Top Nazi SS General Karl Wolff The Man Between Hitler and Himmler

414 Pages·2005·5.01 MB·English

by  Jochen von Lang

Top Nazi
SS General Karl Wolff
The Man Between Hitler and Himmler
Jochen von Lang
Top Nazi
SS General Karl Wolff
The Man Between Hitler and Himmler
Enigma Books
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Enigma Books Translated by
MaryBeth Friedrich
Original German title:
Der Adjutant
Karl Wolff: Der Mann zwischen Hitler und Himmler
Copyright © 2013 by Enigma Books ISBN 978-1-936274-53-6 (e-Book) Library of Congress Cataloging-
in-Publication Data Lang, Jochen von.
[Adjutant.]
Top Nazi: the man between Hitler and Himmler / Jochen von Lang.
p. : ill. ; cm.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
“Translated by MaryBeth Friedrich”—T.p. verso.
1. Wolff, Karl, 1900–1984.2. Nazis—Biography.3. Germany—Politics and government—1933–1945.4.
World War, 1939–1945—Germany.I. Friedrich, MaryBeth.II. Title.III. Title: Adjutant.
DD247.W59 L36 2005
943.086/092 B
Table of Contents
Foreword
1.“Where Did You Serve?”
2.GOT: The Source of Life
3.In the Good Graces of the Führer
4.Kristallnacht: The Night of Broken Glass
5.Megalomania as National Illness
6.“…and tomorrow the entire world!”
7.The Messiah for the Next 2000 years
8.“Even the Guard Must Obey”
9.“Take Over the Vatican!”
10. The Pope and the Anti-Christ
11. “When everyone betrays…”
12. Caught in the Middle
13. Cooperation Has Its Price
14. Prisoner at Nuremberg
15. The “General” Representative
16. Eichmann’s Accomplice
17. An Enigmatic Personality
Appendix I
Appendix II
Appendix III
Appendix IV
Bibliography
Index
Foreword
THE DECEASED didn’t want it any other way: a black pillow covered with
medals and mementoes from an inglorious age. According to the obituary,
retired General Karl Wolff was buried in Prien am Chiemsee in the middle of
July 1984. The usual comment regarding the specific branch of the service was
missing after his name. Was this because it would have touched on the most
sensitive chapter of his life? The advertising agent and retired lieutenant was in
the NSDAP (the Nazi party) and joined the SS in the fall of 1931. He was part of
the Black Guard of German Fascism and within a decade rose to the rank of
lieutenant. Then general of the SS and general of the Waffen SS, finally
becoming Heinrich Himmler’s right-hand man and a close confidante of Adolf
Hitler. Although there are absolutely no supporting documents, people believe
his statement that on April 20, 1945, shortly before the collapse of the Third
Reich, he even reached the rank of general and senior general of the Waffen SS.
He could not rise any higher.
From early youth, he consistently wanted to go above and beyond, and once
he succeeded he credited it to the virtues the Germans had always claimed:
diligence, honesty, obedience, and loyalty. Beyond that, he possessed
innumerable tactical skills, the talent to persuade people, and sharp elbows. He
certainly would have made his way in business, but with his love of the military,
he was cut out for pseudomilitary party management. At the time of his death,
many newspapers wrote that at the end, Karl Wolff was the highest ranking
among Hitler’s surviving followers, not counting the life prisoners at Spandau
Prison, the Führer’s former deputy, Rudolf Hess.
Had he been alive, Wolff would have been flattered. In truth, he was one of
the unknown giants of Hitler’s Reich who worked in the shadows. Only the top
five hundred in the party and state knew his name and his functions. Of course,
he too wanted to be in the limelight, but there were other higher-ranking “state
actors” nudging and shoving. He wore a uniform well decorated with tinsel, but
that was common at that time. He was not an actor in public; he worked through
conversations, orders and written material. Granted, he was the representative of
his city in the Reichstag, but in that make-believe parliament only one player
was allowed to shine. Wolff’s job was to cheer him on, vote “Yes,” as ordered,
and sing when the national anthem was played. After events the newspapers
sometimes mentioned his name on the special list of honored guests as a
constant escort of the Reichsführer SS, but he was only one of many.
At the beginning of the war, Wolff worked as Himmler’s eyes and ears at the
Führer’s headquarters. What he did there would not make him popular. He either
performed decorative service or was busy with secret information, which
