Adolf Hitler’s varied experiences and personal ideologies developed during the war made him Chancellor of Germany between 1933 to 1945 and Fuhrer of Nazi Germany from 1934 to 1945. The title of the journal/article is very appropriate because it shows Adolf Hitler’s progression from a young enthusiastic man in 1914 to the person he eventually becomes when he hangs up his army uniform for good in 1920. The author talks about a young Hitler and how his views of imperialism begins to develop as the first world war goes on. The author did a very good job with the article, and the purpose of the journal was noticed from the first paragraph. He was very specific about the part of Hitler’s life that he wanted to touch upon and did not branch out to unnecessary points. This kept me interested, and wanting to know more and more about the person i was reading about in the article.
Hitler grew up in Vienna, the jewel city of the Habsburg Empire. At this time in Austria there was a mix of rich and wealthy elites, but also a huge separation in class as many people still found themselves in states of poverty. A massive influx of working class labourers from other parts of the empire also did not helping finding a job much easier for a young Adolf Hitler at the time. Times were beginning to get tough and extremist political views and philosophies were the new norm excelling mainly in poverty stricken regions of the empire who longed for someone to take them out of their current state. Views of anti semitism became the murmurs of many arountown who used Jews as the scapegoats for their hardships economically. Influential anti semitic leaders such as Karl Lueger, and Georg Ritter von Schönerer, were able to further divide people with their views which got across like wildfire during these dark times in Austria. Many people in the district of Linz where Hitler was born were pan-German at heart and supported the unification of Germany and Austria due to their ethnic similarities and a young Adolf Hitler was no different.( Schonerer, Lueger, and Hitler The Politics of the Vienna Years)
Adolf Hitler moved to Munich to better his life as an architect, but when the First World War broke out he initially tried but was unsuccessful in his attempt to be drafted into the Bavarian Army due to his Austrian descent. His disgust of the capitalist style government which had brought down the german empire, but which structured the Austrian army at the time made the thought of even representing the Austrian army suicidal to him. He was sent to Austria to join the army but intentionally failed to pass the physical test and was sent packing with immediate effect. Hitler planned to return back to Munich where his aim was to serve in the Bavarian Army due to his feelings of pan Germanism.
Hitler blamed the fall of the Great German Empire on the country’s continued association with the British and Americans who outsourced jobs and caused many in Germany to be unemployed without jobs or homes. Hitler’s views of capitalism did not improve during the war, rather it was negatively enhanced. He like many other Germans felt like it was them against the world, as he saw Africans, Americans, Australians, and even Indians fighting against them on the side of the Allied forces. On the other hand he had huge respect for Italian prime minister Mussolini which was later lost years later when Germany became a bigger superpower than the Italians. He viewed Mussolini as a political puppet when he became Chancellor of Germany. While in the army Hitler gained much of his military scope and general political intelligence from being a war front messenger who helped deliver private information from one war front to the other. This was very valuable to Hitler and helped him gain the trust of high ranked individuals in the army while also getting familiar with the war artilleries that were being produced and used during the war. Hitler was really attached to his military unit and only ever left his group to recuperate from a shell injury he suffered during one of the battles of the first world war. He was very saddened to leave as during his time in the hospital the German armies casualties began to pile up rapidly. When Hitler was back to 100% he alerted his commander who summoned him back to his Regiment.
The article talks about Hitler’s courageousness which helped him attain war badges. But it also surprisingly showed me a humane side to him which we normally never hear about. The author talked about his decisions never to rise ranking even after being promoted on numerous occasions to a higher rank. The author also talks about Adolf Hitler gaining friends and followers who were all trustworthy to him and amongst each other during this time, making sure to highlight that jews were also part of the German army. Some of Hitler’s tactics of equality were later introduced into the German army like equal rations of food for everyone, and also being allowed to talk to officers above or below your rank. This improved a lot relationships in the army while also bringing brotherhood. Contrary to many ideas about him the journal views him from an impartial perspective making sure to highlight his wrongs while also highlighting his positives.
A couple of weeks after Hitler was summoned back into the his Regiment the war was lost, and Germany the losers were forced to signed the Treaty of Versailles which he like many other Germans thought unfairly blamed Germany for the disasters of the war. This according to the journal was the last straw in Hitler’s thinking towards capitalism and the other countries and also his later foreign policies. The author states in the journal that Hitler had a dream in which he was told that he was the person to take Germany out of their problems. From reading the journal i could clearly understand why his first objective as Fuhrer was to rearm the country’s military, and his second was the continuation of Germany’s aggressive foreign policy to find living space for the Germans in the Eastern parts of Europe. The later decision to spread as far east is what has always being speculated to have triggered the start of the Second world war.
The article is in right form chronologically as it talks about Hitler before joining the war and his experiences leading up to him leaving the army after the war. In the beginning of the article the author shows us the readers his main purpose for the article, by telling us how important the first world war was and how it not only shaped Germany but the other major powers of the world at the time. Numerous leaders of the Second World War like Hitler, Winston Churchill, Franklin Roosevelt, Lenin, Leon Trotsky, and Stalin also served in the first world war in some type of capacity either as a military officer or a civilian. The author stated this to show an interconnection between all the leaders at the time. The author stays objective throughout by not being influenced by his or her personal feelings or previous opinions but instead just stating the facts.
The author also makes sure not to overemphasize any points or underemphasize any point which would make you form an unfair opinion. This type of writing is good and allows you to interpret the message of the article in any way that you would like to interpret it. The author statements were also very clear, he made sure to cite the sources that he made use of in the article, given the article a genuine feeling. From a personal point of view the author did a good job to writing about hitler’s experiences before the war, and the 3-4 year period during the war. I do feel that the article could have been condensed just a little bit, 21 pages was a bit too long but i’m sure this made it easier for the author to cover everything in detail. My thought on Hitler from reading the journal was that he was definitely anti capitalist, and was against any form of a free market type of economy. I also felt like his reason for not liking Jews was interconnected to his views of capitalism and was not really genuine hatred. He felt that capitalism was taking jobs away from the German people and given them to foreigners which he claimed was the reason for the crashed German economy. The author’s correlation and causation skills were evident throughout and he showed very good ability to interconnect Hitler’s experiences very well.
Personally i agree with the article and all its findings, as it made me have an idea of Hitler’s views and also the views of the times. I learned new things from critiquing the article, and I’m very happy that i chose this article. I learned a lot on not only Hitler but also about international relations, international policies and the thirst of power that sometimes comes with it.