During conversations on the train Hitler liked to talk about car travel. He only used the special train because it was so comfortable. He liked being driven across Germany in the car, not only because it was quicker but also because it gave him a chance to meet the common people close up. Hitler the fanatical car enthusiast had suggested various improvements which found approval with Daimler-Benz. Its director-general, Jakob Werlin,[53] had let him have a car on credit during the period of struggle, which Horch’s had declined to do, and so Hitler was especially indebted to him. He once joked to Werlin: ‘By the way, do you know that you are the true conqueror of Germany? If you had not given me a car then, it would have been impossible for me to have been it. Therefore you are the true conqueror. You should consider whether you have any demands to make!’ Werlin, who came into the sleeper coach where I was smoking a cigarette in the corridor, said to me: ‘Fräulein Schroeder, did you hear what the Führer said? I must tell my mother that.’
Chapter 5
Hitler’s Birthday
IN THE PREWAR YEARS Hitler’s birthdays would begin with a serenade by the band of the SS-Leibstandarte. When Hitler then descended the staircase from his first floor apartment in the Radziwill Palace, he would be greeted by a host of ministers’ and adjutants’ children in their party best holding colourful posies. Hitler evidently enjoyed taking his breakfast with the children, and for the photographers the table scenes were a welcome opportunity. The official chorus of congratulations would follow and then would come the Wehrmacht parade in the Tiergarten-Strasse.
The historical Congress Hall which separated Hitler’s apartment on the first floor from the service rooms of the Reich Chancellery would have been cleared a few weeks before 20 April. The presents received would be stacked on the long negotiating table and additional tables brought in for the purpose if necessary. The scent of small almond trees, carnations and roses would perfume the room. There was the widest range of presents imaginable: valuable, useful, beautiful, artistic. Paintings, sculptures, candelabras, carpets, old weapons, rare coins, clocks, accessories for the writing desk, briefcases, books, music scores and much more. Then the handicrafts: pillows and blankets with National Socialist symbols, or legends such as Heil mein Führer!. How many thoughts from fanatical, adoring women had been woven into this handiwork! Mountains of baby clothes, bedsheets and blankets finished up later in the archive room of the Private Chancellery to be carefully sorted for distribution to needy families. Cakes with artistic structures and inscriptions, baskets of delicacies and more or less all the edible stuff were sent on Hitler’s order to hospitals. Valuable items ended up in the showcases and cabinets of the Führer-flats, handicrafts without National Socialist emblems in visitors’ rooms. Later in the war field-grey socks knitted by women of the Nazi Women’s organisations were piled into great mountains in the four corners of the Congress Hall.
In the 1950s my friend Johanna Nusser in Berlin returned to me the letters I had written her from the Berghof and Führer-HQs during the war. The following extracts are taken from them.[54] In a moment of thoughtlessness I made some of them available to David Irving. The opinions they express about the Russian mentality I had assimilated from conversations with Hitler and repeated in chat. Nowadays I am horrified at these opinions of Hitler which I thoughtlessly passed on. How could I pass judgement on people whom I never had the opportunity to know first hand! I am blameworthy, but I let the material stand.
Letter from Berlin, 21 April 1939:
All my plans to take the cure and convalesce have come to naught again. I wanted to go in March, and when that was not possible in April. That is now out of the question and for the time being I have given up. We have a Reichstag speech on 28th of the month and until then we are on standby for all eventualities.
Dara has been in Munich since last week. I had hoped that Wolfen (Johanna Wolf) would be coming to Berlin, but meanwhile the boss has told her to stay in Munich to catalogue the birthday presents he received and write letters of thanks for them. I have no choice but to wait for the Reichstag speech and see how the general situation looks afterwards.
Meanwhile I have put on a lot of weight, it is really ghastly. If only I had half the willpower of the boss in this respect it would help. As soon as he puts on a few pounds he cuts out this and that at a stroke, goes hungry for three weeks and loses it all.
The birthday was very tiring for him. It lasted for two days, reception after reception. The parade yesterday was fairly large and went on and on. We left at 0930 and got back to the office at 1630, seven hours split by three hours’ drive and waiting time, and four hours’ march past. I expect you will see it on the cinema newsreels. It is simply amazing to me where he gets the strength from. Hours without a break standing and saluting are damned tiring. Just watching we got dog-tired, or I was at least.
The number and value of the presents this year is staggering. Paintings (Defregger, Waldmüller, Lenbach, even a glorious Titian), then wonderful Meissen sculptures in porcelain, silver table-and centre-pieces, magnificent books, vases, drawings, carpets, handicrafts, globes, radios, watches, etc. Then crates of eggs, huge cakes, boxes of sweets, fruit juice, liquor, a marvellous sailing ship made from fresh blooms, sad that it will soon wither. Then aircraft and ship models and similar military items which give him the greatest pleasure. He is like a kid with them.
The Berliners made a day of it as usual and were on their legs from dawn to dusk. The Charlottenburg Boulevard, which is very wide and has fine, solid lamp standards, was wonderful although like Unter den Linden I found the bunting a bit too theatrical. When these theatre requisites are taken down the street will be back to normal and more imposing than it is now. The Linden has too many of those advertising columns. But perhaps I have no taste and it is actually beautiful. Most people seem to approve of it.
Before we came back to Berlin we were in Austria to review the troops. The boss went off in the car leaving us in the special train for three or four hours just seven kilometres from Vienna. By the way, he calls the train ‘The Hotel of the Frenetic Reich Chancellor’.
Recently I have seen some fine theatrical performances and have been mainly in Munich. I never really know where to go in the evenings and so I have made a habit of attending the chamber plays in the Theatre House where almost everything I have seen to date has been wonderfully staged and acted. I have seen for example a glorious Anthony and Cleopatra and a short while ago during Festival week Conspiracy and Love. I had wanted to see the latter for a long time, but could never get to it in Berlin. It is booked well in advance there and the boss had said one should only see it in Berlin where the setting is fabulous and the casting first class, for example the old city musician Miller with Heinrich George.
The Old Man has been giving very interesting talks recently in the evenings about the Church question. Everything was so clear and straightforward that I regret not having made a note of it. He does not like the Gothic style of architecture because it is strange and unnatural. That is obviously a matter of taste. ‘Why suddenly interrupt a naturally fine arch to rise to an unnecessary and senseless point?’ he asks. And why the many towers and turrets, only there for the eye, inaccessible and blocked off inside.
Christian mysticism had its origins in the era of the Goths. The dark interior of the buildings favoured it. The period was one of darkness and prudery, the female body, abdomen and everything, hidden. An unmarried painter would never have seen a naked female, hence the false and ugly representations. In that era fables and mysticism would have spread very rapidly. Christianity is based on knowledge 2,000 years old, and this knowledge is confused and layered with mysticism and biblical fable. The question is: Why should it not be possible to base Christianity on our modern knowledge? Luther had attempted to introduce the Reformation but he had been misunderstood, for the Reformation was not a single event but eternally progressive reform, no standing still but advancing together, developing together, etc. The boss knows of course that the Church question is very complicated and should war come could have very unfavourable effects internally. I have the impression he would be happy to see it resolved in a dignified manner.
53
Jakob Werlin (b. 10.5.1886 Andritz/Graz, d. 23.9.1965 Salzburg). April 1921, head of the Benz & Co branch in Munich at 39 Schelling-Strasse where the