Germans only found out about after the war. When he occasionally allowed
himself to stray from the party line by helping those in distress, he desperately
needed to remain hidden. Only on one occasion did General Wolff take the
opportunity to make himself known in public to the whole world, when he and
the last intact German army surrendered to the Allied forces in Italy shortly
before the end of the war, thereby shortening the Second World War in the south
by several days. Whatever moved him to this action shall be assessed by history.
The Germans hardly noticed it, as they were busy surviving in the Reich, which
at that time was almost entirely occupied by the enemy.
The surrender in the south has already been described and critically
evaluated in many books. Therefore, it may no longer illustrate the life and work
of General Karl Wolff. Even his death at 84 was at best an occasion for
obituaries in the press. On the day of his death, this biography had already been
written, except for the final chapter. With its many details, it can serve as a
contribution to contemporary history. Wolff was often a witness to historical
events. He discussed fragments of these stories in unpublished manuscripts or on
tape, preferring scenes where he could portray himself as the center of attention.
If one compares his presentations to the relevant documents the latter often
prove to be embellished. Rather than making contributions to German history, he
provided anecdotes. Himmler is one of the few National Socialists whom Wolff
described with conflicting emotions. Hitler seems agreeable, understanding and
sometimes statesmanlike and strict. Wolff himself is, and remains, the idealist in
this environment, someone who always wants what’s good. Since he portrays
himself as someone who never thought or planned any misdeeds, he remained
unscathed by the monumental crimes that were committed by those around him.
If someone were to prove to him that he could not have missed knowing about
these crimes and that he even played a part in them, he explained with carefully
measured words why he could, and even had to, view what was happening as
legal. The blue-eyed Parsifal fell very early for the sirens of power in Hitler’s
magic garden.
Even if he never wanted to admit it, he was also affected by the amorality of
the Nazi system. His middle-class respectability disintegrated due to the sick
complex whose symptoms of moral and spiritual depravity can be summed up as
the Nazi Syndrome. To counter this particular illness, one must study its extreme
symptoms as they appear in General Wolff. From the beginning, he was one of
those in whom Hitler had placed his hopes, just as, on the other hand, the mass
charmer in the brown shirt provided a message of salvation, which could only
make the high school graduate, former lieutenant, bank employee, and small
business entrepreneur a true believer. When the Führer promised he would free
Germany from disgrace and want, Wolff, a member of the upper middle class,
saw in Hitler the savior from the threatening problem of doing away with
classes. When Hitler announced that the soldier at the front as well as the officer
would once again receive special honors, Wolff saw his opportunity for personal
advancement. When Germany became rich and powerful once again, Wolff
would also be allotted more power and wealth. Hitler’s promise that in his Reich
only those with “German blood” should receive honors, jobs, and dignity, and
that the leadership would be filled with Germans of the Nordic-Germanic race,
he strengthened the blond warrior in his certainty of belonging to the nation’s
elite.
His curriculum vitae shows how strong the temptation was, especially for
him, to march in the “Brown Battalion” singing the Horst-Wessel. It is clear why
so few of those marching found the strength to turn around. It also explains why
so many closed their eyes when terrible things were happening and why they
eased their consciences by saying, “Things get dirty when work is being done.”
General Wolff received the biography he wanted so much only
posthumously and it turned out differently from the way he had wanted for thirty
years to write it. Had he been able to do so, it would tell the German people what
he had done for them and what he had to put up with for them. Instead, they now
learn that he was typical of his generation, a man who always considered himself
a patriot cannot therefore deny this service to his country, even after his death.