Democracy Destroyed The First 100 Days of Nazi Rule

Day 77, Sunday 16 April 1933: Easter: Erwin Kahn dies of his Dachau wounds; Munich publishes its attack on Thomas Mann

Day 77 of 100

Easter: Erwin Kahn dies of his Dachau wounds; Munich publishes its attack on Thomas Mann

Early on Easter Sunday Erwin Kahn, the one survivor of the Dachau shootings of 12 April, died under guard in a Munich clinic, killed by force to his larynx. The Easter edition of the Münchner Neueste Nachrichten carried the ‘Protest of the Richard Wagner City of Munich’ against Thomas Mann, signed by more than forty people including Richard Strauss, and the satirical weekly Simplicissimus was brought into line. Protestant pulpits in Prussia read out a message welcoming the ‘new Germany’; in Berlin, burglars cleared out the C&A store on Königstraße, and a gusty wind troubled the Easter air show at Tempelhof.

A man in a checked overcoat and hat walks beside a woman in a fur-collared coat along a wet pavement; a uniformed doorman stands behind.
Thomas Mann and his wife Katia leaving the Hotel Adlon in Berlin in 1929. On Easter Sunday 1933 Munich’s ‘protest’ against his Wagner lecture was published. For context Bundesarchiv, Bild 183-H27031 / CC-BY-SA 3.0. CC BY-SA 3.0 de, via Wikimedia Commons

The Munich ‘protest’ was aimed at Thomas Mann’s lecture ‘The Sufferings and Greatness of Richard Wagner’, given at the University of Munich on 10 February and repeated abroad. Initiated by the director of the Bavarian State Opera, Hans Knappertsbusch, with the composer Hans Pfitzner as co-author, it accused Mann of belittling ‘our great German musical genius’. Mann, abroad since February, received a copy on 18 April; it confirmed his decision not to return to Germany. A reply he wrote appeared in a few papers on 21 and 22 April, but in July no German paper would print his answer to Pfitzner, in which he called the protest a dangerous denunciation.

Politics and power

Government, terror and persecution

  1. Terror about 4.30 am, Munich

    Erwin Kahn dies under guard in Munich

    Erwin Kahn, the Munich insurance agent shot twice in the head at Dachau on 12 April, died in the surgical clinic on Nussbaumstraße at about 4.30 am. The day before, he had described the shootings to his wife. The autopsy at the University of Munich’s forensic institute found that he had been killed by blunt force to the larynx; the Munich memorial book concludes that his guards probably strangled him. He was buried in the Old Jewish Cemetery in Munich.1

  2. Propaganda Munich

    Munich’s ‘protest’ against Thomas Mann

    The Easter edition of the Münchner Neueste Nachrichten (16/17 April) printed a ‘Protest of the Richard Wagner City of Munich’ against Thomas Mann’s Wagner lecture, signed by more than forty figures of Munich cultural life, among them Richard Strauss. The campaign had been organised in early April by the conductor Hans Knappertsbusch with Hans Pfitzner.2,3

  3. Propaganda Munich

    Simplicissimus brought into line

    The Munich satirical weekly Simplicissimus was ‘coordinated’ (gleichgeschaltet), that is, brought into line with the regime.4

  4. Churches Prussia

    Easter message from the Prussian Protestant church

    A proclamation of the Evangelical Supreme Church Council of the Old Prussian Union was read from all Protestant pulpits at the main Easter service. It said the Easter message came this year to a people to whom God had spoken ‘through a great turning point’, rejoiced at the nation’s awakening to ‘true national community’ and declared the church ‘gratefully bound’ to the leadership of the new Germany and ready to cooperate.5

  5. Government Obersalzberg, Berchtesgaden

    Seldte and Goebbels visit Hitler at the Obersalzberg

    With hundreds of supporters gathered outside Hitler’s country house above Berchtesgaden, the Labour Minister and Stahlhelm leader Seldte and the Propaganda Minister, Goebbels, called on him over Easter. That afternoon police arrested a man in SA uniform near the house who gave his name as Paul Orlowski, a former medical officer from Schweidnitz; he was carrying false papers, morphine and a revolver.6,5

    Sources disagree. The Kölnische Zeitung reported that Hitler and Seldte continued their talks on ‘coordinating’ the Stahlhelm with the SA on Easter Sunday; the Hamburger Fremdenblatt’s Munich correspondent said the visits were courtesy calls without major political discussion.

