Hello,
She was the famous sponsor of Adolf Hitler at his biginnings and all along the way till the end !
She survivded the war to die one year later in 1946.
I would like to have the most available infos about her and her life.
But i can not find any books dedicated to her, which is very surprising to me.
Do her family car about her souvenir ? Where is her famous house in Munchen ?
Tell all you know about her here please.
Thanks
Elsa Bruckmann
Re: Elsa Bruckmann
Prinz Georg Palais am Karolinenplatz 5 - München.
She and her husband resided on the second floor of the building.
For literature: Wolfgang Martynkewicz: Salon Deutschland. Geist und Macht 1900-1945, Berlin 2011.
For photographs and more information.
https://www.ns-dokuzentrum-muenchen.de/ ... 0bc8f12511
She and her husband resided on the second floor of the building.
For literature: Wolfgang Martynkewicz: Salon Deutschland. Geist und Macht 1900-1945, Berlin 2011.
For photographs and more information.
https://www.ns-dokuzentrum-muenchen.de/ ... 0bc8f12511
- Attachments
-
Sota ei päätä kuka on oikeassa, vain sen että kuka on jäljellä.
War does not decide who is right but only those who are left.
War does not decide who is right but only those who are left.
-
DavidFrankenberg
- Member
- Posts: 1235
- Joined: 11 May 2016, 02:09
- Location: Earth
Re: Elsa Bruckmann
Thank you Helge.
Do you know if the house is still the property of the Bruckmann family ?
I didnt hear about any children of the couple.
Do you know if the house is still the property of the Bruckmann family ?
I didnt hear about any children of the couple.
Re: Elsa Bruckmann
No son or daughters. For the property I have no idea.
Sota ei päätä kuka on oikeassa, vain sen että kuka on jäljellä.
War does not decide who is right but only those who are left.
War does not decide who is right but only those who are left.
-
DavidFrankenberg
- Member
- Posts: 1235
- Joined: 11 May 2016, 02:09
- Location: Earth
Re: Elsa Bruckmann
I wonder whether Elsa Bruckmann was related to 'Peter Bruckmann & Sons,' the Bavarian silversmiths and tableware manufacturers that produced Hitler's personalized cutlery?
Br. James
Br. James
Re: Elsa Bruckmann
Principal heirs:
- Maria de Hellingrath : sister
- Paula Cantacuzino-Deleanu : sister
- Theodor Cantacuzino-Deleanu : father
- Maria de Hellingrath : sister
- Paula Cantacuzino-Deleanu : sister
- Theodor Cantacuzino-Deleanu : father
Sota ei päätä kuka on oikeassa, vain sen että kuka on jäljellä.
War does not decide who is right but only those who are left.
War does not decide who is right but only those who are left.
Re: Elsa Bruckmann
BIOGRAPHY
Anyone who thinks of the literary salons of the 18th to the beginning of the 20th century probably combines this with convivial meetings in a bourgeois atmosphere, whereby the often highly educated and well-read hosts were given the task of creating an illustrious mixture of dignitaries, poets and thinkers as well as ) To put together artists who enjoyed literary and / or musical performances and exchanged ideas on the intellectual and social issues of the time. It is no coincidence that these meetings are usually assumed to have a liberal, tolerant attitude. The usual barriers between the sexes, religion and to a lesser extent also the social class were removed here. The free exchange of ideas gave rise to new ideas and promoted education.Johanna Schopenhauer , Henriette Herz , Rahel Varnhagen , Bettina von Arnim , Caroline Schelling , Caroline von Humboldt and Fanny Lewald .
There were also several salons in Munich, alongside those of the painter Marianne von Werefkin , the scientist Therese von Bayern and the writer Carry Brachvogelespecially that of Elsa and Hugo Bruckmann. The difference to all of the above, however, is that the atmosphere and guest list changed drastically over time. The basic tenor of the salon was anyway a more nationally conservative one, without being ethnic - Jews like Karl Wolfskehl, Max Reinhardt, Walther Rathenau or Hermann Levi were also welcome guests - but the Bruckmann salon changed during the 1920s , or more precisely: Elsa Bruckmann established a refuge for reactionary-anti-Semitic propaganda. Not only that: alongside Helene Bechstein and Winifred Wagnershe was one of Hitler's great patrons; she introduced him to the "better society", supported him with money and property and introduced him to influential industrialists. Without their help, Hitler's political ambitions would probably not have been realized as quickly - or possibly not at all.
