Burning the Reichstag (59 page)

Professor Karl Stephan and Dr. Peter Schildhauer, whose work has contributed so much to understanding the technical side of this story, answered my poor historian's questions about the mysteries of fire, and very kindly took the time to read the relevant draft sections of this book. Professor Lothar Weber kindly answered my questions about phosphorus.

Funding for a good number of journeys to distant archives, and for a two-year sabbatical from my teaching duties from 2009–2011 during which time I did most of the heavy lifting for this book, came from a range of sources: fellowships from the John Simon Guggenheim Foundation and the American Council of Learned Societies, the PSC-CUNY research grants program, and the Hunter College Presidential Travel Grants and Sabbatical Leave and Scholar Incentive Program. Hunter College President Jennifer Raab, Provost Vita Rabinowitz, and history department chairs Barbara Welter and Rick Belsky were all incredibly helpful in making these arrangements possible. Deep thanks to all.

I owe a very great debt to the staffs of the twenty-five archives in four countries I visited in working on this project. In particular I would like to thank Frau Bianca Welzing-Bräutigam of the Landesarchiv Berlin, who has been a remarkable source of help and advice for every one of my research projects since my graduate student days, and Frau Jenny Gohr of what is now the Jahn-Behörde for the records of the East German
Stasi
(the BStU). Frau Gohr's kindness and helpfulness (special thanks for those coffee breaks) stand in particularly pleasant contrast to the grim purpose of the records she oversees. I would also like to thank Herr Dr. Klaus Lankheit of the
Institut für Zeitgeschichte
and Herr Heinz Egleder, archivist of the
Spiegel
, in whose office I was able to spend three pleasant and fascinating days (and also got to see the inside of the
Spiegel's
famous, rather psychedelic canteen). Most of this book was written in the congenial surroundings of the Wertheim Study at the New York Public Library, for which special thanks to the Wertheim Study's overseer, Jay Barksdale—I know I am not the only New York-area writer who is grateful for the grace with which Jay creates the perfect place to write.

Two gifted young scholars helped me with some of the research: Paul Moore with materials from the British National Archives and the archives of the
Guardian
, and my own doctoral advisee, Irit Bloch, with many of the German newspapers and the Knickerbocker papers. Two other outstanding graduate students, Chelsea Schields and Ky Woltering, actually volunteered to read the manuscript and provided me with some very helpful comments. Chelsea also helped me locate some Dutch sources and helped with the Dutch translations. In recording my gratitude to young scholars who have not yet reached the land of tenure, I would also like to stress that they bear no blame for the wayward ideas I express here.

Several colleagues and friends read some or all of the manuscript and were extremely generous in providing comments: Christoph Kimmich, Daniel Siemens, Nik Wachsmann, and Robert Girvan—Rob, reprising his extremely helpful role from my last book, demonstrating that no good deed goes unpunished.

Of course, after all the generous help I have received from the people who read and commented on the manuscript, all errors remain my own responsibility.

For my agent, Scott Mendel, and my indefatigable editor at Oxford University Press, Tim Bent, this book has been a bit of an odyssey, and I owe them huge thanks for their patience and perseverance. Tim suggested this topic to me when I had the vague idea of writing something about Rudolf Diels and has stuck with it through thick and thin. The conventions of publishing often do not give editors sufficient formal credit, but after all the energy he has put into helping me clarify the theme and narrative of this project, this is Tim's book too. Oxford University Press is in fact a delightfully professional organization for a writer to work with, and thanks are due as well to production editor Joellyn Ausanka and to assistant editor Keely Latcham for their skills, not to mention their patience and good humor.

Once again my lovely wife Corinna has had to put up with my extended physical absences on research trips and occasional mental absences at home while in the throes of writing. After three books she knows the ropes; she has borne it all with good humor, and I cannot thank her enough.

This book is dedicated to two of my oldest friends, Robert Girvan (who of course also read the manuscript) and Dean McNeill. For thirty years (can it be?), simply by being who they are and living with courage, honesty, and decency, Rob and Dean have taught me a lot without ever trying to do so. This dedication is my very humble and inadequate thanks.

New York
June 2013

1
. Josse, Report, May 15, 1933, BA-BL R. 3003/56; Buwert Statement, February 28, 1933, BA-BL R. 3003/1, Bl. 6–7.

2
. Helmuth F. Braun and Michael Doormann,
“Dem Deutschen Volke”: Die Geschichte der Berliner Bronzgießerei Loevy
(Cologne: Dumont Literatur & Kunst Verlag, 2003), 14–45.

3
. Michael Cullen,
Der Reichstag: Parlament, Symbol, Denkmal
(Berlin: Be.Bra. Verlag, 1999), 186–200; Thomas Mergel,
Parlamentarische Kultur in der Weimarer Republik: Politische Kommunikation, symbolische Politik und Öffentlichkeit im Reichstag
(Düsseldorf: Droste Verlag, 2002), 83 ff.

4
. Cullen,
Reichstag
, 186–200; Mergel,
Parlamentarische Kultur
, 83 ff.

5
. Mergel,
Parlamentarische Kultur
, 81; on Oberfohren and Torgler, see
Chapter 3
.

