Since I was resident in Berlin and always on call◦– I had only to walk across the Wilhelm-Strasse◦– I was summoned to Hitler’s Reich Chancellery more frequently than Johanna Wolf. Before Hitler could move into his flat in the Radziwill Palace as Reich Chancellor, the old walls had to be renovated. This was especially necessary in the historic Congress Hall where Bismarck had celebrated the now-famous Berlin Congress of 1878. It was also in this hall that Hindenburg had received Hitler and appointed him Reich Chancellor. ‘The old gentleman’, Hitler said, speaking of Hindenburg, had told him on that occasion: ‘Keep to the walls if you can, Herr Hitler, the floor won’t last much longer.’ Accordingly, after his appointment to Reich Chancellor, Hitler had given orders to renovate the old palace. Until the work was completed Secretary of State Lammers made available to him the service flat under the roof of the old Reich Chancellery on the corner of Wilhelm- and Voss-Strasse. I spent a long period shuttling back and forth between the old Reich Chancellery and the Liaison Staff. After the Radziwill Palace was ready the ‘Personal Adjutancy of the Führer and Reich Chancellor’ was housed in a large room next to the so-called Bismarck room, and I moved in as Brückner’s secretary. Most of the time I sat alone looking out on the old park.
The Personal Adjutancy now underwent expansion. Julius Schaub’s[27] desk was there. He was Hitler’s factotum and had followed him like a shadow since 1925. A typical Bavarian, he was probably the only person who knew all Hitler’s intimate and personal secrets. Schaub was not very prepossessing. He had rather bulging eyes and limped because he was missing some toes from frostbite in the First World War. This handicap was perhaps the reason why he was so irritable. He was ever suspicious and additionally very inquisitive, and since he boycotted anybody not to his liking affection for him in Hitler’s circle was very limited. Schaub had trained in pharmacy and after the First World War worked at the main supply office in Munich. He joined the NSDAP early on and came to Hitler’s attention as he limped around the NSDAP meetings. He was involved in the 1923 putsch. This earned him some jail time which he spent with Hitler at Landsberg am Lech. After early release he became Hitler’s constant companion from January 1925. He was so loyal to Hitler that at his request he gave up smoking, but not alcohol. Hitler knew that Schaub liked his tipple, and finally abandoned the struggle to make Schaub teetotal. When told that Schaub had been hitting the bottle at a reception Hitler made a despairing gesture with his hand and sighed: ‘Yes, I know, it is sad. But what can I do, I have no other adjutant.’
After taking power Hitler needed a qualified valet, and Schaub was retained to handle all his confidential affairs. He kept all Hitler’s secret files in an armoured safe, scheduled the important birthdays and made lists of presents.[28] Since Hitler never carried a pen or pencil on his person, in the early years of power it was always: ‘Schaub, write this down!’ Before Martin Bormann ascended into Hitler’s close circle, Schaub was always Hitler’s mobile notebook. Schaub also handled some of Hitler’s financial affairs, settling invoices and so on. He carried Hitler’s loose change, since the latter did not like money on his person.
One day a pretty young girl brought a letter to the Braunes Haus for Hitler’s personal attention. In it she described her poverty-stricken circumstances. I think it was December 1936. Her fiancé, an Austrian, had done much for the Nazi Movement and was on the run to avoid arrest. She begged Hitler to find him work, for she earned very little herself and the couple was keen to marry. Hitler checked the details and finding them true found the man a position. Naturally without their knowledge Schaub had to rent the couple a two-room flat and furnish it (carpets, bedding, curtains, furniture). Then a Christmas tree was set up with the usual adornments and the candles lit while Schaub fetched the young couple in the car. That they were overjoyed goes without saying.
It was also one of Schaub’s duties to visit variety performances and theatres at change of programme in order to keep Hitler informed whether a visit might prove rewarding. Schaub often recalled with pride that his mother, who died in the 1908 Messina earthquake, had been a dancer. That was probably the reason why he was so fond of dancers and cabaret artists. When he had to ring up actresses and dancers inviting them to the Führer’s flat for an evening chat[29] he could even be charming. He was an enemy of the gutter press, which was a big plus point with Hitler.
After Wilhelm Brückner was sacked by Hitler in 1940, Schaub received the title ‘personal adjutant’ with the rank of SS-Gruppenführer, as from 1943 SS-Obergruppenführer. This position often brought him into situations which he was not competent to handle. It made no difference to Hitler. When in April 1945 he told Schaub to destroy all personal property at the Berghof which might suggest to people a female presence, and all files and papers there and at the Munich flat, Schaub obeyed without question.
From the SS bodyguard stationed around the Führer apartment a mature SS-Führer[30] trained in commerce was selected for service in the Personal Adjutancy and to handle our telephone exchange. SS-Obersturmbannführer Paul Wernicke had good office experience, was capable and tidy and soon made himself indispensable to Brückner and Schaub, neither of whom had a clue how to run an office. As the pair of them had plenty to do elsewhere they gave Wernicke and me a free hand and so we kept the office work in the Personal Adjutancy flexible and fairly unbureaucratic. Wernicke soon proved himself an important and reliable colleague.