Elsa Bruckmann, née Princess Cantacuzène, is the oldest of three daughters of the Royal Bavarian Uhlan officer Prince Theodor Cantacuzène and his Bohemian wife Sophie, née Countess Deym von Střítež. Prince Theodor comes from the Romanian branch of the Byzantine noble family Kantakuzenos, which goes back to the 13th century. But as noble and situational as the name sounds, the actual living conditions are much less sophisticated: Theodor inherited a castle near Passau, but without any land or other income. The family lives in a villa on Lake Starnberg, where Elsa also grew up. She is small and graceful, but is not exactly a beauty because she has scars on her face from childhood pox. Coming from old nobility
The daughters are given good school education. From 1871 to 1876 Elsa attended the Louise Siebert Institute for Teaching and Education in Munich, and then the high school for daughters there. In 1880 Elsa was sent to Geneva to visit the École Secondaire et Supérieure for two years. She also acquires numerous practical skills, for example she can be trained as a seamstress. Your certificates are always excellent. She is particularly interested in literature and writes poems, fairy tales, small prose pieces and dramas as well as essays on tailoring and fashion. Later she even published some fiction articles in magazines and translated books from French and Italian.
It is not easy to get the daughters married properly, as they are not considered a good match. From 1890, Elsa became a partner in the Viennese baroness Franziska Worms-Todosco. With the money she earns there, she also supports her parents. Although she is almost part of the family, she is always aware that, as a single young woman, she is on the dark side among all the rich families. You feel good when addressed to “princess”. Even later, after her marriage, she will always sign her correspondence with the addition "Princess Cantacuzène".
At Worms-Todosco in 1893, Elsa met the 19-year-old poet Hugo von Hofmannsthal, who was enraptured by her cleverness and wit. But after a short period of passion, the relationship developed into a long-lasting, intimate friendship, because last year Elsa fell in love with Hugo Bruckmann, the publisher's son in Munich. However, Elsa and Hugo can only marry in 1898 after Prince Theodor died. He was against his daughter's connection with a "commoner". Elsa is now 33 years old, Hugo 35 - not an ideal age to start a large family. The couple remain childless, and Elsa directs all of her motherly feelings towards her nephew Norbert von Hellingrath, the son of her sister Marie.
Hugo Bruckmann and his brother Alphons Erbe are the F. Bruckmann publishing house, which specializes in standard art-historical works, high-quality art prints, illustrated classic editions and art magazines. He can offer his wife all the comforts of a middle-class life. She particularly enjoys being chauffeured through the city in an open white Mercedes to wait for the most respected families in the city. Nevertheless, she does not miss the opportunity to repeatedly take on tasks in the publishing house, for example in editing or administration.
From January 1899, the Bruckmann couple first invited to the Jour Fixe in the publishing rooms on Nymphenburger Strasse. The building was designed by the Belgian Art Nouveau architect Henry van de Velde. The meeting was triggered by the work Fundamentals of the XIX , written by Houston Stewart Chamberlain and published by Bruckmann . Century , from which the author is to speak. Family members, friends and close acquaintances are invited. From these fixed Friday evenings, the “Salon Bruckmann” developed - from 1908 in the newly-occupied new house, the representative Prinz-Georg-Palais at Karolinenplatz 5. The Salon Bruckmann was one of the longest-lived ever: Hugo Bruckmann died in 1941 this social institution.
Chamberlain's thesis of "the Jews" explains the ambivalent image Elsa Bruckmann has of "the Jews" throughout his life: "Being Jewish" is independent of the actual denomination, it supposedly marks Jewish characteristics, attitudes and aspirations, both of which [denominational] Jews as well as non-Jews can be "infected". One could therefore be a “Jew” without being a [denominational] Jew and vice versa. No wonder that even the (assimilated) Jewish conductor Hermann Levi shares this view.
