Was Hitler perceived as an impressive person?
There is a legend:
“A vampire can never enter your home without your consent. It can only stand at the threshold of the doorway. You must invite him in.”
The comedic depiction of Hitler:
“The Great Dictator” by Charlie Chaplin
Hitler is the quintessential “dictator” — funny mustache, fancy suit, and a bit clumsy. He’s a parody of himself.
History isn’t fated. We are accidental children. In a parallel universe, we might be mocking Churchill. We might be saying “Vladimir Putin is literally Churchill,” when we vent our frustrations about the war. In fact, there wouldn’t be a Putin, as he is the result of a series of events which ended with the Allies prevailing, not the other way around.
We might be reading this in German now.
Also
Hitler in our world is seen as a total failure — because he was. But what if he won? Imagine if the Germans had prevailed over the Soviet Union. From there, Hitler could have pointed his war machine at the West. It is not inconceivable that the United States might have brokered a peace with him had the atomic bombs not been successful in their development. The U.S. was fatigued from fighting in two theatres of war.
Japan was largely worried the Soviets would march to them as the United States focused its planning and resources on the final invasion of the Japanese mainland. It was estimated it would have taken one million American troops to conquer the island. The enemy had prepared the public by arming them. The Japanese were prepared to fight to the last man, woman, and child.
Some have argued that there was no need for Truman to use the The Bomb. They claim Truman used it to show Stalin “who was in charge” of the postwar world. Others have said that the cost in human life for American troops would have been very high, and that the Japanese would have surrendered as the Soviets were to press in. We will leave that debate for historians. Perhaps Alex Mann has a perspective on it.
Was dropping The Bomb, twice, the right decision?
Hitler’s passion
Hitler’s speeches were dynamic. They were passionate. They moved the people. Hitler had a preternatural ability to read the emotions of the crowd.
He isn’t melodramatic. Notice how he carefully modulates the sound of his voice, in an almost hypnotic manner.
Contrast this with Hitler speaking normally. In this clip, he is having a meeting with Mannerheim. He is polite, his voice very reserved, and he is actually very genteel. It shocked me when I first heard this, because my impression was always of him giving speeches in which he appears to be very worked up.
Germany had a reputation for being one of the most advanced industrial societies in the world. It also had a reputation for producing high quality art. Propagandists like Leni Riefenstahl and Joseph Goebbels were first the world’s finest. Too bad they used their skills for Nazism.
In this photo, the photographer is looking to make Hitler appear commanding, impressive, and as The Führer. This means ruthless or tyrannical.
Think what you like about the ideology, but this photo is a masterpiece.
Olympia is a 1938 German documentary film written, directed and produced by Leni Riefenstahl, documenting the 1936 Summer Olympics, held in the Olympic Stadium in Berlin, Germany.
The film was released in two parts: Olympia 1. Teil — Fest der Völker (Festival of Nations) and Olympia 2. Teil — Fest der Schönheit (Festival of Beauty). It was the first documentary feature film of the Olympic Games ever made. Many advanced motion picture techniques, which later became industry standards but which were groundbreaking at the time, were employed — including unusual camera angles, smash cuts, extreme close-ups, placing tracking shot rails within the bleachers, and the like. The techniques employed are almost universally admired, but the film is controversial due to its political context. Nevertheless, the film appears on many lists of the greatest films of all time, including Time magazine’s “All-Time 100 Movies.” Olympia set the precedent for future films documenting and glorifying the Olympic Games, particularly the Summer Games. The 1936 Summer Olympics torch relay was devised by the German sports official Dr. Carl Diem for these Olympic Games in Berlin. Riefenstahl later staged the torch relay for this film, with competitive events of the Games.[1]
Extraordinary secret footage found buried in an orchard, shows Adolf Hitler dancing, playing with a kid and meeting his henchmen; Goebbels and Himler. It also shows his wife Eva Braun playing. Shot in the 1930s, high up in the Bavarian mountain at Berchtesgaden.[2]
Alexander Finnegan
· 2y
What deeper truth did Hitler teach us about life?
