Free Hitler's Hangman by Robert. Gerwarth

leafy surroundings in the spacious three-
    storey wing of a splendid new building by Jentzsch & Reichardt in
    Gütchentrasse. The building houses a number of bright, friendly class-
    rooms, nearly all of them looking out on to the green gardens, a waiting
    room, an administration office and everything that makes up a modern
    school building. But the Conservatory’s main attraction is the splendid
    hall on the ground floor, which has seating for 300 people. Spacious,
    bright and airy, it provides an extremely pleasant summertime abode
    to the many friends and sponsors, who have been coming to the
    Conservatory’s performances for years in order to follow the progress of
    Heydrich’s pupils. The hall, with its tasteful electrical lighting system
    and its ingeniously painted decorations, makes one imagine to be in one
    of those nice little private princely theatres that charm visitors in castles
    here and there . . .37
    Given Bruno’s economic success and social ambitions, it had always
    been clear that his eldest son would attend high school. Secondary
    schooling at the time was reserved for a small, privileged and overwhelm-
    ingly male elite. In the early 1900s, some 90 per cent of German pupils
    never went beyond primary school. Of the fortunate 10 per cent attending
    all-boys secondary schools, some 66 per cent continued their education in
    the humanist Gymnasien which ended with the Abitur , the school-leaving
    certificate qualifying them to attend university. The remaining 34 per cent
    attended the Oberrealschule , a slightly less academic institution whose
    leaving certificate did not qualify its pupils for university.38
    When the time came for Reinhard to go to secondary school, his parents
    decided to send him to the local Reformgymnasium , a relatively new institu-
    tion that embodied the scientific optimism of the dynamic, future-oriented
    German Empire. The Reformgymnasium was designed to reconcile the
    characteristics of the classical Gymnasium – with its emphasis on a rounded
    humanist education and training in Latin and ancient Greek – with the
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    HITLER’S HANGMAN
    modern educational requirements of the early twentieth century. As
    with the majority of the new polytechnical universities in the German
    Reich, the Reformgymnasium had its origins in the technological zeal
    and enthusiasm of the late nineteenth century, which in turn helped
    to foster Germany’s leading role in the so-called second industrial revolu-
    tion based on technological innovation. By the time Heydrich started
    secondary school, Germany had become Europe’s industrial powerhouse,
    internationally dominant in the fields of chemistry, physics and engi-
    neering. Bruno Heydrich’s decision to send his eldest son to a
    Reformgymnasium was therefore not only the result of Reinhard’s good
    grades, but also a tribute to the technological and scientific optimism of
    the era. The Reformgymnasium was modern in yet another sense. While the
    vast majority of German schools at the time were denominational, the
    Reformgymnasium was not affiliated to any religious persuasion. In 1906,
    no fewer than 95 per cent of Protestant and 91 per cent of Catholic
    children were educated in schools of their own confession. Reinhard
    Heydrich’s educational experience was therefore exceptionally modern and
    forward-looking in more than one sense.39
    In addition to the main scientific subjects taught at German high
    schools – chemistry, physics and mathematics – great emphasis was placed
    on German literature and culture as well as on modern languages: French
    was taught from the first form onwards, Latin from the lower-fourth, and
    English was introduced in the lower-fifth. Unsurprisingly perhaps, given
    his cultured family background, Reinhard Heydrich’s performance at
    school was above average. His results in science subjects were particularly
    outstanding and his career ambition as a teenager was to become a
    chemist. Simultaneously, he began