THE PERSONALITY OF ADOLPH HITLER

• Document Type: FOIA
• Collection: FOIA Collection
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): 02617886
• Release Decision: RIFPUB
• Original Classification: U
• Document Page Count: 241
• Document Creation Date: October 23, 2023
• Document Release Date: August 9, 2023
• Case Number: F-2020-00953
• Publication Date: October 1, 1943

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TARCIIIVE
Copy No.111 o
cAnalysis of
The Personality of Adolph Hitler
With Predictions of His Future Behavior
and
Suggestions for Dealing With Him
Now and After
Germany's Surrender
HENRY A. MURRAY M. D.
Harvard Psychological Clinic
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ANALYSIS OF THE .PERSONALITY OF ADOLF HITLER
with predictions of his future behavior
and
suggestions for dealing with him
now and after Germanys surrender
Henry A. Murray, M.
Harvard Psychological Clinic
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FOREWORD
Aim
The aim of this memorandum is (1) to present an
analysis of Adolf Hitler's personality with an
hypothetical formulation of the manner of its
development; (2) on the basis of this, to make a
few predictions as to his conduct when confronted
by the mounting successes of the Allies; and (3)
to offer some suggestions as to how the U. S.
Government rdght now influence his mental condition
and behavior (assuming it sees fit to do so), and
might deal with him, if taken into custody, after
Germanyis surrender.
The proper interpretation of Hitler's person-
ality is important as a step in understanding the
tbychology of the't*PicAl.NaZiL, and - since the
typical Nazi exhibits a strain that has, for a
long time, been prevalent among Germans - as a
step in understanding the psychology of the German
people. HitlerTs unprecedented apnaal, the eleva-
tion of this man to the status of a demigod, can
be explained only on the hypotheni Vint he and his
ideology have almost exactly met the nds, longings,
and sentiments of the majority of Germans.
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The attainment of a clear impression of the
psychology of the German people is essential if,
after surrender, they are to be converted into a
peace-loving nation that is willing to take its
proper place in a world society.
Sources of Information for this Analysis. -
As is well known, there are no thoroughly re-
liable sources of information about Hitler's early
life and what is known about him since 1918 is in
many respects insufficient or contradictory.
This analysis has been based for the most
part on the following material:
1. Data supplied by the Office of
Strategic services
2. Hitler MEIN KAMPF, New York,
Reynal & llitchconk, 1939
3, Hitler's WY NET ORDER, New York,
Reynal & Hitchcock, 1941
4. Heiden, K.. HIITER, A BIOGRAPHY,
London, 1936
5. Rauschning, H., VOICE OF DESTRUCTION,
New York
6. Baynes, H. G., GERMANY POSSESSED,
Lohdon, 1041
It is generally agred that MEIN KATTPF is not to be
relied on as a fact-lal document, but as the translators
say in the introduction to the American edition,
this work "is probably the best writtol evidence
of the character, the mind, and the spirit of Adolf
Hitler." An analysis of the metaphors used in
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MEIN KAM-7 has proved re-arding in the attempt to
discover the underlying forces of his personality,
MY NEW ORDER, edited by Roussy de Sales, has also
been utilized extensively.
A paper published by W.H.D. Vernon, HITLER THE
MAN - NOTES FOR A CASE HISTORY (,Tour. of Abn. & Soc.
Psychol., 1942, 37, 22S-70e), was written under my
general super�ision and contains rot of the ideas
of Professor G, W. Allport and myself on this topic
so far Pq they were crystallized in the fall of 1941.
This article by Vernon is included in toto as an
intro6,2eHLon, therFby relieving 79 of the necessity
of rest-ting (in the detailed analysis that follows)
all the -onmonty 1-nown facts
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CONTENTS OF THIS MEMORANDUM
Section 1. Summary of the Entire Memorandum.
Section.2; HITLER THE MAN - NOTES FOR A CASE HISTORY
by W. H. D. Vernon (the best available
short outline of Hitler's personality).
Section 3; (Summary, Part A) Detailed Analysis of
Hitler's Personality (written especially
for psycholcTists; psychiatrists).
01ion A (Summary, Part 13) Predictions of Hitler's
Behavior in the Coming Future.
Section.5. (Summary, Part C) Suggestions for the
Treatment of Hitler, Tow and After
Germany's Surrenda.
SeCtion.6; (Summary, Part D) Suggestions for the
Treatment of Germany.
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SECTION I
� C6rictencl nevie* Of'th
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CONFIDENTIAL MEMORANDUM
containing
A. Brief Analysis of Hitler's Personality.
B. Predictions of Hitler's Behavior.
C. Suggestions for the Treatment of Hitler.
D. Suggestions for the Treatment of the
German People
.0���������00.01110110.we..IIS.
SOTTY.7,t�r:1 by
P".
nonry A, M.1:7q,ay,
EV:"Ilxvi Psychological Clinic,
Cambriage, Masspchusetts.
Colilmittc,) for National Morale,
New 7.0k,
lo rr:-7 triner!s Personality
I*
Th.�7s-e is little disagreeent among professional, or
even among amateur, psychologists that Hitler's
personality is an 117ample of the counteractive type.,
a type that iP mare r1 by Inten.Se an stubborn efforts
(i) to overcome e9rly weakneres 'and
hurliations (woun1.:4. to salf-estof0, and sometimes
also by efforts (ii) ravP.Irge ju. ial6. in-
Wilts to price. Ti F achiever b- an
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Idealego_ Reaction For to which involves (I) the
repression and denial of the inferior portions of
the self, and (ii) strivings to become (or to imagine
one has become) the exact opposite, represented by
an idealua, or image of a superior self successfully
accomplishing the once-impossible feats and thereby
curing the wounds of pride and winning general
respect, prestige, fame,
This Is a verylComMon'fOrMUla, normal (within
limits) and widely admired in Western cultures, but
in Hitler's case (01 the constituent forces of the
pattern are compivel7 e7itreme. and based on a
weals neurotic StruatUral fOundatiOn. The chief
trends are these: (1) Counteractive Need for
Dc'miqahaPeri�rit.'Y
(2) Counteractive
Aggres-
ioncvengi;. (5) leuession of Conscience COM-
liance Lovo; (4) Proction of Critlel,Zablo
Elements of the Self.
WY-
1. Counteractive Need for Dominance
auerioritz.- The eievelopnental forrula for this
is RS f02,10W8: (i) intoler7Able feelings of in-
feriority (partly l':,ecause of yie34!ircr to the will
of a harsh and unt person),
contempt of oTn inferior traits' ',,,T-Nikr.,3s7, timidity,
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submissiveness) and the fixed determination to repress
them in oneself and to condemn them in others,
accompanied by (iii) admiration and envy of power
in others and a vision of self as ultimately superior
(idealego) leading to (iv) repeated efforts to become
superior (counteraction out of wounded pride), en-
couraged by moments of extreme self-confidence in
which one believes oneself the equal of one's vision.
This, as we have said, Is a very common form
of d ve3c:meni:, but in Hitler the trend is so intense
anrhe c bllnnolng foes I ffection,
ccir-oicl;r1, humor) are o weak that
we 1:;-e spe,"--':ng in speaking of m gale-
ra-1- (cc?.us'i-,r1q of omni:pote.-)se,', despite the fact
that the an 1-ar su,-;-e00.ad in getting a large pro-
portion of t.L corral people to believP that he is
superior: (1) that he lila laca divinely ppointed
to lead tliem to pow -r and glory, and (ii) that he
never wrong :.ule hPnce must 'oo followed with blind
obdience, come what may,
Eitlerls underlyinr7 lnfealoriLy his
basic self-contol-rp"c ore shown by his choosing as
criterla of Ell'Inericzi'Gv (tmiLs of 34o crg,'3) attributes
�
and capacitieF that ao the 7:-.1*7- what he
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is himself or once was. This may be illustrated
by his fervent eulogy of (a) brute strength, (b)
tarity'of.blood; and (C) fertilit*
a. (a) Admiration of Brute Strauth
Contepe,Lof WeakneS6,� Hitler has always worshipped
physical force, military conquest, and ruthless
domination. He haa reSpeote. enVied, and emulated
the tech,ni.AUps Ot.r, even when manifested by a
hated enemy. From first to last he has etttaiift
. .
COntempt'of'Weaknoss indecision, lack of energy,
fear of conscience;
-
Eit10'.hlm'z.121neaSes, -There is a
lr.pge feminine component in his constitution. As
a child he Was frRI16tic.i emotionally dependent
. ,
on his mother, He never .did any_panual work never
engaged in athletics, TTrks turned down as foreVer
uhrit for conscription in the Austrian Army. Afraid
of his father, his behavior was aUfWardly'aUbMISSIVe,
and later he was aDneyiliglUbserVient to his superior
officers. POUT years in the Army, he never rose above
the rank of corporal. At the end he broke down with
. .
a war neurosin, h;Oteriaal blindnec4 E7cn lately,
in all his glory, he suffers feiquen.'6 eM3tional
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collapses in which he yells and weeps. He has night-
mares from a bed conscience; and he has long spells
when energy, confidence and the power of decision
abandon him. Sexually he is a full-fledged masochist.
1. (b) Admiration of Pure Noble German
Blood ContmaLLLJewish, Slav and other Blood.-
Hitler has always extolled the superior qualities
of pure, unmixed, and uncorrupted German blood. He
admires the aristocracy. Concurrently he has never
ceased expressing his contempt of the lower classes
and his avision tc admixtures of the blood of other
races, of Jewish blood especially;
frld-Yet -
Hiller's ovvn OrLgins are Not Noble or
Bezond Ruroach.- Hitler comes from illiterate
P.W.�
,
peasant stock derived from a rrixtllre of races, no
pure Germans among them. His father was illegitimate,
was married three times, and is said to have been
conspicuous for sexual promiscuity. Hitler's mother
WRS a domestic servant. It is said that Hitler's
father's father was a Jew, and it is certain that
his godfather was a J6W; and that one of his sinters
managed a restaurant for JewiEh students in Vienna
and another was, for a time the mistreqs of a Jew.
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�
Hitler's appearance, when he wore a long beard during
his.outcast ViennadayS, Was said to be very Jewish.
Of these facts he is evidently ashamed. Unlike
Napoleon, he has rejected all his relations.
As a partial explanation of his complex about
impurity of blood it may be said that as a boy of
twelve, Hitler was caught engaging in some sexual
experiment with a little girl; and later he seems
to have developed a whilOphObia, with a diffuse
fear of contamination of the blood through contact
with a woman. It is almost oertain that this irrational
dread was partly due to the association in his mind
of sexuality and excretion. He thought of sexual
relations as something exceedingly fi1tA4.
1. (c) Advocacy of Fertility.- Fertility,
the family as the breeding ground of warriors, multi-
plication of the German race - these have been cardinal
points in Hitlerts ideology;
and:yet -
gitpr,kmaelf is Tmpotent.- He is unmarried
and his old acquaintances say that he is incapable
of consummating the sexual act in a normal fashion.
This infirmity we must recognize as an instigation
to exhorbitant cravings for superiority. Unable to
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demonstrate Male power before a woman, he is impelled
to compensate by exhibiting unsurpassed power before
men in the world at large.
1. (d) Achievetent of Power throukh Oratory.-
Hitler could neither change his origins nor decree
his potency, and unlike Mussolini he has never tried
to develop himself physically, but he became for a
while the most powerful individual in the world, pri-
marily by the use of Mass-intOkicatink_frOrde. Aristotle
has said hat the irieaphor is the'reet.,potent'foree
eapt* nad Hitler, master of crude metaphor, has
eonfirm9d the' dictum in this generation. By seducing.
the masses with hiP eloquence, and getting them to
accept hfm as their divinely appointed guide, he com-
pelled the smaller circles of industrialists, politi
�tans and mtlltary leaders to fall into line also.
Hitler speaking before a large audience is a
man possessed, comparable to a primitive medicine
man or shaman. He is the incarhation'or'the crowd's
.�...reboeuumwmeor
uns Oken needS and CravintS; and in this sense he has
been created, and to a large extent invented by the
people of Germany.
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Hitler has compared the masses to a woman who
must be courted with the arts and skills' known to
passion Only; and it is not unlikely that the emotional
source of his orgiastic speeches were childhood tantrums
by which he successfully appealed to his ever-indulgent
mother.
1. (e) lanificance of the Counteractive
Pattern.- Counteraction is essential to the develop-
ment of strength, but in Hitler's case it has been
extravagert and frantic. He has not ascended step
by step, building the structure of his character
solidly as he went; but instead has rushed forward
with panting haste, pretentiously. As a result,
there is a great distance between Hitler at his best
end Hitler at his worst; which means that when he is
overcome at last by a greater force he will collapse
sudden1L2nd completely - and as an utter wreck.
IMM.IMMO.1400.0
2. 2221.1teractive Affiression Revenge. - That
the will to power and the craving for superiority
can not account for the whole of Hitler's psychology
is evidenced by his immeasurPble hatred, hatred ex-
pressed in the absence of an adequate stimulus, an
incessant need to find some object on which to vent
his pent-up wrath. This can be traced back with rela-
tive certainty to experiences of insult, humiliation
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and woun,lec' ,PJ-le in childhood. The source of such
insults, we have many reasons to believe, was Hitler's
father, a coarse boastful man who ruled his wife
(twenty-three years younger than himself) and his
children with tyvannical severity and injustice.
2. (a) 7)Tlanation.- The hypothesis is
advanced, supported by much evidence, that as a boy
Hitler was severely shocked (as It were, blinded)
by witnessing sexual intercol)rse between his parents,
and his reaction to this trauma was to swear revenge,
to dream of himself as re steblishing the lost glory
of his mother by overcoming and humiliatin7 his
father. The boyls relative weakness made thls action
impossible, and so tho drive and nassion of reven7e
was repressed and locked up within him under tension.
Only much later when a somewhat sinner stimulus
occurred - the subugation and humiliation of his
motherland (Pitler's term for Germany) in 1918 -
was this eneru of revenge relesed, after a short
period of shock and hysterical blindnes-.
This would explain the foot that Hitla,- exhibited
n ,01101-!gctic ambitious
drive of his own from the age
of 3 years (when his father, the enemy, died) to the
age of 29 years (when a new onethy, the conqueror.,
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of the motherland, appeared). It also helps to account
for Hitler's
relentle'ss devotion to the rehabilitation
of Germany, a fact which is hard to explain in a man
who is so extremely egocentric in other relations.
In nein Krmpf Hitler repeatedly speaks of Germany
46.0�P�PT.
as a beloved woman.
(Note. In this connection it may be said
that the evidence is in favor of Hitler's having
experienced the common Oedipus Complex (love of mother,
hate of father), but that in his case this pattern
was repressed and submerged by another pattern: pro-
found admiration envy and emulation of his father's
tsqouline power and a contempt of his mother's
feminine submissiveness and weakness. Thus both
parents were ambivalent to him: his father was
hated and respected; his mother was loverl nnd d
preciated. Fit7er's conspicuous actions have all
been in imitation of his father, not his mother.)
Whether this genetical hypothesis is correct
or not, it is certnin that there is a vnst reservoir
of resentment and revenge in Hitler's make-Up which
accounts for his CUlt of .bilibalitL and his many acts
of inexcusable destructiveness and cruelty. He is
posseSsed by what amounts to a homicidal CoMpUlSien
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which has no vent in a "weak piping time of peace"
(unless he became an outright criminal), and there-
fore he has constantly pushed events toward war, or
scapegoating.
2. (b) Significance of Revenge. -As a
result of the fact that resentment is the mainsprino.
of TA.t1Ws career, it is forever impossible to
hope for any mercy or humane treatment from him.
,His revengefulness can be satisfied only by the
extermination of his countless enemies.
3. nepression of .Conscience, Comrlinnce, Love.-
Vraike CW,171.11g and other associates, Hitler is no
healthy amoral brute. He is a hive of secret neurotio
corOunctions
and feminine
sentimentalities
which have
had to be stubbornly repressed ever since he embarked
on his career Of ruthless dominance and revenge
(instigated by real or supposed insults). Every
new Act of Unusual cruelty, such as the purge of
1934, has been followed by a period of anxiety and
depletion, agitated de,leotiOn and nightmares) which
oan be interpreted only as the UnconScious beration
Hitler wants nothing so much.
AS to arrive at the state where he can commit crimes
Without guilt feelings; but despite his boasts of
having transcended Good and Evil this had not been
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possible. The suicidal trend in his personality
is eloquent testimony of a repressed self-condemning
tendency.
In conjunction with the repression of conscience
and the advance of hate there has been a repression
of affection and sympathy as if his spirit scorned
to chide such weakness as unworthy of its pride,"
a reaction which sometimes occurs in childhood after
an experience of unbearable disillusionment occasioned
by the felt treachery of a beloved person. One may
find "a vigilance of grief that would compel the
soul to hate for having loved too well." Hitler's
affiliative tendencies have always been very weak;
he has never had any close personal friends; he is
entirely incapable of normal human relationships.
This is due, in pert, to the cessation in early life
of sexual development.
3. (a) Self-Vindicating Criminality.
Paradoxical as it may seem, Hitler's %pooted crimes
are nart,y caused bv Conscience and the necessity
-
of appeasing it. For having once sot out on a life
of crime, the man can not turn back without reversing
his entire ground for pride and taking the humiliating
path of self-abasement and atonement. The only method
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he has of subduing his mounting unconscious guilt
is to commit another act of aggression, and so to
P1'2ve as it wore, by the criterion of success, that
his pnlicy is favored by forfune and thereforr,
fled and rIt0 Failure is the only wrong,
3. (b) S-*.gnificance of the , 7.ress7on of
Consciencq by "]uo,cessful Crimoality. - Ps soon RS
the time comes when repeated 0"4'17011Z1V0 actions end
in failure Ritler will lose faith in ,.,?self and
. .
in his destiny, and become the holpiess victim of his
.. .
repressed conricl.ence with suicide or mental breakdown
as the most likely outcom2.
4. Pre4otien'of icizablo .r:lents of the
Self.- Hitler perceives in other people the traits
��.��.�
or tendencies that are criticizable in himself.
Thus, instead of being devoured by the vulture of
his own condemning conscience or of his own disdain,
he can attack what he apperceives as evil or con-
temptible in the external world, and so remain un-
conscious (most of the time) of his own suilt Or
his own inferiority. This mechanism vh2roby R man
--
sees his own rickad impuise or weaknesses in others,
Is called'i)rojectien. It is one way, the parandid
of.Maintainin self-esteem. The mechanism
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occurs so constantly in 7itler thnt It is possible
to get a very rood idea of the repurlistod portions
of his own personality by noticing what he condemns
in others - treachery, lying, corruption, war-noner-
ing, etc, This mechanism would have had more
disastrous consequences for his sanity if he had
not gained some governance over it by consciously
adopting (as good political sirateEy) ne practice
of blaming his opponents,
5, Paranoid "-Iptons,- HItle1 dnamieal pattern,
es describd, oorresnons closely to that of paranoid
insanity. Tn'eed he has -71111Ated, at one ti7e or
another, all or the classleal snan ems or o-nnoid
schi7o.phrenia hypersensitivity, panic', of anxiety,
irrational jealousy, delusions of persecution, de-
lusions of omnipotence and
How is it, then, that 7itler has escaped con-
finement as a dangerous psychopath? This interesting
question be considered Inter,
5. Reactions to Opposi_ on ire 7-121-rc-4on. -
Opposition is the stimulus 7Thich startles ilitler
into life. In the face of it his powers are gathered
-61.nd. augmented. When opposition becones stronger
resulting in severe frustration, his reaction has
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ofton been as follows: (i) emotional outburst,
tantrum of rage and accusatory indignation ending
in tears and self-pity; succeeded by (ii) periods
of inertia, exhaustion, melancholy and indecisive-
ness (accompanied sometimes by hours of acute dejec-
tion and disquieting nightmares) leading to recupera-
tion; and finally (iii) confident and reselute
cision to counterattack with great force and ruth-
lessness The entire cycle may run its course in
24 hQurs, or it may be weeks before the aggressive
decision of the third stage is reached,
For years this pattern of reaction to frustra-
tion has net with success; each counterattack as
brought Hitler nearer to hi s goal. Since the turn
of fortune on the Russian front, however, the number
of frustrations have increased and Hitler's counter-
attacks have failed, at times disastrously. There
is no structure for defense in Hitler's personality
he can only strike when inflated with confidence,
or colIapse when I confidence abandons hj/r_.
As time goes on, therefore, TO can anticipate
an inorease in the intensity, frequency and duration
of Hitler's periods of collapse, and a decrease in
the confidence and power of his retaliations.
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A point to be remembered about Hitler is that
he started his career at scratch, a nonentity with
nothing_to lose, and he ----- Selected a fanatical path
-- . - -
for hj-Welf " e-nding.: c9P1,P,Jete-
SuCceSs (omnipotence) or utter failure (death).
No compromise is possible. Since it is not he per-
sonally who has to do the fighting, his collapses can
OCCUP in private at Derchtesgaden, where he can re-
cuperate, and then once again come bacl some
new and always more desperate plan to destroy the
enemy. Th3re is a powcrE'ul compulsion in him to
eOri,fice himsell anu. all 01 ,....Termanv to the revenge-
ful annihilation DP Western manure, to die, dragging
Re�PFIn 4��������ww MMIN�
all of Europe with him into the abyss. This he would
. .
feel was the last
ros6Uree of an insultea and
S .
unendur-
��xistence.
7. Nee a for Creation PaintiatlIE2Lare,
German State, Lerrerd of Self.- -Te surmise that
Hitler's early enthusiasm for painting was due to
the fact (i) that this was the one exercise et which
he excelled in school (and thus it offered a compensa-
tory form of achievement); (ii) that it provided an
acceptable outlet for a destructive soiling tendency
repressed in infancy; and (iii) that painting, and
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especially architecture later, also called for much
constructiveness, which served to balance (operate
as a reaction formation to, and atonement for) the
primitive tendency to destroy. Hitler has always
enjoyed the painting of ruined temples (just as he
has liked to contemplate the destruction of cities
inhabited by his enemies); but he has likewise token
pleasure In painting immense castles (just as he has
occupied himself designing buildings for Cne Third
Reich).
A careful study of Hitler's writings and conduct
has convinced 'as that he i not entirely devoted to
destruction, as so many claim. In his nature there
is a deep valid strain of creativeness (lacking,
to be sure, the necessary talent). His creativity
has been engaged in combining elements for an ideology,
in organizing the National Socialist party, and in
composing the allegory of his own life. He is the
author and leading actor of a great drama.
Unlike other politicians, Hiner has conducted
his life at certain seasons as a Romantic art,sc
does, believing that it is the function of a nation's
first statesman to furnish creative ideas, new policies,
and plans.
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8, Repressed Need for Passivity and Abasement,
nasocloism.- Hitler's long-concealed secret hetero-
sexual fantasy has been exposed by the systematic
analysis and correlation of the three thousand ()cid
metaphors he uses in Hein Kamnf, The results of this
study were later confirmed by the testimony of one
who "claims to know". It is not necessary to describe
its peculiar features here; suffice it t- say that
the sexual pattern has resulted frcTil thL fusion of
(i) a arIELtive excretory 5oiling tendency, and (ii)
a passive masoc;!-Iistic tEnL9ency (hynartrophy of the
feminine component in his rake-up) The second
element (masochism) derives much of its strength
from an unoonsious need for panihment, a tendency
".", " .
which may be expected in one who has assiduously re-
pressed, out of swollen pride, the submissive reactions
(compliance, cooperation, payment of debts, expression
of gratitude, acknowledgment of errors, apology,
confession, atonement) which are required of every-
body who would adaptively participate in social life.
While Hitler consciously overstrives to assert his
infinite superisrity, nature instinctively corrects
the baianOe'loy imposing an erotic pattern that calls
for infinite'sda66fficht.
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This erotic pattern, however, is not a strong
force in Hitler's personality, nor does it comprise
his entire libidinal investment. It alternates with
other patterns - .rma22.22 (or as some claim overt)
40mesexuality, for example.
What is important to recognize here is thlt the
purpose of Hitler's prolonged counteractive efforts
iS not solely to rise above his humble origins, to
overcome his weaknesses and ineptitudes, but rather
to check and conquer, by means of a vigorous 1dea1e,E0
.reaction formation, an underlying positive craving
for passivity and submission. There is no space
here or the mass of evidence bearing on this point,
but a few examples can be briefly listed: (i) the
large feminine component in Hitler's physical constitu-
tion, also his feminine tastes and sensibilities;
(ii) his initial identification with his mother;
(iii) his exaggerated subservience, in the past, to
masterful superiors (army officers, Ludendorff, etc.);
(iv) attraction to Roehm and other domineering homo-
sexuals; (v)
Hitlerls nightmares which, as described
by several informants, are very suggestive of homo-
seXual panic; (vi) some of Hitler's interpretations
Of human nature, such as when he says that the people
"want someone to frighten them and make them shudderingly
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submissive"; (vii) Hitlerls repeated assertions that
he intends, like Sulla, to abdicete power (after an
orgy of conquest With full catharsis of his hate)
snd live quietly by himself, painting and designing
buildings; and finally, (viii) recurrent suicidal
threats.
11 E.S. Ideocentricity, Dedication to the 'licking
of nn Ideally Dowel-flu (.7ermnn,, - lo 'Grue jridn
friend or foe, has ever claimed tiat 71], e2 is not
sincerc in his devotion to the
Ideal for (lermanI. This we can say that he has been
ideocentric (dicated to an idea) for the lest twenty
--.------
years. Because the idca consists of a plan for a
society from which the majority of his fellow country-
men will supposedly benefit, we can speak of him as
sociocrnntric (S) also. But since this interest in
hi $ countrymen is clearly secondary to his personal
ambition - fame, immortality - we put egocentricity
(E) first; and so write - E. S. Ideocentricity. It
1.s rare
to find so much ideocentricity in a nErcistic
personality; but only those who are incapable of such
dedication are likely to doubt the reality of it in
1 Zr222'22, _ Since Kitler and
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large body of the German people are mutually
agreeable, we con speak of him as insociated,
accepting and accepted. It is Hitler's intense affec-
tion for the Reich (perhaps felt to this extent only
by a nationalist born outside its boundaries) that
has acted as a decisive factor in (i) his wining the
support of the_people and so satisfying his will to
power; (ii) ivi him the fecling_ -Yr v-- Linn the
sense of mission; (iii) providinp- -astification
(in his own mind) for many illegal acts; and (iv)
�
&ipi.a.E.I.La_reTh-civeor s.ane, by brin3in
him into
association with a group of like-minded men and so
delivering him from the perils of psychological
isolation.
(note.- The supposition that in Hitler's mind
Germany is identified with his mother helps to explain
the fervor of hts dedication.)
III. 8entimcnts,-
Most of Pitlor's sentiments ere well known and
have already been listed: his high vaJvahlon of
Power, Glory, Dictatorship, Nationalism, Militarism,
and Brutality; and his low valuation of 7eakness,
Indecision Tolerance, Compassion, Peace, Rational
Debate Democracy, Bolshevism, Materialism, Capitalism,
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the Jewish Race, Christianity. A simplification
would be that of regarding him as the advocate of
the api,gressive instinct ('1iar0 Power and Glory) vs.
the acquisitive instinct (Business, Peace and
Prosperity). Two questions deserve special con-
sideration: (1) Why, when he was living as an outcast
in Vienna, did Hitler not become a Communist? and
(2) That is the explanation of Hitler's extreme
Anti-Semitism?
1. Determin,ants of Hitier's Anti-Communism...
1. (a) Hitler's father was an upward
mobile individual. Starting as a peasant, he worked
his way into the lower middle class, establishing
a boundary between himself and those below him.
Both parents respected their social superiors. Thus
Hitler instinctively retreated from too close associa-
tion with the workmen of Vienna.
a. (b) Hitler was too frail for construc-
tion work, was unable to hold a job, and therefore
had little opportunity to become associated with a
union.
1. (c) Having been an ardent nationalist
since the age of 120 Hitler's line of cleavage (conflict
between nations) did not conform to the commUnists'
line of cleavage (conflict between classes).
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1. (d) Hitler has always been en advocate
of the hierarchical principle: government by the
fittest, rigorously trained and proved in action.
The ideal of Communism, on the other hand, calls for
wide distribution of power among those untrained
to rule.
.1. (6). Hitler's sentiments have been With
militarist from earliebt youth. the Materialism of
Communism never appealed to him.
1. (f) Lacking sympathy for the underdog,
the humanitarian aspect of Communism did not attract
him. Hitler has always .been a bully..
2. NterMinante OfH1tierlo-Ant18emitieth: -
2. (a) The influence of wide-spread Anti-
Semitic sentiments (represented especially by such
men as LUeger and ?oder), traditional in 'Germany.
2. (b) Hitierls personal frustrations
required 6 scapegoat as focus for his repressed aggres-
sion. The Jew is the classic scapegoat because he
.does not fight back with fists and weapbhs.
2, (c) The Jew was an object upon Whom
�Hitler could suitably project his own inferior self
(his sensitiveness, -Infe6knobb, timidity, masochistic
sexuality).
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2. (d) After the Versailles Trenty the
German people also needed a scapegoat, Hitler offered
them the Jewish race as an act of political strategy.
2. (e) Having assembled a veritable army
of gangsters (Nazi trooper's) and aroused their fight-
ing Spirit, it was necessarY for Hitler to find some
object Upon whom these men could vent their brutish
passions, to canalize anger away from himself.