If Hitler were a psychopath it would have made things so much easier. Psychopaths have no empathy, are unrepentant for their crimes, and act out of sheer self-interest, everyone else be damned. But Hitler wasn’t a psychopath. And that is what should send chills down the spine of those who wish to pr…
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This is an analysis of Hitler and what we might learn from his life.
Hitler wasn’t especially tall, strong, accomplished, or an impressive conversationalist. Rather, it was something else:
It was Hitler’s power as a speaker that turned him from informer to party member, Schleunes said. During a German Workers’ Party lecture, someone suggested that it might be best for Bavaria to break from the rest of Germany, splintering the country. Hitler, a German nationalist, was appalled and argued against the idea. The leader of the party, impressed with his speaking style, asked him to join the party. A few days later, on Sept. 12, 1919, Hitler became the 55th member of the party, with the full permission of the army.
Hitler became a fiery speaker on the beer-hall circuit and was willing to risk the humiliation of low turnout by organizing rallies in large spaces, Kershaw wrote. His organizing talents propelled him to the top of the party’s leadership.
In 1920, Hitler and the other leaders of the party changed its name from the German Workers’ Party to the National Socialist German Workers’ Party (Nationalsozialistische Deutsche Arbeiterpartei, or “Nazi” for short). In 1921, Hitler was voted chairman of the party and took total control. The once-tiny group began to draw new members, absorbing other right-wing groups, Schleunes said.
Hitler remained a cold presence in person. “He’s not an interesting conversationalist,” Schleunes said. “He’s really sort of a dull person, except when he appears before an audience, when somehow, a switch is turned on. He could milk an audience and shape it and get it to feel.”
If Hitler’s speaking abilities gave him the roots to flourish in the early Nazi Party, the chaos and resentment of Germany at the time were the soil that made his growth possible.The German people were in shock after losing World War I, Schleunes said. They’d been told throughout the war that they were winning. They faced food and coal shortages, and ended the war with millions killed and wounded. But these sacrifices were necessary, according to the army, because victory was close.
“They’re told that for four years, and suddenly, they’re told that ‘We lost the war,’” Schleunes said. To understand how such a thing could happen, many turned to conspiracy theories — particularly, the theory that Jewish people on the home front had stabbed Germany in the back. “The situation, for someone like Hitler, is ripe,” Schleunes said.
Violence marked Hitler’s early rise. By 1923, he was emboldened enough to attempt to overthrow the government of Bavaria by force, which he hoped would eventually lead to the overthrow of the national government in Berlin.
This “Beer Hall Putsch” failed, but there was widespread sympathy for Hitler’s aims, Schleunes said. His trial became a megaphone broadcasting his ideas, and his light 9-month stint in prison gave him the opportunity to dictate the “almost unreadable” but wildly popular biography “Mein Kampf,” Schleunes said.
“Hitler was smart enough to realize after the failure of his “Beer Hall Putsch” that he and his party could not come to power with violence against the institutions of the state, especially the army and the police,” said Dr Benjamin Hett, author of “The Death of Democracy: Hitler’s Rise to Power and the Downfall of the Weimar Republic(opens in new tab)” (Henry Holt and Co, 2018). “They could only come to power by getting inside the system, and the path to that was through winning elections”.
There were many factors that led to Hitler’s more widespread acceptance in Germany, from economic depression to the country’s hatred of the Treaty of Versailles that ended World War I. But Hitler managed to expand his appeal from the beer-soaked halls of Munich to the rest of the country, in part via the mass media.
In 1932, he ran for president and struggled to reach middle-class voters, said Despina Stratigakos, a historian of architecture and the author of “Hitler at Home(opens in new tab)” (Yale University Press, 2015). To rehabilitate his personal image, he focused on his domestic portrayal. Instead of downplaying his transient, rather lonely personal history, Hitler and his propaganda team started to foreground his personal life.
Hitler was portrayed as being good with children. (Image credit: Getty Images)
“He’s being presented as a good man, a moral man, and the evidence for that comes from his private life,” Stratigakos told Live Science. “It’s fabricated, but it’s very effective.”
