Hitler is a byword for evil, racist cant & totalitarian rule. Is this an accurate assessment and does it reflect his philosophies over his whole life or did his psyche steadily become more morbid with age? What was the effect the Bomb Plot in July 1944 on his mental condition? Did it exacerbate these attributes in any way? In spite of the unending drama as the Third Reich rapidly sunk into the abyss after Stalingrad, how was Hitler still able to hold sway? Finally, were his acolytes so in awe of Hitler, and for what reasons, that their natural instincts did not forewarn them of the impending disaster?

These are merely an arbitrary selection of the litany of unanswered questions that I possessed regarding Hitler. Without any doubt, these issues have occupied my mind for at least four decades. Finally Ian Kershaw’s opus magnum entitled eponymously, Hitler, has finally shed light on all these aspects. As I did not have sufficient time to read the full unabridged 1550 page version, I will confess to reading to an abridged version which only comprises a modest 969 pages instead. The journey and wait was well worth it. 

Most people do not possess the measure of the man. A classic example relates to Hitler’s work habits & ethics. According to most contemporary Germans – and modern ones too – Hitler worked tirelessly for the betterment of Germany. Unbeknown to them he was indolent, dissolute and insouciant, the very antithesis of the Germanic ideal that he espoused. He abhorred detail or bureaucracy of any kind and seldom, if ever, issued a direct instruction other than not to retreat on pain of death and fight to the last man.

“Working towards the Fuhrer”

Of far greater significance is the question of how it was possible for an advanced state like Germany to operate without formal orders? Hitler’s technique was never to directly issue an instruction but rather to launch into a monologue usually lasting over an hour listing his political reasoning in conjunction with a high-level logic of the importance of an issue.

 

The chastened subordinate would then “work his way towards the Fuhrer” by proposing some solutions. Extraordinarily it appears that in the case of the Judenfrage, Hitler merely wanted as he euphemistically termed it, The Final Solution, as he never discussed detail at any level nor did he ever sign orders to that effect. Himmler was left to implement the most radical of all the solutions available – the Holocaust – when others such as expulsion or forced emigration were initially proposed.

In other less contentious issues, Hitler would only countenance the most radical and outrageous solutions of his subordinates. Ironically at the beginning of Hitler’s rise to power that this all worked in Hitler’s favour. Needless to say, the Allies in 1935 were not prepared to view the reclaiming of the Saarland as a casus belli but rather as the German’s inalienable right albeit peremptorily exercised.

Thus emboldened, Hitler’s appetite for the high-stakes gamble was triggered. If the truth be told, by nature Hitler was a gambler of the worst kind – the all-or-nothing risk taker. Whilst in his twenties this had resulted in nothing less than loneliness, bitterness and impecunity. In this penniless state, he was a dissolute drifter residing in doss-houses and other unsavoury accommodation.

His thirties saw the changes in his fortunes. Providence, as he claimed, had shone on him. The portents were kindly. The roll of the die had been propitious. Lady Luck had given him an attribute that was hypnotic to his audience: an impressive oratorical style and a burning hatred of the Jews who he claimed had “stabbed Germany in the back” during WW1. This scape-goat philosophy resonated with the semi-literate masses of unemployed who clutched at any straw. As Hitler expounded, their grim circumstances and vicissitudes was not of their own doing but rather that of a filthy Jewish Bolshevik conspiracy.

Becoming leader of the NSDAP

So how did Hitler manage to become the leader of the The National Socialist German Workers’ Party – the NSDAP or Nationalsizialistische Deutsche Arbeierpartei commonly referred to in English as the Nazi Party?

Not possessing any ability to socialise or bond with fellow human beings, Hitler had never coveted any formal leadership role as he ironically devalued the worth of the fuhrerprinzip. When factionalism and infighting arose within the NSDAP, Hitler’s natural disinclination to become involved in detail or accept responsibility came to the fore. Despite numerous entreaties for him to accept nomination as Party Leader, Hitler refused point-blank. Finally it was the possible amalgamation of the DSNAP with fellow Volkische Parteien, as they were known, when Hitler became concerned. Hitler was cajoled but he was implacable. His conditions for acceptance were too onerous: unfettered power on all matters. To prevent implosion and irrelevance and most tellingly to retain the asset that the miniscule party had in Hitler, they acceded to his extraordinary demands.

Thus Hitler as the indomitable untouchable Fuhrer was conceived.

Providence was certainly in Hitler’s favour.

