The Unmaking of Adolf Hitler

533 Pages·2004·27.43 MB·English

by  Eugene Davidson

THE
Unmaking
OF
ADOLF
HITLER

TH
è
Unmaking
OF
ADOLF
HITLER
Eugene Davidson
University of Missouri Press
Columbia and London
Copyright © 1996 by Eugene Davidson
University of Missouri Press, Columbia, Missouri 65201
Printed and bound in the United States of America
All rights reserved
First Paperback Printing 2004
5 4 3 2 1 08 07 06 05 04
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Davidson, Eugene, 1902-
The unmaking of Adolf Hitler / Eugene Davidson,
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 0-8262-1529-7 (alk. paper)
1. Hitler, Adolf, 1889-1945. 2. National socialism—Germany. 3. Germany—Politics
and government—1933-1945. 4. Heads of state—Germany—Biography. I. Title.
DD247.H5D384 1996
943.086—dc20 95-53092
CIP
0 tm xhis paper meets the requirements of the
American National Standard for Permanence of Paper
for Printed Library Materials, Z39.48,1984.
Designer: Kristie Lee
Typesetter: Bookcomp, Inc.
Printer and Binder: Thomson-Shore, Inc.
Typefaces: Miniona and Futura Condensed
Cover photographs are courtesy of Süddeutscher Verlag.
To the German Resistance

Acknowledgments ix
1. The Grasp for Power 1
2. Rohm: The Early Disenchanted 58
3. TJie Rising in Austria 86
4. President and Reichschancellor 104
5. Occupation of the Rhineland 123
6. The Saar and Rearmament 136
Contents
7. The Games of Peace 154
8. The Tarnished Generals: The Flower War 173
9. Without Firing a Shot 193
10. Negotiating against the Odds 220
11. The Agreement 285
12. The Crumbling of Munich 305
13. The March into Prague 328
14. The End of Appeasement 360
15. The War 393
16. The Last Bunker 421
Notes 455
Bibliography 489
Index 499

Acknowledgments
This book has taken a long time to put together; it was begun in
1977 when its predecessor, The Making of Adolf Hitler; was published. Maria
Abbadi typed the early chapters, some of them far removed from where they
were written, and her ability to decipher convoluted changes was uncanny. Evie
Sullivan has been responsible not only for typing the latter part of a similarly
cluttered manuscript but for checking sources and bibliographies and readying
the entire project in its final phases.
I am deeply indebted to the late Harold C. Deutsch for his critical read­
ing of the manuscript. Professor Deutsch generously provided me with the
hitherto unpublished text of his interview with the former German Foreign
Minister Richard von Kühlmann containing Kühlmann’s illuminating account
of how Hider dared take the enormous gamble of sending his token forces
into the Rhineland despite the overwhelming superiority of the French troops
confronting them.
Professor Robert H. Ferrell from the beginning has concerned himself with
forwarding the progress of the book. He has attentively read the entire typescript,
making many perspicacious suggestions for improvements, and taken endless
pains to expedite its publication.
I am most grateful to the Director and Editor in Chief of the University of
Missouri Press, Beverly Jarrett, for her abiding interest in the manuscript and
to the Press’s sharp-eyed editor Annette Wenda.