It was quite obvious that the enemy was in a state of depression. In April Hitler's regiment took part in the Spring Offensive. It was decided to attack Allied forces at three points along the front-line: Arras , Lys and Aisne. At first the German Army had considerable success and came close to making a decisive breakthrough. However, Allied forces managed to halt the German advance at the Marne in June, After suffering , casualties during the battle, the exhausted German soldiers were forced to retreat.
He was nominated by a Jewish officer, Lieutenant Hugo Gutmann. His wrote: "As a dispatch-runner, he has shown cold-blooded courage and exemplary boldness. Under conditions of great peril, when all the communication lines were cut, the untiring and fearless activity of Hitler made it possible for important messages to go through".
In October , Hitler was blinded in a British mustard gas attack. Hitler wrote in Mein Kampf : "On a hill south of Werwick, in the evening of October 13th, we were subjected for several hours to a heavy bombardment with gas bombs, which continued throughout the night with more or less intensity.
About midnight a number of us were put out of action, some for ever. Towards morning I also began to feel pain. A few hours later my eyes were like glowing coals and all was darkness around me. Adolf Hitler was sent to a military hospital and gradually recovered his sight. While he was in hospital Germany surrendered. So it had all been in vain. In vain all the sacrifices and privations; in vain the hours in which, with mortal fear clutching at our hearts, we nevertheless did our duty; in vain the death of two million who died.
Had they died for this? Did all this happen only so that a gang of wretched criminals could lay hands on the Fatherland. I knew that all was lost. Only fools, liars and criminals could hope for mercy from the enemy. In these nights hatred grew in me, hatred for those responsible for this deed. Miserable and degenerate criminals! The more I tried to achieve clarity on the monstrous events in this hour, the more the shame of indignation and disgrace burned my brow.
Hitler went into a state of deep depression, and had periods when he could not stop crying. He spent most of his time turned towards the hospital wall refusing to talk to anyone. Rudolf Olden , who researched Hitler's time in the war, was unable to locate his medical records: "Doctors have declared the description of Hitler's illness as he gives it in Mein Kampf to be impossible.
If he is correct about the symptoms, then it is impossible to explain how it was that the illness lasted only three weeks Blindness has sometimes been called a symptom of hysteria, not infrequently observed towards the end of the war. It is hardly likely that the medical reports which might enlighten us will ever be found. At the end of the war Hitler returned to Munich. Approaching thirty years of age, without education, career or prospects, his only plans were to stay in the German Army.
The barracks to which he returned were run by soldiers' councils. Left-wing socialists were in control in Bavaria , where Kurt Eisner , the leader of the the Independent Socialist Party , had formed a coalition government with the Social Democratic Party. Not only was Eisner a Marxist , he was also a Jew and an opponent of a war that he considered to be "imperialistic". As the whole administration was quite repulsive to me, I decided to leave it as soon as I possibly could.
With my faithful war-comrade, Ernst Schmidt, I came to Traunstein and remained there until the camp was broken up. In March we were back again in Munich. By the time he returned to Munich Kurt Eisner was dead. It is claimed that before he killed Eisner he said: "Eisner is a Bolshevist, a Jew; he isn't German, he doesn't feel German, he subverts all patriotic thoughts and feelings.
He is a traitor to this land. At that juncture innumerable plans took shape in my mind. I spent whole days pondering on the problem of what could be done, but unfortunately every project had to give way before the hard fact that I was quite unknown and therefore did not have even the first pre-requisite necessary for effective action.
Hitler saw socialism and communism as part of a Jewish conspiracy. So also were many of the leaders of the October Revolution in Russia. It had not escaped Hitler's notice that Karl Marx , the prophet of socialism, had also been a Jew. It was no coincidence that Jews had joined socialist and communist parties in Europe. Jews had been persecuted for centuries and therefore were attracted to a movement that proclaimed that all men and women deserved to be treated as equals.