Hitler’s management style

An unlikely management style swiftly emerged – Social Darwinianism. Simply put, when two members disagreed on a point whether it was doctrinal or practical, Hitler would never actually arbitrate between the parties but as he repeatedly stated, he would “let the more worthy person win through strength of character.” From the outset, Hitler endorsed the divide-and-rule management principle whereby he would knowingly appoint two opponents with overlapping portfolios. By such stratagems, both parties were as often as not more involved in outwitting their fellow member than feuding with Hitler.

This principle was to have disastrous consequences later in the war.

Those that ultimately rose to the top of the Nazi Party had done so by means of various nefarious and unsavoury acts but, if need be, Hitler could disempower or even in the case of Rohm, a close and early associate, personally order his execution. All in the inner sanctum bore a number of similar traits – a desire to please Hitler and what better manner than preposterous schemes and always to articulate a sanguine view of events, no matter how calamitous the situation was. The truth was not a factor but this was substituted with what Hitler wanted to hear: good news. In fact at one point late in the war, Hitler even had a messenger bearing bad tidings, incarcerated for negativism and defeatism.

No wonder that from 1943 onwards, Hitler’s plans never came to fruition. The fallacies presented by sycophantic Generals such as Keitel & Jodl did nothing to ameliorate the grim situation at the front, especially the Eastern Front, but instead caused the needless deaths of countless German soldiers trapped in unenviable situations.

Effect on Hitler’s psyche of Stalingrad and the Bomb Plot

The loss of Stalingrad saw Hitler sink to a greater level of depravity and this time it was about his fellow Germans that he made these inhuman and unfeeling comments. The loss of 300,000 German lives was viewed through his distorted prism as the price that had to be paid, and as life was valueless, what was the loss.

Where was Hitler’s humanity in this thinking about Stalingrad? As it was, he never showed any compassion at the loss of life or any remorse at being deaf to the pleas of wiser counsel to break out of the Kessel or cauldron. His narcissistic streak did not allow him to feel contrition for the unnecessary loss of life but rather guilt for having lost the battle against the untermenschen.

 

The Bomb Plot in July 1944 to assassinate Hitler saw a further hardening of his attitude to non-compliance with all his demands. Moreover a new malady was added to the litany of other vices: paranoia. Hitler viewed all inabilities to conform to his operational demands as being indicative of treason. Whenever a breakthrough was made at the front by the Allies, the General was immediately suspected of treachery and relieved of his command.

During the Battle of Berlin, this incongruous situation was taken to the extreme. Most German Generals occupied their exalted position for no longer than two days. As the succeeding breakthrough occurred, they were summarily relieved of their positions. Even the brilliant Guderian, the Panzer General, had to endure the ignominy of yet another dismissal in 1945 when the Russians overwhelmed his forces.

 

Hitler’s mental state

As war swiftly drew to its inexorable end with only one outcome possible – Germany’s abject defeat – Hitler took solace not in fellow human beings or even his lithesome girlfriend, Eva Braun, but in his German Shepherd dog, Blondi, which he would ultimately kill with cyanide 24 hours before his own death. Even amidst the evident signs of destruction and decay, he would cross the main road from the so-called Fuhrerbunker, his underground claustrophobic bunker, and admire the scale model of proposed Berlin after the war with its over-wide boulevards and gigantic out of scale buildings to outrival the largest in the world.

For most of his life, Hitler had existed in a fairy tale land out of touch with reality. At the zenith of the German supremacy, Hitler’s grasp of reality, whilst still not realistic, bore a tenuous connection with the real world. But as the fortunes of war rapidly swung in the Allies’ favour, even this nebulous connection fractured. By all accounts, his mood swings fluctuated between flights of fantasy and issuing irrational unachievable orders which senior OKW officers had to endure with equanimity. The atmosphere at the daily two hour military conference at the Wolfschanze was surreal, tense and unproductive. Without attempting to understand the logic of the proposals presented, Hitler would launch into violent diatribes against the Generals requests to retreat.

On the 22^nd June 1944, the 3^rd anniversary of Operation Barbarossa in 1941, the Soviets launched their long-awaited offensive in the East against German Army Group Centre. The transfer of elite units such as the SS Division Gross Deutschland to Normandy combined with Hitler’s inane decision to prevent the withdrawal of any German forces had resulted in German Divisions swiftly being surrounded and overwhelmed with staggering loss of life – over a million in total. It was not as if the Germans possessed a surfeit of troops, yet what was available were needlessly squandered for vanity reasons.

Triumph of the Will

For the most part Hitler’s riposte or counter when additional forces were requested was to use the factor as he saw it of how the NSDAP had come to power and that was through the triumph of the will. This he considered could at least treble the ability of the German forces and hence overcome their numerical inferiority.

