Why was Adolf Hitler ashamed of his mother. Alois Schicklgruber (Hitler) was the illegitimate son of one of the financial kings of the Rothschild family
Well, since they asked, I repost the story on my own with a confused surname and additions.
Unfortunately, it was not possible to find a sufficient number of photographs of A. Hitler's father, because (according to Joachim Fest, the creator the most detailed biography"Hitler") Adolf, becoming Reich Chancellor, purposefully concealed or destroyed all materials related to his family and the times of his youth: nothing should have cast a shadow on the Fuhrer, including the story of his very gray-footed origin. But, let's talk about dad and his last name.
Photo from 1870, here Alois (still Schicklgruber) is 33 years old (he was born on June 7, 1837):
So, strictly on genealogy. In the Austro-Hungarian borderlands, the surnames Hitler, Gidler or Güttler (presumably Czech - Gidlar, Gidlarchek) were very common and in one of the variants were traced back to the 30s of the 15th century (Jetzinger F. "Hitlers Jugend", S. 11)
In 1837, an unmarried servant Anna-Maria Schicklgruber (Schicklgruber) gave birth to an illegitimate child baptized under the name Alois. Five years later, Anna-Maria married the assistant miller of the Dellersheim community, Johann Georg Giedler. Further, it is even more interesting: the son Alois in the same year was given up for the upbringing of her husband's relative, the peasant Johann Nepomuk GüTTler (both Güttler and Gidler are the alleged fathers of Alois, it is not known exactly). What follows is a rather murky and uninteresting story with the Austro-Hungarian bureaucracy and registration in the register of civil status.
Photo 2. Alois Hitler in the uniform of a senior official of the customs department of Austria-Hungary. The rank is similar to the Russian collegiate assessor or army major (a very decent rank, we note):
So: in 1877, after the death of Anna-Maria Schicklgruber (married GiDler) and 19 (!) years after the death of her husband, Johann Nepomuk GüTTler came to the pastor of Dellersheim with a request to "adopt" the customs official Alois Schicklgruber. And the civil status book (probably not without a bribe) was replaced by the birth "out of wedlock" with "married" and Alois Schicklgruber officially became Alois Hitler. The surname was written as Hitler(and not Huttler and not Hiedler), which was undoubtedly the pastor's mistake, which was recorded by the Austro-Hungarian officials. Thanks to the inattentive pastor and the bureaucrats of Austria-Hungary who did not pay attention to the typo (or took the surname by ear) this surname became infamous.
3. Alois Hitler retired:
12 years later (in the marriage of Alois Hitler to Clara Pelzl), Adolf Hitler was born, who never did not bear the surname Schicklgruber.
At the moment, in the Linz region (Austria), 563 people have the surname Güttler, 226 people have the surname Gidler, and 46 people have the surname Hitler. The surname "Gidlar" in the Czech Republic is quite common - not like Ivanov in Russia, of course, but still.
Mom and dad, Alois and Clara Hitler are buried under their first names, surnames, here is their grave in its modern form:
Adherents of the myth about the Jewish origin of the Fuhrer of the German people - Adolf Hitler - manipulate a mass of facts, some of which should rightfully be classified as fiction.
Firstly, they refer to the fact that “there is no smoke without fire” and these rumors simply have to be based on something.
Secondly, the behavior of the “Führer” himself seems extremely mysterious, who, having come to power, in every possible way prevented the shedding of light on his genealogy and, according to rumors, even destroyed some important documents. But not all - in 1928, the Austrian police, after a thorough investigation, unequivocally determined that Hitler's grandfather was a Jew.
The authors are of the same opinion. secret research which was held in 1943 at Harvard.
Finally, a large amount of information about the Jewish origin of Hitler was collected by the famous British researcher David Irving.
Adolf Hitler - the future "great dictator" came from a not very original and did not leave a deep mark in
families, which necessarily entails the appearance of many "white spots". And where “white spots” appear, myths soon arise ...
The myth of Hitler's Jewish origin began to spread actively during his lifetime. The version that the number one enemy of the Jews was himself a quarter, if not half, a Jew served several important functions at once.
Firstly, for the idle public, and later for lovers of historical sensations, it was a very interesting highlight.
Secondly, for Hitler's enemies - including his competitors within the National Socialist movement - this myth served to discredit the Fuhrer: look, this propagandist of the purity of the German race is a hidden Jew himself!
Thirdly, supporters of various psychological theories willingly adopted this myth, arguing that it was precisely the inferiority complex due to the carefully concealed Jewish origin that made Hitler an ardent anti-Semite and German nationalist ...
If everything in the genealogical tree of Adolf Hitler were as clear and understandable as it was later required of candidates for the SS, the myth about the Jewish origin of the Nazi leader would have been forgotten long ago and would have appeared only on the pages of very yellow newspapers, but many details of the lives of those who was directly related to the birth of Adolf, are covered in fog ...
The very myth about “Hitler the Jew” sounds something like this: Adolf’s father, Alois Schicklgruber, was the illegitimate son of a servant who worked in the Rothschild house and was looked after very actively and not unsuccessfully by one of the members of this family.
Later, Adolf's grandmother married Johann Georg Hiedler, who, according to some sources, was a descendant of a very wealthy family of Czech Jews. Later, when Alois took his stepfather's surname, they began to write it as "Hitler".
Adolf's father himself was married three times - the third time to Clara Pelzl, who is also considered by some to be Jewish. It was she who produced the future "great Fuhrer" in 1889 ...
A curious but rather common fact is that a myth that has existed for quite a long time begins, as it were, to prove itself. In fact, Adolf Hitler himself did a lot to spread this myth ...
At the very beginning of the 1920s, having stood at the head of the then still small NSDAP, Hitler zealously wraps his origins in fog. Even in his book "Mein Kampf" - in fact, his autobiography - he gives his parents only a couple of lines.
“Father was a conscientious government official, mother was a housewife, evenly sharing her love between all of us - her children” - that's all, except for the story of how his father managed to build his career.
Werner Maser, one of the numerous biographers of Adolf Hitler, explains this by saying that the Fuhrer, who was well acquainted with Greek and Roman mythology, tried in this way to imitate the ancient heroes, elevated above mere mortals in many respects due to a very vague origin.
On October 14, 1933, the Daily Mail published a photograph of the tombstone of a certain Adolf Hitler, who was buried in a Jewish cemetery in Bucharest. The journalists of the publication stated that this man was the grandfather of the current Reich Chancellor of Germany ...
The newspaper sold like hot cakes, other periodicals reprinted this news, no joke, now the Jewish origin of the leader of the National Socialists was clearly proven!
However, it was a premature boom, and it soon became clear that the Jew from Bucharest could not have been the Fuhrer's grandfather - if only because he was born only 5 years earlier than Adolf Hitler's father ...
In 1946, after Hitler's suicide, a new sensational material appeared - the so-called "Frank notes". Hans Frank, the Governor-General of Poland throughout the Second World War, already among the defendants at the Nuremberg trials, converted to the Catholic faith and in writing spoke about the facts allegedly known to him. Although Frank was hanged by the verdict of the Nuremberg Tribunal, his "confession" continues to live and is considered almost the most convincing evidence of Hitler's Jewish origin.
We quote this confession in full: “Once, around the end of 1930, I was summoned to see Hitler ...
He showed me a letter and said that it was a "disgusting blackmail" by one of his most disgusting relatives, which concerns his, Hitler's origins. If I am not mistaken, it was the son of his half-brother Alois Hitler (from the second marriage of Hitler's father), who made subtle hints that "in connection with the well-known statements in the press, you should be interested in not bringing certain circumstances of history to public discussion our family."
The statements in the press, which were mentioned in the letter, were that "Hitler has Jewish blood in his veins, and therefore he does not have the slightest right to preach anti-Semitism." However, they were too general and did not give rise to retaliatory measures. In the heat of the struggle, all this went unnoticed. But these hints of blackmail, coming from family circles, made me think.
On Hitler's instructions, I delicately examined the situation. In general, I have been able to establish the following from various sources: Hitler's father was the illegitimate child of a cook named Schicklgruber from Leonding near Linz, who was employed by a family in Graz.
In accordance with the law, according to which an illegitimate child must bear the mother's surname, he lived until about the age of fourteen under the surname Schicklgruber. When his mother, i.e. Adolf Hitler's grandmother, married a certain Herr Hitler, the illegitimate child, i.e. Adolf Hitler's father, was legally recognized as the son of the Hitler and Schicklgruber families. All this is understandable, and there is absolutely nothing unusual about it.
