Afterwards we sought out Dr Morell in his hut and asked why the boss was behaving so strangely. Morell looked at us over his glasses with a sly smile: ‘So you’ve noticed? Yes, I am giving him hormone injections from bulls’ testicles, that should pep him up!’ In March 1980, Robert Scholz, who had worked on Rosenberg’s staff, told me that Morell had asked Rosenberg to get him some bulls’ testicles.
That Hitler was dependent on stimulants prescribed by Morell is proven by several reports. After the attempt of 20 July 1944, Dr Erwin Giesing, who had been called in to treat Hitler’s damaged ear drum, made it known that Morell was treating Hitler with ill-considered medications. One morning Dr Giesing discovered on Hitler’s breakfast tray a small bottle of anti-flatulence pills containing two powerful poisons. When he asked the servant Linge how many the Führer took daily, he was told ‘Up to sixteen’. Appalled at Morell’s negligence, he had Dr Brandt, who as head of the Health Department was no longer constantly at FHQ, come at once to Wolfsschanze. Dr Brandt and Dr Hasselbach explained to Hitler that the trembling of his left hand and gradual loss of vision were the result of the poisons in the anti-flatulence pills and that it was irresponsible of Dr Morell to have made them freely available to be eaten like sweets.[137] Hitler would hear no evil spoken against Dr Morell, upon whom he was now so dependent that he ignored the advice of Brandt and Hasselbach. Hitler thought that their only intention was to get rid of Morell and, since they knew that he, Hitler, could not live without Morell, they must be aiming indirectly to get rid of him too.
The extent to which he believed this became clear to me at a luncheon at the Reich Chancellery in March 1945. From now on Hitler did not want Brandt and Hasselbach at FHQ. His distrust of Dr Brandt grew when he heard reports allegedly made by Brandt as to the hopelessness of the war. The fact that Dr Brandt had sent his wife Anni from Berlin to Liebenzell, and not to the Berghof, a day before the Americans arrived at Liebenzell, earned him the death sentence.
On 16 March 1945 Johanna Wolf and I were scheduled to provide Hitler with company at the table for lunch. As always the table was carefully laid, the lamp standard switched on and the curtains drawn, hiding the ruins of the Hotel Kaiserhof and the Propaganda Ministry. We sat waiting in the Staircase Room far longer than usual. Finally, probably around 0230, the servant Linge opened the door and announced: ‘The chief is coming.’ Hitler followed him in with a worried frown, kissed our hands absent-mindedly and gave vent to his anger as soon as we had sat down:
I am very annoyed with Albrecht.[138] Eva is right in disliking him. As soon as I do not see to everything myself, nothing gets done. I expressly ordered that the new winding entrances to the bunker in Voss-Strasse should have iron underpinning. I asked Albrecht if it had been done. He said yes. Now I have just seen that the entrances have only been given a concrete foundation, which is senseless. I really cannot rely on anybody any more. It makes me ill. If I did not have Morell I would not be able to look after everything myself, and then I would be in a complete mess. And those idiots Brandt and Hasselbach wanted to get rid of Morell! What would have become of them the gentlemen failed to ask themselves. If anything happens to me Germany is lost, for I have no successor!
This talk of no successor was not new. After Hess went to Britain in 1941, Göring was the official successor, but Hitler did not think he was capable. I once argued with him when he said there was nobody who could be his successor. He replied that Hess had gone mad, Göring had lost the sympathy of the people, and the Party did not want Himmler. When I told him that Himmler was the name being mentioned by many people, he began to get annoyed. Himmler was a person with absolutely no feeling for music. To my objection that that was not so important nowadays, for the arts could supply competent people, he retorted that it was not so simple to do that or he would already have done it. From that I deduced that in Hitler’s opinion none of the proposed candidates would be considered as his successor. At the suggestion of Himmler he became angry and asked what had possessed me to say such a thing. It hurt his vanity that those of us who knew Himmler and himself should place Himmler on a par with him. He left offended, saying: ‘Keep on racking your brains for who should be my successor.’ On the subject of Morell, Hitler also stated that ‘without Morell he would be all out of joint and lost’, but towards the end of the war he did eventually become suspicious of Morell, and feared being poisoned by him. On 22 April 1945, Dr Morell was expelled from Berlin.
