Late in nineteen thirty four, I somewhat reluctantly started again as a psychotherapist to
my former patient, the diminutive corporal, who was now the Fureur of Germany,
a man who had been responsible earlier in the year for the brutal murderer
perhaps hundreds of his perceived enemies and political rivals in the infamous event known as
the Night of the Long Nights. I was now playing Daniel to his nebuchanessur,
listening as he recounted his dreams and I delved into his psyche. He
was particularly concerned with providence, ancient mythology, distantly, and fate, but
in our early sessions I sought to hear more of his developing years. He
was unwilling to come to my own consulting rooms, but I did manage to
persuade him that our therapy discussion should be in a more secluded, intimate and
dedicated setting than in his chancellery office, somewhere more conductive to uninterrupted relaxation.
As our form of patient therapist bond re kindle. He became more willing to
accept my questions, though in truth I was more interested in the attitudes induced
by them than in his actual spoken words. His reactions were sometimes violent outburst,
sometimes secretive and evasive. I knew how many people he'd killed who displeased
him. I knew that demanding Icees as his therapist would displease him. Our
sessions were a ti trope walk on a race of wire. You remember once
years ago, Adolf, ut, only of an unhappy time in your childhood.
Ma, Yeah, about my father's ducks. That's it. But do
you recall any more happy times while you were a child grown up? No?
Except when my brother Edmund was alive. We were happy together. He
was younger than I, but he cut nieces and died in nineteen hundred.
It was only six, I was ten. That would that would have made
you very sad. So what happened after that? I used to go and
sit on the cemetery wall and look at the stars and to try and see
Edmund again. Do you believe we all have our own star in the sky?
Doctor? Well, there are many ancient myths and legends about the stars,
or anything might be possible. After my brother died, I had a
bad time. We used to protect and comfort each other from our father's anger,
and after Edmund died. My father was worse with me, and I
stopped being so good at school. That would have made your father even more
angry. Yeah. Yeah. The only thing I enjoyed studying was history on
art. I wanted to become an artist. My father tried to beat that
idea out of me, but the harder he tried, the more resilient I
became. He wanted me to become a civil servant. Did your mother approve
of your interest in art and music? I pass in the church choir and
she was quiet and loving. What could never stand opposed to him her husband.
I loved her. She was loving to me. But my father was
unlovable. I was glad when he died suddenly in nineteen or three, when
you were fourteen, I was still thirty. You didn't love your father that
he was a brute. He never loved anybody. Nobody ever loved him.
Then there was only my sister Paula and me, but she was very young,
only six, So my mother and I were very close. Here,
I added to my notes, edith Us Triumphant. She had only my father's
pension, so she had to sell up and we had to move to a
smaller residence. Times were hard done, not so bad. The three of
us were happier without him. My father had two other children, Aloi and
Angela, but they were much older, and though they lived with us when
my father was alive, they did not come with us after he died.
You're being very forthcoming, hate off and that's good. Now. How did
life go after your father died? Good? At first? Mother let me
change schools. But after a while I and went to Vienna to study art,
and the mother got sick, and he would turn her home to look
after. You must have been disappointed at having to interrupt your studies. You
should. She'd found a lump, you know, in one of her breasts,
yeah, cancer, and the damned doctor instructed me to tell her she
needed surgery. I was seventeen. Paula was too young to know anything.
And how did that goal? And awful? She had wounds, terrible stinking
wounds that never healed. I got a local woman to come in and help
me with them. She had awful pain, distressing for her and for her
children. You and Paula. That best. The doctor said he could do
nothing further, he stopped coming. We couldn't pay him. He still should
have offered your mother medication. He left a small bottle of tincture of opium.
I wanted to put her out of her misery. For an animal,
you would have shot it, appoistoned it, but I didn't. Do you
regret that my mother was suffering. She deserved release. Indeed she did,
but she had to linger for a year until she died in nineteen or seven,
just before Christmas. That was our Christmas present that year, Paula and
me. The loss of your mother must have been very hard to bear,
Yes and no, for the reasons I told you. Her biggest pension was
allocated to us, but I signed my share to Paula and went to Vienna.
She spent the rest of her childhood with some relative or the other.
I had no interest in any of them except Paula. But I couldn't keep
it with me. And how did you fare in Vienna? After mother's death,
I grieved for a long time. I was destitute and homeless. I
tried to get into the Fine Arts Institute, but they rejected me twice.
