Adolf Hitler | He's really different from all the others - Klara Hitler about her son | Documentary

Adolf Hitler neither finished school nor had any vocational training. He occasionally lived in homeless shelters or on the street. He refused to pursue a regular job. To this day it seems inexplicable that he could come to power. Out of nowhere Hitler became the Führer, leader of the German Reich. One of the most powerful men of the 20th century who brought the world to the brink of disaster and death to millions of people. The nation worshipped him and followed him blindly into the abyss. But during his lifetime he kept his origins and his life secret. No one should know how or who he was. Hitler's contemporaries, from his birth to his death, flesh out the picture. Who was Hitler? On June the 30th, 1903, the 72-year-old Kaiser Franz Josef I visits Braunau am Inn to celebrate its 700th birthday. An historical coincidence. This border town to Bavaria of all places is the origin of the oldest film footage shot by an Austrian cinematographer. In the late 80s of the last century, my parents lived in this small town on the inn, which is Bavarian by blood and Austrian by nationality. Adolf Hitler, Mein Kampf. The customs inspector Alois Hitler and his family occupy a small apartment on the top floor of the Pomer Hotel in Braunau. At Easter time on April the 20th, 1889, at about 6.30 in the evening, Adolf Hitler is born. Paris Register, Braunau. Adolfus Hitler, born on April the 20th, 1889, at 6.30 in the evening. Baptised on April the 22nd at 3.15 by Ignatz Probst. To begin with, there is this picture of little Adolf from the year 1889, a few months after his birth. One thing worthy of note in this first picture of Hitler is the close resemblance of Adolf to his mother. August Kubitschek, childhood friend of Adolf Hitler. Adolf Hitler is the third of the couple's six children. He and his younger sister Paula are the only ones to survive beyond childhood. The mother is 28 years old at the time of the birth. The father is 51. Klara Hitler is related to Alois Hitler. She's her husband's second cousin. When Hitler is three years old, his father is transferred to a new post and decides to move into an apartment in Passau on the German side of the border. Adolf Hitler lives with his family in Bavaria for three years, until 1895. Actually, Hitler didn't speak a typical Austrian dialect. August Kubitschek. In my youth, my German was the dialect spoken in Lower Bavaria. Adolf Hitler, Mein Kampf. The oldest film recording made in Austria-Hungary was shot by foreigners, the Lumiere brothers. It shows Vienna, the capital of a multinational empire in the year 1896. In old Austria, you could travel without a passport, from the Mediterranean, over the Alps, way into the East, the West and the North. Oskar Kokoschka, painter and writer. Hitler's ancestry from Lower Austria, as well as a total of 21 years spent in Upper Austria and Vienna, do not suffice to make him Austrian in the sense of a citizen of that nation. Kurt Schuschnigg, Austrian Chancellor from 1934 to 1938. Austrians who spoke about the nation before 1938 meant the national culture that extended beyond their borders, which is what Austrian man also identified with. This cultural nation is Germany. Transporting a locomotive through the streets of Chemnitz, 16 workhorses pull the locomotive as the factory has no rail connection. The majority of German-speaking Austrians feel close links to the Germans in Prussia, Saxony, Bavaria and the smaller federal states, already united in a partly industrialized Reich. He was a grumpy, reticent old man, and, like a lot of political free spirits at the time, a stern German nationalist. Joseph Mayerhofer, farmer in the village of Leonding by Linz. A visit to his parents' grave. His school friends say his mother was loving and kind-hearted. The father cold, silent and strict. Josef Goebbels, diary, July 22nd, 1938. I never loved my father, but feared him all the more. Adolf Hitler, table talk, recorded by his secretary Christa Schröder. My brother Adolf provoked my father to such extremes that he was beaten every day. Paula Hitler, later Paula Wolf. In June 1939, Eva Braun films the small farm in the village of Haferfeld in Upper Austria that Hitler's father leases after retiring early in 1895. On May 1st, 1895, Hitler starts school in a one-room schoolhouse in the neighboring village of Fischlhamm. In the year 1897, Hitler's father sells the farm in Haferfeld. The family lives temporarily in the small town of Lambach. In 1898, the Hitler family moves to the village of Leonding near Linz. Here, Hitler's father buys property number 61, including 1,900 square meters of land. After five years at elementary school, in 1900, Adolf Hitler, aged 11, begins secondary school in the city of Linz. Adolf Hitler has to repeat his first year at secondary school due to poor grades. I remember the scrawny, pale boy who commuted every day between Linz and Leonding fairly