Hitler, the man who lead the Nazi party to victory and defeat was and still is a very enigmatic character. He was however the man who brought the nationalist movement together. He pulled together all of the ideas we have all ready discussed and assembled them into some sort of workable framework and philosophy. Out of the various different fractions and groups he created one party and one idea.
Hitler's background was not a very privileged one. Born in Austria near the German border in Braunau to a lowly customs official and a former maid he had a childhood which was dominated by his overbearing and often violent father. On his father's death though he was able to became act more freely. From an educational point of view Hitler was no genius as party members would later claim, he achieved nothing more than poor to mediocre marks in most classes at secondary school. He was however inspired by a nationalist history teacher called Dr. Leonard Poetsch, who was a through German nationalist. On leaving school he went to Vienna to apply to the Viennese School of Fine Arts, however he failed the entrance exam twice and was also rejected by the Architectural school. This was the start of a change in Hitler's outlook on life, he now began to see enemies in people and institutions around him because of these rejections. Also there can be no doubt that he was heavily influenced by the strong Anti-Semitic feelings in Vienna at this time. It was also during his time in Vienna that he began to read many books. However his reading was highly selective, and he only read what supported his forming ideas. Undoubtedly he read some of the authors already discussed such as Chamberlain, Nietzche, and Lanz von Liebenfels as well as many authors in favour of a pan-Germany. These increased his belief in the völkisch movement, and created a synthesis in Hitler's mind between a large German empire and a pure German Volk.
The First World War was for Hitler a turning point in his life. He managed to join Bavarian infantry regiment, and became a runner. He also won the Iron Cross, and was gassed twice. It was here however that Hitler found a place to belong, he enjoyed the order and structure which the military brought to his life. When news reached Hitler convalescing from a Gas attack, about the German capitulation he was devastated by it,
"Since the day when I had stood a my mother's grave, I had not wept... But now I could not help it...
And so it had all been in vain... Did all this happen only so that a gang of wretched criminals could lay hands on the fatherland?"
This was for him, like many others, "a stab in the back" by the Novemberverbrecher. He felt let down and disappointed, and again like may other of his comrades, he wanted to strike back against the system which had disappointed him. It was the beginning of his political career.
After the end of the war Hitler worked for military intelligence and indoctrinating the troops. It was in this role that he began to discover he had a talent for speaking. Later he was also used to report on various political meetings, one such meeting was the DAP (Deutsche Arbeiter Partei.) Hitler eventually joined, or was ordered to join this party, in order to build it up. This he succeeded in doing with government help, and his great oratory talent in the Munich beer halls. It was during the speeches he made there that his Weltanschauung began to take a more concrete form. Eventually the drive for power lead him to attempt the failed Kapp-Putsch and resulted in him being sent to Landsberg prison. It was there however that he was able to write Mein Kampf, and firmly establish his political opinion and his leadership over the party.
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1925 Copy of Hitler's Mein Kampf
Mein Kampf is a strange mixture between autobiographical information about Hitler, much of it very dubious, and political philosophy. However much in doubt the personal information maybe, the fact remains that the philosophy Hitler sets out states quite clearly his aims.
The first of one these areas is the question of race and state. Hitler, like Chamberlain, believes in the Germans as the master race. Like Chamberlain he sees that,
"Menschlichen Kultur und Zivilisation sind auf diesem Erdteil unzertrennlich gebunden an das Vorhenensein des Ariers. Sein Austerben oder Untergehen wird auf diesem Erdball wieder die dunklen Schleier einer kulturlosen Zeit senken."
Thus we see how past thought is now influencing Hitler in his perceptions of the present, however we must also note that he now uses the word Arier and not Teuton. We see then that as well as using the ideas, he has adapted past visions to a narrower area of humanity to suit his own political stance. In addition to this he creates the principal of culture creating and culture bearing races. This is in a way a very distorted Fichtian idea of the German and Latin races being alive and dead races, it has however been severely distorted to give this theory. The example he gives is that of the Japanese and their modernisation. He states that if all Aryan influence was removed from Japan they would soon begin to decline culturally again. It is true, he admits, that their development would continue for a short while, but eventually their culture and development would return to the rigid, frozen state it was in before the influence of the West. Thus we see that Hitler sees the Aryan race as the motor for the whole world's development, for without the Aryans no-one else has the ability to develop cultures. It is also this idea of the Germans as the superior culture-creating race that gives it the right to enslave lesser races, for they are in Hitler's eye all are working towards the best end product for the world.
The protection, and expansion, of the German race is then of the highest priority. How can the German race be protected though? The answer to this is given by Hitler. He says that the state must intervene in the lives of ordinary people and control what they are allowed to do which contrasts greatly with Herder and his insistence on freedom for the people. Marriage for example must be only allowed between pure healthy Aryans. The sick, unhealthy or impure would not be allowed to infect the race by banning them from having children. Only in this way could the Germans protect themselves and carry humanity forwards, as it is after all only their achievements that are important. To substantiate this point, Hitler uses the examples of North America and South America. The North American continent has developed faster than the South American continent, as in the North there was strict racial control, very little mixing of the races, as well as a high proportion of Germanic people. In South America the opposite was true as the Latin immigrants mixed with the local people resulting in a mongrel mixture. This resulted in the following
"A) Niedersenkung des Niveaus der höheren Rasse,
B) Körperlicher und geistiger Rückgang und damit der Beginn eines wenn auch langsam, so doch sicher fortschreitenden Siechtums.
