Letter from Dr Erich Oberdörfer from Vienna.
Austria to the Leader.
Austria is
free! Tyranny is over.
No sacrifice,
no tears in vain,
all our
sufferings are seen in the deepest sense:
only in that
way is a new world born.
Shaken, we
feel ourselves in the grip of destiny,
since the
greatest son of our beautiful homeland,
in whom
longing, hope, and will are united,
offers
fulfilment, defying every enemy.
For you, my
Leader, like a star
that rose
radiantly from storm clouds,
you bring what
was an unattainable dream,
the great age,
you bring freedom, unity, victory!
An
elderly woman from Bregenz in Vorarlberg, the most western Austrian state, sent
her thanks on 22 March 1938:
My Leader,
I write to you
with tears of happiness in my eyes. Although it is most unlikely that you will
personally read what I write, such a great miracle has taken place that
anything is possible. I must write because my admiration for what you, my
Leader, have enabled people to do through your example is too great! I thought
of the coming upheaval only with fear, too many people were filled with
thoughts of revenge, because what we have suffered up to now is unspeakable and
the thought of revenge is just humanly justified. And now everything has gone
so smoothly and this order, this discipline.
Nothing
has yet happened of which the Party would have to be ashamed. Our opponents
will be won over to our cause more by the behaviour of Party members than they
could be by force - that can already be seen. We all contemplate the election
with calm and we now have only one wish, to see our Leader in Bregenz as soon
as possible.
One for all:
Julie Oesterle
On
11 April 1938, the wife of Paul Irrgang, a Berlin wholesaler of glass,
porcelain, and stone, wrote euphorically to the Führer. She wrote on her
husband’s letterhead stationery and did not use her own name, but instead
signed as ‘Mrs P. Irrgang’.
Our Leader Adolf Hitler!
There are no
words to tell our Leader what we feel. Accept, our Leader, our thanks and
eternal loyalty. It is to be regretted that some people still remain blind, but
they are beyond help, unfortunately.
Until we draw our last breath
our heart belongs to you.
Hail Hitler!
Mrs P. Irrgang
The
Führer’s visit to his parents’ graves, also aroused sympathy. On Mother’s Day
1938, this act was mentioned in many letters. For example, on Mother’s Day, 15
May 1938, Lotte J. Kaiser sent Hitler from Berlin a home-made card with the
dedication: ‘Thanks, inexpressibly great thanks to the holy parents, to the
mother who bore our Leader!’ In the accompanying letter we read:
My Leader,
allow me to express my thanks for all the great and beautiful things that I
have been allowed to experience with a token that is small and homely but comes
from the soul.
Lotte J. Kaiser
On
13 May 1938, Paula Ohland sent the Führer’s office a poem she had written in
January 1936, that is, after Hitler paid a visit to his parents’ graves in
Austria, with the photographs obviously appearing in all the newspapers
shortly. In the accompanying card she said that the poem was ‘dedicated with
respect to the mother of the greatest of all architects, but to the son himself
with gratitude’.
To Hitler’s Mother
O mother,
because you gave birth to this son,
You were
destined to be queen.
What a gift
you gave the world with this child,
So that your
trace is not carried away by the wind!
It is granted
him not only
To lead a
people, no - oh - no!
A people is
only part of the great realm
That God
created for us, like a leaf on a tree.
A leaf that
was limp but not dried up,
It yearns for
the great throng of leaves;
With them it
longs to gleam in the bright spring night:
‘Through your
son - O mother, this work will be
Completed!’
Three
middle-aged women from Ludwigsfelde, south of Berlin, expressed their
enthusiasm upon catching a glimpse of Hitler on 21 April 1938.
My Leader!
On election
day we happened to be at the Ludwigsfelde railway station. When an express
train came in (13:20) we saw a Party member in uniform on the locomotive. This
immediately caused us to assume that our Leader must be in this train. Our
assumption proved to be right.
Three
women beaming with happiness were able to cheer their so joyful Leader and
received a friendly wave as their reward.
Three
exceedingly fortunate women thank their Leader with all their hearts and
request, as a memento of this splendid and unforgettable moment an autograph
for each of them.
Thanks!
Victory and Hai
our beloved Leader!