Hitler lost the 1932 election, but gained the support of many influential industrial interests. When the parliamentary elections failed to establish a majority government, Germany’s president Paul von Hindenburg caved to outside pressure and named Hitler chancellor (the role of chancellor in Germany is similar to that of Prime Minister in other parliamentary systems, and Germany had both a president elected by the people and a chancellor representing the majority party in the government).
In 1933, the Reichstag building was set on fire, which Hitler used as a pretext to seize emergency powers and detain his political enemies. With communists and other leftists under arrest, he was able to push a law called the Enabling Act through parliament. The Enabling Act allowed Hitler’s cabinet to institute legislation without parliamentary consent.
With the backing of the conservative German National People’s Party (DNVP) and with the left-leaning Social Democratic Party of Germany (SPD) barred from attending the vote on 24 March 1933, Hitler’s proposal was passed by 444 votes to 94, a key step in usurping the democratic institutions of the state.
“In the wake of this law came what the Nazis called ‘Gleichschaltung’, or coordination, a process in which any organization at all that could possibly form the basis of opposition was abolished or taken over by the Nazis,” said Hett. “This process was largely completed by July of 1933, when all political parties except the Nazis were formally outlawed.”
As Hitler strong-armed his way to dictatorship, profiles of him rusticating in his residence in Obersalzberg, Bavaria, portrayed him as a cultured gentleman, beloved by dogs and children. Working with the architect Gerdy Troost, Hitler created a space with an expansive Great Hall that seemed inspired by the artist salons of pre-World War I Munich, Stratigakos said. German and English language magazines printed fluffy pieces on the Führer at home.
“Even the American Dog Kennel Gazette had this feature on Hitler as a dog lover,” Stratigakos said. These cozy, domestic scenes helped soften the image of the Hitler. The strategy was so successful that the most-sold images of 1934 were pictures of Hitler at home playing with his dogs or with children.
Through his organization, oratory and public relations, Hitler “the nonentity, the mediocrity, the failure,” as Kershaw called him, had become not only the chancellor of Germany, but a beloved celebrity. The transformation was complete. [3]
How he was perceived
Adolf Hitler was an unlikely leader but he still formed a connection with millions of German people, generating a level of charismatic attraction that was almost without parallel. It is a stark warning for the modern day, says historian Laurence Rees.[4]
In the good economic times, during the mid-to-late twenties in Germany, Hitler was thought charismatic by only a bunch of fanatics. So much so that in the 1928 election the Nazis polled only 2.6% of the vote.
Yet less than five years later Hitler was chancellor of Germany and leader of the most popular political party in the country.
What changed was the economic situation. In the wake of the Wall Street Crash of 1929 there was mass unemployment in Germany and banks crashed.
“The people were really hungry,” says Jutta Ruediger, who started to support the Nazis around this time. “It was very, very hard. And in that context, Hitler with his statements seemed to be the bringer of salvation.”
She looked at Hitler and suddenly felt a connection with him.
“I myself had the feeling that here was a man who did not think about himself and his own advantage, but solely about the good of the German people.”
Hitler told millions of Germans that they were Aryans and therefore “special” and racially “better” people than everyone else, something that helped cement the charismatic connection between leader and led.
He did not hide his hatred, his contempt for democracy or his belief in the use of violence to further political ends from the electorate. But, crucially, he spoke out only against carefully defined enemies like Communists and Jews.
Since the majority of ordinary Germans were not in these groups, as long as they embraced the new world of Nazism, they were relatively free from persecution — at least until the war started to go badly for the Germans.
This history matters to us today. Not because history offers “lessons” — how can it since the past can never repeat itself exactly? But because history can contain warnings.
In an economic crisis millions of people suddenly decided to turn to an unconventional leader they thought had “charisma” because he connected with their fears, hopes and latent desire to blame others for their predicament. And the end result was disastrous for tens of millions of people.
It’s bleakly ironic that German Chancellor Angela Merkel was greeted in Athens recently with swastika banners carried by angry Greeks protesting at what they see as German interference in their country.
Ironic because it is in Greece itself — amid terrible economic crisis — that we see the sudden rise of a political movement like the Golden Dawn that glories in its intolerance and desire to persecute minorities.