6
. Buwert Statement, February 28, 1933, BA-BL R. 3003/1, Bl. 6–7.

7
. Flöter Statement, February 28, 1933, BA-BL R. 3003/1, Bl. 20.

8
. Thaler Statement, February 28, 1933, BA-BL R. 3003/1, Bl. 17; Thaler Statement, March 22, 1933, BA-BL R. 3003/2, Bl. 176–79.

9
. Thaler Statement, February 28, 1933, BA-BL R. 3003/1, Bl. 17.

10
. Lateit Statement, February 28, 1933, BA-BL R. 3003/1, Bl. 8; Lateit Statement, March 14, 1933, BA-BL R. 3003/2, Bl. 12–25; 14 VT 23.

11
. Poeschel Statement, March 17, 1933, BA-BL R. 3003/2, Bl. 53–55.

12
. Lateit Statement, February 28, 1933, BA-BL R. 3003/1, Bl. 8; Lateit Statement, March 14, 1933, BA-BL R. 3003/2, Bl. 12–25; Losigkeit Statement, March 14, 1933, ibid., Bl. 25–28; Poeschel Statement, February 28, 1933, BA-BL R. 3003/1, Bl. 11; Poeschel Statement, March 17, 1933, BA-BL R. 3003/2, Bl. 53–55; 15 VT 53; Scranowitz Statement, March 16, 1933, BA-BL R. 3003/2, Bl. 44–49.

13
. Lateit Statement, March 14, 1933, BA-BL R. 3003/2, Bl. 12–25; Losigkeit Statement, March 14, 1933, BA-BL R. 3003/2, Bl. 25–28; 14 VT 44; 15 VT 31, 54, 56–57.

14
. Scranowitz Statement, March 16, 1933, BA-BL R. 3003/2, Bl. 44–49; Josse Report, May 15, 1933, BA-BL R. 3003/56; 16 VT.

15
. Poeschel Statement, March 17, 1933, BA-BL R. 3003/2, Bl. 53–55; 16 VT. At trial Poeschel said he got a look at the chamber from two different angles, the first time over Lateit's shoulder and the second time over Scranowitz's: 15 VT 59–60, 61.

16
. Alfons Sack,
Der Reichstagsbrand Prozess
(Berlin: Ullstein, 1934), 17–18.

17
. Klotz Statement, March 15, 1933, BA-BL R. 3003/2, Bl. 33–37; Josse Report, May 15, 1933, BA-BL R. 3003/56; 16 VT 55 ff.

18
. Klotz Statement, March 3, 1933, BA-BL R. 3003/53, Bl. 17; Josse Report, May 15, 1933, BA-BL R. 3003/56.

19
. Polchow Statement, March 3, 1933, BA-BL R. 3003/53, Bl. 15–16; Puhle Statement, March 1, 1933, Ibid., Bl. 14–15; Puhle Statement, March 18, 1933, BA-BL R. 3003/2, Bl. 41–43.

20
. Polchow Statement, March 3, 1933, BA-BL R. 3003/53, Bl. 15.

21
. Polchow Statement, March 3, 1933, BA-BL R. 3003/53, Bl. 15; Feuerwehrbericht, October 11, 1955, IfZ ZS/A 7 Bd. 2; Polchow Statement, July 14, 1960, in Walther Hofer, et al., eds.
Der Reichstagsbrand: Eine wissenschaftliche Dokumentation
, Bd. 1 (Berlin: arani Verlag, 1972), 230–33.

22
. 16 VT 155–60.

23
. 15 VT 45.

24
. “The Reichstag Fire Trial,”
Manchester Guardian
, October 14, 1933.

25
. Scranowitz's evidence 15 VT 173; Hans Schneider,
Neues vom Reichstagsbrand? Eine Dokumentation: Ein Versäumnis der deutschen Geschichtsschreibung
(Berlin: Berliner Wissenschafts-Verlag, 2004), 64. Scranowitz's own testimony leaves the impression that van der Lubbe was protesting being punched.

26
. Bericht, March 7, 1933, BA-BL R. 3003/2, Bl. 89 ff.

27
. Lateit Statement, March 14, 1933, BA-BL R. 3003/2, Bl. 23–24.

28
. Foth, “Feuer im Reichstag,”
Preussische Feuerwehr Zeitung
, March 1933, BFA; “Riesenbrand im Reichstag,”
Vorwärts
, February 28, 1933, morning.

29
. Sefton Delmer,
Trail Sinister: An Autobiography
(London: Secker and Warburg, 1961), 185–89.

30
. Rudolf Diels,
Lucifer Ante Portas: Zwischen Severing und Heydrich
(Zürich: Interverlag A.G., 1949), 144, translation from J. Noakes and G. Pridham,
Nazism 1919–1945: A Documentary Reader
, vol. 1,
The Rise to Power, 1919–1945
(Exeter: University of Exeter Press, 1998), 140–41; Martin Schuster,
Die SA in der nationalsozialistischen “Machtergreifung” in Berlin und Brandenburg 1926–1934
(Berlin: Ph.D. dissertation, 2005), 231.344