With Hitler to the End: The Memoirs of Adolf Hitler's Valet

157 Pages·2019·1.46 MB·English

by  Heinz Linge

Heinz Linge with Hitler and Martin Bormann, Salzburg, June 1943
With Hitler To The End
The Memoir of Hitler's Valet
Heinz Linge
Roger Moorhouse
With Hitler to the End: The Memoirs of Adolf Hitler’s Valet

This edition published in 2009 by Frontline Books, an imprint of Pen & Sword Books Limited,
47 Church Street, Barnsley, S. Yorkshire, S70 2AS

www.frontline-books.com

and

Published and distributed in the United States of America and Canada
by Skyhorse Publishing, 555 Eighth Avenue, Suite 903, New York, NY 10018

www.skyhorsepublishing.com
Skyhorse Publishing books may be purchased in bulk at special discounts for sales
promotion, corporate gifts, fund raising, or educational purposes. Special editions can also
be created to specifications. For details, contact Special Sales Department, Skyhorse
Publishing, 555 Eighth Avenue, Suite 903, New York, NY 10018 or email
[email protected].

© 1980 by F.A. Herbig Verlagsbuchhandlung GmbH
Translation © Pen & Sword Books Ltd, 2009
United Kingdom edition © Pen & Sword Books Ltd, 2009
North America edition © Skyhorse Publishing, 2009

Frontline edition: ISBN 978-1-84832-544-9
Skyhorse edition: ISBN 978-1-60239-804-7

10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2

Publishing History
Bis zum Untergang: Als Chef des Persönlichen Dienstes bei Hitler (edited by Werner Maser)
was first published in German by Nation Europa Verlag GmbH in June 1980. This is the first
English-language edition of the text and includes a new introduction by Roger Moorhouse.

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in or introduced
into a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form, or by any means (electronic,
mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise) without the prior written permission of
the publisher. Any person who does any unauthorized act in relation to this publication may
be liable to criminal prosecution and civil claims for damages.
A CIP data record for this title is available from the British Library and the Library of
Congress.

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Linge, Heinz, 1913-1980.
[Bis zum Untergang. English]
With Hitler to the end : the memoir of Hitler’s valet / Heinz Linge ; introduction by Roger
Moorhouse.
p. cm.
Translation of: Biz zum Untergang. München : Herbig, 1980.
Includes bibliographical references.
9781602398047
1. Linge, Heinz, 1913-1980. 2. Hitler, Adolf, 1889-1945. 3. Hitler, Adolf, 1889-1945—Friends
and associates. 4. Germany—Politics and government—1933-1945. 5. Valets—Germany—
Biography. 6. Nazis—Biography. I. Title.
DD247.H5L4813 2009
943.086092—dc22
[B]
2009015869

For more information on our books, please visit
www.frontline-books.com
,
email [email protected] or write to us at the above address.

Typeset by Wordsense Ltd, Edinburgh

Printed in the United States of America
Table of Contents

Title Page

Copyright Page

Illustrations

Introduction

Preface

Author’s Introduction

Chapter 1 - I Join Hitler’s Staff: Elser, the Admired Assassin

Chapter 2 - Hitler the Architect

Chapter 3 - Hitler on Diet and the Evils of Smoking

Chapter 4 - Eva Braun, the Question of Sexual Morality, and Equestrian Pursuits

Chapter 5 - The Berghof

Chapter 6 - The Reich Chancellery, Bayreuth, the Aristocracy and Protocol

Chapter 7 - Hitler’s Speeches and the Problem of Göring
Chapter 8 - Goebbels - The Giant in a Dwarf’s Body

Chapter 9 - Himmler and Bormann

Chapter 10 - Hess’s Mysterious Mission – Was Hitler Behind It?

