This book is the first systematic study of the relations between
German high society and the Nazis. It uses unpublished archival
material, private diaries and diplomatic documents to take us into
the hidden areas of power where privileges, tax breaks, and stolen
property were exchanged.
Fabrice D'Almeida begins by examining high society in the Weimar
period, dominated by the old imperial aristocracy and a new
republican aristocracy of government officials and wealthy
businessmen. It was in this group that Hitler made his social debut
in the early 1920s through the mediation of conservative friends
and artists, including the family of the composer Richard Wagner.
By the end of the 1920s, he enjoyed wide support among socialites,
who played a significant role in his access to power in 1933. Their
adherence to the Nazi regime, and the favors they received in
return, continued and even grew until defeat loomed on the horizon.
D'Almeida shows how members of German high society sought to outdo
each other in showing zealous support for Hitler, how the old
elitesstarting with the Kaiser's sonspartied alongside parvenus,
and how actors, aristocrats, SS technocrats, and diplomats came
together to form a strange imperial court. Women also played a role
in this theater of power; they were persuaded that they had gained
in dignity what they had lost in civil rights.
There emerges a fascinating and disturbing picture of a group that
allowed nothingnot war, the plundering of Europe, nor the
extermination of peoplesto alter their cynical enjoyment of
pleasures: hunting, regattas, the opera, balls, dinners, tennis
More than a study of a class or a chronicle, this book lifts the
veil thathas concealed a society that used secrecy to protect
itself.
Hitler's High Society makes an important and unique contribution
to the current reevaluation of the extent to which German society,
including German high society, was responsible for Hitler's
accession to power and the crimes that were committed by his
regime.
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