I am indebted to the Guggenheim Foundation (New York) and the Killam Program of the Canada Council (Ottawa) for having financed the research for this article.

1. Carr, William, Hitler: A Study in Personality and Politics (New York, 1979), p. vii.Google Scholar

2. Bullock, Alan, Hitler: A Study in Tyranny (Harmondsworth, Penguin Books, 1969)Google Scholar. Weinberg's review is in The American Historical Review 83 (1978): 753–56. See Waite, Robert G. L., The Psychopathic God: Adolf Hitler (New York, 1977)Google Scholar. Allen, William S.'s stern review in Journal of Modern History 50 (1978): 383–85CrossRefGoogle Scholar, of Binion, Rudolf, Hitler among the Germans (New York, 1976)Google Scholar, culminates in the book's characterization as “a nearly perfect horrible example to train students about the misapplication of historical data, to show them what can happen when a historian lets his thesis dominate the facts.”

3. See Payne, Robert, The Life and Death of Adolf Hitler (New York and Washington, 1973), pp. 93–102Google Scholar; Irving, David, Hitler's War (New York, 1977)Google Scholar. Maser, Werner's book, Hitler (London, 1973)Google Scholar is a pretentious but unsuccessful attempt to upstage Bullock. Maser's latest book, Hitler, Adolf: Das Ende der Führer-Legende (Düsseldorf and Vienna, 1980), constitutes a repetition of earlier views. For the scholar, it is just as useless as another “new” biography, Norman Stone's speciously argued and undocumented book, Hitler (London, 1980)Google Scholar. As a conventional biography, Fest, Joachim C.'s study, Hitler (New York, 1974)Google Scholar, is much more impressive, yet because of its synthetic approach it lacks true originality and contains hardly any archival references. Toland, John's voluminous Adolf Hitler (New York, 1976)Google Scholar, like Maser's earlier biography, presents new facts but scarcely any insights. Haffner, Sebastian's quite thoughtful study, Anmerkungen zu Hitler, 17th ed. (Munich, 1978)Google Scholar, nevertheless epitomizes the current West German trend to cash in on the “Hitler Wave” by presenting catchy themes with great fanfare after no original research. For critiques of some of the above-mentioned titles see: Jäckel, Eberhard, “Literaturbericht: Rückblick auf die sogenannte Hitler-Welle,” Geschichte in Wissenschaft und Unterricht 28 (1977): 695–710Google Scholar; Jäckel, , “Hitler und der Mord an den europäischen Juden: Die Widerlegung einer absurden These,” Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, 08 25, 1977Google Scholar; Sydnor, Charles W. Jr., “The Selling of Adolf Hitler: David Irving's Hitler's War,” Central European History 12 (1979): 169–99CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Broszat, Martin, “Hitler und die Genesis der ‘Endlösung”: Aus Anlass der Thesen von David Irving,” Vierteljahrshefte für Zeitgeschichte 25 (1977): 739–75Google Scholar. Also see: Hermann Graml, “Probleme einer Hitler-Biographie: Kritische Bemerkungen zu Joachim C. Fest,” ibid. 22 (1974): 76–92; Olszewski, Henryk, “The Historical Greatness of Hitler and his Nazi Revolution (Critical reflections on Joachim C. Fest's Book),” Polish Western Affairs 15 (1974): 117–35Google Scholar; Auerbach, Hellmuth, “Hitlers politische Lehrjahre und die Münchener Gesellschaft 1919–1923,” Vierteljahrshefte für Zeitgeschichte 25 (1977): 2Google Scholar, n. 3. Also see the review of Maser's last book as well as of Stone's biography by Hillgruber, Andreas in Historische Zeitschrift 234 (1982): 484–86Google Scholar. The following are examples of recent symposia organized to clarify the issues surrounding Hitler: Interdisciplinary Symposium Heidelberg, Spring 1975 (see Rhein-Neckar-Zeitung, Heidelberg, Apr. 8, 1975); and English-German conference about “Herrschaftsstruktur und Gesellschaft des Dritten Reiches,” hosted by the German Historical Institute London in Cumberland Lodge, Windsor Great Park, from May 9 through 11, 1979 (see Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, 05 25, 1979Google Scholar; Hildebrand, Klaus, “Nationalsozialismus ohne Hitler? Das Dritte Reich als Forschungsgegenstand der Geschichtswissenschaft,” Geschichte in Wissenschaft und Unterricht 31 [1980]: 289–304Google Scholar. Most of the conference papers have been published in: Hirschfeld, Gerhard and Kettenacker, Lothar, eds., Der “Führerstaat”: Mythos und Realität: Studien zur Struktur und Politik des Dritten Reiches [Stuttgart, 1981]Google Scholar. See the author's review of this book in Journal of Modern History, forthcoming in 1983Google Scholar. Regarding a conference held at the Institut für Zeitgeschichte in Munich, see Totalitarismus und Faschismus: Eine wissenschaftliche und politische Begriffskontroverse: Kolloquium im Institut für Zeitgeschichte am 24. November 1978 (Munich and Vienna, 1980)Google Scholar. See the author's general criticism in “Die Sozialgeschichte und das Dritte Reich: Überlegungen zu neuen Büchern,” Archiv für Sozialgeschichte 22 (1982).Google Scholar

4. See Allen, William S., “Hitler De-Luciferized,” The Nation, 01 22, 1977Google Scholar. On a similarly critical note see Broszat, Martin, “Soziale Motivation und Führer-Bindung des Nationalsozialismus,” Vierteljahrshefte für Zeitgeschichte 18 (1970): 399Google Scholar. Haffner, pp. 123–24, is more ambivalent.