But the most surprising thing about this story is this: when this cook Schicklgruber, the grandmother of Adolf Hitler, gave birth to a child, she worked in the Frankenberger Jewish family. And this Frankenberger paid her for his son, who was then about nineteen years old, alimony until the fourteenth birthday of her child.
Subsequently, there was a correspondence between the Frankenbergers and Hitler's grandmother, which lasted several years. The general meaning of this correspondence was reduced to a mutual tacit recognition that Schicklgruber's illegitimate son was conceived in circumstances that force the Frankenbergers to pay alimony on him. These letters were kept for many years by a lady who was related to Adolf Hitler through Raubal and lived in Wetzelsdorf near Graz ...
Therefore, in my opinion, the possibility that Hitler's father was half-Jewish, descending from an extramarital affair between Schicklgruber and a Jew from Graz, is not entirely excluded. Based on this, Hitler in this case was a quarter of a Jew.
It would seem that everything is logical, but in fact, there are quite a few inconsistencies in this letter, for example:
the payment of alimony in the middle of the 19th century was not applied in Austria;
there is no evidence that in 1836 - the time of Alois's conception - his mother was in Graz;
the most careful examination of the documents did not reveal a single person in this city with the surname Frankenberger or similar in spelling.
Supporters of the version that Frank wrote the truth emphasize that he had no obvious motives for lying. We will most likely never know the truth, but this is no reason to believe Frank's words, especially considering that the facts listed in the document are not confirmed or simply do not correspond to reality ...
In fact, there are not so many indisputable facts in Hitler's genealogy. One of them is that Adolf's father was Alois Hitler, and his mother was Alois's third wife Clara, nee Pelzl. And then the mysteries begin...
The first possible source of Jewish blood is Adolf Hitler's father, Alois.
Those who call Alois an illegitimate son are largely right, and for the first 39 years of his life he bore his mother's surname. Born in 1837, he was not officially adopted until 1876 by the husband of his mother, Maria Anna Schicklgruber, Johann Georg Hiedler, despite the fact that the marriage itself was registered in 1842.
The marriage was not very successful: the miller's apprentice, Johann Georg, did not differ in hard work and did not even have his own housing, constantly wandering around the houses of relatives. Maria Anna lived with Johann in marriage for five years in very cramped conditions, after which she died.
Little Alois was sent almost immediately after the wedding to his stepfather's brother, Johann Nepomuk Hüttler, in the village of Spital, where he lived for many years.
Johann Nepomuk played a colossal role in the fate of Adolf Hitler's father, because it was thanks to him that a boy from a poor peasant family was able to break out into the people and became an Austrian royal official. Most likely, it was on the initiative of Johann Nepomuk and his efforts in 1876 that Alois was recognized as the son of Johann Georg Hiedler, since Johann Georg himself was no longer there at that time - he died in 1857.
Therefore, one of the most important rules of the adoption procedure under Austrian law at that time - the written or oral application of the father - was not respected, which caused a correspondence between various Austrian departments about how legal the whole procedure was. The result was positive for Alois; in a letter sent on November 25, 1876, signed by the Bishop of St. Pölten, it says: “In accordance with your venerable message, the Bishop's ordinariate has the honor to report to you their modest considerations that the record of the adoption of Alois Schicklgruber, born on June 7, 1837 to spouses Georg Hitler and M. Anna Hitler, nee Schicklgruber, and her entry into the metric of the church of Dellersheim by the local priest meets the instructions of the Minister of the Interior of September 12, 1868. four .
It is possible that just in the process of making an entry in the church records, the surname changed: instead of “Hidler”, it was written “Hitler” (in traditional Russian transcription - Hitler). Such errors occurred all the time in the 19th century, and, as far as people of non-noble origin were concerned, they were not paid attention to.
The question naturally arises why Johann Nepomuk was so preoccupied with the fate of his "nephew" if his brother, apparently, was completely sure that Alois was not his son? Most likely, it is not a matter of simple favor, but a lot of circumstantial evidence indicates that Johann Nepomuk was the real father of Alois.
Here are the facts:
Maria Anna Schicklgruber visited Stronas several times before the birth of her son and was intimately acquainted with Johann Nepomuk;
After Alois was born, Johann Nepomuk, who at that time was 30 years old, began to think about how to take the illegitimate offspring to him;
In no case can Johann Nepomuk officially recognize paternity - his wife, Eva Maria, who is 15 years older than him and who at that time is the actual head of the family, is still alive. Therefore, a brilliant combination arises in the head of an ingenious peasant: pass off his mistress as his idle brother, and take the child to his upbringing.
Although this, of course, is not a 100% established fact, but only a very plausible version ...
Johann Nepomuk, apparently, left Alois in a very good condition after his death, and he did it enough in a simple way- shortly before his own death, he gave his adoptive "nephew" a large amount of money in cash ...
In the same year, Alois buys for almost 5 thousand guilders big house with a plot of land in the village of Wernharts near Spital. It was a huge amount of money, for example, a cow in those days cost about 10 guilders and an official could not save such an amount on his own. In addition, it is known that from that moment Alois becomes the owner of a fairly good fortune, which supported his son Adolf almost until the start of the First World War ...
The second possible source of Jewish blood in Adolf Hitler is his mother Clara Pelzl.
Familiarization with her biography makes it possible to understand why the "great Fuhrer" later so carefully wrapped the history of his family in fog. The fact is that Clara Pelzl was the daughter of Johann Baptist Pelzl, an ordinary Austrian peasant, and ... Johanna Hüttler, who was the natural and completely legitimate daughter of Johann Nepomuk Hüttler!
In fact, she was the niece of Alois...
A friend of Hitler's father's youth, she later became his third wife, and most likely she was his mistress much earlier.
So, to summarize: Adolf Hitler was born as a result of incest.
Did he know about it himself? Apparently, if he was not one hundred percent sure, then at least he guessed. This also explains his repeated positive statements about incest - for example, in 1918: "Thanks to thousands of years of incest, the Jews have preserved their race and their characteristics better than many peoples among whom they live."
At the same time, Hitler was very afraid to have a child, because he was afraid that he would be born a freak - the possible negative consequences of incest. The future "Fuhrer" to a large extent contributed to the creation of a white spot in his pedigree, which would then serve as the basis for the emergence of one of the most enduring myths about him - the myth of his Jewish origin ...
Sources of information:
1. Wikipedia site
2. Big encyclopedic dictionary
3. "New Encyclopedic Dictionary"(Ripol Classic, 2006)
4. Klinge A. "Ten myths about Hitler"
5. Bryukhanov V. “Origin and early years Adolf Hitler"
Alois Hitler is a far less sympathetic figure. He was an illegitimate child and therefore bore at first the name of his mother - Schicklgruber - and only much later changed it to the name Hitler. He did not receive any maintenance from his parents and did everything in his life himself. Hard work and self-education helped him go from a small employee of the Austro-Hungarian customs to the "highest rank", which gave him the unconditional status of a respected bourgeois. Thanks to his modest life and ability to save, he saved so much money that he was able to buy an estate and still leave a decent fortune to the family, which, even after his death, provided his wife and children with a secure existence. Of course, he was selfish, he was not bothered by the feelings of his wife, however, in this respect, he was probably a typical representative of his class.
Alois Hitler was a lover of life; he was especially fond of wine and women. He was not a womanizer, but the narrow framework of bourgeois morality was too tight for him. He liked to drink a glass of wine and did not deny himself this, but he was not at all a drunkard, as was reported in some publications. But the main thing, in which the life-affirming orientation of his nature was manifested, was his passion for beekeeping. Most he usually spent his leisure time near the beehives. This passion manifested itself early; creating his own apiary became a dream of his whole life. Finally, the dream came true: he bought a peasant farm (at first too big, then smaller), and by the end of his life he equipped his yard in such a way that he gave him great joy.
Alois Hitler is often depicted as a cruel tyrant - probably in order to make it easier to explain the character of his son. But he was not a tyrant, although he was an authoritarian person; he believed in such values as duty and honor, and considered it his duty to determine the fate of his sons before they reached maturity. As far as is known, he never applied corporal punishment to Adolf; he reproached him, argued with him, tried to explain to him what was good and what was bad for him, but he was not that formidable father figure who inspires his son not only with respect, but with horror. As we will see, Alois early noticed the growing irresponsibility and flight from reality in his son, which forced the father to rebuke Adolf more than once, warn about the consequences and try to reason with his son. Much indicates that Alois Hitler was quite tolerant of people, he was not rude, he never behaved defiantly, and in any case he was not a fanatic. This image is also consistent with Political Views. He showed great interest in politics, holding liberal, anti-clerical views. He died of a heart attack while reading a newspaper, but his last words expressed indignation against the "blacks", that is, the reactionary clerics.