And it is led by a man who has claimed there were no gas chambers in Auschwitz. Can there be a bigger warning than that?[5]
Hitler, live and in Kodachrome
Our perceptions are largely influenced by color. Seeing things “in color” gives us a sense of reality. There is a clarity of perception, a touch of emotion, a vibrance that is lost without it. I have always been impressed by photography, especially old photos in color. Many people don’t understand history. They don’t know what it is. They think it is a historical record that is objective, one dimensional, and immobile. This view is entirely wrong. What we call “history” is a perception. It is a window into a narrative. There is objective truth. And time is linear. Facts are facts. And these cannot be changed. These are historical realities. Opinions are not. History is an attempt to reconstruct a reality that we never experienced, and that exists in the past. To do this, we need tools. We need methods and standards. Would you want to read a history book that discusses the first trip to the moon, written in 1980 or now? Would it matter? It happened, why not go to the library and take out “a history book,” right? It sets next to “the Bible” and “the Constitution.” In actuality, our written history of the first trip to the moon might be “different.” Why? Because we learn more about the past as we move forward into the future. Perhaps there were misunderstandings related to the trip to the moon we didn’t know about back in 1980. This applies to the historical writings about WWII. Studying history is like science — it should follow a method that enables truth to find itself a home. We want to know what happened, even if it happens to be things we don’t like. Or agree with.
History cannot be written to change the horrible things the Nazis did. We have very clear documented records of the Holocaust. It is a settled matter. But understanding Hitler’s motivations, what influenced his youth, and other questions remain wide open. And we should discover them. One of the key questions is “why was Hitler seen as impressive to people?” This is, perhaps, one of the most important questions we can ask of Hitler’s life. Because if we know the reason, we can seek to learn from the past to prevent another Hitler from rising.
Let’s look at some color photos. Nazi rallies served an important propaganda purpose. By making use of color, sound, and scale, the individual would lose his or her sense of individual identity and become “one with the nation.” A person, like a cell, would compose part of the larger body — the nation. When one is lost to oneself and his or her identity has succumbed, the head — the leader — takes over.
Startling loyalty: League of German Girls Dancing during the Reichs Party Congress. The group was the girls branch of Hitler’s youth, into which girls were initiated through peer pressure and propaganda at the age of 14. Up until 1936, membership in the group was optional but became compulsory that year
Massive crowds: Nazi leader Adolf Hitler saluting leaders and men of the Legion Condor, troops of the German Luftwaffe, an airborne wing of the military Hitler founded despite the Treaty of Versailles stipulation that Germany could have no such force
Terrifying imagery: Propaganda chief Joseph Goebbels speaking at the Lustgarden in Berlin. The master of mass psychology helped Hitler mold Germany into a nation bent on resisting the Allied forces
Art of power: Here, Hitler and Goebbels are seen in the Charlottenburg Theater’s honor box as everyone salutes. A failed playwright himself Goebbels saw to it that no Jewish writers practiced their craft under Hitler’s reign
Fierce loyalty: Crowds cheer Hitler’s Austrian election campaign Resources and Information. 1938, Hitler — who’d always seen Austria as a part of German — annexed the smaller country into greater Germany
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Rare colors portraits by Hitler’s personal photographer
Ominous rites: Annual midnight swearing-in of SS-men in Feldherrnhalle. Short for Schutzstaffel, the SS was the powerful military police arm of the Third Reich which numbered some 50,000 at its largest
United in hate: Annual midnight swearing-in of SS recruits. The SS was basically Hitler’s personal Army who, led by Heinrich Himmler, followed his orders alone
Dangerous sport: Hitler Youth seen here at the Reichs’ Party Congress in Nuremburg showing off their physical prowess. While the young men of the Hitler Youth could enjoy games and sports with fellow boys, they were also indoctrinated into the Nazi beliefs via the group and its activities
‘The Peoples Car’: A thrilled crowd salutes Hitler and other Nazi officials along roadway to the Fallersleben Volkswagen Works cornerstone ceremony. The Volkswagen, long before its brief American popularity in the 1960s, came out of the struggle to create a cheap German car of the 20s and 30s
At the 1939 Fallersleben Volkswagen Works cornerstone laying ceremony, Hitler praised the Beetle and used it as part of his nationalist propaganda
Storm troops: Nazi Brown Shirts, soldiers from Germany’s Sturmabteilung or SA. This was the Third Reich’s storm division whose terrifyingly violent and ruthless methods helped pave the way to power for Hitler after he founded the group in 1921
Conclusion:
Had history only been slightly different, there would have been no Adolph Hitler. He might have remained a competent but not commercially successful artist. 80+ million wouldn’t have died. It is easy to turn him into a cartoon character. Maybe we do this because the sight of him is a painful reminder of a history we would rather forget. When I was in Europe I visited a concentration camp. It was one of the most harrowing experiences of my life. The horrors of Nazism become more apparent when you are standing in the cold and brutal presence of a concentration camp. The size and scale speak far louder than I can write. Imagine being there as a victim. No words.