5. See Strasser, Otto, Hitler und Ich (Buenos Aires, 1940), p. 70Google Scholar; von Krosigk, Lutz Graf Schwerin, Es geschah in Deutschland: Menschenbilder unseres Jahrhunderts (Tübingen and Stuttgart, 1951), pp. 220, 222Google Scholar. Also see Wiedemann, Fritz, Der Mann der Feldherr werden wollte: Erlebnisse und Erfahrungen des Vorgesetzten Hitlers im 1. Weltkrieg und seines späteren persönlichen Adjutanten (Velbert and Kettwig, 1964), p. 82Google Scholar; Dietrich, Otto, The Hitler I Knew (London, 1957), pp. 5, 10.Google Scholar

6. The quintessence of Bullock's view is presented on pp. 803–6 of the Penguin edition.

7. Holborn, Hajo, “Origins and Political Character of Nazi Ideology,” Political Science Quarterly 79 (1964): 554CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Schieder, Theodor, Hermann Rauschnings “Gespräche mit Hitler” als Geschichtsquelle (Opladen, 1972), pp. 54–55CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Tyrell, Albrecht, Vom “Trommler” zum “Führer”: Der Wandel von Hitlers Selbstverständnis zwischen 1919 und 1924 und die Entwicklung der NSDAP (Munich, 1975), p. 9Google Scholar; Stern, J. P., Hitler: The Führer and the People (Glasgow, 1975), p. 15Google Scholar; Nyomarkay, Joseph, Charisma and Factionalism in the Nazi Party (Minneapolis, 1967)Google Scholar. See also the two books by Orlow, Dietrich, The History of the Nazi Party: 1919–1933 (Pittsburgh, 1969)Google Scholar; and The History of the Nazi Party: 1933–1945 (Pittsburgh, 1973)Google Scholar. It has to be emphasized, however, that from a social-scientific perspective, the German-American sociologist Hans Gerth was the first scholar, in 1940, to analyze Hitler's charisma. See his article, “The Nazi Party: Its Leadership and Composition,” American Journal of Sociology 45 (1940): 517–41.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

8. Fest, p. 7; Bracher, Karl Dietrich, “The Role of Hitler: Perspectives of Interpretation,” in Laqueur, Walter, ed., Fascism: A Reader's Guide: Analyses, Interpretations, Bibliography (Berkeley and Los Angeles, 1976), p. 221.Google Scholar

9. Auerbach, p. 1, n. 1; Graml. A noteworthy attempt in this direction has recently been made in Britain by Ian Kershaw, “The Führer Image and Political Integration: The Popular Conception of Hitler in Bavaria during the Third Reich,” in Hirschfeld and Kettenacker, pp. 133–61. For a prototypical East German view of Hitler see Weissbecker, Manfred, “Zur Herausbildung des Führerkults in der NSDAP,” in Monopole und Staat in Deutschland 1917–1945 (Berlin [East], 1966), pp. 119–21.Google Scholar

10. See docs. 63–67 in Jäckel, Eberhard, ed., Hitler: Sämtliche Aufzeichnungen 1905–1924 (Stuttgart, 1980; hereafter cited as Hitler: Aufzeichnungen), pp. 91–95Google Scholar. Also see Auerbach, pp. 10–11; Czech-Jochberg, Erich, Wie Adolf Hitler der Führer wurde: Entstehung, Organisation und Ziele der nationalsozialistischen Bewegung, 3rd ed. (Leipzig, 1933), p. 26.Google Scholar

11. From the top, quotations are from: Hanfstaengl, Ernst, Unheard Witness (Philadelphia and New York, 1957), pp. 34, 37, 131 (also see pp. 194, 234)Google Scholar; Rossbach, Gerhard, Mein Weg durch die Zeit: Erinnerungen und Bekenntnisse (Weilburg/Lahn, 1950), p. 215Google Scholar; entry for Feb. 15, 1948, in Speer, Albert, Spandau: The Secret Diaries (New York, 1976), p. 92 (also see pp. 90–91, 131)Google Scholar; doc. 24 (Oct. 20, 1914) in Hitler: Aufzeichnungen, p. 59; Trevor-Roper, Hugh R., The Last Days of Hitler (London, 1952), p. 183Google Scholar. Also see ibid., pp. 98–99, 182; von Miltenberg, Weigand [Herbert Blank], Adolf Hitler Wilhelm III. (Berlin, 1932), p. 19Google Scholar; Rauschning, Hermann, Gespräche mit Hitler (Zurich, 1940), pp. 18–19Google Scholar; entry for Nov. 5, 1941, in Adolf Hitler: Monologe im Führerhauptquartier 1941–1944: Die Aufzeichnungen Heinrich Heims, ed. Jochmann, Werner (Hamburg, 1980) (hereafter cited as Hitler: Monologe), p. 130Google Scholar; Wiedemann, pp. 78, 210–15; Dietrich, p. 153; Speer, Albert, Inside the Third Reich (New York, 1970), pp. 46, 58, 93Google Scholar; Hitler aus nächster Nähe: Aufzeichnungen eines Vertrauten 1929–1932, ed. Turner, Henry Ashby Jr,. (Frankfurt a.M., 1978; cited hereafter as Hitler aus nächster Nähe), pp. 101–2Google Scholar; Strasser, p. 59; berg, Alfred Rosen, Letzte Aufzeichnungen: Ideale und Idole der nationalsozialistischen Revolution (Göttingen, 1955), pp. 331–33Google Scholar; Weinreich, Max, Hitler's Professors: The Part of Scholarship in Germany's Crimes against the Jewish People (New York, 1946), p. 20Google Scholar; Kater, Michael H., Das “Ahnenerbe” der SS 1935 bis 1945: Ein Beitrag zur Kulturpolitik des Dritten Reiches (Stuttgart, 1974), p. 51Google Scholar; von Lang, Jochen, Der Sekretär: Martin Bormann: Der Mann, der Hitler beherrschte (Stuttgart, 1977), p. 108Google Scholar; Haffher, pp. 32–33; Kubizek, August, The Young Hitler I Knew (Westport, Conn., 1976), esp. pp. 217–18Google Scholar; Kettenacker, Lothar, “Sozialpsychologische Aspekte der Führer-Herrschaft,” in Hirschfeld, and Kettenacker, , pp. 122–23.Google Scholar

