The author, in fact, draws heavily on the work of others. He has been inspired by some recent general historiographical trends. First, the ‘transnational’ turn has provided a new framework for German history, in which events there are understood as part of broader European and even global processes.18 The subfield of Histoire Croisée offered a particularly valuable stimulus for understanding the enduring German–American entanglement which shaped so much of Hitler’s thinking and career.19 Secondly, ‘globalization’: the Hitler of this biography was, for all his specificity, a product of global forces.20 He fits well into recent work on world capitalism.21 Thirdly, the ‘environmental turn’ enables us to see Hitler as primarily a Malthusian, a politician of scarcity.22 Fourthly, recent studies of global governance, especially the Anglo-American cartel which emerged in the early twentieth century, sharpened the author’s perception of Hitler’s revolt against this order.23
Fifthly, historical studies of migration and race, especially those on Anglo-American settler colonialism, and research into the international politics of race, in particular the stress on the ‘Anglo-Saxon hegemons’, have provided a context for thinking about Hitler’s world view.24 In this sense, Germany can be seen, and was seen by contemporary Germans–including Hitler–as both colonizing and colonized; it was not clear to which side of the ‘global colour line’ it really belonged. The Reich was the ‘replenisher’, not the ‘replenished’,25 the ‘fertilizer’–to use Hitler’s own phrase–not the fertilized. Conversely, as Aimé Césaire pointed out back in the mid-1950s, Hitler’s imperial project in Europe inverted the traditional racial order by reducing many white men to an inferior status usually reserved for people of colour.26 Sixthly, the ‘spatial turn’ in the historical literature helps us to understand how Germany, having transitioned from the traditional Reich into a nation, was now reconceived once again as an empire on a global scale.27 Finally, the ‘temporal turn’ in historical studies prompted the author to pay particular attention to time, timing and–especially–timelines in Hitler’s thinking.28 The expansion and contraction of time in his mind will emerge as a crucial variable.
More specifically, it will be clear from the text that the author is greatly indebted to the many works on Nazi Germany that have appeared over the past twenty years.29 Mark Mazower has provided a framework for understanding the Third Reich as a European empire in Europe.30 Tim Snyder has stressed the ‘environmental’ dimension to Hitler’s thinking. Adam Tooze has shown the extent to which the United States needs to be understood as the principal reference point for the Third Reich from the start, but especially after the wartime battle for production commenced.31 The American dimension to twentieth-century German history more generally has been well described by Mary Nolan, Philipp Gassert, and Stefan Kühl.32 Johann Chapoutot has reminded us of the enduring importance of ideas in the Nazi project,33 and Lars Lüdicke has recalled to mind the astonishing consistency of thought on key issues over twenty-five years.34
This biography has also benefited from the numerous new studies on particular periods or aspects of Hitler’s life. Dirk Bavendamm put Hitler’s youth under the microscope; Brigitte Hamann re-examined Hitler’s time in Vienna, showing that there was no evidence for any anti-Semitic sentiment on his part during those years.35 Instead, as Anton Joachimsthaler demonstrated, Hitler’s ‘path’ really began in Munich.36 Thomas Weber has illuminated Hitler’s experiences during the First World War. Othmar Plöckinger and Thomas Weber took a much closer look at Hitler’s crucial years in Munich immediately after the war. Plöckinger also wrote a detailed analysis of the gestation and legacy of Mein Kampf.37 Despina Stratigakos examined Hitler’s domestic architectural preferences and activities, a hitherto neglected subject.38 Anna Maria Sigmund was the first to examine the complicated ménage à trois between Hitler, his niece Geli Raubal and his chauffeur Emil Maurice.39 Heike Görtemaker wrote the first satisfactory account of his relationship with Eva Braun.40 Timothy Ryback provided an insight into Hitler’s reading habits, while Bill Niven examined his cinematic preferences.41 Fritz Redlich subjected Hitler to serious psychiatric analysis,42 Johannes Hürter examined Hitler’s relationship wth his senior military commanders,43 and Stephen Fritz has made a strong case that Hitler was no military amateur.44
