Living in the Nazi Utopia
 |
| Thomas Mann |
In January
1933 the Nazi Party, through a series of deals with conservative politicians,
came to power. The machinations and back room dealings had required little SS
involvement during the latter part of 1932, although Himmler was party to some
of the discussions in January.
In February
1933 Heydrich was sent as a delegate to the International Disarmament
conference in Geneva, with Freidrich-Wilhem
Kruger, an SA member. There he behaved in such an unprofessional manner
that the German Ambassador to the conference, Nadolny, filed a complaint.
On his
return Himmler put Heydrich in charge of investigating Thomas Mann, one of
Germany’s premier authors. Mann left Germany for the relative safety of
Switzerland the same month[i]. Safely abroad Mann
suggested that Heydrich should be committed to the concentration camp at
Dachau, which had passed into SS control in April, as the head of an
‘Un-German, pro-Marxist,
pro-Jewish and anti-Nationalist movement.’[ii]
The killings
of Jews at Dachau began the very next day after control passed to the SS.
The
Machtergreifung[iii]
did not change Lina’s life except that her husband was seconded to Berlin by
Himmler. It was not until 5th March that Heydrich returned to Munich
with the news of their move to Berlin, where they were to have a villa in
Charlottenberg; Heydrich was setting up an SD central HQ.
That move
never happened as on 9th March 1933 the Nazis took control of the
Bavarian government and Himmler was appointed provisional Police President of
Bavaria. The post was then handed to another Nazi old fighter and the following
week Himmler was given control of the Bavarian political police. This was the
first appointment in his rise to take over control of all the security
apparatus in the Nazi state.
Over the
next few months Himmler, with Heydrich in his wake collected control of the
political police in all the Lander, until only one prize remained; the Prussian
Gestapo, created and lovingly cherished by Hermann
Goring, second only to Hitler in power.
On 17th
June 1933 Lina gave birth to her first child Klaus; his Godfathers were Ernst
Rohm; head of the SA and Heinrich Himmler, head of the SS.
Ernst Rohm
Himmler had
always resented the subordination of his SS (and to a very large degree the SS
known to history was his creation) to the SA. Immediately prior to Rohm’s
return to Germany Himmler had announced the separation of the SS from the SA;
an announcement that was contradicted by Rohm in an SA order in January 1931 This
humiliation was swallowed by Himmler, but probably never forgiven.
Rohm’s
attempted to ignore Hitler’s continued messages in July and August 1933 that
there was to be no more talk of a ‘second revolution’[iv] following the ‘Nazification’
of government and social groupings and clubs.
'This army of the political
soldiers of the German revolution has no wish to take the place of our Army or
to enter into competition with it[v]……….I
will suppress every attempt to disturb the existing order as ruthlessly as I
will deal with the so-called second revolution.'[vi]
Rohm had
made enemies on the way to power, a homosexual in a party where homosexuals
were seen as degenerate, and on 1st December 1933, when he was made
Minister without Portfolio[vii], the most potent of his
enemies was drawn into Himmler and Heydrich’s orbit. 
Hitler and Goering with Goebbels and Hess
Hermann
Goering schemed with Himmler and Heydrich for months before Hitler forced
Goering to give up one of his most treasured creations; the Prussian Gestapo.
He did not entirely relinquish his hold over it, retaining oversight for
several months. On 20th April 1934 Himmler was given de facto
control and made Heydrich chief of the Gestapo. A newspaper comment of the time
showed the way the wind was blowing
‘The nomination of the
Reichsfuhrer-SS to replace Diels[viii]………..doubtlessly
indicates a sharper course for the Gestapo, becoming ever more political.’[ix]
Throughout
the first half of 1934 Goering and Himmler’s men were searching for evidence to
show that Rohm was planning to overthrow Hitler. There was plenty of evidence
of his ‘degeneracy’ of which Hitler was well aware. When it suited him Hitler
was extremely broadminded[x]; it was the threat of the
second revolution that he feared. By the end of June Goering and Himmler seem
to have persuaded him to act and on the 30th June the SA was
emasculated; Rohm and many of its leaders killed then and on the days
following.
On 20th
July Himmler was given his reward for the actions of his men; the SS was made
directly responsible to Hitler. By now the SS was not only enlarging its
concentration camp empire and the security side overseen by Heydrich. The SS
also provided protection for Hitler under the leadership of Sepp Dietrich, another
altekampfer[xi].
Expansion of this side of the SS was ultimately to lead to the Waffen SS;
Himmler’s answer to the Wehrmacht.