Around 1900 most Bruckmann guests saw themselves as supporters of aesthetic modernism. So also the hostess herself: Elsa Bruckmann is interested in modern (expressive) dance and attends courses at the institute of Émile Jaques-Dalcroze, which also included Mary Wigmanwas trained. Legendary dance events take place at the Munich carnival balls, in which Elsa also occasionally takes part: "I wear red (instead of black!) Judge's robe with a violet (instead of black) gathering beret, white allonge or cable wig [...] feather behind Ear. ”Occasional or more frequent visitors to the salon include Elsa Bruckmann's old friend Hugo von Hofmannsthal, Henry van de Velde, Julius Meier-Graefe, Thomas Mann, Harry Graf Kessler, Rainer Maria Rilke, the circle around Stefan George, furthermore scientists and Industrialists - and Constanze Hallgarten toowho regularly provides the hostess with information about her pacifist activities. With the exception of relatives and the wives of the guests, fewer women find the Bruckmanns because Elsa is considered jealous. She is particularly influenced by the philosopher and graphologist Ludwig Klages, to whom she sends written samples of people she has just got to know, so that he can have expert reports on their character.
The First World War represented a radical turning point for Elsa Bruckmann: Norbert von Hellingrath, an up-and-coming Hölderlin expert and Elsa Bruckmann's "replacement son", fell in 1916 before Verdun. His death hits Elsa Bruckmann right in the heart; she is completely devastated. The capitulation in November 1918 was a shame; she eventually becomes depressed. Last but not least, the excitement during the subsequent Munich Council Republic included the shootings of 21 members of a Catholic journeyman's association in the inner courtyard of Karolinenplatz 5 in May 1919, which were mistaken for "red".
Most salon guests now have enough of the modern - you long for peace and order and the "good old days" with an undamaged identity. The mixture of fear of loss, folk resentment and an almost esoteric expectation of salvation with the aim of re-establishing Germany is given space in the Salon Bruckmann. For example, Oswald Spengler gives a lecture on the sinking of the Westand Alfred Schuler on the meaning of the symbol of the swastika. Desperate and lost, Elsa Bruckmann heard Hitler speak for the first time in 1920, who, despite everything, calls for "belief in Germany". He is the figurehead and keynote speaker of one of the numerous right-wing splinter parties, which make themselves heard especially in beer cellars. She is intoxicated with his call; to her it sounds like a promise - after all, it seems to give a deeper meaning to the death of her nephew. She gains new courage to live and attends numerous party meetings, for example in the Circus Krone building.
When Hitler was sentenced to fortress custody in Landsberg after the November coup in 1923, Elsa Bruckmann met him personally for the first time when she visited him there: “In May 1924 it was - I drove to the Fiihrer, drove to the fortress in Landsberg, around him whom I have heard so often and often, whose speeches gave me faith, had built a new German world for me - to bring for the first time the confession of belonging to him and to his work. […] And my heart was pounding that today I would be able to thank eye to eye who woke me and so many and showed us light again from the dark and the path that should lead to light. ”
After his early release from prison in late 1924, Elsa Bruckmann invited him to her salon and offered him a stage for his agitation during his public ban on speaking. With the appearance of Hitler in the Salon Bruckmann, the composition of the guests gradually changes. Friends turn away. Where previously artists and scholars met, supporters of National Socialist ideas will come and go in future: Erich von Ludendorff, Alfred Rosenberg, Rudolf Hess, Baldur von Schirach, Unity Valkyrie Mitford, the architects Albert Speer as well as Gerdy and Paul Ludwig Troost. This change of Elsa Bruckmann is not noted without regret, for example by Constanze Hallgarten: "Her salon, formerly a gathering place of the intellectual Munich, soon became deserted, and the group of people in her social intercourse, changed [...] from the bottom up. They shrugged their shoulders at Frau Elsa and just said - too bad! She was a smart, charming woman, but to receive Mr. Hitler at her home was at least considered tasteless - you would not have expected this cultivated lady. ”