They suggested I tried for architecture, but they failed me too because I hadn't
finished maths at school. And after that I lived frugally and became vegetarian.
I couldn't afford meat, and then I went off it. I lived in
shelters, tried to sell my drawings to tourists as postcards. I spent a
lot of time at the library. I was warm, indivdu and I enjoyed
beating European and military history. Whenever I had a couple of shippings, I'd
buy chocolate and cakes, a special treat. In your distress. I can
live on chocolate and pastries, my favorite food, those and eggs. Did
all your studying in the library help you? Yes? I came to despise
the remnants of Austria, Hungarianism and the Habsburgs. Germany was my true destiny.
Began to see that and to follow that dream. Austria was bastardized,
society impure. How old were you by then? In my early twenties,
around nineteen twelve, Yeah, that same year they wanted to constrict me into
the Austro Hungarian Army, but fortunately I managed to fail their medical board.
They said I was too small in height and phyzike if only they could measure
zego. He didn't want to be in the army. The food would have
been regular, not that army, and not their kind of food. I
moved them to Munich to get out of Austria and to follow my German destiny.
And then came nineteen fourteen, Yes, the glorious second of August,
when Germany mobilized for war. Enough, I have much to do. We
stopped for today. Doctor. As he rose, he glanced at me with
a twinkle in his eye. You remember you once told me you had difficulties
but women, Yes, are you still unmarried? Not the a serious relationship.
My relationship would till the florist when she was based in Berlin. We
would go to other concerts when she was free, and visit each other at
home. You hesitate. My work keeps me busy. If I do have
free time, I like to go to concerts alone invariably. Do you have
a favorite orchestra here in Berlin? Oh, there are several. They're all
good, the billion Philharmonic paps. How could he know? How could he
possibly know? Until the next then, and I've read this in mine Fuor.
I shuddered at the thought of how he had acquired this information Until next
time? Doctor, Thank you you forgot to castle. Your king is everything
all right? Oh, it's nothing really, just that I can get this
feeling I'm being watched. It's difficult in Burly in these days, their eyes
everywhere, we all feel it. But we're going to that fund raising concert
tomorrow. It's a concert house. Remember that should break in your spirit?
Are you right, my darling. I'm just getting too stressed with one of
my patients. This stressed shep his problem not Yes, you assume it's well,
isn't. Its a matter of fact? It is good. I shouldn't
like you to be getting so upset over another woman, even if she was
a patient. I'm glad to hear you say that we finished last time.
Madolf has Germany mobilized for war Ah the glorious second of August nineteen fourteen.
Yes, so then you did get into the Bavarian regiment. Oh, I
managed to get classified as tronomy. That was an exemplary social twice decorated.
But enough for that for a moment. Why is that you failed to answer
my question to you last time? And what was that concerning female relationship?
I explained my workload precluded. Um. Now, doctor, I understand you
have overcome your fear and avoidance our female companionship. Huh isn't that the truth?
And how would you know that? One would think you'd be proud,
not just any woman, but the beautiful violinist, the fouline Matilda man life.
Yes, I am proud, and I suppose you would like to continue
seeing her? I would good. I think you should. He let that
hang in the air, delighting in the implication that the choices of my personal
life required his approval. Delighting more Perhaps that have flustered he'd made me to
continue doctor. Yes, yes, after your leg injury had some and then
your second injury when you were temporarily blinded at you pray in nineteen eighteen,
that was not an injury. It was a divine sign of my being chosen
by providence just before the traitress betrayed of the armistice by the Jews and the
Communists. So then you stayed on in the army. I was promoted as
an intelligence officer to work with the German Workers' Party, and that's how you
entered politics. Of course, they recognize my aratorical skills and my leadership quality.
That you were just a corporal during the war, you say, just
but those imbssiles in charge had not the wits to perceive my supreme abilities.
But I showed them. I'm still showing them, so I'll continue to do
so until they all understand. Quite so, you know you are skeptical.
