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Many German aristocrats supported Hitler because they thought they had similar interests

2021-02-20T15:43:32.587Z


The German nobility had excellent relations with National Socialism. This is not least due to a misunderstanding: aristocrats believed their interests were in good hands with a party that spoke for "blood and soil".


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The new Chancellor Adolf Hitler greets President Paul von Hindenburg before the state ceremony in the Potsdam Garrison Church on March 21, 1933

Photo: A0001 UPI / dpa

And it happened in 1760, during the Seven Years' War, that the old Fritz had the award-winning commander of an elite regiment brought the order to demolish and plunder the Saxon Hubertusburg Palace.

But then and for once the good Johann Friedrich Adolf von der Marwitz resisted the order of his king.

The marauding: It's not his business.

Said it, turned away and withdrew to his estates.

After his death in 1781 a nephew had the words chiseled on the tombstone: "Chose disgrace where obedience did not bring honor".

The German historian Stephan Malinowski tells this anecdote in his book "Nazis and Nobility" (Oxford University Press, 2020).

Malinowski teaches in Edinburgh, which may explain why his book was first published in English and will only appear in German in a few months.

In reality, according to Malinowski, the person who refused to obey had to pay little.

Hubertusburg had been looted by others;

There are indications in the archives that von der Marwitz then won some of the loot while playing cards.

But that was just the coda of brave deeds.

It all came down to the gesture, which is why this story has since been told up and down in noble houses.

Franziska Augstein, arrow to the right

Photo: 

Michael Gottschalk / imago images / photothek

Studied history, philosophy and political science in Berlin, Bielefeld and Sussex and received her doctorate from University College London with a thesis on early race theories.

She worked as a journalist for the “Zeit” magazine, the “Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung” and the “Süddeutsche Zeitung”.

In 2000 she was awarded the Theodor Wolff Prize for an essay on Martin Walser.

You can find selected articles and speeches since 1999 to date on their website www.augstein.org.

Malinowski tells this anecdote as an example of the tendency of German aristocrats to glorify the past.

The class has always tended to climb up on models and to relate to itself what this or that ancestor once accomplished.

(This certainly applies to aristocrats from other countries as well, but that's not the point here.) The stylization and idealization of ancestors can spruce up one's self-image.

And why not?

Well, as Malinowski points out, the kind of conceit fed with it could provide the cotton wool with which the pointed stone-paved paths to collaboration with the Nazis were softened.

It goes without saying that you cannot lump all German aristocrats with the same brush.

Malinowski is well aware of this.

Because he worked sociologically and sought to quantify, he focused his research on three groups of German aristocrats: the "poor" who had lost their jobs and livelihoods after the lost war in 1918;

the wealthy Prussian landowners;

the rich southern German princely houses, which emerged from the First World War - apart from the dead family members - pretty unscathed.

Malinowski's book is based on his study, which he published for the first time in 2003 and has since brought it up to date several times.

It goes without saying that you cannot lump all German aristocrats with the same brush.

The Versailles peace treaties forbade the Weimar Republic to maintain a fully equipped standing army.

Many aristocrats lost their comfortable officer's career as a result.

In the republic, too, there were no circles in which it was a foregone conclusion that less well-to-do aristocrats should have a livelihood.

The people were on their own.

As modern people, they sought new advocates.

But because they were extremely conservative at the same time, many decided to turn to the National Socialists: They spoke of "blood and soil";

who found women thrive at home;

they spoke of "nation" and "fatherland", of "loyalty" and "honor".

This was compatible with the traditional tales of the aristocrats.

Many nobles struggling for their livelihoods joined the NSDAP before Hitler was elected Chancellor in 1933.

As far as the big houses are concerned, things are a bit more crooked.

Manners were upheld there.

Hitler, the SA, and the SS had no manners;

Reports of SA men beating unarmed people half to death in the street did not go down well.

In southern German princely houses one could afford to have an opinion: Hitler was a parvenu;

he spat on Catholicism;

he wasn't welcome.

Regardless of this, there were of course also Bavarian aristocrats who ingratiated themselves with the NSDAP at an early stage or who then quickly became members of the NSDAP after Hitler was elected Chancellor in 1933 - to be on the safe side.

The majority of the southern German aristocracy was admittedly less guilty than the lordly East Elbe aristocracy, who tried to preserve their thousands of hectares of land.

Many members of the Prussian aristocracy served the Hitler regime, even if their descendants do not want to admit it today.

Many files of the National Socialists have been lost, others are under lock and key.

For a long time, aristocrats believed that they could "ride" Hitler, tame him.

In addition, they did not believe in socialists, communists, Jews or other citizens either.

Today everyone who was involved in the unsuccessful assassination attempt on Hitler on July 20, 1944, and many of whom were subsequently executed, is highly honored.

That is good and right.

What is forgotten is that most of the aristocratic Nazi officers involved were neither republican nor democratic.

They were permeated with the idea of ​​being born to rule.

The men were brave and brave.

However, it was not their plan that after a successful assassination a democracy like the one we have today would be established;

rather, there were ideas of a class society in which the aristocrats had the upper hand.

Stephan Malinowski describes the situation in the 1930s and 1940s with ruthless accuracy.

For a long time, aristocrats believed that they could "ride" Hitler, tame him.

In addition, they did not believe in socialists, communists, Jews or other citizens either.

So you participated.

They also participated at the beginning of World War II as officers in the field.

The Nazi idea that there were "subhumans" - Jews, Poles, Russians and others - did not bother as long as Nazi Germany was on the advance.

It was only after the Battle of Stalingrad in the winter of 1942 to 1943, when the defeat of the German Reich in this great war was foreseeable, that the network of resistance was firmly established.

The Nazi leadership liked to use the aristocracy: Abroad, the Nazis wanted to be respectable at first.

We were grateful for the advocacy of the internationally networked German aristocrats who, when visiting other countries, declared that Adolf Hitler was a decent politician.

However - the irony of history brings it with it - it was also the aristocratic networks that made it possible to build up the resistance in the first place.

Noble women and men who came "from the box" had a relationship of trust with one another that lay beyond politics.

This made it possible to keep the plans for a new Germany secret.

There was no babbling in the wrong place, to the wrong person.

Quite a few of the assassins on July 20 initially turned to National Socialism, Malinowski writes.

After all, it is not so much their morals that have made their way, but rather a guilty conscience in view of the horrors that have taken place under their aegis in the war.

Stephan Malinowski wrote his book very carefully.

The House of Hohenzollern wants restitutions from the Federal Republic on an enormous scale.

Malinowski was called in as an expert and was then sued.

Despite all the expropriations, the Hohenzollern House seems to be able to make payments to its lawyers.

I will soon dedicate myself to the Hohenzollern and their Scharwenzeln with the Nazis.

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Source: spiegel

All news articles on 2021-02-20

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