Elsa Bruckmann also personally supports Hitler. She fills the gap left by her nephew Norbert with Adolf Hitler: she gives him money, buys him new wardrobes, sends him a precious wristwatch. When he moves from his sub-room in Thierschstrasse to a representative apartment on Prinzregentenplatz, Hugo and Elsa Bruckmann take over the guarantee for his rent, and Elsa contributes furniture from their possession. She ensures that he can pay party debts ("I had signed a bill of exchange for forty thousand marks for the party. There was no money that I expected, the party box office was empty [...] Four days before the due date, I told Privy Councilor Bruckmann about my predicament, which immediately took matters into my hands… “, AH),My fight. Hugo successfully contradicts her intention to have the second volume published by Bruckmann Verlag; not because he was of a different political opinion - on the contrary: from 1932 he was in the Reichstag for the NSDAP - but because he did not want to scare off his conservative and liberal clientele. Elsa Bruckmann's contacts with the upper social classes are probably the most valuable for Hitler's ambitions: Among other things, she mediates the acquaintance with the industrialist Emil Kirdorf, with whom he shares the loathing of democracy and the "communist and socialist rabble" and who pioneers the ideal and financial support of his "movement" by large German industry. In 1930 the Bruckmanns help Hitler to acquire his party headquarters, the "Brown House", in a former noble palace on Brienner Straße, not far from Karolinenplatz. A short time later you move out of the quarter into Leopoldstrasse.
Elsa and Hugo Bruckmann joined the NSDAP relatively late (1932). Their membership is "honorarily" dated back to 1925, and they receive membership numbers 91 and 92. In 1933, Elsa is awarded the Golden Party Badge. In March 1933, Hitler appointed her chairman of the GEDOK (Association of German and Austrian Artists' Associations of all Art Genres) after its founder and previous chairwoman, the Jew Ida Dehmel , had to resign.
After his takeover, Hitler is rarely with the Bruckmanns. Elsa Bruckmann has to recognize that he is escaping her supposed influence more and more. It was repelled by the brutality with which he had the party opponents Strasser and Röhm murdered in 1934, and by the participation in the Spanish Civil War in 1936/37. Gradually she begins to distance herself from her former protégé - all the martial marches as well as Hitler's penetrating self-adulation are too much for her. From 1938 at the latest, the almost blind devotion to Hitler crumbled: After the Munich Agreement, when she was happy that everything went without bloodshed, she is dismayed to find that he would have preferred the war. Hitler is still able to dispel their doubts and secure their loyalty, as soon as he visits her like in the old days. But after the pogrom night on November 9th, that's the end. She is horrified by the barbaric persecution of the Jews and senseless destruction. She is closer to Ulrich von Hassell and his wife - he was German ambassador to Rome at the time and later a member of the national conservative resistance to Carl Friedrich Goerdeler - and does not flinch when Hitler makes one of his rare visits.
When Rudolf Hess went on his flight to England in May 1941 to arbitrarily persuade the British to make a peace and was then declared by Hitler to be "insane", Elsa Bruckmann defended this act and held to his wife Ilse, who had been cut by the other party margins becomes. The year 1941 has another deep cut in her life for Elsa Bruckmann: In September Hugo dies at the age of 78 after a heart attack. Hitler orders an act of state on this occasion, but is not present himself, but is represented by Gauleiter Wagner. Another disappointment for Elsa.
Elsa Bruckmann is personally affected by the persecution of Jews. When she learns that her childhood friend Emma Noether and daughter Clara were deported to the French internment camp in Gurs, she sends her letters and parcels. The extent to which it influences whether they succeed in emigrating remains unclear. In 1942, Elsa Bruckmann - successfully - turned to the highest places to save her long-time friend Jella Oppenheimer, who had been with Worms-Todesco, from deportation.