I'm prepared to hear you tell me about it as we go forward in our
sessions. What an honor you forget yourself? Doctor, Perhaps you're a distracted
today. Let's continue. Let's continue. You enjoyed your time and the army
they were good years. The Truman spirit was alive and strong among the men
until they were betrayed. The soldiers and the people were angry. What was
needed then and now is for Trumany to rise again, to throw off the
shame and disaster. After Treaty of Versailles, we gain our nation strength,
cleanse it, and read ourselves after draws in our midst expand our territory to
give us room to grow pure and strong. We need Laban's town. So
your association with the Worker's Party was the beginning of your political interest. It
was to stop. But they were a disorganized bunch. They lacked a true
leader, but they could recognize one. So once I began to influence them
and organize our protection, your brown shirts the essay. We had to keep
order and dissuade subversive elements. But then I came up against serious opposition within
the organization, and what did you do? But only a man of my
stature and intelligence would do. I resigned and walked away. But I had
my spies to keep me informed. So what happened not The fools were in
such disarray that when I reappeared, they agreed implicitly to my terms, made
me chairman throughout the opposition. And then I turned that small group, the
German's Workers Party, into the National Socialist German Workers Party NASDAP that became the
Nazi Party. And then in nineteen twenty three we failed in an attempted arm
coudita. They put me in jail. I told you about it years ago
when we met in Munich. Oh yeah, yeah, where you wrote my
income. Once released, I was able to get back to my NASDAP work.
We started to run in elections. Our gains were small to start with,
but then came the depression. The economy collapsed, unemployment rose, a
hyperinflation, our numbers soared. We gained the support of businessman, the middle
class and the farmers, who were all terrified of the Communists, whose support
came from the unemployed industry of workers. By nineteen thirty two, we were
a major party. In January that year, President Hindenberg appointed me Chancellor head
of the government. Then four weeks later our opposition, the Communists, set
fire to the rex Start building. Are you sure it was the Communists?
Of course it was them. Who else could it have been? I was
calm, at least outwardly. Yet he was threatened by a simple question.
For all his power, he was still a little man. But it was
to our advantage because it allowed for stronger controlling measures to be and acted immediately.
The President made the reichstead Fire Decree, of which all civil liberties were
curtailed. We were able to arrest and in turn members of the Communist Party.
Then came the Enabling Act that gave me a chancellor total control of legislation
without reference to the Leichstag or the President. In effect Germany who was now
heading toward a dictatorship, with Hitler as dictator and the President a mere puppet.
What that made me, I didn't know a trifle of the king to
be discarded at his leisure. The Reichstag ceased to be able to provide any
opposition to the Nazi Party and as a one party state, and with the
aid of my public promotion officer Joseph Gobaz did show me people could be aligned
into one great force, all moving in the same direction under my leadership.
All I had to do then was to eliminate the subversive elements and traitors within
my own party and those among the party troopers. Essay, my own guard
the ass were given orders to do away with a list of my opponents.
The lining matter the night after long knives, dead men cannot trouble him.
A brutal and unlawful act. What amnster a small man had become? How
did that make you feel cleansed? Do you think it was right? Right?
It was necessary? And what was the general reaction? But fortunately Hindenberg
died within the month, and that's saved me a lot of time and trouble.
I abolished the office of president and declared myself here extreme leader of Germany.
No one was then in a position to challenge my authority. You were
more and more fortunate. No, do you still not understand it's my destiny?
It is preordained Megalomania is a mental illness that causes a person to think
they have great power and importance. In his case, he had always thought
that, and now the world had aligned with his beliefs. Imagine a schizophrenic
who who has delusions and hallucinations of a giant bird, and then the giant
bird appears in reality. What would he do next? Following year nineteen twenty
five, at our glorious Nuremberg, really, I proclaimed the Nuremberg Laws,
the laws that now defined those entitled charming citizenship by purity of race. He
was a child with a grenade, and he had pulled the pin. My
romance would till the floorist while each of us sued our professional careers. Then
came a time with the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra. I went on a tour and
one of the stops of their eye Tannery was my old home city of Stockholm,
and that provided a perfect opportunity for my parents to meet my sweetheart.
So I traveled back to Sweden for a few days. The concert was a
resounding success, and the visit to my family home not as much. I
loved meeting your family. All of it was the highlight of the hotel.
But your mother doesn't seem to approve of me. Check. My grandmother would
have been worse. She barely accepted my mother's position in the house. I
do love you. Check again. You saw her mother froze when you offered
my grandfather your condolences. She figured you had no place in doing such a
thing. My first meeting so old fashioned. Yes, and she practically had
a stroke when I wanted to go fishing with her. Men. Now you
have it, Edipus and his mother. Checkmate. Oh, I despair to
find topics that would not endanger my life as I continue to treat my singular
patient. Most men enjoy the company of women. It seemed unlikely to be
perceived as a threat by him. It alf Let's explore something else. You're
not married? Are you a man? If my status, my status cannot
afford to be married. Think of the position that they put me in,
just one woman beside me, when all of the femininity of Germany longs to
be in my embrace and mine alone. No, No, I'm unmarried.
