Heinrich Himmler : A Life (131 page)

It should finally be emphasized that Nazi policy took its particular explosiveness and dynamic to a considerable extent from the manner in which Heinrich Himmler brought together the police, the camp system, racial selection, settlement policy, combating of partisans, forced-labour programmes, and the mobilization of ‘Teutons’ and ‘ethnic Germans’. From this an SS and police complex arose, the internal coherence and full scope of which can be understood only if the person who united all these powers is taken into account. If Himmler had been replaced in the 1930s by someone else, this specific and highly dangerous network of different
powers would not have come into being. If, on the other hand, these responsibilities had been distributed among several Nazi politicians as separate domains, Nazi policy could not have led to its dreadful consequences in quite the same way.

If we consider Himmler’s empire and the plans and utopian fantasies he developed in their entirety, it is also evident that he had amassed a potential for destruction that far exceeded the catastrophes that Nazism itself actually caused: for the systematic murder of the European Jews, with which above all the name Himmler is connected today, was not in his eyes the ultimate goal of his policies but rather the precondition for much more extensive plans for a bloody ‘new ordering’ of the European continent.

1
. Himmler and his companions were apprehended by two freed Soviet POWs who were deployed to reinforce a British patrol; see ‘Die letzten Tage von Heinrich Himmler. Neue Dokumente aus dem Archiv des Föderalen Sicherheitsdienstes’, presented and with an introduction by Boris Chavkin and A. M. Kalganov, in
Forum für osteuropäische Ideen- und Zeitgeschichte
, 4 (2000), 251–84.

2
. On Himmler’s time in Camp 31 see the report Selvester wrote in 1963 at the request of the Himmler biographers Roger Manvell und Heinrich Fraenkel, who subsequently used it in their biography (
Himmler: Kleinbürger und Massenmörder
(Herrsching, 1981), 227 ff.). Before passing the report on to Manvell and Fraenkel, Selvester sent it for approval to the Public Relations Department of the War Office. The paragraph on the plan to drug Himmler (PRO, WO 32/19603) was crossed out. Written almost twenty years after the event, the report contains a number of inaccuracies, particularly with regard to the chronological sequence of events, as is clear from a comparison with the report written on 23 May 1945 by Smith, the chief interrogating officer, and the 2nd British Army communication concerning the events dated 24 May 1945. All these documents are in PRO, WO 208/4431.

3
. PRO, WO 208/4431, War Diary, Second Army Defence Company, 23 May 1945.

4
. Ibid. War Diary, 26 May 1945. On the location of the grave see further correspondence in this file.

1
. Letters in the
Süddeutsche Zeitung
of 9/10 August 1980.

2
. Ibid.

3
. BAK, NL 1126/26, Family tree of the Kiene family created by Gebhard Himmler, September 1921. Agathe Kiene lived from 1833 till 1916. On the family history of the Himmlers see Bradley F. Smith,
Heinrich Himmler 1900–1926. Sein Weg in den deutschen Faschismus
(Munich, 1979), 23 ff.

4
. In the
Amtliches Verzeichnis des Personals der Lehrer, Beamten und Studierenden an der Königlich-Bayerischen Ludwigs-Maximilians-Universität zu München
he is registered as a student from the winter semester 1884/5 to the summer semester 1890; it is also registered that he interrupted his studies from winter semester 1898/9 until summer semester 1890.

5
. Himmler’s great niece, Katrin Himmler, discovered the information about the stay in Russia through oral family history; see Katrin Himmler,
Die Brüder Himmler. Eine deutsche Familiengeschichte
(Frankfurt a. M., 2005), 35.

6
. I was informed that there is no record of Himmler’s role as tutor to Prince Heinrich in the Private Archive of the Wittelsbach dynasty (BHStA, Abteilung III).

7
. According to the
Blätter für das Gymnasial-Schulwesen
33 (May/June 1897), 528. The
Festschrift zur Vierhundert-Jahr-Feier des Wilhelms-Gymnasiums, 1559–1959
(Munich, 1959), 57, shows that Himmler was employed as a grammar-school teacher there during the years 1894–1902. According to Himmler,
Brüder Himmler
, 37, he was employed at the Ludwigsgymnasium from 1890 and from 1893 as a private tutor.

