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Den Hitler jag' ich in die Luft. Der Attentäter Georg Elser. Eine Biographie.
German
281 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1999
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Displaying 1 - 13 of 13 reviews
October 6, 2024
November 8 was among the most solemn dates in Nazi lore (it is coincidentally interesting that it is the same date Donald Trump was elected). On that date in 1923 in Munich, Adolf Hitler led the failed Beer Hall Putsch. After the Nazis came to power in 1933, the elites of the party gathered on every anniversary of the Putsch at the Bürgerbräukeller, which always culminated with a 9:30 pm speech by Hitler, commemorating the exact time his followers stormed into the hall. When they convened for the 16th anniversary in 1939, it was a little more than two months after the invasion of Poland, adding to the importance of the commemoration. Every prominent Nazi with the exception of Himmler and Göring was in attendance. The ceremonies began with the presentation of the “bloody flag,” the actual flag used by Nazis in 1923 which was still splattered with the blood of their martyrs. But this year there would be a change in the schedule. Because of weather conditions, Hitler would not be able to fly back to Berlin; he would instead take a night train which was scheduled to depart promptly at 9:31 pm, moving the time of speech up to 8 pm. The speech, fed by the emotion of the evening, was vintage Hitler, at 9:07 pm Hitler left for his train. At 9:20 pm, a bomb that was concealed in the column directly behind the Bürgerbraükeller speaker’s podium behind a Nazi banner, exploded. Eight people died, many more were injured, and the ceiling of the building collapsed.
Hitler’s close call added to the Nazi mythology of his divine mission and invincibility. Even after 1945, “post-war Germany couldn’t justify the deaths of the ‘innocent victims.’ There was little thought given to Hitler’s millions of murders in the camps, to the victims of the euthanasia policy, no comparison with the 50 million deaths in the second World War. Sympathies were more likely to be reserved for the eight who died in the collapsed Bürgerbraükeller.” Seventy years later, Hellmut Haasis tells the story of the man who built and planted the bomb, Georg Elser, to rehabilitate the memory of a man and act that have been largely forgotten.
Haasis's portrayal of Elser is one of a relatively simple, nondescript, enigmatic and apolitical man; someone neither his friends, family, nor his Nazi captors could ever quite connect with the man behind the failed assassination of Hitler. He was a handy man, briefly a member of the Communist Party in the late 1920s but not really political, and father of an illegitimate son who often drifted between odd jobs and unemployment. But something drove him to commit a solitary act of resistance. It seems the invasion of Poland finally drove him to act.
Elser, like all Germans, knew about the annual Nazi gathering at the Bürgerbräukeller. Three days prior to the ceremony, he went there, blended in, and hid out when it closed. For the next three days, he followed the same routine, using the nights to hollow out a section of the column behind where the podium would be placed to place and hide his homemade time bomb behind the hanging banner. He left the afternoon of the bombing and tried to escape by train to Switzerland, where he was detained—just 35 minutes before the bomb detonated—because of his suspicious behavior.
After the bombing, the Nazis used the event to both bolster its public mythology and create fear of resistance among the German people. Solemn, heavily orchestrated memorial services were held in Munich, creating new martyrs and deifying Hitler more. The fifty employees of the Bürgerbraükeller were interrogated, some for months. Wilhelm Jung, a waiter in the Saar, after reading about the bombing the next day, casually said “If the Führer and his closest associates had been killed in the attempt, things would already look a lot different in Germany today.” He was reported to the police, tortured and spent most of World War II in a relatively comfortable room, for a concentration camp, in Sachsenhausen, just north of Berlin. Near the end of the war, he was transferred to Dachau and executed shortly before its liberation in 1945.
Haasis fills in the story of how Elser was identified as the bomber, details about his confinement, and his life in Sachsenhausen and Dachau, where he was executed just weeks before its liberation. It took a very long time before Elser was justifiably recognized for his act of resistance. The playwright Rolf Hochhuth and Haasis are most responsible for bringing his legacy to widespread public attention. In 2011, a magnificent memorial of Elser was built on the Wilhelmstrasse in Berlin, just a short distance from, on one side, the Hitler chancellory and, on the other, the site of the Hitler bunker. I think somehow that would have pleased Elser.