12. Docs. 64 (Oct. 19, 1919), 124 (July 27, 1920), 458 (Jan. 13, 1923), 605 (Feb. 26, 1924) in Hitler: Aufzeichnungen, pp. 91, 165, 789, 1062, 1064.

13. Hitler, Adolf, Mein Kampf, ed. Chamberlain, John et al. (New York, 1939), pp. 5–6, 9–14Google Scholar; Rauschning, pp. 161–62. Also see Heiden, Konrad, A History of National Socialism (London, 1971; first published 1934), p. 54Google Scholar; Fest, p. 37; Stern, p. 58; Herbst, Ludolf, “Die Krise des nationalsozialistischen Regimes am Vorabend des Zweiten Weltkrieges und die forcierte Aufrüstung: Eine Kritik,” Vierteljahrshefte für Zeitgeschichte 26 (1978): 380Google Scholar; Haffner, p. 7.

14. Quotations, from the top, are from: Hitler to “Lieber Herr Doktor,” Munich, Nov. 29, 1921, doc. 325 in Hitler: Aufzeichnungen, p. 525; Hitler, p. 289; Waite, pp. 135–36; entry for Nov. 1, 1946, in Speer, Spandau, p. 15. Also see: Deuerlein, Ernst, “Hitlers Eintritt in die Politik und die Reichswehr,” Vierteljahrshefte für Zeitgeschichte 7 (1959): 179Google Scholar; Bremen police report regarding speech by Beissner on Jan. 19, 1928, Bremen, Jan. 20, 1928, Staatsarchiv Bremen, 4, 65, II A 9 b; flyer, “Adolf Hitler und der Arbeiter,” n.d. [1932], Ostpreussisches Gauarchiv im Staatlichen Archivlager Göttingen (microfilm Staatsarchiv Bückeburg; hereafter cited as SAG), SF 6826, GA/98; Max Amann: Ein Leben für Führer und Volk (Munich, n.d.), p. 19; Hanns Johst's interview with Hitler in Jan. 1934, partly reprinted in Schoenbaum, David, Hitler's Social Revolution: Class and Status in Nazi Germany 1933–1939 (New York, Anchor Books, 1967), p. 57Google Scholar; Wiedemann, p. 26; Tyrell, p. 108.

15. See Speer, Reich, pp. 31, 40, 42, 131.

16. See Heuss, Theodor, Hitlers Weg: Eine Schrift aus dem Jahre 1932, ed. Jäckel, Eberhard (Tübingen, 1968; first published 1932), p. 12Google Scholar; Franck, Louis R., “An Economic and Social Diagnosis of National-Socialism,” in The Third Reich (London, 1955), p. 544Google Scholar; Winkler, Heinrich August, Mittelstand, Demokratie und Nationalsozialismus: Die politische Entwicklung von Handwerk und Kleinhandel in der Weimarer Republik (Cologne, 1972), p. 164Google Scholar; Stern, p. 25; Tyrell, p. 107. Vierhaus's, Rudolf typology of “Fascist leadership”Google Scholar does not quite suit Hitler either (“Faschistisches Führertum: Ein Beitrag zur Phänomenologie des europäischen Faschismus,” Historische Zeitschrift 198 [1964]: 630).Google Scholar

17. Entry for Aug. 21, 1942, in Hitler: Monologe, pp. 357–58; Lang, pp. 121–22; Kater, “Ahnenerbe,” p. 70. Also see Kubizek, pp. 283–84; Waite, pp. 129–31, 183–84, 199. In this connection, it is significant that Hitler—especially after 1933—studiously avoided his half-brother Alois, a former waiter, who managed one or two taverns in Berlin. See Leonard, L. and Heston, Renate, The Medical Casebook of Adolf Hitler (London, 1979), p. 65.Google Scholar

18. This cliché surfaces in Hitler's early speeches and writings and was continued after 1933. See, for instance, docs. 376 (Apr. 10, 1922) and 605 (Feb. 26, 1924) in Hitler: Aufzeichnungen, pp. 601, 1064; Hitler's speech of Apr. 28, 1939, reprinted in Domarus, Max, Hitler: Reden und Proklamationen 1932–1945: Kommentiert von einem deutschen Zeitgenossen (Wiesbaden, 1973), 2, pt. 1: 1178Google Scholar. The cliché was then adopted and repeated by his admirers, as in Robakidse, Grigol, Adolf Hitler von einen fremden Dichter gesehen (Jena, 1939) p. 10Google Scholar. See Nicholls, Anthony, “Hitler and the Bavarian Background to National Socialism,” in Nicholls, A. and Matthias, Erich, eds., German Democracy and the Triumph of Hitler: Essays in Recent German History (London, 1971), p. 116Google Scholar; Schulz, Gerhard, Aufstieg des Nationalsozialismus: Krise und Revolution in Deutschland (Frankfurt a.M., 1975), p. 230Google Scholar; Fest, p. 521; Weinstein, Fred, The Dynamics of Nazism: Leadership, Ideology, and the Holocaust (New York, 1980), p. xiii.Google Scholar