well. He was definitely talented on the one hand, but was not in control of himself. He was considered rebellious, and he didn't work hard. Dr. Edvard Humer, Hitler's French teacher. The quiet life enjoyed by the Hitler family on its little patch of land only lasted a few years. The head of the family died unexpectedly of a heart attack in January 1903. Max Zickstel, Leonding, the Führer's hometown. Arlois Hitler leaves his modest savings to his four surviving children, Arlois and Angela from the second of his three marriages, and Adolf and Paula. This inheritance is to be paid out when they come of age. The quiet cemetery of Leonding was his final resting place. His widow moved to the nearby city of Linz. For the better educational opportunities for her children. Max Zickstel. In 1904, Clara Hitler has to send her son Adolf, who due to bad grades is again in danger of not moving up a class, to the state secondary school in Steyr, 40 kilometers away. Look at my school grades. I had bad marks in German. That idiot of a professor spoiled the German language for me. I would never be able to write a proper letter. Adolf Hitler, in the Führer's headquarters, 1943. Last grades at secondary school in Steyr. Diligence. Inconsistent. German. Insufficient. Geography and history. Sufficient. Mathematics. Insufficient. Physics. Satisfactory. Freehand drawing. Commendable. Sport. Excellent. I don't have a photograph of Adolf Hitler during the years of our friendship. There probably aren't any photos of Hitler during this period. Everything that could be said about images of Hitler, as a young man, has already been said, were it not for the drawing by a classmate from the fourth grade of the junior high school in Steyr. By chance this drawing, done in 1905, was preserved. The boy could only draw profiles. Nevertheless, there is something peculiarly fascinating about this pencil sketch. August Kubitschek. After nine years, Adolf Hitler finishes school without graduating. For the following three years, he lives in Linz on his mother's pension, not really doing anything. All of his relatives considered him worthless, a person who shied away from any gainful employment from the start. August Kubitschek. Adolf Hitler talks his mother into allowing him to travel to Vienna. He wants to apply for admission to the general painting class at the Academy of Fine Arts. From early in the morning to late at night, I ran from one sight-seeing attraction to the next. But the buildings were the only things that fascinated me. All of Ring Street affected me like a spell from the Arabian Nights. Adolf Hitler. Mein Kampf. From 1904 to 1908, I was Adolf Hitler's only friend in Linz and thereafter in Vienna. August Kubitschek. Hitler, who later, in the opinion of a few art experts, was not entirely untalented, manages to pass the first selection but is turned down after the second. Adolf Hitler, born in Braunau, Upper Austria, on April the 20th, 1889. German, Catholic, few faces, test drawing, unsatisfactory. Classification list of the general painting class. When Adolf Hitler, disappointed by the rejection, returns to his family in Linz after eight weeks, Klara Hitler is struck down with a serious illness. She's suffering from a swelling. Nowadays it would be diagnosed as cancer. For several months, Adolf Hitler devotedly takes care of his mother at home. Dr. Bloch, well loved by all, was the Hitler family physician. August Kubitschek. To a great degree the boy lived in his own world. I have no idea what dreams he dreamt. Dr. Edvard Bloch, Jewish physician of the Hitler family. Klara Hitler dies in the night of December the 21st, 1907, surrounded by her family. The death of our mother had a great effect on me and Adolf. We were very attached to our mother. When she died, Adolf stopped coming home. Paola Hitler, Adolf Hitler's sister. In contrast to what Hitler's sister Paola claims later, Adolf Hitler remains in Linz several weeks after the death of his mother. He never tells his family or his friend Kubitschek that he failed the admissions test the previous year. Apparently he was having some really bad days. He was easily irritated and gave me short shrift when I started to talk about my studies. August Kubitschek. In the spring of 1908, Adolf Hitler begins living the life of a wastrel in the metropolis. Vienna was the most thorough education of my life. Adolf Hitler, Mein Kampf. The small inheritance that was diligently managed by his guardian had to cover both the cost of living and his studies. He may have been able to supplement his income through the sale of drawings and paintings. August Kubitschek. For the next months, there is no trace of Hitler's activities in Vienna. He's broken off contact with his family and he fails the second entrance test at the art academy. He begins to copy street views of Vienna from books and then sells them as postcards. I was a young, inexperienced man without any means of support. Forced to get by on my own, the few kronen, often