The Mitfords: Letters between Six Sisters. Charlotte Mosley

the maids’ bedrooms & bathrooms, and I must say it is perfectly lovely, I know you will think so. After seeing the house, which took quite a time, we went & sat in the terrace & chatted to Werlin & Dietrich & his little daughter Gisela, then the Führer said would I like to go for a walk so I said yes. Just as we were starting off, the Führer’s new huge car arrived from the Mercedes works, so of course we examined it all over. When told it went easily 150 km.p.h., he said something so typical: ‘Das ist natürlich für mich ein Nachteil, denn wenn ich so schnell fahre, bin ich 20 Minuten früher da, und muss 20 Minuten länger im Hotel oder in meiner Wohnung sitzen.’⁹ Well we started on our walk, which turned out to be a pretty long one: he & I in front, & the others following us a good way behind. We walked down the mountains, quite slowly, & the view is too lovely for words. The ‘Ziel’ [aim] of our walk was a little teahouse he has built on a projecting piece of hill, it is too pretty for words inside, round, with a big round table & very comfy armchairs all round, & flat marble pillars round the walls, & a pretty fireplace with a lovely 18th-century clock on it. We sat & had tea & he talked about politics for about an hour, in his best style, & then we walked down to where the cars were standing below the teahouse, & he put me in my car & then got into his & we drove through the new Bauernhof that is being built & then he drove back up the mountain, & I down to Berchtesgaden at about 9.

      Well now I must scram out, I will write to you from Bayreuth.

      My best love to the boys.

      Best love from Bobo

      Darling Nard

      I have been meaning to write to you for several days but there hasn’t seemed to be much to tell. I am living, as you see, in the same house as always. It’s terribly hot & one can hardly sleep, & the heat is awful in the opera.

On Sunday – the morning after I arrived – I drove over to Eger to an SdP¹ demonstration at which Konrad Henlein spoke. When I arrived I was met by Wollner,² who said he could only stay five minutes ‘denn ich muss den Führer ausholen’.³ I was amazed. I was taken to the Rathaus [town hall] where there was to be a Begrüssung [reception] & there we waited & at last everyone said, ‘Der Führer kommt! Der Führer kommt!’⁴ & in came Konrad Henlein, followed by Wollner & others. Well the mayor began his Begrüssungsrede, ‘Mein Führer! Es ist für mich eine Freude und Ehre, Sie, mein Führer, begrüssen zu dürfen’⁵ etc etc. I was amazed. Afterwards I was presented to Konrad Henlein, but there was no time to chat because we had to go out to the demonstration, & I had to leave early to be in time for Tristan.

At dinner, the Führer & the Doktor & Kannenberg⁶ were all in their best form, so you can imagine we had a riotous evening. But I think the Führer teased Kannenberg dreadfully by saying that the food in the Quirinal & also in Florence was much better than his (K’s) food, and that he would never be able to achieve such perfection.

The next evening, the Führer got into quite a rage twice; the first time with Kannenberg, for whom I felt heartily sorry! The second rage, however, was over Reichsminister Gürtner⁷ & the new laws he is making. He got angrier & angrier, & at last thundered – you know how he can – like a machine-gun – ‘Das nächste Mai, dass die Richter so einen Mann freilassen, so lasse ich ihn von meiner Leibstandarte verhaften und ins Konzentrationslager schicken; und dann werden wir sehen, welches am stärksten ist, the letter of Herr Gürtner’s law oder MEINE MASCHINEN GEWEHRE!’⁸ It was wonderful. Everyone was silent for quite a time after that.

I have been having rather a terrible time on account of a young man I met in Munich just after you left – Wolfgang Hoesch by name, no relation to the Ambassador⁹ – has been pestering me with marriage proposals, & to my horror followed me here! I do have an awful time with ‘Wolfgangs’ don’t I. I have a terrible time getting rid of him here, in fact I have to get up early & drive off somewhere for the day. However thank god he has to go tomorrow anyway.

      Well I will now close because I feel I must go for a walk. My love to the boys – did they get my P.C.s?

      Best love & Heil Hitler! Bobo

      Darling Nard

      Thank you for your letter forwarded from Munich. I didn’t mean for you to feel guilty about the dress, I only told you as a matter of interest & I didn’t mind at all a bit. But of course as a matter of fact you always feel guilty, don’t you.

Well I had meant to write before but the fact is, I have had flu since Friday. I felt queer Friday night on coming home very late from the Führer’s, after Walküre. The Führer, however, had said he would take me with him to Breslau, & of course I would rather have died than miss that. So on Saturday I stayed in bed till 5, & then got up & packed, & the Sonderzug¹ left at 7. By the time it started I felt like death, & dreaded being called to dinner. You know how one sometimes can’t even raise one’s hand to comb one’s hair. However when I was with the Führer I felt sort of stimulated like one does, & he was in a sweet mood. We sat at a table with the Reichsärzteführer Wagner.² Of course eating was agony & yet I had to because I couldn’t say I was ill. Luckily the Führer had to have a Besprechung [meeting] with an officer after dinner, so I got to bed early, feeling frightfully sick. We arrived at Breslau at the unearthly hour of 7.30 A.M. We drove in Kolonne [procession] to a hotel which had been abgesperrt [closed]. One of the Führer’s secretaries had come too so that I shouldn’t be the only female on the train, & she was my sort of Begleitung [chaperone]. The hotel was full of Greatnesses of course, & Seyss Inquart³ was there. Tschammer-Osten⁴ gave us Ehrenkarten [free tickets] & a man to go with us, and we walked to the square where the march-past was to be, which was next-door to the hotel. Already the sun was almost unbearably hot – before 8 A.M. – so you can imagine what the next 4 hours were like, & I had a high temperature. We sat on the front row of the Tribüne, just behind the Führer’s little jutting-out box. Behind us were Wollner & the other Sudeten-deutsch leaders. I think Wollner was terrifically impressed that I had come with the Führer, though I think he only believed it sometimes. Well then the Führer arrived & the march-past began – 150,000 people (i.e. half as much again as the SA & SS Vorbeimarsch in Nürnberg) but they marched in three columns, the middle one going in the opposite direction from the other two. At first came the Reichsdeutsche from the various Gaus [regions]; then the Sudetendeutsche. I never expect to see such scenes again as when the Sudetendeutsch women arrived. You will have read about it in the papers but the accounts I saw seemed to bear no relation to what actually happened. Really everyone was crying & I thought they would never sort out the muddle when the marchers broke ranks & surrounded the Führer in a seething mass, & those who had already passed came running back to try & see the