Democracy Destroyed The First 100 Days of Nazi Rule

Day 46, Thursday 16 March 1933: Schacht returns to the Reichsbank; Bruno Walter's Leipzig concert is banned

Day 46 of 100

Schacht returns to the Reichsbank; Bruno Walter’s Leipzig concert is banned

Hans Luther resigned as president of the Reichsbank and its General Council unanimously elected Hjalmar Schacht in his place. In Leipzig the police, on the orders of Saxony’s Interior Ministry, forbade the conductor Bruno Walter’s Gewandhaus concert that evening. In Berlin Max Ophüls’s film Liebelei opened at the Atrium and the Titania-Palast, and Hitler promised the organisers of the 1936 Olympic Games his support.

Portrait of a man with close-cropped hair, a moustache and pince-nez, wearing a striped collar and dark suit.
Hjalmar Schacht, former and future president of the Reichsbank, photographed in 1931. For context Bundesarchiv, Bild 102-12733 / CC-BY-SA 3.0. CC BY-SA 3.0 de, via Wikimedia Commons

Hjalmar Schacht, a former president of the Reichsbank, came back on the day Hans Luther stepped down. Luther told Hindenburg in a long letter that obstacles in his own person stood in the way of the close cooperation between government and central bank that currency, credit and economic policy required in all important questions.

Politics and power

Government, terror and persecution

  1. Economy Berlin, Reichsbank

    Luther resigns; Schacht elected Reichsbank president

    At a meeting of the Reichsbank’s General Council, President Hans Luther announced his resignation, and the Council unanimously elected his predecessor, Hjalmar Schacht, to succeed him. In a letter to the Reich President, Luther explained that obstacles in his person were hampering the necessary cooperation between the government and the Reichsbank.1,2

  2. The states Breslau, Passau, Zwickau

    Honorary citizenships and new street names

    Breslau announced that it would make Hitler an honorary citizen and rename its former Schlossplatz ‘Adolf-Hitler-Platz’. Passau and Zwickau conferred honorary citizenship on Hindenburg and Hitler, and streets and squares in many towns were to bear the names of Hitler, Hindenburg and Schlageter.7

Everyday life

What else was happening in Germany

  1. Music evening, Leipzig

    Bruno Walter’s Gewandhaus concert forbidden

    Leipzig police announced that the Gewandhaus concert to be conducted that evening by Bruno Walter, a former Bavarian general music director who had also worked at Berlin’s Städtische Oper, could not take place, on the orders of the Saxon Interior Ministry. Days later Goebbels objected to Walter conducting his fourth concert with the Berlin Philharmonic, and Walter withdrew.3,4

  2. Film Berlin, Atrium and Titania-Palast

    Ophüls’s Liebelei opens in Berlin

    Max Ophüls’s film of Arthur Schnitzler’s Liebelei, with Magda Schneider, Wolfgang Liebeneiner, Luise Ullrich and Gustaf Gründgens, began its Berlin run at the Atrium and the Titania-Palast after a German first showing in Leipzig on 10 March. Ophüls was present for the premiere; soon afterwards he had to leave Germany.5

  3. Sport Berlin, Reich Chancellery

    Hitler receives the Olympic organisers

    Hitler received Theodor Lewald, chairman of the organising committee for the 1936 Olympic Games in Berlin, together with Berlin’s lord mayor Heinrich Sahm. After Lewald explained the purpose of the Games, Hitler called sport indispensable for strengthening German youth and promised to support the Games in every respect.6

  4. Radio

    Almost four and a half million radio licences

    On 1 March Germany had 4,480,251 registered radio listeners, 52,651 more than a month earlier. Of these, 551,693, or 12.5 per cent, were exempted from the licence fee.8

Elsewhere in the world

  • United Kingdom

    MacDonald presents a disarmament plan at Geneva

    In an extraordinary session of the main committee of the Disarmament Conference, attended by the French premier Daladier, British Prime Minister Ramsay MacDonald presented a draft convention and appealed for concessions from all sides. A Berlin report noted that the plan recognised Germany’s equality in theory but fell short of it in practice.9

In Berlin today

The lit lettering 'Titania Palast' on a tall rendered façade at dusk, with pedestrians, bicycles and scooters on a wet pavement.
The Titania-Palast in Schloßstraße, Berlin-Steglitz, on an evening in February 2022, during the Berlin film festival. IgorCalzone1 / CC BY-SA 4.0. CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Titania-Palast

Schloßstraße 4–5, 12163 Berlin-Steglitz

Then
One of the two Berlin cinemas where Max Ophüls’s Liebelei began its run on 16 March, in the last days before its director left Germany.5,10
Today
The cinema palace of 1928 survived the war and is a listed building (since 1984), used commercially. A Berlin memorial plaque unveiled in 1989 recalls its opening, the Philharmonic’s first post-war concert there in 1945 and the founding of the Free University in 1948.

Open in OpenStreetMap

More pictures

A middle-aged man in a suit with his hand on the shoulder of a boy holding a violin and bow.
Bruno Walter with the young violinist Yehudi Menuhin in Berlin in April 1929, when Menuhin first played a Mozart concerto there under Walter’s baton. For context Bundesarchiv, Bild 102-12786 / CC-BY-SA 3.0. CC BY-SA 3.0 de, via Wikimedia Commons
A large cream-coloured corner building with a striped tower and shop signs above a busy street.
The Titania-Palast in Schloßstraße, Berlin-Steglitz, in 2012. For context Muns / CC BY 3.0. CC BY 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Sources

  1. Jahreschronik 1933 LeMO, Deutsches Historisches Museum, Entry for 16 March
  2. Der sächsische Erzähler (Bischofswerdaer Tageblatt), 17 March 1933 Deutsche Digitale Bibliothek, Deutsches Zeitungsportal, p. 2, Reichsbank General Council; Luther's letter to the Reich President
  3. Aachener Anzeiger, 16 March 1933 Deutsche Digitale Bibliothek, Deutsches Zeitungsportal, p. 10, 'Leipziger Bruno Walter-Konzert darf nicht stattfinden' (Leipzig, 16 March)
  4. Kölnische Zeitung, 17 March 1933 Deutsche Digitale Bibliothek, Deutsches Zeitungsportal, p. 8, arts pages: Goebbels's objection and Walter's withdrawal from the Berlin concert
  5. Liebelei (1932/1933) filmportal.de (Deutsches Filminstitut & Filmmuseum), Screenings: Erstaufführung (DE) 10.03.1933 Leipzig; Kinostart (DE) 16.03.1933, Berlin, Atrium, Titania-Palast; cast and review
  6. Freiberger Anzeiger und Tageblatt, 17 March 1933 Deutsche Digitale Bibliothek, Deutsches Zeitungsportal, p. 6, Hitler receives Lewald and Sahm ('Berlin, 16. März')
  7. Schwelmer Zeitung, 17 March 1933 Deutsche Digitale Bibliothek, Deutsches Zeitungsportal, p. 2, honorary citizenships for Hitler and Hindenburg
  8. Freiberger Anzeiger und Tageblatt, 17 March 1933 Deutsche Digitale Bibliothek, Deutsches Zeitungsportal, p. 5, number of radio listeners on 1 March 1933
  9. Westfälische neueste Nachrichten, 17 March 1933 Deutsche Digitale Bibliothek, Deutsches Zeitungsportal, p. 2, 'Macdonald entwickelt in Genf seinen Plan' (Geneva, 16 March)
  10. Titania-Palast Gedenktafeln in Berlin (Aktives Museum Faschismus und Widerstand / Gedenkstätte Deutscher Widerstand)

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