How to explain that two normal, respectable and non-destructive people gave birth to such a "monster", which became Adolf Hitler?
Early childhood of Adolf Hitler (up to six years: 1889-1895)
The kid was a favorite, his mother took care of him like the apple of her eye, never scolded him and always expressed her tenderness and admiration. He could not be mistaken, everything he did was wonderful, and at the same time his mother did not take her eyes off him. It may very well be that such an attitude contributed to the formation in his character of such traits as passivity and narcissism. After all, it took no effort on his part to hear from his mother that he was "magnificent"; he did not need to worry about anything, for his every desire was fulfilled immediately. He himself could order his mother and fell into anger if at least something was refused. However, as we noted above, it was precisely the exaggerated guardianship on the part of his mother that could be perceived by him as an interference in his affairs, which he later tried to avoid. The father, by the nature of his service, was rarely at home, that is, there was no authority of a man in the house, which could have a beneficial effect on the formation of the boy. Passivity and infantilism were intensified by the fact that the boy was often ill, and this attached a loving and caring mother to him even more.
This period ended when Adolf was six years old, and by that time several events had happened in the family at once.
The most important event from the point of view of classical psychoanalysis was the birth of a little brother who was 5 years younger than Adolf and who had to give up a piece of space in his mother's heart. But such an event often has not a traumatic, but quite a beneficial effect on the older child, contributes to a weakening of dependence on the mother and an increase in activity. Contrary to popular beliefs, the facts known to us show that little Adolf did not suffer from jealousy in any way, and for a whole year he rejoiced with all his heart at the birth of his brother.
At this time, the father received a new appointment in Linz, but the family remained in Passau for another year, so as not to move with a newborn baby, but to give him the opportunity to acclimatize.
For a whole year, Adolf lived the heavenly life of a five-year-old child who played noisy games with his peers from neighboring houses. The favorite games were games of Indians and cowboys, who were constantly at war with each other. He will retain his attachment to these games for many years to come. Since the German town of Passau was the border point of the Austro-German border, there was an Austrian customs control, so it is possible that such "forces" that participated in the Franco-German war of 1870 were also involved in the military games; however, few people cared about the nationality of the victims. Europe was full of heroic youngsters who were ready to indiscriminately crush and cut everyone in a row, regardless of ethnicity. This year of military children's games had great importance for Hitler's later life, not in the sense that he lived in Germany, where he learned the Bavarian dialect, but in the fact that it was for him a year of almost absolute freedom. At home, he began to carry out his will more persistently, and probably at this time the first fits of anger appeared when he could not get his way. But on the street, he knew no limits in anything - neither in fantasies, nor in actions.
Paradise life ended suddenly: the father retired, and the family moved to Hafeld near Lambach. Six-year-old Adolf had to go to school. Here he saw "a life limited by the scope of prescribed activities, which required discipline and a responsible attitude from him. For the first time, he felt the need to constantly obey someone."
What can be said about the formation of his personality at the end of this first period of life?
From the point of view of Freud's theory, both aspects of the Oedipus complex developed in full measure during this period: sexual attraction to the mother and hostility to the father. The empirical evidence seems to support Freud's hypothesis: indeed, little Adolf was very attached to his mother and angry with his father; however, he could not free himself from the Oedipus complex by identifying with his father and creating his own super-ego. He could not overcome his attachment to his mother, but when she gave birth to him a little rival, he felt deceived and moved away from her, moved away.
However, there are serious doubts about the correctness of Freud's interpretation. If the birth of a brother had been such a traumatic factor for five-year-old Adolf that it led to a break in his connection with his mother and the transformation of love into hatred, then a whole year after this event could not have been so happy, almost the happiest year in his life. And how to explain then that the image of the mother forever remained so sweet for him? That he always carried one photograph of her in his breast pocket, while he had exactly the same photographs at home, and in Obersalzburg, and in Berlin? And is it worth considering his hatred of his father as a consequence of the Oedipus complex, since we know that the relationship of mother to father was not really distinguished by the depth of feelings? Much more convincing is the hypothesis that this antagonism arose as a reaction to the demands of the father, who wanted to see obedience, discipline and a responsible attitude to work in his son. Let us now test the hypothesis of the malignant incestuous connection mentioned above. This hypothesis would lead to the conclusion that Hitler's obsession with his mother was not of the nature of tender and warm affection; that he never parted with his narcissism (that is, he was always cold and self-absorbed); that his mother was not so much a real person for him as she played a symbolic role; she was the personification of the impersonal power of the Earth, fate and even death. Despite his coldness, Hitler, apparently, was really connected by symbiotic bonds with his mother and her symbolic hypostases. Such a connection is often found as a kind of inverted form of mysticism, when the ultimate desired goal is union with the mother in death.
If this hypothesis is correct, then it is easy to understand that the birth of a brother was not at all the basis for disappointment in the mother. Indeed, it is hardly appropriate to say that he turned away from his mother, since he was never emotionally close to her.
But it is very important for us to understand one thing: if we want to discover the reasons for the formation of Hitler's necrophilic personality, then we need to look for them precisely in the tendency to incest, which is so characteristic of his childhood impressions of his mother. Germany itself became the main symbol of the mother for him. His obsession with his mother (=Germany) led him to hate the "poison" (Jews and syphilis) from which he was supposed to save her; however, in a deeper unconscious layer of the psyche, a repressed desire for the destruction of the mother (= Germany) was rooted. And he proved this by his actions and realized this desire of his starting from 1942, when he already knew that the war was lost, and until the last order in 1945 on the complete destruction of all areas captured by the enemy. It is this behavior that confirms the hypothesis of his sinister connection with his mother. Hitler's attitude to his mother was not at all like what usually characterizes the "attachment of a man to his mother" when we meet warm feelings, care and tenderness. In such cases, a man feels the need to be close to his mother, to share with her; he feels really "in love" (in the childish sense of the word). Hitler never experienced such affection (at least after the age of five, and most likely before). As a child, he loved most of all to run away from home and play soldiers or Indians with the guys. He never thought or cared about his mother.
Mother noticed this. Kubizek notes that Klara Hitler herself told him that Adolf had no sense of responsibility, that he squandered his small inheritance, not thinking that he had a mother and little sister, "he goes his own way, as if he alone lives in the world ". The lack of attention to the mother became especially noticeable when she fell ill. Although she was diagnosed with cancer and operated on in January 1907, Hitler left for Vienna in September. Sparing him, his mother hid her ill health from him; and that suited him just fine. He did not at all try to find out the true state of affairs, although it cost him nothing to visit her in Linz - it was very close and financially did not present any difficulties. He did not even write letters to her from Vienna, and thus gave her a lot of unrest. According to Smith, Hitler returned home after the death of his mother.
True, Kubitschek cites other facts: he says that Klara Hitler asked her son to come and look after her when she felt completely helpless, and at the end of November he came and looked after her for about three weeks until her death. Kubizek notes that he was extremely surprised to see how his friend was cleaning the floor and preparing food for his mother. Hitler's attention to the eleven-year-old sister was manifested in the fact that he forced her to give her mother a promise to be a diligent student. Kubizek touchingly describes Hitler's attitude towards his mother, wanting to emphasize his love for her. But these reports cannot be fully trusted. For Hitler could, in this case, take advantage of the situation in order to "work for the public" and produce good impression. Perhaps he did not refuse his mother when she asked him for help; and three weeks is not such a long time to get tired of the role of a loving son. Nevertheless, the description of Kubizek looks unconvincing, because it contradicts the general position of Hitler and his behavior in general. Summing up, it should be said that Hitler's mother was never for him an object of love and tender affection. She was for him a symbol of the guardian goddess, worthy of admiration, but also the goddess of chaos and death. At the same time, she was the object of his sadistic lust for power and domination, which turned into a rage if he met with any refusal.
Hitler's childhood (age six to eleven: 1895-1900)
The transition from childhood to school years happened suddenly. Alois Hitler retired and from that day on he could devote himself to his family, especially raising his son. He bought a house in Hafeld, near Lambach. Adolf went to a small village school in Fischlam, where he felt very comfortable. Outwardly, he obeyed his father's orders. But Smith writes: "Inwardly he resisted. He knew how to manipulate his mother and could throw a scandal at any moment." Probably, such a life brought little joy to the child, even if it did not come to serious skirmishes with his father. But Adolf discovered for himself a sphere of life that allowed him to forget all the regulations and restrictions (lack of freedom). These were games with the guys in the soldiers and in the Indians. Already in these young years, with the word "freedom" Hitler associated freedom from responsibility and coercion, and above all "freedom from reality", as well as a sense of leadership. If we analyze the essence and significance of these games for Hitler, it turns out that here for the first time those very traits appeared that intensified with age and became the main ones in his character: the need to rule and an insufficient sense of reality. Outwardly, these were completely harmless games, appropriate for age, but we will see later that this is not so, because he could not tear himself away from them even in those years when normal young men no longer do this.