There have also been several important studies on Hitler’s role in the Third Reich. Christian Goeschel has traced the evolution of his ‘fascist alliance’ with Mussolini.45 Kurt Bauer showed that he was centrally involved in the failed Austrian coup of 1934.46 Andreas Krämer’s study of the May crisis of 1938 and its aftermath showed a dictator reacting to outside events, but completely in control of the German national security apparatus.47 Angela Hermann’s study of the Munich crisis and its consequences showed that the ‘conceptual pluralism’ in Nazi foreign policy only existed at the level below the dictator himself.48 Rolf-Dieter Müller has persuasively argued that Hitler’s plan in 1938–9 was to attack the Soviet Union, and that he was only deflected by the Polish refusal to cooperate.49 The centrality of the American dimension in 1940–41 has been emphasized in Ian Kershaw’s study of Hitler’s fateful decisions.50 Edward Westermann and Carroll Kakel have compared Hitler’s war in Russia with the conquest of the American West.51 The volumes of Das Deutsche Reich und der Zweite Weltkrieg, in effect the official German history of the war, have shown Hitler’s centrality to the course of the conflict.52 Finally, Hitler’s central role in the murder of six million Jews has been proven beyond all doubt by Richard Evans, Peter Longerich and others involved in the rebuttal of David Irving’s claims to the contrary.53 Magnus Brechtken and Maximilian Becker of the Institute for Contemporary History in Munich are currently preparing a scholarly edition of Hitler’s speeches as chancellor.54
The arguments made in this book are based on plentiful, if uneven, source materials. Many of these are well known, others have been surprisingly neglected and some are, to the best of the author’s knowledge, completely new. The principal source for the first thirty years or so of Hitler’s life is the complete edition of his correspondence, writings and remarks (some of them reported at second hand) until 1924; the known forgeries therein have been discounted.55 This collection is reasonably full for the years from 1919, but sketchy before then; for example, we have no records whatsoever for a full year between August 1908 and August 1909.56 From the mid-1920s onwards, this biography relies mainly on the critical editions of Mein Kampf,57 the Second Book and the voluminous edition of his speeches and writings between 1925 and 1933.58
As one would expect, there is an exponential increase in the number of records for the period after Hitler took power in 1933. An important source for the Third Reich itself is the pioneering collection by Max Domarus, which mostly consists of speeches; it is incomplete and the editorial standards leave a lot to be desired.59 There is also a much smaller, but rather better edition of seven of the most important Hitler speeches by Hildegard von Kotze and Helmut Krausnick.60 The documents of Hitler’s cabinets give us a valuable insight into his practice of government, and the Documents on German Foreign Policy also contain many statements by him.61 For the war years, we have Martin Moll’s edition of Hitler’s ‘decrees’, Walther Hubatsch’s collection of Hitler’s ‘Directives’, Willi Boelcke’s edition of his conferences with Albert Speer on war production, and the Lagebesprechungen, the surviving protocols of Hitler’s military briefings.62 These serial sources are supplemented by memoirs, diaries, the recent extremely valuable ‘Itinerary’ compiled by Harald Sandner and other printed sources.63 While most of the material cited in this book has been in the public domain for some time, the importance of some of it has not been recognized, with a number of key statements lying hiding in plain sight for decades.
As with all historical sources, those for Hitler, particularly the diaries and memoirs, must be treated with caution. Joseph Goebbels, for example, intended most of his diaries for publication and the biographer must beware of his aggrandisements from beyond the grave.64 Albert S
peer, for his part, not merely engaged in blatant distortion and apologetics, but also tended to exaggerate his special bond with Hitler.65 Some apparently contemporaneous sources, such as Otto Wagener’s Aufzeichnungen and Gerhard Engel’s diary, were in fact written up many years after the events they describe, but cross-checking shows them to be almost without exception a reliable guide.66 We also need to be careful with the records of Hitler’s wartime ‘Table Talk’, which, though generally accurate on his sentiments, contains some demonstrable distortions and should not be taken as a verbatim record of what he actually said.67 None of his supposed utterances there have been cited as direct speech. With suitable caveats, all these records have been used where appropriate.
