Following on from our post last week excerpts Karl Wilhelm Krause’s as yet untranslated book Kammerdiener bei Hitler. 10 Jahre Tag und Nacht. (Valet with Hitler. 10 years day and night.) can be read below:
When I first came into Hitler’s service, his clothing was quite simple. It consisted of one tuxedo, one set of white tie and tails, a Cutaway (which he only wore once, on May 21, 1933, in Potsdam), and some suits: black, tan, blue and other colours. He had five uniform jackets, three pairs of black pants and four pairs of boots. His suits were all cut the same way and were not expensive. A middle-level civil servant would have worn the same types of suits.
There were many women around Hitler who remonstrated with him about his poor clothing style. These women consisted of Gerdy Troost, who nagged him about his “disreputable trench coats”. Magda Goebbels tried to get him to change his wardrobe as well, but most of all it was Eva Braun who was at a loss to try and get him to dress with more style. She tried to get him to buy more suits and different uniforms as well. It was mostly all in vain.
Hitler’s uniforms were made in Berlin; his suits were made in Munich. His trench coats were made by Herpich in Berlin. Rarely did Hitler allow a tailor to make measurements or to get near him. Eva Braun begged him to have measurements taken, but Hitler said to them, “just take my old jackets and cut them to the same specifications.”
Oftentimes I would ask Hitler, “when can the tailor come and make new measurements?” It was usually a waste of time. During my nearly 7 years of service, the tailor-made measurements maybe a total of 10 times. Then these sessions could not last more than 2 or 3 minutes. Few things (besides going to the dentist) were more disagreeable for Hitler than to have a tailor touch him!
Hitler wore all of his clothes very loosely on his body. You have no idea of the criticism I heard about this, especially from the ladies. From all sides was Hitler’s manner of dress criticized, even in letters from the people, which always poured in. It was part of my job that Hitler looks presentable to his people, and I got a lot of reproaches.
Finally I decided on my own to try and “fix” his clothes. I took in his pants and also tried to make his jackets tighter. I did this myself when Hitler was not watching his closet. But, oh my God, the pain! (doch, o weh!) Hitler immediately noticed that his clothes were tighter, and he would reproach me by throwing down the garment and giving me a look.
And his hats! This was another battle I fought (along with Eva Braun), and we fought this battle in vain. Hitler rarely went outside without covering his head. His eyes were very sensitive because he had been gassed in World War I.
His civilian hats were all bought at Seidl’s in Munich and his uniform caps were bought in Berlin. Eva Braun made her wishes known in this regard and sometimes purchased civilian hats for him. He wore those on occasion, but not without a little grumbling.
The manner in which wore his uniform caps was simply impossible.
This was an ongoing battle which lasted years between us. I would say to him quite openly, “a railroad employee might wear such awful caps, or a mailman, but otherwise, no other human being!” Then Hitler would look me up and down and say simply, “Who wears the cap? You or I?”
My answer was to criticize the caps again and this impertinence did not seem to disturb him in the slightest.
One year at the Nuremberg party rally, I secretly removed the frame from one of his uniform caps. The cap immediately looked 100% better on him. Hitler did not notice the change right away. It was only when we were in the car driving to the rally that Hitler first noticed it. I thought he was going to personally throw me out of the car! I got a royal chewing on that day and Hitler told me to go back to the Hotel Deutscher Hof and get the frame from the hat.
When I returned and put it back into the cap, he was immediately in a good mood again. Hitler then strictly forbade me to ever alter his caps again. I actually believe the entire German population laughed at the manner in which he wore his caps. This caused Eva Braun no small amount of grief. She also threw up her hands in despair at his shoes and his boots.
One bone of contention that Eva Braun had was that Hitler refused to get rid of his old favourite pair of boots which he’d worn even in the 1920’s. I bought for him three new pairs of boots in the exact style and material as his old one. I would lay the boots out for him, but he would just go into his closet and get “the ratty ones” out and wear those. It was a never-ending battle.
These horrible old boots that Hitler wore also became a sort of running joke among the people. They had old creases and folds in them and up close looked worn and old. Hitler refused to part from them, however. It was only when he visited Mussolini that he finally agreed to get a new pair.
And his civilian shoes! This was another ongoing struggle which I battled along with Eva Braun. She positively detested his “shellacked” black shoes which had a high buff shine to them. She called them “dancing shoes for a tap dancer, not the Fuehrer.” Many times, I heard her upbraid him for his shoes, especially wearing black shoes with a tan or light-coloured suit. She herself personally purchased for him several pairs of brown shoes. They sat untouched in his closet.