19. See Rauschning, p. 45; Scholtz-Klink, monthly report NSF for June 1937, Berlin, July 15, 1937, Bundesarchiv Koblenz (hereafter cited as BA), NS 22/860; “Stimmungsmässiger Überblick über die Gesamtpolitische Lage,” Kreis Wiesbaden, Hessisches Hauptstaatsarchiv Wiesbaden, 483/5550; entry for Oct. 15, 1938, in von Hassell, Ulrich, Vom Andern Deutschland: Aus den nachgelassenen Tagebüchern 1938–1944 (Frankfurt a.M. and Hamburg, 1964), p. 24Google Scholar; entry for Oct. 12, 1940, in Das politische Tagebuch Alfred Rosen bergs 1934/35 und 1939/40, ed. Seraphim, Hans-Günther (Munich, 1964), p. 149Google Scholar; entry for May 19, 1942, in Picker, Henry, Hitlers Tischgespräche im Führerhauptquartier 1941–42, ed. Ritter, Gerhard (Bonn, 1951), p. 285Google Scholar; entry for Aug. 5, 1942, in Hitler: Monologe, p. 326; Winkler, Dörte, Frauenarbeit im “Dritten Reich” (Hamburg, 1977), p. 120Google Scholar; Kettenacker, p. 124.

20. See Hanfstaengl, pp. 40, 44; Hitler to “Sehr geehrte Frau Vorsitzende!” Landsberg, Nov. 15, 1924, Hoover Institution on War, Revolution and Peace, Stanford, NSDAP-Hauptarchiv, microfilm 13/256 (reprinted and translated in Kater, Michael H., “In Pursuit of Hitler,” Canadian Journal of History 16 [1981]: 433Google Scholar); Wiedemann, p. 90; Oechsner, Frederick, This is the Enemy (Boston, 1942), pp. 110–11Google Scholar; Zoller, Albert, Hitler privat: Erlebnisbericht seiner Geheimsekretärin (Düsseldorf, 1949), pp. 14, 17, 22, 80, 103–10Google Scholar; Dietrich, pp. 135, 203–4, 216–18; Auerbach, pp. 31, 34; entry for May 13, 1949, in Speer, Spandau, pp. 130–31; Fest, p. 34; Winkler, pp. 117, 119–20. Kleine's, Georg H. assumption that in 1934–35 Hitler may have had a “leadership”Google Scholar role for the aristocracy in mind, is unfounded and misleading (“Adelsgenossenschaft und Nationalsozialismus,” Vierteljahrshefte für Zeitgeschichte 26 [1978]: 120Google Scholar). On this last point, see my remarks in “Die Sozialgeschichte und das Dritte Reich.”

21. The quotation is from bourgeois journalist A. Detig, as expressed in Deutsche Allgemeine Zeitung, Oct. 10, 1930 (cited in Pfeifer, Eva, “Das Hitlerbild im Spiegel einiger konservativer Zeitungen in den Jahren 1929–1933,” Ph.D. diss., University of Heidelberg, 1966, p. 15Google Scholar). Also see: Hitler, pp. 631–32; Speer, Reich, pp. 15–16; Steinberg, Michael Stephen, Sabers and Brownshirts: The German Students’ Path to National Socialism, 1918–1935 (Chicago and London, 1977), p. 167Google Scholar; Hanfstaengl, pp. 40, 44; Strasser, pp. 14, 20; Auerbach, pp. 31, 34; Hitler, Adolf, Der Weg zum Wiederaufstieg (Munich, 1927)Google Scholar, reprinted in Turner, Henry Ashby Jr., Faschismus und Kapitalismus in Deutschland: Studien zum Verhältnis zwischen Nationalsozialismus und Wirtschaft (Göttingen, 1972)Google Scholar; Turner, H. A. Jr., “Hitlers Einstellung zu Wirtschaft und Gesellschaft vor 1933,” Geschichte und Gesellschaft 2 (1976): 96Google Scholar; Glaser, Hermann, Eros in der Politik: Eine sozialpathologische Untersuchung (Cologne, 1967), p. 90Google Scholar; Fest, pp. 300–301.

22. See Hitler, Mein Kampf, pp. 612, 641–42; Hanfstaengl, pp. 43–44; Rauschning, p. 190; Zoller, p. 138; entry for Aug. 5, 1942, in Hitler: Monologe, p. 328; Schoenbaum, pp. 18, 19, 65; Fest, pp. 473–74, 668–69; Turner, “Einstellung,” p. 96; Lang, p. 203.

23. The quotation is from Hanfstaengl, pp. 128–29. Also see Hitler's remarks as recorded in Hitler aus nächster Nähe, p. 428; doc. 13 (Aug. 1930) in Ilse Maurer, and Wengst, Udo, eds., Staat und NSDAP 1930–1932: Quellen zur Ära Brüning (Düsseldorf, 1977), p. 133Google Scholar; Baird, Jay W., The Mythical World of Nazi War Propaganda 1939–1945 (Minneap olis, 1974), p. 124Google Scholar. Fest, p. 70, is in contradiction to Wiedemann, pp. 20–30, 54, 96, who recollects that the “change” came after the Blomberg-Fritsch crisis in 1938. Also see Rosenberg, p. 332; entry for May 14, 1942, in Picker, pp. 332–34; von Gersdorff, Rudolf-Christoph Freiherr, Soldat im Untergang (Frankfurt a.M., 1977), p. 66Google Scholar. I cannot place much credence in Kubizek's theory; he cites jealousy of officers that were seen with Hitler's first secret love, Stefanie, in Linz (pp. 58, 60, 186). For Hitler's war record and the admiration with which he regarded his superiors in the field see docs. 21–56 in Hitler: Aufzeichnungen, pp. 55–86.

