Heinrich Himmler : A Life (13 page)

It would be quite wrong, on the basis of this political constellation, to interpret Himmler’s radicalization as a break with the conservative views of his parents, an interpretation which is put forward, for example, in Andersch’s account of Himmler’s father as a schoolmaster, ‘The Father of a Murderer’. For, during these months, many Bavarian conservatives tended to contemplate radical political solutions. This undermines the argument that Himmler’s involvement with the radical Right should be understood as a rebellion against his parents. It is clear from his diary, for example, that initially father and son attended political meetings together.

On 14 June they attended a meeting of the ‘German Emergency League against the Disgrace of the Blacks’ in the Zirkuskrone hall. The League attacked the deployment of French colonial soldiers in the occupied Rhine-land, which was denounced as a national humiliation. According to the report in the newspaper
Münchner Neueste Nachrichten
, the main speaker, Privy Councillor Dr Stehle, described ‘the occupation of the Rhineland by coloureds as a bestially conceived crime that aims to crush us as a race and finally destroy us’. After the meeting the excited crowd began a protest march, which was dispersed by the police.
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Himmler noted in his diary: ‘Quite a lot of people. All shouted: “Revenge”. Very impressive. But I’ve already taken part in more enjoyable and more exciting events of this kind.’

On the following day he held forth in a pub, once again accompanied by his father. His diary entry conveys a good impression of the topics that were
covered that evening: ‘Talked with the landlord’s family, solid types of the old sort, about the past, the war, the Revolution, the Jews, the hate campaign against officers, the revolutionary period in Bavaria, the liberation, the present situation, meat prices, increasing economic hardship, desire for the return of the monarchy and a future, economic distress, unemployment, struggle, occupation, war.’ His father and his old acquaintance Kastl shared the view, as did many of the Munich middle class, that they were facing big changes and a major political settling of accounts. ‘Father had spoken to Dr. Kastl, who shared these views. Once the first pebble starts to roll then everything will follow like an avalanche. Any day now, we may be confronted with great events.’

A few days later, in the wake of the attack on Rathenau, the political situation became critical. Himmler fully supported the murder: ‘Rathenau’s been shot. I’m glad. Uncle Ernst is too. He was a scoundrel, but an able one, otherwise we would never have got rid of him. I’m convinced that what he did he didn’t do for Germany.’
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However, two days after the assassination Himmler was no doubt astonished to discover that among his circle he was almost alone in holding this opinion. ‘Meal. The majority condemned the murder. Rathenau is a martyr. Oh blinded nation!’
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‘Käthe hasn’t got a good word to say about the right-wing parties’, while his father was ‘concerned about the political situation’.
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On the following Saturday he met an acquaintance at the Loritzes and had ‘an unpleasant conversation [ . . . ] about Rathenau and suchlike (What a great man he was. Anyone who belonged to a secret organization—death penalty.) The women of course were shocked. Home.’
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On 28 June he took part in a demonstration in the Königsplatz against the ‘war guilt lie’. It was a big protest meeting ‘against the Allied powers and the Versailles Treaty’. He was evidently disappointed by the indecisive stance of his fraternity: ‘Of course our club was useless; we went with the Technical University. The whole of the Königsplatz was jam-packed, definitely more than 60,000 people. A nice dignified occasion without any violence or rash acts. A boy held up a black, red, and white flag (the police captain didn’t see it; it carries a three-month prison sentence). We sang the “Watch on the Rhine”, “O Noble Germany”, the “Flag Song”, the “Musketeer”, etc.–it was terrific. Home again. Had tea.’