This message was reinforced when on 10th July, , the Bolshevik government in Russia passed a law that abolished all discrimination between Jews and non-Jews. Konrad Heiden , an early biographer of Adolf Hitler, and a Jewish journalist living in Vienna , wrote: "The relatively high percentage of Jews in the leadership of the Socialist parties on the European continent cannot be denied The Jewish Socialist leaders of Austria in Hitler's youth were for the most part a type with academic education, and their predominant motive was just what Hitler at an early age so profoundly despised, 'a morality of pity', an enthusiastic faith in the oppressed and in the trampled human values within them.
The Jewish Socialist, as a rule, has abandoned the religion of his fathers, and consequently is a strong believer in the religion of human rights Ernst Schmidt and Hitler spent a lot of time together in Munich. According to Schmidt they also attended the opera in the city: "We only bought the cheapest seats, but that didn't matter.
Hitler was lost in the music to the very last note; blind and deaf to all else around him. During this period he made contact with the well-known artist, Max Zaeper , to whom he "gave several of his works for expert appraisal". I bumped into him on the Marienplatz in Munich, where he was standing with his friend Ernst Schmidt Hitler was then living in a hostel for the homeless at 29 Lothstrasse, Munich.
Soon afterward, having camped at my apartment for several days, he took refuge at Traunstein barracks because he was hungry. He managed to get by, as he often did in the future, with the help of his Iron Cross 1st Class and his gift of the gab.
In January I again ran into Hitler at the newsstand on Marienplatz. It is believed that night Hitler was recruited as a spy and informer on left-wing organisations.
William L. Like Hitler he was possessed of a burning hatred for the democratic Republic and the 'November criminals' he held responsible for it. His aim was to re-create a strong nationalist Germany and he believed with Hitler that this could be done only by a party based on the lower classes, from which he himself, unlike most Regular Army officers, had come.
A tough, ruthless, driving man - albeit, like so many of the early Nazis, a homosexual. Hans Mend , who spent time with Hitler in Munich that year later claimed: "Hitler Since he promptly requested a senior Party post that would have exempted him from the need to work - his perpetual aim - the Communists distrusted him despite his mortal hatred of all property owners.
Over the next two days the Freikorps easily defeated the Red Guards. Allan Mitchell , the author of Revolution in Bavaria , pointed out: "Resistance was quickly and ruthlessly broken. Men found carrying guns were shot without trial and often without question.
The irresponsible brutality of the Freikorps continued sporadically over the next few days as political prisoners were taken, beaten and sometimes executed. Adolf Hitler was arrested with other former soldiers in Munich and was accused of being a socialist. Hundreds of socialists were executed without trial but Hitler was able to convince them that he had been an opponent of the regime. Hitler volunteered to help to identify soldiers who had supported the Socialist Republic.
The authorities agreed to this proposal and Hitler was transferred to the commission investigating the revolution. He was given considerable funds to build up a team of agents or informants and to organize a series of educational courses to train selected officers and men in "correct" political and ideological thinking. Mayr was also given the power to finance "patriotic" parties, publications and organizations. Mayr later recalled that Hitler was "like a tired stray dog looking for a master" and someone "ready to throw in his lot with anyone who would show him kindness".
Mayr argued that at the time Hitler "was totally unconcerned about the German people and their destinies". Mayr added that Hitler was "paid by the month, from whom regular information could be expected. On 5th June , Hitler began a course on political education at Munich University that had been organized by Mayr. The main aim was to promote his political philosophy favoured by the army and help to combat the influence of the Russian Revolution on the German soldiers. As a result of this recommendation, Hitler was selected as a political officer in the team of instructors that were sent to lecture at an German Army camp near Augsburg.
This was arranged by Mayr in response to complaints about the political unreliability of men stationed there. The task of the squad was to inculcate nationalist and anti-Bolshevik sentiments in the troops, described as being "infected" by Bolshevism and Spartacism.
His students were impressed with Hitler's lectures. Hans Knoden pointed out that Hitler "revealed himself to be an excellent and passionate speaker and captured the attention of all the listeners with his comments".
Another soldier, Lorenz Frank, argued that "Hitler is a born popular speaker who, through his fanaticism and his populist style in a meeting, absolutely compels his audience to take note and share his views. Adolf Hitler, who had for years been ignored when he made political speeches, now had a captive audience. The political climate had also changed.
