Chapter 13

Munich Germany, 1933

 

 

Frau Wahlmuller had just finished her morning room inspection when a street fight broke out below her window in the Kaiserhof hotel. Another truckload of thugs, dressed in SA Brownshirt uniforms, had just appeared on the scene and had joined several of the brothers, who had been engaged in a shouting match with a group of Social Democrats. This SD party was the enemy of Adolph Hitler, the soon-to-be German Reich Chancellor, and his friend and fellow henchman, Ernst Rohm, head of the SA Brownshirt brigades. As it would turn out, Hitler and his top aides would soon come to fear the presence of Rohm and his SA stormtroopers as a threat to the new Nazi Party.

In the beginning, the SA provided protection for Hitler during his many street speeches and public rallies in Germany. But it was not long before they developed into a brawling force known for spreading havoc and descent from one end of the country to the other. Anyone who was not in favor of Adolph Hitler was the enemy of the SA bullies, and was put in fear of his or her life. It was from the ranks of the SA that Hitler’s personal security force, the SS, arose. Then, when Hitler was elected to the Chancellery, following The Night of the Long Knives, when most of the

Frau Wahlmuller had just finished her morning room inspection when a street fight broke out below her window in the Kaiserhof hotel. Another truckload of thugs, dressed in SA Brownshirt uniforms, had just appeared on the scene and had joined several of the brothers, who had been engaged in a shouting match with a group of Social Democrats. This SD party was the enemy of Adolph Hitler, the soon-to-be German Reich Chancellor, and his friend and fellow henchman, Ernst Rohm, head of the SA Brownshirt brigades. As it would turn out, Hitler and his top aides would soon come to fear the presence of Rohm and his SA stormtroopers as a threat to the new Nazi Party.

In the beginning, the SA provided protection for Hitler during his many street speeches and public rallies in Germany. But it was not long before they developed into a brawling force known for spreading havoc and descent from one end of the country to the other. Anyone who was not in favor of Adolph Hitler was the enemy of the SA bullies, and was put in fear of his or her life. It was from the ranks of the SA that Hitler’s personal security force, the SS, arose. Then, when Hitler was elected to the Chancellery, following The Night of the Long Knives, when most of the SA leadership was assassinated, he had Ernst Rohm executed on a trumped-up charge.

The street fight ended, as most of them did, with the police making a futile effort to subdue the Brownshirts. But more often than not of late, the Brownshirts, which outnumbered them, were chasing off the police. Then, too, the police, for the most part, were in sympathy with Hitler and his stated goals for Germany. And more and more they would show up to a street fight and then stand idly by doing absolutely nothing. This was one of those times.

The fight in front of the Kaiserhof now turned into a full-blown riot; windows were being broken and property was being damaged up and down the Strasse. Before the participants became either too tired to carry on or were injured and unable to do so, they had spilled into the hotel where Frau Wahlmuller was the concierge and housekeeper.

When things quieted down, she and her husband, Rudolph emerged from behind a locked door to their living quarters. The two of them walked over to a sofa in the lobby and sat down. Frau Wahlmuller spoke with a voice of despair, as she viewed the wreckage: “Rudi, I want to leave this place, I want to go home. I want to take Rolph and go home before the schools here turn him into a Nazi. We could get a job with your sister at the Imperial.”

Home was Salzburg, Austria. They were Austrian citizens who had a work permit to live in Germany for an indeterminate period. Rudi also owned a share of the family hotel. But he wasn’t sure it would support both his family and that of his sister.

“You know, Gretchen,” he said, “Austria is not going to be all that different. Herr Hitler will be a shoo-in to be elected Chancellor. And one of his priorities is to annex Austria. In a few years Austria will be Germany, mark my word. Then what?”

“Maybe we should consider leaving Europe altogether?”

“Where do you think we ought to go?” he asked, sarcastically, with a note of frustration at her seeming lack of understanding of the red tape associated with immigration departments. “Not nearly so easy as you think it is.”

“Maybe not so difficult either. Remember those Mormon missionaries with their flannel board and silhouettes and their simplistic explanation of where we all came from and where we are going. Well, it made a lot of sense to me. But it was easy enough to see that if we believed them and consented to be baptized the way they wanted, we were going to be in real trouble. The new Reich, the one Hitler speaks of, is not going to be so tolerant of new religions. He says he is Catholic, but he talks and acts more as though he is an atheist. With all our troubles, I thought joining the Mormon church, regardless of whether it is true or not, would have placed just one more burden on us. There must be a lot of other people in Germany who feel the same way.