2. (f) Jews, being non-militaristic,
could only impede his program on conquest. In
eliminating them he lost no Sizeable supper.
2. (g)
Jews were associated with several
,of Hitler's pet antipathies: business, materialism,
democracy, capitalism, communism.
2. (h) Some Jew e were very rich and Hitler
needed an excuse for disposeessing them.
IV. POrmal'strUCtUre. Hysteria, 'Schizophrenia.-
Hitler has a relatively weak charaCter (ego
structure); his great strength comes from an
emotional complex which drives him periodically.
DeUbIly he can net voluntarily force himself to stick
to a routine of work; he must be compelled from inside,
lifted on a wave of passion. His id (instinctual
forces) and ego (voluntary control) are in league;
his superego (conscience) is repressed.
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lA Ezzara.-Fatler has exhibited various forOi
of 4sterical dissociation, most notably in the two
S-ymptoms which constituted his war neurosis in 19180
nanieir blindned6 and 4hOnia ilautism). He experiences
peridds of Marked Astraction, violent emotional
oUtbUrSts, visions of hallucinatory clarity. In
speaking before crowd's he is virtually possessed.
He clearly belongs to the sensational company of
�
hiatory-making hysterics, combining, as he does
some of the attributes of the primitive shaman, the
religious visionary, and the crack-brained demagozue -
censuMMate actors one and all.
It is important to note, however, that Hitler
has a.10te ' Meac'Ure'ereentrel over his complexes.
He uses an emotional outburst to get his
own way,
turning it on or off as the occasion requires. As
Erikson says, he "knows how to exploit his hysteria...
On the stage of German history, Hitler senses to what
extent it is safe and expedient to let his own person-
ality represent with hysterical abandon What lives
in every German listener and reader."
2. .$0142Phrehia.- Psychiatrists are
not un-
familiar.With borderline states lying between hysteria
and schizophrenia. In some cases the former develops
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2
into the latter a serious variety of insanity).
Since Hitler, as noted above, has exhibited all the
symptoms of L.�2..t-1.24Ituip....6.� the possibility
of a complete mental breakdown is not remote.
Here again, however, it should be observed that
paranoid.dynaMICS con be used very effectively in
rouSing and foauSsini the forces of p minority party
or of a defeated nition. The strategy consists chiefly
in (i) painting vivid and exaggerpted word-pictures
of the crimes and treacherous evil purposes of your
powerful opponents (delusions of persecution); (ii)
persuading your own group of its innate superiority
and glorious destiny (delusions of grandeur); (iii)
subduing conscience by asserting thnt your common
and justifies the means, that your opponents have
used the most dastardly means in the past; and (iv)
blaming your enemies for every frustration, every
disaster that occurs. In consciously employing these
tac:t.1.0P Hitler has exploited his own paranoid trends
and retained some governance over that.
Thus the answer to the question, How has Hitler
escaped veritable insanity? might be this (i) he
has gained a lar?;e measure of control over his
hysterical end paranoid trends by using them
, -
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Consciously and succesdfully in the achievement
of his aims; (ii) he has identified himself With and
0-PdiAat.q..himOlf to a s.,(..61-Oentl'ic purpose, the
creation of an ideal Germany, which has served to
diminish the pains and perils of an isolated egocen-
trism; and (iii) he has been supremely successful
in imposing his visions and delusions (conforming,
as they did, with existent trends) upon the German
people, and so convincing them of his unparalleled
superiority. Thus his irreal world has become real,
,insanity is sanity.
v. 1.
Abilities and Effective Traits.- Hitler's
success has d
pendeA to a large extent upon his own
peculiar abilities and traits:
1. (a) The ability to express with passion
the deepest needs and longings of
the people.
1. (b) The ability to appeal to the Most
'primitive as well as to the most
ideal tendencies in Men.
1. (c) The ability to simplify complex
problems and arrive at the -quickest
go1ution
. (d) The ability to use metaphor and draw
on traditional imagery and myth in
sposking-and writing.
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1. (e) The ability to evoke the sympathy
and protectiveness of his people.
The leader's welfare becomes a matter
of concern to then.
1. (f) Complete dedication to his mission;
abundant self-confidence; and stubborn
adherence to a few principles.
1. (g) Mastery of the art of political
organization.
1. (h) Tactical genius; precise timing.
1. (i) Mastery of the art of propaganda
PrinciPlas of Political Action. -
Among the guiding principles of HitlArts
political philosphy the following arc worth listing:
2. (a) 3uccess depends on winning the
support of the masses.
2. (b) The leader of a now movement must
appeal to youth.
2. (c) The masses need a sustaining ideology;
it is the function of the leader to
provide one.
2. (d) People do not act if their emotions
are not roused.
2. (e) Artistry and drama are necessary to
the total effect of political rallies
find meetings.
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2.
(f)
The leading statesman must be a
Creator of ideas and
2.
(g)
Success justifies any means.
2.
(h)
A new movement can not triumph
without the effective use of
terroristic methods
B. Predictions of Hitler s Behavior
Whatever else happens it can be confidently pre-
dicted that Hitler's neurotic spells will increase
in A..equencand duration and his effectiveness as a
ledmiaih: responsibility will fall to a
greater or less extent on other shoulders. Indeed
there is some evidence that his mental powers have
been deteriorating since -last NoveMber, 1042. Only
once or twice has he appeared before his people to
enlighten or encourage them. Aside from the increase
in neurotic symptoms the following things might happen:
1. Hitler mat be forcefully seized by the
Ma Coand or some revolutionary faction in
Germany and be immured in some prism fortress.
This event is hard to envisage in view of what we
know of the widespread reverence for the man and the
protection that is afforded him. But if this were
to occur the myth of the invincible hero would end
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rather ignominiously, and Hitler should eventually
be delivered into our hands. The General Staff
will rip doubt become the milers of Germany if Hitlerts
mental condition deteriorates much further (Option #5).
2. Iiitler_.P.,pz be shot by:spme German. - The
Man has feared this eventuality for many ,years and
today he is protected as never before. Germans are
not inclined to shoot their leaders. This is possible
tut not. very likely.
3. HWe ,;*A:.arrange t have himthelf shot by
, .
SQn9GrpP,n perhaps by a Jew. -This would complete
the myth of the hero - death at the hand of some
trusted follower: .Siegfried stabbed in the back by
Hagen Caesar by Brutus, Christ betrayed by Judas.
It might increase the fanaticism of the soldiers
for a while and create a legend in conformity with
the ancient pattern. If Hitler could arrange to have
a Jew, some paranoid like himself, kill him, then He
cOl,ad die n the belief that his fellow countrymen
would rise in their wrath and massacre eveu remaining
Jew in Germany. Thus he might try to indulge his
inSatiable revengefulness for the last time.
4, itler may get himself killed leading his
- Thus he would live on as a
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hero in the beartes of his countrymen. It is not
unlikely that he will choose this course, which would
be very undesirable from our point of view, first
because his death would serve as an example to all
his followers to fight with fanatical death-defying
energy to the bitter end, and second, because it would
insure Hitler's immortality - the Siegfried who led
the Aryan hosts against Bolshevism and the Slay.
This is one of Hitler's favorite poses.
5. Hitler maY g
ss
insane.- The man has been on
the verge of paranoid schizophrenia for years and
with the Mounting load of frustration and failure
he may yield his will to the turbulent forces of the
unconscious. This would not be undesirable from our
Standpoint, because, even if the fact were hidden
from the people, morale would rapidly deteriorate
as rumors spread, and the legend of the hero would
be severely damaged by the outcome. If Hitler became
insane, he should eventually fall into the hands of
the Allied Nations.
5. Hitler may commit suicide. - Fitler has often
vowed that he would commit suicide if his plans
miscarried; but if he chooses this course he will do
it at the last moment and in the most dramatic possible
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manner. He ,71.11 retreat, let us say, to the impregnable
little refuge that was built for him on the top of
the mountain behind the Berghof (Eerchtesgadon).
There alone no will wcit until troops come to take him
prisoner. As a grc,rld climax he will either (i) blow
up the mountain and himself with dynamite; or (ii)
make a funeral pyre of his dwelling and throw hirrself
on it (a fitting Ggtterammerung; or (iii) kill him-
self with a silver bullet (Emperor Christophe); or
(iv) throw himself off the parapet. This outcome,
undesirable for us, is not at all unlikely.
7. Hitler ma, die of natUrel
causes.
8, Hitler mny sock refuge in c neutral country.-
This is not likely, but one of his nssociatos night
drug him and take him to Switzerland in a plane and
then persuade him that he should stay thepe to write
his long-planned Bible for the aerman folk. Since
the Herois desertion of his people would seriously
damage, the legend, this outcome would he more
desirable than some of the other posSibilitics.
9. Hitler may Pall intO the hands Of the
T.Tnited Nations .- This is perhaps the least likoly,
but the most desirable, outcome.
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In makine. these predictions we have been swayed
most by the supposition that Hitler s chief concern
is the immortality OP his legend and consequently
he will endeavor to plan his Own end according to
the most heroic, tragic and dramatic pattern.
Options #5 (insanity to some extent) and #. (dramatic
suidide), or #4 (death at the front), strike us ns
most probable- today.
Propaganda measures should, i possible, be
devised to prevent #4 tnd #3.
O. uethtionS for the.Trea Ment-of'Iatlr
1, After the Defeat of. 7erMony, if Yitlr ith
tPX(41 into custody by the tinitedintiOnS.- AnY one
Of the COnventional.punishments - a trial followed
by execution, by life imprisonment or by exile
will provide o trngic :riding for the drama of 7itler's
sensational career; end thus contribute the element
that is nOCHas..rY to the resurreCtion'and el-6tuati6n
-OP. the titlerian. legend. 1.h.at Can the 1L,i. do thnt
will spoil the tragedy and thus kill the legend?
As en answer to this question, the following plrn is
suggested. It should work if properly executed.
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, (
Bring the Nazi leaders to trial;
conaemn the chief culprits the death, but proclaim
Hitler mentally unbalanced.
1, (b) Commit Hitler to an insane asylum
(such as St. Elizabeth's, Washington, D. C.) and house
him in a comfortable dwelling Specially built for his
occupancy. Lot the world know that he is being well
treated
1, (c) Appoint a coMmittee of psychiatrists
and psychologists to examine him and test his faculties
at regular intervals. Unknown to him, have sound-
alms taken of his behavior. They will show his fits
and tirades and condemnations of' everyone in the world,
including the German people.
1, (d) Exhibit regularly to the public
of the entire world selected Segments of these sound-
pools So that it can be seen how unbalanced he is,
how mediocre his performance on the customary tests.
If taken in a routine, scientific and undramatic manner
the pictures will become quite tiresome after a while
.and the people will get bored with Hitler in a year or
so. (Trust science to take the drama out of anything.)
1. (c) Hitler's case should be presented
World as a lesson: "This is what happens to
to the
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crack-braine0 fanatics Who try to dominate the world."
As such it could serve as a powerful deterrent to
others with fantasies of world domination.
1. (f) A thorough study of Hitler's personal-
ity would be of considerable importance to psychiatry;
and the publication of a carefully documented book
on the subject Would not only act as a deterrent
(published in popular form) to future would-be Hitlers,
but would be n significant contribution to science.
2. Between Tow and the Cessation of ITOtili�16.6.-
The aim $hould be either (i) to accelerate Hitler's
mental deterioration, to drive him insane; or (ii)
to prevent him frem insuring the perpetuation of his
legend by ending his life dramatically and tragically.
There are varibus psychological techniques avail-
able for accelerating Hitler's nervous breakdown,
but they All not be considered here. None could be
so certainly effeCtive as repeated military setbacks.
We shall limit ourselves to a few Measures which
might serve (2. (a)) to deter Hitler from arranging
a hero's or a martyr's death for himself, and (2. (b))
to make him believe that the immortality of his legend
will not suffer If ho falls into the hands of the
United Nations,
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2. (c; Flood Germany with communications
(leaflets, short-wave, long-wove, official speeches,
underground transmission from Sweden, Switzerland,
Turkey) telling the people that Hitler con not be
trusted, that he is planning (quoting Hess, Strasser,
Hanfstaengel, Rauschning and other Nazis in England
and America) to leave them treacherously to their
fate by getting himself killed. This will be a sly
trick of his to insure his own prestige and future
fame. He does not care for the German people; he cares
only for his own glory. He is no better than a sea-
captain who quits Hs ship, leaving his crew to
drown. Drop vivid cartoons of Hitler rushing
ludicrously forward to his death on the Russian front
(out of a guilty conscience over the noble Germans he
has condemned to die there for his glory); also
cartoons of his arranging to have himself shot, and
others of his committing suicide. Interpret this as
the easy way out, a cowardly betrayal of his people,
the act of a bad conscience, the quintcssener, of
vanity. 'rrarn the people against him, the false
prophet, the Judas Iscariot of the German Revolution,
etcetera. If hundreds of these leaflets, pamphlets,
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streamers er dropped over Berchtesgaden, the chances
aro thet some of them will fell in places where Hitler
himself is likely to come on them. He is very sus-
ceptible to ridicule, and if the cartoon are clever
enough to make suicide seem cowardly, grotesque, or
ridicUlous, it may be enough to deter him. Predic-
tion will spoil the startling effect.
2, ,(b) Flood Germany with another series
of communications in which the people are told that
the Nazi leaders who led them into this disastrous
war 00 going to be executed - all eXeept V1-616r,
who will be exiled to Saint Helena where he can brood
over his sins for the rest of his life. write es
if we thought that this was the most terrible of all
punishments. But actually this idea should appeal
to Hitler, who greatly admires Napoleon and knows
that the Napoleonic legend was fostered by the Men's
lest years at Saint Helena. This treatment would
be better than any he could now be hoping to receive
from his enemies. It might positively attre:yi; him.
Ho would imagine himself painting landscapes, writing
his now Bijqe, rria making plans for an even greater
GerMW.re7olution to be carried out in his name thirty
years hence.
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By the lel_eated and not too obvious use of these
two messages Hitler would be faced by a conflict
between (1) a self-annihilation which might be in-
terpreted as a cowardly betrayal and (2) a peaceful
old age at Saint Helena. He might choose the latter
and so allow himself to be taken by the Allies.
Only later would he discover that there was to be
no Saint Helena for him. This trick of ours is
justified by the necessity of prevehting the resurrec-
tion of the memory of Hitler as a superman to rouse
future generations of criminals and revolutionaries.
Suggestions for the Treatment of the
erMan
I, Hastening the Breakdown of Germany s Vaith in
Hiqer.- The German people have put their whole trust
in H.itler, He is their man as no military commander
tept.o-sotina a special class could be their man.
Having taken the entire responsibility for the conduct
of affairs, he has become their conscience and
. _
reliev0 them temporarily of guilt. The Pridri,
system and security-system of each individual Gernan
is thus based on Hitler's genius and success. The
SO
bulk of the people will net easily be persuaded of
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his incompetence and falseness. They will cling as
long as possible to the illusion of his omniscience
because
without this they have nothing. When it
comes, the disenchantMent will be sudden and catas-
trophic to German morale generally.
The Al1les can, rely on the march of physical
events IQ brne about the eventual disenchantment
of th German people; but since events will march
faster 4,ncl, to wQr will end sooner 2 this disenchant-
ment can be hastened by other means, the Allies should
not overiook the power (24' words to chance sentiments
and attitudes, The followina sugzestions may prove
of some value,
a, (a) Techniiue of communication.- One
effective Met4Od woUld be t4at of prj,ntincr, leaflets
containinr the name z' rank and reriments of German
BoWiRpq Feoent; taken prisoner. The Gestapo could
hardly succeed in preventing anxious parents from
picking up these leaflets to obtain the latest news
of their .soris at the front, CommUnications of this
sort might start somewhat as follows: NEWS FROY THE
FRONT. Amonz the 20 000 German soldiers who surrendered
to the livorld Army in Sicily the following were happy
at the prospect of going to America, the land of free
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speech ancl free action; Corp. Hans Schmidt, Capt.
Heinrich "ittals, etc. etc. "Why are you laughing?"
they were asked. "Because," they answered, "we are
going to the United States; whereas you Pre going
to the lend of the False Prophet and the Gestapo!"
etc., etc. .
We suggest that 177:7S FROM THE FRONT be distributed
at maul r weekly intervals, like n newspaper; in
order that the Germrns will learn to expect it and
leek forward to it, since it will contain news that
they can not obtain in any other way.
MlxQd tn with the lists of German prisoners could
be printed the messages that we wish to impart to the
people.
1. (b) Name fer Hitler., In the minds of
many Germans the word"Hitler" is still surrounded
by a layer of reVerential feelings which protect his
image from attack. Therefore it would be bettor not
to refer to him (except Occasionally) by name. Much
more subtly effective woUld be the use of another
term; False Prophet or False Messiah. Later more
derogatory terms , the Amateur 'Strategist, Corporal
Sttan rvorld Criminal No. 1 - might be effective.
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. (c) Substitution of a Higher Symbol..
The German character-structure is marked by a strong
need to worship, obey, and sacrifice. When this can
be focussed on some entity - God, the Absolute, the
German State, the Fuehrer - they' are happy and healthy.
Consequently, it will be easier to break their present
allegiance to Hitler if a satisfactory substitute is
presented. The Germans will not readily accept a
value that is identified in their minds with the
special preferences bf an enemy-nation (Democracy,
etc.); it must be something higher something supra-
national that will excite the respect of all peoples
alike. There is a great need now, rather than later,
for some form of 1"orld Federation. But locking this,
the Allies in their message to Germany, should use
terms that suggest its spirit. Against Hitler, the
False Prophet, the propagandists should speak of the
World Conscience (the name of God can not be used
without hypocrisy), and should speak of the forces
of Russia, Great Britain, France, and the Americas as
the world Army. (N.B. Suggestion for one leaflet:
Question: Who has seduced the German people from
their true path? who has turned their hearts against
the Conscience of the World? 'ho is responsible
this time for Germany's encirclement by the World
Army?). To be effective the terms "world Conscience"
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and ""orld Army" must be repeated frequently. "Torld
Police Force" might also be used.
1. (d) A collection should be mode of
passages from the first unexpur7ted edition of
Mcin Kampf demonstrating Hitler's cynical contempt
of the Masses. Each NEWS FROM THE FRONT should end
with one of these quotations.
1. (e) iacntificetion of Hitler with
Mussolini.- Mussolini provided the model for the
development of the Nazi Party and Hitler publicly
expressed his -dmiration for the It-lirn leader.
(His words on this point should be reprinted.)
Mussolini's fall will do much to undermine German
morale, end no opportunity should be missed to
, .
stress the conneCtion'between.Hitier s de tiny and
MUS6olini'S defeat - the Decline and Fall of the
Unholy Alliance.
1. (f) The'Oenception Of ' nestiny. -
Germans believe in'predethtination (the wave of the
future), and all communications addressed to them should
be written as if the defeat of the False Prophet
wore a foregone Conclusion. Some messages should
coma from the 'Voice of History'.
1. (g) .Taking Advantage oftitier'S
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waning Powers.- Hitl rfs precise status -nd rS'Ic in
German politics rt this moment is not definitely known;
but the decreasing frequency of his appearances is
probably duo to a growing incapacity to fulfill his
former function. His mental state is evidently
deteriorating. This should be assumed in talking
to the German people. For example: "Now that
Mussolinihas collapsed and Hitler is in the hands
of mental specialists, what has become of the Spirit
of Fascism?" or "Do you still believe that a man
whose sanity has boon completely undermined by Guilt
can lead the German people to victory ag,inst the
World?"
1. (h) Germany s One remaining Ally, Japan.
The Nazi re�gime should be constantly coupled with
Japan in an ironical or satirical manner. For example:
"The Nazis and their blood-brothors, the Japanese,
hove both demonstrated their willingness to die for
Satan - this summer one million of them have thrown
away their lives in a futile attempt to destroy
civilization." "'rho is responsible for this ignoble
league of Germany and Japan against the Conscience
of the World?" "A fact to be explained: Germans
are dying every day fighting with Japanese against
German-Americans. Why is that? rrho is responsible."
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1. (i) Munich Student Manifesto. - In
planning messages to Germany hint's for one line of
propaganda can be obtained from the revolutionary
manifesto distributed lost year by students at the
University of Munich.
. Peace Terms/ Trial of War Criminals.-
2. (a) Psychologically it is important
that Hitler, or the leader of the Nazi Party, be
the one to surrender and sign the pence treaty.
The Allies should insist on this, should dreg the
gangsters without ceremony from their hiding places
and force them to sign. (A little trick ry at this
point would be justified.) The terms should be
SOVOPO at first. Later when a more representative
government has been established the terms can be mode
more lenient. Thus in the future the dictators will
be recalled in connection with the humiliation of
unconditional surrender; whereas the democratic
government will get the credit of securing milder terms.
2. (b) A World Court, at least one member
of which is a Swiss and one a Swede, should immediately
publish a list of war ariminaI6, as complete as possible,
and neutral countries should bo officially warned
that no man on this list must be given sanctuary.
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The Allies shQuld be prepared to invade any Country
that harbors a world criminal.
-2. (c) The trial of the war criminals
should be carried out with the utmost despatch. It
must not be allowed to drag on for months, as this
would give the Gerthans a'convincing impression of our
moral weakness and incompetence, and postpone their
regeneration. In connection with the trial a short
readeble book should be published in German explaining
the nature of international law (the brotherhood
of nations) and exposing the crimes committed by the
Fascists in A.B.C, language.
A pamphlet comparing the terms of the Versailles
Treaty with Germanys method of dealing with conquered
countries should be given wide circulation.
3. Treatment of the German People after the
' Cessation of Hostilities. -
It is assumed that Germany will be invaded and
occupied by Allied forces, that simultaneously there
will be uprisings
f slave labor and of civilians in
occupied territories; that much German blood will be
spilled. This is as it should be - a fitting Nemesis.
The Allied troops will march In and eventually restore
order. This function of restoring order will make
their presence more acceptable to the Germans.
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It can be predicted that we will find the German
people profoundly humiliated, resentful, disenchanted,
dejected, morose, despairing of the future. Accustomed
to obeying an arbitrary external authority, they will
have no dependable inner guides to control behavior.
There will be a wave of crime and suicide. Apathy
will be wide-spread. Having passed through a period
of intense unanimity and cooperation, Germany as a
social system will fall apart, each man to suffer
pain and mortification in private.
Disorganization and confusion will be general,
creating a brooding ground for cults of extreme
individualism. A considerable part of the population
will be weighed down by a heavy sense of guilt, which
should lead to a revival of religion. The soil will
be laid for e spiritual regeneration; and perhaps
the Germans, not we, will inherit the future.
It is assumed that the Allies will demilitarize
Germany, will insist on efficient guarantees against
future conspiracies, will take steps to liquidate
the Junker Class, will prevent rearmament and the
misuse of raw materiels. As Dr. Foerster has said:
soft peace for Germany will be a very herd peace
for the German pole, delivering them to the Prussian
caste who led them astray.'
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Nothing permanent, however, can be achieved by
such measures alone. whet is reouired is a profound
conversion of ormanyls attitude: abandonment of the
idea (1) that they are innately superior; (2) that
they are destined to govern the earth; (3) that there
is no human law or authority higher than the good
of the German State; (4) that power is to be admired
above everything; and (5) that Tight makes Right.
In treating the Germans psychologically we must
realize that we are dealing with r nation suffering
from paranoid trends: delusions of grandeur; delusions
of persecution; profound hatred of strong opponents
and contempt of weak opponents; arrogance, suspiciousness
and envy - all of which has been built up as a reaction
to an ae-old inferiority complex and a desire to
be appreciated.
Possibly the first four stops in th treatment
of a single paranoid personality can be adapted to the
conversion of Germany. In attempting this we must
not forget that the source of their psychic sickness
is wounded prido.
_
3.(a) First :Step.- The physician must
grin the respect of the ,IontioriV.
, _
(i) Individual paranoid.- Paranoids
can not be treated successfully if they. arc not impressed
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48
(consciously or unconsciously) by the ability, knowledge,
wisdom, or perhaps more magnetic force, of the physician.
Special efforts must sometimes be made to achieve
this end, since paranoids, being full of scorn, are
not easy to impress.
(ii) Germany,- The regiments that
occupy Germany should be the finest that the United
Nations can assemble - regiments with a history of
victories, composed of tall well-disciplined soldiers
commanded by the best generals. Rowdiness and drunken-
ness should not be permitted. The Germans should be
compelled to admit: "These are splendid men not the
week degenerates (democratic soldiers) or barbarians
(Russian soldiers) we were led to expect." The Ger-
mans admire orderliness, precision, efficiency.
3. (b) Second Ste .- The potential worth
*of the patient should be fully
acknowledpd.
(i) individual parnnoid.- The in-
dwelling burning hunger of the paranoid is for recogni-
tion, power and glory - praise from those whom he
respects. This hunger should be appeased as soon
as possible, so that the paranoid thinks :: himself:
"The great man appreciates me. Together can face
the world." It is as if ha thought: "H) is God the
Father and I am his chosen son."
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(ii) Germany.- Germany's country-
side, its music, historic culture and monuments of
beauty should be appreciated and praised. The army
of occupation should manifest intense interest in the
culture of Old Germany and complete indifference to
all recent developments. The troops should be instructed
and coached by lectures and guide-books covering the
district they will occupy. They should be told that
the war is not won until the heart of the German
people has been won.
Germans of the old school should be hired to
teach the German language, to guide the soldiers
on tours of the country and of museums, to teach
native arts and skills. Concerts should be arranged,
omitting pieces that have, been specially favored by
the Nazis. Editions of books burned by the Nazis
should be published and put on sale immediately.
All this wf.11 serve a double purpose. It will
provide education for our troops and occupy their
time; thus helping to maintain morale. Also the
submerged inferiority feelings and resentments of
the Germans will be alleviated.
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3 (c) Third Step, -Insight should be tactfully
15rovided, r little Pt a time.
(i) .1.12ay.L.d.22.1m.152..- Very
gradually, step by stop, the patient is enlightened
as to his own paranoid mechanisms. Pride in being
unoriticizable and always in the right must be gradu-
ally replaced by pride in being able to rise above
his own mechanisms and criticize himself, pride in
being strong enough to admit some weaknesses and errOS
He should be mode to understand that he has been
victimized by unconscious forces which gained control
over his proper self. During the course of these
talks the physician should freely confess his own
weaknesses and errors, the patient "being treated
as an equal.
(ii) Germany.- The last ten years
of Gorman history should be interpreted as a violent
infectious fovcsa_z_22ssession of the spirit, which
took hold of the people is soon as they gave ear to
the false prophets of Fascism.
A series of articles, editorials, essays and short
books should be written now by Germans in this country
(Thomas }Tann, Reinhold Niebuhr, 7ocrst,r, and others),
aided possibly by suggestions from psychiatrists,
to be published in German newspapers and distributed
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soon rftcr the eccupetion. They should be th.prepoutic
essays essentially - porheps signed by r nom de plume
as if written by r minister, physicien, or writer
in Germany.
Not too much should be said in eny one peper;
but, in time, the lies, delusions, treach,:ries end
crimes of the Nazis should be reviewed objectively
in historical sequence. The Germen people should be
mode to undcrutrnd thet the world rogerds them es
unwitting end unhrppy victims of instincturl forces.
The Allies should be magnrnimous enough to cdmit
their own errors rnd misdeeds.
3. (d) Fourth Step.- The prtiipnt should be
insociated in e group.
(i) Individual perrnoid.- Having
attained a moos-arc of setisfoction by winning the
respect end friendship of his physicirn end then hrving
gained some insight end control, the petient is reedy
for group therepy. Letr, ho ern be poruuPdod to
join outside groups. Gredually he must lerrn to trice
his piece end cooper-to on nn courl brsis with others.
The group he joins should hove a god.
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(ii) Germany.� If Germany is to
be converted, it is of the utmost importance that
some strong and efficient super-government be estab'
lished as soon as possible, providing e new World
Consoience, that her people can respect. As said above,
Germans must have something to look up to - a God,
Fuehrer, an Absolute a national ideal. It can
not be a rival nation, or a temporary alliance of
nations. It must be e body - a strong body with
e police force - which stands 'above any single state.
A supranational symbol would eventually attract the
deference that is now focussed upon Hitler. Lacking
such r symbol, many Germans will certainly fell into
a state of profound disillusionment and despair.
At the proper time Germany should be insocirted as
an equal in whatever league or federation of nations
has been established.
From here on the therapy of a single paranoid
personality fails as an analogy, principally because
the German people will not be in the position of a
patient who comas willingly to the physician's office.
The Nazis will be in no mood to be educated by their
enemies. Furthcrmoro it would be v_ry presumptuous
of us to try it. The most that the Allies could do
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would be to cl,OSP all hO?Is and universities until
now anti-fascist teachers and faculties had been
recruited. The flalt..leSt Problerri will be in dealing
with a whole generation of brutalized and hardened
young Nazis. (Perhaps exhibition games of soccer,
football, lacrosse and baseball between American:
and English regiments would serve to introduce ideas
of fair play and sportsmanship; but much else must
be done - bY German edUeaterS.)
For the convc,rsion of Germany the most effective
agency will be sOthe'fOrM Of world federatiOn. With-
out this the Allied victory will have no permanently
important consequences.