Things changed when Hauptmann Wiedemann[31] was appointed Hitler’s adjutant. As regimental adjutant with 16. Bavarian reserve infantry regiment, Regiment List, in which Hitler had served as despatch runner, Wiedemann had been Hitler’s immediate superior. Released from the Reichswehr in 1919, Wiedemann studied political economics in Munich. In the 1920s he met Hitler again at a regimental reunion, where he was offered the opportunity to lead the SA, which Wiedemann turned down. He next met Hitler by chance in December 1933 when he was in financial difficulties after the failure of a dairy enterprise in which he had invested. When Hitler asked how things were going, he replied: ‘grim’. Hitler offered him the post of adjutant, which he accepted at once. After an eleven-month training period with the staff of Rudolf Hess at the Braunes Haus in Munich, Wiedemann took up his post as Hitler’s Adjutancy on 1.1.1935 at the Reich Chancellery in Berlin, where he was in principle Brückner’s office replacement. As Brückner was not an office person, and tended to put things off for tomorrow, the adjutancy correspondence and filing was in something of a mess. Wiedemann combined his work as adjutant with a re-organisation of the day-to-day office procedures in the Personal Adjutancy and increased the staffing level.
Wiedemann made several trips abroad. He flew to the United States a few times and frequently to England. The impressions he got there led to his becoming ever more downbeat when speaking to Hitler. In contrast to the positive Brückner, whom Hitler called ‘my ultra-optimist’, his replacement was soon labouring under the designation ‘my ultra-pessimist’. In January 1939 Hitler could stand no more and told Wiedemann that in his closest circle he could not use a person not in agreement with his policies. For this reason Wiedemann was sent as consul-general to San Francisco. In late 1941 he returned to Germany, from where he was next sent in the same role to Tientsin in China. In 1945 the Americans fetched him home as a witness for the Nuremberg trials.
As already mentioned, after taking power Hitler required a properly trained manservant whom he found initially in Karl Krause.[32] When dismissed, Krause was replaced by Hans Junge[33] and Heinz Linge,[34] although these men were known as orderlies. After Krause, Hitler’s servants and orderlies were drawn from the SS-Leibstandarte Adolf Hitler (LSSAH)[35] having been selected by Sepp Dietrich, LAH commander, for service with Hitler. They had to look good, be tall if possible, blond and blue-eyed, capable and intelligent. From the men selected by Dietrich, Hitler would then choose the ones he wanted. A few months at the Munich-Pasing servant training school made them into perfect servants.
27
Julius Gregor Schaub (b. 20.8.1898 Munich, d. 27.12.1967 Munich). 31.1.1917 conscripted; spent most of the First World War in military hospitals either as an attendant or patient; 10.10.1920 joined NSDAP; 1923 active role in putsch, fled to Austria; 20.4.1924 arrested on border at Salzburg, sentenced to 18 months at Landsberg; released 31.12.1924, next day appointed Hitler’s private valet; SS-Obergruppenführer and Reichstag deputy; at war’s end released by Hitler; fled to Kitzbühl using alias ‘Josef Huber’; 8.5.1945 detained by US forces; 17.2.1949 released.
28
The list of presents was arranged by donor, article and year. For the 1935 and 1936 lists see BA Koblenz R43 II 967b, sh. 27–31.
29
Schroeder explained that since there was no dancing at Hitler’s banquets in the Reich Chancellery, he invited singers from the Berlin Opera and dancers from the theatrical operas and the Charlottenberg Opera. Every year he threw a banquet for artists and another for industrialists, the main purpose of these being to raise money for Winter Relief Work. During the Berlin Olympics a great banquet was held at the Reich Chancellery for all competitors. A large reception was arranged for the Party at NSDAP HQ in Munich every year.
30
Paul Wernicke (b. 14.1.1899 Ribbeck/Templin, d. 6.8.1967). 1930 joined SS; attached to Sonderkommando Der Führer at the Reich Chancellery, February 1933; entered Personal Adjutancy 2.5.1934; dismissed along with Brückner by Hitler 18.10.1940 with the observation: ‘I am sick of the problems in the Adjutancy’; to LSSAH 2.7.1941; Cdr, Div-Staff HQ, Eastern Front, rank of SS-Obersturmbannführer.
31
Fritz Wiedemann (b.16.8.1891 Augsburg, d. 24.1.1970 Fuchsgrub). 1.1.1935 adjutant at Personal Adjutancy as NSKK Brigade-Führer; 1938 Reichstag deputy; March 1939 consul-general at San Francisco; July 1941 expelled from United States with all German diplomats; November 1941 consul-general Tientsin (China); 18.9.1945 brought to Washington; 5.8.1948 released from internment.
32
Karl Krause (b. 5.3.1911 Michelau). 1.4.1931 Reichsmarine; 1.8.1934 selected as manservant for Hitler; September 1934 at Obersalzberg with rank of SS-Obersturmführer; 10.9.1939 dismissed by Hitler for lying; 1.3.1940 returned to Kriegsmarine; 2.11.1940 to LSSAH Waffen-SS as Oberscharführer; December 1943 to 12.SS-Panzer Div. Hitler Jugend; 1945 SS-Untersturmführer and highly decorated; June 1946 released from Allied internment.
33
Hans Hermann Junge (b.11.2.1914 Wilster/Holstein, fell 13.8.1944). 1.11.1933 joined SS; 1.8.1934 volunteered for LSSAH; 1.7.1936 with
34
Heinz Linge (b. 23.3.1913 Bremen, d. 1980 Bremen). 17.3.1933 entered LSSAH; 24.1.1935 manservant to Hitler, remained at FHQ to the end; 2.5.1945 Soviet PoW; released 1955.
35
On 17 February 1933 a private bodyguard for Hitler consisting of 117 selected SS-Führer and SS men was formed into the