The fire was not lit every evening. Hitler’s place was on the right side of it between two ladies (Eva Braun always at his right). He would say when it should be lit. He usually started the conversation or would intervene once a particular topic caught his interest. If he did not feel like talking, and there were evenings which palled into awkward silences, he would often burst the tension with: ‘Should we listen to some music for a while?’ and all would agree with enthusiasm. The music cabinet was controlled by Martin Bormann and was located at the side of the window. From the long repertoire he had drawn up the greatest favourites were the symphonies by Bruckner and Beethoven, the songs of Richard Strauss, Hugo Wolf, Brahms, Beethoven, Schubert and Schumann, and the last act from Aida.
Hitler was very partial to Richard Wagner’s works of course. In first place for him was Tristan and Isolde, a work of which he once said that he would like to listen to it in the hour of his death. Hitler considered Wagner to be ‘the man who re-awoke German culture from the spirit of music’. Wagner’s musical language was to Hitler’s ears ‘like a divine manifestation’. He had seen some of Wagner’s operas very frequently and nothing in the world would induce him to miss the annual Bayreuth Festival (not even the Spanish Civil War in 1936). He sponsored Bayreuth financially, and was planning to make visits to the Festival available to all sections of German society, a national pilgrimage, so to speak. The Deutsche Arbeitsfront, the official organisation for German workers, arranged trips to Bayreuth for workers and employees to develop enthusiasm for Wagner’s works throughout all strata of society.
Hitler also enjoyed light classical music such as The Merry Widow, Die Fledermaus and Zigeunerbaron. A number of the male guests preferred to retire to the lounge on evenings when music was to the forefront. The frequent confrontations between Heinrich Hoffmann and Julius Schaub seemed to be provoked by music. If the argument became too loud, Hitler would send a manservant to the lounge with the request either that they should reduce the volume or return to the fireplace. These occurrences would often remind Hitler of awkward situations which tended to develop at musical presentations when his escort did not like listening to music. ‘Whenever I visit the opera I have to take care that my officers do not snore. One day during Tristan and Isolde, Heinrich Hoffmann nearly fell over the ledge out of the box. I had to wake Schaub up to tell him to give Hoffmann a shake. Brückner was behind me snoring. It was dreadful!’
Hitler was very good at telling anecdotes like these and everybody enjoyed listening to them, even Eva Braun. If conversations were mentioned of which she disapproved this would be immediately evident and then even Hitler would notice. He would stroke her hand resting on the arm of her chair, whisper a few words and then she would disappear upstairs. This would also happen if she thought that Hitler was paying too much attention to another woman.[122]
At New Year 1938 Gretl Slezak gave me a letter to hand to Hitler privately without anybody seeing. As he was about to leave the Hall I detained him. Once all the guests had gone below to the bowling alley in the basement for drinks, he took my arm and strolled up and down with me in the Great Hall. My evening dress of roe deer-brown fluffy material with a small train, added to which my silver-fox fur cape must have looked magnificent, supported by a small tipsiness which I had got from the dinner, lent me a large slice of self-confidence and courage, for after I had handed him the letter I broke into hymns of praise about Gretl Slezak, which must have seemed close to an attempt at matchmaking. Convinced that he must share my opinion, I finished with: ‘Eva is nothing for you, mein Führer!’
Instead of annoyance at this impertinent remark, Hitler looked at me in amusement and replied: ‘But she is enough for me!’ Enough? Where was ‘the great love’ of which so many writers have been in the know since 1945? Clearly, my attempt at matchmaking that New Year’s Eve amused Hitler no end, for he made no move to leave the Hall. We had been alone together for rather too long, it seemed, for Eva Braun appeared suddenly, gave me a scowl and said in hurt tones to Hitler: ‘Where have you been, we are all waiting for you!’
Hitler did not forget this episode, for a few weeks later he brought it up and said to me with a smile, ‘That night you had a certain something’. That night the New Year’s Eve photo was taken in the Great Hall before the fireplace. It was the last New Year’s celebration at which so many guests would be present.