24. See Kleine, p. 138. Also see Rauschning, pp. 44–45; entry for May 9, 1943, in The Goebbels Diaries, ed. Lochner, Louis P. (London, 1948), p. 284Google Scholar; Speer, Reich, pp. 54–55; von Below, Nicolaus, Als Hitlers Adjutant 1937–45 (Mainz, 1980), pp. 147, 237, 287Google Scholar; Struve, Walter, Elites Against Democracy: Leadership Ideals in Bourgeois Political Thought in Germany, 1890–1933 (Princeton, 1973), p. 442Google Scholar; Wiedemann, , pp. 96–97, 198–200Google Scholar. I question whether, as Kubizek, p. 249, asserts, Hitler's hatred of the aristocracy originated during the Vienna phase.

25. The quotation is from excerpt, Lammers to Oberste Reichsbehörden, n.p. [Berlin], Jan. 16, 1941, Geheimes Staatsarchiv München (hereafter cited as GSM), RE/646. See also Hitler, Mein Kampf, p. 617; Eilers, Rolf, Die nationalsozialistische Schulpolitik: Eine Studie zur Funktion der Erziehung im totalitären Staat (Cologne and Opladen, 1963), p. 106Google Scholar; Kater, Michael H., “Hitlerjugend und Schule im Dritten Reich,” Historische Zeitschrift 228 (1979): 579–80CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Hanfstaengl, p. 185; Rauschning, pp. 27, 52; Dietrich, pp. 152–53; Holborn, p. 547; Fest, p. 133. The term Menschenführung is explained in greater detail in Kater, M. H., The Nazi Party: A Social Profile of Members and Leaders, 1919–1945 (Cambridge, Mass., 1983), in ch. 8 at n. 50.Google Scholar

26. Hanfstaengl, p. 141; Rauschning, pp. 26, 44–46; Strasser, p. 67.

27. Hitler, Mein Kampf; idem, Weg, p. 58; doc. 7 in Noakes, Jeremy and Pridham, Geoffrey, eds., Documents on Nazism, 1919–1945 (London, 1974), p. 42Google Scholar; entry for Mar. 1, 1942, in Hitler: Monologe, p. 310; Strasser, p. 67; Krosigk, p. 222; Rosenberg, pp. 320–22; The Infancy of Nazism: The Memoirs of Ex-Gauleiter Albert Krebs 1923–1933, ed. Allen, William S. (New York, 1976; hereafter cited as Krebs, Infancy), p. 160Google Scholar; Tyrell, p. 109; Stern, p. 112; Mommsen, Hans, “Hitlers Stellung im nationalsozialistischen Herrschaftssystem,” in Hirschfeld, and Kettenacker, , p. 66Google Scholar. Also see Weber, Max, Economy and Society: An Outline of Interpretive Sociology, ed. Roth, Guenther and Wittich, Claus (New York, 1968), 1: 241.Google Scholar

28. See Kubizek; Heiden, p. 58; Fest, pp. 63, 68; Toland, pp. 19–20, 50.

29. The poem, published in honor of Hitler's 40th birthday on Apr. 20, 1929, is paradigmatic for the adoration of his fans:

Thou art Wieland the Smith! Thou art Siegfried himself!

Thy word is a sword and the power of a sledge,

Through which in seething days

The sacred flame of love for Volk and Vaterland

Has been ignited in a thousand hearts, newly ablaze.

Hitler's reaction is reported in Bormann to Parteigenosse, Munich, May 11, 1929, Niedersächsisches Hauptstaatsarchiv Hannover, Hann. 310 1, A 24. The quotation is from entry for Apr. 19, 1926, in Das Tagebuch von Joseph Goebbels 1925/26, ed. Heiber, Helmut, 2nd ed. (Stuttgart, 1961), p. 74Google Scholar. See also Auerbach, p. 29; Tyrell, pp. 71–72, 109, 157, 162, 173; Fest, pp. 221–37; Bracher, Karl Dietrich, The German Dictatorship: The Origins, Structure, and Effects of National Socialism (New York and Washington, 1972), pp. 91–102Google Scholar; Horn, Wolfgang, Führerideologie und Parteiorganisation in der NSDAP (1919–1933) (Düsseldorf, 1972), p. 49Google Scholar; Toland, p. 210; Hitler aus nächster Nähe, p. 462; Nyomarkay, pp. 4–5; Vierhaus, p. 629.

30. Typical examples of Hitler's decision-making are in Wiedemann, pp. 222–24; and Dietrich, pp. 139–40. Also see Below, pp. 32–33.

31. Entry for Sept. 26, 1938, in Heeresadjutant bei Hitler 1938–1943: Aufzeichnungen des Majors Engel, ed. von Kotze, Hildegard (Stuttgart, 1974), p. 39CrossRefGoogle Scholar; entry for Dec. 20, 1940, in Kriegspropaganda 1939–1941: Geheime Ministerkonferenzen im Reichspropagandaministerium, ed. Boelcke, Willi A. (Stuttgart, 1966), p. 592.Google Scholar

32. An “Old Fighter” (Alter Kämpfer) was any Nazi comrade who had joined the party before Jan. 30, 1933. Those with the lowest party numbers (since 1925) enjoyed the greatest intraparty prestige. See Kater, The Nazi Party, ch. 8, at nn. 11–13, 41.