In subsequent years, significant changes took place in the family. The eldest son of Alois, at the age of 14, to the chagrin of his father, left home, so the role of the eldest son now went to Adolf. Alois sold his estate and moved to the city of Dambach. There Adolf began to study in a fairly modern school and he did it well, at least successfully enough to avoid serious disagreements with his angry father.
In 1898 the family changed their place of residence once more, this time they settled in a remote area of Linz, in a place called Leonding, and Adolf changed schools for the third time. Alois Hitler liked the new place. Here he could breed bees as much as he liked and talk about politics. He was still the head of the house and allowed no doubts about his authority. His best friend according to Leonding, Joseph Maierhofer will say later: "In the family he was strict and did not stand on ceremony, his wife was not amused ..." He did not beat the children, he never touched Adolf, although he "swears and grumbles constantly. But the dog who barks doesn't necessarily bite. And his son respected him."
The biographer paints us a portrait of an authoritarian personality, a rather stern father, but not at all a cruel tyrant. However, Adolf was afraid of his father, and this fear could be one of the reasons for his lack of independence, which we will hear about later. However, the father's authoritarianism cannot be considered in isolation from other circumstances; if the son had not insisted on being left alone, if he had shown a greater sense of responsibility, then, perhaps, friendly relations would have been established with such a father, because the father wished his son well and was not at all a destructive person. So the conclusion about "hating the authoritarian father" is largely an exaggeration, a kind of cliché, like the Oedipus complex.
One way or another, for five years the boy studied at the folk (elementary) school without any problems. He was probably smarter than many classmates, teachers treated him better (out of respect for social status family) and he got the best grades without much effort. Thus, the school did not stimulate him to succeed and did not violate his finely balanced system of compromises between adjustment and rebellion.
It cannot be said that by the end of this period there has been a clear deterioration. But there are also some disturbing symptoms: he failed to overcome narcissism early childhood; he did not approach reality, but remained in a fantasy world; he lived in an illusory realm of freedom and power, and the world of real activity was far from him and interested him little. The first school years did not help him outgrow the infantilism of early childhood. But outwardly, everything was fine so far, and it did not come to open conflicts.
23.09.2007 19:32
Childhood and youth of Adolf. World War I.
Hitler was born on April 20, 1889 (beginning in 1933 this day became the national holiday of Nazi Germany).
The father of the future Fuhrer, Alois Hitler, was first a shoemaker, then a customs officer, who until 1876 bore the surname Schicklgruber (hence the common belief that this is Hitler's real name).
He received a not too high bureaucratic rank of chief officer. Mother - Clara, nee Pelzl, came from a peasant family. Hitler was born in Austria, in Braunau am Inn, in a village in a mountainous part of the country. The family often moved from place to place and finally settled in Leonding, a suburb of Linz, where they got their own house. On the headstone of Hitler's parents, the words are carved: "Alois Hitler, chief official in the customs department, landlord. His wife Clara Hitler."
Hitler was born from his father's third marriage. All of Hitler's numerous relatives of the older generation were apparently illiterate. The priests wrote down the names of these persons in parish books by ear, so there was an obvious discord: someone was called Güttler, someone was Gidler, etc., etc.
The Fuhrer's grandfather remained unknown. Alois Hitler, father of Adolf, was adopted by a certain Hitler at the request of his uncle, also Hitler, apparently his actual parent.
The adoption came after both the adopter and his wife, Maria Anna Schicklgruber, the Nazi dictator's grandmother, had long since passed away. According to some sources, the illegitimate himself was already 39, according to others - 40 years old! Perhaps it was about inheritance.
Hitler did not study well in high school, therefore he did not graduate from a real school and did not receive a matriculation certificate. His father died relatively early - in 1903. Mother sold the house in Leonding and settled in Linz. From the age of 16, the future Fuhrer lived at the expense of his mother rather freely. At one time he even studied music. In his youth, from musical and literary works, he preferred Wagner's operas, Germanic mythology and adventure novels by Karl May; adult Hitler's favorite composer was Wagner, his favorite film was King Kong. As a boy, Hitler loved cakes and picnics, long conversations after midnight, loved looking at pretty girls; in adulthood, these addictions intensified.
I slept until noon, went to theaters, especially the opera, and spent hours in coffee houses. He spent his time visiting theaters and the opera, copying Romantic paintings, reading adventure books, and walking in the woods around Linz. His mother spoiled him, and Adolf behaved like a dandy, wearing black leather gloves, a bowler hat, walking with a mahogany cane with an ivory head. He rejected all offers to find a job for himself with contempt.
At the age of 18 he went to Vienna to enter the Academy there. fine arts in the hope of becoming a great artist. He entered twice - once he did not pass the exam, the second time he was not even allowed to take it, and he had to earn a living by drawing postcards and advertisements. He was advised to enter the architectural institute, but for this it was necessary to have a matriculation certificate. The years in Vienna (1907-1913) Hitler will regard as the most instructive of his life.
In the future, according to him, he only needed to add some details to the "great ideas" that he acquired there (hatred of Jews, liberal democrats and "petty-bourgeois" society). He was especially influenced by the writings of L. von Liebenfels, who argued that the future dictator should protect the Aryan race by enslaving or killing subhumans. In Vienna, he also became interested in the idea of " living space"(Lebensraum) for Germany.
Hitler read everything that came to hand. Subsequently, fragmentary knowledge gleaned from popular philosophical, sociological, historical works, and most importantly, from brochures of that distant time, constituted Hitler's "philosophy".
When the money left by his mother (she died of breast cancer in 1909) and the inheritance of a wealthy aunt ended, he spent the night on park benches, then in a rooming house in Meidling. And, finally, he settled on Meldemannstrasse in the Mennerheim charitable institution, which literally means "Men's House".
All this time, Hitler was interrupted by odd jobs, hired for some temporary work (for example, he helped at construction sites, cleaned snow or brought suitcases), then he began to draw (or rather, copy) pictures that were sold first by his companion, and later by himself. He mainly drew from photographs architectural monuments in Vienna and Munich, where he moved in 1913. At the age of 25, the future Fuhrer had no family, no beloved woman, no friends, no permanent job, no life goal - there was something to despair of. The Vienna period of Hitler's life ended quite abruptly: he moved to Munich to escape military service. But the Austrian military authorities tracked down the fugitive. Hitler had to go to Salzburg, where he passed a military commission. However, it was declared unfit for military service for health.
How he did it is unknown.
In Munich, Hitler still lived in poverty: on the money from the sale of watercolors and advertising.
The declassed, dissatisfied with their existence stratum of society, to which Hitler belonged, enthusiastically welcomed the First World War, believing that every loser would have a chance to become a "hero".
Having become a volunteer, Hitler spent four years in the war. He served at the headquarters of the regiment as a liaison with the rank of corporal and did not even become an officer. But he received not only a medal for the wound, but also orders. Order of the Iron Cross 2nd class, possibly 1st. Some historians believe that Hitler wore the Iron Cross 1st Class without being eligible. Others claim that he was awarded this order at the suggestion of a certain Hugo Gutmann, adjutant of the regiment commander ... a Jew, and that therefore this fact was omitted from the official biography of the Fuhrer.
Creation of the Nazi Party.
Germany lost this war. The country was engulfed in the flames of revolution. Hitler, and with him hundreds of thousands of other German losers returned home. He participated in the so-called Commission of Inquiry, which was engaged in the "cleansing" of the 2nd Infantry Regiment, identified "troublemakers" and "revolutionaries". And on June 12, 1919, he was seconded to short-term courses of "political education", which again functioned in Munich. After completing the courses, he became an agent in the service of a certain group of reactionary officers who fought against leftist elements among the soldiers and non-commissioned officers.
He compiled lists of soldiers and officers involved in the April uprising of workers and soldiers in Munich. He collected information about all kinds of dwarf organizations and parties regarding their worldview, programs and goals. And reported all this to the management.
The ruling circles of Germany were scared to death of the revolutionary movement. The people, exhausted by the war, lived incredibly hard: inflation, unemployment, devastation...