Psychologists have said that when a the public is under threat, it becomes more conservative, more tribal, and more xenophobic. It becomes more comfortable submitting to authority. The Nazis used this to their advantage.
Nazi viewpoint:
In a Nazi state, the public is a human body. Every person is a cell. We compose the nation’s body. We are but small and insignificant pieces of the larger whole. The healthiest cells are the most welcome. But the sick, the old, and the “undesirable” cells are cancers which need to be removed for the well being of the whole. This mentality was applied to human beings.
After WWI, the German people were broken. Defeated, humiliated, and impoverished, they were left for dead. The United States had lent an enormous amount of money to Britain to fight the war in Europe. According to the Treaty of Versailles, punitive reparations were imposed on Germany when it could least afford it. In an attempt to cope, the government printed more money, but this resulted in hyperinflation. The Germans were caught owning more than they could ever hope to repay. And Britain was demanding, as it, too, was broke. Ordinarily, the U.S. would have forgiven the loans imposed on Britain, as it was also devastated. The U.S. didn’t. The German people faced starvation, homelessness, and utter depravation. Nobody cared. The middle class was wiped out. Germany was also a highly militarized society at the time. The parenting style was authoritarian. This is the “strict parent” model.
Hitler’s appeal was that he offered hope. But he didn’t give it right to them. He held it, like a carrot, just beneath their noses, dangling on a string, attached to a stick.
A starving person needs food. But if he has to choose between a last bread crumb or a crumb of hope, he will choose hope. We can survive on hope. It keeps us going. That is why the lottery is so popular. For $1, you get to buy hope for one week. When you consider it that way, it isn’t so irrational. It is a bargain. But not all hope is equal.
Some types of hope are a Faustian bargain.
And there are some deals you should never make.
Footnotes
[1] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H3LOPhRq3Es
[2] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eypJfOKeSJU&ab_channel=WarArchives
[3] Hitler’s Rise: How a Homeless Artist Became a Murderous Tyrant
[4] Viewpoint: His dark charisma
[5] http://He did not hide his hatred, his contempt for democracy or his belief in the use of violence to further political ends from the electorate. But, crucially, he spoke out only against carefully defined enemies like Communists and Jews. Since the majority of ordinary Germans were not in these groups, as long as they embraced the new world of Nazism, they were relatively free from persecution — at least until the war started to go badly for the Germans. This history matters to us today. Not because history offers “lessons” — how can it since the past can never repeat itself exactly? But because history can contain warnings. In an economic crisis millions of people suddenly decided to turn to an unconventional leader they thought had “charisma” because he connected with their fears, hopes and latent desire to blame others for their predicament. And the end result was disastrous for tens of millions of people. It’s bleakly ironic that German Chancellor Angela Merkel was greeted in Athens recently with swastika banners carried by angry Greeks protesting at what they see as German interference in their country. Ironic because it is in Greece itself — amid terrible economic crisis — that we see the sudden rise of a political movement like the Golden Dawn that glories in its intolerance and desire to persecute minorities. And it is led by a man who has claimed there were no gas chambers in Auschwitz. Can there be a bigger warning than that?