From the outbreak of war Hitler would never deliver a speech without a manuscript. ‘I prefer to speak, and I speak best, from the top of my head,’ he told me, ‘but now we are at war I must weigh carefully every word, for the world is watching and listening. Were I to use the wrong word in a spontaneous moment of passion, that could have severe implications!’ Only internally, before Gauleiters, the military or industrialists, did he speak freely and unscripted. Once he had finished the outline of a speech he would seem to have thrown off a burden. If he dictated it during a stay at the Berghof, he would announce the next day at lunch that his speech was ready and he expected it to be well received. Then he would heap praise on the skill of his secretaries or, as he called us at the beginning, ‘his writing force’. Often there would be two of us together when one would relieve the other after a couple of hours of dictation, and he would praise us: ‘You write faster than I dictate, you are true queens of the typewriter!’
He liked to relate the difficulties he had had in earlier years when he needed to dictate something during a visit to a Gauleiter, for example. ‘Mostly the girls would get so excited when they saw me, blushing furiously, and would be unable to do the work as I wanted. When I noticed that I would break off the dictation pretending that I had to wait for some report or other before I could continue.’ I found this tactful of Hitler, for it was not easy to work for him. ‘Shall I demonstrate my own typing skills?’ he joked. ‘I do it more or less like this.’ And then he would pretend he was seated at a machine ready to type. He would flex his imaginary sheet of paper, straighten it up carefully, adjust the platen with the knob at the side and then, to the laughter of the onlookers, begin typing with his forefingers, not forgetting to use the carriage lever, space bar and upper case keys as the occasion demanded. He aped the movements so accurately that no professional mime artist could have done it better. Undoubtedly he had great talent as an actor and people-impersonator.
Chapter 4
Travelling With Hitler
UP TO 1937 HITLER would only take one secretary with him on his travels, either Fräulein Wolf or myself. Our private life was very curtailed, and existed only when the opportunity for it occurred. Even when officially off duty we had to leave a phone number where we could be reached. Hitler knew that he weighed us down with work but did not care to enlarge the pool of secretaries because he could not stand having new faces around him. For this reason we had almost no personal freedom and were on call day and night. Once in the train to Hamburg I was ordered by radio message to take the next train back; on another occasion sitting in the stands on the Odeon Platz during the October Festival I heard a loudspeaker announcement: ‘Fräulein Schroeder should report immediately to the Prinzregenten-Platz’ (Hitler’s flat). Even when I was taking the cure I was often recalled just to take a single dictation.
Hitler’s principle of keeping a plan secret to the last possible moment kept us under constant pressure. The trips and excursions were probably always arranged well ahead but Hitler would only announce the time of departure at the last minute. During the long period of waiting for the announcement we would always be on tenterhooks. If someone ever passed a remark about how little free time he left us, however, Hitler would put on his surprised face and assure them: ‘I allow everybody in my circle their freedom,’ but in reality he would not tolerate anybody daring to go their own way.
When I was confined for several weeks at the Berlin University Clinic in 1938, Hitler visited me the day before Christmas Eve in company with Dr Brandt and his chief adjutant Brückner. He presented me with a bouquet of long-stemmed pink roses which it was his custom to send, and a book with his dedication written on the fly-leaf. In good humour he told me that as he got out of the car in front of the Women’s Clinic in the Ziegel-Strasse a small crowd gathered. ‘Everyone who saw me go through the Women’s Clinic will definitely think I am visiting a friend I got pregnant,’ he smiled. He pressurised the senior surgeon, Dr Stoeckel, into promising to do all he could to get me well again, because he needed me urgently. At that time I was certainly his No. 1 stenotyist. All his secretaries had a time when they were ‘in’ with Hitler. I was ‘in’ until 1941◦– 2, a little after the invasion of Russia.
In 1937 a new secretary joined us, and now I shared Hitler’s favour with Gerda Daranowski who had previously worked at the Private Chancellery. Sometimes she had been called to the Personal Adjutancy to take down speeches because my colleague Johanna Wolf was often off work sick: now she transferred in permanently. She was a young Berliner, not only very capable but attractive and always well-humoured, and knew how to goad Hitler into talking at tea, in the Staircase Room and when travelling in the Mercedes. From her work with Elizabeth Arden, Dara, as we called her, knew how to give her face just the right look to excite a man. Hitler was delighted by her skill with cosmetics and would pay her the most unfettered compliments. Since I was very economic with make-up he once glanced at me (probably hinting that I should give myself a beauty spot): ‘…and Schroeder has the intelligence of an above-average man.’ Receiving the same treatment, we were a good team in those years.
Dara and I accompanied Hitler on his journey to Austria at the annexation in March 1938. After 1945 it was loudly asserted that Hitler had dragged Austria ‘home into the Reich’ against the will of the people. That was not the impression I received when I saw the enthusiasm with which Hitler and the Wehrmacht were greeted in Austria. The almost hysterical outbursts of joy got on one’s nerves. I remember particularly the people of Linz who crowded before the Hotel Weinzinger until the late hours chanting ‘Ein Reich, ein Volk, ein Führer!’[49] and the ending chorus pleading for Hitler to show himself at the hotel window. And Hitler showed himself, again and again. When the enthusiasm had not abated by midnight, the SS-Begleitkommando was told to ask for quiet and get the crowd to disperse. After that it gradually grew quieter. It was still quiet next morning. This did not seem right to Hitler. When he left the hotel to no ovation he was clearly annoyed. Schaub whispered to me: ‘He needs the shout of jubilation just like the artiste does his applause.’
From Linz we drove back to the Hotel Imperial in Vienna. Hitler did not occupy the VIP suite◦– he used this only for official purposes◦– but had instead a small apartment on the first floor decorated in the Schönbrunn baroque and completed with a magnificent floral arrangement. The most glorious bouquets of flowers were handed in at reception for Hitler, typical Viennese sprays of white lilies and pink roses, and the most precious orchids. It was overwhelming. Dara and I took only the rare orchids and put them in the Mercedes for the drive back because they lasted the longest: the car was a sea of blooms. Thousands of Viennese waited outside the hotel, never tiring of calling for Hitler to emerge and speak. Next day Cardinal Innitzer[50] visited Hitler at the hotel. Hitler was very impressed by this visit and kept referring to it during our conversation at tea.
49
The slogan ‘
50
Theodor Innitzer (b. 25.12.1875 Neugeschrei/Erzgebirge, d. 9.10.1955 Vienna). 13.3.1933 Cardinal.