Germany was a defeated and disillusioned country. Germany also lost all her overseas colonies. Under the terms of the treaty Germany also had to pay for damage caused by the war. Ian Kershaw the author of Hitler , has argued: "He Hitler threw himself with passion into the work. His engagement was total. And he immediately found he could strike a chord with his audience, that the way he spoke roused the soldiers listening to him from their passivity and cynicism.
Hitler was in his element. For the first time in his life, he had found something at which he was an unqualified success. Almost by chance, he had stumbled across his greatest talent. Hitler wrote in Mein Kampf : "I started out with the greatest enthusiasm and love. For all at once I was offered an opportunity of speaking before a larger audience; and the thing that I had always presumed from pure feeling without knowing it was now corroborated; I could speak And I could boast of some success; in the course of my lectures I led many hundreds, indeed thousands, of comrades back to their people and fatherland.
Hitler was no longer isolated. The German soldiers who attended his lectures shared his sense of failure. They found his message that they were not to blame attractive. He told them that Germany had not been beaten on the battlefield but had been betrayed by Jews and Marxists who had preached revolution and undermined the war effort.
They lacked a number of requisites without which such a task could never be successfully undertaken. The years that followed have justified the opinions which we held at that time. Harrer was elected as chairman of the party.
Alan Bullock , the author of Hitler: A Study in Tyranny has pointed out: "Its total membership was little more than Drexler's original forty Committee of Independent Workmen , activity was limited to discussions in Munich beer-halls, and the committee of six had no clear idea of anything more ambitious.
I found approximately 20—25 persons present, most of them belonging to the lower classes. Therefore, I could concentrate my attention on studying the society itself. The impression it made upon me was neither good nor bad. I felt that here was just another one of these many new societies which were being formed at that time.
In those days everybody felt called upon to found a new Party whenever he felt displeased with the course of events and had lost confidence in all the parties already existing. Thus it was that new associations sprouted up all round, to disappear just as quickly, without exercising any effect or making any noise whatsoever. Hitler discovered that the party's political ideas were similar to his own. He approved of Drexler's German nationalism and anti-Semitism but had doubts about the speech made by Gottfried Feder.
Hitler was just about to leave when a man in the audience began to question the logic of Feder's speech on Bavaria. Hitler joined in the discussion and made a passionate attack on the man who he described as the "professor".
Feder was impressed with Hitler and gave him a booklet encouraging him to join the GWP. Hitler commented: "In his Feder's little book he described how his mind had thrown off the shackles of the Marxist and trades-union phraseology, and that he had come back to the nationalist ideals. The pamphlet secured my attention the moment I began to read, and I read it with interest to the end. The process here described was similar to that which I had experienced in my own case ten years previously.
Unconsciously my own experiences began to stir again in my mind. During that day my thoughts returned several times to what I had read; but I finally decided to give the matter no further attention. Snyder has argued that Feder's views appealed to Hitler for political reasons: "For Hitler, Feder's separation between stock exchange capital and the national economy offered the possibility of going into battle against the internationalization of the German economy without threatening the founding of an independent national economy by a fight against capital.
Best of all, from Hitler's point of view, was the fact that he could identify international capitalism as wholly Jewish-controlled. Hitler became a member of the German Workers' Party and Feder became his friend and guide. Anton Drexler had mixed feelings about Hitler but was impressed with his abilities as an orator and invited him to join the party. Adolf Hitler commented: "I didn't know whether to be angry or to laugh. I had no intention of joining a ready-made party, but wanted to found one of my own.
What they asked of me was presumptuous and out of the question. Drexler wrote to a friend: "An absurd little man has become member No. He had not served in the Army, and was not a soldier during the war, because his whole being was weak and uncertain, he was not a soldier during the war, and because his whole being was weak and uncertain, he was not a real leader for us.
