Iron Kingdom: The Rise and Downfall of Prussia, 1600-1947

65. Citation from Schulze, ‘Democratic Prussia’. On Gayl’s role, see also Horst Möller, Weimar. Die unvollendete Demokratie (Munich, 1997), p. 304; Martin Broszat, Die Machtergreifung. Der Aufstieg der NSDAP und die Zerstörung der Weimarer Republik (Munich, 1984), pp. 145–56; Schulze, Otto Braun, pp. 735–44.

66. Möller, ‘Weimar’, p. 304.

67. On the dissolution, see Möller, Weimar, pp. 57–78; Bracher, Die Auflösung der Weimarer Republik, pp. 491–526; Rudolf Morsey, ‘Zur Geschichte des “Preussenschlags” ’, Vierteljahrshefte für Zeitgeschichte, 9 (1961), pp. 430–39; Andreas Dorpalen, Hindenburg and the Weimar Republic (Princeton, NJ, 1964), pp. 341–7.

68. Cited in Heinrich, Geschichte Preussens, p. 496; cf. Otto Braun, Von Weimar zu Hitler (2nd edn, New York, 1940), pp. 409–11.

69. Kloosterhuis (ed.), Preussisch Dienen und Geniessen, p. 433; Schulze, Otto Braun, pp. 584–60, 689–71.

70. Lessmann, Schutzpolizei, pp. 302–18.

71. Josef Goebbels, Vom Kaiserhof zur Reichskanzlei. Eine historische Darstellung in Tagebuchblättern (Vom 1. Januar 1932 bis zum 1. Mai 1933), pp. 131, 132–3.

72. Evans, Coming of the Third Reich, p. 284.

73. Evans, Rituals of Retribution, pp. 613–14.

74. Goebbels, Diary entry of 22 July 1932, in id., Vom Kaiserhof zur Reichskanzlei, p. 133.

75. Papen’s plan was not as stupid as it now looks. He had planned that soon after its formation, the new cabinet would place an enabling law (Ermächtigungsgesetz) before the Reichstag. This was a law which gave the government the power to initiate legislation for a certain period of time. With Hitler’s help, Papen believed there would be no problem raising the two-thirds majority needed to get the law through the Reichstag. The deadlock between cabinet and Reichstag could at last be broken. And since laws would be passed by a vote within the cabinet, the conservative majority provided a guarantee that the Nazis would be held in check by their conservative colleagues. Papen did not foresee the radicalization that followed the Reichstag fire and the role of the Nazi political machine in intimidating and marginalizing conservative, nationalist political leaders.

76. Ewald von Kleist-Schmenzin, ‘Die letzte Möglichkeit’, Politische Studien, 10 (1959), pp. 89–92, here p. 92.

77. Allan Bullock, A Study in Tyranny (rev. edn, London, 1964), p. 253.

78. Spenkuch, Herrenhaus, pp. 561–2.

79. Dietz Bering, ‘ “Geboren im Hause Cohn”. Namenpolemik gegen den preussischen Innenminister Albert Grzesinski’, in Dietz Bering and Friedhelm Debus (eds.), Fremdes und Fremdheit in Eigennamen (Heidelberg, 1990), pp. 16–52.

80. For Grzesinski’s own account of his life, see Eberhard Kolb (ed.), Albert Grzesinski. Im Kampf um die deutsche Republik. Erinnerungen eines Sozialdemokraten (Munich, 2001). The most recent biography is Thomas Albrecht, Für eine Wehrhafte Demokratie. Albert Grzesinski und die preussische Politik in der Weimarer Republik (Bonn, 1999).

81. Cited in Heinrich, Geschichte Preussens, p. 497.

82. Schulze, Otto Braun, pp. 488–98.

83. ‘Marginal Prussians’ (Randpreussen) is the term coined by Gerd Heinrich to describe the conspirators of 1932; see Geschichte Preussens, p. 495.

84. On Schleicher and his motivations, see Henry Ashby Turner, Jr, Hitler’s Thirty Days to Power. January 1933 (London, 1996), pp. 19–21; Theodor Eschenburg, ‘Die Rolle der Persönlichkeit in der Krise der Weimarer Republik: Hindenburg, Brüning, Groener, Schleicher’, Vierteljahrshefte für Zeitgeschichte, 9 (1961), pp. 1–29. For a dissenting view that emphasizes Schleicher’s democratic and constitutional commitments, see Wolfram Pyta, ‘Konstitutionelle Demokratie statt monarchischer Restauration: Die verfassungspolitische Konzeption Schleichers in der Weimarer Staatskrise’, Vierteljahrshefte für Zeitgeschichte, 47 (1999), pp. 417–41.

85. On this episode, see Craig, Politics of the Prussian Army, p. 372; cf. John Wheeler-Bennett, Hindenburg: the Wooden Titan (London, 1967), pp. 220–21.

86. Vorwarts!, 10 March 1932, cited in Winkler, Der Weg, p. 514; Evans, Coming of the Third Reich, p. 279.

87. Frederick William I had initially planned that he and his wife would be entombed together in the crypt of the Garrison Church. But upon her death in 1757, his queen, Sophie Dorothea, was in fact interred in Berlin Cathedral. The space beside the king thus remained empty until it was occupied by the remains of his son on 18 August 1786.

88. Elke Fröhlich (ed.), Die Tagebücher von Joseph Goebbels. Sämtliche Fragmente, Part 1, Aufzeichnungen, 1924–1941, vol. 2 (4 vols., Munich, 1987), pp. 393–4.

89. Brendan Simms, ‘Prussia, Prussianism and National Socialism’, in Dwyer (ed.), Modern Prussian History, pp. 253–73.

90. Werner Freitag, ‘Nationale Mythen und kirchliches Heil: Der “Tag von Potsdam” ’, in Westfälische Forschungen, 41 (1991), pp. 379–430.

91. Goebbels, Diary entry of 21 March 1933, in Vom Kaiserhof, pp. 285–6.