By contrast, this biography has discounted a number of ‘classic’ sources altogether. With regard to Hitler’s early life, which has been distorted by Mein Kampf and subsequent ‘memories’ of his contemporaries, the author has taken the rather drastic step of relying only on material generated at the time. This ruled out, for example, the memoirs of his childhood friend Kubizek.68 No reliance was placed on anything said or quoted by Werner Maser.69 Sources like the ‘Breiting conversations’ and the recollections of Hermann Rauschning, which have long been treated with suspicion but still crop up in some reputable accounts, were not used.70 Finally, with considerable reluctance, the author has entirely disregarded Hitler’s alleged ‘Testament’ from early 1945. The sentiments therein clearly chime with those of Hitler, and indeed with the argument of this book, but a recent forensic examination shows its provenance to be too dubious to place any reliance on its content.71
The new sources used for this biography fall into two categories. Some simply gloss or elaborate well-known aspects of Hitler’s career. Others, however, support the central arguments of the book. The Bavarian Kriegsarchiv yielded new material on Hitler’s First World War experience, including his seminal encounter with American soldiers and the struggle of his regiment with their new adversaries more generally. Other Munich depositories confirmed the depth of Hitler’s concern about Bavarian separatism. The records of the Foreign Office contained valuable material on returning German emigrants and the plan to ‘exchange’ them for departing German Jews. So far as the author is aware, none of these particular documents have been used by other biographers of Hitler, and it is unlikely that they were aware of them.
In order to marshal all this material into a coherent argument, the author has adopted a ‘funnel’ approach. At the outset, where the sources are sparse, he has sought to be as all-encompassing as possible. As the book progresses, as the main lines of interpretation become clearer, and the source material more copious, the focus narrows. This also reflects the fact that Hitler was remarkably open about his thinking in his early years and became progressively more cautious. In general, the author has attempted to show rather than tell. This involves extensive exegesis and direct quotation from Hitler himself. Unlike some works, therefore, this biography is ‘context-light’ and ‘Hitler-centric’.72 We will not lose him from sight for more than a paragraph or two at a time. This is not to suggest, of course, that Hitler was an entirely sui generis thinker–it is well known that he drew extensively on others–merely that we shall be focusing on what he believed, rather than where he got it from. Following Richard Evans’s injunction, we will privilege ‘analysis, argument and interpretation’ over ‘the language of the court prosecutor and the sermonizing moralist’.73 No attempt has been made to contradict Hitler systematically, as to do so would have burst the bounds of the book and resulted in a very different work. Unless they have reason to believe otherwise, readers–to borrow a phrase–would be well advised to regard everything he said as a lie, including the ‘and’ and the ‘the’. One way or the other, the ‘truth content’ of Hitler’s writings and speeches is of less importance to this biography than their meaning and intention. Here, the author has tried throughout to get into Hitler’s mind, without letting him get into his.
The three central contentions of the book are supported by a number of sub-arguments. Many of these will be familiar even to the lay reader, and most will be well known to specialists in the field. Others may have been briefly noted before, but their true significance has been missed. There are also some very central strands in the argument which are–to the author’s best knowledge–completely new. If Hitler’s preoccupation with Britain is no secret, and the extent of his engagement with the United States has been a staple of more recent studies, previous historians have not recognized his demographic obsession with German emigration and its centrality to his world view. While the connection between Hitler’s anti-Semitism and his anti-capitalism is often noted, and has been the subject of some individual studies, its centrality to his world view, and the extent to which he was fighting a war against ‘international high finance’ and ‘plutocracy’ from start to finish, has not been understood at all. The extent of Hitler’s anxiety about the racial coherence of the German people, which he attributed to centuries of political and cultural fragmentation, has not been well understood either. For this reason, the salience of the Bavarian separatist threat, the challenge of European integration, the spectre of a Habsburg restoration and the ‘black’ (clerical) menace at various points in Hitler’s career require considerable amplification.