He and Herr Harrer were not cut out to be fanatical enough to carry the movement in their hearts, nor did he have the ability to use brutal means to overcome the opposition to a new idea inside the party. What was needed was one fleet as a greyhound, smooth as leather, and hard as Krupp steel. Hitler was often the main speaker and it was during this period that he developed the techniques that made him into such a persuasive orator. Hitler always arrived late which helped to develop tension and a sense of expectation.
He took the stage, stood to attention and waited until there was complete silence before he started his speech. For the first few months Hitler appeared nervous and spoke haltingly. Slowly he would begin to relax and his style of delivery would change. He would start to rock from side to side and begin to gesticulate with his hands.
His voice would get louder and become more passionate. Sweat poured of him, his face turned white, his eyes bulged and his voice cracked with emotion.
He ranted and raved about the injustices done to Germany and played on his audience's emotions of hatred and envy. By the end of the speech the audience would be in a state of near hysteria and were willing to do whatever Hitler suggested.
As soon as his speech finished Hitler would quickly leave the stage and disappear from view. Refusing to be photographed, Hitler's aim was to create an air of mystery about himself, hoping that it would encourage others to come and hear the man who was now being described as "the new Messiah". The journalist, Konrad Heiden , pointed out: "The recognized spiritual leader of this small group was Eckart, the journalist and poet, twenty-one years older than Hitler.
He had a strong influence on the younger man, probably the strongest anyone ever has had on him. And rightly so. A gifted writer, satirist, orator, even or so Hitler believed thinker, Eckart was the same sort of uprooted, agitated, and far from immaculate soul He could tell Hitler that he like Hitler himself had lodged in flop-houses and slept on park benches because of Jewish machinations which in his case had prevented him from becoming a successful playwright. Alan Bullock , the author of Hitler: A Study in Tyranny agrees: "Dietrich Eckart was considerably older than Hitler, well known as a journalist, poet and playwright, a Bavarian character, fond of beer, food, and talk He talked well even when he was fuddled with beer, and had a big influence on the younger and still very raw Hitler.
He lent him books, corrected his style of expression in speaking and writing, and took him around with him. In the programme the party refused to accept the terms of the Versailles Treaty and called for the reunification of all German people. To reinforce their ideas on nationalism, equal rights were only to be given to German citizens. To appeal to the working class and socialists, the programme included several measures that would redistribute income and war profits, profit-sharing in large industries, nationalization of trusts, increases in old-age pensions and free education.
Feder greatly influenced the anti-capitalist aspect of the Nazi programme and insisted on phrases such as the need to "break the interest slavery of international capitalism" and the claim that Germany had become the "slave of the international stock market". Hitler's reputation as an orator grew and it soon became clear that he was the main reason why people were joining the party. This gave Hitler tremendous power within the organization as they knew they could not afford to lose him.
One change suggested by Hitler concerned adding "Socialist" to the name of the party. Hitler had always been hostile to socialist ideas, especially those that involved racial or sexual equality. However, socialism was a popular political philosophy in Germany after the First World War. Hitler, therefore redefined socialism by placing the word "National" before it. He claimed he was only in favour of equality for those who had "German blood".
Jews and other "aliens" would lose their rights of citizenship, and immigration of non-Germans should be brought to an end. Hitler became chairman of the new party and Karl Harrer was given the honorary title, Reich Chairman. Konrad Heiden , a journalist working in Munich , observed the way Hitler gained control of the party: "Success and money finally won for Hitler complete domination over the National Socialist Party.
He had grown too powerful for the founders; they - Anton Drexler among them - wanted to limit him and press him to the wall. But it turned out that they were too late. He had the newspaper behind him, the backers, and the growing S. At a certain distance he had the Reichswehr behind him too. To break all resistance for good, he left the party for three days, and the trembling members obediently chose him as the first, unlimited chairman, for practical purposes responsible to no one, in place of Anton Drexler, the modest founder, who had to content himself with the post of honorary chairman July 29, As this violence was often directed against Socialists and Communists, the local right-wing Bavarian government did not take action against the Nazi Party.
