One of my Patreons, Santtu Mäenpää, said:
“Hey TIK! I like your show. My question is: ’What did Adolf Hitler and the National
Socialists think of the German nobility, monarchism in general and what was the relationship between
the NSDAP and the members of the former German Imperial Family?’ Many thanks and keep up
the good work!”
To answer this question, I will have to explain Hitler’s views on revolutions, because otherwise
Hitler’s views on the monarchy won’t make sense. So, to be clear, Hitler was not in
favour of the November 1918 revolution in Germany, which he called the “so-called
revolution”.
“Hardly ever in five years has so much been torn away from the German nation as in these
years of the so-called successful Revolution. We have been rendered defenseless: we are
without rights: we have become the pariahs of the world.”
He said that the State that was created out of the November 1918 revolution was, quote,
a “Jew’s Paradise”. And he also called it a “Soviet” revolution, where Soviet
flags were hoisted by “Soviet revolutionaries”.
“In November 1918, the Marxist organizations seized the executive power by means of a Revolution.
The monarchs were dethroned, the authorities of Reich and Länder removed from office,
and thus a breach of the Constitution was committed. The success of the revolution in
a material sense protected these criminals from the grips of justice.”
But some of you will be surprised to learn that Hitler was actually pro-revolution, calling
his own seizure of power a “National Revolution”.
“...the Government of the National Revolution aims to eliminate the afflictions from our
völkisch life which would, in future, continue to foil any real recovery.”
“The Government of the National Revolution basically regards it as its duty, in accordance
with the spirit of the Volk’s vote of confidence, to prevent the elements which consciously
and intentionally negate the life of the nation from exercising influence on its formation.”
“Rarely has the course of a revolution of such great magnitude run in such a disciplined
and unbloody manner as the Erhebung of the German Volk during these past weeks.”
In fact, Hitler wasn’t against the idea of the November 1918 revolution in principle.
“We National Socialists would not fight against this republic if it were simultaneously
the German Reich. We fight against this republic because this republic proved incapable of
again filling the Germans with pride at being a German. We would not fight against the outer
form if the content were worthy of the German people.”
As Zitelmann says:
“In contrast to most of his right-wing and conservative compatriots, he [Hitler] did
not mourn the passing of the monarchy and the old authoritarian state.”
Rather, he mourned that the “November Criminals” stole the November 1918 Revolution and merely
changed the government (like in a democracy) rather than conducting a true revolution.
“[It] was not a revolution, but a revolt by the Jews. Capitalism was to be destroyed,
today it marches stronger than ever.”
“While the term revolution had been selected for the revolt of 1918 [...] in the final
analysis it had merely been a change of government.”
So he was in favour of a revolution, just not the type of revolution that occurred in
1918. This was why he was in favour of setting up a republic, but not the Weimar Republic.
“I am not a monarchist, because I do not thirst for the kind of monarchs we have had.
We are in favour of a republic, but against a republic of black-marketeers.”
Thus, Hitler didn’t reject the 1918 revolution because it got rid of the monarchy. In fact,
he thought that getting rid of the monarchy was the one thing the November revolution
did right.
“Smashed, for example, was the monarchy. The German nation can live without it, it
will live better without it…”
“That’s why I’m grateful to Social Democracy for having swept away all these royalties.”
“This point of view, however, did not in any way prevent Hitler from extolling the
virtues of a monarchy if he thought this to be advantageous for tactical considerations,
as for example to Reichs President Hindenburg, to whom he held out the prospect of restoring
the German imperial crown at a later date.”
And the interesting part is, Hitler actually had the chance of restoring the monarchy in
1940. Anthony Beever writes:
“Hitler was both amused and exasperated when he received a telegram from the former
Kaiser Wilhelm II, still in his Dutch exile at Doorn. ‘My Führer,’ it read, ‘I
congratulate you and hope that under your marvellous leadership the German monarchy
will be restored completely.’ Hitler was amazed that the old Kaiser expected him to
play Bismarck. ‘What an idiot!’ he said to his valet, Linge.”
Some of Hitler’s contemporaries wanted to restore the monarchy (certainly the conservatives
in Germany did), but Hitler and the leaders of the National Socialist Party did not. Later
that year, Goebbels wrote in his diary:
“The Führer shows me a recent photograph of Kaiser Wilhelm. Taken in Doorn. Wearing
the Iron Cross 1st Class and a straw hat. Grotesque. Like an old Jew. He may well have
Jewish blood in his veins. This would explain his character and his carping criticisms.”
And Hitler had made clear in 1933 the reasons why the restoration of the monarchy was not
going to happen.
“In its measures, the National Government is guided by no other factor than preserving
the German Volk, and in particular the mass of millions making up its working populace,
from unutterable misery. Thus it views the matter of restoring the monarchy as out of
the question at present in light of the very existence of these circumstances. It would
be forced to regard any attempt to solve this problem on the part of the individual Länder
as an attack on the legal entity of the Reich and take respective action.”
Wilhelm II died in June 1941, days before the attack on the Soviet Union. Goebbels wasn’t
upset.
“Wilhelm II is dead... No one loved him or hated him. He deserved a far worse end.
But nevertheless, he is dead. He had far outlived his time.”
So, what did Hitler and the National Socialists think of the monarchy? They didn’t like
it, and they didn’t want to restore it. Instead, theirs was a new revolution, aimed
at establishing a new Republic, and a new order in Europe. Thanks for watching, bye
for now.