Hitler: Ascent, 1889-1939 (140 page)

32 
Cited in Andreas Hillgruber, “Tendenzen, Ergebnisse und Perspektiven der gegenwärtigen Hitler-Forschung,”
Historische Zeitschrift
, 226 (1978), pp. 600–21, at p. 612.

33 
Kershaw,
Hitler: Hubris
, p. xxiv. See also Kershaw’s interview with Franziska Augstein and Ulrich Raulff: “In gewisser Weise war er der Mann ohne Eigenschaften,”
Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung
, 1 Oct. 1998: “Above all I wanted to specify the context in which he was able to function, that is, in which a person of his limited abilities was able to rise to positions of ever-greater power.”

34 
Kershaw,
Hitler: Hubris
, p. xii.

35 
James P. O’Donnell, “Der grosse und der kleine Diktator,”
Der Monat
, 30 (1978), pp. 51–62, at p 61. In conversation with the American historian Harold Deutsch on 11 May 1950, Hitler’s former military adjutant, Gerhard Engel, remarked: “Just think how many faces Hitler had. He was one of the most elegant actors ever seen in the history of the world…Compared with him…a man like Mussolini was a mere amateur, despite his Caesar-like gestures.” IfZ Munich, ZS 222, vol. 2.

36 
Fest,
Hitler
, p. 29.

37 
Schwerin von Krosigk to Georg Franz, 13 July 1962; BA Koblenz, N 1276/42.

38 
Heiden,
Adolf Hitler: Der Mann gegen Europa
, p. 213. See also ibid., p. 214: there Heiden writes that the subjugator of men was “one of the unhappiest people in his private life.”

39 
Bullock,
Hitler
, p. 380; Fest,
Hitler
, pp. 714, 718.

40 
Kershaw in “In gewisser Weise war er der Mann ohne Eigenschaften.” See also Kershaw,
Hitler
, vol. 1, p. xxv: the “black hole” of Hitler the private individual.

41 
Hans Mommsen, interviewed by Ulrich Specks, “Ein Mann ohne Privatsphäre,”
Frankfurter Rundschau
, 10 Oct. 2001.

42 
See the
Bild-Zeitung
headline of 21 Aug. 2004: “Darf man ein Monster als Menschen zeigen?” See also “Der Film
Der Untergang
zeigt ihn als Menschen. Darf man das?,”
Tagesspiegel
, 11 Sept. 2004.

43 
Albert Speer,
Spandauer Tagebücher
(1975), Berlin and Munich, 2002, p. 63 (entry for 10 Feb. 1947).

44 
Leni Riefenstahl, letter to Albert Speer, 8 Jun. 1976; BA Koblenz, N 1340/49.

45 
Fest,
Hitler
, p. 697 ff.

46 
Stefan Zweig,
Die Welt von Gestern: Erinnerungen eines Europäers
, Stuttgart and Hamburg, p. 415.

47 
Kershaw in “In gewisser Weise war er der Mann ohne Eigenschaften.”

48 
Sebastian Haffner coined the phrase in
Geschichte eines Deutschen: Die Erinnerungen, 1914–1933
, Stuttgart and Munich, 2000, p. 88.

49 
Rudolf Augstein, “Hitler oder die Sucht nach Vernichtung der Welt,”
Der Spiegel
, no. 38, 1973, pp. 63–86, at p. 63.

50 
Eberhard Jäckel, “Hitler und die Deutschen: Versuch einer geschichtlichen Erklärung,” in
Geschichte und Gegenwart: Festschrift für Karl-Dietrich Erdmann
, ed. Hartmut Boockmann, Kurt Jürgensen and Gerhard Stoltenberg, Münster, 1980, pp. 351–64, at p. 364.

1
The Young Hitler

1 
Adolf Hitler,
Monologe im Führerhauptquartier 1941–1944: Die Aufzeichnungen Heinrich Heims
, ed. Werner Jochmann, Hamburg, 1980, p. 357 (dated 21 Aug. 1942).

2 
See Dirk Bavendamm,
Der junge Hitler: Korrekturen einer Biographie 1889–1914
, Graz, 2009, p. 54.

3 
See Anna Maria Sigmund,
Diktator, Dämon, Demagoge: Fragen und Antworten zu Adolf Hitler
, Munich, 2006, p. 125f. (on p. 124 see the facsimile of the legal documents dated 16 Oct. 1876); Guido Knopp,
Geheimnisse des “Dritten Reiches,
” Munich, 2011, pp. 25–9. The facsimile of the parish register was first published in Franz Jetzinger,
Hitlers Jugend: Phantasien, Lügen und Wahrheit
, Vienna, 1956, p. 16.

4 
For a summarised discussion of the possible motives see Ian Kershaw,
Hitler 1889–1936: Hubris
, London, 1998, pp. 5–9.