only cents, from the proceeds of my work were barely enough to pay for my bed and board. Adolf Hitler, Mein Kampf. Hitler's share of his father's inheritance died out on April the 20th, 1913, his 24th birthday. Hitler met Rudolf Heusler in a men's hostel. With him, he wants to move to the German city of Munich. He was just full of praise for this city and at the same time, he didn't forget the large beer gardens and radishes, etc. Housemate of Hitler's in 1912. I had arrived in this town as a boy and departed as a quiet and serious man. Adolf Hitler, Mein Kampf. The main reason for leaving Austria is probably that the later commander-in-chief Adolf Hitler wants to get out of doing military service. On Saturday, May the 24th, 1913, Hitler and Heusler give notice of departure to the police but don't state where they plan to live. In Munich, Adolf Hitler has found the city that is to become the centre of his life. He does, however, remain an outsider. His inheritance helps him build an uncertain yet adequate existence on the fringe of society. It was a beautiful Sunday afternoon in spring. Someone knocked on the door and I answered it. It was a young man wanting to see the room we were renting. I showed it to him and we reached an agreement. Frau Anna Popp, landlady, Schleisheimerstrasse 34. Adolf Hitler and Rudolf Heusler rent a room together from the tailor Popp at 34 Schleisheimerstrasse near the district of Schwabing. The younger generation that we belonged to didn't know anything about war but were intoxicated by foreign wars. We had no real idea what war was. Adolf's father had never been a soldier. Now and again, old men would talk about Königgrätz and Kostotze. August Kubitschek. Diary, Monday, June the 29th, 1914. Archduke Franz Ferdinand, the heir apparent to the Austrian throne, has been killed along with his wife. The scum of moral turpitude. Henrietta Schneider, born 1872, housekeeper, East Prussia. The incident triggers a war in the Balkans that grows to become a world war. For me, those hours were a release from the annoying emotions of youth. I'm not ashamed to say today that I was overwhelmed with enthusiasm, fell to my knees and thanked the heavens with all my heart that they had given me the good fortune to live in this era. Adolf Hitler, Mein Kampf. On August the 2nd, 1914, the day after Germany declares war on Russia, there is a big patriotic rally on Odeonsplatz in front of the Feldherrn Hall. Heinrich Hoffmann photographs the ceremony. Years later, in an enlargement, he discovers a face among the masses, which is presumably Hitler's. On August the 5th, 1914, I enlisted in the army on a request to His Majesty and entered the 1st Bavarian Infantry Regiment. I was deferred for several days, then transferred to the 2nd Infantry Regiment and finally assigned to the Bavarian Reserve Infantry Regiment No. 16 on August the 16th. Adolf Hitler, outline of my person. For the first time in his life, Adolf Hitler wears a uniform. In the early morning hours of October the 21st, 1914, Hitler's regiment sets out from Munich Station in a westerly direction. Shortly after the first combat mission of the List Regiment, Hitler is promoted to Lance Corporal. He will reject further promotions during the course of the war. This would have involved an attachment to other army units and Hitler would have lost the camaraderie and security of the regimental family. For the first time, Hitler was part of a bigger community. And with that came the order and structure that spared him the daily struggle to survive. Fritz Wiedemann, Lieutenant. As of November the 9th, Hitler is deployed as a dispatch runner and assigned to the regimental staff. In the eyes of many soldiers in the trenches, the staff orderlies behind the immediate front are privileged cowards. Whenever death was on the prowl, a certain something attempted to rebel and appeared to the weak body in the guise of reason and was in fact only cowardice that was behind this disguise trying to seduce the individual. By the winter of 1915-16, this battle was already decided for me. The will itself had finally become my complete master. Now fate could put me to the test without me losing my nerves. A young war volunteer had become an old soldier. Adolf Hitler, Mein Kampf. Hitler is respected by his comrades at regimental headquarters, but he remains an outsider. In five of six photos showing Hitler with his comrades, he's either standing or sitting to one side. Hitler is wounded by British artillery shrapnel on October 5, 1916 and is taken to the Red Cross Hospital in Beelitz, south of Berlin. By March 1, 1917, he's back running dispatches in the regimental staff. In the following months, he participates in combat activities. On August 4, 1918, Hitler is awarded the Iron Cross First Class, the highest military honour that soldiers of his rank in the Imperial German Army can receive. The nomination was submitted by a Jewish officer, Lieutenant Hugo Gutmann. I never got out of Hitler the reason