Hitler’s close call added to the Nazi mythology of his divine mission and invincibility. Even after 1945, “post-war Germany couldn’t justify the deaths of the ‘innocent victims.’ There was little thought given to Hitler’s millions of murders in the camps, to the victims of the euthanasia policy, no comparison with the 50 million deaths in the second World War. Sympathies were more likely to be reserved for the eight who died in the collapsed Bürgerbraükeller.” Seventy years later, Hellmut Haasis tells the story of the man who built and planted the bomb, Georg Elser, to rehabilitate the memory of a man and act that have been largely forgotten.
Haasis's portrayal of Elser is one of a relatively simple, nondescript, enigmatic and apolitical man; someone neither his friends, family, nor his Nazi captors could ever quite connect with the man behind the failed assassination of Hitler. He was a handy man, briefly a member of the Communist Party in the late 1920s but not really political, and father of an illegitimate son who often drifted between odd jobs and unemployment. But something drove him to commit a solitary act of resistance. It seems the invasion of Poland finally drove him to act.
Elser, like all Germans, knew about the annual Nazi gathering at the Bürgerbräukeller. Three days prior to the ceremony, he went there, blended in, and hid out when it closed. For the next three days, he followed the same routine, using the nights to hollow out a section of the column behind where the podium would be placed to place and hide his homemade time bomb behind the hanging banner. He left the afternoon of the bombing and tried to escape by train to Switzerland, where he was detained—just 35 minutes before the bomb detonated—because of his suspicious behavior.
After the bombing, the Nazis used the event to both bolster its public mythology and create fear of resistance among the German people. Solemn, heavily orchestrated memorial services were held in Munich, creating new martyrs and deifying Hitler more. The fifty employees of the Bürgerbraükeller were interrogated, some for months. Wilhelm Jung, a waiter in the Saar, after reading about the bombing the next day, casually said “If the Führer and his closest associates had been killed in the attempt, things would already look a lot different in Germany today.” He was reported to the police, tortured and spent most of World War II in a relatively comfortable room, for a concentration camp, in Sachsenhausen, just north of Berlin. Near the end of the war, he was transferred to Dachau and executed shortly before its liberation in 1945.
Haasis fills in the story of how Elser was identified as the bomber, details about his confinement, and his life in Sachsenhausen and Dachau, where he was executed just weeks before its liberation. It took a very long time before Elser was justifiably recognized for his act of resistance. The playwright Rolf Hochhuth and Haasis are most responsible for bringing his legacy to widespread public attention. In 2011, a magnificent memorial of Elser was built on the Wilhelmstrasse in Berlin, just a short distance from, on one side, the Hitler chancellory and, on the other, the site of the Hitler bunker. I think somehow that would have pleased Elser.
April 5, 2013
Bombing Hitler: The Story of the Man Who Almost Assassinated the Führer by Hellmut G. Haasis, (translated by William Odom) is the true story of Georg Elser and his failed attempt on Hitler’s life.
Bombing Hitler by Hellmut G. Haasis tells of Georg Elser’s decision to assassinate Hitler in a Munich Beer Hall. Elser’s said that he simply wanted to” prevent even greater bloodshed through my act”. Elser, a blue collar worker, worked and planned for months in order to plant a bomb in a pillar which supports the roof of the beer hall. The bomb worked, killing eight people, but missing its intended target who had to leave early for Berlin (cutting his speech from 2 hours to a mere hour).
The book is a well researched document, using interviews from first hand sources as well as historical documentation, the author is not afraid to also provide some commentary as well as objective analysis which is a pleasure to read. Haasis takes the reader on a journey through a frightening police state, Elser’s brutal interrogations (with Himmler’s personal involvement), until he is executed in Dachau.