Eva Braun also bought him many pairs of socks which he only would wear rarely. His socks were so short that he constantly was pulling them up. He even tried to blame me for this and once said, “is it too much to ask that they can’t get a decent pair of socks?” I mentioned that Fräulein Braun had bought him many pairs and pointed them out. Hitler said nothing, glanced at the socks, but did not wear them. It was always impossible with him and his clothing.
Frau Kannenberg (wife of Hitler’s Berghof “butler”) and I scoured the shops of Berlin for socks and shoes for him. All to no avail. His insistence on wearing black shoes with light suits was an abomination (ein Greuel).
This went on for years. Every evening, I would lay out Hitler’s clothes for the following day. I had devised a type of “clothes rack” where everything would be laid out. Every time I laid out a light-coloured suit with appropriate brown suits, he would go into the closet himself, bring out the black shoes and wear those!
Eva Braun and I never saw eye to eye, and we spoke rarely to one another. But she approached me several times about this and said, “why is der Chef (the boss) still wearing the black shoes? What is going on?” I told her honestly that I laid out the appropriate shoes, but he was so stubborn he selected his own.
Finally in 1937 I approached the three women that were closest to Hitler and asked them for help on this ongoing issue.
I approached Frau Goebbels (who was very, very fond of Hitler), Gerdy Troost and I even approached Eva Braun, who was cool to me and I to her. But I enlisted them in my battle to make the Führer change his ways with his shoes. Hitler put great emphasis on Frau Troost’s clothes sense and sense of style. It was she who managed to get him to give up wearing his old trench coat of the Kampzeit (the years of struggle).
Eva nagged him a lot about this, but it was without success. If he ever wore brown shoes with a light-coloured suit, I never saw it more than a handful of times.
With Hitler’s ties it was the same thing. In the manner of ties, he was incredibly stubborn and self-willed. Every evening, I would select his suit for the following day and put it on my clothes horse. I would then select three or four suitable ties to go with it, with appropriate colours.
Eva Braun also was involved in this. But nearly every morning, I noticed that Hitler would ignore my selection of ties and instead go into his closet and select a completely ridiculously coloured tie! Oftentimes the ties would clash horribly with the suit colour. It was an eyesore.
Finally in 1935 or 1936, Hitler “saw the light” about this. We were in Munich and in a hurry one morning. Hitler was going to visit the studio of Frau Troost, whom he greatly esteemed. She was one of the few women whom Hitler really listened to, and he respected her a great deal. Because he was in a hurry, he happened to put on one of the ties I had selected for him.
When Frau Troost saw him, her face lit up and she said, “a wonderful tie!! You have done well this morning!” Hitler was pleased, because nearly every other time, she would greet him with, “Mein Führer, an impossible tie!” She would say this when he would wear his yellow and orange tie with polka dots over a blue suit with stripes. He clashed all the time.
When Frau Troost would criticize his ties, she usually would throw me a reproachful look. I refused to take her passive criticism and spoke up. I would say, “the appropriately coloured tie I laid out last night. He refuses to wear it.” Hitler would never say anything during these exchanges and did not bring it up to me later on.
Eva Braun was more lenient on his ties and liked to see him wear outlandishly garish ties. He did not like red ties and wore those but seldom. He also would wear ties she purchased for him, though rarely with the correct coloured suits. And his habit of wearing striped suits with polka dots made Eva almost have a nervous breakdown. Again, this was a battle which was ongoing and lasted until the war broke out and thereafter Hitler only wore his field grey uniform with black tie.
The one area where Hitler looked quite well was the white tie and tails. Even Eva Braun could find nothing with which to criticize. But he did not know how to tie his white ties, and I had to do it for him. Hitler said that I had to do this “very quickly” and wanted them tied in 25 seconds or less. If it took longer than 25 seconds, he would get antsy and start stomping his foot down. When Heinz Linge took over this job for Hitler, he told me Hitler even had a stopwatch, and it had to be done in less than 25 seconds!
Sometimes I deliberately went slowly, just to test his limits and this would make Hitler furious. But he almost never really lost his temper and never yelled. He was actually very mild mannered. Then when I went slowly, he would sigh and say, “what are you thinking about?” I blandly said, “I’m thinking that my job is not so ordinary and boring when I can take more time to do things right.”
Hitler was not accustomed to anyone in his service talking so openly with him. One day at the Berghof, he said to his guests, “See here my man Krause. He deliberately ties my ties for my tuxedo in 2 minutes when I have instructed him to take 25 seconds, tops. Then he will just look and at me with a sly smile and give me an ironic laugh. Nothing disturbs him. I would dearly love to have just 5 minutes of such calm in my life.”
In the matter of Hitler’s shoes, I can say that Eva Braun finally did win one of her battles, but only when she was around Hitler.