33. Weber, 3: 1119.

34. For an ethnological analogy (valid for the end of the 19th century), see Mühlmann, Wilhelm Emil, Chiliasmus und Nativismus: Studien zur Psychologie, Soziologie und historischen Kasuistik der Umsturzbewegungen (Berlin, 1964), p. 52Google Scholar: An American Indian shaman justified the failure of his “doctrine” with the accusation “that his commandments had not been fulfilled.” On the Rohm affair see von Aretin, Erwein, Krone und Ketten: Erinnerungen eines bayerischen Edelmannes, ed. Buchheim, Karl and von Aretin, Karl Otmar (Munich, 1955), pp. 365–66Google Scholar; Rauschning, Hermann, Die Revolution des Nihilismus: Kulisse und Wirklichkeit im Dritten Reich, 4th ed. (Zurich and New York, 1938), p. 323Google Scholar; Mommsen, p. 68; Kater, The Nazi Party, ch. 9. On Hitler, O. Strasser, and Hess, see Kubizek, pp. 263–66 (Hitler leaving K. in Vienna when the going got rough); Toland, pp. 239–41, 659–66. Hitler's affection for old party comrades is documented in: entries for Jan. 25, 1942, Mar. 2, 1943, May 8, 1943, Nov. 9 and 10, 1943, in Goebbels Diaries, pp. 14, 200–201, 276–77, 411, 414; entry for May 18, 1941, in Hassell, p. 184; Schneübrief, “Anweisung Schwarz 21/39 an sämtliche Gauschatzmeister,” Munich, Apr. 13, 1939, BA, NS 26/2256; Rosenberg, p. 327; Below, p. 10; Hüttenberger, Peter, Die Gauleiter: Studie zum Wandel des Machtgefüges in der NSDAP (Stuttgart, 1978), p. 165Google Scholar; Kissenkoetter, Udo, Gregor Strasser und die NSDAP (Stuttgart, 1978), p. 165CrossRefGoogle Scholar. The denouement is depicted in: Trevor-Roper (reference to the failure of the German people is on pp. 54–55); entry for Nov. 20, 1952, in Speer, Spandau, p. 212; idem, Reich, p. 239; Zoller, pp. 24–26; Krosigk, p. 221; von Schirach, Henriette, The Price of Glory (London, 1960), p. 72Google Scholar; Orlow, The History of the Nazi Party: 1933–1945, p. 412; Fest, pp. 660, 668–69, 677. In light of this evidence, both Speer and Hitler's adjutant may have overstated their case when they reported that Hitler's enthusiasm in receiving Old Fighters dwindled after the beginning of World War II (see entry for Jan. 4,1954, in Speer, Spandau, p. 238; idem, Reich, pp. 44–45; Below, p. 135).

35. Geiger, Theodor, Die soziale Schichtung des deutschen Volkes: Soziographischer Versuch auf statistischer Grundlage (Stuttgart, 1967; first published 1932), pp. 77–105Google Scholar; Mayntz, Renate, “Begriff und empirische Erfassung des sozialen Status in der heutigen Soziologie,” Kölner Zeitschrift für Soziologie und Sozialpsychologie 10 (1958): 67–68Google Scholar; Bolte, Karl Martin, Deutsche Gesellschaft im Wandel (Opladen, 1966), p. 17.Google Scholar

36. The quotation is from Heston, p. 31. Kubizek's verdict on Hitler is “so extraordinarily intelligent” (p. 244). On alleged Linz and Vienna reading, see ibid., pp. 54–55, 140, 157, 182–84, 212; and the plausible qualifications in Waite, pp. 60–62. Also see Hitler, Mein Kampf, pp. 289, 313, 369, 420; Zoller, p. 36; Dietrich, p. 150; entry for Feb. 17, 1942, in Hitler: Monologe, p. 281; also see ibid., p. 456, n. 198; Holborn, p. 550; Daim, Wilfried, Der Mann, der Hitler die Ideen gab: Von den religiösen Verirrungen eines Sektierers zum Rassenwahn des Diktators (Munich, 1958)Google Scholar; Hitler aus nächster Nähe, p. 100; Banuls, André, “Das völkische Blatt ‘Der Scherer’: Ein Beitrag zu Hitlers Schulzeit,” Vierteljahrshefte für Zeitgeschichte 18 (1970): 196–203Google Scholar; Fest, pp. 69, 200–201; Toland, p. 63.

37. The quotations are from Rosenberg, pp. 317, 324; and entry for June 20, 1957, in Speer, Spandau, p. 313. Also see Aretin, p. 235; Hitler aus nächster Nähe, p. 100; Wiedemann, p. 78; Dietrich, pp. 142, 149; Miltenberg, p. 11; Zoller, pp. 49–50.

38. Quotations, from the top, are from Heiden, p. 60; and Milward, Alan S., The German Economy at War (London, 1965), p. 17Google Scholar. Also see Krüger, Peter, “Zu Hitlers ‘nationalsozialistischen Wirtschaftserkenntnissen,’” Geschichte und Gesellschaft 6 (1980): esp. 265, n. 6Google Scholar; Heyl, John D., “Hitler's Economic Thought: A Reappraisal,” Central European History 6 (1973): 83–96CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Speer, Reich, passim; Rosenberg, p. 325; Miltenberg, p. 11.

39. In this respect, I find myself in agreement with Eberhard Jäckel's excellent analysis, Hitler's “Weltanschauung’: A Blueprint far Power (Middletown, Conn., 1972)Google Scholar, and critical of Broszat's, M. view (p. 402)Google Scholar that Hitler was “above the Weltanschauung.’