One of the books main goals is to resurrect Elser’s reputation. In the years after the war, Elser has been accused to being an SS agent, however through research and documentation, Haasis shows that he was anything but. In fact Elser put in danger all those he came in contact with and the whole town he grew up in.
Mr. Haasis did an excellent job recreating the steps Elser took to in his attempt to assassinate the oppressor, his escape attempt and time at the hands of the brutal SS. An inspiring story about a man who stood up for what he believes in, disregarding the odds and almost ended the biggest war the world has ever seen single-handedly.
For more reviews and bookish posts please visit: http://www.ManOfLaBook.com
Bombing Hitler by Hellmut G. Haasis tells of Georg Elser’s decision to assassinate Hitler in a Munich Beer Hall. Elser’s said that he simply wanted to” prevent even greater bloodshed through my act”. Elser, a blue collar worker, worked and planned for months in order to plant a bomb in a pillar which supports the roof of the beer hall. The bomb worked, killing eight people, but missing its intended target who had to leave early for Berlin (cutting his speech from 2 hours to a mere hour).
The book is a well researched document, using interviews from first hand sources as well as historical documentation, the author is not afraid to also provide some commentary as well as objective analysis which is a pleasure to read. Haasis takes the reader on a journey through a frightening police state, Elser’s brutal interrogations (with Himmler’s personal involvement), until he is executed in Dachau.
One of the books main goals is to resurrect Elser’s reputation. In the years after the war, Elser has been accused to being an SS agent, however through research and documentation, Haasis shows that he was anything but. In fact Elser put in danger all those he came in contact with and the whole town he grew up in.
Mr. Haasis did an excellent job recreating the steps Elser took to in his attempt to assassinate the oppressor, his escape attempt and time at the hands of the brutal SS. An inspiring story about a man who stood up for what he believes in, disregarding the odds and almost ended the biggest war the world has ever seen single-handedly.
For more reviews and bookish posts please visit: http://www.ManOfLaBook.com
February 28, 2014
A good solid account of Georg Elser, a blue collar worker who planted a bomb in a beer hall in 1939 narrowly missing killing Hitler who had to leave early for Berlin.
There are many interviews from first hand sources as well as historical documentation detailing his previous life and the brutal interrogation by the Gestapo and Himmler himself.
Elser is dispatched to Sachsenhausen and then Dachau where he is tragically executed in the last days of the war
I hadn't realised how Elser's reputation had been sullied, surprisingly by Pastor Niemoller who accused Elser of being an SS agent due to his preferential treatment in Dachau.
However with his detailed research and documentation, the author shows a man who stood up for his principles and almost changed the whole course of history single-handedly.
There are many interviews from first hand sources as well as historical documentation detailing his previous life and the brutal interrogation by the Gestapo and Himmler himself.
Elser is dispatched to Sachsenhausen and then Dachau where he is tragically executed in the last days of the war
I hadn't realised how Elser's reputation had been sullied, surprisingly by Pastor Niemoller who accused Elser of being an SS agent due to his preferential treatment in Dachau.
However with his detailed research and documentation, the author shows a man who stood up for his principles and almost changed the whole course of history single-handedly.
January 7, 2013
What evil angel watched over Hitler? Georg Elser came closer to killing him than anyone before Stauffenberg - and at a time that, had he succeeded, World War II would have ended after the invasion of Poland. This book is the first extended and detailed treatment of Elser and as such is exceptionally valuable. Stylistically the book and the translation strike some odd notes, but don't let that put you off.
December 9, 2023
Spoiler Alert!!
Bombing Hitler takes place in 1939 and follows the life of Georg Elser, an unassuming German citizen, carpenter, and clock-maker who, unbeknownst to his family, decides to make an attempt on assassinating Hitler with a bomb. He worked undercover of darkness in the Munich Beer Hall, a popular hangout for the Nazi and the future location of the bomb. Hitler was planning to give a speech there, and the bomb was set to go off during that time.
However, the bomb didn't kill Hitler, but instead claimed eight other people's lives.
