of the family members. “Silently, he looks into the eyes of each one,” according to the Völkischer Beobachter. Then he expresses his sympathy to them. It ends as it began—military units swarm across the square: “Formations, halt!”; “Present arms!”; “Shoulder arms!”; “Funeral procession, march!”; “By the right flank, march!”. The sound of boots, the Prasentiermarsch, the church clock striking eleven-thirty. Leading off the departing procession is the Blutfahne, followed by funeral cars carrying participants in the 1923 march, and finally by formations from the Wehrmacht and the Party.

  The funeral procession wends its way along the hour-long route across the Odeonsplatz and Ludwigstrasse, out through the Siegestor, and across Leopoldstrasse and Ungererstrasse to the Nordfriedhof (North Cemetery)—to the alternating accompaniment of drum rolls and funeral marches. Curious onlookers line the streets—according to the official reports, “all of Munich.” However, as the SD of the SS admitted: “The participation by the citizens of Munich in the state funeral for the victims of the attack was relatively weak; only at Odeonsplatz were larger crowds observed, and they did not appear to be particularly moved by the occasion.”

  Goebbels’ propaganda machine managed to extract from the irrationality of the death cult one bit of rationality: A film of the ceremonies was made, which was shown to Elser shortly before the end of his interrogation in Berlin in an effort to shock him into revealing the names of the instigators behind the attack.

  At the Nordfriedhof the entire ceremony is repeated, but in a shorter version. Up until the end everything remains firmly in the hands of the Party—the Blutfahne is at the gravesite as well. The “program” approaches its conclusion: “The coffins are set down. The family members and the bereaved assume their positions. When they are in place, Party member Wenzel gives the sign to lower the coffins. As the coffins are being lowered, the Trapp Chamber Orchestra very solemnly plays the song ‘Hakenkreuz am Stahlhelm’ (‘Swastika on the Steel Helmet’).”

  X

  The Search for the Instigators

  ON THE NIGHT of the attack, while on their private train, Hitler and his followers had already speculated about possible instigators behind the attack. Hitler’s “chain of agitators,” as he had called them in his Bürgerbräu speech, led him immediately to suspect England. Later on he thought of Otto Strasser as well, with whom a feud had been raging for a long time. From a freedom radio station in Czechoslovakia, Strasser had broadcast attacks on the regime, and from time to time he had succeeded in plant
ing explosives in Germany.

  In Hitler’s view, an effective attack like the one in the Bürgerbräukeller was unimaginable without instigators behind the scenes. The assumption that there were powerful people involved seemed particularly likely to him, since without such power he would have remained a nobody. After all, Hitler had been able to rise so rapidly only because of benefactors and patrons in the justice system, in the government, in the police, and most of all in influential and wealthy circles. Left on his own, he prob-ably couldn’t have even earned a living for himself.

  In the search for the identity of the assassin, the Nazi leadership fell victim to its own strategy: They had so barricaded themselves against the outside world that wherever they looked they saw only enemies. Deciding on one or the other became an arbitrary choice.

  In spite of all the propaganda generated over many years, Hitler suddenly lost sight of his chief enemy: Why shouldn’t Jews be behind the attack? Herschel Grynszpan’s assassination of German diplomat Ernst vom Rath in Paris the year before—one of the few successful attempts—had proved that a Jew was capable of such an act. And why shouldn’t bolshevists have plotted the assassination? The GPU had people at its disposal who had the necessary training. In fact, as a routine part of its investigation, the Gestapo in Munich went after Communists, thereby proving its total ignorance of the Communist resistance strategy, which did not include bomb attacks. In any event, the Communists were paralyzed because of the German-Soviet Pact.