Hitler's Charisma (48 page)

  
1.
Kurt Lüdecke,
I Knew Hitler
, Jarrolds, 1938, pp22–25.

  
2.
Kubizek,
Young Hitler
, p33.

  
3.
ibid., p157.

  
4.
Previously unpublished testimony.

  
5.
Previously unpublished testimony.

  
6.
Hitler speech of 12 April 1922 in N. H. Baynes (Editor),
Speeches of Adolf Hitler: Early speeches, 1922–1924, and Other Selections
, Howard Fertig, 2006, p5.

  
7.
Hitler speech of 28 July 1922, ibid., p29. Also quoted by Eberhard Jaeckel, Jäckel,
Hitler: Sämtliche Aufzeichnungen 1905–1924
. First published in
Völkischer Beobachter
, 16 August 1922.

  
8.
First published in
Völkischer Beobachter
, 22 April 1922.

  
9.
Interview with author for
WW2History.com
.

10.
Hitler speech of 12 April 1922, Baynes, p6.

11.
Baynes, pp15–16.

12.
Previously unpublished testimony.

13.
Previously unpublished testimony.

14.
Hans Frank,
Im Angesicht des Galgens
, Munich/Grafelfing, 1953, pp39–42.

15.
Roger Manvell and Heinrich Fraenkel,
Göring
, Greenhill Books, 2005, pp36–37.

16.
Trial of the German War Criminals: Proceedings of the International Military Tribunal
(British edition), IX, pp64–65.

17.
Hitler did not “hypnotise” his audience—in the sense of convincing them to act against their will. But the pioneering work of the Hungarian scholar, Sándor Ferenczi, on the nature of hypnotism and suggestion does offer an insight into some of the psychological reasons which might have been behind Hitler’s effectiveness as a speaker in these early post–First World War years. Crucially, Ferenczi pointed out that “Everything speaks much more in favour of the view that in hypnotism and suggestion the chief work
is performed not by the hypnotist and suggestor, but by the person himself.” Ferenczi went as far as to state that you can’t be hypnotised—or be the subject of “suggestion”—unless you consent. Moreover, Ferenczi believed that it was immensely helpful for any person who wishes to practise suggestion, to possess “an imposing appearance … a penetrating glance, and a stern expression of countenance … It is [also] generally recognised that a self-confident manner, the reputation of previous successes … help in the successful effect of suggestion.” In addition, for Ferenczi the “suggestor” was a kind of “father figure.” He thought that “a preliminary condition of every successful suggestion is that the hypnotist shall figure as a ‘grown up’ to the hypnotised subject. The former must be able to arouse in the latter the same feelings of love or fear, the same conviction of infallibility, as those with which his parents inspired him as a child.” (See Sándor Ferenczi,
First Contributions to Psycho-Analysis
[first published in Hungarian, 1909], translation by Ernest Jones M.D., The Hogarth Press and the Institute of Psychoanalysis, 1952, pp59–71.) One must not take all this too far in the case of Hitler, since he most certainly did not “hypnotise” his supporters in the manner of a stage hypnotist. Those who followed him did so willingly and out of their own choice. Equally, Ferenczi writes with a certainty which would on occasion benefit from nuance and qualification—as in his statement that “In our innermost soul we are still children, and we remain so throughout life.” But it is striking, nonetheless, how much this early Hitler conforms to Ferenczi’s view of the successful “suggestor.” Even at this age—he was just thirty-three in 1922—Hitler was positioning himself as a “father figure,” calling on the youth of Germany to follow him and offering “fatherly” advice and admonition. And as for Ferenczi’s view that the successful suggestor must create a “conviction of infallibility,” well, a “conviction of infallibility” was exactly what Hitler tried to project from his first political speech onwards.

18.
Kubizek,
Young Hitler
, p182.

19.
Hitler speech of 12 April 1922, Baynes, p12.

20.
See also the work of the “crowd theorists,” pioneered by Emile Durkheim. E. Durkheim,
The Elementary Forms of Religious Life
, Simon and Schuster, 1995.

21.
Konrad Heiden,
The Fuehrer
, Robinson Publishing, 1999, pp91–2.

22.
Otto Strasser,
Hitler and I
, Jonathan Cape, 1940, pp76–77.

23.
Sir Nevile Henderson,
Failure of a Mission
, Hodder and Stoughton, 1940, p179.

24.
Previously unpublished testimony.

25.
Rees,
The Nazis: A Warning from History
, pp32–33.

26.
Weber,
Hitler’s First War
, p257.

27.
Ernst H. Posse,
Die politischen Kampfbünde Deutschlands
, Berlin, 1931, pp46–7 quoted in Robert G. L. Waite,
Vanguard of Nazism, the Free Corps Movement in Postwar Germany 1918–1923
, Harvard University Press, 1952, p266.