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SECTION II
Hitler the iviari Totes for a Case Hi tOi':\/-
by
Vv. H. D. Vernon
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HITLER THE MAN -- NOTES FOR A CASE HISTORY
by
W. H. D. Vernon
Harvard University
The purpose of this paper is to bring together
in brief form whet is known about Adolf Hitler as
a man. For if allied strategists could peer "inside
Hitler" and adapt their strategy to what they find
there, it is likely that the winning of the war would
be speeded. It must be admitted, to begin with, that
the intricacies of so complex a personality would
be difficult enough to unravel were the subject present
and cooperating in the task. But there are two further
difficulties to be faced. One must attempt both to
select out of the great mass of material which has
been written about Hitler that which appears to be
objective reporting and then further to reconstruct
his personality on the basis of this very inadequate
psychological data. We have, of course, as primary
source material, Hitlerts own writings and speeches
and these tell us a good deal. Though we must admit,
therefore, at its beginning that the nature of our
analysis is very tentative and that in many instances
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only imperfect proof can be given for the inferences
which are drawn, it is no more tentative than the
psychological pen pictures which the 'Nazis themselves
have found so useful (3).
HITLER'S ORIGINS AND EARLY LIFE
In any case study one must begin by asking who
the subject is, whence he came, who were his forbears.
Heiden (8) presents the most reliable genealogy avail-
able. Here we note only certain important points.
Hitler's father, Alois, was born the illegitimate
son of Maria Anna Schicklgrubor in 1837 in the village
of Spital. Ho was supposed to be the son of Johann
Georg Hiedler. However, to his fortieth year; Alois
bore the name of his mother Schicklgrubcr. Only
than when Georg Fiedler was (if still alive)2
eighty-five years of age, and thirty-five years after
the death of his mother, did he take the name Hitler,
the maiden name of his mother-in-law. As Heiden says,
"In the life history of Adolf Hitler no mention is
ever made of the grandpr2nts on his father's side.
1 January 5', 1877
2 There seems to be no record of his death.
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Tho details invariably refer only to his motherfs
relations, There are many things to suggest that
Adolf Hitler's grandfather was not Johann Georg Hiedlor,
but an unknown man" (8, 8). Tho ancestors on both
sides of the family were peasant people of the district
of waldviertcl, highly illiterate end very inbred
(5; 8)0
Alois Hitler, at first a cobbler, had by the age
of forty achieved the position of an Austrian customs
official. The education for this position was the
contribution of his first wife, Anna Glosl, who, fifteen
years his senior, died in 1863. His second wife,
whom ho married six weeks later, died in a per, and
three months later, on January 7, 1885 (5), he married
Klarc Poelzl, a distant cousin,
In appearance Heiden has compered Alois to
Hindenburg (6). Gunther (5) describes his picture
as showing a big, round, hairless skull; small,
sharp, wicked eyes; big bicycle-handlo moustachios;
and heavy chin, Ho was a harsh, stern, ambitious,
and punctilious men (5; 6).
Alois' wife, Klara, is described (5) as being
a tall, nervous young women, not as strong as most
peasant stock, who ran off to Vienna as a girl to
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return after ten years (a daring escapade for one
in her social status) Her doctor (1) describes her
in her early forties as tall, with brownish hair
neatly plaited, a long oval face and beautifully
expressive grey blue eyes. A simple, modest, kindly
woman,
Adolf Hitler, born in 1889, as far as can be
ascertained3 was Alois' fifth child, the third of
his own mother but the first to live more than two
years.4 This it would seem was a large factor in
channelling the great affection for Adolf which all
the evidence seems to show she bore him, In return,
Adolf: who feared and opposed his father -- as he
himself admits -- gave all his affection to his
mother, and when she died of cancer in 1906 he was
prostrated with grief (8; C; 1).
Adolf as a boy and youth was somewhat tall,
sallow and old for his age, with large melancholy
thoughtful eyes. He was neither robust nor sickly,
and with but the usual infrequent ailments of a
3 Heiden points out that the uncertain details of
Hitlerla family have had to be collected from stray
publications, that Hitler is reticent to the point of
arousing suspicion about his life story (6),
4
Alois' children were Alois, 1862 (son by first wife);
Angela., 1883 (daughter by second Wife); Gustav, 1885-
1887; a daughter, 1886-1888; Adolf, 1889; Edmund,
1894-1900; Paula, 1895 or 1896 (children by third wife).
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cold or sore throat. That he hod lung trouble is a
common and natural belief (9) but his doctor says
(1). His recreations were such as were free --
walks in the mountains, swimming in the Danube, and
reading Fenimore Cooper and Karl Mry.5 A quiet,
well-mannered youth who lived with himself.6
About Adolfts early education we know little
except whet he himself tells us -- that he early
� wanted to be an artist; that this outraged his father,
who sternly determined to make a good civil servant
of him; that there was a perpetual struggle between
the two, with his mother siding with Adolf and finally
sending him off to Vienna to complete his art education
when his father died. Except for history and geography
which caught his imagination he neglected his studies,
to find in Vienna, when he failed his art examination,
that his lack of formal education was a barrier to
entering the architectural school.
At the ago of nineteen, when his mother died,
ho went to Vienna to spend there three lonely and
miserable years living in "flop-houses" (7), eking
out a living by begging, shoveling snow, peddling
5 A German author of Indian stories.
6 This In contrast to Hitler's own account of himself
as a bit of a young tough (9).
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his own postcards, working as a hod-carrier or casual
laborer of any sort. Here his ideas began to crystal-
lize, his anti-Semitism and anti-Slavism, his anti-
ideas of all sorts. In 1912 he went to Munich and
there as "water-color artist, picture postcard painter,
technical draftsman and occasional house-painter
Hitler managed to earn some sort of a living" (8 25).
In 1914 he enlisted in the army with great enthusiasm,
performed his duties with distinction and bravery,7 was
wounded, sent home to recover, and in March, 1917,
was back at the front. He was aloof from comrades,
zealous in his duty, and very lonely. Through all
the war he received no letter or parcel (8).
The war over and with no home to go to, Hitler
in 1919 was appointed an espionage agent of the
insurgent Reichswehr which had just put down the
Soviet Republic In Munich, Shortly thereafter he
came in contact with Anton Drexler and what was to
become later the Nazi party had its beginning.
Further than this it is not necessary to follow
Hitler's political history. It is too well known
and the basic structure of his personality was already
7 Military awards were: Regimental Diploma for
Conspicuous Bravery, Military Cross for Distinguished
Service, Third Class, The Black Wounded Badge, and
The Iron Cross, First Class (6).
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formed. Later years have only brought to fruition
latent tendencies and laid the final product open
for the world to wonder at. We must now turn to a
closer examination of this structure.
HITLER'S PERSONAL APPEARANCE AND MANNER
Portraits or moving pictures of Hitler are common
enough, yet it is well to drew attention to various
aspects of his physique. To most non-Nazis Hitler
has no particular attraction. He resembles a second-
rate waiter. He is a smallish man, slightly under
average height. His forehead is slightly receding
and his nose somewhat incongruml with the rest of
his face. The latter is somewhat soft, his lips
thin, and the whole face expressionless. The eyes
aro a neutral gray which tend to take on the color
of their momentary surreundingsse The look tends to
be staring or deed and lacking in sparkle. There is
an essentially feminine quality about his person
which is portrayed particularly in his strikingly
well-shaped and expressive hands (2; 8; 13; at al.).
Hitler's manner is essentially awkward and all
his movements jerky except perhaps the gestures of
8This fact has caused an amazing number of different
descriptions of his actual eye color.
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his hands. He appears shy and ill at ease in company
and seems seldom capable of carrying on conversation.
Usually ho declaims while his associates listen. He
often seems listless and moody. This is in marked
contrast to the dramatic energy of his speeches and
his skillful play upon the emotions of his vast
audiences, every changing mood of which he appears
to perceive and to turn to his own purposes. At
times he is conciliatory, at other times he may burst
into violent temper tantrums if his whims are checked
in any way (1,5).
ATTITUDES, TRAITS, AND NEEDS CHARACTERISTIC OF HITLER
Attitudes toward Nature Pstg..) Religion. -First
and last words cave often significant. Mein Itampf
begins with a. sentiment of gratitude to Fate, and
almost its last prragrrpl) appeals for vindication
to the Goddess of History. Howev,,r, all through
the book there are references to Eternal Nature,
Providence, and Destiny "Therefore, I believe today
I Pm acting in the sense of the Almighty evertor:
by warding off the Jews I am fighting for the Lord's
work" (9, 84). This fooling of being directed by
grert forces outside one, of doing the. Lord's work,
is the essence, of the fooling of the religious mystic.
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No matter how pagan Hitler's ethical and social ideas
may be, they hove r quality comparable to religious
experience. Moreover, all through his acts and words,
both spoken and written, is this extreme exaggeration
of his own self-importance -- he truly feels his
divine mission (15), even to the point of foreseeing
a martyr's death (16).
As far us euthorized religion is concerned,
Hitler recognized both its strength and weaknesses
(9; 12) and adopted freely whatever he found service-
able for his own ends. That he strikes down Protestant
and Catholic -like is duo merely to the conviction
thot thee religions are but old husks and must give
wry to the now (0).
Toward conscience his attitude is n dual one.
One the one hand he repudiates it as an ethical
gul-le, heaping contempt on it as a Jewish invention,
a blemish like circumcision (16). He scorns as
fools those who obey it (15). But in matters of
action he waits upon his inner voice, "Unless I have
the innel- incorruptible conviction, this is the solu-
tion I do nothing...I will not act:, I will wait
no matter whet happens. But if the voice speaks,
then I know the time has come to act" (15, 181),
Like Socrates he listens to his Daimon.
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Hitler's AttLtude toward. Power and His Need for
Aggression,- To the German people and the world at
large, Hitler appears as a men of tremendous strength
of will, determination, and power. Yet those who are
or have been close to him (e.g., 15) know that he is
conscious of being powerful and impresses others as
such only at certain times. When he is declaiming
to a great throng or when he is on one of his
solitary walks through the mountains, then Hitler is
conscious of his destiny rs one of the great and power-
ful of the ages. But in between these periods he
feels humtliated rnd week. At such times he is
irritated and unable to do or decide anything. It
is these feelings of his own weakness that no doubt
have determined to a great extent his ideas on the
educe,tion of youth. All weakness must be knocked
out of the new German youth, they must be indifferent
to pain, have no fear of death, must learn the art of
self-commend; for only in this wry can they become
creative Godmen (15). Hitler's feclinge of weakness
and power probably also determine his attitudes towards
peoples and netion&. For those who ere weak, or for
some reason do not display power, e h-F' only contempt.9
9 "My great political opportunity lies n my deliberate
use of power at a time when there are si;i11 illusions
abroad as to the forces that mould history" (15, 271).
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For those who are strong he has Peelings of respect,
fear, submissiveness (4; 9; 16). For the Britain of
the great war period he had great respect (9), but
only contempt for the powerless Indian revolutionaries
who tried to oppose British imperial power
For the masses over whom he has sway he feels only
contempt. He compares them to a woman who prefers
to submit to the will of someone stronger (9), He
harangues the crowd at night when they are tired and
less resistsnt to the will of another (9). He uses
every pc_lycological trick to break the will of an
audience He makes use of all the conditions which
maim in the German people for a longing for submission,
their anwletjc9, their feelings of loneliness (9).
He understands his subjects because they arc so like
himself (4),
Closely related to his attitude toward power,
and one of the basic elements of Hitlerts personality
structure, is a deep-lying need for aggression,
destruction, brutality. It was with him in phantasy
at least, in childhood n. And there is evidence
10 Zt is interesting to note that the war against
Britain appears only to have broken au; because
Hitler was convinced that she ,would not and could
not resist the strength of the German armed forces,
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of it from his days in Vienna (7). we know too (9)
that the outbreak of the first great war was n tremendous-
ly thrilling experience for him. Since the war -we
have seen his adoption of so-celled "communist"
methods of dealing with hecklers (9), the murder of
his close friends, his brutality toward the Jews,
his destruction of one small nation after another,
nnd his more recent major war against the rest of
the world, But this element of his personrlity is
so potent that it hardly needs documenting,
. . .
attitude toward the Jews end toward
RaCe.- Anl-Sel7itism is not an uncommon thing end
4,�.��
Europe ho i a Jong history of it but, as has been pointed
out, "in the case of Hitler, the Jew has been elevated,
so to speak, to a degree of evilness which he hrd
never before obtrined" (10, 8). Thrt this hrtrod is
of a more than usual prtnologicrl nature is suggested
by the morbid connection which Hitler makes between
the Jew and di7ease, blood disease, syphilis (9),
and filthy excrescences of all sorti, The Jew
in fact 19 not even a beast, he is a creature outside
nature (15). He is at the root of ll things evil
not only in Germany but elsewhere and only through
his destruction may the vorld be saved. It is at
this point, too, that Hitlorts feelings about race
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find expression. For him there is on inner emotional
connection between sex, syphilis, blood impurity,
Jowishness and the degeneration of pure, healthy,
and virile racial strains. Like the need for
aggression, his fear of the tainting of blood is a
major clement in Hitler's personality structure.
Hitler's Attitude toward Sex.- That Hitler's
attitude toward sex is pathological is already clear
from what has been said above. The best sources
we have do not, however, tell us explicitly what it
is that, wrqng with Hitler's sex life. From the
fact that his close associate, as well as many
of the early Nazis were homosexuals it has been a
matter of gossip that Hitler too is affected in this
way. All reliable sources, however, deny that there
is any evidence whatever for such an idea (8), In
fact, Hf.tler appears to have no close men friends,
no intimates it ell. Ohm was the only one whom he
addressed with the intimate "du" (5) and it is
reported that no one has succeeded since the latter's
death to such r porition of intimcy.
In regard to women, the reports are conflicting.
Most of the recent books by newsp-i-er im (e,g., 5)
stress Hitler's as-,eticism, his disinterest in women.
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However Heiden (8) documents his love affairs, and
Honisch (7), Strasser (18), and Rauschning (15) hove
considerable to say about his attitude toward the
opposite sex. As far as can be ascertained, it is
completely lacking in respect, even contemptuous (7);
it is opportunistic (18; 15) and in the actual sexual
relationship there is something of a perverse nature
along with n peculiar enslavement to the partner of
his choice (8). It is certain that many 'women find
Hitler fascinating '(15; 7) and that he likes'their
company, 'Iut St is also true that he has never married,
and in 0-ery love affair the break WPS made, not by
Hitler, but by the lady concerned (8). In one case,
that of 1-lis niece, Geli, there was real tragedy in-
volved fot- either he murdered her in a fit of passion,
*ftsrl accordinf? to Strassarlr, evidence (:8), or he so abused
ane4' upset her that se committed suicide (8). Finolly,
�
one must mention again his frenzied outburst against
syphilis in m6-1-1; (9) PS if the whole German
nation were a vast putrifying hotbed of this loath-
some desease. 1-Mean's statement (3) that "there
is something wrong?' with Hitler's sex life is surely
an eloquent understatement.
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Hitler's need to Talk.- This rather obvious
need is worth noting at this point, after what has
just been said above.11 Ever since Hitler's discovery
of his facility as a speaker, his own people and the
world have been deluged with his words. The number
of speeches is large, varying in length from one and
a half to two hours, though there are several of
three and even four hours' duration. In private,
moreover, Hitler seldom converses, for each individual
wham he addresses is a new audience to be harangued.
In his moments of depression he must talk to prove
to himself his own strength and in moments of
exaltation to dominate others (16).
Hitler's Attitude toward Art.- Though Hitler's
father intended him to be a civil servant, he himself
craved to be an artist and his failure to be recognized
as such by the Vienna school was one of his most
traumatic experiences (9). As Ahrer his interest
in art continues and he shows distinctly favorable
attitudes toward music, painting, and architecture.
As is well known, Wagner is Hitler's favorite --
we might almost say only -- composer. At twelve
he was captivated by Lohengrin (9), at nineteen in
Vienna he was championing the merits of Wagner as
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against Mozart (7), and as Ahrer he has seen Die
Meistersinger over a hundred times (19). He knows
all of Wagner's scores (19) and in their rendition
he gets emotional release and inspiration for his
actions. His savior complex, feelings about sex,
race purity, his attitudes toward food and drink,
all find stimulus and reinforcement in the plots,
persons, and themes of his favorite composer. It
is interesting, for example, that Hitler has chosen
Nuremberg, the town which Wagner personified in
Hans Sachs, as the official site of the meeting of
the annual Nazi Party Congress (19).
Wagner's influence over Hitler extends beyond
the realm of music to that of literature. Among
the Ahrer's favorite readings are Wagner's political
writings and consciously or unconsciously he has
copied Wagner's turgid and bombastic manner with a
resulting style wnich according to Heiden often
transforms "a living sentence into a confused heap
of bony, indigestible words" (8, 308).
In the field of painting there are two matters
to consider -- Hitler's own work and his attitude
toward the work of others. As regards the former,
we have evidence that during his Vienna days Hitler
showed little ability except for copying the painting
11. From the analytic point of view this may well be
interpreted as a compensation for sexual difficulties.
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of others (7). Some of the works that are extant,
however, display some flair for organization and
color, though there is nothing original. Yany of
his paintings show a preoccupation with architecture,
old ruins, and with empty desolate places; few of
them contain people. The somewhat hackneyed designs
of the party badge and flag give further evidence
of lack of originality. As regards the painting of
others, Hitler has surrounded himself with military
pictures of all sorts and with portraits Of very
literal and explicit nudes (19; 10). At his command
German art has been purged of its modernism, and
classic Qualities are stressed instead.
It is in architecture that :itlerts artistic
interest finds its greatest outlet. He spends a
great deal of time over architectIs designs and all
important German buildings and monuments must be approved
by him. Nassiveness, expansiveness, size, end classic
design are the qualities which Hitler stresses end
approves in the buildings of the new Germany. His
seventy-five-foot-broad motor roads, the conference
grounds at Nuremberg, and his retreat at rerchtesgaden
are all examples of these emphases.
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Hitler's Ascetic Qualities.- Hitler's ascetic
qualities are popularly known and are substantiated
by many writers (5; 13). Hitler himself, according
to Rauschning (16), accredits his vegetarianism and
his abstinence from tobacco and alcohol to Wagner's
influence. He ascribes much of the decay of civiliza-
tion to abdominal poisoning through excesses. This
ascetism of Hitler's is all the more striking among
a people who, on the whole, are heavy eaters and fond
of drinking. It is worthy of note, however, that at
times Hitler is not averse to certain types of over-
indulgence. He is, for example, excessively fond
of sweets, sweetmeats, and pastry (7; 21), and will
consume them in large quantities.
Hitler's Peculiar Abilities.- Hitler, the unedu-
cated, is nevertheless a man of unusual ability,
particularly in certain areas where formal education
is of little value and even in areas where it is
supposed to be important. More than once we find
those who know him (e.g., Rauschning (16) stressing
his extraordinary ability to take a complicated problem
and reduce it to very simple terms. It is hardly
necessary to document Hitler's ability to understand
and make use of the weaknesses of his opponents, his
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ability to divide them and strike them one by one,
his sense of timing so as to strike at the most
opportune moment. It is certain, however, that
these abilities of Hitler's have definite limitations.
Hitler has become more and more ins olated (16) from
contact with what is actually occurring and thus
has insufficient or incorrect data on which to base
his decisions. Moreover, his own frame of reference
is an unsatisfactory guide to an understanding of
peoples outside the European milieu. He has, con-
sequently, frequently misunderstood both British
and American points of view with unhappy results to
his own program of expansion.
Overt Evidence of MalaNustment.- Certain facts
symptomatic of maladjustment have already been men-
tioned, such as his peculiar relationship to women.
Here there have to be added others of a less specific
nature. Hitler suffers from severe incomnia and when
he does sleep has violent nightmares (16). At times
he suffers from hallucinations, often hearing voices
on his long solitary walks (16). He has an excessive
fear of poisoning and takes extreme precautions to
guard against it both in his food and in his bedroom
(16). Here the bed must be made only in one specific
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way (11). He cannot work steadily, but with explosive
outbursts of activity or not at all (15; 8). Even
the smallest decision demands great effort and he
has to work himself up to it. Then thwarted, he will
break out into an hysterical tantrum, scolding in
high-pitched tones, foaming at the mouth, and stomping
with uncontrolled fury (13). On several occasions,
when an important speech was due, he has stood silent
before his audience and then walked out on them (15).
In the case of at least one international broadcast
he was suddenly and inexplicably cut off the air.
Finally, there is Hitler's threat to commit suicide
if the Nazi party is destroyed or the plans of the
German Reich fail (3).
THE SOURCES OF HITLER'S MALADJUSTMENTS
The Sources pf Hitler's Aggressive and Submissive
Traits. - The schizoid temperament, one such as Hitler's,
which combines both a sensitive, shy, and indrawn nature
with inhibitions of feeling toward others, and at the
same time, in way of compensation, violent aggressive-
ness, callousness, and brutality, from one point of
view of constitutional psychology is usually associated
with a particular type of physique. It is difficult
from the sort of photograph available to classify
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Hitler's physique accurately. He probably falls in
Kretschmer's athletic group though verging on the
pyknic (11). This would place him in the schizophrenic
group of temperaments. In terms of Sheldon's system,
he is probably classifiable as a 443 with a considerable
degree of gynandromorphy, that is, an essentially
masculine body but one showing feminine characteristics
also (17).
Probably more important, however, is the social
milieu and the family situation in which Hitler grew up.
In a strongly patriarchal society, his father was
particularly aggressive and probably brutal toward
his son, Adolf. This would produce an individual
both very submissive to authority and at the same time
boiling over with rebelliousness to it. Further, we
know of the extreme attachment which Hitler had for
his mother. If, as seems most likely, he has never
outgrown this,12 there might be a protest in his
nature against this enslavement, which in turn might
give rise to a deep unconscious hatred, a possible
source of frightful unconscious rage.-3 Finally,
12 Note Hitler's frequent and unusual use of the word
Motherland for Germany (9).
13 Hitler's hatred of meat and love of sweets is
said to be often found in cases harboring an unconscious
hate of the mother (15).
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the consistent failure to achieve his arti tic
ambitions, his loneliness and poverty in Vienna, his
failure to arrive at any higher status then that of
corporal in his beloved army (8), all must have
stimulated in highest degree whatever original tendency
there was toward brutality and destructiveness.
The sources of Hitler's Anti-
Senitism was part of the social milieu in which Hitler
grew up. He admits himself (9) that he avoided the
only Jewish boy at school and it is known that anti-
Semitism and asceticism were strong in Catholic
rural communities in Europe. In Vienna, of course,
Hitler came in contact with violent anti-Semitic
literature and it is at this period that he claims
his deep-rooted hatred for the Jews was born (9).
The pathological strength of this hatred suggests
that there were certain psychological as well as
cultural reasons for it. what they were we can only
surmise but we can list certain possibilities. We
know that the name Hitler is a common Jewish one
(8), that Adolf was teased about his Jewish appear-
ance in Vienna.14 There is, too, the mystery of
14 It is interesting that Hitler's description of the
first Jew to arouse his hatred is almost word for
word the same as Hanisch's description of Hitler in
Vienna (7).
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Alois Hitler's true parentage which his on may have
known. ';L:' also know that many of the people who helped
him, gave him food, and bought his paintings were
Jews.15 To have to accept kindnesses from people he
disliked would not add to his love of them. But
there must be more to it than this for Hitler's anti-
Semitism is bound up with his morbid concern with
syphilis and phobia over contamination of the blood
of the German race.. This, therefore, leads to a
discussion of Hitler's theories.
Sources of I1itlers Theories of Race and 8lood.-
The concept of the superiority of the Aryan race is,
of course, not new with Hitler. Its great exponent
was Houston Stewart Chamberlain. In the writings
of Wagner also the same conception is exalted. But
the constant repetition of the idea of blood, pure
blood, and untainted blood which occurs in Fein Kampf
calls for a more than purely cultural explanation.
This is ''uggested all the more forcefully because
of the association which Hitler makes between im-
purities of blood which are due to disease (syphilis)
and impurities in the blood of a superior race due
to mixture with a racially inferior stock; further
His rejection of the Jew May also stem from the
rejection Within himself of the passive gentle elements
which are prominent in Hebrew-Christian thought.
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to the fact that he points to the Jews as the source
of both.
Now it is known that syphilophobia often has
its roots in the childhood discovery of the nature of
sexual congress between the parents. Tith a father
who was an illegitimate and possibly of Jewish origin,-
and a strong mother fixation, such a discovery by the
child Adolf may well have laid the basis of a syphilo-
phobia which some adventure with a Jewish prostitute
in Vienna fanned to a full flame.17 Terrified by
the fear of his own infection, all the hatred in his
being is then directed toward the Jews.
ONE POSSIBLE PSYCHOLOGICAL INTERPRETATION
Hitler's personality structure, though falling
within the normal range, may now be described as of
the paranoid type With delusions of persecution and
of grandeur. This stems from a sado-masochistic
split it his personality (4). Integral with these
alternating and opposed elements in his personality
are his fear of infection, the Identification of the
15 The name Hitler is Jewish as was pointed Out.
17. This is mere conjecture and must be treated as
such. But it is .the sort of explanation which fits
known psychological facts.
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Jews as the source of that infection, and some de-
rangement of the sexual function which makes his
relations to the opposite sex abnormal in nature.
The drama and tragedy of Hitler's life are the
projection onto the world of his own inner conflicts
and his attempts to solve them. The split in Hitler's
personality seems clearly to be due to his identifica-
tion both with his mother, whom he passionately loved,
and with his father, whom he hated and feared. This
dual and contradictory identification (the one is
gentle, passive, feminine; the other brutal, aggressive,
masculine) results -- whenever Hitler is playing the
aggressive ro'le -- also in a deep hatred and contempt
for his mother and love and admiration for his
father. This inner conflict is projected into the
world where Germany comes to represent the mother,
and the Jew and -- for a time -- the Austrian State,
the father. Just as the father is the cause of his
mixed blood, the source of his domination and punish-
ment, and of the restrictions of his own artistic
development; just as in the childish interpretation
of sexual congress the father attacks, strangles,
and infects the mother, so the Jew, international
Jewish capital, etc., encircle and restrict Germany,
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threaten and attack her and infect her with impurities
of blood. Out of the hatred of the father and love
of the mother came tho,desire to save her. So Hitler
becomes the savior of Germany, who cleanses her of
infection, destroys her enemies, breaks their encircle-
ment, removes ovcry restriction upon her so that she
may expand into new living space, uncramped and un-
throttles., At the same time, Hitler is cleansing
himself, defending himself, casting off paternal domina-
tion and restriction.
Not only is the Father feared but he is a source
of jealousy for he possesses, at least in part, the
beloved mother. So he must be destroyed to permit
complete possession. The destruction of the father
is achieved symbolically by the destruction of the
Austrian State and complete domination and possession
of the mother through gathering all Germans in a
common Reich.
But the mother is not only loved but hated. For
she is weak, besides he is enslaved to her affections
A
and she reminds him all too much, in his role as
dominant father, of his own gentle sensitive nature.
So, though he depends on the German people for his
position of dominance, he despises and hates them,
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he dominates them and, because he fears his very
love of them, he leads them into the destructive-
ness of war whore multitudes of them are destroyed.
Besides, the Jewish element in his father identifica-
tion permits him to use all the so-called �Jewish
tricks of deceit, lying, violence; and sudden attack
both to subject the German people as well as their
foes.
To be dominant, aggressive, brutal is to arouse
the violent protest of the other side .of-his nature.
Only severe anxiety can come from this; nightmares
and sleepless nights result. But fear is assuaged
by the fiction of the demands of Fate, of Destiny,
of the Folk-Soul of the German people.
The denouement of the drama approaches at every
:aggressive step. The fiction of the command of Fate
only holds as long as there is success -- greeter and
greater success to assuage the mounting feelings
of anxiety and guilt. Aggression, therefore, has a
limit; it cannot go beyond the highest point of
suCeess . When that is reached, the personality
may collapse under the flood of its own guilt
feelings.18 It is, therefore, quite possible that
18 That Hitler is pertly conscious of this we know
from his own threats of suicide end references to
dying for the German people (9).
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Hitler will do away with himself at whatever moment
German defeat becomes sufficient enough to destroy
the fiction of Fate which has shielded him from the
violence of his own guilt. He may then turn upon
himself the destructiveness which so long has been
channelled toward his people and their neighbors.
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BIBLIOGRAPHY
1. Bloch, E.
2. Dodd, M.
Farago, L.
4. Frome, E.
5. Gunther, J.
6. Haffner, S.
7. Hanisch
8. Heiden, K.
9. Hitler, A.
10. Hitler, A.
11. Kretschmer0E
12, Krueger, K.
13. Lewis, W.
14. Life,
15. Medicus.
16. Rauschning,H
17. Sheldon,W.H.
18. Strasser, O.
19. Viereck, P.
NY PATIENT HITLER.
Collier's, March 15, 1941.
THROUGII`EMtASSY EYES.
New York: Harcourt, Brace, 1939.
GERMAN PSYCHOLOGICAL WARFARE.
New York: Committee on National
Morale, 1941.
ESCAPE FROM FREEDOM.
New York: Farrar & Rinehart, 1941.
INSIDE EUROPE.
New York and London: Harper, 1935.