The book goes over the steps Elser took to plan the assassination, including the fatal mistakes made (which, ironically, included keeping his family out of it), plus why he was foiled at the border of Germany and Switzerland (partly it was the exhaustion of ). It then goes on to describe the concentration camp he was sent to and where he eventually died. It tells the true story of the almost successful assassin of Hitler.
I liked this book, my only problem with it was that it was dense and really hard to read, but it was really good.
Bombing Hitler takes place in 1939 and follows the life of Georg Elser, an unassuming German citizen, carpenter, and clock-maker who, unbeknownst to his family, decides to make an attempt on assassinating Hitler with a bomb. He worked undercover of darkness in the Munich Beer Hall, a popular hangout for the Nazi and the future location of the bomb. Hitler was planning to give a speech there, and the bomb was set to go off during that time.
However, the bomb didn't kill Hitler, but instead claimed eight other people's lives.
The book goes over the steps Elser took to plan the assassination, including the fatal mistakes made (which, ironically, included keeping his family out of it), plus why he was foiled at the border of Germany and Switzerland (partly it was the exhaustion of ). It then goes on to describe the concentration camp he was sent to and where he eventually died. It tells the true story of the almost successful assassin of Hitler.
I liked this book, my only problem with it was that it was dense and really hard to read, but it was really good.
April 8, 2023
Georg Elser is a hero and this book knows it which i guess for some people interested in objective, detached history might be a problem but the book is good. The man was able to act and plant a bomb in the munich where hitler was going to speak in 1939 at a time when opponents of hitler with the power to stop were feckless and he did it to protect workers from dying in another unnecessary war. It's a shame the weather was bad and hitler rushed through his speech and left early rather than been killed by elser bomb when it went off. It's also fucked up how the man's reputation was tarnished by conspiracy theories that he had been directed by the nazis to plant the bomb but not kill hitler and how niemoller spread that bullshit.
October 6, 2020
An incredible, largely forgotten (it seems) story of an ordinary man who through smarts, perseverance, and an incredible capacity for being discreet nearly killed Hitler. It's a story more people should know, and this book tells it very well.
March 11, 2022
a story about an eccentric man who tried to stop a war by assassinating "the leadership."
although he failed, the story of his bravery, craftmanship, and sense of justice continued to live as history goes on.
although he failed, the story of his bravery, craftmanship, and sense of justice continued to live as history goes on.
September 15, 2025
Inhaltlich war es gut, den Schreibstil fand ich gewöhnungsbedürftig.
May 1, 2013
(Originally posted on History In An Hour: http://www.historyinanhour.com/2013/0...)
The date is 8 November 1939, the location – the Bürgerbräukeller beer hall in Munich. With their uniforms freshly-pressed, their buttons gleaming, their shoes polished, Hitler’s longest-standing comrades filed into the hall, their chests puffed-up with pride, their wives at their sides. This event, on this day, had become an annual occasion in the Nazi calendar, a ritual of celebration and remembrance. The climax of the evening, awaited with great anticipation, would be Hitler’s appearance and his speech in which he would praise and pour tribute on these self-satisfied men, his old-timers.
But there was one man who awaited Hitler’s appearance with equal anticipation – but for entirely different reasons. This man was 36-year-old Johann Georg Elser, a carpenter. For Elser, a long-time anti-Nazi, had planted a bomb with the full intention of killing Adolf Hitler. And his bomb was due to explode half way through the Fuhrer’s speech.
Kill Hitler
Georg Elser had always been quietly defiant in his hatred of the Nazi regime – he’d supported the communists and, once Hitler was in power, refused to give the Nazi salute. He feared Hitler’s aggressive warmongering and foresaw the coming of war and resolved himself, in his own way, to do something to prevent it – and that was to kill Hitler.
Exactly a year earlier before the fateful night, on the 8 November 1938, Elser attended the same annual commemoration in Munich marking the anniversary of Hitler’s failed Beer Hall Putsch of 1923. And it was this annual event, he decided, that would provide the perfect opportunity to implement his audacious plan. The following night, he witnessed first-hand the vicious Kristallnacht, when Nazis throughout the country terrorized Germany’s Jews in a concentrated orgy of killing and violence. Seeing for himself this state-sponsored anarchy merely confirmed for Elser that what he was doing was right.