28.
Not quoted in Waite but in the original, Ernst H. Posse,
Die politischen Kampfbünde Deutschlands
, Berlin, 1931, p46.

29.
Previously unpublished testimony.

30.
Heinrich Hoffmann,
Hitler Was My Friend
, London, 1955, p46.

31.
Karl Mayr (writing as “Anon”), “I Was Hitler’s Boss,”
Current History
, Vol. 1, No. 3, (November 1941).

32.
ibid.

33.
Kubizek,
Young Hitler
, p42.

34.
Charles de Gaulle,
The Edge of the Sword
, Greenwood Press, 1960, p58.

35.
ibid., p65–6.

  
1.
Weber,
Essays in Sociology
, p262.

  
2.
Rees,
Nazis: A Warning from History
, p26.

  
3.
Friedrich Nietzsche,
The Birth of Tragedy and the Genealogy of Morals
, translated by Francis Golffing, Doubleday Anchor Books, 1956, p186.

  
4.
Peter Viereck, “Stefan George’s Cosmic Circle,”
Decision
, October 1941, p49.

  
5.
Previously unpublished testimony.

  
6.
Previously unpublished testimony.

  
7.
Kubizek,
Young Hitler
, p185.

  
8.
ibid., p83.

  
9.
Previously unpublished testimony.

10.
Ludwig Gengler,
Kampfflieger Rudolf Berthold
, Germany, 1934, quoted p178.

11.
Joachim C. Fest,
Hitler
, Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, 1974, p132.

12.
ibid., p133.

13.
Quoted by Margarate Plewnia,
Auf dem Weg zu Hitler
, Bremen, 1970, p67. She in turn quotes Albert Zoller,
Hitler privat—Erlebnisbericht seiner Geheimsekretärin
, Droste, Düsseldorf, 1949, p118.

14.
ibid., p55.

15.
IMT testimony
of Julius Streicher, Friday, 26 April 1946.

16.
Waite,
Vanguard of Nazism
, p267.

17.
Otto Strasser,
Hitler and I
, p86.

18.
Bruce Campbell,
The SA Generals and The Rise of Nazism
, University Press of Kentucky, 1998, pp18–20.

19.
Werner Maser,
Der Sturm auf die Republik
, Frankfurt, Athenäum-Verlag, 1965, p356.

20.
Völkischer Beobachter
, 6 December 1922.

21.
Rees,
The Nazis: A Warning from History
, p25.

22.
Previously unpublished testimony.

23.
See, for example, Strasser,
Hitler and I
, p57.

24.
Albrecht Tyrell,
Führer befiehl … Selbstzeugnisse aus der “Kampfzeit” der NSDAP, Dokumentation und Analyse
, Düsseldorf, 1969, pp281–3. Tyrell quotes extracts from
Der Hitler Prozess vor dem Volksgericht in München, Zweiter Teil
, München, 1924, Hitler’s closing words, pp85–91. English translation in J. Noakes and G. Pridham,
Nazism 1919–1945, Vol. 1
, Exeter University Press, 1983, p35.

25.
Previously unpublished testimony.

26.
Neithardt had been the judge in January 1922 at the trial of Hitler and other Nazis accused of a brawl at the Löwenbräu beer cellar in Munich the previous September and had petitioned his own superiors to be lenient to Hitler. See Rees,
The Nazis: A Warning from History
, p28.

27.
The Times
, 2 April 1924.

  
1.
Weber,
Essays
, p250.

  
2.
Hitler,
Mein Kampf
, p288.

  
3.
ibid., p306.

  
4.
See p102.

  
5.
Ernest Becker,
The Denial of Death
, Free Press Paperbacks, 1997, p282.

  
6.
ibid., p27.

  
7.
Hitler,
Mein Kampf
, p290.

  
8.
ibid., p305.

  
9.
ibid., p679.

10.
ibid., p654.

11.
ibid., p661.

12.
Previously unpublished testimony.

13.
Laurence Rees,
Their Darkest Hour
, Ebury Press, 2007, p206.

14.
Previously unpublished testimony.

15.
Dennis Mack Smith,
Mussolini: A Biography
, Vintage Books, New York, 1983, p172.

16.
See Professor Browning’s views, pp23–24.

17.
Konrad Heiden, introduction to
Mein Kampf
by Adolf Hitler, pxx.

18.
Hitler,
Mein Kampf
, p581.

19.
Ian Kershaw,
Hitler: Hubris
, pp242–243.

20.
Lüdecke,
I Knew Hitler
, pp217–8.

21.
Goebbels’ diary, entry for 15 February 1926. Unless otherwise footnoted, all entries from the Goebbels diaries are taken from: Elke Fröhlich (ed.),
Die Tagebücher von Joseph Goebbels. Teil I: Aufzeichnungen 1923–1941; Teil II: Diktate 1941–1945
, Munich 1993–2005.