Dozens of militaristic, revanchist unions, gangs, gangs appeared in Germany - strictly secret, armed, with their own charters and mutual responsibility. On September 12, 1919, Hitler was sent to a meeting at the Sternekkerbräu beer hall, a gathering of another dwarf group that loudly called itself the German Workers' Party. The meeting discussed the pamphlet of engineer Feder. Feder's ideas about "productive" and "unproductive" capital, about the need to fight "interest-bearing slavery", against loan offices and "general stores", flavored with chauvinism, hatred of the Treaty of Versailles, and most importantly, anti-Semitism, seemed to Hitler a completely suitable platform. He performed and was a success. And party leader Anton Drexler invited him to join the WDA. After consulting with his superiors, Hitler accepted this proposal. Hitler became a member of this party at number 55, and later at number 7 became a member of its executive committee.
Hitler, with all his oratorical fervor, rushed to win popularity for Drexler's party, at least within Munich. In the autumn of 1919, he spoke three times at crowded meetings. In February 1920, he rented the so-called front hall in the Hofbräuhaus beer hall and gathered 2,000 listeners. Convinced of his success as a party functionary, in April 1920, Hitler abandoned the spy's earnings.
Hitler's success attracted to him workers, artisans and people who did not have a permanent job, in a word, all those who made up the backbone of the party. At the end of 1920, there were already 3,000 people in the party.
With the money borrowed by the writer Eckart from General Epp, the party bought a ruined newspaper called the Völkischer Beobachter, which means "People's Observer".
In January 1921, Hitler had already filmed the Krone circus, where he performed to an audience of 6,500 people. Gradually, Hitler got rid of the founders of the party. Apparently, at the same time he renamed it the National Socialist Workers' Party of Germany, abbreviated NSDAP (Nationalsozialistische Deutsche Arbeiterpartei).
Hitler obtained the position of the first chairman with dictatorial powers, expelling Drexler and Scharer.
Instead of collegial leadership in the party, the principle of the Fuhrer was officially introduced. In place of Schussler, who dealt with financial and organizational issues, Hitler put his own man, a former sergeant major in his part of Aman. Naturally, Aman reported only to the Fuhrer himself.
Already in 1921, assault detachments, the SA, were created to help the party. Hermann Goering became their leader after Emil Mauris and Ulrich Klinch. Perhaps Goering was the only surviving ally of Hitler. Creating the SA, Hitler relied on the experience of paramilitary organizations that arose in Germany immediately after the end of the war. In January 1923, an imperial party congress was convened, although the party existed only in Bavaria, more precisely, in Munich. Western historians unanimously claim that the first sponsors of Hitler were ladies, the wives of wealthy Bavarian industrialists. The Fuhrer, as it were, gave a "zest" to their well-fed, but insipid life.
Hitler's Beer Putsch.
Since the autumn of 1923, power in Bavaria has actually been concentrated in the hands of a triumvirate: Carr, General Lossow and Colonel Zeisser, the police president. The triumvirate was at first hostile to the central government in Berlin. On September 26, Carr, the Bavarian prime minister, declared a state of emergency and banned 14 (!) Nazi demonstrations.
However, knowing the reactionary nature of the then masters of Bavaria and their dissatisfaction with the imperial government, Hitler continued to call on his supporters to "march on Berlin."
Hitler was a clear opponent of Bavarian separatism, he not without reason saw his allies in the triumvirate, who could later be deceived, outwitted, preventing the separation of Bavaria.
Ernst Rehm stood at the head of the assault squads (German abbreviation SA). The leaders of the militaristic unions came up with different kind plans for what to coincide with the "campaign" or, as they called it, "revolution". And how to force the Bavarian triumvirate to lead this "national revolution" ... And suddenly it turned out that on November 8 there was a big rally in the Bürgerbräukeller, where Carr would make a speech and where other prominent Bavarian politicians would be present, including General Lossow and Zeisser .
The hall where the rally was held was surrounded by storm troopers, and Hitler burst into it under the protection of armed thugs. Jumping up to the podium, he shouted: “The national revolution has begun. The hall is captured by six hundred military men armed with machine guns. Nobody dares to leave it. I declare the Bavarian government and the imperial government in Berlin deposed. The provisional national government has already been formed. The Reichswehr and the police will now march under swastika banners!" Hitler, leaving Goering in the hall instead, behind the scenes began to "process" Karr, Lossov ... At the same time, another associate of Hitler, Scheibner-Richter, went after Ludendorff. Finally, Hitler again ascended the podium and declared "that the "national revolution" would be carried out together with the Bavarian triumvirate.
As for the government in Berlin, he, Hitler, will head it, and General Ludendorff will command the Reichswehr. The participants in the meeting at the Bürgerbräukeller dispersed, including the energetic Lossov, who immediately sent a telegram to Seeckt. Regular units and the police were mobilized to disperse the riots. In a word, they prepared to repulse the Nazis. But Hitler, to whom his thugs flocked from everywhere, still had to move at the head of the column to the city center at 11 o'clock in the morning.
The column for cheerfulness sang and shouted out their misanthropic slogans. But on the narrow Residenzstrasse she was met by a chain of policemen. It is still unknown who fired first. After that, the shooting continued for two minutes. Scheibner-Richter fell - he was killed. Behind him is Hitler, who broke his collarbone. In total, 4 people were killed on the part of the police, and 16 on the part of the Nazis. The "rebels" fled, Hitler was pushed into a yellow car and taken away.
This is how Hitler became famous. All the German newspapers wrote about him. His portraits were placed in weekly magazines. And at that time, Hitler needed any "glory", even the most scandalous.
Two days after the unsuccessful "march on Berlin," Hitler was arrested by the police. On April 1, 1924, he and two accomplices were sentenced to five years in prison, plus the time they had already spent in prison. Ludendorff and other participants in the bloody events were generally acquitted.
The book "My Struggle" by Adolf Hitler.
The prison, or fortress, in Landsberg an der Lech, where Hitler spent a total of 13 months before and after the trial (according to the sentence for "high treason" only nine months!), Historians of Nazism are often called the Nazi "sanatorium". Everything ready, walking in the garden and receiving numerous guests and business visitors, answering letters and telegrams.
Hitler dictated the first volume of the book containing his political program, calling it "Four and a half years of struggle against lies, stupidity and cowardice." Later she came out under the name "My Struggle" (Mein Kampf), sold millions of copies and made Hitler a rich man.
Hitler offered the Germans one proven culprit, an enemy in satanic guise - a Jew. After the "liberation" from the Jews, Hitler promised the German people a great future. Moreover, immediately. Heavenly life will come on German soil. All shopkeepers will receive shops. Poor tenants will become homeowners. Losers-intellectuals - professors. Poor peasants - rich farmers. Women - beauties, their children - healthy, "the breed will improve." It was not Hitler who "invented" anti-Semitism, but it was he who planted it in Germany.
And he was far from the last to use it for his own purposes.
The main ideas of Hitler that had developed by this time were reflected in the NSDAP program (25 points), the core of which was the following requirements: 1) the restoration of the power of Germany by uniting all Germans under a single state roof; 2) the assertion of the dominance of the German Empire in Europe, mainly in the east of the continent in the Slavic lands; 3) the cleansing of the German territory from the "foreigners" that litter it, primarily Jews; 4) the elimination of the rotten parliamentary regime, its replacement by a vertical hierarchy corresponding to the German spirit, in which the will of the people is personified in a leader endowed with absolute power; 5) the liberation of the people from the dictatorship of world financial capital and the full support of small and handicraft production, the creativity of freelancers.
Adolf Hitler outlined these ideas in his autobiographical book "My Struggle".
Hitler's path to power.
Hitler left the Landsberg fortress on December 20, 1924. He had a plan of action. At first, to purge the NSDAP of "factionalists", to introduce iron discipline and the principle of "fuhrerism", that is, autocracy, then to strengthen its army - the SA, to destroy the rebellious spirit there.
Already on February 27, Hitler delivered a speech in the Bürgerbräukeller (all Western historians refer to it), where he bluntly stated: “I alone lead the Movement and personally bear responsibility for it. And I alone, again, bear responsibility for everything that happens in the Movement. ..Either the enemy will pass over our corpses, or we will pass over his..."
Accordingly, at the same time, Hitler carried out another "rotation" of personnel. However, at first, Hitler could not get rid of his most powerful rivals - Gregor Strasser and Röhm. Although pushing them into the background, he began immediately.
The "cleansing" of the party ended with the fact that Hitler created in 1926 his "party court" GONE - the investigative and arbitration committee. Its chairman, Walter Buch, until 1945 fought "sedition" in the ranks of the NSDAP.