GERMANY: JEKYLL AND HYDE.
London: Seeker & Warburn, 1940.
I WAS HITLER'S BUDDY.
New Republic April 5, 1939.
HITLER, A BIOGRAPHY.
London: Constable, 1935.
MEIN KAMPF.
New York: Reynal & Hitchcock, 1939.
MY NEW ORDER.
New York: Reynal & Hitchcock, 1941.
.PHYSIQUE AND CHARACTER.
New York: Harcourt, Brace, 1925.
INSIDE HITLER.
New York: Avalon Press, 1941.
HITLER CULT.
London: Dent, 1939.
June 23, 1941.
A PSYCHIATRIST LOOKS AT HITLER.
New Republic, April 21, 1939.
.HITLEA SnAKS.
London: Butterworth, 1939.
THE VARIETIES OF HUMAN PHYSIQUE.
New York: Harper, 1940.
HITLER AND I.
Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1940.
METAPOLITICS.
New York: Knopf, 1941.
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SECTION III
Detailed Analysis of Mtlorls Personality
(Written especially
for psychologists
Eind psychiatrists)
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FORE'r[ORD TO THE DETAILED ANALYSIS
In writing this analysis of Hitler's personality,
the use of certain technical words was unavoidable.
Although I have attempted to follow as simple and
intelligible a form as possible, I could not without
much circumlocution and vagueness, get along without
three terms:
Need (roughly synonymous with Drive, impulse,
tendency, purpose, instinct). This is a force within
the subject (i.e., the individual whose behavior
is being studied) which inclines him to strive toward
a certain goal, the attainment of which reduces momen-
tarily the tension of the need. Needs vary in kind
and in strength.
Press (plural: press). This is FA force, emanating
from an object (usually a person) in the environment,
which is directed toward the sub,lect. P press (for
the subject) is the need or drive in the object, which,
if successful, would harm or benefit him. Press
vary in kind and in strength.
Cathexle. This is the power of an object
to arouse feelings of liking (positive cathexis)
or of disliking (neg tive cathexis) in the subject.
It is also permissible to say that the subject
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"positively cathects" or simply "cathects (values,
admires loves) one object; or that he "ne7ative1y
cathects" (depreciates, scorns fears, hates) another.
The cathexis (potency) of objects -- their ability
to evoke behavior in the subject -- can vary in kind
(positive or negative) or in strength.
1. STA= 1-r-2 OF TH7, PROBLEM
Thirty Years ago Hitler was El common bum, en
unemployed nonentity, a derelict of the polyglot
society that was Vienna. It was E miserable life,"
his pal, Hanisch, has written, "and I once asked him
,
what he was really waiting for.
i-ia
answered; 'I
don't know myself.1 I have never seen such helpless
letting-down in distress."
Twenty years later Hitler was dictator of all
Germany. He was not waiting for anything; but demanding
and getting all that a boilndlessly ambitious men could
want. Many people thought that they had never seen
such resolute confidence in victory.
Three years ago, at the age of fifty-one, Hitler
was the most powerful and successful individual on
earth, on the one hand, the most worshipped, on the
other, the most despised. In ^lermeny he was virtually
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a demigod: he had unlimited power; he Was always
right; he could do no wrong; he was the savior of the
Vaterland, the conqueror of Europe, the divinely
appointed prophet of a now era. There was a uiticr
Straase or Hitler PIatz in every town. IToi1 Hitler"
was the convential greeting for acquaintances. The
man's picture was prominently displayed in every
public building, in every railroad station, in millions
of homes. His autobiography was accepted as the Bible
of a revolutionary folk religion. Fitler was compared
to Christ.
The men is chiefly interesting as a force that
has affected the lives of more people on this globe
than any man in history, aided, to be sure, by new
and miraculous instruments of communication. How was
it possible for a man so insignificant in stature and
appearance, so deficient in bodily strength and emotional
control, so locking in intellectual attainments --
how was it possible for such e man to succeed whore
the mightiest CI-ormans of the pest had failed? that
kind of a man is this Hitler? "hat are his chief
abilities and disabilities? �hat conditions in
Germany ware conducive to his meteoric rise to power?
That is he likely to do next? And, if the Allies
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get their hands on him, how can ho be treated so that
he will never rise again as a legendary figure to
instigate another Satanic revolutinn against culture?
These are among the questions that have been faced
in this paper.
The aspects of Fitler's personality that especially
require explanation are these: the intensity of the
man's dedication to the creation of on ideal; the
nature of his life-drama, or Mission as he conceives
it; the fanaticism of his sentiments 2,12.2 Power,
Mory, Dictatorship, l'iliterion, Brutality, the
Aggressive Instinct Nationalism, Purity of Flood;
and the fanaticism of his sentiments con '3aknes,
Indecision, Tolerance, Compassion, Peace, 7ational
Debate, Democracy, Lolghevism, the Acquisitive Instinct,
Materialism, Capitalism, the Jewish Race, Christianity.
Also of interest are: the nature of his oratorical
power over the emotions of the masses; his printing
and architechtural interests; the vagaries of his
sex instinct; and the significance of his neurotic
and psychotic symptoms.
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II. PHYSIOLL CONSTITUTION
Ys.ictlao
A point of fundamental importance is the large
gynic (feminine) component in Hitler's constitution.
His hips are wide and his shoulders relatively
narrow. His muscles are flabby; his logs thin and
spindly, the letter being hidden in the p-st by
heavy boots and more recently by long trousers. He
is hollow chested, and in the throes of passionate
speech his voice sometimes brooks into shrill falsetto.
In contrast to his masculine ideal for German youth,
Hitler's physical strength and agility are definitely
below the average. He was frail as n child, never
labored in the field, never played rough games.
He has long tapering sensitive fingers. In Vienna,
he was too week to be employed on construction jobs
and before the outbreak of '-orld 1"ar I was rejected
by the Austrian Army as permanently disqualified
for service. He was discouraged after one attempt
to ride a horse, and in the lest twenty years his
exercise has been limited to short walks. Some
informants say that he is physically incapable of
normal sexual relations. His movements have bean
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,described as womanish - a dainty ladylike way of
walking (when not assuming a military carriage in
public), effeminate gestures of his arms --
peouliar graceless ineptitude reminiscent of a girl
throwing a baseball.
2. yedlal and puchititric History
Hitler has suffered from nervous gastritis, or
indigestion, for many years. This is probably a
psychosomatic syndrome, part and parcel of his general
neuroticism.
A German psychiatrist who examined Fitlerls medical
record in World vtar I 11.as reported that the diagnosis
of his condition was hysterical blindness. In other
words, he did not suffer from mustard gas poisoning,
publicly stated., but from a war neurosis. It has
so been said that ha was not only blind but dumb,
and (according to one informant) deaf.
Some years ago a benign polyp was removed from
s vocal chord.
Hitler is a victim of temper tantrums which have
i creased In intensity and frequency during the last
years. A typical seizure consists of (1) pacing,
sho ting, cursing, blaming, accusations of treachery
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end betrayal; (2) weeping and exhibitions of self-
pity; and (3) falling on the floor, foaming at the
mouth, biting the carpet. The man has some control
over these epileptiform attacks, using them to get
his own way with his close associates.
Hitler elso suffers from agitated depressions,
affrighting nightmares, hypochondriacal states in which
he fears that he will be poisoned or die from cancer
of the stomach.
III APPEARANCE Ai.1) EXPRESSIVE ATTITUDES
The most significant fact about Hitler's appear-
ance is its utter insignificance. He is the proto-
type of the little men, an unnecessary duplicate,
apparently, that one would never turn to look at
twice. For ten years, notwithstanding, Germans have
been gazing at him and, spellbound, seen the magnetic
figure of one who coUld have said and done whet Hitler
has said and done.
Comments have chiefly centered on Hitler's eyes
and his hands. Although his greyish-blue
ayes
are
usually story and dead, impersonal and unseeing, at
times he looks a man or woman straight in the face
with a fixed, unwavering gaze that has been described
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rs positively hypnotic., Behind the habitual vacancy
of expression some discern an intense flame of
passionate dedication. His hands are strikingly
well-shaped and expressive, and in haranguing an
audience they are used to good effect.
In all other respects, Hitler's appearance is
totally lacking in distinction. His features are soft,
his cheeks sallow and puffy, his hnndshake loose, his
palms moist and clammy. Such features can hardly
be appreciated by the average visitor as evidences
of an Iron Man.
In his reactions to the world, Hitler pleys
many parts. There is the expressionless Hitler,
like r dummy standing with upraised hand ir the front
of a six-wheeled motorcar that moves at n slow pace
down the great avenue between serried ranks of shouting
worshipful adherents. There is the embarrassed Hitler,
ill at ease, even subservient, in the presence of a
stranger, an aristocrat, a greet general, or a king
(as on his visit to Italy). There is the alalaa
Hitler, the soft, good-natured Austrian, gentle,
informal, and even modest, welcoming friendly admirers
at his villa; as well as the sentimental Hitler,
weeping over a dead canary. Then there is the tactical
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Hitler, who comes in at the critical moment with the
daringly right decision; and the mystical Hitler;
hinting of a thousand years of superiority for the
German folk; the peSso6Sed Hitler, shrieking with
fanatical fury as he exhorts the masses; the
hYSterieal.flitler, rolling on the carpet or shaking
with terror as he wakes from a nightmare; the
ajeathetia'Hitler, limp, indolent, and
and at all times, the soapboxHitler,
off half-cocked on a long tirade even
indecisive;
ready to go
though he is
addressing a single individual. Of all those, it is
the tactical Hitler, the Mystical Hitler, and the
possessed Hitler which have been chiefly instrumental
in winning the position he now holds. It is because
of these powerful inhabitants of his being that people
have accepted and tolerated the loss appealing or less
bearable inhabitants.
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;V. PAST Htp.Tony
ChrOno1OkV4'
1837 Maria Anna Sohicklgruber has an illegitimate
son,'Alois, born in Strones, near Spital
Johann Goorg Hiedler (Hitler) m. Maria Anna
Schloklgruber
1850 Birth of Kara Poelzl in Spital
1877, Jan. 6
Alois Schicklgruber legitimized as Alois Hitler
Alois Hitler m. Anna Glesl-Horer (14 years
01(150
1883 Death of Anna Glasl-Horer in Braunau
1883 Alois Hitler m. FranZiska Matzelberger
ca1883 Birth of Alois Hitler Jr., 2 months after
marriage
1$84 Birth of Angela Hitler
1884 Death of Franziska Matzelberger
1885, Jan. 7
Alois Hitler (47 years) m. Klara Poelz1
Birth of two children who die in infancy
1889, Apr. 20
Birth of Adolf Hitler in Braunau
Family move to Passau (Bavaria) on Austrian
border.
ca1893 Alois Hitler retires on a pension
Family move to Lambach (24 miles from Linz);
Catholic convent
ca1896 Birth of Paula Hitler
ca1900 Family meve to Leonding (suburb of Linz);
Technical School
" 1903, Jan. 3
Death of Alois Hitler
Family move to Linz
1904-5 Adolf Hitler attends school in Steyr
1907, Oct.Hitler fails to pass examination of Academy
of Arts, Vienna
1907, Dec. 21
Klara Hitler dies (A. H. is 18 years old)
1908,Jan. A. H. moves to Vienna
190810ct. A. H. fails a second time to pass examination
of Academy of Arts
1913 A. H. moves to Munich.
. _
����������
Not all these dates are reliable; most of the
early ones are from Guntherfs INSIDE laTROPE.
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ORIGINAL DOCUMENT MISSING PAGE(S):
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A. CHILDHOOD AND ADOLESCENCE
1889 - 1907
14.1amlit_Ealziata
1. Father
Some of the confusion that has arisen in regard
to Hitler forebears disappears as soon as we realize
the name Hitler has been variously spelled - Hidler,
Hiedler, Huettler - by different members of the same
illiterate peasant family. Adolf Hitler's parents
were both descended from one Hitler .(father's grand-
father and mother's great-grandfather), an inhabitant
of the culturally backward Wnldviertel district,
Upper Austria.
ois Hitler --
Hitler's father.
Note resemblance
to HindenbUrg.
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Famil4.111.4tgri_f.i4LLysenalitV of Father
The chief facts about Alois Hitler which have
bearing on our analysis are these:
(a)
According to an inqUiry ordered by the
Austrian Chancellor Dollfuss, Maria Anna Schickl-
gruber became pregnant during her employment as a
servant in a Jewish Viennese family. For this
reason she was sent back to her home in the country.
If this is true, Alois Hitler may have been half-
Jewish. The fact that he selected a Jew, Herr Prinz
of Vienna, to be the godfather of his son Adolf, is
in line with this hypothesis.
(b) In any event, Alois Hitler was illegitimate
and as such was no doubt made to suffer the contempt
of the little community, Spital, in which he was reared.
Perhaps it was for this reason that he left his home
at an early age to seek his fortune in Vienna.
(c) Alois Hitler started life as El simple
cobbler but finally improved his status by becoming
a customs official. For a time he patrolled the
German-Austrian border, was known as a 'man-hunter'.
He was very proud of this position, believing that
it entitled him to lord it over those of the class
that had once scorned him.
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(d) In appearance Alois Hitler resembled Marshal
Hindenburg. He had a walrus moustache, under which
protruded sullen and arragant lower lip. He wore
an uniform, his badge of status; and as a border
patrolman carried a revolver on his person. He smoked
and ran after women. It is said that he frequented
the village pub and enjoyed nothing so much as recount-
ing his accomplishments to a receptive auditory. He
was a coarse man, with boasts and curses forever on
his tongue. He died of apoplexy.
(e) He was twenty-three years older than his
wife, a peasant girl who had once served as a maid
in the house of his first wife. Thus, the father's
greater age, his higher social status, the traditional
prerogatives of the husband in the German family, the
man's over-weening pride -- all supported him in
maintaining a master-servant relationship with his
wife. Frau Hitler was nervous, mild, devoted, and
submissive, In his own home, Alois Hitler Was a
tyrant.
(f). In his treatment of his son Adolf, it is
said that the father was stern and harsh. Physical
punishments were frequent. He seems to have looked on
his son as a weakling, a good-for-nothing, moonstruck
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dreamer; at times perhaps his vanity imagined a
9uccessful career for the boy, which would still further
lift the family status, and so when young Pdolf announced
his intention to be on artist the f ther, perceiving
the frustration of his dream, put his foot down --
"An artist, no, never as long PS I live." (N.K. 14).
(g) There is some doubt about the complexion of
Alois Hitler's political sentiments. Hanisch reports
that "Hitler heard from his father only praise of
Germany and all the faults of Austria;" but, accord-
ing to Heiden, more reliable informants claim that
the father, though full of complaints and criticisms
of the government he served, was by no means a German
nationalist. They say he favored Austria against
Germany.
(h) It is not unlikely that Hitler in writing
his sketch of the typical lower class home drew upon
his personal experiences and if this is true, the
following passages give us an interesting side-light
on the character of the father:
(i) But things end badly indeed when
the man from the very start goes his own way
(Alois Hitler 'ran after other women') and
the wife, for the sake of her children,
tans up against him. Quarreling and
nagging set in, and in the same measure in
which the husbnd becomes estranged from
his wife, he becomes familiar with
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aleohol..:'horl, he finally comes home on
Sunday or Monday night, drunk and brutal,
but always without n lest cent end penny,
then God have mercy on the scenes which
follow. I 117 t ossed ll of thlt5 personally
la c7e..":4P_DQ.ginning
wa gus. cm.n ignaffion,..
(M.K.
The other things the little fellow
hears at home do not tend to further his
respect for his surroundings. Not a
single shred is left for humonity, not
a single institution is left unattacked;
starting with the teacher, up to the
head of the State, be it religion, or
morality as such, be it the State or
Society, no matter which, everything
is abused, everything is pulled down
In the nnstiest mann9r Into the filth
of a depraved mentality. (M.K. 43).
(i) Relations to Father
There are reasons to believe that the boy Adolf
wss very much afraid of his father in his early years;
that he was timid and submissive in his presence;
but when he was out of reach of his frth,ris immense
authority (when his father IMPS out of the house or
when the boy was at school under less severe dis-
ciplinarians) he VIPS often unruly end defiant. He
had no respect for a lenient system of government.
Not until ho was eleven did Ldolf tho to oppose
his father, lit,ru the issue wns the selection of his
vocation: HerrIntler wanted his son to follow in
his footsteps ond become a state officirl; but the
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boy decided he wanted to be on artist. Of this
conflict between foth-r and son, Fitler writes:
(i) 7is domineering nuture, the
result of c life-long stru4g1e for existence,
would have thought it unbearable to
leave the-ultirlote decision to a boy
who, in his opinion, was inexperienced
and irresponsible. (L.K. 11).
(ii) No matter how firm and de-
termined my father might be in carrying
out his plans and intentions once made,
his on was just as stubborn and
obstinate... (Tr.K. 12).
(iii) ...he opposed me with the
resoluteness of his entire nature...The
old man became embittered, and, much as
loved hiM, the same was true of myself
wend now the old men relentlessly began
to enforce his authority. (F.K. 13-14).
It is obvious from these and other passages,
as well as from local hearsay, that the relations of
Adolf and his parent from 1900-1903 (when the father
died) were exceedingly stormy. It wrs a classical
father-son confliat.
(j) Note; Hitler's attitude to old men. In
many places, in ljEIN KAMPF and in some of his recorded
conversations, Hitler speaks of old Men in a derogatory and
contemptuous manner. It is often very suggestive of what
Might have been his sentiments towards his sixty-
year-old father (twenty7three years older than his
mother). The following quotations might be cited
in illustration:
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(i) Rauschning: Everywhere, Hitler
complained, there were nothing but sterile
old men in their second Childhood, who
tragged of their technical knowledge and
had lost their sound common sense.
(ii) Hitler, quoted by Heiden;
My groat adversary, Reichsprdsident von
Tlindenburg, is today eighty-five yerrs
Of a.ge. I am forty-three and I feel in
-
perfect health. And nothing will happen
to me, for I am clearly donacious of the
great task which Providence has assigned
tome.
2. Mother
(e) Personality of
The pertinent facts
Klarn Poelzl Was an
Mother
are these:
exemplary housekeeper. Her
home was always spotlessly clean, everything had
its place, not a speck of dust on the furniture.
She had a gentle nature. Her relatively young
age, her docile character, her years of domestic
service -- all inclined her to compliance and
Christian resignation. The trials and tribulations
of life with an irascible husband resulted in a
permanent attitude of abnegation, Toward her son
Adolf she was ever devoted, catering to his whims
to the point of spoiling him. She it was who
encoUraged his artistic ambitions.
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The mother ras operated on for cancer of the
breast in the summer of 1907 and died within six months.
It is very likely that the disease was marked by
ulcerations of the chest well and metastases in the
1111C171�111,,11111
111TI_LWS M(Y1'11E1
(b) Relations to Mother.
Hitler hoe written very little and said nothing
publicly rbout his mother, but the few scraps obtained
suggest many you.,:hfui years of loving depndence
upon her. Eiticrr speaks of:
(i) .,.the mother devoting herself to
the cores of the household looking after her
children with eternally the some loving
kindness. (H.K. 5).
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(ii) For three or four of the 5 years
between his father's and his mother's death,
Adolf Hitler idled away e good deal of his
time as the indulged apple of his mother's
eye. She allowed him to drop his studies
at the Realschule; she encouraged him in his
ambitions to bp a painter; she yielded to
his every wish. During these years it is
reported, the relationship between mother
and son was marked by reciprocal adoration.
Hitler's amazing self-assurance (at most
times) can be attributed in part to the
Impression of these years when at the age
or thirteen his father died and he succeeded
to the power and became the little dictator
of the family. His older brother, Alois,
had left by this time, and he was the only
male in a household of four. "These were my
happiest days; they seemed like a dream to me,
and so they were." (Y.K. 25).
(iii) Hitler writes: "Yiy mother's
death...was a terrible shock to me...I loved
my mother."
(iv) Dr. Bloch reports that idolf
cried when he heard of his mother's suffer-
ings at operation and later at her death
exhibited great grief. The doctor has never
seen anyone so .Drestrate with sorrow. After
the burial in trae Catholic cemetery, Adolf
stayed by her grave long after the others
had departed.
(v) Hitler wore the picture of his
mother over his breast in the field during
World Tar I,
(vi) That the mother-child relation-
ship was a compelling though rejected', pattern
4 Q?
for ITltler may be surmised from (1) his
attachment to 'substitute mothers' during
1;11,3 post-Tar years, (2) his frequent use of
mother imagery' in speaking and writing,
and (3) his selection of pictures of Madonna
and child to decorate his rooms.
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Corner of Big Room at Berchtesgaden.
Painting of Madonna & Child over mantel.
From these and other bits of evidence we can
conclude that Hitler loved his mother and hated his
father, that he had an Oedipus Complex, in other words.
But, as we shall soon see, this can explain only one
phase of his relationship to his parents.
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(c) Siblings
It is certain that there were two older children
in the household during Adolf's early years. The
father had been married twice before; there was a
half-brother, Alois Hitler, Jr., and a half-sister,
Angela Hitler. We know nothing of Hitler's relation-
ship to the former (who much later turned up in Berlin
as proprietor of a restaurant). The hcif-sister,
Angela, married Herr Raubtal, nn official in the tax
bureau in Linz. Later she managed a restaurant for
Jewish students at the University of Vienna. For
some years she was Hitler's housekeeper at Berchtes-
gaden, until she married Professor Yartin Hnmmizsch
of Dresden, where she now lives.
(i) Several informants have stated that
there is a younger sister, Paula, born when Adolf
was about seven years old. Consequently, he must
have experienced the press Birth of Sibling during
his childhood. This younger sister, it seems, is a
very peculiar, seclusive person who now lives in
Vienna. It has been said that she had affairs with
several men in turn, one of whom was a Jew. It is
believed that she is mentally retarded.
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(ii) There are reports of two children
who died in infancy before Adolf was born. One of
these may have been Edmund, or Gustaf, mentioned by
some informants.
3. Boyhood Renctions, Activities, and Interests
Very little reliable information exists as to
Hitler's childhood. Most informants, however, agree
on the following points:
(a) Physical Weakness.- Adolf was n frail lad,
thin and pale. He did not participate in any athletics
or enjoy herd physical exercise. He was sensitive
and liked to be with his mother, look at books, sketch
landscapes; or take walks by himself. He liked to
daydream about Germany's wars, but he did nothing to
fit himself to be a soldier. When he tired of school
(ashamed of his inferiority in scholarship), he became
nervously sick (feigned lung trouble), and his mother
permitted him to drop out and stay at home.
(b) Low Tolerance of Frustration,- One can be
certain that, as a child, Adolf reacted violently to
frustration. Ho undoubtedly had temper tantrums
which were rewarded by his mother's ready compliance
to his wishes. (This was his way of "courting the
soul of the common people".) He was also finnicky
about food, we can be sure.
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(c) Rebelliousness and Repented Aggression.-
At home discipline was capricious: His father was
often unusually severe, his mother inordinately
lenient. As a result, he developed no steady and
consistent character; ho alternated between subservience
(to placate his father) and unruliness.
(i) Lansing: His first teacher
recalled that ho was a quarrelsome,
stubborn lad who smoked cigarets and cigar
stubs collected from the gutter or begged
from roisterers in the public houses.
(ii) Hanish reports that Fitler
told him that the people of the Innviertel
were great brawlers and that, as a boy,
he used to love to watch their fights.
Also, that hc: used to enjoy visiting a
fine exhibition in Linz of deadly weapons.
What others abhorred appealed to him.
Here is fair evidence of repressed
aggression (sadism) during boyhood.)
(iii) Hitler, as a more boy of ton,
became passionately interested in rending
about the "amazingly victorious campaign
of the heroic German armies during the
Franco-Prussian War". Soon this had be-
come "my greatest spiritual experience".
(1.K. 8).
(iv) I raved more and more about
everything connected with war or militarism.
(Y.K. 8).
(v) A careful examination of the
first chapter of MEIN KAMPF will convince
any psychologically trained reader that
Adolfts vigorous advocacy of the cause of
G, many as opposed to that of Austria from
th( age of eleven onward represented r
1, cOtimate substitute for his repressed
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rebellion against his father. Inspired by his
history teacher, Professor Pootsch (father-
surrogate), end a long line of German military
heroes, the boy could give vent to his pent-up
resentment by publicly proclaiming his devotion
to the German Reich of Bismark and vehemently
denouncing the authority of Austria (symbol of
his father). In MEIN IU,MPF Hitler writes at
length of his possession of ;
(vi) ...an intense love for my native
German-Austrian country and a bitter hatred
against the Ikustrian' State. (M.K. 22-23).
Speaking of the youthful Nationalist movement
that he joined, he writes:
(vii) ...it is rebellious; it wears the
forbidden emblem of its own nationality and
rejoices in being punished or even in being
beaten for wearing that emblow...the greeting
was 'Neil'; and 'Deutschland ubcr alles, was
preferred to the imperial anthem, duspite
warnings and punishments. (Y.K. 15).
It was during these days that he first began
to play the r/Ole of n young agitator.
(viii) I believe that oven then my
ability for raking speeches Was trained by
the more or less stirring discussipns with
my comrades...For obvious reasons my father
could not appreciate the talent for oratory
of his quarrelsome son. (M.K. 7).
The boy's ideas of greatest glory revolved round
the victories of the Franco-Prussian War.
(ix) Why was it that Austria had not
takun part also in this war, why not my father
.,.? (M.K. 9). I had doeidedly no sympathy
for the course my father's life had taken.
(r.K. 7). During the years of my unruly youth
nothing had grieved me more than having been born
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at a time when temples of glory were only
erected to merchants or State officials
(his father's profession). (M.K. 204).
I, too, wanted to become 'something' --
but in no event an official. (M.K. 25).
These quotations supply further evidence
of Adolf's repressed hatred of his father and of the
fact that negativism and wilfulness had become es-
tablished patterns before puberty.
(d) Passivity, or Illness, as Means of
Resistance.- Hitler manifested P significant aspect
of his nature when he determined to frustrate his
father's intention to make a civil servant out of
him. The policy ho adopted was that of resistance
through indolence and passivity.
(i) I was certain that as soon as
my father saw my lack of progress in school
...he would let me seek the happiness
of which I was dreaming. (M.K. 14).
Later, after his father's death, when he wanted
to leave school, he won his mother's consent by making
himself sick.
(i) Impressed by my illness my mother
agreed at long last to take me out of school...
(X.K. 24).
After this he spent two years of shiftless
activity around the house, which set the pattern
for his passive drifting end dreaming days in Vienna.
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(e) Lack of Friends.- No friendships dating
from boyhood lit-ye ever been mentioned and it is not
likely that the boy was at all popular with his class-
mates. During adolescence he was said to be quiet,
serious, dreamy and taciturn.
(f) Sexual Misbehavior. A Nazi who visited
Leonding much late::, and looked up the school records
there found evidence that at the age of eleven or
twelve Adolf had committed a serious sexual indiscre-
tion with a little girl. For this he was punished
but not expelled from school.
4. Conclusions
(a) Hate for Father, Love for Mother, (Oedipus
Complex). This has been noted and stressed by numerous
psychologists; and some evidence for it has been listed
here. Rarely mentioned but equally important is:
(b) Respect for Power of Father Contempt for
Weakness of Mother. Hitler is certainly not a typical
product of the Oedipus complex, and more can be learned
about the underlying forces of his character by
observing which parent he has emulated, rather than
which parent he has loved. In MEIN KAYPF, he writes,
"I had respected my father, but I loved my mother."
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He might bettcr have said, "I loved my mother, but
I respected my father", because respect has always
meant more to him than love.
(c) Identification with Father. Although Hitler
has not the physique or temperament of his old men,
being constitutionally of another typo, it is evident
that he has imitated, consciously or unconsciously,
many of his father's traits and none of his mother's.
(d) Adolf Hitler's will to power, his pride,
aggressiveness end cult of brutality are all in
keeping with whet we know of the personality and
conduct of Alois Hitler. The son's declaration that
he has demanded nothing but sacrifices from his ad-
herents is certainly reminiscent of the father's
attitude toward wife and children.
(i) ...his son has undoubtedly in-
herited, amongst other qualities, a stubborn-
ness similar to-his own... (Y.K. 14).
(.e) The father's loud, boastful, and perhaps
drunken, talk, at home and at the pub (described by
some informants), may well have provided his young
son with an impressive model for emulation. The
notion of being a village pastor had appealed to
Alois Hitler and that of being an abbot appealed
to his boy, no doubt for the same reason -- the
opportunity it afforded for oratory.
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(f) Father and son each left home to seek his
fortune in Vienna. In MEIN KAMPF there are several
indications that the image of his father's success
in Vienna acted as a spur.
(i) I, too, hoped to wrest from Fate
the success my father had met fifty years
earlier... (Y.K. 25).
(ii) And I wouqop overcome these
obstacles, always bearing in mind my father's
example, who, from being a poor village boy
and a cobbler's apprentice, hpd made his way
up to the position of civil servant. (M.K. 28).
(g) Adelf Hitler sported a walrlAs moustache
like his father's for a number of years. He finally
trimmed it in imitation of a new exemplar, Feder.
(h) Adolf Hitler's invariable uniform and
pistol may well have been suggested by Alois Hitler's
uniform and pistol (1 (d)).