Even though this concept was pivotal to Hitler from his early days, this concept was reinforced by an infamous film produced by Leni Riefenstahl of the same name. This was a Nazi propaganda film which obtained cult and iconic status. Being mindful of the lack of reserves, Hitler now clutched at his philosophy much like a drowning sailor without other means of flotation.

Hitler’s standard negotiating ploy was to present his preferred option and an apocalyptic alternative along the lines of “if we do not accept my solution then the Jewish Bolshevik conspiracy will infiltrate German society and spread its deadly bacillus.” As Hitler never brooked dissent, Hitler’s inane proposal was accepted without dissension.

A Singular State of Mind

From his appointment as leader of the NSDAP until his death by suicide on 30^th April 1945 with the Russians within blocks of his hideout, Hitler never wavered. The policies that he espoused in his bigoted book entitled Mein Kampf – My Struggle – formed the backbone of his policies whilst in power. Nobody can claim that they had not been notified long in advance what he intended to do especially as regards the Juden and the raumfragen – the land question.

From the very first time that Hitler obtained national prominence in the The Beer Hall Putsch – der Hitlerputsch – the attempt by Adolf Hitler during with 8–9 November 1923 to overthrow the Bavarian government – and on all subsequent anniversaries of the Putsch – Hitler would castigate the Jews whether Bolshevik or Capitalist for starting the war. Even at his “deathbed” when dictating his Political Testament to a nervous impressionable young secretary, Tradl Junge, he yet again laid the culpability for the war on the Jews. At no point of his 12 years in power did he ever consider that it was his actions, and his actions alone, which caused WW2 and Germany’s ultimate annihilation.

As a fan of the composer Richard Wagner, he was especially fond of Wagner’s final opera Der Ring des Nibelungen. In it the concept of Gotterdammerung was introduced to Hitler. This represents the collapse of a society or regime marked by catastrophic violence and disorder.

In Hitler’s eyes, the German were ultimately unworthy of him (sic) and hence undeserving to survive.

Hitler ist tot [Hitler is dead]

If Hitler had contemplated his situation, he had been for some weeks as the Russians steadily surrounded Berlin like a rat trapped in a burrow. Even with his fate sealed, an otherworldly atmosphere still pervaded the Bunker. For instance on hearing of Roosevelt’s death, Goebbels charged across to Hitler and declared; “Now we can win the war.” After celebrating their imminent victory for some time, reality soon re-imposed its will and the atmosphere returned to its macabre self.

It was with these thoughts conflated with treachery, that Eva committed suicide using the same cyanide that Hitler had tested on his beloved Blondi days before. Seconds later Hitler, sitting beside her on the couch, shot himself.

 

After Stalin and Chairman Mao, the life of the 3^rd most prolific killer in history slumped on his couch lifeless. The airless squalid room devoid of all adornment and a female’s touch was an appropriate location for his death.

A Terse Assessment

Will another Hitler arise? Probably yes, but will that person have the same success as Hitler had in obtaining total power with the roles as President, Chancellor, Head of the Defence Force and head of the Army. Probably highly unlikely.

Most notably the same alignment of the stars, the fortuitous events, the same Providence will never apply again. But given atrocious economic condition another dictator will arise with the magic pill of Fascism or Communism.

Unequivocally it can be stated that Hitler was always the embodiment of evil. Once Hitler had selected his targets – the Jews, the Bolsheviks and the Versailles Treaty – as the root of all Germany’s problems, he was unwavering from that day forward. Contrary to claims advanced in certain quarters, he never in any period of his adult life displayed normal behaviour. What the German people nor the world at large could realise, was that the Nazi’s profligacy in funding the autobahn and military expansion was by printing money. After a number of years the President of the Reichsbank, Hjalmar Schacht, objected when he pointed out the dire economic consequences of ongoing deficit spending. In a fit of rage, he was immediately replaced with a reliable sycophantic toady. The obvious question then arises. Why did hyper-inflation not eventuate as Schacht predicted?

 

Theft. Outright theft

On the annexation of Czechoslovakia in 1938, the gold and other reserves were immediately shipped out to Germany. Of course this self-same practice was employed whenever the Germans overran the other countries in Europe much to their chagrin.

But what is undoubtedly true beyond reasonable doubt, is that Hitler’s character had been almost fully formed on completing schule. His ultimate political outlook was only formed in the two years subsequent to WW1 and never wavered thereafter. The only change in his character was his increasing bouts of irascibility and paranoia as the fortunes of the war swung against the Germans.

Imagine now what Germany would have been like if Hitler had attended the art college as he had planned and become a painter in Vienna instead?