However, the national government in Berlin were concerned and passed a "Law for the Protection of the Republic". Hitler's response was to organize a rally attended by 40, people. At the meeting Hitler called for the overthrow of the German government and even suggested that its leaders should be executed.
Although he had great doubts about some of the leading figures in the Nazi Party he greatly respected Dietrich Eckart. Eckart's biographer, Louis L. Snyder , has argued: "By Eckart's connections in Munich, added to Hitler's oratorical gifts, gave strength and prestige to the fledgling Nazi political movement. Eckart accompanied Hitler at rallies and was at his side in party parades.
While Hitler stirred the masses, Eckart wrote panegyrics to his friend. The two were inseparable. Hitler never forgot his early sponsor Hitler, he said, was his North Star He spoke emotionally of his fatherly friend, and there were often tears in his eyes when he mentioned Eckart's name.
Hitler also began reading books written by Henry Ford. When he heard that Ford was considering running for President in , Hitler told the Chicago Tribune , "I wish that I could send some of my shock troops to Chicago and other big American cities to help in the elections We look to Heinrich Ford as the leader of the growing Fascist movement in America We have just had his anti-Jewish articles translated and published.
The book is being circulated to millions throughout Germany. It was an anti-socialist and anti-Jewish newspaper. The money came from wealthy friends and secret army funds. Hitler later explained: "On my request, party comrade Amann took over the position of party business manager.
He told me at once that further work in this office was absolutely impossible. And so, for a second time, we went out in search of quarters, and rented an old abandoned inn in Corneliusstrasse, near the Gartnerplatz A part of the old taproom was partitioned off and made into an office for party comrade Amann and myself.
In the main room a very primitive wicket was constructed. The S. He brought a commonsense business approach to Party affairs. He as an intelligent businessman refused to accept responsibility for an enterprise if it did not possess the economic prerequisites of potential success. He also recruited Heinrich Hoffmann as his official photographer, who travelled with him everywhere. Shirer said his "loyalty was doglike". According to Louis L. Snyder : "Hoffmann's personal and political relationship with Hitler began in Munich in the early days of the National Socialist movement.
The photographer, sensing a brilliant future for the budding politician, became his constant companion. For some time he belonged to Hitler's inner circle. Hitler often visited the Hoffmann home in Munich-Bogenhausen, where he felt he could relax from his hectic political life Much of Hitler's early popularity was due to Hoffmann's superb photography. Rosenberg filled its columns with anti-Semitic material such as the anti-Jewish poetry of Josef Czerny.
Over the next few years several new editions of the book appeared. However, the speeches in the books were often different from those in the newspaper. This included the removal of attacks on powerful foreign politicians.
Hitler was especially concerned with not upsetting politicians in the United States. Snyder Rosenberg was often in conflict with Max Amann : "Rosenberg wanted to politicize his readers by stressing the Nazi way of life, while Amann called for a sensational newspaper that would make money for the party In the shabby Munich office Rosenberg worked zealously on editorials, while Amann exploited the reporters on starvation wages.
Rosenberg and Amann often had furious arguments that ended with each throwing scissors and inkwells at the other. Ernst Hanfstaengel was another devoted follower. He arrived in Germany from the United States after the war.
Hanfstaengel later recalled: "In his heavy boots, dark suit and leather waistcoat, semi-stiff white collar and odd little moustache, he really did not look very impressive - like a waiter in a railway-station restaurant.
However, when Drexler introduced him to a roar of applause, Hitler straightened up and walked past the press table with a swift, controlled step, the unmistakable soldier in mufti. The atmosphere in the hall was electric. Apparently this was his first public appearance after serving a short prison-sentence for breaking up a meeting addressed by a Bavarian separatist named Ballerstedt, so he had to be reasonably careful what he said in case the police should arrest him again as a disturber of the peace.
Perhaps this is what gave such a brilliant quality to his speech, which for innuendo and irony I have never heard matched, even by him. No one who judges his capacity as a speaker from the performances of his later years can have any true insight into his gifts. Emil Maurice , an early member of the Nazi Party member No. This group eventually became known as the Sturmabteilung Storm Detachment.