(i) It is said that Alois Hitler had a great
respect for the class system; was proud of his rise
in status; envied those above him and looked down
upon those below him. If this is true, the father
was instrumental in establishing a pattern of senti-
ments which was of determining importance in his son's
career. Adolf Hitler has always been envious of his
superiors and deferential; he has never showed any
affinity for the proletariat.
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(j) Adolf Hitler has hung e portrait of his
father over the desk in his study at Berchtesgaden.
This is a signal honor, since the likeness of only
three other men -- Frederick the Great, Karl von
Moltke, and Mussolini -- have been selected for
inclusion in any of Hitler's rooms. There is no-
where any picture of his mother.
Hitler's Study at Berghof,
Desk faces portrait of Alois Hitler.
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Alois, it is said, was a smoker, a drinker and
a lecher; and today his son is remarkable for his
abstemiousness. Thus, in these respects the two
are different. But we should not forget that Adolf
used to pick up cigar butts and smoke them as a boy;
he drank beer and wine in his early Munich days; and
in the lest fifteen years has shown a good deal of
interest in women.
There can be no doubt then that Hitler greatly
envied and admired the power and authority of his
father; and although he hated him as the tyrant who
opposed and frustrated him personally, he looked on
him with awe, and admiration, desiring to be as he
was. Speaking of his old man, the son confessed in
his autobiography that "unconsciously he had sown
the seeds for a future which neither he nor I would
have grasped at that time." (Y.K. 24). Henceforth
Adolf Hitler's attention and emulation was only to
be evoked by a dominating ruthless man, and if this
man happened to be in opposition to him, then he
would hate and respect him simultaneously. Hitler's
admiration for strongly enduring institutions was
'very similar, it seems, to his admiration for his
sixty-year-old parent. He writes:
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(i) ...incredibly vigorous power that
inhabits this age-old institution (Catholic '
Church).
(ii) ...he (Lueger) was disposed...to
secure the favor of any existing powerful
institutions, in order that he might derive
from these old sources of strength the
greatest possible advantage...
(k) Identification with Mother.- In Hitler's
constitution there is a large gynic (feminine)
component and he has many feminine traits, some
hidden. Consequently, in view of his avowed love
for hie mother, we must suppose that there was a
dispositional kinship or biological identification,
between the two during the boy's earliest years.
Adolf naturally and spontaneously felt the way
his mother felt. This, however, was not of his
own making. There is some evidence that in Hitler's
mind "Germany" is a mystical conception which stands
for the ideal mother--a substitute for his own im-
perfect mother. But there are no indications, in
any event, that Hitler admired his mother or any
woman who resembled her, or that he adopted any
of her sentiments, or that he was even influenced
by her in any important way. Hence, the conclusion
Is that Hitler had many traits in common with his
mother; but that he repudiated these traits as
evidences of weakness and femininity, and in so
doing repudiated her.
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(k) Rej�i�n of To the extent that
Hitler respected and emulated his father, he dis-
respected and denied his mother. Some evidence to
demonstrate this point will be brought forward in a
later section. Hitler probably loved his mother very
much as a person; but his strong dependent attachment
to her was a humiliating sign of his incapacity to
take care of himself, and hence he was forced to be-
little the relationship. At eighteen years he was too
near to her weakness, not feminine enough and yet not
male enough, to respect her. He writes:
.(I) I owe much to the time in which
I had learned to become hard (in Vienna)...
I praise it even more for having rescued
me from the emptiness of an easy life (in
Linz with his mother), that it took the
milksop out of his downy nest and gave
him Dame Sorrow for a foster mother...
(M.K. 29).
"Hanis6h rePorts that in Vienna Hitler mani-
fested a "queer idealism about love"; but had very
little respect for the female sex. Every woman he
believed could be had. This remark falls in with
the evidence to be presented later which suggests that
for a time Adolf was indignant with his mother for
submitting to his father, and in the end scorned her
for so doing. Since he has always been
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contemptuous of physical weakness, one might expect
him to be contemptuous of women; and there are some
facts to show that this is true. It is even possible
that after Herr Hitler's death the adolescent Adolf,
adopting his father's rSie to some extent, sometimes
lashed his mother with insolent words and maybe struck
her. If this were true, it would help explain his
exceeding grief on the occasion of her death, guilt
contributing to his dejection, and it might explain a
striking passage in MEIN KAMPF" in which Hitler des-
cribes the typical lower class family.
(i) When, at the age of fourteen, the
young lad is dismissed from school (Adolf
dropped school when he was about sixteen
years), it is difficult to say which is
worse: his unbelievable ignorance as far
as knowledge and ability are concerned, or
the biting impudence of his behavior, com-
bined with an immorality which makes one's
hair stand on end, considering his age
(Adolf's immorality came to the notice of
his teachers at the ago of twelve years)...
The three-year-old child has now become a
youth of fifteen who despises all authority
(Recall Adolf's conflict with his father)...
Now he loiters about, and God only knows when
he comes home (See p. 7,..."caused my mother
much grief, made me anything but a stay-at-
home").; for a change he may even beat the
poor creature who was once his mother, curses
God and the world... (M.K. 43-44).
(1) Evidence will be advanced later to show
that one of the most potent impressions of Hitler's
early life was that of a relationship In which a
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a domineerins and severe old man (his father) bullied
and scornfully maltreated a gentle and compliant woman
(his mother). The effects of being reared under these
conditions were lasting: the experience made it im-
possible for him to believe in, hope for, or enjoy a
relationship marked by peace, love, and tenderness.
(m) The outstanding press of the boy's early
life were those of 2._-ELgression and p - Rejection.
The former came mostly from his father; the latter from
many people. Among the specific causes of this idea
of having been rejected we would list (1) the birth
of a younger sister, Paula, in 1895 or 1896; (2) the
opposition of his father; (3) his repeated failures
at school; (4) his lack of friends; (5) the death
of both parents, making it necessary for him, a
penniless uneducated and unemployed orphan, to face
the world alone. The sense of being rejected by his
family is in many passages expressed in connection
with his feeling of being excluded from membership
in the German nation. This point will be taken up
later.
(i) Are we not the same as all the
other Germans? Do we not all belong to-
gether? This problem now began to whirl
through my little head for the first time.
After cautious questioning, I heard with
envy the reply that not every German was
fortunate enough to belong to Bismarck's
Reich. This I could not understand. (M.K.
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(ii) An unnatural separation from the
great common Motherland. (M.N.O. 469).
� �
(n) Repudiation of Past Self and Family Connections.
Knowing Hitler's fanatical sentiments against mixed
marriages,, impure blood, the lower classes, and the
Jewish race, it is important to note the following
facts:
(i) His forebears come from a region in
which the blood of Bavarians, Bohemians, Moravians,
Czechs, and Slovakians have mixed for generations.
Without doubt all of these strains are represented
in him.
(ii) His father was illegitimate; his grand-
father may have been a Viennese Jew.
(iii) His godfather, Herr Prinz, was a
Viennese Jew.
(iv) His father had three wives, one a
waitress, one a domestic servant, and a number of
women on the side (hearsay).
(v) His father begot at least one child
out of marriage.
(vi) Klara Poelzl, his mother, was Alois
Hitler's second cousin once removed and also his ward
(twenty-three years younger). Special permission from
the Church had to be obtained before he could marry her.
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sister,
was the
most of
(vii) Angela Hitler, Adolf's older half-
ran a restaurant for Jewish students in Vienna.
(viii) Paula Hitler, Adolf's younger sister,
mistress of a Viennese Jew for a while.
(ix) A cousin of Hitler's is feeble-minded,
the other members of his clan are ignorant,
illiterate, or mentally retarded. He himself had to
repeat the first yeer of Realschule (Technical High
School) and failed to graduate..
Thus, Hitler has spent a good part of his life
cursing and condemning people who belong to his layer
of society, who resemble members of his own clan, who
have characteristics sirrilar to his own. On the other
hand, thc, ideal he has set up, the person he pretends
to be, is the exact opposite of all this. We have a
fairly clear case, then, of Counteraction against
inferiority feelings and self-contempt. Between
1908, when he left, and 1938, after the Anschluss,
Hitler never visited his home and never communicated
with his relatives (except in the case of his half-
sister Angela). Unlike Napoleon, he did not carry his
family along with him as he ascended to the heights
of power. In this we see a Rejection of his past self
and family connections.
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(o) Identification with Germany.- Hitler's
egocentrism has always been so marked; he has been
such a Bohemian, if not a lone wolf, in many phases of
his career that his undoubted devotion to Germany strikes
one as most unusual. Since this devotion began at an
early age and was the factor, more than any other, which
decided that he would become a supreme success rather
than an utter failure, it is worth while noting here
the forces so far mentioned which brought about this
intense insociation:
(i) Influence of Ludwig Poetsch, his
teacher, who, serving as a substitute father,
glorified the history of Germany and presented
Bismark's Reich as an ideal.
(ii) Influence of a strong nationalist
association among Hitler's classmates.
(iii) Cathexis of power. The figures of .
Frederick the Great,Bismarck and others offered better
foci of admiration than did Austrian heroes.
(iv) Insociation with a more powerful nation
satisfied his youthful pride, raised his status in his
own eyes, and allowed him to reject his inferior
Austrian self.
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119T
(v) Heightened cathexis of an object behind
a barrier. This is a general principle: that an
individual will idealize an object that he can not
quite attain -- so near but yet so far. In this
connectiOn it is interesting to note that the great
majority of dictators have not been natives of the
country that they came to dominate. Hitler's con-
tinued sympathy for Germans outside the Reich is evi-
dently a projection of his own self-pity as an Ost-
markian.
(v-1) (Memel returns to the
Reich) I thereby lead you back into that
home which you have not forgotten and which
has never forgotten you. (M.N.O. 614).
(vi) Displacement of defiance against
the father. By identifying himself with Germany, the
boy Adolf found an object even greater than his stern
father, which permitted him to give vent to his frus-
trated rebelliousness against his Austrian parent.
(vii) Germany as a substitute mother.
In view of the press rejection suffered in childhood,
it is likely -- and much evidence for this hypothesis
will be presented later -- that Germany represented
a kind of foster parent. It is even possible that
Hitler as a child entertained a foster parent fantasy.
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He speaks of being Bavarian bY blood, a statement:_for
Which there is no known justification. This point will
be fully discussed later in describing his devotions
to Germany's cause in 191B, the hour of her deepest
humiliation. In many places Hitler spanks of Germany
in words that one might use in speaking of a beloved
woman:
(vii - 1) ...the longing grew
stronger to go there (Germany) where
since my early youth I had been drawn
ErFecret wishes and secret love.
(M.X. l61).
(vii - 2) What I first had
looked upon as an impassable chasm
now Spurred me on to a greater love
for my country than ever before.
(F.K. 55).
(vii - 3) Heiden, quoting
from Hitler: The hundreds of thou-
sands who love their country more
than anything else must also be
loved by their country more than
anything else.
(vii - 4) I appeal to those
who, severed from the motherland,
have to fight for the holy treasure
of their language.,and who now in
painful emotion long for the hour
that will allow them to return to
the arms of the beloved mother.-..
(M.K. 151),
The common expression for Germans is Fatherland,
but Hitler very often substitutes Motherland, He
speaks of "the common motherland," "the great German
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motherland," "the German mother of all life".
This is not unnatural, since he once a very de-
pendent adolescent, was left penniless and unbe-
friended after the death of his mother. we are
not surprised, therefore, to find him speaking of
being removed "from the emptiness of an easy life,
that it took the milksop out of his downy nest and
gave him Dame Sorrow for a foster mother" and
speaking also of the time "when the Goddess of
Misery took me into her arms". It is reported
that he was mothered by several older ladies in
his early Munich days and seemed to find comfort
in such relationships. In 1920, for example, he
found a sort of home with Frau Hoffman, He always
had to send her., according to Hoiden, his latest
portrait, on which he would write, for example:
"To my dear, faithful little Mother, Christmas,
1925, from her respectful Adolf Hitler."
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B. VIENNA DAYS
1908 - 1913
The chief facts pertinent to the present analysis
are these:
1. Klara Hitler was operated on for cancer of
the breast in the early summer of 1907. On December
21, 1907, she died. Two months before her death,
Adolf Hitler went to Vienna and was examined by the
Academy School of Art. He failed. He moved to
Vienna in the winter of 1908, and the following
October presented himself again at the Academy. But
the drawings he brought as illustrations of hls work
were considered so lacking in talent that he was not
allowed to take the examination. He was told he
would make a better architect than painter, though
he himself reports that he was a better colorist
than draftsman.
2. Some account of these years has been given
us by Hanisch, a "bum" from Bohemia who befriended
him. They were fellow members of the same hostel,
or flophouse. The first thing Hitler said to Hanisch
soundz like a projection of (1) press Rejection and
(2) press Aggression. He said (1) his landlady had
dispossested him and now he was without shelter, and
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(2) he had begged a drunken man for a few pennies
but the latter had raised his cane and insulted
him. Hitler was very bitter about this.
3. Hitler wore a beard during this period and
in his long overcoat looked very mu3h like a certain
type of Oriental Jew not uncommon in Vienna. Hitler
had a number of Jewish acquaintances and sold post-
cards that he painted to Jewish dealers. There was
no evidence during these first years of any hostility
to Jews. Only later, after he had listened excitedly
to the speeches of the anti-Semitic mayo.6 Lueger,
did he become an avowed, and somewhat later a fanatical,
Anti-Semite himself.
4. Hitler was exceedingly lazy and procrastinating
in doing his little water colors during these days.
He was much more interested in haranguing the other
inmates of the hostel on the subject of politics.
Already he had vague notions of founding a party.
5. He devoted some time to thinking up little
devices for making money through trickery. According
to one informant, his name is in the Vienna police
records as having been accused of theft, and it is
suggested that his departure for Munich in 1913 was
prompted by a desire to avoid serving a term in jail.
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6. Hitler's friendship with Hanisch came to
an abrupt end when he accused the latter of stealing
money from him. This has the flavor of a typical
Hitlerian projection.
7. Hanisch reports that Hitler,s love for
Germany and his hate for Austria were vociferously
expressed on all occasions during these years.
8. Hitler was shocked by what he saw of sexual
practices in Vienna. Hanisch speaks of his having
a purity complex.
9. According to one informant, Hitler is down in
the police records of Vienna as a sex pervert.
10. In 1923, Hitler left Vienna and entered the
country of which he had long yearned to be a citizen.
He became a resident of Munich.
11. The press of Rejection is perhaps the out-.
standing feature of the Vienna period. There was in
the first place the rejection by the Academy of Arts,
which Hitler felt was based on his inadequate education
This left a resentment against intellectuals generally
which was never stilled. The following excerpt sums
up his conclusions on this point.
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(i) Generally, it is the children of
higher place, momentarily well-to-do parents
who in turn are deemed.worthy of a higher
education. Hereby 'questions of talent play
a subordinate r8le.
Many other passages speak eloquently of insults
to his pride received at the hands of the privileged
world of the gay capital.
(i) ...the graciously patronizing attitudes
of a certain part of the fashionable world
both in ,skirts and trousers) whose 'sympathy
for the people' is at times as haughty as it
is obtrusive and tactless.
(ii) Vienna, the city that to so many
represents the idea of harmless gaiety, the
festive place for merrymaking, is to ma the
only living memory of the most miserable time
of my life.
12. Hitler spent five years in Vienna. Living
as he was, penniless among the penniless of the lower
class, he himself experienced, and he was in close
touch with others who experienced, the basic wants
and viewpoints of the depressed victims of civiliza-
tion. Here, certainly, was much food for thought.
He also attended sessions of parliament and numerous
.political mass meetings, and observed the proceedings
critically. From the start he was constantly pre-
occupied with the question: why does this political
movement fail and that one succeed? It was natural
for him to think realistically and strategically; not
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to make the common mistake of supposing man to be
better than he is, and yet taking full account of
his heroic potentialities, having observed that
millions of simple untutored men will gladly fight and
sacrifice their lives for an ideal vividly presented.
In addition, Hitler spent many hours in the public
library looking over histories and books dealing with
social questions. YEIN KAMPF proves that the young
man from Linz who could not get through High School
was capable of profiting by what he saw and read, and
that these five years of drifting and irregular em-
ployment were by no means wasted. The flophouse and
the beer hall were his Heidelberg and University of
Vienna. He writes:
(i) So in a few years I built a foundation
of knowledge from which I still draw nourish-
ment today. ().K. 29).
(ii) At that time I formed an image of
the world and a view of life which became the
granite foundation for my actions. (N.K. 30).
13. For the Vienna period the critical question
psychologically is this: why did Hitler, living among
the proletariat, find the developed ideology of communism
repellent and the embryonic ideology of fascism appealing?
The chief determinants of his choice, as they occur to
me are these:
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(i) Hitler's father belonged to the lower
middle class. Laving moved one rung up the ladder by
years of effort, his .pride compelled him to draw a
sharp line between himself and those below him. No
one has stated this principle of behavior better than
his son:
(i 3) The reason for that
which one could almost call 'hostility'
is the frIct that a social clasJ, which
has only recently worked its way up
from the level of manual labor, fears
to fall beck into the old, but little
esteemed, class, or at least fears be-
ing counted in with that class. In
addition, many remember with disgust
the misery existing in the lower class;
the frequent brutality of their daily
social contacts; their own position in
society, however small it may be, makes
every contact with the state of life
and culture, which they in turn have
loft behind, unbearable.
This explains why members of
the higher social class can frequently
lower themselves to the humblest of
their fellow beings with less embarrass-
mont than seems possible to the 'upstarts'.
For an upstart is anyone who,
through his own energy, works his way
up from his previous social position to
a higher one.
Finally, this relentless struggle
kills � pi. One's own painful
ram be for existence suffocates the
feelinga sympathy for the misery of
those left behind. (M.K. 31-32).
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Brought up by such a father, it was natural for
Adolf Hitler to envy and admire his social superiors
and look with contempt upon those of a lower station.
As the American editors of MEIN KANPF have put it,
(ii) Hitler, conscioas of belonging
to a higher social caste than his fellow-
workers,, .instinctively retreats from the
idea of accepting solidarity with them.
(F.K. 55).
(iii) FAtler had already been identified
for some years with the German Nationalist movement
and so his unit of insociation (group identification
and belongingness) was greatly threatened by the com-
munists' unit of insociation, the manual workers of
the world. The former would lead logically to a
war between nations, the latter to a war between
classes. Communism was the greatest enemy of nation-
alism.
(iv) Parallel to his naturalistic senti-
ments was Hitler's enthusiasm for the military, a
professional class which is antipathetic to
communists generally. The former finds its goal in
Power and Glory; the latter in Peace and Prosperity.
(v) Hitler had great reverence for the
strong and contempt for the weak and therefore
favored a stratified social system, a dictatorship
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of the elite There was no compassion in his make-
up; he had little sympathy for the under-dog. His
ideology was founded on the rise to power of nature's
supermen invoivi-ag relationships of dominance and
submi_ssion among mon. Communism was founded on the
notion of equality.
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C, WAR 7XPERIENCES
1914 - 1915
The recorc-, cf these years is conflicting, but the
following points are probably '',rue and pertinent to
our theme.
1. In enlisting in the Army, Hitler became incor-
porated for the fT.?-st time. Never before had he been
an accepted merl'eT, of a respected institution. This
was not only a great relief to him, enabling him-to
forget the long series of past failures, but it pro-
vided a ground for pride and a sense of security. At
last he and the German nation were one.
2. There is no evidence that Hitler was ever
in a front line trench. It seems that he served as
a messenger and was required to travese ground
that was being shelled by the enemy. Hitler, it
appears, was quick to offer himself for dangerous
tasks of this kind and was said to be an adept at
running and then falling or seeking shelter behind
some obstacle when the fire became intense. In this
he showed courage. There is no record, however, in
the War Department of any episode such as has been
described in connection with his winning the Iron
Cross, First Order. Apparently he was awarded this
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medal after he had left the Front, supposedly
gassed in one of the last offensives of the Allies.
3. Informants have commented on Hitler's marked
subservience to the superior officers, offering to
do ',1.eir washing and perform other menial tasks,
courting their good graces to such an extent that
his comrades were disgusted.
4. Hitler """-le the only man in his company
never to receive any mail or packages from home, and
at Christmas and other occasions when the others
were receiving gifts and messages he suned moodily
by himself. Here is another instance Of press re-
jection.
5. It is hard to explain the fact that in
four years of service he was not promoted above the
rank of corporal. The comment by one of his officers
that he was a neurotic fellow is the only explana-
tion that has been advanced.
6. It seems certain that Hitler was not gassed
to any serious extent in 1918, but that he suffered
from a war neurosis, hysterical blindness, which
also deprived him of hie voice and perhaps his
hearing. This psychosomatic illness was concomitant
with the final defeat of his Mother Germany, and it
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was after hearing the news of her capitulation that
he had his viscr.:1 of his task as savior. Suddenly
his sight was let,toced.
4t-
Hitler with fellow patients
at Pasewalk, 1918
7. In 1918 Hitler, the soldier, became very
disturbed at the surprising success of Allied props-
ganda and then occurred a reaction that was typical
of his whole character, namely, to admire and then
to acquire the technique powerful opponent.
(i) we had a chance to become acquainted
with the incredible disciplines of our opponents
propaganda, and still today it is my pride to
have found the means...for beating finally its
very makers. Two years later I was master in
this craft.
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:D. P0,7)T-WAR :HISTORY
From 1919 the present Hitler's doings are
lec obscure tLf:.n for the periods so far reviewed.
A ue%t many of the facts are a matter of common
knowledge and WO Till not review them in this sec-
tion here. A fey. points, however, are worthy of
being highlight,
1. For a yetir or two after his release from
the military hospital, Hitler was more or less foot-
loose, "a stray dog looking for a master," according
to one informant. Undoubtedly there were more
instances of press rejection to embitter him.
2. He was still a member of the Reichswehr
when his superior officer, discovering his ability
in public speaking, assigned him the task of indoctrinat-
ing the soldiers with the desired ideology. Later
he was asked to speak to a civilian group. This
success encouraged him to go further and enter politics
for life. Hitler's realization that he had the power
to sway large masses of people was the second crucial
factor, next to his revelation in the hospital while
blind, in determining his career. His phenomenal
success hinged on his mass-rousing talent.
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3. After hoirg Pr speak, Hitler was prompted
to join a small c)1:.1) that e;a:led itself the National
Socialist Torkor', WIthin a year he was its
mov!ng spirit ni oie loader, and it might fairly
be F�I'_ei that he wa:, its creator as it now exists,
the difference 'oet7een its status before he joined
and soon afterwa'l-dFi. being so great.
No doubt HiL"r had been making speeches in
fantasy since hia boyhood and had done a good deal
of informal haranglling throughout this whole period,
first as the adolescent ringleader of the young
Nationalists at school, second as a ham politician
among the derelicts of the Vienna slums, and third
as a corporal behind the lines, but his sudden emergence
as a spiritual force during the period 1921 - 1923
brought him into a much magnified sphere of activity
which was qualitatively different. A selection
from FEIN KAMPF, which is unquestionably autobiographical
in reference, might be quoted here as a hint of how
the transformation was apperceived by him:
In the monotony of everyday life even
important people often seem unimportant and they
hardly stand out over the average of their
surroundings; but as soon as they are faced
by a situation in which others would despair
or go wrong, out of the plain average child
the ingenious nature grows visibly, not in-
frequently to the astonishment of all those who
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hitherto had an opportunity to observe him,
who had meanwhile grown up in the smallness of
bourgeois life, and therefore, in consequence
of TEis process, the prophet has rarely any
honor in his own country. Never is there a
better opportunity to observe this than during
war. In the hours of distress, when others
despair, out of apparently harmless children,
there shoot suddenly heroes of death-defying
determination and icy coolness of reflection.
If this hour of trial had never come, then
hardly anyone would ever have been able to
guess that a young hero is hidden in the beard-
less boy. Nearly always such an impetus is
needed in order to call genius into action.
Fate's hammer stroke, which then throws the one
to the ground, suddenly strikes steel in
another, and while now the shell of everyday
life is broken, the erstwhile nucleus lies
open to the eyes of the astonished world.
(Y.K. 402-3).
4. It seems clear that it was (1) the defeat of
Germany and (2) the opposition against which he had
to strive that acted as instigators to his behavior
from then on, which became more and more aggressively
dominant. The idea of being a revolutionary was a
necessary impetus to action.
We National Socialists know that with
this opinion we stand as revolutionaries in
the world of today, and that we are branded as
such. But our thinking and acting must not
be determined by the applause or the rejection
of our time. (F.K. 595-9).
5. Hitler was chiefly attracted during these
early years to a homosexual, Ernst Roehm, a superior
officer with an upperclass background. The physical
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strength and social assurance of Roehm were much
envied and, to have the political backing of such a
figure, gave Hitler a sense of security.
3. Up to the famous Munich Putsch, 1923, Hitler
was conspicuous in his worship of and flattering
subservience to ranking officers in the Army, especially
in these days in his relations with General Ludendorff,
but from 1924 on, although he never entirely lost a
certain embarrassment in the presence of his former
superiors, there was a change from abasement to
dominance and even arrogance in dealing with aristocrats
and war lords.
7. The chief points in his political program
were these:
(a) wiping the Versailles Treaty off the
books,
(b) denial of war guilt,
(c) resurrection of Germany as a military
power of the first order,
(d) militaristic expansion, dominated by
the motive of revenge against the
Allies, and
Anti-Semitism. Soon afterwards
the purification of the German people
by a variety of hygienic measures was
added as an essential aim or policy.
(e)
(f)
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8. During the years from 1923 and 1933, Hitlerls
emotional outbursts, his tantrums of rage and indigna-
tion, his spells of weeping and threats of self-
annjhilation increased in frequency and intensity.
This can be partly accounted for by the L,1-;t that
they were effective in bringing his associates
around to his point of view. Instead of antagonizing
the group of revolutionists who with him were plotting
to usurp power, these frightful orgies of passion
served to intimidate them. Everyone sought to
avoid topics that would bring about the fits.
9. Among the reasons given in extenuation of
the cold-blooded purge of 1934 were (a) that the
victims were disgusting homosexuals and (b) that
they were plotting to snatch the power and supersede
him.
10. During the last twenty years, rumors have
periodically arisen and spread to the effect that
Hitler was enamoured of this or that young woman;
most of these were either fabricated for one reason
or another or premature, since the appeal that cer-
tain women, of the stage particularly, had for Hitler
was generally short-lived. The one affair that
stands out is that with a nineteen-year-old Angela
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(Geli) Raubal, his niece. Hitler was often in her
company and was pathologically jealous of any atten-
tions shown her by other men. Two informants have
stated positively thr).t Hitler murdered the girl,
but the official report was suicide. Whihever story
is correct, -however, we gain the impression of a
peculiar and stormy relationship. Rumors have it
that Hitler's sexual life, such as it is, demands
a unique performance on the part of the women, the
exact nature of which is a state secret.
11. A great deal has been made in Germany of
Hitler's asceticism, but this, when you come down
to it, amounts to a vegetarian diet, served him by
the best chef in the Reich, and a great variety of
soft drinks in place of hard liquor. It is said
that he did not permanently give up meat until after
the death of his niece Geli.
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V. PERSONALITY STRUCTURE
A. EGO, SUPEREGO, AND ID
1- Ego
According to the criteria we are a,..1'LLtomed
to use in measuring ego strength and structure,
Hitler's ego is surprisingly weak. Here we are
of course using the term ego to apply to an institu-
tion of the personality (not to narcissism, or self-
esteem). Hitler is conspicuously low in the following
powers:
(a) Deficient ability to organize and
coordinate his efforts.
(I) During his boyhood, especially
at the time he was living as an indulged youngster
in his mother's apartment, Hitler's activities were
markedly irregular and aimless. He was unable to
apply himself except when his impulse prompted him
to do so.
(ii) Hanisch reports that in Vienna
Hitler was never an ardent worker, was unable to
get up in the morning, had difficulty in getting
started, suffered from paralysis of the will. He
always stopped work the moment he had earned a little
money, explaining that "he must have some liesure, he
was not a coolie".
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(iii) According to Rauschning, "He
does not know how to work steadily. Indeed, he is
incapable of working. He gets ideas, impulses, the
realization of which must be feverishly achieved
and immediately got rid of. He does not !'now what
it is to work continuously. Everything &tout him
is 'spasm', to use a favorite word of his.
(iv) Although Hitler prescribes
disciplined order of work for those about him, he
hirrself lives like an artist or Bohemian. His habits
are as erratic and irregular as his temper. He may
go to bed at eleven P.N. or four A.H., getting up
at seven or at noon. He is rarely punctual.
(v) According to flauschning again,
"Hitler seems a man of tremendous will power, but
the appearance is deceptive. He is languid and
apathetic by nature, and needs the stimulus of
nervous excitement to rouse him out of chronic lethargy
to spasmodic activity..."
(b) Deficient ability to resolve conflicts. -
Hitler has always suffered from periods of indecisive-
ness and mental confusion thrt incapacitate hill' to
the extent of being unable to make any decision or
come to any conclusion. Then quite suddenly his
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inner voice will speak, but as a rule, not until
the situation has become threatening. As Roehm says,
"Usually he solves suddenly, at the very last moment.
only becnuse he vacillates and procrastinates."