In April 1944, her house on Leopoldstrasse was badly hit by fire bombs, and Elsa Bruckmann moved to a guest house in Garmisch-Partenkirchen, where she also saw the end of the war. After the collapse of the Third Reich, she wrote to an acquaintance: "He [= Hitler] - like the citizens of Calais - should have thrown himself at the feet of his enemies and had to take all the blame." Neighbors in Garmisch-Partenkirchen nonetheless become still described as an unteachable supporter of the Nazi regime. In June 1946, Elsa Bruckmann, who was very ambivalent and contradictory in her views and actions, died at the age of 81.
Author: Christine Schmidt
Anyone who thinks of the literary salons of the 18th to the beginning of the 20th century probably combines this with convivial meetings in a bourgeois atmosphere, whereby the often highly educated and well-read hosts were given the task of creating an illustrious mixture of dignitaries, poets and thinkers as well as ) To put together artists who enjoyed literary and / or musical performances and exchanged ideas on the intellectual and social issues of the time. It is no coincidence that these meetings are usually assumed to have a liberal, tolerant attitude. The usual barriers between the sexes, religion and to a lesser extent also the social class were removed here. The free exchange of ideas gave rise to new ideas and promoted education.Johanna Schopenhauer , Henriette Herz , Rahel Varnhagen , Bettina von Arnim , Caroline Schelling , Caroline von Humboldt and Fanny Lewald .
There were also several salons in Munich, alongside those of the painter Marianne von Werefkin , the scientist Therese von Bayern and the writer Carry Brachvogelespecially that of Elsa and Hugo Bruckmann. The difference to all of the above, however, is that the atmosphere and guest list changed drastically over time. The basic tenor of the salon was anyway a more nationally conservative one, without being ethnic - Jews like Karl Wolfskehl, Max Reinhardt, Walther Rathenau or Hermann Levi were also welcome guests - but the Bruckmann salon changed during the 1920s , or more precisely: Elsa Bruckmann established a refuge for reactionary-anti-Semitic propaganda. Not only that: alongside Helene Bechstein and Winifred Wagnershe was one of Hitler's great patrons; she introduced him to the "better society", supported him with money and property and introduced him to influential industrialists. Without their help, Hitler's political ambitions would probably not have been realized as quickly - or possibly not at all.
Elsa Bruckmann, née Princess Cantacuzène, is the oldest of three daughters of the Royal Bavarian Uhlan officer Prince Theodor Cantacuzène and his Bohemian wife Sophie, née Countess Deym von Střítež. Prince Theodor comes from the Romanian branch of the Byzantine noble family Kantakuzenos, which goes back to the 13th century. But as noble and situational as the name sounds, the actual living conditions are much less sophisticated: Theodor inherited a castle near Passau, but without any land or other income. The family lives in a villa on Lake Starnberg, where Elsa also grew up. She is small and graceful, but is not exactly a beauty because she has scars on her face from childhood pox. Coming from old nobility
The daughters are given good school education. From 1871 to 1876 Elsa attended the Louise Siebert Institute for Teaching and Education in Munich, and then the high school for daughters there. In 1880 Elsa was sent to Geneva to visit the École Secondaire et Supérieure for two years. She also acquires numerous practical skills, for example she can be trained as a seamstress. Your certificates are always excellent. She is particularly interested in literature and writes poems, fairy tales, small prose pieces and dramas as well as essays on tailoring and fashion. Later she even published some fiction articles in magazines and translated books from French and Italian.
It is not easy to get the daughters married properly, as they are not considered a good match. From 1890, Elsa became a partner in the Viennese baroness Franziska Worms-Todosco. With the money she earns there, she also supports her parents. Although she is almost part of the family, she is always aware that, as a single young woman, she is on the dark side among all the rich families. You feel good when addressed to “princess”. Even later, after her marriage, she will always sign her correspondence with the addition "Princess Cantacuzène".
At Worms-Todosco in 1893, Elsa met the 19-year-old poet Hugo von Hofmannsthal, who was enraptured by her cleverness and wit. But after a short period of passion, the relationship developed into a long-lasting, intimate friendship, because last year Elsa fell in love with Hugo Bruckmann, the publisher's son in Munich. However, Elsa and Hugo can only marry in 1898 after Prince Theodor died. He was against his daughter's connection with a "commoner". Elsa is now 33 years old, Hugo 35 - not an ideal age to start a large family. The couple remain childless, and Elsa directs all of her motherly feelings towards her nephew Norbert von Hellingrath, the son of her sister Marie.