Elser spent the next year preparing. Each year on 8 November, since 1933, Hitler had come to the same beer hall and delivered a two-hour speech, starting at 8.30, the precise time that, in 1923, he had bulldozed into the hall brandishing a pistol, interrupting a meeting of Bavarian city officials and, firing two shots into the ceiling, declared revolution. The Beer Hall Putsch failed but had come an occasion to honour and remember the Nazis that had fallen that night in Munich.
Thus Elser, who managed to secure a job as a carpenter within the beer hall, painstakingly hollowed out a pillar near the speakers’ podium and placed within it a timed device set to go off at the point Hitler was midway through his speech.
Thirteen minutes
But sadly for Elser (pictured), and indeed for all mankind, Hitler changed his routine. War had broken out two months before and Hitler had more pressing matters to attend to and had to get back to Berlin. Thus, Hitler began his speech earlier than normal and instead of the usual two hours, spoke only for an hour. He left the building at 9.07. Thirteen minutes later, Elser’s bomb went off. It killed eight Nazis and injured over sixty. But Hitler was not one of them.
Elser was arrested as he tried to escape into Switzerland. He was interrogated and brutally tortured by the Gestapo, often in the presence of Heinrich Himmler, who refused to believe that Elser had worked alone and was not part of a wider conspiracy. He was shot in Dachau concentration camp on 9 April 1945, weeks before its liberation.
Hellmut G Haasis’s book, Bombing Hitler: The Story of the Man Who Almost Assassinated the Führer, originally published in German in 2001, has only just been released in English. Piecing together contemporary transcripts, personal testimonies and family recollections, Haasis puts together a compelling story of the doomed hero, a testament to a man who almost singlehandedly changed the course of twentieth century history – almost. It is a story of quiet courage, determination and tragedy. One closes the book wondering what might have been had this simple carpenter with a mission had set his bomb to go off just thirteen minutes earlier.
By such thin threads, hangs the destiny of mankind.
Rupert Colley, author of Nazi Germany: History In An Hour published by HarperCollins.
The date is 8 November 1939, the location – the Bürgerbräukeller beer hall in Munich. With their uniforms freshly-pressed, their buttons gleaming, their shoes polished, Hitler’s longest-standing comrades filed into the hall, their chests puffed-up with pride, their wives at their sides. This event, on this day, had become an annual occasion in the Nazi calendar, a ritual of celebration and remembrance. The climax of the evening, awaited with great anticipation, would be Hitler’s appearance and his speech in which he would praise and pour tribute on these self-satisfied men, his old-timers.
But there was one man who awaited Hitler’s appearance with equal anticipation – but for entirely different reasons. This man was 36-year-old Johann Georg Elser, a carpenter. For Elser, a long-time anti-Nazi, had planted a bomb with the full intention of killing Adolf Hitler. And his bomb was due to explode half way through the Fuhrer’s speech.
Kill Hitler
Georg Elser had always been quietly defiant in his hatred of the Nazi regime – he’d supported the communists and, once Hitler was in power, refused to give the Nazi salute. He feared Hitler’s aggressive warmongering and foresaw the coming of war and resolved himself, in his own way, to do something to prevent it – and that was to kill Hitler.
Exactly a year earlier before the fateful night, on the 8 November 1938, Elser attended the same annual commemoration in Munich marking the anniversary of Hitler’s failed Beer Hall Putsch of 1923. And it was this annual event, he decided, that would provide the perfect opportunity to implement his audacious plan. The following night, he witnessed first-hand the vicious Kristallnacht, when Nazis throughout the country terrorized Germany’s Jews in a concentrated orgy of killing and violence. Seeing for himself this state-sponsored anarchy merely confirmed for Elser that what he was doing was right.