The following day—five days after the assassination—he confided secretively to his diary: ‘The identity of Rathenau’s murderers is known—the C Organization. Awful if it all comes out.’ The Consul Organization,
which carried out paramilitary activities from its Munich base with the support of the Bavarian government, belonged to the same milieu in which Himmler now felt relatively confident through his membership of the Freiweg Rifle Club and his acquaintanceship with Ernst Röhm (the central figure in these circles) and other officers. While staying with his parents in Ingolstadt at the beginning of June Himmler had already learned details through an acquaintance of secret rearmament activities in Bavaria: ‘Willi Wagner told us various things about what’s going on etc. (training, weapon smuggling).’
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Evidently such information was quite freely available in ‘nationalist’ circles. However, it can no longer be established whether Himmler knew more than the rumours that were circulating among his acquaintances.

On 3 July he had nothing but contempt for ‘a meeting of the democratic students with the Reich Republican League to protest against the Black-White-Red terror in the Munich institutions of higher education’, which his former classmate Wolfgang Hallgarten had helped organize. In his view there could be no talk of terror. When, a few days later, he visited Health Councillor Dr Kastl, at the request of his father, he learnt that ‘I’ve been asked to collect signatures for a Reich Black-White-Red League to support a campaign for the reintroduction of the black, white, and red flag. Agreed of course. Home. Dinner.’
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He immediately began eagerly to collect signatures from among his large circle of acquaintances, not only from his fellow students but also from members of the Freiweg Rifle Club: ‘8 o’clock Arzbergkeller. “Freiweg” evening. Collected moderate number of signatures.’ But there was more going on that evening, as he added, once again in a secretive manner: ‘Talked about various things with Lieutenants Harrach and Obermeier and offered my services for special tasks.’
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In Himmler’s view, the decisive confrontation with the Republican forces appeared to be imminent, and he had the impression that he was going to play an important role in it.

On 17 June Himmler’s duel finally took place, the long-awaited initiation ceremony of his duelling fraternity. His diary states:

I invited Alphons. Mine was the third duel. I wasn’t at all excited. I stood my ground well and my fencing technique was good. My opponent was Herr Senner from the Alemanni fraternity. He kept playing tricks. I was cut five times, as I discovered later. I was taken out after the thirteenth bout. Old boy Herr Reichl from Passau put in the stitches, 5 stitches, 1 bandage. I didn’t even flinch. Distl stood by me as an old comrade. My mentor, Fasching, came to my duel specially.
Klement Kiermeier, Alemannia, from Fridolfing had brought Sepp Haartan, Bader, and Jäger along with him. I also watched Brunner’s duel. Naturally my head ached.

Himmler’s father, from whom he had expected a dressing-down because of the fresh wounds in his face, reacted calmly: ‘Went to see father. Daddy laughed and was relaxed about it.’
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Himmler’s radicalization must have been encouraged by the fact that, as will have become clear to him in the course of these months, his plans for the future were built on sand. His hopes of a career as an officer were misplaced, and the alternative of completing a degree in politics (
Staatswissenschaften
) was to prove equally illusory. Himmler had already applied to the Politics faculty of Munich University in May 1922. In June 1922 he received the news from the dean that his previous agricultural studies would count towards his degree and that he would be exempted from paying student fees. This appeared to ensure the continuation of his student life in Munich: ‘So I can stay here for the winter semester, that’s marvellous, and my parents will be pleased.’
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Himmler’s father was initially fully in agreement with his son’s continuing his studies, but warned him not to get further involved with his fraternity, but to concentrate entirely on work. ‘Next year I’m supposed to devote myself solely to scholarship.’
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He had already discussed plans for a doctorate some months before.
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Dr Heinrich Himmler—this achievement, with his agricultural studies properly integrated into an academic education, would fulfil his parents’ expectations of him.