Hugo Bruckmann and his brother Alphons Erbe are the F. Bruckmann publishing house, which specializes in standard art-historical works, high-quality art prints, illustrated classic editions and art magazines. He can offer his wife all the comforts of a middle-class life. She particularly enjoys being chauffeured through the city in an open white Mercedes to wait for the most respected families in the city. Nevertheless, she does not miss the opportunity to repeatedly take on tasks in the publishing house, for example in editing or administration.
From January 1899, the Bruckmann couple first invited to the Jour Fixe in the publishing rooms on Nymphenburger Strasse. The building was designed by the Belgian Art Nouveau architect Henry van de Velde. The meeting was triggered by the work Fundamentals of the XIX , written by Houston Stewart Chamberlain and published by Bruckmann . Century , from which the author is to speak. Family members, friends and close acquaintances are invited. From these fixed Friday evenings, the “Salon Bruckmann” developed - from 1908 in the newly-occupied new house, the representative Prinz-Georg-Palais at Karolinenplatz 5. The Salon Bruckmann was one of the longest-lived ever: Hugo Bruckmann died in 1941 this social institution.
Chamberlain's thesis of "the Jews" explains the ambivalent image Elsa Bruckmann has of "the Jews" throughout his life: "Being Jewish" is independent of the actual denomination, it supposedly marks Jewish characteristics, attitudes and aspirations, both of which [denominational] Jews as well as non-Jews can be "infected". One could therefore be a “Jew” without being a [denominational] Jew and vice versa. No wonder that even the (assimilated) Jewish conductor Hermann Levi shares this view.
Around 1900 most Bruckmann guests saw themselves as supporters of aesthetic modernism. So also the hostess herself: Elsa Bruckmann is interested in modern (expressive) dance and attends courses at the institute of Émile Jaques-Dalcroze, which also included Mary Wigmanwas trained. Legendary dance events take place at the Munich carnival balls, in which Elsa also occasionally takes part: "I wear red (instead of black!) Judge's robe with a violet (instead of black) gathering beret, white allonge or cable wig [...] feather behind Ear. ”Occasional or more frequent visitors to the salon include Elsa Bruckmann's old friend Hugo von Hofmannsthal, Henry van de Velde, Julius Meier-Graefe, Thomas Mann, Harry Graf Kessler, Rainer Maria Rilke, the circle around Stefan George, furthermore scientists and Industrialists - and Constanze Hallgarten toowho regularly provides the hostess with information about her pacifist activities. With the exception of relatives and the wives of the guests, fewer women find the Bruckmanns because Elsa is considered jealous. She is particularly influenced by the philosopher and graphologist Ludwig Klages, to whom she sends written samples of people she has just got to know, so that he can have expert reports on their character.
The First World War represented a radical turning point for Elsa Bruckmann: Norbert von Hellingrath, an up-and-coming Hölderlin expert and Elsa Bruckmann's "replacement son", fell in 1916 before Verdun. His death hits Elsa Bruckmann right in the heart; she is completely devastated. The capitulation in November 1918 was a shame; she eventually becomes depressed. Last but not least, the excitement during the subsequent Munich Council Republic included the shootings of 21 members of a Catholic journeyman's association in the inner courtyard of Karolinenplatz 5 in May 1919, which were mistaken for "red".
Most salon guests now have enough of the modern - you long for peace and order and the "good old days" with an undamaged identity. The mixture of fear of loss, folk resentment and an almost esoteric expectation of salvation with the aim of re-establishing Germany is given space in the Salon Bruckmann. For example, Oswald Spengler gives a lecture on the sinking of the Westand Alfred Schuler on the meaning of the symbol of the swastika. Desperate and lost, Elsa Bruckmann heard Hitler speak for the first time in 1920, who, despite everything, calls for "belief in Germany". He is the figurehead and keynote speaker of one of the numerous right-wing splinter parties, which make themselves heard especially in beer cellars. She is intoxicated with his call; to her it sounds like a promise - after all, it seems to give a deeper meaning to the death of her nephew. She gains new courage to live and attends numerous party meetings, for example in the Circus Krone building.