5 
Particularly Werner Maser,
Adolf Hitler: Legende—Mythos—Wirklichkeit
, 12th edition, Munich and Esslingen, 1989, p. 36. Following this, Wolfgang Zdral,
Die Hitlers: Die unbekannte Familie des Führers
, Frankfurt am Main and New York, 2005, p. 19f.

6 
Bayerischer Kurier
, 12 March 1932; BA Berlin-Lichterfelde, NS 26/13. The special edition of the
Wiener Sonn- und Montagszeitung
with the headline “Hitler heisst Schücklgruber” in BA Berlin-Lichterfelde, NS 26/17.

7 
Hans Frank,
Im Angesicht des Galgens: Deutung Hitlers und seiner Zeit auf Grund eigener Erlebnisse und Erkenntnisse
, Munich and Gräfelfing, 1953, p. 330f. For the history of the speculation about Hitler’s Jewish grandfather also see Brigitte Hamann,
Hitlers Wien: Lehrjahre eines Diktators
, Munich and Zurich, 1996, pp. 69–72; Knopp,
Geheimnisse des “Dritten Reiches,
” pp. 18–20. For a genealogical tree see ibid., pp. 16–18.

8 
See Maser,
Adolf Hitler
, pp. 27–30.

9 
August Kubizek,
Adolf Hitler: Mein Jugendfreund
, Graz and Göttingen, 1953, p. 59.

10 
Statement of Herr Hebestreit, a customs officer in Braunau, from 21 June 1940; BA Berlin-Lichterfelde, NS 26/17a.

11 
See Franziska Hitler’s marriage license and death certificate in BA Berlin-Lichterfelde, NS 26/17a. Next to nothing is known about Klara Pölzl’s childhood and youth. See Bavendamm,
Der junge Hitler
, p. 78f.

12 
Petition reprinted in Zdral,
Die Hitlers
, p. 24f.

13 
Facsimile of birth and baptism certificate in Kubizek,
Adolf Hitler
, p. 49.

14 
See Anton Joachimsthaler,
Korrektur einer Biographie: Adolf Hitler 1908–1920
, Munich, 1989, p. 31; Christa Schroeder,
Er war mein Chef: Aus dem Nachlass der Sekretärin von Adolf Hitler
, ed. Anton Joachimsthaler, 3rd edition, Munich and Vienna, 1985, pp. 213f.; Olaf Rose (ed.),
Julius Schaub: In Hitlers Schatten
, Stegen, 2005, p. 337 ff.

15 
On this source material see Bavendamm,
Der junge Hitler
, pp. 21–4; Ludolf Herbst,
Hitlers Charisma: Die Erfindung eines deutschen Messias
, Frankfurt am Main, 2010, p. 64f.; Othmar Plöckinger, “Frühe biographische Texte zu Hitler: Zur Bewertung der autobiographischen Texte in ‘
Mein Kampf
,’ ” in
Vierteljahrshefte für Zeitgeschichte
, 58 (2010), pp. 93–114.

16 
Adolf Hitler,
Mein Kampf. Vol. 1: Eine Abrechnung
, 7th edition, Munich, 1933, p. 1.

17 
See Marlies Steinert,
Hitler
, Munich, 1994, p. 24; Hitler,
Mein Kampf
, p. 135: “My youthful German was the dialect that Lower Bavaria speaks—I could never forget it or learn Viennese jargon.”

18 
See, for example,
Monologe
, p. 26 (dated 27/28 Sept. 1941), p. 171 (dated 3/4 Jan. 1942).

19 
See Jetzinger,
Hitlers Jugend
, pp. 63f., 122–4.

20 
See Zrdal,
Die Hitlers
, pp. 30f.

21 
Quoted in Kershaw,
Hitler: Hubris
, p. 13. Hitler told his friend Kubizek that conflicts “often ended with his father beating him.” Kubizek,
Adolf Hitler
, p. 55. See also Albert Speer,
Erinnerungen
, Frankfurt am Main and Berlin, 1993, p. 138. Hitler once bragged to his secretary Christa Schröder that he had taken 32 blows without uttering the slightest gasp of pain (
Er war mein Chef
, p. 63). Compare this with Bavendamm,
Der junge Hitler
, pp. 114f.

22 
See Bradley F. Smith,
Adolf Hitler: His Family, Childhood and Youth
, Stanford, 1967, pp. 43–5. In August 1942, Hitler recalled that “his old man was a passionate beekeeper,” adding that he had been “repeatedly stung to the point that he [Hitler] had almost died,”
Monologe
, p. 324 (dated 3 Aug. 1942).

23 
See Frank,
Im Angesicht des Galgens
, p. 332. Hitler is said to have confided: “That was the most horrible shame I have ever felt. Oh, Frank, I know what a devil alcohol is! In my youth, it was my worst enemy—even worse than my father.” But there are reasons to doubt the truth of this statement. See Jetzinger,
Hitlers Jugend
, pp. 93f.; Bavendamm,
Der junge Hitler
, p. 101.

