Viktoria von Dirksen

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Viktoria Auguste von Dirksen b. von Laffert (born May 8, 1874 at Gut Dannenbüttel ; † May 1, 1946 ibid) was a German salonnière in Berlin in the 1920s and 1930s. She promoted Adolf Hitler .

Life

Viktoria von Dirksen's parents were the landowner August von Laffert (1842–1915) and his wife Antoinette Stein. Her brother was the writer Karl August von Laffert . She spent her youth on her parents' estates in Lehsen and Garlitz in the Ludwigslust-Parchim district . On December 9, 1891, she married the landowner and Rittmeister Olof Freiherrn von Paleske (1862–1945) on Lehsen . Her daughter Elisabeth Freiin von Paleske (1897–1985) later married Werner von Rheinbabens . Viktoria Freifrau von Paleske divorced in 1918 and married the landowner and diplomat Willibald von Dirksen on June 1, 1918 in Berlin . His son Herbert von Dirksen was ambassador to Moscow and London in the 1920s and 1930s . After the death of her second husband in 1928, von Dirksen founded the Dirksen Foundation , of which she became the patron. When the foundation was founded, she benefited from close contacts with the Stein Bank. In the Board of Trustees of the Foundation later sat Ernst Roehm and Heinrich Himmler .

Weimar Republic

In the 1920s, the Dirksens' Berlin villa at 11 Magarethenstrasse quickly became the focus of the former Berlin and Potsdam society . Soon the leaders of the German People's Party , the German National People's Party and later also the National Socialist German Workers' Party met there . They stood against the left governments and fought the Weimar Republic . Viktoria von Dirksen performed during these years as the host of evening banquets and afternoon tea parties, as well as the organizer of the influential political and social salon “Hof”. In addition, she regularly held “political cercle” ( Joachim Fest ) in the Hotel Kaiserhof (Berlin) . Historians like Joachim Petzold attest to the Dirksens' considerable importance in the political life of the republic.

The personalities from politics, society, culture and business who went in and out of their house included the generals von Hammerstein , von Schleicher and von Stülpnagel , Reich President Paul von Hindenburg and his son Oskar , the center leader Heinrich Brüning , the former German Crown Prince Wilhelm , his wife Cecilie and his brothers August Wilhelm and Eitel Friedrich , the Italian diplomat Count Ciano , as well as the Nazi greats Hermann Göring , Franz von Epp and Joseph Goebbels with his wife Magda , the Dirksen in the racial debating circle "Nordic Ring" , in which she got involved in the 1920s.

In particular, Dirksen was privately connected in the most closely related manner via the “socially imperative”: From the early 1930s, Goebbels was a regular guest at Dirksen's tea and dinner parties, at which Dirksen made contacts and as his “motherly patron” Received funds. As evidence of the close relationship that Goebbels and Dirksen had with one another, the circumstances could be cited, for example, that he lived in their household from December 9 to 19, 1930 and that in 1931 she was one of the only eighteen invited guests at the wedding party of the later one Reich Propaganda Minister counted, who judged her in his diary: “She is like a mother to me” .

Dirksen's first documented initiative in favor of Hitler can be dated back to 1922, when it enabled him to give a lecture to personalities from the “better society” in the illustrious Berlin National Club . Dirksen and the representatives of the club were also the ones who gave Hitler the first crucial contacts with the national circles of Northern Germany. In the early 1930s Dirksen also used her contacts to the Reich President von Hindenburg in particular to promote Hitler and his goals. On January 22, 1933, just under a week before Hitler's appointment as Chancellor, Goebbels wrote about his girlfriend's attempts to influence Hindenburg in favor of appointing Hitler as Chancellor: “Frau Dirksen works mightily” .

time of the nationalsocialism

Dirksen's Salon in Berlin, however, remained an important forum for the National Socialists even after the “ seizure of power ”. The not insignificant role Dirksen played in promoting the rise of Hitler and his party - to whom she not only made generous private donations during the "fighting time", but also mediated contacts with leading circles from politics, society and business, is also reflected in the fact noted by Werner Maser that Dirksen "was dubbed the" mother of the revolution "behind closed doors by informed Nazi supporters. Another Hitler biographer, Fest, described Dirksen's role in connection with Hitler's "ascension" by pointing out that "[i] n Frau von Dirksen [...] at the right time one of those older friends [hired] again, whose zealous activity he owed so much. ” The editor of Hitler's“ Table Talks ” Henry Picker outlined the behavior that the dictator von Dirksen displayed with the words: “ [He met her] with absolute grandeur, always courteous and im Conversation of an almost heartfelt naturalness. " Confirming this observation by Picker, Hitler's personal servant Heinz Linge emphasized in his memoirs the diligence with which Hitler sought the favor of the society lady: " even when Hitler was very busy, for Frau von Dirksen, who always did also wrote when she was traveling [...] he always had time. The exiled writer Sigrid Schultz, on the other hand, attributed the disproportionate success of "a number of mediocre diplomats in her family" to Dirksen's collaboration with Hitler, of whom she was "Hitler's feminine sponsor".

