Who bankrolled Hitler's rise to power?

 

So who bankrolled Hitler’s march to power in 1930s Germany? The answer is – the filthy rich.

In the early 1930s, the Nazis were facing financial ruin, with Goebbels saying their situation was ‘hopeless’. Then in stepped the bosses of two leading industrial companies - arms manufacturer Krupp and I G Farben, which would make the poison gas used in the Nazi gas chambers. They appear to have been impressed by Hitler’s promise to get rid of trade unions and communists.

Together they raised 3 million Deutschmarks (worth about £22 million today) for the Nazis, and by the end of 1933, Hitler was Chancellor and I G Farben alone had donated about 4.5 million DM (c £33 million). Leading figures in both companies would be tried at Nuremburg and convicted of using slave labour among other crimes.

Hitler was quite keen on building up a personal fortune. As early as 1925 he used party funds to buy himself a luxury Mercedes, with a personal chauffeur. He made a lot of money from his book Mein Kampf, helped by Germany’s practice of giving it to newly married couples as a wedding present, but the Fuhrer was not enthusiastic about paying taxes, and quickly got himself declared exempt.

Magdeburg: another claim to fame

Earlier this month, Magdeburg, capital of the German state of Saxony-Anhalt, found itself again at the centre of world attention, as the Far Right AfD emerged as the biggest party in state elections. The city, part of the former East Germany, was the victim of a terrorist attack in 2024, when a 51 year old man from Saudi Arabia, drove his car into crowds at a Christmas market, killing six people. 

But the worst moment in Magdeburg's history came during the Thirty Years War. The population were nearly all Protestants, but in May 1631, after a six month siege, it fell to the army of the Catholic League.   

The League's soldiers wrought havoc. In the words of the great German writer Friedrich Schiller: 'Neither innocent childhood, nor helpless old age; neither youth, sex, rank, nor beauty, could disarm the fury of the conquerors.'  

After burning the city to the ground, the soldiers carried off thousands of women to their camp. One of the generals sent priests to tell their men to do the decent thing, and marry those they had abducted or give them up for a reasonable sum.   

A few of the surviving Magdeburg men were able to scrape together enough to ransom themselves and buy back their women, but those who could not had to march off with the Catholic troops as their servants. Perhaps 20,000 people were killed, and the atrocity caused such horror throughout Europe that victory celebrations were called off.  

As the war dragged on for another 17 years, many a Catholic soldier crying for quarter to his Protestant enemy would be met with the retort "Magdeburg quarter!" and shot down.

The Thirty Years War killed perhaps ten million people across Central Europe. For the full story, see A Disastrous History of the World published by Piatkus Books.

Fireworks: the missing Whistler picture

I went to the James McNeill Whistler exhibition at Tate Britain in London, hoping to see his famous (notorious?) Nocturne in Gold and Black: the Falling Rocket (1875) (above) but it had obviously decided not to make the journey from its home in Detroit.

The picture, showing a firework display at the Cremorne Pleasure Gardens near Whistler's fashionable Chelsea home, became the centre of a celebrated court case. The distinguished critic, John Ruskin, hated it and accused Whistler of 'throwing a pot of paint in the public's face' when he put a price of 200 guineas (£210) on the work. Whistler sued for libel.

Perhaps the most famous exchange came when the painter was asked how long it had taken him to paint the picture, and he replied a couple of days. The Attorney-General was incensed and said; 'The labour of two days is that for which you ask 200 guineas?' Whistler replied: 'No. I ask it for the knowledge I have gained in the work of a lifetime.'

The good news for Whistler was that he won the case. The bad news was that he was awarded the deliberately insulting damages of one farthing (c 0.1p). The legal fees broke him and he had to leave his Chelsea home.

The exhibition does feature another fireworks picture Nocturne: Black and Gold. The Fire Wheel, which is well worth a look. If you want to know more about fireworks in art and the arts, there's a chapter in my book A History of Fireworks from Their Origins to the Present Day (Reaktion Books).