The grave of Dietrich Eckart, one of the founders of the Nazi Party and mentor of Hitler
Dietrich Eckart was born in 1868 in Neumarkt, about 32km southeast of Nuremberg. Eckart initially studied law at Erlangen, later medicine at the Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich. Like many students he spent his time drinking. Fencing was also a popular pastime. In 1891 he dropped out of university to became a writer. Around this time, he became a drug addict with a morphine problem which lasted for the rest of his life.
In 1895, his father died also, leaving him a considerable amount of money that Eckart soon spent on alcohol, drugs and women. He moved to Berlin in 1899, by this time almost penniless.
In the capital, Eckart became the protégé of the artistic director of the Prussian Royal Theatre, Count Georg von Hülsen-Haeseler (1858–1922). The Count his plays on the stage and thus Eckart had a steady income. One such play was the 1912 adaptation of Henrik Ibsen's Peer Gynt which ran for more than 600 performances in Berlin alone.
Eckart identified himself so much with the play, that his own letterhead used the name Peer Gynt rather than his real name.
Up until then, Eckart had been struggling but the success of the play changed his financial situation. His was now a riches to rags back to riches situation. It made him a lot of money and powerful connections amongst the wealthy, connections which were to benefit Hitler later. His living standards were further assisted when he married a rich widow in 1913, Rosa Marx, née Wiedeburg, from Bad Blankenburg in Thuringia. He lived with her until the summer of 1915 when he moved back to Munich. He divorced his wife in 1921.
Although nationalist his nationalism did not go as far as to fight in the armed forces, although years of substance and alcohol abuse had certainly taken their toll. In his mid forties when WW1 started, at an age when he was perfectly able to join up to fight, Eckart managed to avoid the draft. Obviously there was no point in risking dying for your country when others would do it for you.
Soon after his return to Munich he founded the Hoheneichen publishing house.
In 1918 Eckart became the editor of a racist journal called Auf gut Deutsch (which would translate into English as In clear language) . Working alongside him were Alfred Rosenberg and Gottfried Feder.
In January 1919, Eckart, Feder, Anton Drexler and Karl Harrer founded the Deutsche Arbeiterpartei (German Workers' Party) which was shortened to D.A.P.. He wrote the lyrics of Deutschland erwache ("Germany awake"), which became an anthem of the future Nazi Party.
In February 1920 Eckart changed the party name to the Nationalsozialistische Deutsche Arbeiterpartei (National Socialist German Workers Party), or to give it the abbreviated form N.S.D.A.P.) or the Nazi Party.
Following the ban on the publication of Auf gut Deutsche, he was instrumental in acquiring for the party a newspaper, the Völkischer Beobachter.
Eckart believed in the coming of a German Messiah who would redeem Germany after its defeat in World War I.
Eckart may have believed that he had found that Messiah. The two became close, like father and son. Eckart became the mentor of the future Fuhrer.
Eckart was able to introduce Hitler to others such as the the photographer Heinrich Hoffmann with whom he had a relationship for the rest of his life.
In June 1921, Eckart and Hitler were in Berlin trying to raise money for the party. In their absence, the party board attempted to merge the party with another which infuriated Hitler when he found out. He resigned from the party but returned when Eckart managed to persuade the board to let him be the leader on 26 July 1921. Hitler was the only one who was a good speaker and therefore capable of fund raising. Without Hitler, the party would have sunk into obscurity.
There was also disagreement on strategy. Eckart was in favour of a putsch in Berlin and had supported the Kapp Putsch but did not see much sense in attempting one in Munich.
By May 1923, Eckart seems to have been having second thoughts. Hanfstaengl said that he complained that Hitler had "megalomania halfway between a Messiah complex and Neroism" after Hitler had compared himself to Jesus throwing the money-changers out of the temple.
Despite growing apart on daily matters, Hitler regularly visited him seeing him perhaps as a ‘grand old man’ of the party.
The role that Eckart played in the Beer Hall Putsch is not clear. He disagreed with it, noting that a putsch had to take place in the capital. It would appear that Eckart was not at the Beer Hall but was in the street the following day during the march. Logically, for the authorities he was a suspect in the attempt to overthrow the government. He was arrested one week after the putsch and held in Landsberg Prison along with Hitler and other party officials. On 20 December 1923 he suffered a heart attack which led to his release. He died six days later on 26 December 1923.
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