Have you never been close to one woman besides my mother? Yes? I
prefer them to be young, young, on naive, not too serious like
your sister Paula. Perhaps I was uncle and guardianto my seventeen year old half
niece Gary Rouble. She stayed with me for a few years until the crazy
girl shot herself nineteen thirty one. She was twenty three. How did that
affect you? I was disappointed. You're very close. I kept her out
of trouble. She shot herself with my pistol. I even considered doing the
same thing myself. I was so distressed. You say you kept her out
of trouble in what respect? Was that? So she did not have to
encounter men and their sordid ways? Your relationship was platonic? Then? Are
you not aware of Cherner's doctrine that the man should remain celibate until twenty five
and abstained from meat and alcohol. No, oh, I have not heard
that. I have proposed to carry that directive further in my life. So
Scherner has been instrumental in your social and political evolution. Would you say he
impressed me greatly in my student days following the tragedy class, So you have
niece Gaily, you remain without female association apart from my photographic assistant and secretary.
If a Brown I met her in nineteen twenty nine. She was a
seventeen year old assistant to photographer Heinrich Hoffmann. Like the other one, she
was young, on naive, and after Gelly's suicide I saw more of ever,
and she's now my personal secretary. But she remains in the background.
She has nothing to add to Nazi business meetings. She's a loyal associate.
I believe so. The Cilly Goose also tried to suicide a couple of years
ago. Can you believe it? Short, I said, unsuccessfully in the
chest with her father's pistol. First, I'm purity to get me to take
her a more serious interest in her. She tried again with pills in nineteen
thirty five for the same reason. She's obviously more keen on a deeper relationship
than you are. As I have told you already, I cannot conceive of
any such relationship, not in my position as furer. My brain is not
within my breeches. Huh you talk much of women, doctor, Perhaps all
that time with the fowline man life and has begun to corrode your brain.
Perhaps you'd spend too much time with her. Are you teasing me? Am?
I do I require your permission to see her. Are you asking for
it? This is your session, not mine. I felt myself shake a
bit and came flushed through my body at my fear. One afternoon in nineteen
thirty eight, as social conditions in Germany continue to deteriorate rapidly, I received
a visitor. I'm not seeing new patients, sir, well, I'm not
seeing two women at the same time, but don't tell either of them about
it. With his hands on Italian features of dark complexions, perfectly sculptured,
strong Roman nose and chin, and a rich stach of shiny black hair,
the man looked more like a movie star than my average patient, and certainly
not German who likes doc. Let me tell you who I am or what
I want. I wish to discuss certain things with you that do not relate
to my psychological well being. All right, go on. I'm American,
obviously, but we're working in tandem with a branch of British intelligence, who,
it turns out, are well aware of the developing situation here under Nazi
Party rule, and who know of your work from their pal Professor Freud,
who now lives in exile in London. Is that a fact? Sure.
Is it's true the situation here gets worse day by day. Because I'm Swedish,
I have no reservations about continuing this consultation. Please go on, perfect.
We're aware that you treat a certain patient in whom we have a keen
interest. I'm not saying I do. You don't need to. Then we'd
like you to prepare a psychological profile for us so we can develop counterintuitive measures
in the event is wild actions lead to a declaration of war, as seems
to be the most likely outcome in plain English, Dock, the Americans and
the Brits want to know how we can beat him, and you probably know
him as well as anyone. I'm not sure how professional illegal it would be
for me to leading buster. The longer crazy horse is at large, the
worse for everyone. You'll kill you eventually, like he does everyone else who
hangs around him too long. You know that unless you do something about it,
we can set up another consultation in a few days that you over your
report. I haven't said yes. You haven't said no either. To know
your enemy, one must delve into his psyche. Professor Freud taught me that
I knew the choice I was making this could only end with one of us
dead. The Hitler File is a production of Voyage Media. The series is
produced by nat Mondel, Robert Midas, and Dan Bennomore, Directed and produced
by Dan Bennomore, Written by Desmond Fosbery, based on the novel The Drameric
File by Brandon Rolfe, starring Peter Stormare as doctor Drmieric and Denis O'Hare as
Adolf Hitler. Additional cast credits available in the show notes. Edited sound designed
and mixed by Nick Missidi. Original music by Derlas Gonzalez. If you're enjoying
the show, please leave us a five star review and Apple Podcasts or anywhere
you're listening and subscribe now for future episodes.