Chapter 11 - Other Leading Personalities and the Eternal Stomach Problem

Chapter 12 - Resolving the Polish Question: September 1939

Chapter 13 - The Phoney War

Chapter 14 - The Invasion in the West 1940

Chapter 15 - The Assassination Attempt of 1944 and Its Aftermath

Chapter 16 - 1945 – The Last Months of the Third Reich: Reflections on Russia

Chapter 17 - Hitler’s Suicide

Chapter 18 - I Flee the Reich Chancellery: Russian Captivity

Index
Illustrations

Frontispiece: Heinz Linge with Hitler and Martin Bormann, Salzburg, June 1943
1. Linge with Hitler at the Wolf’s Lair, the Führer’s Eastern Front headquarters near
the East Prussian town of Rastenburg, in 1942.
2. Hitler and his entourage en route to the Reichstag on the eve of war.
3. Linge posted at the door of the railway carriage in the Compiègne Forest, at the
scene of the French armistice in June 1940.
4. The inner circle in discussions at the Wolf’s Lair.
5. A triumphant Hitler greets members of the Luftwaffe in the spring of 1940, when
the German war machine seemed unstoppable.
6. Italian leader Benito Mussolini is greeted by Hitler at the Wolf’s Lair in the summer
of 1941.
7. Hitler and Mussolini inspect the recently deployed Italian troops on the Ukrainian
frontline, August 1941.
8. and At the Wolf’s Lair in 1942
9.
10. and At the end of June 1943, talks were held in Salzburg to discuss Italian military
11. failures and the danger of an Allied invasion of Italy.
12. One of the last known photographs of Hitler, taken on 20 March 1945 in the garden
of the Reich Chancellery in Berlin.
13. Linge shortly before his release after ten years of Soviet captivity.
14. Linge holds telegrams with offers for the publication of his memoirs upon his return
to Germany in 1955.
Introduction

THOUGH THEY MIGHT NOT have known the name, those with an interest in the Nazi period
would probably recognise Heinz Linge. In countless photographs of the Führer of the Third
Reich, he can be seen in the background, often just behind Hitler. A tall man in SS uniform,
with a prematurely receding hairline and a rather lugubrious expression, Linge was Hitler’s
valet; perhaps the most intimate of his personal staff.
Born in Bremen in 1913, Heinz Linge was a former bricklayer who joined the elite SS-
Leibstandarte, Hitler’s SS bodyguard, in 1933. Two years after that, he was selected to serve
on Hitler’s household staff, and was appointed as the Führer’s personal valet shortly after
the outbreak of war in 1939.
In this capacity, Linge was responsible for all aspects of Hitler’s household; from day-to-day
operations, such as the Führer’s wardrobe and diet, to more prosaic duties such as keeping
Hitler supplied with reading glasses, pencils and even money. It was Linge who woke Hitler
in the morning and assisted him as he retired to bed in the early hours. It was Linge who
would man the door to Hitler’s office or apartment and who would be pumped by visitors
for information on the Führer’s mood. It was Linge, indeed, who helped carry Hitler’s corpse
up to the Reich Chancellery garden on 30 April 1945 and who supervised its hasty
cremation. Whether in Berlin, on ‘the Berg’ at Berchtesgaden or in the Wolfsschanze HQ at
Rastenburg, Linge was rarely more than a click of the fingers or a whispered instruction
away from his master. He was Hitler’s constant companion throughout the war. And, as he
himself acknowledged, only Eva Braun stood closer to Hitler than he did.
This position at the very heart of the Third Reich - what he himself called a ‘theatre-box on
history’ - gave Linge a fascinating perspective on the regime and the man that he served. At
the centre of his account, of course, is Adolf Hitler himself. Linge’s loyalty to Hitler was
absolutely unquestioning and unswerving; an attitude that he characterised as one of ‘total
uncritical obedience’. This was not ideologically motivated, however. Despite his
membership of the SS, Linge was no ideologue and paid little heed to political matters.
Rather, his loyalty to ‘the Boss’ was based on much more mundane ideas: on the one hand,
it was wholly in tune with that fidelity demonstrated, since time immemorial, by a servant
to his master. On the other - as this memoir makes clear - Linge simply considered Hitler to
be a genius; one of history’s ‘great men’.
Despite this, Linge’s profile of Hitler does not come across as starry-eyed. His portrayal is
affectionate, certainly, but it is not without criticism and it does lack some of the more
superficial ‘pleasantness’ recorded, for instance, by Hitler’s secretaries, Traudl Junge and
Christa Schroeder.
1
Linge clearly felt a respect for his employer, which it seems was reciprocated. Yet, through a
series of anecdotes and observations, he gives tremendous depth and substance to Hitler’s
character; recounting the daily routine in his household; his eating habits, his foibles, his
preferences, his sense of humour and even his obsession with time.
Linge also charts the changes in Hitler’s character during the period of his service; for
instance when the Führer seemed to have ‘lost’ his levity of mood - and with it the ability to
laugh - in 1940. More seriously, Linge describes Hitler’s fading health from around 1942,
from which time the role of ‘physician to the Führer’ became a position to almost rival his
own. Most interestingly in this respect, Linge claims to have been present late in 1944, when