However, at that time, Hitler's party could not count on success at all. The situation in Germany gradually stabilized. Inflation has gone down. Unemployment has decreased. Industrialists managed to modernize the German economy. The French troops left the Ruhr. The Stresemann government managed to conclude some agreements with the West.
The pinnacle of Hitler's success in that period was the first party congress in August 1927 in Nuremberg. In 1927-1928, that is, five or six years before coming to power, heading a still relatively weak party, Hitler created a "shadow government" in the NSDAP - Political Department II.
Goebbels was the head of the propaganda department since 1928. No less important "invention" of Hitler were the Gauleiters in the field, that is, the Nazi bosses in the field in individual lands. Huge Gauleiter headquarters replaced after 1933 the administrative bodies established in Weimar Germany.
In 1930-1933, there was a fierce struggle for votes in Germany. One election followed another. Pumped up with the money of the German reaction, the Nazis rushed to power with all their might. In 1933 they wanted to get her out of the hands of President Hindenburg. But for this they had to create the appearance of support for the NSDAP party by the general population. Otherwise, the post of chancellor would not have been seen by Hitler. For Hindenburg had his favorites - von Papen, Schleicher: it was with their help that it was "most convenient" for him to rule the 70 million German people.
Hitler never received an absolute majority in an election. And an important obstacle in its path was the extremely strong parties of the working class - the Social Democratic and the Communist. In 1930, the Social Democrats won 8,577,000 votes in the elections, the Communists 4,592,000, and the Nazis 6,409,000. In June 1932, the Social Democrats lost a few votes, but still received 795,000 votes, while the Communists gained new votes, gaining 5,283,000 votes. The Nazis reached their "peak" in this election: they received 13,745,000 ballots. But already in December of the same year they lost 2,000 voters. In December, the situation was as follows: the Social Democrats received 7,248,000 votes, the Communists again strengthened their positions - 5,980,000 votes, the Nazis - 1,1737,000 votes. In other words, the preponderance has always been on the side of the workers' parties. The number of ballots cast for Hitler and his party, even at the peak of their career, did not exceed 37.3 percent.
Adolf Hitler - Chancellor of Germany.
On January 30, 1933, the 86-year-old President Hindenburg appointed the head of the NSDAP, Adolf Hitler, Chancellor of Germany. On the same day, superbly organized stormtroopers concentrated on their assembly points. In the evening, with torches lit, they passed by the presidential palace, in one window of which stood Hindenburg, and in the other - Hitler.
According to official figures, 25,000 people took part in the torchlight procession. It went on for several hours.
Already at the first meeting on January 30, a discussion took place of measures directed against the Communist Party of Germany. Hitler spoke on the radio the next day. "Give us four years. Our task is to fight against communism."
Hitler fully took into account the effect of surprise. He not only prevented the anti-Nazi forces from uniting and consolidating, he literally stunned them, took them by surprise and very soon defeated them completely. This was the first Nazi blitzkrieg on their own territory.
1 February - Dissolution of the Reichstag. New elections have already been scheduled for March 5. The ban on all open-air communist rallies (of course, they were not given halls).
On February 2, the president issued an order "On the Protection of the German People", a virtual ban on meetings and newspapers critical of Nazism. The tacit authorization of "preventive arrests", without appropriate legal sanctions. Dissolution of city and communal parliaments in Prussia.
February 7 - Goering's "Decree on Shooting". Police permission to use weapons. The SA, SS and the Steel Helmet are involved in helping the police. Two weeks later, the armed detachments of the SA, SS, "Steel Helmet" come under Goering's disposal as auxiliary police.
February 27 - Reichstag fire. On the night of February 28, about ten thousand communists, social democrats, people of progressive views are arrested. The Communist Party and some organizations of the Social Democrats are banned.
February 28 - order of the President "On the protection of the people and the state." In fact, the announcement of a "state of emergency" with all the ensuing consequences.
Order for the arrest of the leaders of the KKE.
At the beginning of March, Telman was arrested, the militant organization of the Social Democrats Reichsbanner (Iron Front) was banned, first in Thuringia, and by the end of the month - in all German lands.
On March 21, a presidential decree "On betrayal" is issued, directed against statements that harm the "well-being of the Reich and the reputation of the government", "emergency courts" are created. The name of the concentration camps is mentioned for the first time. Over 100 of them will be created by the end of the year.
At the end of March, a law on the death penalty is issued. Introduced the death penalty by hanging.
March 31 - the first law on the deprivation of the rights of individual lands. Dissolution of the state parliaments. (Except for the Prussian Parliament.)
April 1 - "boycott" of Jewish citizens.
April 4 - ban on free exit from the country. The introduction of special "visas".
April 7 - the second law on the deprivation of land rights. Return of all titles and orders abolished in 1919. The law on the status of "officialdom", the return of his former rights. Persons of "unreliable" and "non-Aryan origin" were excluded from the corps of "officials".
April 14 - Expulsion of 15 percent of professors from universities and other educational institutions.
April 26 - the creation of the Gestapo.
May 2 - Appointment in certain lands of "imperial governors" who were subordinate to Hitler (in most cases, former Gauleiters).
May 7 - "purge" among writers and artists.
Publication of "black lists" of "not (true) German writers". Confiscation of their books in shops and libraries. The number of banned books - 12409, banned authors - 141.
May 10 - Public burning of banned books in Berlin and other university cities.
June 21 - inclusion of the "Steel Helmet" in the SA.
June 22 - the ban of the Social Democratic Party, the arrests of the functionaries of this party who were still at large.
June 25 - Introduction of Göring's control over theatrical plans in Prussia.
From June 27 to July 14 - self-dissolution of all parties not yet banned. The prohibition of the creation of new parties. The actual establishment of a one-party system. Law depriving all emigrants of German citizenship. The Hitler salute becomes mandatory for civil servants.
August 1 - renunciation of the right of pardon in Prussia. Immediate enforcement of sentences. Introduction of the guillotine.
August 25 - A list of persons deprived of citizenship is published, among them - communists, socialists, liberals, representatives of the intelligentsia.
September 1 - the opening in Nuremberg of the "Congress of the Winners", the next congress of the NSDAP.
September 22 - Law on the "imperial cultural guilds" - states of writers, artists, musicians. The actual ban on the publication, performance, exhibition of all those who are not members of the Chamber.
November 12 - elections to the Reichstag under a one-party system. Referendum on Germany's withdrawal from the League of Nations.
November 24 - the law "On the detention of recidivists after they have served their sentence."
"Recidivists" means political prisoners.
December 1 - the law "on ensuring the unity of the party and the state." Personal union between party Fuhrers and major state functionaries.
December 16 - mandatory permission from the authorities to parties and trade unions (extremely powerful during the Weimar Republic), democratic institutions and rights are completely forgotten: freedom of the press, freedom of conscience, freedom of movement, freedom of strikes, meetings, demonstrations. Finally, creative freedom. From the rule of law, Germany has become a country of total lawlessness. Any citizen, on any slander, without any legal sanctions, could be put in a concentration camp and kept there forever. For a year, the "lands" (regions) in Germany, which had great rights, were completely deprived of them.
So what about the economy? Even before 1933, Hitler said: “Do you really think me so crazy that I want to destroy German large-scale industry? Entrepreneurs, through business qualities, have gained a leading position. headship." During the same 1933, Hitler gradually prepared himself to subjugate both industry and finance, to make them an appendage of his military-political authoritarian state.
The military plans, which he hid even from his inner circle at the first stage, the stage of the "national revolution", dictated their own laws - it was necessary to arm Germany to the teeth in the shortest possible time. And this required extremely intense and purposeful work, investment in certain industries. The creation of a complete economic "autarky" (that is, such an economic system that itself produces everything it needs for itself and consumes it itself).
As early as the first third of the 20th century, the capitalist economy was striving to establish widely branched world ties, to the division of labor, etc.
The fact remains that Hitler wanted to control the economy, and thereby gradually curtailed the rights of owners, introduced something like state capitalism.
On March 16, 1933, that is, one and a half months after coming to power, Schacht was appointed chairman of the German Reichsbank. "Own" man will now be in charge of finances, seek gigantic sums to finance the war economy. Not without reason, in 1945, Schacht sat on the dock in Nuremberg, although the department had departed before the war.