During my internment at Ludwigsburg Camp Dr Brandt arranged a brief meeting with me. He told me that the Americans had put him into a cell with Morell. He had told Morelclass="underline" ‘You swine!’ which signified that he held Morell responsible for having ruined Hitler’s health. This would certainly not have been done on purpose. What was Morell to do when, as time went by, medicaments lost their potency on Hitler, who then demanded that Morell kept him able to work? Ultimately there was probably nothing else he could do but give in to Hitler’s wishes. Whether Morell took into account the possible side-effects is not known…
Albert Bormann, Martin Bormann’s brother, had meanwhile arrived at Obersalzberg from Berlin and was living in the Berchtesgadener Hof with his very pregnant wife. On the morning of 23 April 1945 he was summoned to Göring’s property above the Berghof. Afterwards Albert Bormann dictated to me the content of this conversation. Göring had asked him where the records of the situation conferences were kept. ‘They must be destroyed immediately’, he said, ‘or the German people will discover that for the last two years they have been led by a madman!’ Albert Bormann told me to type a string of dots in place of this sentence. He believed that Göring was intent on being Hitler’s successor.
That same evening the Berghof was suddenly surrounded by armed SS. Nobody was permitted to leave the house. My first thought was that Himmler had staged a coup. The men of the SS-Begleitkommando stood at the inner doors of the Berghof vestibule with machineguns at the ready and magazine pouches on their belts. Amongst them, with Stoic calm, was Konteradmiral von Puttkamer, a thick cigar clamped between his teeth. Nobody could explain why the Berghof had been surrounded. Some hours later after many unsuccessful telephone enquiries, an orderly managed to discover from the SS barracks higher up that Göring had been arrested. Radio communication to Berlin was no longer possible.
Wednesday 25 April 1945 was a sunny spring day with a cloudless sky. There were still some patches of snow lying around, but it was not cold. I had booked an appointment for 1000 with Bernhardt hairdressers in the Platterhof hotel. There was an acute danger of air attack but I decided to ignore it and stay in bed. In recent days aircraft had overflown the Berghof but not bombed. Towards 0930 the early warning alarm sounded. Straight away the sirens howled and at once American bombers[139] appeared over the Hohe Göll mountain and dropped bombs. One exploded nearby. I grabbed my handbag and coat and ran into Johanna Wolf ’s room, telling her to get to cover quickly. Without waiting I ran down the steps of the old building, or rather I flew down under the air pressure, to the bunker entrance only a few metres across the courtyard where sixty steps led down into the refuge. The second bomb fell at the side of the old house where our rooms were located and destroyed the stairway. Probably nobody had seriously considered that the Berghof would ever be attacked, and thus all were taken by surprise and many tumbled into the bunker only half dressed.
137
In her notes, Schroeder recorded: ‘In the autumn of 1944 the boss took “anti-flatulence tablets” containing two strong poisons including belladonna. I remember Dr Giesing saying that all the health problems Hitler suffered came from taking these poisons on a regular basis. Hitler complained about his serious loss of vision… I remember how often he used to scratch himself.’
138
Alwin-Broder Albrecht (b. 18.9.1903 St Peter/Freisland). 27.6.1938◦– 30.6.1939 as Korvettenkapitän deputised for Jesko von Puttkamer as Hitler’s liaison officer to the German navy; 30.6.1939 following an altercation between Raeder and Hitler discharged from Wehrmacht service but retained the right to wear naval uniform; 1.7.1939 appointed personal adjutant to Hitler in rank of NSKK Oberführer, where he had responsibility amongst other things for building work at the Reich Chancellery; 1.5.1945 disappeared without trace.