Janet Flanner also made the claims in a paper about Hitler, which was included in an expert opinion / finding aid of the American Office of Strategic Services on Hitler's personality in the 1940s , that Dirksen had been “Hitler's most important female friend in the past 15 years” ( greatest woman friend ), that she had spent most of her late husband's fortune to promote Hitler's political advancement, that she had arranged a secret meeting for him with Wilhelm II's second wife , Empress Hermine , in her salon , and that Hitler - whenever he was in Berlin - loyally and devotedly received her as a tea guest every two weeks.

The British right-wing extremist David Irving claims in his book The War Path that Hitler frequently instrumentalized Dirksen in order to obtain certain information - which he wanted foreign governments to receive on the one hand, and which, for tactical reasons, also wanted them not to know he was on the other was the one who had leaked it to them or that it was in his interest that they received it - to pass it on to them indirectly: To achieve this, Hitler simply informed Dirksen about a certain matter and then asked them to give absolute information To maintain silence on the matter in question - afterwards he could be sure that Dirksen, excited about the "important secret knowledge" that she had received, could not keep to himself and that within a few hours in countless "discreet conversations" with the entire corps the foreign diplomats in Berlin would pass on.

With a view to Dirksen's personality, characteristics such as “eloquence”, “cleverness” and “temperament” appear again and again in literature. highlighted. The French ambassador André François-Poncet certified her "tried and tested tactlessness":

“Frau von Dirksen is a [kind of German] maiden from Orleans. Ours was at least young and the English burned it in time. "

- André François-Poncet

literature

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Robert Matthias Erdbeer, Laffert, Karl-August von , in: Killy Literaturlexikon Volume 7, 2nd edition Walter de Gruyter 2010, p. 163 f. ( Digitized version )
  2. ^ Daniela Kahn: The control of the economy through law in National Socialist Germany , 2006, p. 204
  3. ↑ Joachim Petzold / G. Feldbauer: Herrenklub , p. 113. At the point in question, Petzold emphasizes in particular that the Dirksen household “already united the ruling circles for social events during the empire and thus played a role in the political life before the First World War ” .
  4. ^ Friedrich Wilhelm: The Hohenzollern and National Socialism , 1983, p. 316.
  5. ↑ Klaus W. Jonas: The Life of Crown Prince William , 1961, p. 171. There it is said that he was "a regular guest [at] the Berlin salon of the ambitous Frau von Dirksen" .
  6. ↑ Edgar Ansel Mowrer: Germany Puts the Clock Back , 1933, p. 144. According to an article in Vorwärts of April 30, 1932, Dirksen introduced the Crown Princess to Hitler during a visit to her salon that month.
  7. ^ Rüdiger Jungbluth: Die Quandts, 2002, p. 108.
  8. ↑ The Goebbels biographer RG Reuth: Goebbels , p 184, speaks of Dirksen in this sense as a “patron who is always at his side with donations and contacts” .
  9. ↑ Elke Fröhlich (Ed.): The Diaries of Joseph Goebbels, Part 1, Vol. 2 / I (records from December 1929 to May 1931), Munich 2005, p. 82.
  10. ↑ Anna Maria Sigmund : The women of the Nazis. The three bestsellers completely updated in one volume , Munich 2005, p. 19. See also Jan Leichsenring: Women and Resistance , 2003, p. 165.
  11. ↑ Elke Fröhlich (ed.): The diaries of Joseph Goebbels, Vol. 2 / III, Munich 2005, p. 112.
  12. ↑ Anna Maria Sigmund : The women of the Nazis. The three bestsellers completely updated in one volume , Munich 2005, p. 19.
  13. ↑ Werner Maser: Hitler. Myth, legend, reality , Munich 1971, p. 311.
  14. ↑ Joachim Fest: Hitler, Frankfurt 1973 p. 417.
  15. ^ Henry Picker: Hitler's Table Talks in the Führer Headquarters , Stuttgart 1976, p. 91.
  16. ↑ Heinz Linge: Until the fall. As head of the personal service with Hitler , 1980, p. 96.
  17. ^ Sigrid Lillian Schultz: Germany Will Try it Again , 1944, p. 131.
  18. ↑ Office of Strategic Servies Hitler Source Book: Janet Flanner: leaders , S. 381f.
  19. ↑ David Irving: The War Path. Hitler's Germany, 1933-1939 , p. 112. He writes verbatim : "Hitler needed only to swear Frau von Dirksen to absolute secrecy on any given topic, to ensure that it spread like lightning to every foreign embassy in Berlin."
  20. ↑ KW Jonas: '' Kronprinz '', p. 222.
  21. ^ Gestalten around Hindenburg , 1927, p. 182.
  22. ↑ Karl Lange: '' Hitler's neglected maxims. 'Mein Kampf' and the public '', 1968, p. 69. See also: Gestalten around Hindenburg .
  23. ^ Albrecht Haushofer : History miniatures around Francois-Poncet . Approx. 1938, reprinted posthumously in: Die Zeit issue 25 (1961). ( Online )
personal data
SURNAME Dirksen, Viktoria von
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Dirksen, Viktoria Auguste von (full name); Laffert, Viktoria Auguste von (maiden name); Paleske, Viktoria Auguste von (first married name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German Salonnière, Adolf Hitler's patron
DATE OF BIRTH May 8, 1874
PLACE OF BIRTH Dannenbüttel
DATE OF DEATH May 1, 1946
Place of death Dannenbüttel