During the following days, the new civilian master of Italy was still unable to actually govern. He was getting organized; in the cities, the positions in the police departments needed to be filled, the existing police stations had to be inspected, and mostly the introductory visits by the new authorities had to take place. Since Wolff’s command did not even have the beginning of an organization available, he wisely avoided the clashes that frequently took place between SS commanders and the Wehrmacht generals. Immediately and voluntarily, he placed himself under the authority of Field Marshal Kesselring for all issues involving the military. That move won him a very influential patron. Herbert Kappler, the former police attaché at the embassy, was appointed as the top policeman in Rome, a promotion that the SS Standartenführer would curse for decades as he sat in an Italian prison.
Wolff requested information from Ambassador Rahn about Italy’s political reorganization—since he was constantly informed of the activities to free Mussolini, it was clear that Hitler would use him as a nominal leader for appearance’s sake. Was he to be the head of state, the prime minister, and party leader all at once? The dictator who enjoyed behaving like an old Roman tribune could still cause a lot of trouble. Could he possibly be placed high enough above as a symbolic figure to cut off from day-to-day politics? Who would run the government in that case?
Rahn suggested an old fascist who had been shunted aside because he was too worried about honesty and his good reputation, the former Minister of Agriculture Renato Tassinari, who was now a wealthy landowner and professor of agriculture at the University of Bologna. In contrast to prominent Fascist figures, he had a very clean slate, was not associated with any violence, and was respected by the people. Together with Dollmann, who had now been appointed as Wolff’s liaison officer to Kesselring, Wolff wanted to convince Tassinari to be a candidate as head of the government.
All these issues, including the question of where the government and Wolff would be located, could only be decided if the Duce stepped onto the world stage once again and if Hitler agreed to appoint him to that role. The task of freeing Mussolini was given to Luftwaffe General Kurt Student, who would use his paratroopers. Himmler managed to get it through to Hitler that the SD must also be involved. And so, along with a small number of SS troops, the massive, ambitious and adventurous SS Hauptsturmführer Otto Skorzeny was also assigned to the task. He took part in the paratrooper unit that landed on the Gran Sasso, the highest
peak of the Abruzzi Mountains where Mussolini was being held prisoner, in a manner of speaking, at a ski resort hotel. The guards immediately surrendered. Skorzeny was only an auxiliary during the entire operation. But in the photos taken at the scene, he was always standing next to Mussolini, and hailed as the Duce’s liberator by Nazi propaganda.
This took place on September 12, 1943, and from that moment on Wolff was expecting a call from the “Wolfsschanze.” Hitler had promised him he would be on hand when Mussolini was free. Because the Obergruppenführer had his candidate Tassinari waiting in the wings, he had to speak with the Führer before things were irrevocably set in stone. It was fortunate that Hitler did not wish to see his friend the Duce immediately. Mussolini was flown to Vienna, then to Munich the next day where he was reunited with his family. On September 14 he was finally welcomed at the “Wolfsschanze.”
The reason for such a late meeting was that Hitler needed to be clear about his future policies towards Italy first. Now he knew the desolate condition of Mussolini and his family, he knew how the Fascist party had disintegrated, and he understood the complete demoralization of the Italian armed forces. On September 12, he met with Himmler, Bormann, Reich Minister Hans Lammers, Minister of Armaments Albert Speer, and Gauleiters Franz Hofer (Tyrol) and Friedrich Rainer (Kärnten). He certainly did not want the Duce present, while the victors divided up the Italian pie. South Tyrol was practically added to the Gau of Tyrol and governed from Innsbruck. The eastern parts of the Adriatic coast went to the Gau of Kärnten. The new and only temporarily loose areas that had been added to the Reich remained under the jurisdiction of the Highest SS and Police Commander Wolff, but he had to work in harmony with the gauleiters. This was one more example of the confusion of responsibilities and was typical of Hitler’s system: he consciously created dissatisfaction so that he could show on occasion that he was the master of the house, and everyone remained dependent upon him.
