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A.N. Wilson, Adolf Hitler, Alan Bullock, Alois Hitler, Austria, Berchtesgaden, Berghof, D-Day, history, Holocaust, Ian Kershaw, Joseph Goebbels, Lateline, laziness, Martin Amis, Mein Kampf, Nazi Germany, Nazism, Third Reich, Tony Jones, Vienna, World War Two
“Adolf Hitler – remarkably, in a man whose father was the son of an illegitimate housemaid – had grown up with the middle-class confidence that he need never earn a living…
Had his father, a customs official in various border towns between Austria-Hungary and Germany, lived to see the publication of Hitler’s autobiography Mein Kampf (My Struggle), he might well have asked, ‘What Struggle?’… Alois, whose early life had marked a real struggle to leave poverty behind, and to acquire respectability and savings through boring government service in customs offices, had urged young Adolf to find paid employment. The boy had preferred to lounge about, to wear dandified clothes, to attend the opera and to imagine that one day he would become a famous artist. Hitler never had any paid employment, so far as one can make out, except when manual work was forced upon him as a temporary necessity when he was living in men’s hostels and dosshouses on the outskirts of Vienna…
Hitler’s indolence was to remain one of his most mysterious characteristics. Many would assume that a man who, in his heyday, strutted about in uniforms, and who presided over a militaristic dictatorship, who expected not merely his intimates but everyone in the country to click their heels and salute at the mere mention of his name, would have been up in the morning early, taking cold baths and performing Swedish exercises. By contrast, like many depressives, he kept strange hours, and spent most of his days on this planet sitting around doing nothing much, dreaming his terrible dreams, and talking interminable nonsense. […]
By the time he became Chancellor, the pattern of life did not markedly change. He rose late, spent most of the day chatting, and would nearly always round off the evening with a film. Adjutants tried to find him a new film to watch every day. His earlier fondness for high culture began to diminish. He enjoyed ‘light entertainment’, and if women, such as his girlfriend Eva Braun, were present in the evenings, political conversation was banned – as was, of course, that cardinal sin, smoking.”
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From A.N. Wilson’s three-hour read Hitler.
I’m on a World War Two kick. A few weeks ago, after putting down Martin Gilbert’s indescribable The Holocaust: A History of the Jews of Europe During the Second World War, I wanted to move on to something easier to both read and stomach. I like A. N. Wilson’s columns — and I wasn’t going to dive into Ian Kershaw’s two-part, two-thousand-page Hitler: A Biography — so I started on Wilson’s short life of the monster. At fewer than 200 pages, it’s a highly rewarding text, one in which all heavy historiographical lifting and dry research is filtered through Wilson’s very readable prose. I usually hate that descriptor — readable — as it’s so often just a lazy euphemism for what is lazy or facile writing. But Wilson’s work is polished, seamless, and never overworked: it’s readable in the best sense of that bad word. Ivory Tower egotists might still pick at his scholarship — Wilson is a newspaper columnist who doesn’t speak or read German — but this seems to me misplaced. There’s room for an almost infinite number of books on the shelf.
While I was reading Wilson’s book, I occasionally tracked along in Kershaw’s more extensive work, which sheds more light on the immeasurable extent of Hitler’s lethargy. Perhaps the best account of this comes in Kershaw’s account of the night of the D-Day invasion:
That evening, Hitler and his entourage viewed the latest newsreel. The discussion moved to films and the theatre. Eva Braun joined in with pointed criticism of some productions. ‘We sit then around the hearth until two o’clock at night,’ wrote Goebbels, ‘exchange reminiscences, take pleasure in the many fine days and weeks we have had together. The Führer inquires about this and that. All in all, the mood is like the good old times.’ The heavens opened and a thunderstorm broke as Goebbels left the Berghof. It was four hours since the first news had started to trickle in that the invasion would begin that night. Goebbels had been disinclined to believe the tapping into enemy communications. But coming down the Obersalzberg to his quarters in Berchtesgaden, the news was all too plain; ‘the decisive day of the war had begun.’