for his fanatical hatred of Jews. The experience with Jewish officers during the World War couldn't have contributed to this. Fritz Wiedemann, Lieutenant. In the night of October 13, Hitler's war service ends in a heavy British barrage. Mustard gas was used. On a hill south of the city of Wehrwich, on October 13, we came under several hours of artillery fire with gas shells. Already around midnight, some of us dropped out, including some comrades, permanently. In the morning, I too experienced pain that grew stronger every 15 minutes. And at seven o'clock, I staggered and stumbled back with burning eyes, taking my last message of the war with me. Adolf Hitler, Mein Kampf. After treatment in a mobile army hospital, Adolf Hitler is transported to the Prussian Reserve Hospital in Parzivalg, western Pomerania. He's been on the front for 42 of the 51 months of the war. Hitler remains in Parzivalg for 28 days, during which the world changes. In the military hospital in Parzivalg, Adolf Hitler and the other patients learn that a revolution has taken place, the monarchy abdicated, and a ceasefire been concluded. I hadn't cried since the day I stood by my mother's grave. Now, I couldn't stop myself. Adolf Hitler, Mein Kampf. Like everything else in Mein Kampf, this portrayal is a stylization and must be doubted. We don't know whether it was Hitler's will or merely coincidence that influenced his future course from then on. On November the 21st, 1918, Adolf Hitler returns to Munich. He tries to evade demobilization and remain a soldier. There are clashes between supporters of the workers' councils and parliamentary democracy in the state capital. The social democratic majority allows right-wing volunteer groups, the so-called Free Corps, to break the power of the workers' councils. Letter to Clara and Fritz Hess. The Volunteer Corps made an excellent impression. Without them, we would have been finished in Bavaria. Rudolf Hess, student and member of the Free Corps. Adolf Hitler keeps his distance to the revolutionary forces, but also to their right-wing opponents. During this period, Hitler grows more radical. He is under the influence of army officers like Karl Mayrer, the head of the intelligence battalion. When I met him for the first time, he came across as a tired stray dog looking for an owner. Karl Mayrer, captain of the Reichswehr. Karl Mayrer also finances patriotic parties, like the Deutsche Arbeiterpartei, the German Workers' Party, which is founded in Munich on January 5, 1919, mainly by a group of railwaymen. On September 12, 1919, Hitler, who has in the meantime been demobbed, is sent to spy on the German Workers' Party by Mayrer, who also provides financial support. During the discussion, a professor spoke about separatist views. A second speaker then took the floor and in short, powerful words, demolished the professor. It was Adolf Hitler. Michael Lotter, secretary of the German Workers' Party. One day, I had the opportunity to talk to a large audience, and what I had always instinctively felt without knowing it, turned out to be true. I could speak in public. Adolf Hitler, Mein Kampf. In the second half of September 1919, Hitler joins the German Workers' Party and participates regularly in its meetings. Among the various right-wing radical organisations, the NSDAP was by no means the strongest, but it was the most active and cohesive group. Its significance is solely the result of the effect of Hitler as a speaker. Ernst Hanfstenger, son of a publisher, acquaintance of Adolf Hitler from 1920. On February 24, 1920, Hitler speaks for the first time in front of more than a thousand people at the Hofbräuhaus. He also announces the 25-point party programme, which is formally valid for a quarter of a century until the demise of the NSDAP. First, we demand the unification of all Germans in a greater Germany based on the right of self-determination of the people. Second, we demand equal rights for the German people in respect to other nations and the abrogation of the peace treaties of Versailles and Saint-Germain. Third, we demand land and territory for the sustenance of our people and settlement of our surplus population. Fourth, only a national comrade can be a citizen. Only those of German blood can be national comrades, regardless of creed. Consequently, no Jew can be a national comrade. A few days later, they change their name from the German Workers' Party to the National Socialist German Workers' Party, or NSDAP. Hitler was the party, and the party was Hitler. Ernst Hanfstenger. Because right now, here in Munich, a movement is starting so strong that all young, powerful and healthy forces are attracted to it. It is the National Socialist German Workers' Party. To make it absolutely clear, we're anti-Semites. Ilse Bröll, later Ilse Hess, from 1921, member of the NSDAP. Letter to her former college teacher. the Augsburg SA is well represented. At this first public presentation, I get the impression that this has substance. We