The call from the Führer headquarters didn’t reach Wolff until some time on September 13. He now had his own airplane: a three-engine Ju 52, Lufthansa passenger plane in peacetime, it was reliable but slower than all military planes. In order to avoid enemy planes, he flew to East Prussia overnight with Tassinari. They landed early in the morning at Rastenburg and first visited the Reichsführer SS. The bourgeois conservative Tassinari made a tame impression on him. Himmler advised him to appoint aggressiv old Fascist party functionaries as ministers in a future cabinet—for
example, Alessandro Pavolini, Roberto Farinacci, or even Guido Buffarini-Guidi, whom Himmler particularly liked. He had become friends with the former undersecretary at the ministry of the interior in charge of the police, even though he was a corruptible, cynical hedonist, in some ways the opposite of the purist and moral stickler Himmler.
The next stop that same morning, Wolff was to visit Foreign Minister Ribbentrop. His residence at the time was at the Castle Steinort near Angerburg, the property of Count Lehndorf. Wolff was always well received by Ribbentrop, from the time he gave the minister his support during a conspiracy within the ministry. Wolff had also occasionally reminded Ribbentrop of his close ties to the minister’s wife, since the Wolff and von Römheld families were from Darmstadt and had been received as guests at her parents’ home (the wine-growing family Henkell) in Wiesbaden. The minister, who was otherwise so arrogant and aloof, had one day even addressed the Obergruppenführer with the familiar “Du.” In a good mood, he now looked the professor over and had no reason to oppose his political promotion.
It seemed more difficult to obtain an appointment to introduce Tassarini to Hitler with his, Hitler’s, aides at Führer headquarters. His daily schedule was booked up, Wolff was told. But he had not been part of that exclusive men’s club for three and a half years for nothing, and had occasionally been helpful to some of those gentlemen during that time. He was even given two appointments, if only for a few minutes. At the first one, before the situation report, he was to report on the situation in Italy. At the second, immediately following the situation report, he was to bring Tassinari.
Wolff described his impressions of that day after the war. He recalled how they were driven by car to the innermost of the blocked circles. From there on, he “had to walk the 150 meters to Hitler’s barracks on foot, just like Göring.” The bodyguards greeted Wolff “respectfully and very properly”; some of them were former comrades of his even before 1933 in the elite formation of the SS, the “first and oldest SS Standarte 1 in Munich.”
Hitler’s valet Linge noted the beginning of the conversation with “O’gruf.
*
Wolff” at 12:25 p.m. Two hours earlier Hitler was still asleep; after rising he would take a fifteen minute walk in the woods, had breakfast and then confer with Reichsleiter Martin Bormann and the chief of staff
General Kurt Zietzler. Following Wolff and before the midday situation report, there was still a general on the waiting list. Lunch was to be served once Mussolini had arrived.
Wolff was pleased that Hitler immediately inquired about his health. As he remembered: “It was a nice conversation.” Wolff reported his experiences, told of the Italians rioting against the Fascists, said how they viewed the Germans only as unpopular occupying forces that would prolong the war. Therefore, a government must take over the responsibility for cooperation with Germany as soon as possible. Professor Tassinari, whom he had brought and knew as a man of honor, would be ready and could count on the respect of his fellow countrymen.
An hour later Wolff was sitting in Hitler’s office, this time together with Ribbentrop and Tassinari. The tall Italian obviously was pleasing; Hitler was charming. But faced with such friendliness, Tassinari forgot the advice he was given, and answered the question about his future ministers, not mentioning a single name from Mussolini’s old team. Hitler became impatient: perhaps this or that tried and tested man from the Party leadership deserved a seat in the cabinet, he inquired. It was not expressed as a demand, but Tassinari failed to pick up on that request. He ticked off the Fascist leaders one after the other saying how unreliable this one was, how greedy that one had been, and how malicious the third one had been in the past.
Hitler remained polite. He regretted that he had so little time that day for such an important discussion. In one hour, the Duce would arrive. Tassinari, who knew nothing of this, was ushered out with the request that he provide “very clear suggestions” in writing. To Wolff, Hitler said: “The man had a chance, but he didn’t seize it. He is simply not a politician.” However, he did not totally eliminate the professor. He gave Wolff the order: “Make sure that Tassinari stays here. Maybe he’s just stubborn because he’s holding on to a utopian ideal.” He could still use him as a potential rival.