Hitler's stormtroopers were often former members of the Freikorps right-wing private armies who flourished during the period that followed the First World War and had considerable experience in using violence against their rivals. Alois was an Austrian customs official and he was able to provide his family with a comfortable lifestyle; however, he and his son did not get along.
Alois had a terrible temper and had a general bad attitude. He was obnoxious and conceited, and he often took his problems out on his children. His wife was the complete opposite from him, but she had virtually no power in the household. Coupled with the fact that women did not have much power to begin with, she was dealing with an aggressive and dominating husband. Between the ages of six and eight, Adolf attended two different schools based upon where his family was living. He was rewarded and praised by his teachers for constantly having high marks and for acting properly in class.
The family moved around frequently, thanks to Alois' job. By the end of , Hitler knew real poverty as his sources of income dried up.
That winter, however, helped briefly by a last gift from his aunt, he began to paint watercolor scenes of Vienna for a business partner. He made enough to live on until he left for Munich in It is likely that Hitler experienced, and possibly also shared, the general antisemitism common among middle-class German nationalists. Nevertheless, he had personal and business relationships with Jews in Vienna. He was also, at times, dependent in part on Jews for his living.
Hitler was genuinely influenced in Vienna by two political movements. The second key influence was that of Karl Lueger, Mayor of Vienna from to his death in Lueger was still in power when Hitler arrived in Vienna. Lueger promoted an antisemitism that was more practical and organizational than ideological.
Nevertheless, it reinforced anti-Jewish stereotypes and cast Jews as enemies of the German middle and lower classes. Hitler moved to Munich, Germany, in May He did so to avoid arrest for evading his military service obligation to Habsburg Austria. When the year-old Hindenburg died on August 2, military leaders agreed to combine the presidency and chancellorship into one position, meaning Hitler would command all the armed forces of the Reich.
Though the Nazis attempted to downplay its persecution of Jews in order to placate the international community during the Berlin Olympics in which German-Jewish athletes were not allowed to compete , additional decrees over the next few years disenfranchised Jews and took away their political and civil rights. In March , against the advice of his generals, Hitler ordered German troops to reoccupy the demilitarized left bank of the Rhine. Over the next two years, Germany concluded alliances with Italy and Japan, annexed Austria and moved against Czechoslovakia—all essentially without resistance from Great Britain, France or the rest of the international community.
After ordering the occupation of Norway and Denmark in April , Hitler adopted a plan proposed by one of his generals to attack France through the Ardennes Forest.
German troops made it all the way to the English Channel, forcing British and French forces to evacuate en masse from Dunkirk in late May. On June 22, France was forced to sign an armistice with Germany. Hitler had hoped to force Britain to seek peace as well, but when that failed he went ahead with his attacks on that country, followed by an invasion of the Soviet Union in June At that point in the conflict, Hitler shifted his central strategy to focus on breaking the alliance of his main opponents Britain, the United States and the Soviet Union by forcing one of them to make peace with him.
Beginning in , the SS had operated a network of concentration camps, including a notorious camp at Dachau , near Munich, to hold Jews and other targets of the Nazi regime. After war broke out, the Nazis shifted from expelling Jews from German-controlled territories to exterminating them. Einsatzgruppen, or mobile death squads, executed entire Jewish communities during the Soviet invasion, while the existing concentration-camp network expanded to include death camps like Auschwitz -Birkenau in occupied Poland.
With defeats at El-Alamein and Stalingrad, as well as the landing of U. As the conflict continued, Hitler became increasingly unwell, isolated and dependent on medications administered by his personal physician. Several attempts were made on his life, including one that came close to succeeding in July , when Col. Within a few months of the successful Allied invasion of Normandy in June , the Allies had begun liberating cities across Europe.
That December, Hitler attempted to direct another offensive through the Ardennes, trying to split British and American forces. But after January , he holed up in a bunker beneath the Chancellery in Berlin. With Soviet forces closing in, Hitler made plans for a last-ditch resistance before finally abandoning that plan.
After dictating his political testament, Hitler shot himself in his suite on April 30; Braun took poison.
0コメント