Chapter 1
Hitler Employs Me
EARLY ON 25 FEBRUARY 1932 a telegram reached me* in my office at the Gau HQ in Essen. ‘Be at the adjutancy, Private Chancellery, Kaiserhof, Berlin on 26 February 1932,’ it read. My boss, Gauleiter Terboven, had been in Berlin for a Reichstag sitting over the previous forty-eight hours. Was he behind it? I had no clue, nor any idea that this despatch was to change the course of my life, a young man with a world full of possibilities.
After receipt of this telegram I never had a minute to myself. On the slow train to Berlin, I sat bolt upright on a hard bench in a thirdclass compartment. The long journey seemed endless. Feverishly I reflected but could think of no serious misdeeds I had committed. Reassured, I began to dream that the cable might offer a favourable change of direction in my life.
When the train arrived finally at Friedrich-Strasse station in Berlin, I hurried through the bustle of the great city to Wilhelm-Platz. For several minutes I stood before the Kaiserhof Hotel, admiring this imposing modern building, before entering the vestibule through the revolving door. Ladies and gentlemen, apparently from the highest part of society, jostled around me.
I reported to one of the many staff standing around. He seemed to know what to do with me and signalled for me to follow him through long corridors, over thick, plush carpets. On reaching Wilhelm Brückner’s room, I was briefly welcomed by Adolf Hitler’s adjutant and told to wait in the hotel lobby. To my surprise I found another thirty men there. After short conversations between us I discovered we had all been summoned to the Kaiserhof Hotel by telegram from all corners of Germany. It was obvious how uneasy we all were. Very quickly we ascertained that each of us was the chauffeur for a leading personality of the NSDAP (Nationalsozialistische Deutsche Arbeiterpartei). Thus we were all to some extent prominent in our own professional calling. It would have to be an extraordinarily important job for us all to have been summoned here. Each man hoped privately that he would be the one to land the unknown position. Finally the call came: ‘They are waiting for you gentlemen in Room 135!’
Trailing behind another member of staff we were led into Adolf Hitler’s living and work quarters in Berlin. From habit we formed a semi-circle, smallest to the left, tallest at the right. As the smallest, I was on the left flank. My hopes plummeted as I looked at my much taller, well-developed colleagues. Beginning with the tallest, Brückner called us forward individually to be quizzed by Hitler on our technical knowledge and personal details. Finally came my turn. ‘Erich Kempka … father Ruhr mineworker from Oberhausen, twenty-one years old … presently chauffeur for Gauleiter Terboven.’ Those were my replies to Hitler’s first questions. Then he snapped out rapidly: ‘What types of vehicle have you driven? … Do you know the 8-litre compressor motor? … What is the horse power of this vehicle? … Where did you learn to drive? … You are on a blind zigzag bend doing eighty kilometres an hour when you see an oncoming car. What are your next actions?’ The questions came so quickly that I had to react lightning fast. It was not easy, and I had not expected this man to have such a degree of technical knowledge. After answering the last question to his apparent satisfaction Hitler offered me his hand.
I was surprised to learn that I had apparently done well in this test. This made me feel elated. Just the idea of driving across the length and breadth of Germany alongside such a man, whom all Germany considered one of the outstanding personalities on the political scene, thrilled me. All the candidates for the job had been through the mill and now waited anxiously for what came next: a disappointment. Hitler addressed us briefly and in his emotional way explained what a responsible post was held by the man at the wheel. It had been a great pleasure for him to have had such a large number of responsible men before him. He left us with a brief salute, not having mentioned why we had been sent for. Brückner explained to us that a second chauffeur was needed to assist Julius Schreck for Hitler’s personal service. The man chosen would be notified at the appropriate time. Each of us received fifteen Reichsmarks expenses and were then dismissed.
Now began hours of uncertainty. I wandered around Berlin waiting for the time of my train’s departure. The meeting with Adolf Hitler had impressed me deeply. Now that I knew what the vacancy was, I lived in hope but suffered from doubt. It was a relief to climb aboard the train bearing me back to Essen. A few days after my return home I received another telegram: ‘On 1 March 1932 report to Rudolf Hess at the Brown House, Munich.’ My hopes had been fulfilled! I had been chosen to accompany and chauffeur the man about whom all Germany was talking, Adolf Hitler.
* Erich Kempka (b. 16.9.1910 Oberhausen, Rhineland; d. 24.1.1975 Freiburg-Heutingsheim). Electrician after leaving school; 31.3.1930 mechanic at DKW; 1.4.1930 joined NSDAP and SS, employed as driver at Gau Essen; 1.3.1932 entered the Führer’s service as chauffeur. Final rank: SS-Obersturmbannführer. (Translator’s Note)