On July 15, the General Council of the German Economy is convened: 17 large industrialists, farmers, bankers, representatives of trading firms and apparatchiks of the NSDAP - issue a law on "mandatory association of enterprises" in cartels. Part of the enterprises "joins", in other words, is absorbed by larger concerns. This was followed by: Goering's "four-year plan", the creation of the super-powerful state concern Hermann Goering-Werke, the transfer of the entire economy to a military footing, and at the end of Hitler's reign, the transfer of large military orders to Himmler's department, which had millions of prisoners, and therefore , free labor force. Of course, we must not forget that the big monopolies profited immensely under Hitler - in the early years at the expense of "arized" enterprises (expropriated firms in which Jewish capital participated), and later at the expense of factories, banks, raw materials and other valuables seized from other countries .
Yet the economy was controlled and regulated by the state. And immediately failures, disproportions, a lag in light industry, etc., were discovered.
By the summer of 1934, Hitler was facing serious opposition within his party. The "old fighters" of the SA assault detachments, led by E. Rem, demanded more radical social reforms, called for a "second revolution" and insisted on the need to strengthen their role in the army. German generals opposed such radicalism and the claims of the SA to lead the army. Hitler, who needed the support of the army and himself feared the uncontrollability of the attack aircraft, spoke out against his former comrades-in-arms. Accusing Rem of plotting to kill the Fuhrer, he staged a bloody massacre on June 30, 1934 ("the night of long knives"), during which several hundred SA leaders, including Rem, were killed. Strasser, von Kahr, the former Chancellor General Schleicher and other figures were physically destroyed. Hitler acquired absolute power over Germany.
Soon, army officers swore allegiance not to the constitution or country, but to Hitler personally. Germany's supreme judge proclaimed that "the law and the constitution are the will of our Fuhrer." Hitler aspired not only to legal, political and social dictatorship. "Our revolution," he once stressed, "will not end until we dehumanize people."
It is known that the Nazi leader wanted to start a world war already in 1938. Prior to this, he managed to "peacefully" annex large territories to Germany. In particular, in 1935 the Saarland through a plebiscite. The plebiscite turned out to be a brilliant trick of Hitler's diplomacy and propaganda. 91 percent of the population voted in favor of "joining". Perhaps the results of the vote were falsified.
Western politicians, contrary to elementary common sense, began to give up one position after another. Already in 1935, Hitler concluded the notorious "Navy Agreement" with England, which gave the Nazis the opportunity to openly create warships. In the same year, universal conscription was introduced in Germany. On March 7, 1936, Hitler ordered the occupation of the demilitarized Rhineland. The West was silent, although it could not help but see that the dictator's appetites were growing.
The Second World War.
In 1936, the Nazis intervened in the Spanish Civil War - Franco was their protege. The West was delighted with the order in Germany, sending its athletes and fans to the Olympics.
And this is after the "night of long knives" - the murders of Rem and his storm troopers, after the Leipzig trial of Dimitrov and after the adoption of the notorious Nuremberg Laws, which turned the Jewish population of Germany into pariahs!
Finally, in 1938, as part of intensive preparations for war, Hitler carried out another "rotation" - he expelled Minister of War Blomberg and Supreme Army Commander Fritsch, and also replaced professional diplomat von Neurath with Nazi Ribbentrop.
On March 11, 1938, Nazi troops entered Austria in a victorious march. The Austrian government was intimidated and demoralized. The operation to capture Austria was called "Anschluss", which means "attachment". And finally, the climax of 1938 was the capture of Czechoslovakia as a result of the Munich Agreement, that is, in fact, with the consent and approval of the then British Prime Minister Chamberlain and the French Daladier, as well as Germany's ally, fascist Italy.
In all these actions, Hitler acted not as a strategist, not as a tactician, not even as a politician, but as a player who knew that his partners in the West were ready for all sorts of concessions. He studied the weaknesses of the strong, constantly spoke to them about the world, flattered, cunning, and intimidated and suppressed those who were unsure of themselves.
On March 15, 1939, the Nazis captured Czechoslovakia and announced the creation of a so-called protectorate on the territory of Bohemia and Moravia.
On August 23, 1939, Hitler signed a non-aggression pact with Soviet Union and thereby secured a free hand in Poland.
On September 1, 1939, the German army invaded Poland, which marked the beginning of World War II. Hitler took command of the armed forces and imposed his own plan of warfare, despite the strong resistance of the army leadership, in particular, the chief of the general staff of the army, General L. Beck, who insisted that Germany did not have enough forces to defeat the allies (England and France), who declared war on Hitler. After Hitler's attack on Poland, England and France declared war on Germany. The beginning of World War II is dated September 1, 1939.
Already after the declaration of war by France and England, Hitler captured half of Poland in 18 days, utterly defeating its army. The Polish state was unable to fight one on one with the powerful German Wehrmacht. The first stage of the war in Germany was called "sitting" war, and in other countries - "strange" or even "funny". All this time Hitler remained the master of the situation. The "funny" war ended on April 9, 1940, when Nazi troops invaded Denmark and Norway. On May 10, Hitler launched a campaign to the West: the Netherlands and Belgium became his first victims. In six weeks, the Nazi Wehrmacht defeated France, defeated and pressed the British expeditionary corps to the sea. Hitler signed the truce in Marshal Foch's salon car, in the forest near Compiègne, that is, in the very place where Germany capitulated in 1918. Blitzkrieg - Hitler's dream - came true.
Western historians now admit that in the first phase of the war the Nazis scored more political than military victories.
But no army was even remotely as motorized as the German one. The gambler Hitler felt himself, as they wrote then, "the greatest generals of all times and peoples", as well as "an amazing visionary in technical and tactical respects" ... "the creator of the modern armed forces" (Jodl).
Let us remember at the same time that it was impossible to object to Hitler, that he was only allowed to be glorified and deified. The High Command of the Wehrmacht has become, in the apt expression of one researcher, the "Führer's office". The results were not long in coming: an atmosphere of super-euphoria reigned in the army.
Were there generals who openly contradicted Hitler? Of course not. Nevertheless, it is known that during the war they retired, having fallen out of favor, or three supreme commanders of the armies, 4 chiefs of the general staff (the fifth - Krebs - died in Berlin along with Hitler), 14 out of 18 field marshals of the ground forces, 21 out of 37 colonel generals.
Of course, no normal generals, that is, generals not in a totalitarian state, would have allowed such a terrible defeat as Germany suffered.
Hitler's main task was the conquest of "living space" in the East, the crushing of "Bolshevism" and the enslavement of "world Slavs."
The English historian Trevor-Roper convincingly showed that from 1925 until his death, Hitler did not doubt for a second that the great peoples of the Soviet Union could be turned into silent slaves, who would be controlled by German overseers, "Aryans" from the ranks of the SS. Here is what Trevor-Roper writes about this: “After the war, you often hear the words that the Russian campaign was Hitler’s big “mistake”. If he had behaved neutrally towards Russia, he would have managed to subjugate all of Europe, organize it and And England would never have been able to drive the Germans out of there.I cannot share this point of view, it comes from the fact that Hitler would not be Hitler!
For Hitler, the Russian campaign was never a side military scam, a private sortie for important sources raw materials or an impulsive move in a game of chess that looks almost drawn. The Russian campaign decided whether or not to be National Socialism. And this campaign became not only obligatory, but also urgent.
Hitler's program was translated into military language - "Plan Barbarossa" and into the language of occupation policy - "Plan Ost".
The German people, according to Hitler's theory, were humiliated by the victors in the First World War and, under the conditions that arose after the war, could not successfully develop and fulfill the mission assigned to them by history.
For development national culture and increasing sources of power, he needed to acquire additional permanent space. And since there were no free lands, they should have been taken where the population density is low and the land is used irrationally. Such an opportunity for the German nation was available only in the East, at the expense of territories inhabited by peoples less valuable in racial terms than the Germans, primarily the Slavs. The capture of a new living space in the East and the enslavement of the peoples living there were considered by Hitler as a prerequisite and starting point for the struggle for world domination.
The first major defeat of the Wehrmacht in the winter of 1941/1942 near Moscow had a strong impact on Hitler. The chain of his successive victorious campaigns of conquest was interrupted. According to Colonel-General Jodl, who during the war years communicated with Hitler more than anyone else, in December 1941 the Führer's inner confidence in the German victory disappeared, and the disaster at Stalingrad convinced him even more of the inevitability of defeat. But this could only be assumed by some features in his behavior and actions. He himself never talked about it to anyone. Ambition did not allow him to admit to the collapse of his own plans. He continued to convince everyone around him, the entire German people of the inevitable victory and demanded that they make as much effort as possible to achieve it. According to his instructions, measures were taken for the total mobilization of the economy and human resources. Disregarding reality, he ignored all the advice of specialists who went against his instructions.
