Atiot.F Ittltt A STUDY IN TYRANNY ALAN BULLOCK by Revised Edition Completely HARPER TORCHBOOKS The Academy Library Harper & Row, Publishers New York and Evanston TO MY MOTHER AND FATHER HITLER: ASTUDYINTYRANNY-CompletdyRevisedEdition.Prefaceand newly revised material Copyright 1962 by Alan Bullock, Printed in the United StatesofAmerica. This edition was originally published in 1964 by Harper & Row, Publishers, Incorporated, All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any mannerwhatsoeverwithoutwritten permission except in thecaseofbriefquo- tations embodied in critical articles and reviews. For information address Harper&Row,Publishers,Incorporated,49EastSSrdStreet,NewYork 16,N.Y, FirstHARPERTORCHBOOKeditionpublishedMarch 1964by HarperSc Row,Pub- lishers,Incorporated,NewYork andEvanston, Libraryo Congress CatalogCard Number: 63-21045. CONTENTS Preface to the RevisedEdition 15. Acknowledgements 18 Abbreviations 20 BOOK I PARTY LEADER, 1889-1933 1 TheFormativeYears, 1889-1918 23 2 The YearsofStruggle, 1919-24 57 3 The YearsofWaiting, 1924-31 121 4 The Months of Opportunity, October 1931-30 January 1933 187 BOOK II CHANCELLOR, 1933-9 5 RevolutionafterPower,30January1933-August1934 253 6 The CounterfeitPeace, 1933-7 312 7 TheDictator 372 % From ViennatoPrague,1938-9 411 9 ##/<;/'* PF<v, 7itfP 490 BOOK III WAR-LORD, 1939-45 10 TheInconclusive Victory,1939-40 563 11 'The World WillHoldItsBreath', 1940-^1 610 12 The UnachievedEmpire,1941-3 651 13 TwoJulys,1943-4 704 14 TheEmperor WithoutHisClothes 753 EPILOGUE 805 809 Bibliograp$hy Index 817 3 ' 7086635 KANSAS CITY (MOO HUJ-.JC LIBRARY ILLUSTRATIONS Adolf Hitler Frontispiece The following -will be found after page 384; At the age of thirty-four At Munich in the early 1920s Leaving a Party meeting InWeimar, 1926 With President Hindenburg InPotsdamGarrisonChurch, 1933 In theSportpalast At the Nuremberg Parteitag, 1934 The Berghof TheFuehrer's study at the Berghof EvaBraun Hitler and Eva Braun With 1939 Tiso, WithFranco, 1940 Hitler and his Generals in 1941 After 20 1944 July, MAPS AND CHARTS Hitler's Ancestry 28-29 German 1938-1939 440-441 Annexations, Expansion of Hitler's Empire, 1938-1943 682-683 Men do not become tyrants in order to keep out the cold. ARISTOTLE, Politics PREFACE TO THE REVISED EDITION I FIRST began this study with two questions inmind. The first, suggestedbymuchthatwas said at theNurembergTrials, wasto discoverhowgreatapartHitlerplayedinthehistory oftheThird Reich and whether Goring and the other defendants were exag- geratingwhentheyclaimedthatundertheNaziregimethewillof one man, and of one man alone, was decisive. This led to the second and larger question: if the picture of Hitler given at Nurembergwas substantially accurate, whatwere the gifts Hitler possessed whichenabled himfirstto secure andthen to maintain such power. I determined to reconstruct, so far as I was able, thecourseofhislifefromhis birth in 1889 to his death in 1945, in the hope that this wouldenable me to offer an account ofone ofthemostpuzzlingandremarkablecareersinmodernhistory. Thebookiscast,therefore,intheformofahistoricalnarrative, interruptedonlyatonepointbyachapterinwhichIhavetriedto present a portrait of Hitler on the eve of his greatest triumphs (Chapter 7). I havenot attempted towriteahistory ofGermany, norastudyofgovernmentandsocietyundertheNaziregime. My themeis notdictatorship, butthe dictator, thepersonal power of one man, although it may be added that for most of the years between 1933 and 1945 this is identical with the most important part ofthehistoryoftheThirdReich. Upto 1934theinterestlies in the means by which Hitler secured power in Germany. After 1934 the emphasis shifts to foreignpolicy and ultimately to war, the means by which Hitler sought to extend his power outside Germany. Ifattimes,especiallybetween 1938 and 1945,thefigure ofthe man is submerged beneath the complicated narrative of politics and war, this corresponds to Hitler's own sacrifice ofhis private life (which was meagre and uninteresting at the best of times) to the demands ofthepositionhehad created for himself. Inthelastyearofhislife,however,ashisempirebeginstocrumble, the true nature ofthe man is revealed again in all its harshness. Nomancansitdowntowriteaboutthehistoryofhisowntimes - or perhaps of any time - without bringing to the task the 16 Preface preconceptionswhichspringoutofMsowncharacter andexperi- ence. This is the Inescapable condition of the historian's work, and the present study is no more exempt from these limitations thananyotheraccountoftheeventsoftherecentpast. Neverthe- less, Iwrotethisbookwithoutanyparticularaxetogrindorcase to argue. I have nosimpleformula to offer in explanation ofthe events I have described; few major historical events appear to me to be susceptible ofsimple explanations. Nor has it been my purposeeithertorehabilitateortoindictAdolfHitler.IfIcannot claim the impartiality ofajudge, I have not cast myselffor the role of prosecuting counsel, still less for that of counsel for the defence. However disputable some ofmyinterpretations maybe, there is a solid substratum of fact - and the facts are eloquent enough. The bibliography printed at the end sets out the sources on which this study is based. In the ten years since this book was first published much new material has appeared which throws light on the history of the Nazi Party and the Third Reich* I have takenthe opportunity ofanewedition tomake a thorough revision ofthe whole text, taking this material into account and, where it seemed necessary, rewriting in order to make use ofit. The passage often years also means a change ofperspective: thisis more difficultto takeintoaccount. Ihavefoundnoreason to alter substantially thepicture I drew ofHitler when the book was first published, although I have not hesitated to change the emphasiswhere itno longer seemed right. It is in the account of theevents leadingup totheSecondWorld War thatI have made themostcompleterevision, partlybecauseofthelargenumberof new diplomatic documents that have been published, partly be- causeitisherethatmyownviewshavebeenmostaffectedbyth longer perspective in which we are now able to see these events. I am indebted to Mr A.J. P. Taylor's Origins of the Second World War for stimulating me to re-read the whole of the documentary evidence for Hitler's foreign policy in the years 1933-9. The fact that I disagree with Mr Taylor in his view of Hitler and his foreign policy -more than ever, now that I have re-read the documents - does not reduce my debt to him for stirringmeuptotakeacriticallookatmyownaccount. Amongst many other writers fromwhomIhave learned since this bookwas originally published, I shouldlike to mentiontwo otherOxfordcolleagues:ProfessorTrevor-Roperwhoseessayon The Mind ofAdolfHitler convinced me that Hitler's table talk