(c) Deficient ability to control emotion.-
His tantrums have been often described, and even
thought it be admitted thet Hitler has a capacity
to turn them on and off as he sees fit, still, such
unmanly display of infantile intolerance to frustra-
tion, of tears and shrieks, is entirely out of
keeping with his own ideal of the Iron Sapermensch.
(i) Rauschning: "My own experience of
him and what I have learned from others indicate a
lack of control amounting to total demoralization."
(d) Deficient objectivity.- Distortion of
human behavior and social events by frequent projec-
tions giving rise to delusions of all sorts.
(e) Disjunctivity of thought and speech.-
All of Hitler's writings and reported speeches
exhibit a disorganization of ideas and verbal ex-
pression which at times verges on the pathological.
(f) Insight deficiencz. - Hitler has never
shown any capacity to perceive or admit his errors
and defects. Part of this is a conscious determina-
tion to follow the policy of denying them, this
being considered by him politically expedient.
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(g)
Inability to keep his word and fulfill
obligations,
(i) It has been said that "Hitler dis-
cards with perfect ease everything that a moment
before has passed as a fixed principle. His political
attitude is characterized by two things 7 first, an
unbelievable capacity to tell falsehood, end second,
a quite disarming naivete, a total innocence of
promises and assertions made only a moment before."
(h) In contrast to these signs of weakness,
Hitler is high sometimes very hight on the following
criteria:
(i
power to do what he wants to do and
has the capacity to do,
(ii) counteractive restriving,
(iii) power to resist undesirable coercions
from society,
(iv) power to resist dictatorship of con-
ventional superego,
(v) initiative and self-sufficiency,
(vi) ability to take responsibility and
effectively direct others,
(vii) long apperceptive span (taking account
of a distant future in making decisions.
(i) The situation may be briefly formulated
by stating that Hitler operates on thalamic energy
rather than on conscious will and rational planning.-
Possessed by fanatical passion he can accomplish
things which those who act on cooler and more moderate
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plan fail to achieve. The force, in other words,
comes from the id, and the ego is used in its ser-
vice. This combination is typical of the gangster;
but Hitler is different from the ordinary type,
having some of the attributes of the romantic artist.
He is a compound, say, of Lord Byron and Al Capone.
2. Id
Under the term id I am including all unconscious
psychic processes -- principally affective and
conative processes which emerge suddenly without
voluntary effort and take possession of the ego but
also unconscious intellective processes resulting in
sudden judgments and decisions. Such processes are
an important part of every man's psychology. It is
only when they play an unusually dominant role in
determining action that we stress them. They are
especially prominent in the intuitive type, Hitler
being one of these. Hitler's sentiments in this
regard conform to his behavior.
(i) We must distrust the intelligence
and the conscience and must place our trust
in our instincts. We have to regain a new
simplicity. (Quoted by Rauschning).
(ii) ...Over-educated people, stuffed
with knowledge and intellect, but bare of any
sound instincts...
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, (iii) ...Of secondary importance is
the training of mental abilities. (M.K. 513).
Hitler's basic assumption, as Max Lerner points'
out, is that there are no logical categories in the
percepti,-)n of values but only an intuitionism that
is its own principle and its own justiff:ation. He
functions, in other words, as does a creative artist,
which is unusual in one who chooses politics as his
field. It is his dependence on involuntary processes
that gives rise to his inability to make decisions
about a hundred and one little matters that come
to him in the routine of his daily occupation. He
must wait upon the spirit.
(iv) In the subconscious the work
goes on. It matures, sometimes it dies.
Unless I have the inner incorruptible con-
viction: this is the solution, I do nothing.
Not even fr the whale p-a-FT5'r�Tilled to drive me
to action, I will not act; I will wait, no
matter what happens. But if the voice speaks
then I know the time has come to act. (quoted
from Rauschning).
Many acquaintances have remarked on Hitler's
periods of abstraction and revery. He "spent his
time building castles in the air", Hanisch reports
"1 had the impression," writes Rauschning, "that he
was not listening...his thoughts were far away,"
Another informant, Roberts, believes that Hitler,
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wrapped up in his dream world, is unaware of a large
part of the practical activities and even brutalities
of his party. His movements would be impossible
without the continued coOperation of men like Goebbels,
Goering, and Himmler. Because of the tl'Pmendous
downward pull of unconscious processes ;LGier must
often pull himself up by the bootstraps, as it were,
to meet an emergency.
(v) I go my way with the certainty
and security of a somnambulist.
Among id processes we should stress particularly
that dynamic pattern of energy bolted up in him
which we call the unity and orienting themas. This
compound of motivations, which amounts to a monomaniacal
idea, will be fully described later. It is a rigid,
fanatical, and incurable reservoir of the thalamic
energies which, on release, have two or thre3 times
the potency that a normal man brings to bear upon any
one reasonable object. The ego is in collaboration
with this unconscious complex, operates in its service,
and can, within limits, call it into play or check'
it momentarily. On appropriate occasions, indeed,
Hitler makes good use of his capacity to be possessed
by the complex. He dramatizes it, whips it up, and
intoxicated by the words that pour out of his mouth,
deliriously gives vent to his passion.
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Also characteristic of one who so readily acquiesces
to the demi-urge iS Hitler's superstitiousness, his
feeling that he is an object of divine protection/
his tendency to interpret striking events as signs
or omens of success or failure. Like many a religious
leader he is said to hear voices and see spirits.
Here we would compare him to Joseph Smith, the founder
of Mormonism, the chief difference being that Smith's
voices gave him permission to free the sex instinct,
whereas Hitler's voices encourage brutality and
destruction. Hitler also bears comparison to Mary
Baker Eddy.
1. Hysteroid Personality..- It is clear from
what has been said that Hitler has manifested many
features of the hystoroid type of make-up. Besides
the definitely recorded hysterical attack of blindness
and aphonia (in 1918), there are his paroxysms of
emotion, his hallucinations, coming out of nightmares,
his sudden revelations and hearing of inner voices,
and the periods of day-droaming and abstraction, all
of which are reminiscent of hysterics inspired and
uninspired of which the history of religion furnishes
so many striking examples. Hare ho might be likened,
perhaps, to Joan of Arc.
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2. Schizophrenic Features.- It will be made
clear as we go on that Hitler is possessed by a
complete semi-delusional system characteristic of
paranoid schizophrenia. Beside this many of the
symptoms which have been listed in the previous
paragraph under hysteroid personality are also
typical of schizoid states. The enormous banked-up
hate and revengefulness in the man and the acts of
cruelty which he is able to execute apparently with-
out the normal recriminations of conscience are also
symptomatic of schizophrenia.
Although it might be said that Hitler is an
hysteric on the verge of schizophrenia, and this
may be truer today than it was a while ago, still
it must be acknowledged that conditions in Germany
have be3n such and the man's success in imposing his
delusional system on his fellow countrymen has been
so phenomenal that he has remained within the
boundaries of technical sanity.
3. Superego
It seems clear that Hitler is not an amoral
brute like Gooring or the majority of his followers,
that is to say, his close followers. He has a super-
ego but it is repressed, the mechanisms of the ego
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being set up against its interference. The con-
ditions that usually prevail might be described as
an alliance between the ego and the instinctual
forces of the id against the dictates of the super-
ego. A great deal of endopsychic energy is wrapped
up in this effort to repress and deny the superego
and the guilt feelings that it gives rise to. Its
activity, however, can be judged by (1) the vehemence
of his affirmations of brutality (and thus his denial
of conscience), (2) the justifications that he feels
called upon to give when his actions are particularly
repellant to the conscience of his world, and (3)
certain symptons that are generally recognizable as
indications of unconscious superego activity.
Surely Hitler is speaking of himself as well
as of others when he writes:
(i) Only when the time comes when the
race is no longer overshadowed by the conscious-
ness of its own guilt, then it will find internal
peace and external energy to .cut down regard-
lessly and brutally the wild shbots, and to
pull up the weeds.
That Hitler sees himself as the destroyer of an
antiquated Hebraic Christian superego is shown by many
passages:
(a) I am freeing men from the restraints
of an intelligence that has taken charge; from
the dirty and degrading modifications of a
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chimera called conscience and morality,
and from the demands of a freedom and
personal independence which only a very
few can bear.
(iil) we must be ruthless. we must
regain our clear conscience as to ruthlessmess.
Only thus shall we purge our people of
their softness and sentimental Philistinism,
and their degenerate delight in beer-swilling.
(iv) I recognize no moral law in
politics.
) Conscience is a Jewish invention.
It is a. blemish like circumcision.
Obviously Hitler is posing here as the Nietzschean
Anti-Christ who is going to create a new superego
for mankind, the exact antithesis of that which has
prevailed since the establishment of Christianity.
This pose, however, is for the benefit of his close
followers such as Rauschning, who has recorded the
above assertions. "Moral commonplaces," he affirms,
are indispensible for the masses. Nothing is
more mistaken than for a politician to pose as a
non-moral superman." The tenor of many of Hitler's
public speeches, however, prom that he has not
entirely conquered his superego, acquired during
early years under the influence of his
the Catholic monastery at Lambach, and
at school. The following may be taken
of an unquiet conscience:
pious mother,
his teachers
as examples
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(vi) It (Storm Troop) did not want
to establish violence as its aim, but it
wanted to protect the messengers of the
,spiritual aim against oppression by violence.
(M.K. 790).
(vii) However, I did not wish to
carry out my purposes by force, instead I
did my utmost to accomplish my purpose by
persuasion alone.
(viii) It never has been my in-
tention to wage wars, but rather to build...
(M.N.O. 836).
(ix) I forbade the sacrifice of
more human lives than was absolutely
necessary. (Speaking of the war with
Poland. M.N.O. 723).
There is no question that Hitler succeeds in
repressing his superego most of the time. He has
consciously and openly committed most of the crimes
on the calendar, so much so that the diagnosis
"psychopathic personality" or "moral imbecile" seems
almost justified; however, there are many indica-
tions that a superego of sorts operates unconsciously.
After the bloody purge of 1934, for example, it is
said that he was not able to sleep quietly for weeks.
At night he prowled restlessly up and down. His
depressions and featf\al nightmares can be explained
in part as resultants of disquieting guilt feelings.
Also to be included in this category are his frequent
thoughts of suicide. These are often avowed, to be
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sure, with the purpose of impressing his close follow-
ers, but they are also in conformity with an unconscious
tendency. According to our hypothesis, in fact, we
would attribute a good many of Hitler's later acts of
aggression to his superego. They are crimes to
appease conscience. Having once started on a career
of brutality, he can onlr quiet the pain of a bad
conscience by goins on with ever greater ruthlessness
to achieve successes, and so to demonstrate to him-
self and others that God approves of him and his
methods, This dynamism, however, can work only in
so far as his aggressions are successful; that is,
only good fortune can prove that conscience (anticipa-
tory anxiety) was wrong -- there was nothing to be
afraid of after ell. Failure will undoubtedly be
followed by guilt feelings.
Further evidences of superego activity can be
found in the character of the projections so common
in Hitler's speeches and writings, as we shall now
show.
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4. Ego Defense Mechanisms: Projection.
By far the most common form of defense mechanism
in Hitler's personality is that of projection. This
works in the service of self-esteem, in blinding him
both to his guiltiness and to his inferiority. .There
is no record of any case in which this process is
used so often and so intensely. It operates so
promptly and consistently, indeed, that by paying
close attention to the objects that Hitler scorns
and condemns one get3a fairly accurate and compre-
hensive view of his own id. His case is rather un-
usual in that he has consciously adopted and
furthered what was once no doubt a purely unconscious
mechanism. For example, he says, "As soon as by one's
own propaganda even a glimpse of right on the other
side is admitted the cause for doubting of one's own
right is laid." The necessary corollary to this
proposition would be: As soon as one's own wrong
is admitted the cause for doubting the wrong of
one's opponent is laid. He also has enough know-
ledge to realize that accusations are evidences of
guilt, for he says, "If they now say that this is the
signal that Germany now wants to attack the entire
world,. I do not believe that this is meant seriously:
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such could only be the expression of a bad conscience."
-- a remarkable statement to be made by the world's
greatest projector.
Two or three illustrations would suffice to make
plain the nature of Hitler's projections, but they
represent such unique descriptions of himself that a
larger collection of examples will be of interest to
psychologists.
(i) In Vienna, Hanisch tells us, Hitler
wore a long coat given him by a Jewish friend, "an
incredibly greasy derby on the back of his head.
His hair was long and tangled, and he grew a beard
on his chin such as we Christians seldom have, though
one is not uncommon in...the Jewish ghettos...Hitler
at that time looked very Jewish, so that I often
joked with him that he must be of Jewish blood,
since such a large beard rarely grows on a Christian's
chin."
Compare this to Hitler's account of the first
conspicuously Jewish person he met in Vienna. "I
sudden1y came upon a being clad ih a long caftan,
with black curls. Is this also a Jew? was my first
thought." Then he goes on to list the repellent
traits of the Jew: "Later the smell of these caftan
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wearers often made me ill. Added to this was their
dirty clothes and their none too heroic appearance."
Recalling Hitler's immorality at school and the fact
that he is down (according to one irforment) in the
Vienna police records as a sex pervert-, the following
statement is pertinent: "Aside from the physical
uncleanliness, it was repelling suddenly to discover
the moral blemishes of the chosen people."
(ii) Hitler was charged with theft in
Vienna, according to one informant, and yet Hitler
broke off his friendship with Hanish by 1,,.00ngfully
accusing him of having misappropriated a water color
of his worth fifty Kronen.
(iii) In daily life Hitler oscillates
between extreme energy and utter listlessness, and yet
Hitler: "All passivity, all
inertia...is senseless, inimical to
life,"
(iv) Hitler has never admitted to being
wrong. According to the Nazi creed, Hitler is always
right, and yet --
Hitler: "These impudent rascals
(intellectuals) who always know every-
thing better than anybody else..."
"The intellect has grown autocratic,
and has become a disease of life."
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(v) Hitler has often affirmed that he was
governed by instinct and intuition rather than by
reason.
Hitler: "The people care so
so feminine in their natuxe and
attitude that their activities and
thoughts are motivated less by sober
considerations than by feeling and
sentiment."
(vi) Roehm has said: "He doesn't even
seem to be aware how dishonest he is" By now the
whole world agrees that Hitler is a monumental liar.
Hitler: "What a race (JewJ);
As such they have been nailed down
forever...the great masters of lying."
(vii) Hitler has a way of staring at people
as if he were attempting to hypnotize them.
Hitler: "They...tried to pierce
me even with their eyes. Innumerable
faces were turned toward me with
sullen hatred."
(viii) Hitler's favorite entertainment
is to witness private performances of naked dancing.
Hitler: "Chicherin -- and with
him a staff of over two hundred Soviet
Jews --visits the cabarets, watches
naked dancers perform for his pleasure,.."
(ix) Below I have listed a miscellany
of Hitler's statements which are more accurate as
descriptions of himself than they are of others.
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a. In such hours I had
sad forebodings and was filled with
a depressing fear. I was faced by
a doctrine (Social Democrats) consisting
of egoism and hatred; it could be
victorious, following mathematical
laws, but at the same time it could
bring about the end of mankind.
b. Social Democracywdirects
a bombardment of lies and calumnies
toward S the adversary who seemed most
dangerous, till finally the nerves of
those who had been attacked give out
and they, for the sake of peace, bow
down to the hated enemy.
c. They (opponents at Nazi
meetings) resembled a powder keg that
might blow up at any moment, and to
which the burning fuse has been attached.
d. For his (the Jew's) entire
activity is unrestricted by moral obliga-
tions.
e. I talked until my tongue was
weary and till my throat was hoarse...
, of the destructiveness of their Marxist
doctrine of irrationality.
f. ...we will not let the Jews slit
our gullets and not defend ourselves.
g. (Jew)... the higher he climbs,
the more alluringly rises out of the
veil of the past his old goal, once
promised to him, and with feverish
greed he watches in his brightest heads
the dream of world domination step
into tangible proximity.
h. They (Marxists) began to treat
us as genuine chief criminals of humanity.
i, For this peace proposal of mine
was abused, and personally insulted.
Mr. Chamberlain, in fact, spat upon me
before the eyes of the world...
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j. ...it was in keeping with our own
harmlessness that England took the liberty
of some day meeting our peaceful activity
with the brutality of the violent egoist.
k. ...the outstanding features of
Polish character were cruelty and lack of
moral restraint.
The intensity and frequency of these projections
amply justify the diagnosis of paranoid delusion.
5. Idealego
The idealego, as we define it, is a compound
of images, engendered in the mind of the subject, which
represent what he would like to be, his level of aspira-
tion, his best self at the height of his career, the man
reaching the goal of his ambition. The idealego may
be the figure of a master criminal or that of a great
benefactor or prophet, its exact nature being dependent
upon a host of factors stemming from the id, ego, and
superego. In Hitler's case it is clear that the ideal-
ego is the dominant force of his conscious and un-
conscious life, We shall discuss it presently in
connection with his major configuration of drives and
sentiments.
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B. MAJOR CONFIGURATION OF OVERT DRIVES AND SENTIMENTS
As a rule it is difficult to demonstrate a
clear-cut integration of overt drives and sentiments
in an individual, either (1) because the majority of
people are not integrated according to a very fixed
and consistent pattern or (2) because the configurations,
such as they are, are not wholly discernible, important
elements being repressed and unconscious to the subject.
We use the term orienting thema to include both conscious
and unconscious elements. In Hitler's case, however,
it is not expedient to make a distinction between the
major configurations of overt drives and sentiments
and the orienting thema, because the latter has been
made explicit in word and deed and is of a relatively
consistent and obvious type. Hitler is one of the
relatively few men who has largely lived out his fantasy.
The main elements of his major configuration are the
following:
1. Positive Oathexis* of Power
Hitler's sentiments in favor of power as opposed
to all forms of weakness may be divided into (a) cathexis
of powerful nations and (b) cathexis of powerful rulers.
Positive cathexis value, attraction, power to evoke
love, respect.
Negative cathexis = the reverse: power to evoke
aversion, scorn, hate.
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(i) Positive cathexis of powerful groups
(nations).
The very first enthusiasm entertained by the boy
Hitler was an admiration for GerMany. We have already
noted his membership in the Nationalist movement as a
school boy and listed the determinants of this enthusiasm.
The following quotations will illustrate the persistence
of this attitude in later life.
a. Hanisch: Hitler always took the
Government's part invariably approved
of all such violent methods as necessary
for the State's sake.
b. Hitler: In Vienna I continued
as I had done before, to follow up all
events in Germany with the fiercest enthusi-
asm, no matter whether political or
cultural questions were concerned. With
proud admiration I compared the rise of
the Reich with the decline of the Austrian
State. (P.K. 69-70).
c. Hitler: Prussia, the germ cell of
the Reich, was created by resplendant
heroism and not by financial operations
or commercial affairs, and the Reich itself
was in turn only the most glorious reward
of political leadership and military death-
defying courage. (M.K. 201).
It was Hitler's love of power that attracted him
to the history of Great Britain,
d. Hitler: No nation has more care-
fully prepared its economic conquests
with the sword with greater brutality
and defended it later more ruthlessly
than the British. (ivi0E'. 189).
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e. Hitler: England did not conquer
India by the way of justice and law: she
conquered India without regard to the
wishes, to the views of the natives, or.
to their formulations of justice, and,
when necessary, she has upheld this
suppremacy with the most brutal ruthless-
ness. (M.N.O. 103).
Hitler has always admired the ruling Classes
everywhere as opposed to the underprivileged.
(rulers).
It is difficult to say whether it was the figure
of a powerful individual or the vague sense of a power-
ful class or nation that first excited Hitler's admira-
tion, but certainly in the course of his life there
have been a series of heroes who have stirred his enthu-
siasm and shaped his ego ideal. Among these may be
mentioned his teacher of history, Ludwig Poetsch; the
fervent anti-Semitic, Georg von Schoenerer; the Viennese
mayor, Karl Lueger; Richard Wagner; Frederick the Great;
BismarCk;the Kaiser; and Mussolini.
f. Hitler: Our big industrialists
have worked their way to the top by .
reason of their efficiency. In virtue of
this selection, which merely proves their
higher race, they have a right to lead.
(ii) PoSitive cathexis of powerful individuals
a. Hitler: It infuriated me
even more than the Viennese Press...
expressed its objections against the
GermanTaiser...Such things made the
blood rush to my head.
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b. Hanisch: He said...Wagner
was a fighter, there was more greatness
and power in Wagner.
c. Over Hitler's desk hangs a
portrait of Frederick the Great, whom, of
all Germany's historic characters, Hitler
has chosen as his hero.
d. Heiden: Roehm's frank brutal
energy seemed to inspire a blissful
sense of security in Hitler.
e. Hitler: In those days -- I
admit it openly -- I conceived the most
profound admiration for the great man...
what will rank Muasolini among the great
of this earth is the determination not
to share Italy with Marxism.
The figure of power admired by Hitler is marked
by courage, military valor, brutality, and absence of
sympathy or compassion. It. is characteristic of him
to interpret humane feeling as weakneaS.
2. Need for Deference toward Power.
Differing from a good many other would-be dicta-
tors or revolutionists, Hitler displayed, and still to
some extent displays, a marked deference towards his
superiors, exhibiting thereby, no doubt, a pattern
that he was forced to adopt in the presence of his
overbearing father.
(1) Heiden: Subordination he took
seriously down to the smallest details: to
respect one's superior officers, never to
contradict, to submit blindly. Hitler dis-
played a servile solicitude for the clothes
boots and food of his superior officers.
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(ii ) Strasser : Hitler's atti ude towards
the General was obsequious; he WDS I agreement
with everything Ludendorff said.
Hitle and President Hindenburc
on the Day of Potsdam
March, 1933
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Note the subservience of
Hitler's bow.
(iii) Heiden: In the midst the Munich
Putsch Hitler exclaimed to Kahr in a hoarse
voice: "Excellency, I will stand behind you as
faithfully as a dog!"
(iv) Lamia: In the course of his perora-
tion he came to speak of Generals Lu,iondorff
and von Seeckt; at such moments he stood at
attention and trumpeted forth the words "general"
and "Excellency". It made no difference that
one of the generals was on his side, while the
other, vo Seeckt, commander-in-chief of the
Beichsvehr, was his enemy; he, abandnned himself
entirely to the pleasure of pronouncing the high-
sounding titles. He never said "General 3eeckt",
he said "His Excellency, Herr K->lonk 1 General
von 3eeckt", letting the words melt on his tongue
and savoring their after-taste. At this moment
he was the typical professional sereant.
3. Negative Cathexis of r,eakness.
Hitler's sentiments in this category are thG
natural complement of his high positive cithexis for
power. A few illustrations will suffice.
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(i) Hitler: A stronger generation will
drive out the weaklings, because in its
ultimate form the urge to live will again
and again break the ridiculous fetters of a
so-called "humanity" of the individual, so
that its place will be taken by the "humanity"
of nature, which destroys weakness in order
to give its place to strength.
(ii) Hitler: ...these upper layers
(of intellectuals) lack the necessary will
power. For will power is always weaker in
these secluded intellectual circles than in
the masses of the primitive people.
(iii) Hitler: ...the Jewish
Christ-Creed with its effeminate pity-ethics.
(Rauschning).
(iv) Hitler: Anybody who is such a
poltroon that he can't bear the thought of
someone near by having to suffer pain had
better join a sewing-circle, but not my
party comrades. (Rauschning).
(v) Hitler: Unless you are prepared
to be pitiless, you will get nowhere. Our
opponents arc not prepared for it, not because
they are humane...but because they are too
weak. (Rauschning).
4. Idealep, Powerful Individual.
The process involved here is merely thnt of
the internationalization of the positively cathected
powerful individual described above. What was once
external became internal and was accepted as the goal
of endeavor. Around this central notion of the powerful
individual there has developed an ideology based on
the so-called aristocratic principle in nature. The
final conception is that of a super superman, leader
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of a nation of supermen who govern the globe. This
notion is deeply imbedded in the German character as
a result of (1) the autocratic position of the father
in German family structure; (2) systematic indoctrina-
tion in the home and in the schools; and 3) the
position of Germany among the European nations, a
powerful community encircled and for a long time
eclipsed in power and glory by France and then Great
Britain. The main sources of Hitler's ideology are
such men as Carlyle, through his life of Frederick the
Great, Gobineau, Wagner, Houston Stewart Chamberlain,
Nietzsche, and Georges Sorel (Reflexions sur la Violence)
Not that Fitler read all or even most of these authors
but their ideas were transmitted to him through various
secondary sources which he read eagerly and took to
heart during his years in Vienna. The following
quotations give an outline of Hitler's philosophy.
(i) Hitler: ...most important
precondition in life -- namely, the necessity
to be strong. (M.N.O. 525).
(ii) Hitler, quoted by Rauschning:
But fortune follows where there is a firm will.
(iii) Hitler: Always before God and
the world the stronger has the right to carry
through what he will. (TT.N.O. 50).
(iv) Eitler, quoted by Rauschning:
Brutality is respected. Brutality and physical
strength. The plain man in the street respects
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nothing but brutal strength and ruthlessness.
(N.B., This is an excellent example of self-
projection and sums up in a nutshell the crux
of Hitler's personality.)
(v) Hitler:- In the end, only the urge
for self-preservation will eternally succeed.
Under its pressure so-called "humanity", as
the expression of a mixture of stupidity,
cowardice, an imaginary superior inc;alligence,
will melt like snow under the March sun.
(M.K. 175).
(vi) Hitler: Every view of life...
will remain without importance...unless its
principles have become the banner of a fighting
movement. (M.K. 575).
(vii) Hitler: Terror is not broken by
power of mind but by terror. (P.K. 194-5).
(viii) Hitler: The terror in the work-
shops, in the factory, in the assembly hall, and
on occasions of mass demonstrations will always
be accompanied by success as long as it is not
met by an equally great force and terror. (M.K. 58)
5. Social Ideal, Powerful Folk.
One will not be able to understand Hitler's
personality, its extraordinary force, its maintenance
this side insanity, and its influence on the German
people without taking full account of his emotional
identification with an ideal Germany as he conceives
it and the dedication of his efforts to the creation
of such a Germany. The principles of his program are
expressed in the following series of quotations:
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(i) Hitler, quoted by Rauschning: There
will be a Herren-Class, an historical class
tempered by battle and welded from the most
varied elements.
(ii) Hitler: ... (The Folkish view) feels
the obligation in accordance with the Eternal
Will that dominates this universe to promote
the Victory of the better and strongr, and to
demand the submission of the worst and the
weaker. (ILK. 580).
(iii) Hitler: We recognize that free-
dom can eternally be only a consequence of
power and that the source of power is the
will. Consequently, the will to power must be
strengthened in a people with passionate ardor.
(M.N.O. 24).
(iv) Hitler: His (Youth's) entire
education and development has to be directed at
giving him the conviction of being absolutely
superior to the others. (M.K. 618).
(v) Hitler: The parliamentary principle
of decision by majority, by denying the authority
of the person and placing in its stead the member
of the crowd in question since against the
aristocratic idea of Nature. (M.K. 103).
(vi) Hitler: We want to be the supporters
of the dictatorship of national reason, of
national energy, of national -- brutality and
resolution. (M.N.�. 66).
(vii) Hitler, quoted by Rauschning: One
thhg is and remains eternally the same: force.
Empires are made by the sword, by superior force--
not by alliances.
What must be pointed out here is (1) that Hitler
came in to Germany as an outsider (he was not reared
in the system), (2) that he started operating with a
relatively simple, clear-out, fanatically held conception
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of the proper social pattern, (3) that he started with
a small nucleus and built a rapidly growing party
according to his preconceived social ideal, (4) that
this party usurped power and spread to include most
of the nation:
(viii) Hitler: The N. S. G. W. P. must
not be the masses' slave, but their masters
(MI. 698).
and, finally, (5) that Hitler's social ideal is not
confined to the German people within the national
boundary but to the German folk or race wherever
they are. It is a world dominion that he envisages
by people that are constitutionally alike.
What we have here in the simplest terms is the
Master-Slave pattern of social relationships to the
exclusion of all other patterns. what is most distinc-
tive is not the presence of this idea, which is as old
as the history of man, but the absence of other patterns,
the complete substitution of contempt for sympathy.
6. Need fOr Dominance�RuthlesS Will to Power.
Hitler's positive cathecation of a powerful
nation and a powerful ruler has been described, as
well as his creation of a social ideal in which Power
was to be carried to its furthest point. His deference,
even obsequiousness when face to face with representa-
tives of power has also been described. What we have
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now to deal with is the problem of the gradual change
of emphasis from deference to dominance. we can say,
I think, with some justification that if Hitler's ideal
social pattern had existed in Germany, that the nation
had been under the dictatorship of an iron man, he might
have been willing to take his place in the system as a
subordinate, just as he did as a corporal in the army,
but the fact that such a social pattern was not in
operation stimulated him to inaugurate it. He became
dissatisfied with one political leader after another,
Kahr, Ludendorff, etc., and by degrees forced himself
into the r8le that according to his scheme somebody
must fill. It is as if a masochist, finding no one
to play a rike sufficiently sadistic to gratify his
eroticism, were to decide to adopt that rSie himself.