40. See Strasser, p. 59; Rosenberg, pp. 317, 324; Wiedemann, p. 76; Holborn, p. 550; Nicholls, p. 116; Jackel, Hitler's “Weltanschauung,” esp. pp. 39–40, 80, 83, 85; Fest, pp. 37, 200–201, 285; Schulz, p. 215; entry for May 6, 1960, in Speer, Spandau, pp. 347–48; Mosse, George L., The Nationalization of the Masses: Political Symbolism and Mass Movements in Germany from the Napoleonic Wars Through the Third Reich (New York, 1975), p. 190Google Scholar; Zoller, pp. 41, 45; Mommsen, p. 59; Heston, pp. 43–44. Hitler described his specific mode of reading, learning, and cognizance in contradistinction to that of the German Bildungsbürger in Mein Kampf, pp. 46–50. Also see Kubizek, p. 184; Waite, pp. 60–63, 90–123.

41. From the top, the quotations are from: Gerth, p. 519; entry for Feb. 26 and 27, 1942, in Hitler: Monologe, p. 300. For examples of and reflections on Hitler's omniscient attitude, see Hanfstaengl, p. 134; Rauschning, Revolution, p. 424; Tatsachen und Lügen um Hitler (Kampfschrift, vol. 9, 2nd ed., n.d. [1932], Broschürenreihe der Reichspropagandaleitung der N.S.D.A.P.), SAG, SF 6826, GA/98 (p. 19); Wiedemann, pp. 60–61; Brausse, Hans Bernhard, Die Führungsordnung des deutschen Volkes: Grundlegung einer Führungslehre (Hamburg, 1940), p. 143Google Scholar; Gersdorff, p. 110; Fest, p. 660; Milward, pp. 17–18.

42. Weber, 3: 1112–14.

43. Gerth, p. 519. See also Vierhaus, p. 629.

44. See Speer, Reich, pp. 129, 179; Wiedemann, pp. 76–77; Tyrell, p. 61; Milward, pp. 17–18.

45. Entry for May 12, 1943, in Goebbels Diaries, p. 395. Reich Press Chief Dr. Otto Dietrich expressed himself in a similar vein, as paraphrased in Baird, p. 97. Also see Rosenberg, referring to the acolyte general Jodl (p. 332); Heiden, referring to the doubter General von Lossow (p. 71). See, moreover, entry for Mar. 16, 1945, in Goebbels, Joseph, Tagebücher 1945: Die letzten Aufzeichnungen (Hamburg, 1977), p. 273.Google Scholar

46. See Weber, 3: 1112–13; Mühlmann, Wilhelm Emil, Homo Creator: Abhandlungen zur Soziologie, Anthropologie und Ethnologie (Wiesbaden, 1962), pp. 48–49, 121–22, 235Google Scholar; Mühlmann, Chiliastmis, pp. 46, 95, 197, 210; Eliade, Mircea, Shamanism: Archaic Techniques of Ecstacy (New York, 1964), pp. 25–26, 145–65Google Scholar. According to Wiedemann, p. 88, Hitler thought of successors only in the very distant future. Also see Zoller, pp. 204–5; Mehringer, Helmut, Die NSDAP als politische Ausleseorganisation (Munich, 1938), p. 97Google Scholar; entries for Oct. 21 and 22, 1941, and Jan. 25 and 26, 1942, in Hitler: Monologe, pp. 99, 229–31; Gerth, p. 522; Vierhaus, p. 628; Schoenbaum, p. 58; Fest, pp. 521, 728.

47. The first quotation is from Hagen, Louis, Follow My Leader (London, 1951), p. 77, also see p. 13Google Scholar. The second quotation is from McKee, Ilse, Tomorrow the World (London, 1960), p. 12Google Scholar. Also see Krosigk, p. 219; and Maschmann, Melita, Account Rendered: A Dossier of my Former Self (London, 1965), pp. 89, 102.Google Scholar

48. See Berndt, Alfred-Ingemar, ed., Gebt mir vier Jahre Zeit! Dokumente zum ersten Vierjahresplan des Führers (Munich, 1937).Google Scholar

49. Ortsgruppenbetriebswart, situation report, Königsberg, July 14, 1933; “Bericht von der augenblicklichen Stimmung in der Königsberger Bevölkerung im besonderen in der Königsberger Arbeiterschaft,” Königsberg, , 07 18, 1933Google Scholar; Tiedemann, “Stimmungsbericht der Ortsgruppe Tragheim,” n.d. [Summer 1933], SAG, SF 6817, GA/17; Knolle, “Aufzeichnung über die Besprechung im Reichsarbeitsministerium,” 03 5, 1937, doc. 54 in Mason, Timothy W., Arbeiterklasse und Volksgemeinschaft: Dokumente und Materialien zur deutschen Arbeiterpolitik 1936–1939 (Opladen, 1975), p. 444CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Botz, Gerhard, Wien vom “Anschluss” zum Krieg: Nationalsozialistische Machtübernahme und politisch-soziale Umgestaltung am Beispiel der Stadt Wien 1938/39 (Vienna and Munich, 1978), pp. 295–302Google Scholar; Stadier, Karl, Österreich 1938–1939: Im Spiegel der NS-Akten (Vienna and Munich, 1966), pp. 55–56Google Scholar. Also see Toland, p. 454.

50. “The charisma of the hero or the magician is immediately activated whenever an extraordinary event occurs … especially a military threat” (Weber, 3: 1134).