The argument will unfold in six parts. The first deals with Hitler’s early life until the end of the world war, during which he showed increasing signs of political consciousness after a very slow start, but no sign at all of any political vocation or leadership potential. The war plunged Hitler into a traumatic encounter with the might of Anglo-America, whose military, economic, financial and demographic strength crushed the Reich and smashed his universe. In 1919–22, the first contours of his world view become visible: the fear of Anglo-America, the associated hostility to global capitalism and international Jewry and anxiety that internal weaknesses such as socialism, Bolshevism, mass emigration and especially Bavarian separatism were rendering the Reich helpless in the face of external enemies. During this period, Hitler seems to have been operating on the assumption that the regeneration of Germany would require many years, perhaps generations. In Part II, which covers the years 1923–7, we see how time initially speeded up for Hitler in order both to pre-empt the danger of an apparently separatist putsch and to take advantage of an apparently favourable domestic and international constellation. After the failure of his own coup, Hitler reverted to a much longer timeline and began to conceive his Lebensraum concept as the answer to Germany’s racial degeneration, especially the haemorrhage of so many healthy emigrants to America. This was perforce a long-term project, so that time slowed down again for Hitler.
In Part III, which deals with the period 1928–32, we see Hitler elaborate a modernizing project designed to strengthen the Reich against the American challenge, especially the loss of the ‘best’ elements of German society through emigration to the New World, and to provide an alternative to the widely popular idea of European integration. Taking advantage of the economic distress caused by the Depression, he also devised a strategy for the seizure of power rather sooner than he had previously expected. Part IV, which covers the years 1933–6, examines Hitler’s social, economic and racial transformation project, which was designed to eliminate ‘negative’ elements in German society, such as Jews and the disabled, and to facilitate the development of more ‘positive’ racial strands. If the ‘racial’ clock was, by its very nature, set to a much longer timeline, Hitler’s diplomatic and military policies followed a much more immediate agenda. There was no plan for world domination on his part, merely a determination to secure for Germany the territorial enlargement he believed necessary to survive in a world of global powers.
In Part V, dealing with the period 1937–40, time speeded up once more as Hitler reacted to the hostility of Anglo-America. We will see how the Führer, who did not originally set out to achieve global domination, or even to occupy so much of mainland Europe, was drive
n by the logic of war and expansion into broadening the conflict ever more. Finally, in Part VI, which covers the years 1941–5, Hitler’s career reached its culmination in the confrontation with Roosevelt’s America, with the resulting scramble for Lebensraum and the destruction of European Jewry. As the ‘Anglo-Saxon’ powers coalesced against him, Hitler became convinced that only a truly global policy would be enough to secure the Reich against its enemies. German armies now stood on two continents and menaced a third. Hitler also had plans to strike the western hemisphere, at least from the air. For a brief moment it seemed as if the whole world was in his grasp, but the trophy remained beyond his reach, and soon after the inevitable descent began, culminating in the Reich’s second and even more destructive defeat at the hands, as Hitler saw it, of the ‘Anglo-Saxons’, the Jews and their allies.
PART ONE
Humiliation
The first three decades of Hitler’s life were characterized by obscurity and deprivation of one sort or another. Not long after his birth in the far west of the Habsburg Empire into modest but not impoverished circumstances, Adolf Hitler’s situation rapidly deteriorated. His father and mother both died, the latter after a traumatic illness, and he squandered his small inheritance. His artistic talents were not recognized in Vienna. Hitler stumbled, and suffered severe hardship, before rallying and moving to Munich, then the second city of the German Empire. There he just about got by. Beyond this explicit rejection of the Habsburg Empire, Hitler showed no overt signs of politicization before reaching the age of twenty-five. The war proved to be both a liberating and a dislocating experience. During the four years of his military service, Hitler was wounded, subjected to shattering bombardments, decorated, blinded and defeated, along with so many other Germans. He ended the conflict as he began it, as a rather lonely figure on the margins of German and world history.
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