When Hitler was sentenced to fortress custody in Landsberg after the November coup in 1923, Elsa Bruckmann met him personally for the first time when she visited him there: “In May 1924 it was - I drove to the Fiihrer, drove to the fortress in Landsberg, around him whom I have heard so often and often, whose speeches gave me faith, had built a new German world for me - to bring for the first time the confession of belonging to him and to his work. […] And my heart was pounding that today I would be able to thank eye to eye who woke me and so many and showed us light again from the dark and the path that should lead to light. ”
After his early release from prison in late 1924, Elsa Bruckmann invited him to her salon and offered him a stage for his agitation during his public ban on speaking. With the appearance of Hitler in the Salon Bruckmann, the composition of the guests gradually changes. Friends turn away. Where previously artists and scholars met, supporters of National Socialist ideas will come and go in future: Erich von Ludendorff, Alfred Rosenberg, Rudolf Hess, Baldur von Schirach, Unity Valkyrie Mitford, the architects Albert Speer as well as Gerdy and Paul Ludwig Troost. This change of Elsa Bruckmann is not noted without regret, for example by Constanze Hallgarten: "Her salon, formerly a gathering place of the intellectual Munich, soon became deserted, and the group of people in her social intercourse, changed [...] from the bottom up. They shrugged their shoulders at Frau Elsa and just said - too bad! She was a smart, charming woman, but to receive Mr. Hitler at her home was at least considered tasteless - you would not have expected this cultivated lady. ”
Elsa Bruckmann also personally supports Hitler. She fills the gap left by her nephew Norbert with Adolf Hitler: she gives him money, buys him new wardrobes, sends him a precious wristwatch. When he moves from his sub-room in Thierschstrasse to a representative apartment on Prinzregentenplatz, Hugo and Elsa Bruckmann take over the guarantee for his rent, and Elsa contributes furniture from their possession. She ensures that he can pay party debts ("I had signed a bill of exchange for forty thousand marks for the party. There was no money that I expected, the party box office was empty [...] Four days before the due date, I told Privy Councilor Bruckmann about my predicament, which immediately took matters into my hands… “, AH),My fight. Hugo successfully contradicts her intention to have the second volume published by Bruckmann Verlag; not because he was of a different political opinion - on the contrary: from 1932 he was in the Reichstag for the NSDAP - but because he did not want to scare off his conservative and liberal clientele. Elsa Bruckmann's contacts with the upper social classes are probably the most valuable for Hitler's ambitions: Among other things, she mediates the acquaintance with the industrialist Emil Kirdorf, with whom he shares the loathing of democracy and the "communist and socialist rabble" and who pioneers the ideal and financial support of his "movement" by large German industry. In 1930 the Bruckmanns help Hitler to acquire his party headquarters, the "Brown House", in a former noble palace on Brienner Straße, not far from Karolinenplatz. A short time later you move out of the quarter into Leopoldstrasse.
Elsa and Hugo Bruckmann joined the NSDAP relatively late (1932). Their membership is "honorarily" dated back to 1925, and they receive membership numbers 91 and 92. In 1933, Elsa is awarded the Golden Party Badge. In March 1933, Hitler appointed her chairman of the GEDOK (Association of German and Austrian Artists' Associations of all Art Genres) after its founder and previous chairwoman, the Jew Ida Dehmel , had to resign.
After his takeover, Hitler is rarely with the Bruckmanns. Elsa Bruckmann has to recognize that he is escaping her supposed influence more and more. It was repelled by the brutality with which he had the party opponents Strasser and Röhm murdered in 1934, and by the participation in the Spanish Civil War in 1936/37. Gradually she begins to distance herself from her former protégé - all the martial marches as well as Hitler's penetrating self-adulation are too much for her. From 1938 at the latest, the almost blind devotion to Hitler crumbled: After the Munich Agreement, when she was happy that everything went without bloodshed, she is dismayed to find that he would have preferred the war. Hitler is still able to dispel their doubts and secure their loyalty, as soon as he visits her like in the old days. But after the pogrom night on November 9th, that's the end. She is horrified by the barbaric persecution of the Jews and senseless destruction. She is closer to Ulrich von Hassell and his wife - he was German ambassador to Rome at the time and later a member of the national conservative resistance to Carl Friedrich Goerdeler - and does not flinch when Hitler makes one of his rare visits.