22.
ibid., entry for 13 April 1926.

23.
ibid., entry for 19 April 1926.

24.
In particular Otto Strasser—see
Hitler and I
, p100.

25.
Uriel Tal,
Political Faith of Nazism prior to the Holocaust
, Tel Aviv University, 1978, p30.

26.
John Whittam, “Mussolini and The Cult of the Leader,”
New Perspective
, Vol. 3, No. 3, March 1998.

27.
In English in Ian Kershaw,
The Hitler Myth
, Oxford University Press, 1987, p27. Also quoted in Albrecht Tyrell,
Führer befiehl … Dokumentation und Analyse
, Düsseldorf, 1969, p173.

28.
Becker,
Denial of Death
, p193.

29.
Joseph Goebbels,
Der Angriff
(Berlin, 30 April 1928). Quoted by Joseph Goebbels,
Der Angriff. Aufsätze aus der Kampfzeit
, Munich, 1935, pp71–73.

30.
Walter Frank,
Franz Ritter von Epp: Der Weg eines deutschen Soldaten
, Hamburg, 1934, pp141–2.

31.
Adam Tooze,
The Wages of Destruction
, Penguin, 2007, p13.

32.
Previously unpublished testimony.

  
1.
Hitler 1932 election speech at Eberswald. Archive featured in episode 1,
The Nazis: A Warning from History
, BBC2, 1997.

  
2.
Richard Bessel, “The Potempa Murder,”
Central European History
, 10, 1977, pp241–54.

  
3.
Previously unpublished testimony.

  
4.
Previously unpublished testimony.

  
5.
Albert Speer,
Inside the Third Reich
, Phoenix, 1995, p46.

  
6.
ibid., p46.

  
7.
ibid., p66.

  
8.
ibid., p44.

  
9.
Previously unpublished testimony.

10.
Previously unpublished testimony.

11.
Previously unpublished testimony.

12.
Tal,
Political Faith of Nazism prior to the Holocaust
, p28.

13.
Thomas Ferguson and Peter Temin, “Made in Germany: The German Currency Crisis of July 1931,”
Research in Economic History
, Vol. 21 (2003), pp1–53.

14.
Previously unpublished testimony.

15.
Weber,
Hitler’s First War
, p272.

16.
Previously unpublished testimony.

17.
Weber, p283.

18.
Nathaniel Shaler,
The Individual: A Study of Life and Death
, D. Appleton and Company, New York, 1902, p199.

19.
Ernst Hanfstaengl,
15 Jahre mit Hitler, Zwischen Weissem und Braunem Haus
, 1980, pp232–6, and Heinrich Hoffman,
Hitler Was My Friend
, London, 1955, pp151–2. See also Walter C. Langer,
A Psychological Profile of Adolph Hitler. His Life and Legend
, Office of Strategic Services Washington, D.C. Online at:
www.nizkor.org
. For the detail of Hitler’s alleged sexual perversion, see Robert Waite,
The Psychopathic God: Adolf Hitler
, Basic Books, 1977. But it is all essentially hearsay evidence and unpersuasive. More recently an attempt has been made to claim Hitler was homosexual—see Lothar Machtan,
The Hidden Hitler
, Basic Books, 2001—but this is also unconvincing. Ian Kershaw’s review of Machtan’s book in
Die Welt
13.10.2001
http://www.welt.de/print-welt/article481144/Der_ungerade_Weg.html
raises questions about the theory.

20.
Riefenstahl,
A Memoir
, p180.

21.
Goebbels’ diary, entry for 26 June 1930, p183f.

22.
Previously unpublished testimony.

23.
Previously unpublished testimony.

24.
Previously unpublished testimony.

25.
Otto Meissner,
Aufzeichnung über die Besprechung des Herrn Reichspräsidenten mit Adolf Hitler am 13. August 1932 nachmittags 4.15
. Quoted by: Walther Hubatsch,
Hindenburg und der Staat. Aus den Papieren des Generalfeldmarschalls und Reichspräsidenten von 1878 bis 1934
, Göttingen, 1955, p338. In English in Noakes and Pridham, Vol. 1, p104.