The Diary of Matthias Mehs: Witnessing Hitler’s Rise to Power in Wittlich in 1933

On January 30, 1933, Matthias Mehs was 32 years old. The Wittlich innkeeper sat for the center party in the Wittlich city council. At the time, he recorded in his diary what had happened in Germany and Wittlich since Hitler became Chancellor and how he felt about it.

Mehs is one of many contemporary witnesses whose diary entries in the four-part ARD documentary series “Hitler – the first 100 days” bring this time to life at the beginning of 1933. It will be broadcast on ARD television on January 30 and can also be seen in the ARD media library.

In early February 1933, after the Dissolution of the Reichstag in Berlin, National Socialists march through Wittlich in a torchlight procession. There will be more such torchlight processions in the days and weeks before and after the Reichstag elections. Mehs watches the procession with 360 participants from his window and writes in his diary what his little daughter asked him when he saw the torchlight procession.

On February 10, Hitler gives a speech that is broadcast on the radio. Mehs heard them too and wrote in his diary that Hitler was hollow, without substance, that he had strength but no spirit. Mehs wonders how a people could make such an instinctual person chancellor.

In February 1933, many members of the SA and SS were hired as auxiliary police officers in Wittlich as well. On 27.2.In 1933 the Reichstag burns in Berlin. Mehs writes in his diary that there are rumors that the right-wing parties staged all this in order to have leverage against the communists and to expand their own power. Fundamental rights such as freedom of expression and freedom of assembly are suspended.

Elections early March 33

On March 5th there are elections for the Reichstag. In Wittlich, Hitler’s campaign speech was broadcast the night before in the Hotel “Zur Traube” on Schlossstrasse. At the tower of the hotel blows Swastika flag and is illuminated with searchlights in the evening. Supporters of the NSDAP meet in front of it.

In Wittlich, the NSDAP gets 33.5 percent of the votes, the Center Party remains the strongest with 43 percent. In all of Germany, however, the NSDAP comes to 43.9 percent. With eight percent of the fighting front black-white-red they have the absolute majority in the Reichstag.

Matthias Mehs is appalled by the election result with an absolute majority for the National Socialists in the Reichstag. In his diary he wonders what this Third Reich will cost Germany. He is aware that there is no longer any freedom or law in Germany.

In Wittlich, too, supporters of the NSDAP want to hoist the swastika flag at the town hall on March 6, which Mayor Neuendorfer prevents. Permission was received from Berlin by the evening, so that the swastika flag hung on the town hall after all. The National Socialists quickly expanded their power in Germany, talked about a national revolution and continued to restrict civil liberties.

On March 21, the new Reichstag met for the first time in Potsdam with a right-wing majority. In Wittlich, too, people are asked to hang swastika flags out of their windows on this occasion.

Matthias Mehs’ father hangs the white and red Wittlich city flag out of the window, not the swastika flag. In Wittlich there is a celebration on the market square and a torchlight procession in which all clubs and schools take part.

Enabling Act supported by Center

In mid-March, Matthias Mehs wrote to the leader of the Center Party, Prelate Kaas. He warns not to agree to the so-called Enabling Act. However, the Center Party in the Reichstag agrees and helps the National Socialists to the necessary two-thirds majority. This gives Hitler absolute power, effectively overriding the constitution since the government can enact laws without the consent of the Reichstag.

In his diary, Matthias Mehs writes down his thoughts on the behavior of the Center Party, describing them as not exactly heroic but clever. Now there are no more excuses or excuses for Hitler, he writes.

Boycott of Jewish businesses

On April 1, 1933, National Socialists also marched through the town of Wittlich with posters calling for a boycott of Jewish shops. There are about 30 Jewish shops and companies in Wittlich, including the chemical factory Ermin, and there are Jewish lawyers.

At that time Wittlich had about 7,300 inhabitants, 238 were Jews. Matthias Mehs sees the mob roaming the streets, posting signs in front of Jewish shops with signs like “A Jew lives here, avoid his booth.”

Hitler promotes the same circuit throughout Germany. Anyone looking for work should join the NSDAP, civil servants must also present “Aryan proof”. Hitler’s birthday is celebrated on April 20, and Hitler declares May 1 “National Labor Day” and a public holiday.

In Wittlich, too, at six o’clock in the morning the Hitler Band parades through the town, the musicians in new brown uniforms, Matthias Mehs notes in his diary.

Matthias Mehs does not go with the Wittlich NSDAP parade on May 1st. He writes that he does not want to bow to the party flag. He was not available for National Socialist propaganda marches.

Mehs saw the Center Party banned in June 1933. He is resigning from his position on the city council. His inn is described in Wittlich as a “Jewish meeting place”.

After the Second World War, Mehs founds the CDU local and district association in Wittlich. In 1946 he became mayor and in 1949 a member of the 1st German Bundestag. Mehs dies in 1976.