When Rudolf Hess went on his flight to England in May 1941 to arbitrarily persuade the British to make a peace and was then declared by Hitler to be "insane", Elsa Bruckmann defended this act and held to his wife Ilse, who had been cut by the other party margins becomes. The year 1941 has another deep cut in her life for Elsa Bruckmann: In September Hugo dies at the age of 78 after a heart attack. Hitler orders an act of state on this occasion, but is not present himself, but is represented by Gauleiter Wagner. Another disappointment for Elsa.
Elsa Bruckmann is personally affected by the persecution of Jews. When she learns that her childhood friend Emma Noether and daughter Clara were deported to the French internment camp in Gurs, she sends her letters and parcels. The extent to which it influences whether they succeed in emigrating remains unclear. In 1942, Elsa Bruckmann - successfully - turned to the highest places to save her long-time friend Jella Oppenheimer, who had been with Worms-Todesco, from deportation.
In April 1944, her house on Leopoldstrasse was badly hit by fire bombs, and Elsa Bruckmann moved to a guest house in Garmisch-Partenkirchen, where she also saw the end of the war. After the collapse of the Third Reich, she wrote to an acquaintance: "He [= Hitler] - like the citizens of Calais - should have thrown himself at the feet of his enemies and had to take all the blame." Neighbors in Garmisch-Partenkirchen nonetheless become still described as an unteachable supporter of the Nazi regime. In June 1946, Elsa Bruckmann, who was very ambivalent and contradictory in her views and actions, died at the age of 81.
Author: Christine Schmidt
Sota ei päätä kuka on oikeassa, vain sen että kuka on jäljellä.
War does not decide who is right but only those who are left.
War does not decide who is right but only those who are left.
Re: Elsa Bruckmann
A truly elegant and detailed biography, Helge; thank you so much for providing it!
As was noted above, Hugo and Elsa Bruckmann held NSDAP Membership Numbers 91 and 92, which put them in the same membership section as Lieselotte Bechstein (Number 94), daughter of Helene Bechstein of the famed piano manufacturing firm who also supported Hitler and were friends of wealthy art dealer Putzi Hanfstaengl. Quite an interesting period of history!
Br. James
As was noted above, Hugo and Elsa Bruckmann held NSDAP Membership Numbers 91 and 92, which put them in the same membership section as Lieselotte Bechstein (Number 94), daughter of Helene Bechstein of the famed piano manufacturing firm who also supported Hitler and were friends of wealthy art dealer Putzi Hanfstaengl. Quite an interesting period of history!
Br. James
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DavidFrankenberg
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- Joined: 11 May 2016, 02:09
- Location: Earth
Re: Elsa Bruckmann
But she was married. Hugo died in 1941. Did the heritage was going to Hugo's family as well ?
Thanks Helge for that text !
Do you know if her GästeBuch of her München's house was burnt or saved ? What was her adress / house in Garmisch ?
She died in Garmisch. I guess the same house.
Re: Elsa Bruckmann
Here is the address of the house:DavidFrankenberg wrote: ↑19 Apr 2020, 20:33But she was married. Hugo died in 1941. Did the heritage was going to Hugo's family as well ?
Thanks Helge for that text !
Do you know if her GästeBuch of her München's house was burnt or saved ? What was her adress / house in Garmisch ?
She died in Garmisch. I guess the same house.
Garmisch Partenkirchen, Haus Elsa , Mittenwalder Straße 17
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Sota ei päätä kuka on oikeassa, vain sen että kuka on jäljellä.
War does not decide who is right but only those who are left.
War does not decide who is right but only those who are left.