“But on the other hand–and this is the point I want to make they said converts could petition the government for a visa. One of the missionaries said the German immigration people are interested in helping all undesirable factions, such as Jews, Freemasons, Gypsies, and Mormons to leave Germany. How long the government will cooperate in this is unknown, he said. The missionary also said we could get on this special list if we had any kind of support in America. He said if we did not, we could list the church as our sponsor. Then he said it would be fairly easy to immigrate. He said America went by a quota system, and Germany has seldom filled her quota. But first off, we have to become members to get on this special list.

“You know, they were reluctant to expound on that part of their discussion for fear people would join just to go to America.”

“Do you want to join?” Rudi asked her.

“Yes, I believe I do.”

“To get out of Germany, or because you believe it is true?”

“Both, I guess. But maybe this unrest, with a promise of more to come, is the thing making me stop and think lately. And just now was the clincher. I believe it is true, and I want to leave.”

“What about our families in Austria?” He asked.

“I did not say it was going to be easy. We are going to have to make some sacrifices to gain a better life for ourselves. And you know the Germans have not been all that kind to us. We speak with an accent. I had one last week actually accuse me of being a Jew.”

 

A neatly dressed official stepped from a government automobile and walked up the sidewalk past a neatly trimmed lawn. He noted the address of the house in front of him and with a practiced eye, concluded the residents were industrious but not prosperous.

He was carrying a briefcase, walking with the confidence of a young man with a purpose and a well paying job. It was something to be proud of and thankful for during these Depression days.

The year was 1938, and good jobs were hard to come by, although Salt Lake City was not as bad off as some other places in the country.

As he rang the doorbell, he reached inside his suit coat for his wallet. At the exact time the door opened, he flashed his FBI badge and announced himself.

“Mrs. Wahl, could I come in for a moment and talk to you.”

She didn’t hesitate to open the screen door. She was used to authorities in Germany demanding to enter and not asking. She asked him to sit down, pointing to a comfortable chair opposite a worn sofa.

“I know you’re curious as to what this is about,” he said in stilted German with an accent she couldn’t place. “Let me bring myself up-to-date: First of all, you’re Austrian immigrants with a work permit. You have applied for citizenship, but your case is pending due to the European unrest. But, we here in America consider it to be an oversight, which will soon be rectified. We consider you and your family to be loyal citizens.”

Mrs. Wahl nodded her head in the affirmative, saying: “Ya, ya.”

“You came through Ellis Island some five years ago. The agents there shortened your name to Wahl, but your marriage license and the birth certificates of your husband and son is Wahlmuller.” He looked up, waiting for a nod of her head. “You were not sure where you were going to live, so you told the people at Ellis you had joined the LDS church. They suggested you come here. The church suggested you locate in this part of town. And then they helped your husband get employment, right?”

“Right,” she said, with another nod of her head.

“You have a son who went back to Austria on a church proselytizing mission. In fact, he is working right now in your hometown of Salzburg...am I right, again?

“And another fact, which has come to our attention, and which brings me here–as an Austrian citizen, he is in danger of being drafted into the German Army.”

Gretchen Wahl sat back on the pillowed sofa and expelled a long sigh. Rolph has never written to tell me anything about it, although it makes perfect sense. I wonder why it never occurred to me before.

“We understand your son’s name is Rolph or Ralph?’

“Yes, Ralph,” she said, the unfamiliar name not coming to her easily. His name was Rolph, and she had a hard time with Ralph. Then, too, the name Ralph Wahl was completely alien to her.

“You knew, of course, that he was going to be released by church authorities from his mission ahead of time. Were you going to tell me about it?” he asked her, patronizingly.

“I was not sure you would be interested. Why are you, anyway?”

“We are extremely interested. Not because we want to pry into church affairs, but because we want him to work for us. Let me tell you that he is in danger of never walking correctly again. Our sources tell us this is the opinion of the best orthopedic surgeons in Germany, which means the world.”

She let out another deep sigh. She had been informed that Rolph had been skiing on one of his days off, and had seriously broken his leg. German surgeons had pinned it, but it was going to be short. And at this point, they didn’t know how stable it was going to be. Time would tell, but they were obviously being less than optimistic.

“Our sources further tell us he will be given an army physical when he is eventually released from the hospital. Don’t be upset; we have also been told he will not pass. He will be given a medical deferment, which will relieve him of any obligation to serve or to work in a war factory. That is what makes him so valuable to us. Before the physical, we want him to make an application to join the SS. On the surface it will seem preposterous. But it will show them he is a loyal German, who does not want to come back here. They will believe him when he says he has been indoctrinated with the new German goals, and that he believes the new Germany is the wave of the future. He need not denounce any of his religious beliefs; they simply will not bring them up.