One day in 1937 we arrived in Munich and immediately Hitler wanted to go to his old hang out, the Osteria Bavaria. He was so rushed he did not even visit his Munich apartment first but wanted to change his clothes at the Führerbau. He instructed me to go over to his flat and bring him a fresh shirt and his light tan suit. I almost fell over when he turned around in the car and said, “and bring the brown shoes with it!” when I returned to the Führerbau, I got him alone and said, “Mein Führer, forgive me! I have begged you for years to wear the brown shoes with the light suits, now I have forgotten the brown shoes!”
I was prepared for a dressing down. I did not want to mention Eva Braun to him, since he knew we were not on friendly terms. But he must have suspected she was involved because he merely said to me, “are the shoes at the Berghof? Were they removed by another person?”
That was his indirect manner of mentioning her to me.
I merely said, “Jawohl, mein Führer, you have hit the nail on the head!” Then he let the matter rest.
Hitler decided to go to the Osteria in uniform and then we drove to the Berghof. The next day, to my great surprise, I saw him wear for the first time brown shoes with a light suit. On this momentous occasion, I even said a word or two to Eva Braun and quietly congratulated her. She merely smiled.
To the matter of undershirts and underwear, there were thankfully no disagreements. Hitler never wore an undershirt, or a T-shirt underneath his dress shirts. He changed his shirt many times a day even though it was unnecessary. He wore simple white short underwear. He never changed his style of short underwear in my years of service.
Once we had a small “fight” about his underwear. He had 7 or 8 pairs of underwear, and I noticed one day they were getting a little old looking. So, I bought eight new pairs. They were made of the exact same material as his old ones, same colour and they were the identical size (48 European, 32-inch waist American measurements). I removed his old underwear one day and replaced them with the identical style new pairs.
Well, this was not a success in Hitler’s eyes. One morning during his breakfast in his study, he motioned me towards him as he stood eating his morning chocolate bar. I could not believe it when he literally tossed a pair of his new underwear at my feet and said calmly, “you can take these things and toss them. These are totally impossible underwear!”
I merely bent down and picked them up. I myself had worn an exact pair since we had the same waist size. I thought they were wonderful, soft and comfortable. Well, a few weeks passed, and we were on a journey to Bad Godesberg. The hotel took Hitler’s clothes to wash them and some of the chambermaids (I think) stole them as objects of fascination. In any case, his clothes vanished.
What was I to do? I already mentioned I was wearing the exact size and style of Hitler’s underwear. I went to my own suitcase, and I had two pairs still not removed from their package. I took them and laid them out for Hitler on his hotel bed. I was expecting him to get upset, but he never did and never mentioned the matter again. It must just have been one of his moods earlier on when he tossed the underwear at my feet.
Now, when we travelled somewhere, his clothes also became a matter of contention because he was always so vague about things. I would say, “how long will we be away?” I had to know in order to prepare his personal things. Hitler would never be specific. He would just say, “a few days” or he might say, “a week,” but he would not say anything more than that. But then all hell would break loose if I forgot something or did not have it available for him.
Because Hitler was so vague prior to his trips, sometimes I would pack two suitcases for him when we would be gone one night, and sometimes pack one half a suitcase when we would be gone two weeks. I always had to pack a tuxedo or white tie and tails because he might at the last moment decide to attend the opera.
Before I conclude this chapter on Hitler’s clothing, let me mention also that he put great store on cleanliness. He was really very very particular about himself and keeping himself fresh and clean. He always had a faint aroma of soap.
I have mentioned he used two razor blades for each shave and took two baths a day. But his changing of his clothes was also extreme! I believe he got into this habit because Eva Braun endlessly changed her clothes. So, Hitler then took up this habit, which could get tedious.
His underwear he changed three or four times every day! Then sometimes, strangely, he would go back to changing them only once a day. While at the Berghof, the changing of his underwear was usually 2 or 3 times a day. Same with his shirts.
Hitler had previously worn separate shirt and collar, and he still was doing this when I came into his service. It was only under Eva Braun’s tutelage that he changed to a shirt with collar. He never wore anything but white shirts, never a sports shirt, despite the nagging of Eva.
He never wore long underwear, always his short underwear. Even in the coldest weather he said, “no long underwear! I would not be seen in such things.”
He also never wore a belt unless it was a uniform belt, but he wore suspenders. For years he insisted on wearing a linen nightshirt, something which Eva Braun positively despised. Her reproaches about this fell on deaf ears until 1938. She purchased for his 49th birthday a dozen pairs of blue and white pyjamas. These were the colours of Bavaria and bought especially for him.
Hitler wore these only in Munich or the Berghof. He still insisted on the nightshirts when he stayed other places.
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