Everyday life

What else was happening in Germany

  1. Crime Berlin, Königstraße

    Three gangs in one department store

    Over Easter Sunday burglars broke into the C&A Brenninkmeyer department store on Königstraße at the corner of Neue Friedrichstraße in central Berlin. Police found traces of three separate gangs: one tried and failed to open the safe on the second floor, another emptied the stockrooms of dresses, coats and blouses, taking only the best, and the haul was put at 60,000 to 80,000 marks.6

  2. Transport Berlin, Tempelhof

    Easter air show at Tempelhof in a gusty wind

    The first spring flying displays of the year on the Tempelhof field were held on Easter Sunday and Monday. On Sunday a gusty north-westerly wind drove scraps of cloud low over the field, which the Kölnische Zeitung’s reporter thought most unwelcome for an air show.5

  3. Sport Breslau

    Swimmers’ congress closes in a hurry

    The German Swimming Association’s 37th congress in Breslau opened in a hall decked with the flags of the ‘national uprising’ (nationale Erhebung, the Nazis’ name for their takeover) and with the Horst Wessel song, and sent a resolution to Interior Minister Frick calling for all gymnastics and sport to be brought together. At the Sunday session the chairman, Georg Hax, handed the chair to a delegate from Munich, who asked members to avoid a dispute and proposed that Hax carry on as acting leader until the government decided how German sport was to be organised.5

  4. Transport evening, Hohenbrunn, Bavaria

    Level-crossing accident near Munich

    On the evening of Easter Sunday a train struck a car carrying six people on an unguarded level crossing near Hohenbrunn station, outside Munich, and dragged it about 100 metres.6

Elsewhere in the world

  • France

    Maes wins Paris–Roubaix; a German fourth

    The Belgian Maes won the Easter Sunday road race Paris–Roubaix over 255.7 km, ahead of his compatriot Verwaecke and Le Calvez; the German rider Geyer finished fourth and the Viennese Max Bulla eleventh.7

  • Vatican City

    Easter in Rome

    The Easter celebrations in Rome, in the Holy Year opened by Pius XI on 1 April, reached their climax with the papal Mass in St Peter’s and the papal blessing from the central loggia.6,4

More pictures

A racing cyclist rides across a wide town square while a man runs alongside and spectators line the edges.
A rider in the Paris–Roubaix race passing through Amiens on Easter Sunday, 16 April 1933, watched by spectators; the archive record does not name him. Press photograph, Agence Rol. Photographed on this day Agence Rol. Agence photographique (commanditaire). Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

Sources

  1. Erwin Elias Kahn Biografisches Gedenkbuch der Münchner Juden 1933–1945, Stadtarchiv München, Biography by Björn Mensing
  2. Richard Wagner wurde sein Schicksal: Thomas Mann und die Gralshüter von 1933 Neue Zürcher Zeitung
  3. Thomas Mann (restitution case) Bayerische Staatsbibliothek
  4. Jahreschronik 1933 Deutsches Historisches Museum, LeMO, Entries for 1 April (Holy Year) and 16 April ('Gleichschaltung der Satirezeitschrift „Simplicissimus“')
  5. Kölnische Zeitung, 18 April 1933 Deutsche Digitale Bibliothek, Zeitungsportal, Morning edition, p. 1 (Easter air show), p. 2 (church proclamation), p. 3 (swimming congress); evening edition, p. 5 (Hitler and Seldte)
  6. Hamburger Fremdenblatt, 18 April 1933 Deutsche Digitale Bibliothek, Zeitungsportal, p. 1 ('München, 18. April': Obersalzberg arrest; Seldte and Goebbels); p. 2 (Easter in Rome); evening edition, p. 3 (C&A burglary; Hohenbrunn accident)
  7. Die Glocke (Oelde), 19 April 1933 Deutsche Digitale Bibliothek, Zeitungsportal, p. 12, 'Geyer Vierter bei Paris – Roubaix!'

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