The SS Triumphant
The takeover
of the Gestapo by the SS meant a move for Himmler[xii] and Heydrich family to
Berlin. Lina and Reinhard’s second child Heider was born on 23rd
December 1934 and by early the following year Lina and Reinhard played host to
Himmler at a ceremony on Fehmarn for the laying of the foundations for their
new holiday home. Heydrich had obtained a mortgage of 35,000 Reichsmarks. 
Wilhelm Canaris
In January
1935 a new head of the Abwehr[xiii] took over his post, Admiral Canaris. His
predecessor had been harried out of his post by a litany of complaints from
Heydrich and Himmler and it is possible that Canaris, with whom Heydrich was on
friendly terms, was selected to propitiate the rising stars on the security
front.
Himmler and
Heydrich were opposites attracting and repelling each other at the same time.
Heydrich made fun of Himmler’s fascination with the occult and myths and
legends (although not to his face) and Himmler decried Heydrich’s ‘cold
rational censoriousness.’ He would however allow no other criticism of Heydrich
save from himself or Hitler. When his sister-in-law took it upon herself to decry
Heydrich’s abilities in the spring of 1936; an incensed Himmler wrote to her,
forbidding her to enter SS property;
‘I hear you have been to our
offices again making tactless and pig-stupid remarks……in future you will
refrain from making any remarks about SS affairs and personalities.’[xiv]
The
relationship between Lina and Marga Himmler descended into acrimony that year
as did Lina’s relationship with her husband’s boss. At the beginning of 1936
Lina stopped attending Marga’s SS wives coffee afternoon and set up opposition
tea afternoons; at one of which she called the Reichsfuhrer’s wife an old goat.
This did not
go down well, anymore than her crude comments about the size of Frau Himmler’s
underwear. A lonely Marga Himmler had taken to comfort eating in the very
frequent absences of her husband, who now lived full-time in Berlin, while she
and Gudrun stayed in Gmund for most of the time. Never an attractive woman at
the best of times, Marga was now very fat.
Himmler visits Dachau KZL
On 17th
June Himmler was made Chief of the German Police, just a few weeks before the
Olympics. The work of infiltrating the police by the SS now began in earnest.
Heydrich was given control of all the security police and complete control over
the committal to and release from the concentration camps[xv].
Sometime in
the summer, angered by her treatment of his wife, Himmler arranged for Lina to
attend Kiel regatta with the wife of another senior SS officer. While she was
away Himmler demanded that Heydrich divorce his wife, apparently screaming at
Heydrich
‘You’ve got to get rid of
Lina, I insist that you divorce her. How can you expect to control the Gestapo
if you can’t control your own wife?’[xvi]
On being
informed of Himmler’s demand Lina immediately returned from Kiel. The next
meeting between Himmler and his subordinate’s wife took place at a grand party
organised by Hermann and Emmy
Goering, as part of the Olympics celebrations. Emmy paired off Himmler and
Lina who argued bitterly about the divorce, until Lina was rescued by her
husband. Lina and Himmler did not speak again until May 1942.
Bibliography
Hitler –
Alan Bullock, Penguin Books 1990
Heydrich –
Mario R Dederichs, Greenhill Books 2006
Heydrich –
Gunther Deschner, Orbis Publishing 1981
The Face of
the Third Reich – Joachim Fest, Pelican Books 1972
The Life and
Times of Reinhard Heydrich – GS Graber, Robert Hale 1981
Heinrich
Himmler – Peter Longerich, Oxford University Press 2012
The Killing
of Reinhard Heydrich – Callum MacDonald, Da Capo Press 1998
The Rise and
Fall of the Third Reich – William L Shirer, Bookclub Associates 1985
Heydrich –
Charles Wighton, Chilton Company 1962
Reinhard
Heydrich Volume 1 & 2 – Max Williams. Ulric Publishing 2001 & 2003
www.wikipedia.en[i] From where he was able to speak out against the regime
[ii]
Heydrich - Dederichs
[iii]
Seizure of power
[iv]
Emphasising the social side of National Socialism and fervently supported by
many in the SA, now numbering millions, including Rohm
[v]
Hitler - Bullock
[vi]
The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich - Shirer
[vii]
He had wanted to be Minister of Defence
[viii]
Former head of Gestapo and a relative of Goering’s.
[ix]
Heydrich - Dederichs
[x]
There are numerous instances of senior Nazis who were part Jewish, or
homosexual or ‘suffering’ from other
[xi]
Old Fighter
[xii]
Frau Himmler and her daughter stayed in Gmund, where the Himmlers had moved
after selling their property at Waldtrudering
[xiii]
German military intelligence
[xiv]
Heydrich - Dederichs
[xv]
Eager to extend his power Heydrich attempted to take over control of the
concentration camps, worrying Theodor Eicke, who was chief of the camp empire.
Heydrich, as in the navy, did not make many friends amongst his peers.
[xvi]
Heydrich - Wighton
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