Heinrich Himmler : A Life (5 page)

In 1906 Heinrich started school at the cathedral school on Salvatorplatz in the city centre (and not at the school in Amalienstrasse which was the proper school for children from his district). Yet even here he was at first unlucky. Like his brother before him, in his first school year he missed a total of 150 school days through various infections such as coughs, measles, mumps, and above all pneumonia. With the help of a private tutor he caught up with the schoolwork he had missed,
²⁶
but the fact that his parents, and in particular his father, had high expectations of him may well have combined with the new family dynamic created by his younger brother to put him under pressure—the more so because, in spite of good marks, he did not do as well as his elder brother. Only when he moved to the school in Amalienstrasse did his situation seem to ease. Heinrich was a good pupil there and also made friends with some of his classmates.
²⁷

The long summer holidays, which the family mostly spent in the foothills of the Bavarian Alps, were undoubtedly the most exciting time of the year. There were visits to places of interest, walks, boat trips, and other leisure activities. In 1910, on holiday in Lenggries, his father gave Heinrich the task of keeping a diary about their stay that summer. He wrote the first entry himself to show his son what to do. He continued to read and correct the boy’s entries and saw to it that in the years following he wrote similar holiday diaries.
²⁸

It is hardly surprising that these holiday diaries resemble school exercises and basically do no more than list the activities. For instance, in 1911 Heinrich provided a running record of how many times he had gone swimming: the total was thirty-seven times.
²⁹
This terse recounting of the events of each day was something Heinrich continued with after his father had stopped checking the diaries. Paternal monitoring was replaced by self-monitoring.
³⁰

Ill.
1
. Gebhard and Anna Himmler (seated) with their three children, Heinrich (left), Ernst (middle), and Gebhard (right), in 1906.

In 1910 Heinrich moved to the Wilhelm Grammar School, where his father had taught up to 1902.
³¹
At this time the boy was slightly built and relatively short. He had a sickly constitution, he was frequently unwell, and his whole appearance was delicate. The spectacles he was obliged to wear all the time dominated his round, still decidedly childish face. His receding chin reinforced this impression.

When one of his former fellow pupils, Wolfgang Hallgarten (he had fled from the Nazis to the United States and meanwhile become one of the leading American historians of Germany), discovered decades later that the future ‘man of terror’ had actually been the classmate whom everyone called ‘Himmler’, he simply refused at first to believe the irrefutable fact. Too great was the contrast between the Reichsführer-SS and that ‘child of hardly average height, who was unusually pale and physically very awkward, with hair cut fairly short and even then a pair of gold-rimmed glasses on his slightly pointed nose’, and who was frequently seen with ‘a half-embarrassed, half-malicious smile on his face’. According to Hallgarten, Himmler had been a model pupil, liked by all the teachers; amongst the boys he had been regarded as a swot and been only moderately popular. Hallgarten had a particularly clear memory of the unhappy figure Himmler cut, much to the amusement of his fellows, in gymnastics. Hatred of the Jews, Hallgarten went on to say, was not something Himmler was at all associated with at that time; on the other hand, he said he remembered Heinrich’s radically anti-French outlook.
³²

In 1913 Professor Himmler took over as deputy head of the grammar school in Landshut. This enabled the family to move into a house with a garden.
³³
Fortunately a Munich friend, Falk Zipperer, also moved with his family to Landshut, where his stepfather, Ferdinand von Pracher, had become head of the district administration, from the Himmlers’ point of view an ideal family background for their son’s best friend. The friendship was to be lasting: in 1937, on the occasion of his friend’s wedding, Himmler gave a lunch party;
³⁴
in 1938 he accepted him into the SS, and in 1940 Zipperer, who had in the meantime gained his second doctorate in legal history, published an essay in a Festschrift for Himmler’s fortieth birthday.
³⁵
In 1944, when Himmler was getting ready for his last Christmas, Zipperer’s wife, Liselotte, was noted down for a present.
³⁶

Another friendship that lasted to the end of the Second World War was with Karl Gebhard, three years older than Himmler. The two boys met in Landshut. Gebhard became a doctor and was later director of a sanatorium in Hohenlychen in the Berlin area that, as we shall see, was to play a special role in Himmler’s life.
³⁷
Heinrich also remained friends with Edi and Luisa Hager, whose father was a senior museums and galleries administrator.
³⁸
On this evidence Heinrich was not at all a lone wolf, even if his classmates may have considered him a model pupil, a swot, and a weakling. His attainments during his time at school in Landshut, which lasted until 1919, were in fact above average. In religious education and history he was always graded ‘very good’ and in languages he was judged ‘very good’ to ‘good’; his weakest subject was physics, for which one year he was given only ‘satisfactory’. A school report from 1913/14 reads: ‘An apparently very able student who by tireless hard work, burning ambition and very lively participation achieved the best results in the class. His conduct was exemplary.’
³⁹

Into this well-ordered world, just as the family was enjoying the summer of 1914 in picturesque Tittmoning on the German—Austrian border, burst the news of the crisis precipitated by the murder of the heir to the Austrian throne on 28 June in Sarajevo, which culminated in the outbreak of the First World War.

Heinrich’s diary entries, in which the alarming news is recorded alongside the usual notes on his everyday activities, reflect the atmosphere of these decisive days and the sudden termination of the holiday idyll. For 29 July we read: ‘Gebhard’s birthday.
Outbreak of war between Austria and Serbia
. Excursion to Lake Waging.’ The announcement of the outbreak of war is underlined in red. The entries for the next two days, which clearly concerned the programme of activities, are rubbed out and over the top, again in red, is written the sentence: ‘
Proclamation of a state of war
’. And now political and military events moved centre stage:

1. VIII.
Germany mobilizes
2nd army corps. Even the Landsturm [territorials].

2. VIII. Played in the garden in the morning. Afternoon as well. 7.30
Germany declares war on Russia
.

3. VIII.
Attacks on the French and Russian borders. Planes and spies.
We are packing up right away.

The Himmlers hurried back to Landshut. The abrupt end to the holiday was to mark the end of an era.