However, in September 1922 Himmler was not preparing for the new semester but instead found himself in a badly paid office-job. It is not clear exactly what led to his change of mind. But between June and September he must have experienced a profound sense of disillusionment. This was probably caused by the awareness—presumably communicated in the first instance by his father—that in a time of galloping inflation the Himmlers’ family income was insufficient to pay for all three sons to study simultaneously.
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In fact, in the early summer of 1922 inflation reached a critical stage. The cost of living had steadily increased since the previous summer: in June 1921—after a year of relative stability—it had been eleven times higher than before the war. Now, in June 1922, it had already gone up to forty times the pre-war level: ‘200 grams of sausage now costs RM 9. That’s terrible. Where’s it all going to end?’
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Himmler noted in his diary. But that was
to be by no means the highest point of the inflation. Prices doubled between June and August 1922 and between August and December they tripled again.
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Civil-service salaries could not keep pace with these price-rises. Although they had been continually increased since 1918, this had been done so slowly that these increases could cover only around 25–40 per cent of the continually rising cost of living.
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Even if it is assumed that a bourgeois family, such as that of grammar-school headmaster Himmler, could make savings in its living expenses and could fall back on financial reserves, such reserves would eventually be exhausted. After years of inflation they would be getting close to the poverty line.

In 1922 the Himmler family had evidently reached that point, and his parents had to make it clear to their son Heinrich that they had exhausted their ability to finance his studies.
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As a result, Himmler lost the sense of material security and freedom from worries that had characterized his life up until then. His parents no longer appeared to offer him the secure support on which he could always count if his expansive and nebulous plans should fail. The university was no longer the waiting-room in which one could comfortably mark time until the hoped-for clarification of the political situation, in the company of a circle of like-minded people. Instead, agriculture would have to become the basis for his employment, and that in the most difficult economic circumstances. Evidently it was only at this point, in the summer of 1922, that the reality of post-war Germany finally caught up with the young Himmler. Until then, in his plans for the future he had taken no account either of the political circumstances or of economic parameters, but instead had indulged in vague illusions.

Now the dreaming was over. It was time for the 22-year-old to find his bearings. He took his final exams at the end of the summer semester of 1922. The overall grade of his agricultural diploma was ‘good’.
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He was relatively successful in his search for a post. He was appointed assistant administrator in an artificial fertilizer factory, the Stickstoff-Land-GmbH in Schleissheim near Munich. Once again he had benefited from family connections: the brother of a former colleague of his father’s had a senior position in the factory.
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He remained in this job from 1 September 1922 until the end of September 1923. According to his reference from the firm, during this period he had ‘taken an active part particularly in the setting up and assessment of various basic fertilization experiments’.
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Unfortunately we do not know how Himmler felt about this activity, how he organized his new life, and why he left the firm after a year, because no diaries have survived for the period from the beginning of July 1922 until February 1924. That is all the more unfortunate because it was precisely during this period that the event occurred that was to prompt his fundamental decision to make politics his profession: his participation in the putsch attempt of November 1923.

In the summer of 1923 the Weimar Republic stumbled into the most serious crisis it had faced hitherto. In January France had used the excuse of delays in Germany’s delivery of reparations to occupy the Ruhr, prompting the Reich government under Wilhelm Cuno to call upon the local population to carry out passive resistance. There were strikes and a loss of production, the Ruhr was economically isolated, and the depreciation of the Reichsmark, which had already reached catastrophic proportions, went completely out of control. In August a new Reich government was formed under Gustav Stresemann, which included the German People’s Party (DVP), the Centre Party, the German Democratic Party (DDP), and the Social Democratic Party (SPD) in a grand coalition. On 24 September the Stresemann government ceased the passive resistance against the Ruhr occupation.
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While, since the autumn, the Socialist governments in Thuringia and Saxony had been cooperating ever more closely with the Communist Party (KPD) and had begun to establish armed units, in Bavaria the seriousness of the crisis resulted in a further radicalization of the Right. In September 1923 the Storm Troop (SA) of the Nazi Party, the Free Corps unit Oberland, and the Reichsflagge, the paramilitary league led by Röhm, of which Himmler had in the meantime become a member, established the Deutsche Kampfbund or German Combat League. At the end of the month Röhm succeeded in securing the leadership of this formation for Hitler. However, behind the scenes the real strong-man was General Erich Ludendorff, the former Quartermaster-General of the imperial army and head of the Supreme Army Command.