8
. BAK, NL 1126/26, Family tree of the Heyder family created by Gerhard Himmler, 1931. Anna Maria Heyder was born on 19 January 1866. Her father, Franz Alois Heyder, born on 2 July 1810 in Abensberg (Lower Bavaria), died on 17 April 1872. His ancestors, who can be traced back to the sixteenth century, were foresters. In 1839 Alois Heyder had married a widow who was eighteen years older than him before, in 1862, he married Anna Hofritter, the mother of Himmler’s mother, who was fourteen years younger than him. Cf. Smith,
Himmler
, 29.

9
. Himmler,
Brüder Himmler
, 38, mentions 300,000 Goldmarks, which for those days represented considerable wealth. However, the Himmlers’ lifestyle does not suggest that they possessed significant income from property in addition to the income he earned as a civil servant.

10
. BAK, NL 1126/1, Gebhard Himmler to Prinz Heinrich, 21 June 1900 (a thank-you letter for his agreeing to become godfather), 8 October 1900 (announcement of the birth) and 19 October 1900 (re the christening); cf. Smith,
Himmler
, 38 f.

11
. Smith,
Himmler
, 30 f.

12
. As in a farewell letter that he wrote to his wife before embarking on a journey to Greece in 1912 (Himmler,
Brüder Himmler
, 48). The fact that the family regularly attended mass is clear from Heinrich’s diary. Apart from Heinrich’s holiday diaries for 1910 and 1911 (Lenggries), 1912 (Lindau), und 1913 (Brixlegg) in Nachlass Himmler, BAK, NL 1126/6, the Himmler diaries that have survived are in the Hoover Institution, Stanford University, also as microfilm in Nachlass Himmler (BAK, NL 1126). In future they will be referred to in the notes as TB.

13
. Himmler,
Brüder Himmler
, 46 ff., demonstrates this in exemplary fashion from family history by means of the farewell letters that Himmler’s father wrote prophylactically to Gerhard and Ernst.

14
. Smith,
Himmler
, 46 f.; TB, 18 September 1915.

15
. BAK, NL 1126/1, Gebhard Himmler, ‘Notes on the schooling of our dear children’ (
Schulnotizen
); see Smith,
Himmler
, 43.

16
. Himmler,
Brüder Himmler
, 46 ff.

17
. At first they lived in the bride’s flat on the first floor of Sternstrasse 13 (
Adressbuch für München 1898
). Agathe Himmler, an employee of the District Office (
Bezirksamt
), was also registered as living at this address. In 1900 and 1901 the family lived on the second floor of Hildegardstrasse 6, from the 1 April 1901 on the third floor of Liebigstrasse 5, k (
Adressbuch für München 1900
und 1901
). Cf. Smith,
Himmler
, 39.

18
. Smith,
Himmler
, 50.

19
. The correspondence is contained in BAK, NL 1126/1. Katrin Himmler describes the visits in
Brüder Himmler
, 39, based on the manuscript of the memoirs of her great-uncle, Gerhard Himmler, which are in the possession of the family.

20
. On the cultural changes during the period of the Prince Regent and on the decline of Munich as an artistic centre see above all David Clay Large,
Hitlers München. Aufstieg und Fall der Hauptstadt der Bewegung
(Munich, 1998), as well as the collection of essays edited by Friedrich Prinz and Marita Krauss,
München—Musenstadt mit Hinterhöfen. Die Prinzregentenzeit 1886–1912
(Munich, 1988), in particular Roger Engelmann, ‘Öffentlichkeit und Zensur. Literatur und Theater als Provokation’, 267–76. For a general account of this period see Karl Möckl,
Die Prinzregentenzeit. Gesellschaft und Politik während der Ära des Prinzregenten Luitpold in Bayern
(Munich and Vienna, 1972).

21
.
Blätter für das Gymnasial-Schulwesen
, 38, 9/10 (September–October 1902), 665.

22
. BAK, NL 1126/1, correspondence between Gebhard Himmler and the family doctor, Quernstedt (15 July 1903), as well as with Prince Heinrich (the prince’s enquiry about Heinrich’s state of health, 25 June 1903, and Himmler’s replies of 30 August and 20 December 1903); Smith,
Himmler
, 40 ff.