are not alone. The idea of the fatherland is growing. Karl Wahl, Augsburg, former SA member. The German economy collapses. In August 1923, hyperinflation sets in. Everything is getting worse. Famine. A loaf of bread, 140 billion. Then reduced again to 80 billion. Famine, famine everywhere. Käthe Kollwitz, painter and sculptress. The national associations overestimate their own strength and believe that parliamentary democracy is at an end. Interview with the Daily Mail newspaper, October 2nd, 1923. If a Mussolini were to appear in Germany, then the people would fall on their knees and worship him more than Mussolini has ever been worshipped. Adolf Hitler. A large revolt from the right in Bavaria with Ludendorff at its head. Henrietta Schneider, District Elst, East Prussia. Report of the Regional Government of Upper Bavaria, Munich, November 9th, 1923. The day before yesterday, Hitler promised General von Lossow and Colonel von Zeisser personally that he would not undertake anything. The answer to this word of honour was given last night when, with pistol in hand, Hitler extorted a declaration in favour of a national dictatorship from General State Commissioner von Kahr, General von Lossow and Colonel von Zeisser. At the same time, the ministers present were taken into custody by Hitler's people. Hitler presents his suggestions for new governments in Berlin and Munich and mentions Erich Ludendorff as Führer and Chief with dictatorial power over the German National Army. He asks the already drunken audience, Do you accept this solution for the German question of a greater German state? Then, as the crowd shouts its agreement, Hitler proclaims, Mourning will either find us with a national government in Germany or find us dead. The revolt is intended to put Munich and Bavaria in the hands of the revolutionaries and then, with a march on Berlin, to topple the democratic system. The putschists are counting on defections from the army in Bavaria and the Bavarian police. These, however, fail to materialise. On the morning of November the 10th, 2,000 revolutionaries, some armed, march from the Bürgerbräu Beer Hall through the centre of town to Ludwigstrasse at Audionsplatz. Ten years later, Munich, November the 9th, 1933. Amateur film of a tradition that actually dates from the year of the seizure of power, the annual march of the old fighters of the NSDAP to the Feldherrnhalle. Leading the column, as in 1923, are Adolf Hitler and Hermann Göring. We retreated to Café Stephanie. People soon came in and said there had been a skirmish on the Audionsplatz and the enormous crowd of Hitler men turned and ran away from the state police. Oskar Maria Graf, writer, from my life. On November the 12th, 1923, Adolf Hitler is sent to the fortress prison in Landsberg. He is given cell number seven. The leaders of the putsch are put on trial for high treason in the main lecture theatre of the Central War School on February the 26th, 1924. Report of the Württemberg Emissary, March the 13th, 1924. I attended one of the hearings myself and I was upset to see how the observers, who you could clearly see were mostly from circles close to Hitler, used every opportunity to show their support for the accused. Karl Moser von Vilsack. Letter to Clara and Fritz Hess. Hitler's final statement enclosed, it is one of the best, most powerful speeches that he has ever given. Even those in the courtroom who weren't particularly friendly to Hitler were deeply moved. Rudolf Hess, student. The verdict is handed down on April the 1st, 1924. All of the accused, with the exception of Ludendorff, are found guilty. In his 13 months in Landsberg prison, Adolf Hitler begins the transcript of a manifesto that portrays his alleged journey through life and his development as a politician and sets out his world view. So I decided, not only to clarify the goals of our movement, but also to draw a picture of its development. With that, I also had the chance to give a representation of my own development. Adolf Hitler. Forward to Mein Kampf. The biographical parts of his book are to a great extent exaggerated and unverified. However, his political goals are deadly serious. His view of the world is voluntaristic. He sees it as he wants to see it. Hitler's political gospel is derived from a primitive Darwinian idea of a struggle for existence. It reflects the permanent fight for survival of all against all, transferred from nature to human society. This struggle is, in his view, a selection process in which so-called high-quality races have a better chance of survival. At its head is supposedly a white person of the Nordic race of Aryans, the founders of culture. Like most anti-Semites before him, Hitler believes in a Jewish race, disguised as a religious community. He sees Jews in history as being parasites in the bodies of other nations and as contaminators of the blood of the Aryan race. For hours, the black-haired Jew boy waits to ambush the unsuspecting girl whom he pollutes with his