24 
Die Tagebücher von Joseph Goebbels. Part 1: Aufzeichnungen 1923–1941
, ed. Elke Fröhlich, Munich, 1998–2006, vol. 2, p. 336 (entry for 9 Aug. 1932). See also ibid., p. 199 (entry for 20 Jan. 1932): “Hitler told moving stories of his childhood. Stories about his strict father and loving mother.”

25 
Quoted in Hamann,
Hitlers Wien
, p. 16; see Smith,
Adolf Hitler
, p. 51; on his half-brother Alois Hitler and his son William Patrick see Knopp,
Geheimnisse des “Dritten Reiches
,” pp. 31–8, 55–70.

26 
Kubizek,
Adolf Hitler
, p. 53.

27 
Among others, Alice Miller,
Am Anfang war Erziehung
, Frankfurt am Main, 1980; following on, Christa Mulack,
Klara Hitler: Muttersein im Patriarchat
, Rüsselsheim, 2005, p. 51; for critics of the psychoanalytical interpretations see Wolfgang Michalka, “Hitler im Spiegel der Psycho-Historie: Zu neueren interdisziplinären Deutungsversuchen der Hitler-Forschung” in
Francia
, 8 (1980), pp. 595–611; Gerhard Schreiber,
Hitler: Interpretationen 1923–1983. Ergebnisse, Methoden und Probleme der Forschung
, Darmstadt, 1984, pp. 316–27; Kershaw,
Hitler: Hubris
, pp. 606–7 n63.

28 
Otto Wagener,
Hitler aus nächster Nähe: Aufzeichnungen eines Vertrauten 1929–1932
, ed. Henry A. Turner, Frankfurt am Main, Berlin and Vienna, 1978, p. 425.

29 
Goebbels,
Tagebücher
, part 1, vol. 1, p. 390 (entry for 22 July 1938).

30 
Hitler,
Mein Kampf
, p. 6. See Hitler,
Monologe
, p. 375 (dated 29 Aug. 1942): “I spent a lot of time in my school years outside.” In a letter to his childhood friend Fritz Seidl in Graz on 16 Oct. 1923, Hitler recalled “our sunny days as young scallywags we idled away together with others,” BA Berlin-Lichterfelde, NS 26/14; reprinted in Adolf Hitler,
Sämtliche Aufzeichnungen 1905–1924
, ed. Eberhard Jäckel with Axel Kuhn, Stuttgart, 1980, no. 585, p. 1038. See Goebbels,
Tagebücher
, part 1, vol. 6, p. 49 (entry for 19 Aug. 1938): “He told stories about his youth in Leonding and Lambach. It was a happy time for him.”

31 
BA Berlin-Lichterfelde, NS 26/17a.

32 
Hitler,
Monologe
, p. 281 (dated 17 Feb. 1942). See Goebbels,
Tagebücher
, part 1, vol. 3/2, p. 299 (entry for 20 Dec. 1936): “We talked about Karl May and his adventurous life. The Führer loves reading his books.”

33 
Albert Speer,
Spandauer Tagebücher
, Munich, 2002, p. 523 (entry for 5 May 1960). On his reading of Karl May, see Smith,
Adolf Hitler
, pp. 66f.; Hamann,
Hitlers Wien
, pp. 21, 544–8; Bavendamm,
Der junge Hitler
, pp. 359–76.

34 
Hitler,
Mein Kampf
, p. 3. See Otto Dietrich,
12 Jahre mit Hitler
, Munich, 1955, p. 166: “In his own telling, even as a boy, Hitler was a wild and hard-to-tame youth.”

35 
Joachim Fest,
Hitler: Eine Biographie
, Frankfurt am Main, Berlin and Vienna, 1973, p. 37. According to the school register, Hitler attended the
Volksschule
in Leonding from 27 Feb. 1899 until he transferred to the
Realschule
in Linz on 17 Sept. 1900; BA Berlin-Lichterfelde, NS 26/65.

36 
Published in Jetzinger,
Hitlers Jugend
, pp. 105f. In a letter to a former colleague on 28 April 1935, Heumer described how the assessment had come to pass. After the November 1923 putsch, Angela Raubal had given him a letter from Hitler’s lawyer Lorenz Roder requesting an “objective characterization” of Hitler as a school pupil in order to “combat certain rumour in the hostile press.” BA Koblenz, N 1128/30.

37 
Hitler,
Mein Kampf
, p. 6.

38 
See Smith,
Adolf Hitler
, pp. 69f.; Bavendamm,
Adolf Hitler
, p. 133.

39 
Hitler,
Mein Kampf
, p. 7.

40 
Ibid., p. 16. Klara Hitler’s death announcement in BA Berlin-Lichterfelde, NS 26/17.