Hitler went to bed not long after Goebbels had left, probably around 3 a.m. When Speer arrived next morning, seven hours later, Hitler had still not been wakened with the news of the invasion…
According to Speer, Hitler – who had earlier correctly envisaged that the landing would be on the Normandy coast – was still suspicious at the lunchtime military conference that it was a diversionary tactic put across by enemy intelligence. Only then did he agree… to deploy two panzer divisions held in reserve in the Paris area against the beachhead that was rapidly being established some 120 miles away. The delay was crucial. Had they moved by night, the panzer divisions might have made a difference.
- More from Wilson’s book: The Tragic Paradox at the Center of the Twentieth Century
christineplouvier said:
Well, he did become the world’s most famous artist … but not because of his art.
He did have a regular job, once: when he was in the List Regiment of the Bavarian army during the First World War. But contrary to popular belief, he was never promoted to corporal (Gefreiter). He was always a private (Gemeiner).
jrbenjamin said:
Well, it’s true he was a soldier, but I’m not sure that should be cataloged as a standard employment. This was World War I, after all, and he didn’t have much of a choice. Still, good point. How’d you learn about this subject, and do you speak German?
christineplouvier said:
Hitler spent more than 5 years in the army. He took his discharge in March, 1920, after he had joined a group that he later transformed into the Nazi Party. I began to learn more details about Hitler, first because I homeschooled my children, and one of them was especially interested in WW2; and second, because of research I’m engaged in for my second novel. I learned German in my youth, when I lived in Bavaria for a year, but that was a very long time ago, so now I read it better than I speak it.
Eric Alagan said:
This man is a fascinating subject to study – just make sure he remains in the cage with no chance of escape!
jrbenjamin said:
Very true: without a doubt one of the most endlessly fascinating people/periods in history.
jmsabbagh said:
People like him stain the history of mankind.
jrbenjamin said:
So few as evil as him, but I agree. Martin Amis talks about ‘species shame’ in studying Hitler — the notion that his crimes are so repugnant they force you to even despair that you are, like he was, a human being.
jmsabbagh said:
Thanks for the replay.The same thing goes to those who carried out the Sept.11,2001 terrorist attach on the human family,They believe in very destructive ideology too.
barbaramarincel said:
Ian Kershaw has a condensed and very readable–and fascinating new edition of his previous 2 volume biography. I highly recommend it. And now I have to check out Wilson’s book as well. You’ve certainly got me intrigued!
I am always into WWII, especially the War in Europe, because my dad (who died in 1993) served in the US First Army and was in the thick of it–Omaha Beach, the Bulge, the Camps, etc. if you are looking for a book that describes the War from the view of the soldiers who fought it (US perspective) check out “Citizen Soldier” by Stephen Ambrose.
jrbenjamin said:
That’s an incredible personal story. Your dad must have seen some wild stuff go down in Europe.
The virtue of Wilson’s book is that it’s short. It’s also well written, with stylistic flourishes that most historians are incapable of producing or take pains to avoid. I recommend it.
Kershaw’s book is definitely more reputable history, as Wilson is not a professional historian, nor does he speak German. That doesn’t bother me though, so long as the details are accurate (which I believe they are). Anyways, I will check out Ambrose — been meaning to look into his work for some time now.
julienmatei said:
I still can´t fathom how this ludicrous caricature, this lamentable nutcase – a man with no talent or skills, whose only ability was to deliver “interminable nonsense” was ever invested and “allowed” to irrevocably and irreparably change the destiny of mankind.
jrbenjamin said:
It’s baffling — part of the reason he’s such an interesting figure to study.
seanmunger said:
Reblogged this on http://www.seanmunger.com and commented:
The Bully Pulpit blog has an interesting article–appropriate to share with you today, the monster’s birthday–about a little-discussed aspect of Adolf Hitler’s character: the fact that he was a lazy bum. I’d never really thought about that aspect of Hitler in relation to his life and career as the Nazi dictator and warlord, but this article has some interesting thoughts on it. Well done, as always from Bully Pulpit.
jrbenjamin said:
Thank you for the reblog and nice words — I’m glad you got something out of the post.
roberthorvat said:
Great Article !
jrbenjamin said:
TY.