Another unforgettable experience in the Great Hall was Hitler’s dictation of 11 May 1941. Despite innumerable attempts, a plausible explanation for the flight of his deputy Rudolf Hess to Britain eluded him. He tried out all the possible motives he could think of and tried to encapsulate them in words, but nothing seemed to fit properly. Only when he viewed the flight as the act of a madman did he seem satisfied. I had never known a dictation cause him so much trouble as this one.[123]
Hitler was a great admirer of British colonialism. In 1926 he had told his closest colleagues: ‘It is not my wish that a pearl should fall from the crown of the British Empire. It would be a catastrophe for humanity.’ In the prewar years when German public opinion was very favourable towards the Indian independence movement, he said: ‘I forbid my people to go along with this Gandhi nonsense. One does not win independence with spinning wheels, but with guns.’ From several of his statements it was possible to conclude that he thought of an alliance with Britain as the most ideal solution to the problems of world politics. He considered the Royal Navy and the German Army in combination to be a power factor sufficiently strong to give world politics a new foundation. In the 1920s Hitler had begun writing a book about foreign policy.[124] In 1939, shortly after the British declaration of war, he said to Hess in my presence: ‘All my work is falling apart. I have written my book for nothing.’ I believe that Hess was the only person to whom he had explained the ideas developed in his manuscript, and that Hess, because of his intimate knowledge of Hitler’s thinking, undertook his flight to Britain.
The Great Hall was often the venue for interesting events, visits and conversations. Hitler was very impressed by the visit of the Duke and Duchess of Windsor.[125] In the afternoon from the office window I saw Hitler with the couple on the terrace apparently pointing out to them the various mountains by name. The duchess wore a simple dark blue woollen frock of excellent cut. She looked chic and impressive with her hair centre-parted and styled in a bun. Undoubtedly she made a lasting impression on Hitler, for in the evening he said: ‘She would definitely have made a good queen’. He saw in the Duke a friend of Germany and regretted that he had not fought the Establishment rather than abdicating, particularly since he could have relied upon the sympathy of the working class.
That evening at the fireside he also told us of the visit a few days before by the Indian prince and Muslim leader the Aga Khan, one of the richest men in the world.[126] The conversations with the Aga Khan gave Hitler much food for thought, e.g. the opinion of his visitor that it would have been best for Europe if Martel had lost the eighth-century battle of Tours/Poitiers against the Moors, for then Europe would have become Muslim, retained its scientific knowledge and its peoples would have lived in peace with each other. The Aga Khan had given thought to the European relationship and that pleased Hitler. He found himself in agreement with many non-barbarous aspects of Islam, in particular the ban on drinking and eating the flesh of swine, and the practice of periodic fasting.
122
In her stenographic notes, Schroeder stated: ‘If any woman was present in whom Eva feared a competitor, then she either retired very soon to her room or became so unpleasant that Hitler would notice and persuade her to withdraw “because she was tired”.’
123
On the question whether Hess flew to Britain with Hitler’s knowledge or on his own initiative: one of Martin Bormann’s secretaries wrote in a letter to Schroeder: ‘I am of the opinion that Adolf Hitler knew nothing of the flight. Martin Bormann told me at the time… Martin Bormann was always straight! It is unlikely that Hitler would have been so stupid as to send Hess to negotiate with a man neither knew and who was a friend of Churchill.’ Hans Baur, Hitler’s personal pilot, said: ‘I overheard a conversation in the Reich Chancellery garden between Hitler and Göring: Hitler did not realise I was nearby when he screamed at Göring: “He has simply gone mad, he must know that by doing that he has stabbed me in the back!”’
124
125
This visit took place on 20 October 1937. HRH the Duke of Windsor had abdicated as King Edward VIII on 10 December 1936.
126
This visit took place on 20 October 1937. The Aga Khan III (b. 2.11.1877 Karachi, d. 11.6.1957 Geneva) was the forty-first imam of the Ismaeli sect.