A half hour later, on September 14, 1943, a Condor plane from headquarters in Munich landed at Rastenburg airport. As Hitler approached the door of the plane, the Highest SS and Police Führer in Italy, Karl Wolff, was following only two steps behind. The Duce must see his protector and guardian immediately as he got off the plane, both a trusted face and a warning at the same time. As the door opened, Mussolini stood on the steps, older, much thinner, pale, wearing a baggy suit, and an overcoat that was much too big for him. He was no longer the legendary “Man from
Rome,” the strongman with a muscular neck and the bronze bust resembling Caesar. He approached Hitler with open arms. Wolff heard how he said in German, “How can I thank you for all you have done for my family and me?” Wolff took part of that gratitude for himself. In Munich, but even more during the last few days he had helped bring the entire Mussolini family, including relatives by marriage, to safety in Germany. The full red carpet treatment, complete with the national anthem, the honor guard and presidential march customary during visits by Mussolini, was not used. Wolff knew why: “It would have meant that we had already recognized him as a head of state, before having even carried out our demands.”
The meal began at 3:00 p.m. and lasted two hours. In the evening, the same group sat together once more. In the meantime, at Hitler’s request, Wolff had brought the Duce together with Tassinari; the liberated dictator was supposed to notice that no one was dependent on him. The two Italians mistrusted one another and had nothing to say. As Hitler explained at the evening meal, acting completely innocently, he had Tassinari come because Mussolini might possibly want him as minister of agriculture, but the taciturn Duce refused. He said that such a stringent moralist reminiscent of the old Roman Cato would only created unnecessary difficulties for a government, especially in critical times.
It was not like Wolff to break off all ties with someone who could possibly be useful to him, even after a failure. He could still learn quite a few things about the Duce and his sidekicks from Tassinari. Therefore the SS general and the professor met every now and then later on, which was made easier since Tassinari owned a large estate on Lake Garda, very close to Wolff’s future office. During the last phase of the war, when private use of automobiles was forbidden (due to the lack of fuel), Wolff managed to get Tassinari permission to drive a small Fiat along with the necessary gasoline. But that favor actually was to be the cause of Tassinari’s death. A British fighter pilot shot up the tiny car on the river road along Lake Garda, killing the driver.
After the evening tea at Führer headquarters on September 14, “the Highest SS and Police Chief in Italy” should actually have returned to his viceroy kingdom to take power; however, the Duce was not quite ready for a return to his homeland. Wolff was once again expressly attached to him by “order of the Führer.” As of September 10, 1943, he was already appointed as “Special Advisor for Police Matters to the Italian Fascist National Government,” which did not exist at that point because Mussolini was still being held prisoner on the Gran Sasso. Even by mid-September,
there was not even a trace of such an entity, unless a pale version was identified in the aged and depressed former prime minister of the Kingdom of Italy. He represented the sad shadow of his former imperial splendor, but he was also the only possible source of legitimacy for the German policies unless Italy was declared an enemy. Wolff had to therefore protect the Duce from his many enemies (which without a doubt he had) and to keep watch that he didn’t turn away from his friends (who stood up for him).
First, however, Wolff had to find appropriate accommodations for the fallen dictator. On September 19, Mussolini and his wife Rachele moved into Hirschberg castle, in the foothills of the Alps, south of Lake Starnberg. It had been built before the First World War, and therefore offered some added comforts, but the new guests never felt comfortable. The weather was too cool and humid for them, they did not like the furnishings, the food was too German, the table service by SS orderlies too brisk, and the SS guard team was too loud and too obtrusive.
Nearby, in another town on Lake Starnberg, was Count Galeazzo Ciano, the former foreign minister, his wife Edda (Mussolini’s daughter), and their family. He had been one of the rebels within the Fascist Grand Council that had toppled his father-in-law, but because the revenge of the anti-Fascists threatened the couple, they had fled to the Reich, with the help of Wolff and the SD. They were much less inclined to accept the German situation than the Duce. Ciano, contrary to his father-in-law, had boarded the plane with a large amount of cash and precious objects. The couple was planning to emigrate to Argentina.