We have to take account here of the possibility of
vicarious pleasure in either rOle. Listening to Hitler,s
words, we often get a certain sense of his identifica-
tion with the sadist when he is adopting the submissive
rSle, and his identification with the masochist when he
is acting as a brutal tyrant. To explain the identifica-
tion with the sadist, we must assume an elementary need
for dominance, or will to power, which gets satisfied
in this roundabout way. Anyhow, it is clear that as
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time went on during the years after world "Tar I,
Hitler's attitude underwent some modification. From
the obtrusively submissive corporal he became the
obtrusively dominant leader of a party.
(i) Heiden: ...(As time went on) he felt
himself superior to his recognized superiors.
The obedient soldier was transformed into one
who knew better, the underling into one who
could do things better.
This change was concomitant with Hitler's
discovery of his own oratorical powers. He gave
way more and more to the demon within him. The ambi-
tious sadist, his infantile belief in omninotence
being reactivated by the hysterical approval of the
masses, came into his own. We are dealing here with
a personality who enviously admires his enemies. His
enemies are those who dominate and oppose and frustrate
him with force. He hates the person who embodies
this force but he worships the force and as so patterns
himself on the object of his hate. This explains
why Hitler was attracted to the Marxists and their
methods for gaining power.
(ii) Lerner: He went to school not only
to the Marxists. He has a great admiration for
the organization and methods of the Catholic
Church. He speaks again and again of how much
he learned by studying the propaganda the British
used during the war. And he expresses admiration
for American advertising technique.
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(iii) Hitler: We had a chance (during
World War I) to become acquainted with the in-
credible discipline of our opponents' propaganda.
And still today it is my pride to have found the
means....for beating finally its very makers.
Two years later I was master in his craft.
The picture we get here is that of a man who,
like a great number of Germans, entertains the concep-
tion of an iron man who will save Germany, and wonders
at the same time whether he himself has not the necessary
genius to be. that iron man. As time went on, Hitler
came more and more to identify himself with the hero,
but even at the moment that ho was approaching the
very summit of his power he was overcome with mis-
givings. Perhaps he was not this superman but merely
the bridge to the superman, as Nietzsche often said
of himself.
(iv) Hitler: We all are, in a small way,
like St. John (the Baptist). I wait for Christ:
(v) Hitler, quoted by Rauschning: The
new man is among us! He is here: Now are you
satisfied? I will tell you a secret. I have
seen the vision of the new man -- fearless and
formidable. I shrank from him:
(N.B. Here is a suggestion that
beyond the exercise of power there is a greater
enjoyment -- shrinking before a still greater
force.)
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7: Ident-J
cation with IdealegO.
A few que,Itions will be sufficient to show the
extent of Hitlerls identification with his own (and
the average idealego.
;i) Hitler, quoted by Ii7)3,3011:
Who won the campaign in Poland?
I dLdt
WLo gave the orders?
I did!
Who had all the strategic ideas
which made victory possible?
I didt
Who ordered the attack?
Ich, Ich, Ich, Ichl
(ii) Hitler, addressing Schuschnigg,
quoted by Fuchs:
Do you not realize that you are in
the presence of the greatest German ever
known to history:
(iii) I am one of the hardest
men Germany has had for decades, perhaps for centuries,
equipped with the greatest authority of any German
leader...but above all, I believe in my success. I
believe in it unconditionally. (H.N.O. 871).
(iv) Hitler, addressing the Supreme Commanders
before the Polish campaign, quoted by Lochner:
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In the last analysis there are only
three great statesmen in the world, Stalin,
I, and Mussolini...our strength consists
in our speed and in our brutality. Genghis
Khan led millions of women and children to
slaughter with premeditation and a happy
heart. History sees in him solely the
founder of a state. It's a matter of indiffer-
ence to me what a weak western European
civilization will say about me. I have issued
the command -- and have anybody who
utters but one word of criticism executed
by a firing squad -- that our war aim does
not consist in reaching certain lines, but
in the physical destruction of the enemy.
Accordingly, I have placed my death-head
formations in readiness...with orders to
them to send to death mercilessly and with-
out compassion, men, women, and children
of Polish derivation and language.
Hitler sees himself not only as Germany's greatest
strategist and war lord but as the chosen instrument
of God, the savior of the German folk, and the founder
of a new spiritual era which will endure, as Christ's
kingdom was designed to endure, for a thousand years.
It is not to be wondered at, therefore, that Hitler
has often identified himself with Christ,
(v) Hitler: Therefore, I believe today
that I am acting in the sense of the Almighty Creator:
By warding off the Jews I am fighting for the Lord's
work. (M.K. 64).
Hitler: My feeling as a Christian
points me to my Lord and Savior as a
fighter. It points me to the man who once
in loneliness, surrounded by only a few
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followers, recognized these Jews for what
they were and summoned men to'the fight
against them and who, God's truths was
greatest not as a sufferer but as a
fighter. In boundless love as a Christian
and as a man I read through the passage
which tells us how the Lord rose at last
in his might and seized the scourge to drive
out of the Temple the brood of vipers and
adders...I recognize more profoundly than
ever before the fact that it was for this
that,He hed to shed his blood upon the
cross.. (M.N.O. 2'5).
Hitler: When....1 see these men standing
in their queues..,then I believe I would be
no Christian, but e very devil, if I felt
no pity for them, if I did not, as did our
Lord two thousand years ago, turn against
those by whom today this poor people is
plundered and exploited. (M.N.O. 27).
Hitler may very well have realized that he could
not make of his physique anything very imposing or
resplendent. Perhaps it was an uncanny wisdom on his
part that caused him to adopt, or at least, retain, the
appearance of a typical lower middle class man. Anyhow,
he stands out amonz others of his type by an adherence
to the uniform of a commonplace storm trooper or the
vestments of an average titizen. He has not yielded
to the temptation of dressing himself up in a fine
uniform or in imperial robes as did Napoleon. After
the war, he went about in jack-boots swinging a
hippopotamus-hide whip and a plastic surgeon has
. removed superfluous fat from his nose, and he has
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studied as consciously as any actor the walk, the
gesture, and the manner suitable to his position;
but still, despite these and many other efforts to
create a satisfying visual impression, he has pre-
served certain modesties that have ingratiated him with
certain classes in Germany. According to the legend,
he is a humble ascetic man, and this holds, despite
the known fact that in his study at the Berghof a huge
portrait of himself as Fuehrer hangs over him eternally.
8. Need for Aggression, Sadism.
The Marquis de Sade maintained that his cruelties
were not inflicted with the purpose of giving others
pain but rather to increase to the utmost his own
sense of power; thus, according to his version, aggres-
sion was subsidiary to dominance. In Hitler's case,
however, although the will to power is the central
principle, fused with it is a vindictiveness which
takes pleasure in the painful humiliation of his
adversaries. Enough illustrations of the sadism mixed
up with Hitler's need for dominance have already been
given; we only need to point out here what is known
the world over, namely, that his ideology of power
has been expressed in definite actions of aggression,
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particularly against weaker, helpless individuals
and groups. Statements such as the following have been
the precursors of unprecedented brutality:
(i) Hitler, quoted by Rauschnigg: I shall
spread terror by the surprise employment of all my
measures.
(ii) Hitler, quoted by Heiden: There will be no
peace in the land until a body is hanging from every
lamp post.
(iii) Hitler, quoted by Rauschning: But even if
we could not conquer them, we should drag half the
world into destruction with us, and leave no one to
triumph over Germany. There will not be another 1918.
We shall not surrender.
An account of Hitler's personal aggressiveness
against another man is given by Heiden:
(iv) (At the Munich Putsch) The first to be
arrested was the Standard leader, Count Spreti. The
young Count was set in front of Hitler; he made a
movement toward his pocket, as though to grasp his pis-
tol. Thereupon Hitler raised his whip, struck Count
Spreti on the head with the stout ironbound end, and
threshed him on the face in blind fury until Count
Spreti collapsed.
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The purge of 1934, the anti-Semitic atrocities,
the unspeakable crimes committed in Poland, these and
many other actions executed or ordered by Hitler demonstrate
the extent of his sadism and revengefulness.
9. Need for Insociation (Collective Identification)
Hitler's psychology cannot be understood if he is
considered apart from his identification with the German
people, or rather with his ideal for Germany. From the
very beginning, we have evidence of his desire to become
a member of the Reich, which, to be sure, was more in
the nature of a fantasied insociation with a vaguely
conceived tradition than it was a desire for relation-
ship with concrete individuals. Until he enlisted in
the German Army, there are no definitive instances of
his ever belonging to an organized group, unless it
was a little Nationalist's Club in school. No doubt
this long period of egocentric isolation increased his
need for insociation. we note that at school he showed
tendencies to be an agitator; and Hanish tells us that
in Vienna he was continually talking up the idea of
forming an association among his flophouse friends for
financial or political purposes. Although in a sense
he was a lone wolf (he went by the name of wolf), it
was also true that he had to have followers about him.
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One of the first things he created was a bodyguard
and the creation of the National Socialist Party was
essential to his achievement. Hitler is inconceivable
without the masses, but it was not so much the concrete
individual party members whom we have in mind here,
rather Hitler's conception of the German Volk, with whom
in his imagination he was identified. He believed,
and the people believed, that he loved Germany, and
if Germany is perceived in his terms there is no reason
to doubt this dedication. Without this, he would have
become a criminal or lived out his life as a futile and
penniless painter of postcards. It was this feeling
of oneness with Germany and the fact that he could
identify his revengefulness with the need for aggression
latent in the German nation which enabled him to hold
his ground this side insanity. Once the Party had
conquered the German people, he could function corporo-
centrically rather than egocentrically. It was this
that saved him and won him adherents.
10. Need ��r Creation (800lal)
It was not Germany as it was or had been that
Hitler represented but rather the ideal social pattern
which he wished to impose on the country. Not only
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during his days of rumination in Vienna but later
it was necessary for him to construct an ideology
from diverse sources in terms of which he could
preach to the people. None of the elements were
original with him but some inventiveness was required
in developing the precise combination of principles
that became the creed of the Nazi Party. Besides this,
he was continually preoccupied with inventing means
to his goals, which involved a considerable amount
of creative thought; thus, to a certain extent, he
functioned as a creative artist and certainly con-
ceived of himself as such.
(i) Hitler: Or must not the task of
the leading statesman be seen in the birth
of a creative idea or plan in itself, rather
than in the ability to make the ingenuity of
his plans understandable to a flock of sheep
and empty-heads for the purpose of begging their
gracious consent? (M.K. 101-102).
11. Need ' for Exposition.
Having arrived at his major policy, his ideological
goal with its subsidiary aims, it was necessary to
communicate these to the people, and so to create a
Party and later a nation dedicated to the achievement
of the determined goal. Here the need for exposition
took the form of writing MEIN KAMPF, but more especially
the form of speech-making. Hitler is eloquent in
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stressing the importance of the orator as opposed
to the writer when it comes to immediate potency in
instigating action. We must certainly rate the need
for exposition as maximally strong in Hitler's per-
sonality. In boyhood he was already haranguing his
schoolmates and his family. Likewise in Vienna and
at Company Headquarters during the war, and everlasting-
ly from then on he has continued to make speeches to
real or imaginary audiences. His chief function, per-
haps, as he conceived it, was to convert the German
people to his way of thinking and thus to create the
Germany that he was devoted to in his imagination.
One final point: insociation, creation, and
exposition were fused by Hitler's conception of himself
as mouthpiece of the whole people. Ho was not creating
an individualistic philosophy and imposing it on
Germany, but rather, as he saw it, giving voice to the
deepest needs and longings of the masses. Here the
editors of MEIN KATIPF have something to say:
(i) The leader is he who most strongly
senses the needs and desires of the unified
nation, and not he who -- as Nietzsche and Stefan
George believed -- makes use of the "slaves" in
order to assure the triumph and happiness of a
more regal aristocracy than the world has known.
In short, for all his elements of patriotic
mysticism, Hitler is no Platonist, but a Spartan
in the simplest sense. That is why Germans have
found it so difficult to resist him. As one of
them has put it, "He flatters us all into acquies-
cence." (M.K. Note, 127-8).
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In so far as Hitler conforms to this rOle, he is
egocentric, corporocentric, and ideocentric all at once.
12. Orienting Thema
Much evidence could be brought to bear to demonstrate
that Hitler's energies would never have been fully
involved if it had not been for Germany's defeat and
collapse. Up to that time, he had political convictions,
to be sure, but the sufficient stimulus was lacklng.
The critical point came, as was mentioned above, when
he lay blind in the military hospital and made his vow
to reinstate his fallen motherland. Therefore, we
would be inclined to put Hitler's orienting thema,
the plot of his active striving, in these words:
The treacherous, overpowering, end contaminating, the
weakening and depreciation, of a pure and noble object
is the tragic spectacle which arouses the hero and
incites him to agitate revenge. As Leader and Messiah,
he compels the ob3ect, by sheer will and eloquence,
to adopt a course of ruthless aggression, the goal
beinq to annihilate the contaminatar snd aggressor,
and so, guided by its almighty ruler and redeemer,
to become supremely pure, powerful, an6 superior, and
-thus everlastingly respected. Hib work dOne the
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hero relinquishes pbweriddles revered as the
progenitor of an uncorrupted and masterful race that
will live on in fulfilMent of his word.
(N.B., The elements of purity and contamination
will be fully discussed later.)
13. Lack of Need Affiliation, Need Nurturance.
Hitlerts strong drives for aggressive dominance
and self-assertion have been described. These are
the features of the man's personality which have
attracted and shocked the world but what is more dis-
tinctive perhaps is not the presence of these all-too-
human tendencies but the lack of opposing drives which
in normal people balance and mitigate the evil effects
of rampant egocentrism. Hitler has shown extraordinarily
little ability to establish and maintain friendships,
to adjust himself to the needs and wishes of other
people and a minimum of sympathy for human suffering
and affliction. Whatever tendencies of this sort he
once possessed have been long-since trampled under
foot.
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C. 1INOR CONFIGURATIONS OF NEEDS AND SENTIMENTS
Hitler is a peculiarly single-minded fanatic and
the greater part of his energies have been caught up
in the major configuration outlined in the previous
section. Anyhow, other configurations and patterns
of behavior are of relatively little consequence in
a summary analysis of this sort. Suffice it to
mention:-
1. Need for Sex.
Although the Press has led the German people to
believe periodically that Hitler had found the girl
he was looking for all these years, a good many close
observers have come to the conclusion that he is asexual.
It is generally said that Germany is his beloved, his
mother and his wife, and that when he addresses the
masses, whom he thinks of as feminine, he is courting,
appealing to, complaining to, and arousing the woman
of his heart. That this is not entirely satisfying
to his sex instinct will be indicated in a later
section.
2. Need for Creation .(Architecture).
Hitler's ambitions to become an architect were
frustrated by his lack of education and talent but
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since he has become supreme ruler of Germany he has
given free play to this interest. Ho has had a part
in planning and designing a number ef the recent
buildings, system of roads, etc. This tendency is only
of significance to us in so far as we can infer from
the products of his mind certain underlying forces;
therefore, we will postpone consideration of this
side of his character until a later section.
It should be noted here that Hitler's interest
in architecture is very real. It forms an essential
ingredient in his system of sentiments. The evidence
for this is not limited to his own statements but is
furnished by a close study of his metaphors. Ho speaks
of architecture as the queen of the arts. No doubt
painting and architecture were connected to some
extent with a certain voyeurism, but they also had
other significances. The following passage is
suggestive of voyeurism:
(i) I had eyes for nothing but the
buildings...all day long, from early morn
until late at night, I ran from one sight to
the next, for what attracted me most of all
were the buildings. For hours on end I would
stand in front of the opera or admire the
Parliament Buildings; the entire Ringstrasse
affected me like a fairy tale out of the
Arabian Nights. (M.K. 26-27).
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In accordance with the conventions of symbolic
interpretation, it is possible to conceive of these
impressive buildings as psychic equivalents of the
mother whom he has lost. We are also reminded here
of the unique claustrum which Hitler had constructed
for himself on the top of the mountain behind his
retreat at Borchtesgaden.
�D. TYPE OF PERSONALITY STRUCTURE: COUNTERACTIVE NARCISM
The drives, sentiments, and traits so far listed
and discussed -- Hitler's high idealego, his pride,
his dominance and aggression, and his more or less
successful repression of the superego -- indicate
that his personality structure corresponds to that of
Counteractive Narcism. The implication of this term
is that the manifest traits and symptoms of Hitler's
personality represent a reaction formation to under-
lying feelings of wounded self-esteem. When one
examines systematically the common manifestations of
Counteractive Narcism, one finds that the majority
of them are clearly exhibited in Hitler's behavior;
therefore, by running over the list of these common
characteristics we can bring together some loose ends
and subsume them all under one formulation. Here we
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shall not attempt to be exhaustive but satisfy ourselves
with some of the more typical manifestations.
1. Narcisensitivity:- low tolerance of belittle-
ment, depreciation, criticism, contradiction, mockery,
failure; inability to take a joke; tendency to harbor
grudges, not forgetting and forgiving.
(i) Hanisch: Hitler could never stand
any criticism of his paintings.
(ii) Hanisch: Hitler could not stand to
be contradicted. He would get furious. He
couldn't restrain himself, would scream and
fidget with his hands.
(iii) Rauschning: He looked round appre-
hensively and suspiciously, with searching glances
at us. I had the impression that he wanted to
see if anyono was laughing.
2. n Recognition (Self-Exhibition):- self-display;
extravagant demands for attention and applause; vainglory.
(i) Hitler's appearance at meetings and
rallies are dramatized to the fullest xtent.
He is careful to have electric lights shining
on him in such a way as to produce the most
striking effects possible, etc., etc. However,
one gets the impression the exhibitionism f''s
limited to talking before a crowd -- at which
times it is extreme -- but that ordinarily he is
self-conscious and ill at ease, and does not
particularly enjoy showing himself in public,
although he must do this to maintain his power.
3. n Autonomy (Freedom):- self-will; to insist
on a sufficient area of liberty, on free thought, speech
and action; Resistance or defiance in the face of force-
ful coersions or restraints; to combat tyranny.
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(i) It is said that Hitler was unruly as
a youth, intolerant of frustration. After his
father's death ho was given his own way and
after leaving school became increasingly resistant
to rules and regulations. He was never able
to hold a job. He wanted to be an artist and
live like a Bohemian. we must therefore place
him high on this variable although in him it
does not take its usual form (defensive individual-
ism), due to his political ambitions -- Hitler
needed the alliance of the masses.
(ii) Hitler: The thought of being a
slave in an office made me ill; not to be
master of my own time, but to force an entire
life-tine into the filling in of forms.
(M.K. 12).
(iii) Hoiden: Feder...also said that
the Fuehrer must be educated in systematic work.
For this purpose he had selected an officer,
who was to servo Hitler as secretary, to map
out the day's work according to the clock and,
in general, to introduce order and a programme
into the Fvehrer's activity. When Hitler heard
this, he banged his fist on the table and
shouted, "Who do those fellows think they are?
I shall go my own way, as I see fit." But he
accepted the secretary.
4. n Dominance (Self-Sufficiency):- 'v'flan one is in
a position of authority, to plan and make decisions
without consulting others; to refuse to chance an
announced decision; to resent disagreements and
interferences; to be annoyed by opposition; to insist
on being sole ruler of one's province -- home, business,
political party, nation.
(i) Hoiden, quoting Hitler: I an not
contending for the favor of the masses...I
alone lead the movement, and no one can impose
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conditions on mc so long as I personally
boar the responsibility. And I once more
bear the whole responsibility for everything
that occurs in the movement.
5. Refusal of Subordinate Position:- to avoid,
refuse, or leave a position which does not do justice
to one's felt powers or accomplishments; to want the
first place or nothing (fusion with n Autonomy).
(1) Hitler's refusal to accept membership
in the Cabinet in 1932. He insisted on complete
power.
S. Reluctance- to Admit Indebtedness:- to be
disinclined to express gratitude or acknowledge help
received, to deny or minimize the contribution of
others.
(i) Rauschning: Hitler has always boon
a oseur. He remembers things he has heard
and has a faculty of repeating them in such a
way that the listener is led to believe that
they are his own.
7. Counteractive Achievement:- persistent
efforts in the face of unexpected obstacles; o.
restriving after a defeat; or repeated and enduring
attempts to overcome fears, anxieties, deficiencies
or defects; efforts to defeat a once successful rival.
(i) Heiden: When others after a defeat
would have gone home despondently, consoling
themselves with the philosophic reflection that
it was no W.) contending against adverse circum-
stances, Hitler delivered a second and a third
assault with sullen defiance. 'Then others
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after a success would have become more cautious,
because they would not dare put fortune to the
proof too often and perhaps exhaust it, Hitler
persisted and staked a bigger claim an destiny
with every throw.
(ii) The very first condition for such a
manner of fight with the weapons of pure force
is, and will always be, perseverance...As soon
as intermittent force alternates with indulgence,
the doctrine to be suppressed will not only
recover again and again, but it will be able
to draw new values from every persecution...
Only in the eternally regular use of force lies
the preliminary condition to success. (M.K. 222).
8. n Rejection (Verbal Depreciation):- to
belittle the worth of others, especially if they be
superiors, rivals, and potential critics (fusion of
verbal Rejection and Aggression).
(i) Rauschning: Hitler distrusts everyone
who tries to explain political economy to him.
He believes that the intention is to dupe him,
and he makes no secret of his contempt for this
branch of science.
(ii) Hitler: My mind was tormeilted by
the question: Are these still human es'Lngs,
worthy of being part of a great nation? A
torturing question it was...(F.K. 54),
(iii) Hitler: ...it brought me internal
happiness to realize definitely that the Jew
was no German. (M.K. 77).
(iv) Hitler: ,...armed in one's mind
with confidence in the dear Lord and the unshake-
able stupidity of the bourgeois. (M.K. 555).
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9. Counteractive Aggression:- to repay an
insult in double measure -- a tooth for a tooth;
to revenge an injury; to attack opponents, superiors,
and frustrators.
(i) Verbal: to accuse, condemn, curse,
damn, depreciate, or mock an enemy to his face, or
behind his back by criticism, slander, subtle under-
mining of prestige, smear campaigns, etc.
There are hundreds of illustrations
of this. It is Hitler's conviction that:
"One can only succeed in winning the soul
of a people if, apart from a positive
fighting of one's own for one's own aims,
one also destroys at the same Mille the
supporter of the contrary." (1.K. 498).
(ii) Physical: to attack or kill the
depreciating injuring or frustrating object,
Purge of 1934, Anti-Semitism, Wars, etc.
10. Intradeference (Compliance):- ob-liance
to own intuitions and impulses; self-trust; fidelity
to own feelings, sentiments, tastes, judgments, ex-
periences.
(i) Hitler: But I knew just the same
that my place would be there where my inner
voice directed me to go.
(ii) Hitler: Nothing will move me to
go another way but the way which experience,
insight, and foresight tell me to go. (Y.N.O. 374).
(N.B., Illustrations of this are plentiful;
see Id.)
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11. Creation and Cathection of an Idealego:-
satisfaction with one's ideal, with the height of
one's aspirations; identification with this ideal.
(i) Many illustrations have been given
under Idealego and Identification with Idealego.
12. Idealego Intradeference (Respect):- self-
esteen; satisfaction with conduct, abilities and
accomplishments of self.
(i) Although, as I shall attempt to prove,
Hitler's character structure is a reaction
formation to tendencies of which he is highly
contemptuous, both these tendencies and the
contempt are largely unconscious to him. Much
more conspicuous in his conscious psychology
are his superiority feelings, his self-esteem,
his outflying self-confidence.
(ii) Hitler (at the age of nineteen years):
I waited with pride and confidence to learn
the result of my entrance examination. I was
so convinced of my success thrt the announcement
of my failure came like a bolt from the blue.
(M.K. 27).
(iii) Hitler: I devoted myself en-
thusiastically to my passion for architecture...
I was able to read or draw late into the night.
I was never tired. Thus my belief that my
beautiful dream of the future would become
reality, perhaps only after many years, was
strengthened. I was firmly convinced that
some day I would make a name as an architect.
(M.K. 45).
(iv) (Hitler believed himself a man of
destiny even while serving as a corporal): In
those months, for the first time, I felt fully
the whims of fortune which kept me at the front
in a place where any lucky move on the part
of a negro could shoot me down, while somewhere
else I would have been able to render a different
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service to my country. For I was bold
enough to believe even then that I would
have succeeded in this. (Y.K. 244).
(v) Hitler addressing Schuschnigg,
quoted by Fuchs: Do you not realize that
you are in the presence of the greatest
German ever known to history!
13. n Defendance: to defend one's self-esteem
verbally -- by offering excuses and justifications,
by blaming others, by depreciating the judges, by
exalting other aspects of one's personality, etc.
Hitler's prime method of defending the
status of his self is by blaming others (extrapuni-
tive reaction). Two other common methods are these:
(i) Connecting self with other
(respectable or great) people, who have
done the same, or had the same happen ,
to them, or suffered from the same defect
(n Rec )
Hitler: If we committed high
treason, then countless others did the
same. I deny all guilt so long as I to
not find added to our little company those
gentlemen who helped... (M.N.O. 80).
(ii) Proclaiming worth of criticized
part of self, or another part, or of self
as a whole (n Rec): to assert the merit of
what others condemn; to balance a defect
with an asset; to wipe out a failure by
recalling one's successes in this or in
some other field.
Hitler: I believe that as a
Nationalist Socialist I appear in the eyes
of many bourgeois democrats as only a wild
man. But as a wild man I still believe my-
self to be a better European ...(.N.0. 404).
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Throughout the whole of Hitler's spoken and
written words are to be found many evidences that
he highly approves of the traits attributed to him
in this section and, more than that, advocates their
adoption as the preferred pattern of behavior for
the whole nation.
Hitler: ...if a people is to become
free it needs pride and will-power, defiance,
hate, hate and once again hate. (T'.N.O. 49).
14. Insult as stimulus:- It is characteristic
of the proud counteractive type of personality that
his energies are not engaged unless'he has been
insulted or injured or imagined himself belittled in
some way. Thus the man of this sort will often
actively seek such a stimulus. The following
quotation illustrates this important principle:
(i) Hitler: If we had been att,acked
at that time, nay, if one had only laut�ted at
us, we would have been happy in both events.
For the depressing thing was neither the
one nor the other, but it was only the complete
lack of attention we encountered at that time.
This was true most of all for my person.
(n.K. 490).
15. Compulsive _Criminality- Having started
on a course of revengeful aggression instigated by
a real or supposed insult the individual is often
led to act or to plan actions which are opposed by
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his conscience. Therefore he is compelled, if he
is to fulfill his resolution of revenge, to repress
his superego. This often results in a condition of
mounting unconscious guilt which must be further
subdued by a repetition or extension of the criminal
behavior in order, as it were, to prove, by the
success'attending this conduct, that it is favored
by fortune and hence right. This is demonstrated
in Hitler's case and is an important dynamical
principle of his personality. It is necessary for
him to commit crimes, more crimes, in order to appease
his superego. As soon as successful offensive action
becomes impossible, the man will become a victim of
a long-repressed superego, a condition which will
lead to suicide or mental breakdown.
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VI. DYNAMICAL INTERPRETATION
OF THE MAJOR CONFIGURATION
A. REVENGEFUL DOMINANCE AS A COUNTER-
ACTION TO INSULTED NARCISM
Almost all psychologists who have analyzed
Hitler's personality have interpreted it by referring,
among other concepts, to Adler,s formula: craving
for superiority coming out of unbearable feelings of
inferiority... We also agree to this conception with
special stress laid upon the press of Insult (wounded
narcism) and the consequent residual tension of
revenge bolted up for years and then finding expression
in the Cult of Brutality. Even some of his non-
psychological associates reached essentially the
same conclusion.
(i) Rauschning: Every conversation,
however unimportant, seemed to show that ;this man
was filled with an immeasurable hatred. Hatred of
what? It was not easy to say. Almost anything
might suddenly inflame his wrath and his hatred.
He seemed always to feel the need of something to
hate.
(ii) Rauchning: In the harshness and
unexampled cynicism of Hitler there is something
more than the repressed effect of a hypersensitiveness,
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which has hendicapped its bearer. It is the urge
to reprisal and vengeance, a truly Russian-nihilistic
feeling.
(iii) Rauschning: Hatred -- personal
hatred -- rang out in his words, revenge for early
years of poverty, for disappointed hopes, for a life
of deprivation and humiliation.
(iv) Heiden: Anyone acquainted with the
unhappy life of this lonely man knows why hatred
and persecution mania guided his first political
footsteps. In his heart he nursed a grudge against
the world, and he vented it on guilty and innocent
alike. His cracking voice his jerky gait, his
sawing gestures expressed a hatred of which all who
saw him were conscious.
Hitler has experienced almost all the varieties
of press that in our experience are capable of giving
rise to wounded narcism; chiefly the following
deserve mention:
1. Physical inferiority;- Hitlerts youthful
frailty and general bodily awkwardness and weakness
has already been described.
2. Press of aggressive dominance (insult);- Know-
ing something of the character of Alois Hitler, we can
safely infer experiences of abasement and humiliation
suffered by the son.
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3. Press of rejection:- Some evidence for this
has already been given, (Sec.IV), and more will follow.
4. Press of lack (poverty and low social status):-
Here we would point especially to the four years of
living among the derelicts of Vienna.
5. Press of failure:- The failure to graduate
from the Realschule; the failure to pass the examina-
tions of the Academy of Arts; and the failure to make
his living in Vienna -- these and many others were
summated to produce feelings of humiliation and in-
adequacy.