51. See excerpt from monthly report Gendarmerie-Bezirksinspektion [Ebermannstadt], Sept. 29, 1938, in Broszat, Martin et al. , eds., Bayern in der NS-Zeit: Soziale Lage und politisches Verhalten der Bevölkerung im Spiegel vertraulicher Berichte (Munich and Vienna, 1977), p. 122CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Regierungspräsident to Bayerischer Innenminister, Speyer, July 9, 1939; “Monatsbericht (Lagebericht) des Regierungspräsidenten,” Augsburg, Sept. 8, 1939, GSM, RE, 297/2. On the impact of the outbreak of the war on the German people, see Wiedemann, p. 176; Kater, The Nazi Party, ch. 6 at n. 117; and the figure in Anna, J. and Merritt, Richard L., eds., Public Opinion in Occupied Germany: The OMGUS Surveys, 1945–1949 (Urbana, Ill., 1970), p. 30.Google Scholar

52. O. R. to L. R., n.p. [Denmark], May 20, 1940, Staatsarchiv Ludwigsburg, PL 509, 1/8. Also see excerpts of SD reports dated July 22, Sept. 30, 1940, Feb. 28, 1941, in Boberach, Heinz, ed., Meldungen aus dem Reich: Auswahl aus den geheimen Lageberichten des Sicher heitsdienstes der SS 1939–1944 (Neuwied and Berlin, 1965), pp. 89, 101, 146.Google Scholar

53. Excerpts of SD reports dated Mar. 31, July 24, Oct. 6, Dec. 15, 1941, Feb. 2, Apr. 27, 1942, July 29, Sept. 13, 1943, in Boberach, pp. 129, 166, 181, 198, 216, 257, 428, 433; entry for Sept. 1941, in Hassell, p. 202; Mühldorf, Landrat to München, Regierungspräsident, 04 2, 1943, and 11 30, 1943Google Scholar, Staatsarchiv München (hereafter cited as SAM), LRA/135116; SD report of Nov. 11, 1943, BA, R 58/190; monthly report of Regierungspräsident Regensburg, Feb. 10, 1944, BA, Schumacher/483.

54. See excerpts from SD reports dated May 14, Nov. 28, 1940, Apr. 19, Nov. 11, 1943, in Boberach, pp. 66, 116, 384, 442; entry for Mar. 19, 1943, in Goebbels Diaries, p. 239; monthly report of Regierungspräsident Regensburg, Dec. 11, 1944, BA, Schumacher/483. Also see Heston, pp. 29–30.

55. See docs, 1 and 11 (Aug. 4, 1934), in Thévoz, Robert et al., eds., Pommern 1934/35 im Spiegel von Gestapo-Lageberichten und Sachakten (Quellen) (Cologne and Berlin, 1974), pp. 32, 153Google Scholar; Deutschland-Berichte der Sozialdemokratischen Partei Deutschlands (Sopade), vol. 1 (1934) (Salzhausen and Frankfurt a.M., 1980), p. 471Google Scholar; excerpt, SD report dated Nov. 10, 1939, in Boberach, p. 18; docs. (Nov. 1939, July/Aug. 1944) in Broszat et al., pp. 135, 135, 589, 664, 669, 670; monthly report of Regierungspräsident Regensburg, Sept. 9, 1944, BA, Schumacher/483. Also see Gruchmann, Lothar, ed., Autobiographie eines Attentäters: Johann Georg Elser: Aussage zum Sprengstoffanschlag im Bürgerbräukeller, München am 8. November 1939, (Stuttgart, 1970)Google Scholar; and Mommsen, Hans, “Politische Perspektiven des aktiven Widerstands gegen Hitler,” in Schultz, Hans Jürgen, ed., Der Zwanzigste Juli: Alternative zu Hitler? (Stuttgart and Berlin, 1974), p. 26.Google Scholar

56. The soldier's testimony is in Klemperer, Victor, LTI (Berlin [East], 1949), p. 117Google Scholar. Also see entry for Mar. 11, 1945, in Goebbels, p. 186; Speer, Reich, p. 446; Bardua, Heinz, Stuttgart im Luftkrieg 1939–1945: Mit Dokumentenanhang und 67 Abbildungen (Stuttgart, n.d.), pp. 84–85Google Scholar; Dietrich, p. 106; Kater, “Ahnenerbe,” pp. 219–20.

57. This percentage is the partial result of a survey reprinted in Der Tagesspiegel, Berlin, May 10, 1975. Also see Padover, Saul K., Experiment in Germany: The Story of an American Intelligence Officer (New York, 1946), p. 207Google Scholar; Dicks, Henry V., Licenced Mass Murder: A Socio-Psychological Study of Some SS Killers (Sussex, 1972), p. 72.Google Scholar

58. The quotation is from entry for Mar. 3, 1945, in Goebbels, p. 87. Also see: Weber, 3: 1114; excerpts from SD reports dated Apr. 5 and July 8, 1943, in Boberach, pp. 382, 417; docs. (1943/44) in Broszat et al., pp. 181, 578–79, 640, 643; Fräulein, H. S., letter to unknown, n.p. [Munich], n.d. [1943], SAM, NSDAP/11Google Scholar; monthly report of Regierungspräsident Regensburg, Apr. 11, 1943, BA, Schumacher/483; SD report dated June 17, 1943, BA, R 58/185; Hannsen to Reich Minister of Justice, Berlin, January 27, 1944, BA, R 22/3356; minutes of speech by Friedrichs at Führerhauptquartier, Mar. 23, 1944, BA, Schumacher/368; Collins, Sarah Mabel, The Alien Years: The Autobiography of an Englishwoman in Germany and Austria: 1938–1946 (London, 1949), p. 148Google Scholar; Hüttenberger, p. 161; Merritt, p. 105. The personality change in Hitler at the time of Stalingrad is observed, from a medical perspective, in Heston, pp. 40–41, 46–47, 136–40. Also see Zoller, pp. 146–53, 228–38; and Below, p. 402.