Martha Imse
Anna Loppien
Elisabeth Pässler
A letter
written by Elisabeth J., a girl from Schwarzburg in Thuringia, on 20 June 1938.
My dear Leader!
Please do not
be angry that I have dared to address you so familiarly! I cannot write differently
to the way my heart feels. On 23 May of this year I wrote to Field Marshal
Goring with the request that he come to Schwarzburg! The whole time I waited
for an answer, until finally it came on 18 June. The Field Marshal sent me a
picture postcard with his own autograph!
Oh,
how I rejoiced and wept. He answered me and little Schwarzburg! Can you, my
beloved Leader, understand this joy? And how happy I would be if I could also
receive a reply from you. Please, please, dear good-hearted Leader, answer
me!!! I have one more request to make of you! In the autumn of this year I
would like to make a great journey with the Schwarzburg League of German Girls
group 9/218, a journey to Berlin! You will probably ask, why to Berlin,
precisely?
You
have not yet seen, my Leader, all my girls, and you cannot imagine how much
each of them wants to see you just once. I would like to ask you with all my
heart if it wouldn’t be possible to write me a note certifying that we have
permission to see you in the Chancellor’s Office or at least expect to have no
problems with the guards? Please, please dear Leader, have a heart for us
girls, it needn’t be more than five minutes. Please don’t turn us down, ask
what you will of us, if only we can see you! Oh, how glad we would be to see
you in our own homeland! Is it completely impossible that you might come to
Schwarzburg? I invite you, my Leader, to be for once a guest in the home of a
worker, because my mother is an exceptional cook!
And
now in conclusion, my beloved Leader:
Don’t
forget my request,
Let
us see you once!
With love,
loyalty and gratitude,
your comrade
Elisabeth J.
Gertrud
Juliane of Koblenz, western Germany, wrote several letters to the Führer in the
summer of 1938, for example on 29 August. The letters were badly written, and
the translation reflects this:
My dear Leader
I send you a very pleasant Sunday. The days you devoted to your dear official
visit must have been quite stressful. I witnessed everything.
Now
my beloved Leader, yesterday I read your beloved work, and what I got out of it
did not penetrate my little head, whether it is a joke or serious. I am beside
myself with sheer joy.
Since
you are after all the only man for whom I’ve always had great respect, it would
be wonderful to have your great happiness.
And
on 17 September:
My dear
Leader, I send you the most heartfelt good wishes and good luck for your dear
work. What was done at the Nuremberg Party rally was very ceremonial and
uplifting. It gets better from year to year.
How
are you otherwise, my dear Leader, I hope very well. Please take care not to
catch cold. In Nuremberg it is cold and [there is] much rain this year.
Since
the Reich Party rally is coming to an end, I wish my highly esteemed Reich
Chancellor a very happy Sunday.
With a German salute
a triple Hail Victory!
Gertrud Juliane
Even
more directly than Gertrud Juliane, an unemployed worker - Karl Jorde in
Vienna, Austria paid homage to the Führer in a letter of 7 September 1938. But
for just that reason his admiration soared to a still greater level of
euphoria:
My Leader!
I am a hotel
porter who has been out of work for seven years, because in the old regime it
was impossible for me to get a job, despite five years’ experience abroad and
my knowledge of English and French, which meant that I already expected my
future to be hopeless. But after the annexation [of Austria] to the old Reich I
noticed how everything suddenly took a turn for the better and work and
earnings became available everywhere, I regained belief and hope, and, although
I am still unemployed today, I am convinced that within the foreseeable future
I will be back at work and earning, and all because of our Leader.
Therefore,
I cannot resist expressing to you, our Leader, not only my own gratitude and
admiration but also that of all Germans, in the form of a ‘National Socialist’
credo, and [ask you] to distribute and kindly approve it, since my conviction
and, I assume, that of every true German, is that what Jesus Christ was for
humanity in the religious sense, Adolf Hitler is for the German people in the
worldly sense.
With the greatest esteem and respect
and Hail Victory
Karl Jorde
Hotel porter
My ‘National Socialist’ credo!