6. Press of subordinate office, success of
rivals:- The fact that Hitler was not promoted in
the Army beyond the position of corporal and that he
must have seen many younger men being advanced above
him helped to aggravate his wounded pride.
7. Sexual inferiority:- Perhaps crucial in this
whole cluster of debasing press is Hitler's reported
inability to have sexual intercourse. This may be
due to physical or psychic impotence.
B. Breakdown of courage:- Hitler's war neurosis
Is a sign of a breakdown of nervous stamina in the
face of overwhelming odds, which was probably experienced
by him as a humiliation, especially in view of his ego
ideal.
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(a) Our own hypothetical reconstruction
of the traumatic events which led to the feeling of
insulted pride would be somewhat as follows:
(i) Abasement and humiliation of the mother
as the result of the press of aggressive dominance
and insult from the father, leading eventually to
the death of the mother. According to our hypothesis
the boy Hitler identified with his mother on the
lowest level of his nature. This led to the desire
for revenge: aggressive dominance and humiliation
of the father.
(ii) Press of rejection coming from the
father and perhaps to some extent from the mother
(birth of younger sibling). This led to the boy's
desire for suprafiliation, incorporation in a larger
and more powerful group, namely, Germany, and a feeling
of superiority (glory) in this fantasied alliance,
together with the justification of releasing aggression
against his Government, Austria.
(iii) Abasement and humiliation on self as
a result of the press aggressive dominance and insult
from his father. This is similar to the trauma in
(i) except here it is on his own account entirely.
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It led to the same counteractive need for aggressive
dominance and vengeance, the goal being humiliation
of the father and omnipotence for himself. The death
of his father when he was thirteen years old and the
five subsequent years when he had his mother pretty
much to himself may have served to engender the
confidence (enjoyed throughout his life) that he
would eventually succeed as ruler.
(iv) Humiliation of self in Vienna as
the result of press rejection, press deprivation,
and press aggressive dominance. Since many of the
prominent positions in Vienna were held by Jews,
some of Hitler's anti-Semitism, as well as his hatred
of Vienna, can be attributed to humiliations received
from the upper classes during these years. These
wounds to pride helped to augment the mounting
residual tension of aggressive dominance. Later
his acceptance as a soldier in the German Army
served to relieve his painful feelings and give him
feelings of exultation similar to those experienced
when he joined the Nationalist's Club as a boy.
(v) Humiliation of self (war neurosis)
concomitant with the humiliation and abasement of
his motherland as the result of press aggressive
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dominance and insult (Versailles Treaty) at the
hands, of the Allies. As in the previous four cases,
this led to the need for aggressive dominance with
the aim of reinstating the power and glory of Germany
and wreaking vengeance on the Allies.
The hypothesis of identification with the mother
on a physical erotic level calls for the assumption
of strain of femininity in Hitler, combined with a
trend of passive homosexuality and for this we must
now list the evidence.
I. Femininitl, PRSSiVO Homosexuality, Masochism.
(a) The feminine component in Hitler's
physical constitution had already been described
(i) Feminine traits. Hitler's senti-
mentality, his emotionality, his shrieking at the
climax of his speeches, his artistic inclinations,
his sudden collapses, his occasional softness --
these are all typical not so much of a women as of
a woman in man.
(ii) Identification with mother. Hitler's
belief that ho is going to die of cancer as did his
mother is suggestive of an underlying empathic relation-
ship.
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(iii) Abasement to superiors, strong
males. Instances or exaggerated submissiveness to
powerful superiors have already been listed.
(iv) Cathexis of male symbols. Hitler
has a special liking for a multiplicity of tall,
conspicuous columns in architecture and for paintings
of stallions (they must never be mares).
(v) Attraction to homosexuals followed
by their murder. It is known that Hitler had a special
admiration for Roehm; whether it was this individual
or Hitler himself who was chiefly responsible in
attracting such a large proportion of homosexuals to
the Nazi Party is uncertain, but it is known that
after two or three months of anxiety and delusions
to the effect that Roehm and his fellow homosexuals
were plotting to usurp power Hitler had them all
murdered in the purge of 1934.
(vi) Homosexual panic. Some of the
nightmares described by several informants are very
suggestive of homosexual panic.
Rauschning: Hitler wakes at
night with convulsive shrieks. He shouts for
help. He sits on the edge of his bed, as if un-
able to stir. He shakes with fear, making the
whole bed vibrate. He shouts confused, totally
unintelligible phrases. He gasps, as if
imagining himself to be suffocating...Hitler
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stood swaying in his room, looking wildly about
him. "Het Ho! He's been here!" he gasped.
His lips wore blue Sweat streamed down his
face. Suddenly he began to reel off figures,
end odd words end broken phrases, entirely
devoid of sense then he suddenly broke out,
"There, there: In the corner! Who's that?"
He stamped and shrieked in the familar way...
A number of metaphors used by Hitler, images
of being stabbed in the rear, recur in his writings.
(vii) Hitler: The development has shown
that the people who stab with stilettos in
Germany are more powerful than before.
(viii) Hitler: Slowly the fear of the
Marxist weapon of Jewry sinks into the brains
and souls of decent people like a nightmare.
(LK. 447).
(ix) Hitler: One begins to tremble
before the terrible enemy, and thus one has
become his final victim. (M.K. 447).
(x) Hitler: There can never be unity
between those who manned the walls in the hour
of danger, and those who in the last moment
pushed the stiletto into their backs.
(xi) Hitler: God be thanked, this is
just the meaning of Germanic democracy, that no
unworthy climber or moral shirker can come in
the back way to rule his fellow citizens...but
should, nevertheless, such a fellow ti,y to sneak
in, then he will be easily found out and ruth-
lessly rebuffed. Out with you, cowardly wretch!
Step back, you are soiling the steps; the front
stairs leading to the Pantheon of History is
not for sneaks but for heroes.(M.K. 117).
Pertinent at this point, perhaps, is Hitler's
fear of being poisoned by some deathly powder sprinkled
on his bedclothes; as was shown on his visit to Rome
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and at other times, his bed must be made- up by a
woman in a particular way, never by a man.
(b) Need for abasement; - Hitler's exaggerated
submissiveness has been described (By 1 (ii)), but a
few more notable quotations should be added to transmit
the passion that sometimes accompanies this tendency
in Hitler. .They are all strengly suggestive of
masochisth.
(i) Hitler, quoted by Rauschning: The
plain man in the street respects nothing but
brutal strength and ruthlessness -- women,
too, for that matter, women and children.
They need wholesome fear. They want to fear
something. They want someone to frighten them
and make them shudderingly submissive.
(ii) Hitler, quoted by Rauschning: I
have seen the vision of the new man -- fearless
and formidable. I shrank from him.
(iii) Hitler: Like a woman, whose psychic
feeling is influenced less by abstract reasoning
than by an undefinable, sentimental longing for
complementary strength, who will submit to the
strong man rather than dominate the weakt!.ng,
thus the masses love the ruler rather than the
suppliant. (M.K. 55).
(N.B., Another excellent example of
,projection of self).
(iv) Hitler: He who would win the great
masses must know the key which _opens the door
to their hearts. - Its name is not objectivity,
that is, weakness, but will .power and strength.
(M.K. 458).
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Hitler has a peculiar habit of falling to the
ground suddenly when faced by a critical situation or
insurmountable frustration. Ho does not struggle
persistently until he is completely overpowered but
ho makes an enormous show of strength and, when he
sees the odds are against him, unexpectedly collapses.
Together with these. Critical abasements, we -
might include the intraggressive tendencies: his
preoccupation with suicide and death.
(c) Cathexis for Hitler Youth.
(i) Hitler, quoted by Rauschning But
my magnificentyoungstersl Are there finer
ones anywhere in the world? Look at these
young men and boys: What materials With
them I cbn make n new world
(ii) Hitler: ...how did the eyes of
my boys (Hitler youth) shine when I made clear
to them the necessity of their mission. (Y.K. 729).
(iii) Hitler: ...vanity in a beautiful,
well shaped body (to be encouraged by men
wearing less concealing clothes).
It is reported by Rauschning that Hitler has
had overt homosexual relations and in this connection
has mentioned throe lovers, one, Forster (Gauloiter
of Danzig).
II. Repression of Vemininity Counteraction
by Identification with Powerful Mao Idoclego
The ruthless aggressiveness of Hitler is the
trait which first strikes the eyes of the whole world,
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but it is not the healthy aggressiveness of a full-
blooded male animal but a reaction formation to the
tendencies which WO have subsumed under inferiority,
femininity, passive homosexuality. Hitler's aggressive-
ness is the compulsive frantic hate of a neurotic for
some unrevenged in ult of infancy. The varieties
of expressions of this vindictive will to power have
already been fully listed. There remains only to
be mentioned the many indications that we have of
an intense and unrelenting self-contempt which has
caused him to admire what he is not, the very opposite
of himself.
III. Need for Intrarelection self-Contempt)
Under the heading projections we enumerated
many instances of where Hitler attributed the traits
of his inferior and rejected self to external objects.
All of these, and there were many of them, might be
cited as evidences of self-contempt, since they
represent refusals to acknowledge aspects of himself.
Hero we have to cell attention to the opposite tendency,
namely that of praising the antithesis of what he is
or has been in reality.
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(a) Hitler has talked incessantly of
superiority of breed. He has praised the aristocracy
as the noble result of the process of natural selec-
tion -- the nobility were the superior race. He,
in contrast, was born of lowly stock, several members
of his family being mentally retarded, one feeble-
minded. His mother was a simple peasant and domestic
servant, and his father an illegitimate son who begot
an illegitimate child.
(b) Hitler has scarcely one of the attributes
which his own experts ascribe to the Nordic race,
and he could-never become a member of his own elite
guard; and yet he says: "Strong and handsome must
my young men be. I will have them fully trained in
all physical exercises. I intend to have an athletic
youth -- that is the first and chief thing." Note
that Hitler has never had the slightest aptitude for
athletics.
(c) Hitler is unmarried and has no children,
and yet preaches increase of population, the sanctity
of the family, and the necessity of bearing more and
more Germans.
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(d) Hitler's own life is one of individual-
istic anarchy -- self-willed and disorderly and yet he
preaches "my new order" and demands punctilious
discipline from his subordinates.
All these contrasts, and there are many more of
them, are pitiful demonstrations of Hitler's self-
loathing and as such clinch the diagnosis that we
have outlined here. The nearest to a recorded con-
fession of his own self-contempt that has ever come to
us is a statement of Hitler's reported by Rauschning.
(i) I am beginning with the young.
We older ones are used up. Yes, we are old
already. We are rotten to the marrow...we
are cowardITand sentimental. We are bearing
the burden of a humiliating past, and have in
our blood the dull recollection of serfdom
and servility. But my magnificent youngsters:
etc.
(ii) The uninitiated but pure man
is tempted to abandon himself in Klingsor's magic
garden, to the lusts and excesses of corrupt
civilization, instead of joining the elite of
knights who guard the secret of life, pure blood..
all of us are suffering from the ailment of
mixed; corrupted blood. How can we purify
ourselves and make atonement? ...mount the
steps of a new nobility.
IV. Negative Cathexis of the Jewish Race.
This is as good a place as any to mention Hitler's
Anti-Semitism and to list what seems to have been, in
his case, the chief determinants of this sentiment:
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1. The influence of a number of political
thinkers and speakers whom he admired: Lueger,
Feder, Eckart, etc.
2. His repressed hatred and the need to find
an object on which to vent it: the suitability
of the Jew as a scapegoat because he does not fight
with fists and weapons.
3. The suitability of the Jew as an object
on which to project his own repudiated background
and traits: his Jewish god-father (and possibly.
his Jewish grandfather), his physical timidity and
sensitiveness, his polymorphous sexual impulses.
4. The recognition that the repressed
aggression in the German people after the Versailles
Treaty required a scapegoat; condemnation of the
iJaw as good political strategy.
5. The realization, after having once embarked
on the road to militarism, that the stirred-up
aggression of his followers needed some outlet --
a warming up period -- during the years they had
to wait before they were strong enough to declare
war on a foreign power. Directing aggression against
a common enemy would greatly diminish the likelihood
of its being turned against himself.
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5. The intensity of his Anti-Semitism is partly
accounted for by one of his principles of political
action: focus hostility on a single enemy at a time.
7. In building his military machine the anti-
militaristic Jewish people could not be of much help
to him. At bottom Fascism is the advocacy of the
aggressive drive over and above the acquisitive drive
(with which the Jew has generally been identified),
and, by the same token, it is the substitution of
Power and Glory for Peace and Prosperity, a material-
istic paradise on earth (with which Communism and the
Jew have also been identified). Finally, the Nazi
doctrine of fanatical irrationality (thinking with
the blood) is antipathetic to the intellectual
relativism of the Jew. Thus there are several
fundamental points of opposition (as well as certain
points of kinship) between Nazi ideology and Jewish
ideology.
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VI. SECTIONS B, C, D, E.
DEVELOPMENT OF HITLER'S SEX COMPLEXES
(Omitted from this edition)
By careful study of the three thousand metaphors
that are to be found in MEIN KAMPF it was possible to
work out the chief patterns
perverse sexual complexes.
the use of this method were
of Hitler's emotional and
The conclusions reached by
later verified in a conversa-
tion with a man who has questioned two of the women
with whom Hitler has had relations. There were no
discrepancies between the conclusions reached here
and these first hand reports. Although the discovery
of these sexual patterns is helpful to a psychiatrist
in arriving at a complete formulation of Hitler's
character and therefore indirectly pertinent to the
final diagnosis and the predictions of his behavior,
it has no bearing on the political situation. Conse-
quently, the sections dealing with this aspect of his
personality have been omitted.
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VII. ABILITIES AND PRINCIPLES OF ACTION
Hitler has a number of unusual abilities of which
his opponents should not be ignorant. Not only
is it important to justly appraise the strength of an
enemy but it is well to know whether or not he possesses
capacities and techniques which can be appropriated to
good advantage. Hitler's chief abilities, realiza-
tions, and principles of action as a political figure,
all of which involve an uncanny knowledge of the
psychology of the average man, are briefly these:
1. Pull appreciation of the importance of the
masses in the success of any movement:- Two quotations
might serve to bring out this point.
(i) Hitler: The lack of knowledge of
the internal driving forces of great changes
led to an insufficient evaluation of the im-
portance of the great masses of the people;
from this resulted the scanty interest in the
social question, the deficient and insufficient
courting of the soul of the nation's lower
classes...(M.K. 138).
(ii) Heiden speaks of "Hitler's frequently
noted incapacity to impose his will in a small
circle, and his consummate skill in winning over
a crowd prepared by publicity and stage manage-
ment, and then, with its aid, vanquishing the
small circle, too."
2. Recognition of the inestimable value of winning
the support of youth; realization of the immense momentum
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given a social movement by the wild fervor and
enthusiasm of young men and women. Here we must also
include the importance of early training and indoctrina-
tion.
3. An identification, through feeLinat with the
deepest needs and sentiments of the average German
and the ability to give passionate expression to these
lon;ings.
4. Capacity to appeal to the most primitive,
as well as the most ideal, inclinations in man, to
arouse the basest instincts and yet cloak them with
nobility, justifying all actions as means to the
attainment of an ideal goal. Hitler has seen that men
will not combine and dedicate themselves to a common
purpose unless this purpose be an ideal one capable
of survival beyond their generation. Hc has perceived
also that although men will 401.0 only for an ifleal
their continued zest and enterprise can be maintained
only by a succession of more immediate and earthly
satisfactions.
5. Appreciation of the fact that the masses
are as hungry for a sustaining ideology in political
action as they are for daily bread. It is with the
masses that religious belief has taken root and
maintained itself and in the last decades the
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ideologies of communism and fascism have also flourished
among the common people. It is an error to believe
as many democratic leaders do that the average man
cannot understand and cares nothing for political
philosophy. Hitler is most specific on this point,
two quotations from his writings being particularly
pertinent.
(i) All force which does not spring from
a firm spiritual foundation will be hesitating
and uncertain. It lacks the stability which
can only rest on a fanatical view of life.
(Y.K. 222).
(ii) Every attempt at fighting a view of
life by means of force will finally fail, unless
the fight against it represents the form of an
attack for the sake of a new spiritual direc-
tion. Only in the struggle of two views of
life with each other can the weapon �of brute
force, used continuously and ruthlessly, bring
about the decision in favor of the side it
supports. (M.K. 223).
5. The ability to analyze complex social condi-
tions into a few dominant human forces- Hitler is
speaking the truth when he says, "I have the gift of
reducing all problems to their simplest foundations...
A gift for tracing back all theories to their roots
in reality."
He has the ability, Rauschning tells
us, "of breaking through the wall of prejudices and
conventional theories of the experts, and in so doing,
he has frequently discovered amazing truths."
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7. The ability to portray conflitting human
forces in vivid, concrete imagery that is understand-
able and moving to the ordinary man. This comes
down to the use of metaphors in the form of imagery
which, as Aristotle has said, is the most powerful
force on earth. Public speakers of recent years
seem to have overlooked the importance of this principle,
relying more on the marshalling of cold, objective
facts and figures.
B. The ability to draw on the traditions of
the peoples and by reference to the great c:assical
mythological themes evoke the deepest unconscious
emotions in his audience. The fact that the unconscious
mind is more intensely affected by the great eternal
symbols and themes, (that it naturally thinks in
these terms,) is not generally understood by speakers
and writers. Undoubtedly in Hitler's case the
permeability of his ego to unconscious processes
has made this form of utterance more natural than
it would be for others.
9. Realization that enthusiastic political
action does not take place if the emotions are not
involved. Hitler has always insisted that he Was
bringing about a veritable conversion in the
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personalities of his adherents rather than a mere
intellectual agreement with his views.
10. Realization of the importance of artistry
and dramatic intensity in the conductance of large
meetings, rallies and festivals. This involves
not only an appreciation of what the artist -- the
writer, musician, and painter -- can accomplish
in the way of evoking popular support but also the
leader's recognition of the necessity of his participa-
tion in the total dramatic effect as chief character
and hero. Thus Hitler has become master of all the
arts of high-lighting his own rale in the movement
for a greater Germany. Democratic leaders, on the
other hand, disregarding the fact that the artist
is trained above all others to animate the human
spirit, have disregarded this important aspect of life.
11. The ability to appeal to the _sympathetic
concern and protectiveness of his people, to represent
himself as the bearer of their burdens and their
future, with the result that many people, particularly
the women, feel tenderly and compassionately about
him, being always careful to avoid inflicting undue
annoyance or suffering on their leader. The intense
loyalty of Hitler's Body Guard is an illustration of
this protectiveness.
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12. Dedication to his mission. This most
essential of all Hitler's characteristics should
perhaps have been mentioned first. what is involved
here is an intense and profound insociation with the
German people, or at least with his vision of what
the German people might become. All close observers
have agreed that Hitler is sincere in this feeling,
and whether this is strictly true or not, he has
succeeded in convincing his people that he is a
passionate and devoted patriot. It is the spectacle
of his far-seeing dedicated vision and firm dedicated
utterances which arouse the selfless energies of
his followers. Citizens of democratic countries
who have been brought up in the tradition of extreme
individualism cannot readily appreciate this sub-
mission of the leader to a social purpose. They
are naturally skeptical of Hitler's sincerity and
believe that it is forced and artificial. I submit,
on the contrary, that it is this insociation, as we
have stressed above, which is responsible for the
maintenance of Hitler's partial sanity, despite the
presence of neurotic and psychotic trends.
13. Self-confidence and sense of infallibility.
This might have been detrimental to Hitler's popularity
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if his decisions had often met with failure, but in
as much as his rise to power was almost phenomenal
and events proved that he was so often right in his
predictions, his claim to infallibility was accepted
and his word was eventually reverenced as a divine
pronouncement.
14. Fanatical stubbornness in his adherence
to a few principles and to one common goal.
(i) Hitler, quoted by Deuel: Only
a storm of glowing passion can turn the
destinies of nations, but this passion can
only be roused by a man who carries it
within himself.
(ii) ...the forceful impression of
great overwhelming viewpoints.. .the
convincing force of unconditional belief
in them. (Y.K. 570).
15. Mastery of the art of political organiza-
tion. Here undoubtedly Hitler was assisted by
several of his shrewder associates, but his own
judgment in matters of organization was usually
influential above that of the others.
13. Ability to surround himself with devoted
aides whose talents complement his own. In many
respects Hitler is deficient, especially in the
practices of orderly administration, but he was
capable of finding sufficient skill among his ad-
herents and make them work for hin regardless of
their failings in other respects.
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17. Hitler is unusual in history in his concep-
tion of the leader as a creator of social forms.
Holding this view, it is natural that he should
conduct his life at certain seasons as an artist
does, seeking rest and seclusion and waiting for the
vision or plan to develop in his subconscious. What
other politicians refer to as his bohemianism, his
disorderly and romantic style of life is very compar-
able to the pattern which authors have found most
effective in the production of their works. Tempera-
mentally indeed, Hitler is the arch-romantic. One
might suppose that this way of governing one's life
has no place in politics, but without question in
this instance many of the startling innovations intro-
duced by the Nazis are the results of Hitler's
reliance upon the creative imagination directed toward
social issues.
18. Most of the world will concede that Hitler
has tactical genius, The particular feature that
has impressed most observers has been his uncannily
precise timing of decisions and actions. As Thyssen
has put it, "Sometimes his intelligence is astonish-
ing...miraculous political intuition, devoid of all
moral sense, but extraordinarily precise. Even in a
very complex situation he discerns what is possible,
and what is
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19. The fact that Hitler has repudiated the
operation of conscience in arriving at political
decisions has eliminated once and for all the force
which checks end complicates the forward-going
thoughts and resolutions of most socially responsible
statesmen. Thus, Hitler's course is immensely
simplified since it is not incumbent upon him to
respect the dictates of conscience and so reject a
path of action which appeals to him as being most
effective. Other statesmen, on the contrary, must
either renounce certain programs or pull their punches.
20. Hitler has boasted that he learned the use
of terror from the communists and employed it with
more effectiveness than his instructors.
21. Mastery of the art of propaganda. This has
consisted in the following of certain rules such as:
never to admit a fault or wrong; never to accept
blame; concentrate on one enemy at a time; blame that
enemy for everything that goes wrong; take advantage
of every opportunity to raise a political whirlwind.
Many of the specific abilities listed above are
exercized as part and parcel of his quite unusual
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power as a popular orator. So much has been written
about Hitler's ability to galvanize an audience by
his gestures, the cadence of his sentences, the
resoluteness of his declarations, the passion of his
appeals that any further description here would be
superfluous. It is clear that Hitler becomes transported
during a speech and exhibits a personality that is kept
in the background at other times, When face to face
with his public he becomes a clairvoyant, shaman in
a trance, as he relinquishes normal controls and
allows his emotions full sway.
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PREDICTIONS
I shall assume that from now on the Allied
Nations will be closing in on Germany; that Hitler
will be confronted by an increasing number of military
setbacks in the field, by the devastation of one
industrial center after another, and by the spread
of a defeatist spirit among the civilian population.
How will be behave? There are various possibilites,
some
more
of which are more. or less desirable, others
or less undesirable, from the
It is possible, however, that some
desirable final acts of his
career
Allied standpoint.
of the less
may be prevented.
The chief possibilities are these:
1. Hitler's behavior will become increasingly
neurotic: - his capacity to make correct decisions,
to devise effective strategy, to encourage his
people, will diminish steadily. For eight months
there have been signs of such a breakdown of psychic
strength. Hitler has not appeared and spoken in
public at customary occasions, or, if he has spoken,
his words have lacked confidence and sustaining
value. Several times there have been rumors that
he had retired to Derchtesgaden, the victim of
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nervous illness. Whether this is true or not, it can
be certainly predicted that Hitler will experience
an increasing number of hysterical seizures in which
he will pace and stamp the floor, shriek with rage,
and eventually collapse in tears. He will seek the
solitude of his refuge in the mountains where he will
be tormented by dreadful nightmares and melancholia,
and become inert.
Then, after a period of recuperation, he will
arrive at a new plan of aggressive offense. If his
military staff are opposed to it, he will assume
command himself, and load his troops on another
desperate assault against the Russian lines. If
unsuccessful, he will have more nervous seizures,
relinquish command, and again retreat to Berchtes-
gaden. Hitler has no capacity for sustained defense
He will speak loss and less in public, because
he cannot face his people if his star is not ascending.
He can speak only when he anticipates progress or
after a victory. The Russians have shattered Hitler's
confidence; and without confidence he is paralyzed.
If he stood before his followers now he would probably
weep.
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Without doubt he will become increasingly fearful
of being poisoned, betrayed, or shot.
Whatever else happens, the above course of events
will almost certainly occur. Hitler will become less
and less of a leader; others will take over. On the
one hand, the military staff; and, on the other,
Himmler, Ribbentrop, Goering, Goebbels, F8rster and
Koch. There will be dissensions between the Army and
the Party; as well as between the Party leaders. But
the people will be kept ignorant as long as possible
of Hitler's failing nerves, and they will not easily
lose their faith in him. Furthermore, he will always
reserve and exercise the right to step in at any
moment and dictate what shall be done. Thus we can
expect to hear nothing of him for a while and then
suddenly he will appear unheralded at some spot and
something new will happen.
2. Hitler maz_go insane: - He has the make-up
of a paranoid schizophrenic, and the load of frustra-
tion and failure that is coming to him may crack his
resistance, causing him to yield his will to the
turbulent forces of his unconscious. This is not
undesirable; because, even if the truth be kept
hidden from the people, the greatest source of strength
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in Germany will be removed from the scene of action,
and morale will rapidly deteriorate as rumors spread.
Furthermore, the Legend of the Hero will be severely
damaged by such an outcome. There is no good historical
instance of the deification of a military or political
leader who was defeated and went insane. Finally, if
Hitler became insane, he would probably fall into the
hands of the Allied Nations, and this, as I shall
argue, would be the most desirable possible outcome.
3. Hitler may get killed in battle: - At a
critical moment Hitler may decide to lead his elite
troops against the Russians, exposing himself so that
he will get killed, and so live in the hearts of his
countrymen as a valiant hero. He is very likely to
choose this course, most undesirable from our Allied
point of view. It is undesirable, first, because
his death will serve as an example to all his followers
to fight with fanatical death-defying energy to the
bitter end, and second, because it will insure Hitler's
immortality -- the Siegfried who led the Aryan hosts
against Bolshevism and the Slay.
4. Hitler may be killed by a German: - Hitler
is most efficiently protected and it is not likely
that anyone will wilfully attempt to kill him. But
he may contrive to have someone, a half-crazy paranoid
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like himself, instigated to do the deed at some
prearranged moment when he purposely exposes his
person in public. If he could arrange to have a
Jew kill him, then he could die in the belief that
his fellow countrymen would rise in their wrath and
massacre every remaining Jew in Germany. Thus, he
would get his ultimate revenge. This would be the
most dastardly plan of all, and the very most undesir-
able. It would increase the fanaticism of the soldiers,
and create a Legend in conformity with the ancient
pattern, Siegfried stabbed in the back by Hagen,
Caesar by Brutus, Christ betrayed by Judas -- except
that here the murderer would not be a close follower.
However, it is just possible that Hitler could persuade
the beloved F8rster to kill him.
5. Hitler may commit suicide: - Hitler has often
vowed that he would commit suicide if his plans
miscarried; but if he chooses this course he will do
it at the last moment and in the most dramatic possible
manner. He will retreat, let us say, to the impregnable
little fortress he has built for himself on the top
of the mountain beyond the Berghof (Berchtesgaden).
There alone he will wait until troops come to take
him prisoner. As a climax he will blow up the moun-
tain and himself with dynamite, or make a funeral
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pyre of his retreat and throw himself on it (a suitable
Glitterdamerung) or kill himself with a silver bullet
(as did the Emperor Christophe), or possibly throw
himself off the parapet. This is not at all unlikely.
For us it would be an undesirable outcome.
6. Hitler may, seek refuge in a neutral country: -
It is not likely that Hitler, concerned as he is with
his immortality on earth, would take so cowardly a
course. But one of his followers might drug him, and
take him in a plane bound to Switzerland, and then
persuade hin that he should stay there to write his
long-planned Bible for the Germanic folk. Since the
herols desertion of his people would considerably
damage the Legend, this outcome would be much better
that either 3 or 4.
7. Hitler may die: -There is no reason to
believe that Hitler will die of natural causes in the
next three or four years; but he might poison himself
and have it announced that he had died of cancer of the
stomach, or some other incurable illness. This out-
come would be natural.
8. Hitler may be seized by the military command
or by a revolutionary faction in Germany before the
end of the war and immured in some prison fortress.
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This event is difficult to envisage from what we
surmize and have been told of the popularily of the
man and the protection afforded him, but if it were
to transpire, it would put en ignominious end to
the myth of the invincible leader and eventually
deliver him into our hands.
9. Hitler may fall into our hands before or
efter the Germans have surrendered: - This would be
the next most desirable outcome after 8 but is
perhaps the least likely.
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SECTION IV
Predictions of Hitler/s Behavior in the Coming Future
(See Section II Part B)
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SECTION V
Suggestions for the Treatment of Hitler,
Now and After German's Surrender
(See Section I, Part C)
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Section VI
Suggestions for the Treatment of Germany
(See Section I, Part D)
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