The stop of the Wehrmacht in front of Moscow in December 1941 and the counteroffensive that followed caused confusion among many German generals. Hitler ordered to stubbornly defend each line and not to retreat from their positions without orders from above. This solution saved German army from collapse, but had its own reverse side. It assured Hitler of his own military genius, of his superiority over the generals. Now he believed that by taking over the direct leadership of military operations on the Eastern Front instead of the retired Brauchitsch, he would be able to achieve victory over Russia as early as 1942. But the crushing defeat at Stalingrad, which became the most sensitive for the Germans in World War II, stunned the Fuhrer.
Since 1943, all of Hitler's activities were in fact limited to current military problems. He no longer made far-reaching political decisions.
Almost all the time he was at his headquarters, surrounded only by the closest military advisers. Hitler nevertheless spoke to the people, although he showed less interest in their position and moods.
Unlike other tyrants and conquerors, Hitler committed crimes not only for political and military reasons, but for personal reasons. Hitler's victims numbered in the millions. At his direction, a whole system of extermination was created, a kind of conveyor for killing people, eliminating and disposing of their remains. He was guilty of the mass extermination of people on ethnic, racial, social and other grounds, which is qualified by lawyers as a crime against humanity.
Many of Hitler's crimes were not related to the defense national interests Germany and the German people were not caused by military necessity. On the contrary, to some extent they even undermined the military power of Germany. So, for example, to carry out massacres in the death camps created by the Nazis, Hitler kept tens of thousands of SS men in the rear. Of these, it was possible to create more than one division and thereby strengthen the troops of the army in the field. Transporting millions of prisoners to the death camps required an enormous amount of rail and other transport, and it could be used for military purposes.
In the summer of 1944, he considered it possible, steadfastly holding positions on the Soviet-German front, to thwart the invasion of Europe that was being prepared by the Western Allies, and then use the situation favorable for Germany to reach an agreement with them. But this plan was not destined to be realized. The Germans failed to throw into the sea the Anglo-American troops that had landed in Normandy. They managed to hold the captured bridgehead, concentrate huge forces there and, after careful preparation, break through the front of the German defense. The Wehrmacht did not hold its positions in the east either. A particularly major disaster occurred in central section Eastern Front, where the German Army Group Center was completely defeated, and Soviet troops menacingly quickly began to move towards the German borders.
Hitler's last year.
The failed assassination attempt on Hitler on July 20, 1944, committed by a group of opposition-minded German officers, was used by the Fuhrer as a pretext for an all-encompassing mobilization of human and material resources to continue the war. By the autumn of 1944, Hitler managed to stabilize the front, which had begun to fall apart in the east and west, restore many defeated formations and form a number of new ones. He again thinks about how to cause a crisis in his opponents. In the West, he thought, it would be easier to do this. The idea that came to him was embodied in the plan of the German performance in the Ardennes.
From a military point of view, this offensive was a gamble. It couldn't do much damage. military power Western allies, and even more so to cause a turning point in the war. But Hitler was primarily interested in political results.
He wanted to show the leaders of the United States and Britain that he still had enough strength to continue the war, and now he decided to shift the main efforts from east to west, which meant weakening resistance in the east and raising the danger of Germany being occupied by Soviet troops. By an unexpected display of German military power on the Western Front, with a simultaneous display of readiness to accept defeat in the East, Hitler hoped to arouse fear among the Western powers about the possible transformation of all of Germany into a Bolshevik bastion in the center of Europe. Hitler also hoped to force them to start separate negotiations with the existing regime in Germany, to make a certain compromise with him. He believed that Western democracies would prefer Nazi Germany over communist Germany.
However, all these calculations were not justified. The Western Allies, although experiencing some shock from the unexpected German offensive, did not want to have anything to do with Hitler and the regime he led. They continued to work closely with the Soviet Union, which helped them get out of the crisis caused by the Wehrmacht's Ardennes operation by launching an offensive ahead of schedule from the Vistula line.
By the middle of spring 1945, Hitler no longer had any hope for a miracle. On April 22, 1945, he decided not to leave the capital, stay in his bunker and commit suicide. The fate of the German people no longer interested him.
The Germans, Hitler believed, turned out to be unworthy of such a "brilliant leader" as he, therefore they had to die and give way to stronger and more viable peoples. AT last days April, Hitler was only concerned with the question of his own fate. He feared the judgment of the peoples for the crimes committed. He was horrified by the news of the execution of Mussolini along with his mistress and the mockery of their corpses in Milan. This end terrified him. Hitler was in an underground bunker in Berlin, refusing to leave it: he did not go either to the front or to inspect German cities destroyed by Allied aircraft. On April 15, Eva Braun, his mistress for over 12 years, joined Hitler. At the time when he was going to power, this connection was not advertised, but as the end approached, he allowed Eva Braun to appear with him in public. In the early morning of April 29, they were married.
Having dictated a political testament in which the future leaders of Germany called for a merciless fight against the "poisoners of all peoples - international Jewry", Hitler committed suicide on April 30, 1945, and their corpses, on Hitler's orders, were burned in the garden of the Reich Chancellery, next to the bunker where the Fuhrer spent the last months of his life. :: Multimedia
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:: Personalities
Hitler's real name has been a subject of controversy among historians for several decades after the end of World War II. Many versions of the origin of the German bloody tyrant were considered. Disputes regarding the name of Hitler are a natural thing, because any scandalous fact related to a famous person always causes a stir in society. In order to understand the nature of the various versions, it is necessary to recall the genealogy of Adolf Hitler.
Causes of disputes over the name of the German Fuhrer
The father of the Fuhrer of the Third Reich Hitler, Alois, was born in 1837. It was from this time that the "problem of the surname" of the future German dictator began. His mother was Maria-Anna Schicklgruber. If to speak modern language, this woman had the status of a single mother. At the time of the birth of her son, she was not married, so Alois, Adolf's father, was recorded in his mother's surname. Following this logic, real name Hitler - Schicklgruber. Knowing that the Fuhrer, at least during the years of his active political life, bore the name Hitler, we understand that the situation was not so simple.
Who was Adolf Hitler's grandfather?
The question of Hitler's grandfather is also controversial. To understand the legitimacy of Hitler having this particular surname, it is necessary to establish exactly who was the father of Alois. Here the versions are different, because Maria Anna led a rather dissolute lifestyle in her youth, so it is impossible to be 100% sure who is considered Adolf's grandfather. The most likely option is that the poor miller Johann Georg Hiedler should be recognized as the father of Alois (by the way, this is the most correct spelling of this surname). This man did not have his own house, he lived in poverty all his life. According to some people, during the same period, Maria Anna could also meet Johann Georg's brother, Nepomuk Güttler, who was 15 years younger. But this option is unlikely, because even Hidler himself admitted his paternity. If Alois's father is still not Gidler, but Nepomuk, then Hitler's real name could be Güttler.
Jewish version of the origin of Adolf Hitler
We all remember very well one of the fundamental points of the ideology of the fascist NDASP party, which was total hatred and the need to exterminate the Jewish people. The version that Hitler's father was Jewish appeared in the 1950s. It was expressed by the Governor-General of Poland in the period from 1939 to 1945. Hans France. He told in his memoirs that Hitler's mother, some time before his birth, worked on the estate of the Jewish merchant Frankenberg. Of course, there is no evidence of a mother's love affair with this Jew, but still, according to Hans Frans, Hitler's real name should be Frankenberg.
Considering the likelihood of this version through the prism of the ideology of fascism and National Socialism, historians almost immediately rejected the possibility of such paternity in principle.
Schicklgruber becomes Hitler
In 1876, the Fuhrer's father Alois decided to change his surname. As we have already emphasized, at birth he was recorded by his mother's maiden name. He bore this surname until the age of 39. According to some reports, in 1876 Johann Hiedler was still alive and officially recognized paternity. Other sources claim that Hidler had already died at that time.
How was the name change process? According to the German law in force at that time, to confirm paternity, the testimony of at least three persons who knew the father and mother of the person who changes the data in the information about the parents was required. Alois Schicklgruber found three such witnesses. The notary has formalized the change of surname officially. We will not analyze the meaning of changing personal data, because it was a purely personal decision of Alois Hitler.
Adolf Hitler: real surname and name
The bloody German dictator was born on April 20, 1889. It has been 13 years since the changes were made to the birth records of his father. There is no doubt that he could not bear the surname Schicklgruber, although in the first editions of the great Soviet encyclopedia this person appears precisely as Adolf Schicklgruber. By the way, the version of Soviet historians about Hitler's surname was based on the fact that he put his grandmother's maiden name as a signature in his first drawings.
Today there is no longer a dispute, because all historians are sure that Hitler's real name and surname correspond to those data that have forever remained in the history of the 20th century.