23
.
Blätter für das Gymnasial-Schulwesen
, 40, 9/10 (September–October 1904), 684;
Adressbuch für München 1905
; see Smith,
Himmler
, 42.

24
. Smith,
Himmler
, 42 f.; BAK, NL 1126/1, School reports. Himmler’s father mentions here five different occasions when Gebhard was ill during this year, which led to 147 days off school.

25
. See in particular the reflections on this in Himmler,
Brüder Himmler
, 66 f., BAK, NL 1126/1, Schulnotizen.

26
. BAK, NL 1126/1, Schulnotizen.

27
. Smith,
Himmler
, 44 f.

28
. See the holiday diaries for 1910 und 1911 (Lenggries), 1912 (Lindau), and 1913 (Brixlegg) in Nachlass Himmler, BAK, NL 1126/6.

29
. TB, 1911, Landaufenthalt in Lenggries; cf. Smith,
Himmler
, 44 ff.

30
. Smith,
Himmler
, 51.

31
. BAK, NL 1126/1, Schulnotizen.

32
. George W. F. Hallgarten, ‘Mein Mitschüler Heinrich Himmler’, in
Germanica Judaica
, 1/2 (1960–1), 4–7.

33
. Smith,
Himmler
, 52; Himmler,
Brüder Himmler
, 49.

34
. BAB, NS 19/3667. On Zipperer see Smith,
Himmler
, 53 f.

35
. Falk Zipperer, ‘Eschwege. Eine siedlungs- und verfassungsgeschichtliche Untersuchung’, in
Festgabe für Heinrich Himmler
(Darmstadt, 1941), 215–92. Zipperer’s dissertation, which appeared in a series of the SS academic organization, Ahnenerbe, was concerned with the customs of Upper Bavaria:
Das Haberfeldtreiben. Seine Geschichte und seine Bedeutung
(Weimar, 1938); see also BAB, BDC, SS-O Zipperer.

36
. BAB, NS 19/3535.

37
. Alfons Beckenbauer, ‘Eine Landshuter Jugendfreundschaft und ihre Verwick-lung in die NS-Politik. Der Arzt Dr. Karl Gebhardt und der Reichsführer-SS Heinrich Himmler’, in
Verhandlungen des Historischen Vereins für Niederbayern
, 100 (1974), 5–22.

38
. Smith,
Himmler
, 48.

39
. Alfons Beckenbauer, ‘Musterschüler und Massenmörder. Heinrich Himmlers Landshuter Jugendjahre’, in
Verhandlungen des Historischen Vereins für Niederbayern
, 95 (1969), 93–106.

40
. TB, 28 July 1915.

41
. TB, 4 September 1915.

42
. TB, 16 February 1915.

43
. TB, 29 July1915.

44
. On the war youth generation see in particular: Ulrich Herbert,
Best. Biographische Studien über Radikalismus, Weltanschauung und Vernunft, 1903–1989
(Bonn, 1996), 42 ff. Herbert believes that this generation was concerned above all to transfer an idealized version of the ‘front-line soldier’ to the domestic political situation. Herbert refers in particular to the book by Günther Gündel that was particularly influential at the time:
Sendung der Jungen Generation. Versuch einer umfassenden revolutionären Sinndeutung der Krise
(Munich, 1932). The other work referred to by him in this context, by Helmut Lethen,
Verhaltenslehren der Kälte. Lebensversuche zwischen den Kriegen
(Frankfurt a. M., 1994), focuses on authors of the ‘Neue Sachlichkeit’ and so is not relevant for the early history of right-wing radicalism in the Weimar Republic. Michael Wildt,
Generation des Unbedingten. Das Führungskorps des Reichssicherheitshauptamtes
(Hamburg, 2003), has provided supporting evidence for the picture sketched by Herbert by showing that, with a 60 per cent membership, the upper ranks of the Reich Security Main Office (
Reichssicherheitshauptamt
= RSHA) were dominated by the war youth generation. On the war youth generation see also Barbara Stambolis,
Der Mythos der jungen Generation. Ein Beitrag zur politischen Kultur der Weimarer Republik
(Bochum, 1982).