Eine solche Entwicklung herbeiführen, heißt aber denn doch nichts anderes als Sünde treiben wider den Willen des ewigen Schöpfers.
Als Sünde aber wird diese Tat auch gelohnt."
We see here then the ideas of Social-Darwinism in that the mixing of races results in a less thoroughbred animal with reduced mental and physical capabilities in relation to the parents. Thus it would seem logical, in the light of this argument, to prevent this that Hitler's ideas of racial laws must be adopted to protect the German race for the good of the world. We see then that Hitler has now taken the idea of a Gesundung of the race and applied it directly to society. He has gone one step further than Chamberlain, who half hinted at a social program at the end of his work. Instead Hitler says directly what should be done. It is this new fighting edge and vigour to old nationalist ideals which attracted many new supporters as the ideas were so energetically portrayed. As well as this he is able to give what seem like plausible examples to reinforce his arguments. No longer is he talking in abstract philosophical terms, but in concrete hard words which would be, and were, carried out to the letter. Hitler has indeed taken the message to heart from his Marxist enemy,
"Die Philosophen haben die Welt nur verschieden interpretiert, es kommt darauf an, sie zu verändern. "
Hitler also comments on education. Subjects that he considered as useless and unimportant to the Reich, such as foreign languages, or music, would be replaced by more practical subjects. There would be more physical education, so the women would be better child bearers to populate the new Reich, and the men fitter for the Wehrmacht to expand German Lebensraum. We see here then the emphasis which he puts on Lebensraum and expansion, as already mentioned he sees it as Germany's right to expand, and again it is the role of the state to support this by changing the educational system. Again an example of strong leadership from above for the good of the people which appealed to many people. Another reason for wanting for having a large army, and to expand was also to counter the Communist enemy.
Hitler then like many others feared a Communist take-over, and saw the current political situation as decadent. To him it was a complete farce,
"So greifen sie zu den alten Rezepten bilden eine Kommission, horchen im lieben Volk herum, beschlüssen die Bresserzeugnisse und riechen so langsam heraus, was das liebe Volke gerne haben möchte, was es verabscheut und was es sich erhofft."
To him, politicians were only worried about being popular and being re-elected, they would not do anything to hurt their popularity although it might be good for the Volk. Then once re-elected they just claimed the attendance fee. Thus we see Hitler's disgust with the current democratic regime, and also the same picture of decadence and society in decline which we saw in the nineteenth century.
Yet there is a deeper hatred for this democracy. The reason is the Novemberverbrecher, the people who collapsed the war effort from the inside according to the Right. Such Verbrecher were the Jews, and Communists who sold out to the Allies in 1918, and gave Germany the Weimar Republic. Again here we also see another idea from the past, that of Reichsfeinde appearing in Hitler's thinking. The Jew, as in the past, is of course linked with Communism and Hitler sees the forced surrender, and the Weimar Republic as part of a Jewish plot, that of international Marxism. As mentioned he sees the current democracy as decadent, but worse still he fears that it is too weak to counter the Marxist threat. He sees the Weimar Republic as merely a tool of the Jew. This view is perhaps best summed up with,
"Die bürgerliche Welt ist marxistisch, glaubt aber an die Möglichkeit der Herrschaft bestimmter Menschengruppen (Bürgertum), während der Marxismus selbst die Welt planmäßig in die Hand des Judentum überzuführen trachtet."
The biggest advantage Hitler sees that the Communist have is that they believe in their cause. So in the same way Hitler tries to adapt the Communist idea of Klassenkampf into one of Rassenkampf, which is why there is such insistence on the Aryan and Jewish race in Mein Kampf. Also the Communist's organisation makes them strong, and so to counter this Hitler suggests the foundation of a similar organised force, as words achieve nothing.
"Siege werden durch so schwächliche Waffen nicht erfochten! Erst wenn der - politisch durch den organisierten Marxismus geführten - internationalen Weltanschauung eine ebenso einheitlich organisierte und geleitete völkishce gegenübertritt, wird sich bei gleiche Kampfsenergie der Erfolg auf die Seite der ewigen Wahrheit schlagen."
As a result of this we see that Hitler is now talking about the creation of a political fighting force strong enough to tackle the Communists. Later he expands on this with his formulation about the SA as a political fighting force. This is totally different from his forerunners in the völkisch movement, instead Hitler is proposing to use direct action and force to change the world. It is no longer an idealistic battle, it has now become a practical one.
Finally there is the idea that Hitler was born to be the Führer. Throughout the book, from its beginning where he talks about being born on the German border with a destiny to unit the two countries, to the end there is a constant glorification of Hitler. He is depicted as a victim of society in Vienna due to the Jews, not as a tramp and a drop out. Later in the First World War he is depicted as a hero, and although some things were brave, and although the job of a runner can be the most dangerous on the battlefield, his deeds are comparable with other peoples' deeds. Then in his pre-Putsch era as a speech maker, the fights between Communists and SA members as a heroic ideological struggle. The finally the Putsch itself, with Hitler leading from the front and standing up to the enemy, not running away when the first shots started and then hiding afterwards with a shot wound as actually happened. Thus we see the creation of a Führer myth which was designed to fit in with the völkisch concept of a leader who would take Germany to its destiny.
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