blood and thus steals her from her people, with the same hidden agenda destroying the hated white race with the inevitable resulting bastardization. Adolf Hitler. Mein Kampf. In another chapter, Hitler drafts plans for territorial living space for his Aryan German people. We are stopping the endless German movement southwards and turning our gaze towards the land in the east. If today we speak of new land in Europe, we can primarily only have in mind Russia and her vassal border states. Adolf Hitler. Mein Kampf. Diary, January the 14th, 1925. At the end of the month, Hitler wants to call for the re-establishment of the National Socialist German Workers' Party. The only thing to do. Josef Goebbels. Hitler's remaining sentence of 3 years, 333 days, 21 hours and 50 minutes is waived according to the pedantically exact court records. On February the 27th, 1925, Hitler re-establishes the party. In the first round of elections for German president, on March the 29th, 1925, Erich Ludendorff is the candidate of the NSDAP and other nationalistic groups. He only receives 1.1% of the votes. When Paul von Hindenburg enters the race in the second round of voting, Hitler orders his party to support the ageing 77-year-old army general. Hitler and Ludendorff go separate ways. Hitler is now the sole leader of the National Camp. Diary, April the 26th, 1925. Hindenburg elected. Is he the man that Germany needs at this time? Is he not too old? Too easy to influence? Bella Fromm, German-Jewish journalist. From 1924 onwards, the German economy recovers. This leads to the five golden years of the Weimar Republic. Looking back on it now, I see the mad whirl of this Berlin of 1928 and 1929 as a kind of Pompeian revel on the eve of the Vesuvian eruption. Sefton Delmer, correspondent of the Daily Express in Berlin. The Nazis hated culture itself because it is essentially international and therefore subversive of nationalism. Christopher Isherwood, British-American writer. In the 1920s, Berlin was ahead of everything that was known as new in our field. It had everything. Reinhard's great theatre, great film studios, great films. The most beautiful bars and restaurants, including gay bars. Berlin was productive and rich with ideas. Rich in ideals and at the same time practical. A combination never achieved before. Marlene Dietrich, actress and singer. Memoirs. Art was no longer a mere ornament of life, but rather its immediate expression. Cubism, futurism, expressionism, whatever you want to call it. This is how we were. This was our world. So shaken and shocked that everything was upside down. Surrealism. Of course, what else? Vicky Baum, writer and journalist. Despite the lack of political success, the party stages spectacular rallies, first in Munich and Weimar, then from 1927 onwards exclusively in Nuremberg. Diary, Nuremberg, August 4, 1929. A stampede of people that exceeds our wildest hopes. Outside, the drums are already booming. Torchlight processions, endlessly long. Josef Goebbels, NSDAP leader of Berlin. The party conventions are without question Hitler's personal work. Just as he was involved in building the SA, from the smallest details of the uniforms to the colour of the collar patches, he concerned himself with the planning of the party conventions, right down to the decorations in the Congress Hall. Albert Krebs, NSDAP leader, Hamburg. Through the city, a triumphant procession. Everyone cheering and throwing flowers. March past, almost four hours. A sea of joy and flowers. Josef Goebbels, Diary. The continuing fragmentation of the party landscape is advantageous for the rise of the NSDAP. In elections, they win more and more support from the splinter and protest parties. After imprisonment in Landsberg, Hitler becomes the sole leader of the nationalist movement. He feels chosen by destiny to show Germany the way to national salvation. Although the party remains unsuccessful at the polls and membership increases only slowly, the personality cult around Hitler is growing. This Führer cult holds the National Socialist Movement together across ideological divisions and personal differences. Between 1925 and 1929, Hitler's small political movement is marked by activism, dynamism, enthusiasm, youthfulness and strength. Nearly 60% of new party members are under 30 years old. Street processions, press promotions, propaganda tours into the provinces created an atmosphere of activism and tension. There were countless clashes and wounded people, even dead people, left in the square. Horst Wessel, Autobiography. In February 1930, one of the casualties will be the Berlin student Horst Wessel. On November the 16th, 1928, for the first time after the ban on public speaking in Prussia has been lifted, Hitler speaks in the Sportpalast in Berlin, allegedly in front of 18,000 supporters. For the first time, he uses an electro-acoustic sound system, speaking into a microphone. And for the first time, his words are clearly understood in every corner of a large space.