“What we want is for him to seek employment in one of the hotels on the Obersalzberg. We want him to report the comings and goings of Hitler, Goering, and Bormann, who have homes there.”

“You want him to assassinate them, do you not? I will not permit it, you know.”

“No, nothing of the sort. But if we ever go to war with them, we just might want to bomb the place. If we do it when one or more of those worthies are in attendance, so much the better.

“Incidentally, have you any old photographs or has Ralph sent you any new ones. What we are looking for are military installations, gun emplacements, or recent construction. Do you have any pictures that might show any of those things in the background? We’re asking all tourists and recently returned missionaries the same questions.”

She stood up and went to the bedroom off the small living room where they had been chatting. She came back with an album full of family photos, some of them of the town of Berchtesgaden, some taken on the mountainside, and some of Hitler’s compound.

“This is what we are after. Do you know the dates of these?” he asked her, smiling as he thumbed through them.

“I would like to borrow these if I may. I will bring them back.

“Also, I want to tell you that all letters between the two of you are going to be censored by the German postal service and monitored by the Gestapo. Free speech is out, but then this is not news to you.

“And another thing: when you write, convey the impression you do not like it here. Tell Ralph you are proud of him for staying and doing his part as a loyal German. If they suspect he is German in name only, they will arrest him and put him in a concentration camp. Tell him you are proud he tried to enlist in the SS. Tell him you believe Hitler is doing a remarkable job. And that you wished you had stayed in Austria to reap the new benefits you understand are making Germany the better place to live. Spread it on, but not too thick. Do you understand what I am getting at?

“We want him to become acquainted with some of the SS enlisted men, whenever he goes to work at a hotel there. They are not likely to treat him as a run-of-the-mill civilian. They might even be more prone to accept him when they discover he tried to enlist in their organization; he might even be able to make close friends with some of them.”

 

Arguably the most beautiful and picturesque place in the world is the Obersalzberg mountainside below the Hoher Goll massif in the Austrian Alps. It’s simply breathtaking beyond words. When Hitler first saw it in 1923, after his release from Landsberg prison, he proclaimed it “splendid,” “wonderful,” and “indescribable.”

He had been sentenced to five years for his role in a bloody coup attempt. There, he dictated his famous Mein Kampf, meaning my struggle, to his secretary Rudolph Hess. After serving only nine months, he was released and took temporary leave from public life at a friend’s chalet on the Obersalzberg. He would return again and again to Berchtesgaden, following stressful journeys to party events and during planning periods for major political campaigns.

When in Berchtesgaden, Hitler, living under the alias of Herr Wolf, made frequent walking trips to the mountainside, where he first rented a room in a pension and then rented, and later purchased, a small chalet of his own. Later, he enlarged it some four times, providing himself with a second seat of government, which was used for this purpose until the end of the War.

This new home, paid for by the sale of this new book of his, in an absolutely dream location, was known as the Haus Wachenfeld. He would later rename it the Berghof, meaning the estate on the mountain. It was less then ostentatious, the exception being a large retracting 24-by 16-foot window, which looked out on the breathtaking view of the panorama between the Hochkalter mountain and Salzburg.

As the new Chancellor, he would avail himself for pictures and a chat to the ever growing number of tourists. But as the War descended on Germany, he had less and less time for them. And then, finally, a long fence cordoned off what became known as the Fuhrer Area.

Downhill, less than a football field from the Berghof, was a tavern. By 1933, it had evolved into a hotel called the Zum Turken. After he took over the government, it was declared to be too close to the Berghof. It was subsequently appropriated and turned into a barracks for his new SS security and Secret Service detachments.

An obscure but loyal party member by the name of Walter Reinicke had owned it. Regardless, an ordinance was passed, which declared his hotel to be too close to the Berghof for respectability. When Reinicke objected and refused to sell, he was arrested on a trumped-up charge; his property was confiscated, with Reinicke receiving only a small pittance. He and his wife, daughter, and three teen-aged sons were summarily put into the streets, where friends and former neighbors took them in and gave him employment. They stayed in the area, refusing to leave.

The SS commander, whose idea it had been to take the property, with the concurrence of the Fuhrer, deemed them harmless and allowed them to stay. Everyone thought he did this to assuage his conscience. But, whatever, Reinicke vowed vengeance on the Fuhrer and the commander; of course, he kept this oath to himself.