From now on military events, which at first went very well for Germany, dominate Heinrich’s diary entries; for example, the entry for 23 August:

German Crown Prince’s victory north of Metz (Longeville). Prince Heinrich wrote to father. During the attack on the French dragoons he was slightly wounded. Germany gives a dignified response to Japan’s ultimatum. Germans in Ghent. Played the piano. [ . . . ] The Bavarians are said to have been very brave in yesterday’s battle. In particular our 16ers are supposed to have put up an excellent fight with their bayonets. There are flags out all over town. The French and Belgians must have been surprised to be beaten so quickly. Territorial 1st Regiment has been called up. Namur is besieged. 8000 Russians taken prisoner at Gumbinnen.

And the next day he noted with excitement:

Pursuing the French has brought the army of the Bavarian Crown Prince rich pickings (prisoners, standards, and 150 guns). The 21st army corps has marched into Luneville. The Crown Prince’s army is also still pursuing the enemy (advancing towards Longwy). Duke Albrecht of Württemberg beat a French army that was advancing across the Semois. The enemy is pursued and booty taken: Prisoners, generals, guns, standards. Our troops advance to the west of the Meuse towards Maubeuge. An English cavalry brigade is there and is beaten, really beaten! Hurray!

Every day he went to the offices of the local newspaper, where the latest news telegrams were displayed:

27. VIII. [ . . . ] Afternoon, went to see the telegrams. Prince Luitpold of Bavaria, the heir to the throne, has died of a throat infection in Berchtesgaden. The light cruiser, the Magdeburg, ran aground in fog at Odensholm [Osmussaar] in the Gulf of Finnland and could not be refloated. [ . . . ] The cruiser was scuttled. 85 men are missing, some are dead or wounded, another was picked up by a German torpedo boat. The worried philistines of Landshut are now hanging their heads, spreading dreadful rumours, and fearing that they will be massacred by the Cossacks. Today the first sizeable list of Bavarian army casualties was published.

28. VIII. [ . . . ] English army beaten.. [ . . . ] Now we are making terrific progress. I’m as happy at these victories as the English and French are no doubt annoyed at them, and the annoyance will be considerable. Falk and I would really like to fight right now ourselves. It’s clear that the good old Germans and their loyal allies the Austrians are not afraid of a world full of enemies.

Seemingly those around him did not share that view to the same extent, as he records in a critical tone on 27 August: ‘Generally speaking there is no particular enthusiasm in Lower Bavaria among the people at home. When the mobilization was announced in the old town everyone apparently started blubbing. I would have expected that least of all of the Lower Bavarians. They are usually so ready for a fight. A wounded soldier says the same. Often really dreadful and stupid rumours go round, all invented by people.’

On 6 September he noted that the people of Landshut were ‘as mindless and fearful as ever. When they heard, as they thought, the news of the troops’ retreat near Paris they all got diarrhoea and their hearts went into their boots. It’s terrible how rumours fly about.’

On 30 August he observed, with contempt for the people in the town and compassion for the enemy captives, how a transport of French wounded was cared for at the station: ‘The whole station was full of inquisitive Landshuters who became abusive and even violent when the seriously wounded French soldiers (who must be worse off than our wounded, because they’re prisoners) were given water and bread.’ He clearly regarded the Russians somewhat differently, as an entry from 4 September reveals: ‘There are 90,000 Russians captured in East Prussia, not 70,000. (They multiply like vermin.)’

In spite of the war the Himmlers went on a summer holiday as usual in 1915, this time to Burghausen. Their arrival at the station in Mühldorf revived Heinrich’s memories of the start of the war a year before. Although the jubilant patriotism of the first phase of the war was now over, he could not help having vivid recollections of the previous summer, ‘when we stood at about the same time on the platform, doing army drill. It was 6 August when we came back from Tittmoning. A few days later they went off cheerfully to war. How many of them are alive today?’
⁴⁰

Everything connected with war and the military fascinated him. When in September 1915 his brother, who was two years older, had the opportunity to accompany his parents on a visit to wounded soldiers Heinrich acknowledged in his diary how much he envied him.
⁴¹
At the beginning of 1915 the Army Reserve (
Landwehr
) had created trenches and dugouts that Heinrich’s class went to see. Heinrich was impressed: They are sketched and described in his diary.
⁴²

In July 1915 his brother Gebhard reached the age of 17 and joined the Territorials (
Landsturm
) and so could be counted as belonging to the military reserve. Heinrich commented longingly: ‘If only I were old enough, I’d be
out there like a shot.’
⁴³
But as he was 14 at the outbreak of war Himmler was part of the so-called war youth generation: too young to be sent to the front as soldiers and yet old enough to follow the military and political events closely from the start, and also marked by the experience of having endured all the phases of the war as a collective national effort.
⁴⁴

In the early phase of the war in particular Heinrich and his friends tried to create through play some kind of access to the ‘normality’ of the war, which was to last for four years.
⁴⁵
Sometimes in his diary the boundaries between war as a game and the real war become blurred: ‘Played in the garden with Falk. 1000 Russians captured by our troops east of the Vistula. Austrians advance’, he noted on 26 August 1914. Three days later: ‘Played at sword-fighting with Falk. This time with 40 army corps and Russia, France and Belgium against Germany and Austria. The game is very interesting. Victory over the Russians in East Prussia (50,000 prisoners).’