I
believe in God the Father, the almighty creator of heaven and earth, and in
Adolf Hitler, his chosen son, whom he has elected in order to deliver his
German people from the vipers’ brood (Jews, clerics and dynasties) and
centuries-long disunity, downtroddenness, and increasing impoverishment, and on
whom he has also conferred its leadership for the resurrection of unity, power,
new creative energy and optimism to such an extent that it will continue,
despite villainesses and various animosities, from now unto all eternity. Amen.
In
addition to the letters celebrating Austria’s integration into the German
Reich, the Führer also received his yearly dose of birthday greetings.
The
members of the State Orchestra of Münster expressed their ‘deepest gratitude,
loyalty, love, and veneration’ in a letter of 16 April 1938, and sent an oil
painting that one of the group had painted. They received thanks, as did
Margarthe Rathmann from Potsdam, near Berlin. She gave Hitler 8,000 marks that
she had inherited. Hitler signed the letter on 21 May 1938.
Dear Mrs Rathmann!
Please
accept my sincerest thanks for the donation that you have made on the occasion
of my birthday.
You
have thereby given me special pleasure.
The
donation will be used to help needy fellow Germans.
With a German salute
Adolf Hitler
Great
numbers of birthday poems were also received. For example, a ‘Sonnet to the
Leader’ dedicated to him ‘in great veneration and gratitude’, combines joy at
the annexation with Austria with birthday wishes:
You are the
one that God sent us
In deepest
need and highest distress,
With a bold
hand you ended Germany’s disgrace,
Now the bright
dawn of the future shines forth!
You are the
sower of the German earth,
And your
sowing created a flourishing land,
You said your
homeland would grow greater,
Now it reaches
the coast of the North Sea!
O name me a
king who has achieved such a deed!
You need no
sceptre or diamond-studded crown,
Your greatness
has subjugated the whole world!
Your throne
stands higher than any emperor’s:
You have won a
place in the hearts of your people,
Now the
gratitude of Greater Germany will be your reward!
E. Jurima, Vienna, 20 April 38
Bertha
Over from Bonn wished Hitler a happy birthday and asked for his autograph as a
birthday present. Her wish was granted. On 15 April 1938 she had written:
My Leader!
I humbly take
the liberty of telling my Leader that my birthday is also 20 April.
Therefore
it would be my fervent wish to receive this year as a birthday gift a picture
of my Leader, and it would give me great joy if my wish could be dealt with
favourably.
My
husband is a 50 per cent handicapped war veteran; his left arm is completely
crippled and since 1932 he has been a member of the National Socialist War
Victim’s Care Organization.
Hail Hitler!
Mrs Bertha Over
[P.S.]
In 1933 my parents celebrated their Golden Anniversary in Pforzheim and are
still alive thank God.
A
letter accompanying good wishes on the stationery of the Hans Oldag firm,
‘Uniforms, Clothing’, Berlin, is set out below.
To our Leader
and Reich Chancellor
ADOLF HITLER
on his 49th birthday
the female
staff
of the Hans
Oldag firm, Berlin S.O. 16
gives
1 children’s
dress
1 baby jacket
and bonnet
8 pairs of
baby sleeve holders
10 pairs of
wool stockings
that were made
during their evenings at home.
Shop Steward – Bauer / Women’s Stewardess – Herubke
Hitler’s
private office thanked the senders on 29 May 1938.
The Leader
sends you his sincerest thanks for the thoughtfulness you have shown on the
occasion of his birthday. The clothing sent will be forwarded to the Office of
People’s Welfare.
With a German salute
Albert Bormann
The
Führer was also pleased by a letter from Vienna.
To the Leader and Reich Chancellor!
The staff of
the Austrian Wood Products Council has collected 110 shillings to buy flowers
for your birthday.
However,
by common agreement this amount will not be used for flowers but rather donated
for the support of a fellow German in Vienna who has many children.
We
ask you to accept this decision regarding the intended gift of flowers.
In irrevocable loyalty
and deeply felt gratitude
the staff of the Austrian Wood Products Council
The
Leader’s private office replied on 5 May 1938.
The Leader
wishes to express his sincere thanks for your good wishes on his birthday and
for the notice that the funds you collected will be used for the support of a
needy fellow German. The Leader took great pleasure in the willingness to
sacrifice thereby expressed by all involved.
With a German salute
on behalf of [unreadable]
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