Elser spent the next year preparing. Each year on 8 November, since 1933, Hitler had come to the same beer hall and delivered a two-hour speech, starting at 8.30, the precise time that, in 1923, he had bulldozed into the hall brandishing a pistol, interrupting a meeting of Bavarian city officials and, firing two shots into the ceiling, declared revolution. The Beer Hall Putsch failed but had come an occasion to honour and remember the Nazis that had fallen that night in Munich.
Thus Elser, who managed to secure a job as a carpenter within the beer hall, painstakingly hollowed out a pillar near the speakers’ podium and placed within it a timed device set to go off at the point Hitler was midway through his speech.
Thirteen minutes
But sadly for Elser (pictured), and indeed for all mankind, Hitler changed his routine. War had broken out two months before and Hitler had more pressing matters to attend to and had to get back to Berlin. Thus, Hitler began his speech earlier than normal and instead of the usual two hours, spoke only for an hour. He left the building at 9.07. Thirteen minutes later, Elser’s bomb went off. It killed eight Nazis and injured over sixty. But Hitler was not one of them.
Elser was arrested as he tried to escape into Switzerland. He was interrogated and brutally tortured by the Gestapo, often in the presence of Heinrich Himmler, who refused to believe that Elser had worked alone and was not part of a wider conspiracy. He was shot in Dachau concentration camp on 9 April 1945, weeks before its liberation.
Hellmut G Haasis’s book, Bombing Hitler: The Story of the Man Who Almost Assassinated the Führer, originally published in German in 2001, has only just been released in English. Piecing together contemporary transcripts, personal testimonies and family recollections, Haasis puts together a compelling story of the doomed hero, a testament to a man who almost singlehandedly changed the course of twentieth century history – almost. It is a story of quiet courage, determination and tragedy. One closes the book wondering what might have been had this simple carpenter with a mission had set his bomb to go off just thirteen minutes earlier.
By such thin threads, hangs the destiny of mankind.
Rupert Colley, author of Nazi Germany: History In An Hour published by HarperCollins.
August 25, 2015
Haasis Freiheitsbewegungen von den Germanenka¨mpfen bis zu den Bauernaufsta¨nden im Dreissigja¨hrigen Krieg (translated by Russell Brand as ‘My Large Dog is Actually a Small Pony’) is everything my 12th grade book reports were: amateurish, disjointed, and repetitive. Though everyone knows how Hitler’s story ended in 1945, fewer know that there were many assassination attempts along the way. This one was carried out in November, 1939 by a lone dude named Georg Elser, a carpenter fiercely opposed to the Nazis. Elser painstakingly built a bomb timed to ignite during a speech commemorating the failed Beer Hall Putsch. It exploded, but missed Hitler by 13 minutes; eight died and 63 others were injured. Haasis’s account of Elser’s story is reminiscent of someone recapping a video, and while I’m no historian, the level of detail seems speculative, even unrealistic. How could Haasis know that Elser “…treated himself to two cups of coffee rather than his usual single cup” on the day of the bombing? Or that, if Elser had succeeded in his attempt to escape to Switzerland, he would have been remanded to the Germans by Swiss border guards? The same information that makes for an excellent Wikipedia article is diluted across 272 pages. Though it could be the translation, Skyhorse Publications seems out to corner the Georg Elser market as they also published Helmut Ortner’s The Lone Assassin: The Epic True Story of the Man who Almost Killed Hitler (2012).
December 31, 2016
On a recent trip to Berlin, I went on a facinating Third Reich tour. The tour guide mentioned the story of Georg Elser, the man who almost assassinated Hitler in 1939. I had only ever heard of the Stauffenberg attempt and was very surprised that so little is known if his story at least in the UK. This book is a balanced account of a facinating enigmatic man and I would recommend it to anyone wanting to find out more about Elser and his heroic attempt to change the course if the second world war.
April 22, 2015
Biographie und Details zum Leben und Bombenanschlag Georg Elsers im
Bürgerbräukeller - passende Lektüre zum Film von Oliver Hirschbiegel
Bürgerbräukeller - passende Lektüre zum Film von Oliver Hirschbiegel
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