Hitler
As he believes himself to be

At the time of the reoccupation of the Rhineland, Hitler made use of an
extraordinary figure of speech in describing his own conduct. He said,

"I follow my course with the precision and security of a
sleepwalker."

Even at that time it struck the world as an unusual statement for the
undisputed leader of 67,000,000 people to make at the time of an
international crisis. Hitler meant it to be a form of' reassurance for his
more wary followers who questioned the wisdom of his course. It seems,
however, that it was a true confession and had his wary followers only
realised its significance and implications they would have had grounds for
far greater concern that that aroused by his proposal to reoccupy the
Rhineland. For the course of this sleep-walker has carried him over many
untravelled roads which finally led him unerringly to a pinnacle of
success and power never reached before. And still it lured him on until
today he stands on the brink of disaster. He will go down in history as
the most worshipped and the most despised man the world has ever known.

Many people have stopped and asked themselves: "Is this man sincere in
his undertakings or is he a fraud?" Certainly even a fragmentary knowledge
of his past life warrants such a question, particularly since our
correspondants have presented us with many conflicting views. At times, it
seemed almost inconceivable that a man could be sincere and do what Hitler
has done in the course of his career. And yet all of his former associates
whom we have been able to contact, as well as many of our most capable
foreign correspondents, are firmly convinced that Hitler actually does
believe in his own greatness. Fuchs reported that Hitler said to
Schuschnigg during the Berchtesgaden [sic] interviews:

"Do you realize that you are in the presence of the greatest German
of all time?"

It makes little difference for our purpose whether he actually spoke
these words or not at this particular time as alleged. In this sentence he
has summed up in a very few words an attitude which he has expressed to
some of our informants in person. To Rauschning, for example, he once
said:

"Aber ich brauche sie nicht, um mir von ihnen meine geschichtiche
Groesse bestaltigen zu lassen." (717)

And to Strasser, who once took the liberty of saying that we was afraid
Hitler was mistaken, he said:

"I cannot be mistaken. What I do and say is historical." (378)

many other such personal statements could be given. Oechaner has summed
up his attitude in this respect very well in the following words:

"He feels that no one ins German history is equipped as he is to
bring the Germans to the position of supremacy which all German
statesman have felt they deserved but were unable to achieve." (669)

This attitude is not confined to himself as a statesman. he also
believes himself to be the greatest war lord as, for  example, when
he says to Raischning:

"Ich spiele nicht Krieg. Ich lasse mich nicht von `Feldherrn'
kommandieren. Den Krieg fushre ich. Den engentlichen Zeitpunkt zum
Angriff bestimme ich. Es gibt nur eine guenstigen. Ich warde auf ihm
warten. Mit eisernor Entschlossenheit. Unc ich warde ihn nicht
verpassen..." (701)

And it seems to be true that he has made a number of contributions to
German offensive and defensive tactics and strategy. He believes himself
to be an outstanding judge in legal matters and does not blush when he
stands before the Reichstag, while speaking to the whole world, and says,

"For the last twenty-four hours I was the supreme court of the German
people." (255)

Then, too, he believes himself to be the greatest of all German
architects and spends a great deal of his time in sketching new buildings
and planning the remodeling of entire cities. In spite of the fact that he
failed to pass the examinations for admission to the Art School he
believes himself to be the only competent judge in all matters of art. A
few years ago he appointed a committee of three to act as final judges on
all matters of art, but when their verdicts did not please him he
dismissed them and assumed their duties himself. It makes little
difference whether the field be economics, education, foreign affairs,
propaganda, movies, music or women's dress. In each and every field he
believes himself to be an unquestioned authority.

He also prides himself on his hardness and brutality.

"I am one of the hardest men Germany has had for decades, perhaps for
centuries, equipped  with the greatest authority of any German
leader... but above all, I believe in my success. I believe in it
unconditionally." (M.N.O. 871)

That belief in his own power actually borders on a feeling of
omnipotence which he is not reluctant to display.

"Since the events of last year, his faith in his own genius, in his
instinct, or as one might say, in his star, is boundless. Those who
surround him are the first to admit that he now thinks himself
infallible and invincible. That explains why he can no longer bear
either criticism or contradiction. To contradict him is in his eyes a
crime of 'lese majeste'; opposition to his plans, from whatever side it
may come, is a definite sacrilege, to which the only reply is an
immediate and striking display of his omnipotence." (French Yellow Book,
945)

Another diplomat reports a similar impression:

"When I first met him, his logic and sense of reality had impressed
me, but as time went on he appeared to me to become more and more
unreasonable and more and more convinced of his own infallibility and
greatness ..." (Henderson, 129)

There seems, therefore, to be little room for doubt concerning Hitler's
firm belief in his own greatness. We must now inquire into the sources of
this belief. Almost all writers have attributed Hitler's confidence to the
fact that he is a great believer in astrology and that he is constantly in
touch with astrologers who advise him concerning his course of action.
This is almost certainly untrue. All of our informants who have known
Hitler rather intimately discard the idea as absurd. They all agree that
nothing is more foreign to Hitler's personality than to seek help from
outside sources of this type. The informant of the Dutch Legation holds a
similar view. He says:

"Not only has the Fuehrer never had his horoscope cast, but he is in
principle against horoscopes because he feels he might be unconsciously
influenced by them." (655)

It is also indicative that Hitler, some time before the war, forbade
the practice of fortune-telling and star-reading in Germany.

It is true that from the outside it looks as though Hitler might be
acting under some guidance of this sort which gives him the feeling of
conviction in his infalibility. These stories probably originated in the
very early days of the Party. According to Strasser, during the early
1920's Hitler took regular lessons in speaking and in mass psychology from
a man named Hamissen who was also a practicing astrologer and
fortune-teller. He was an extremely clever individual who taught Hitler a
great deal concerning the importance of staging meetings to obtain the
greatest dramatic effect. As far as can be learned, he never had any
particular interest in the movement or any say on what course it should
follow. It is possible that Hanussen had some contact with a group of
astrologers, referred-to by one von Wiegand, who were very active in
Munich at this time. Through Hanussen Hitler too may have come in contact
with this group, for von Wiegand writes:

"When I first knew Adolph Hitler in Munich, in 1921 and 1922, he was
in touch with a circle that believed firmly in the portents of the
stars. There was much whispering of the coming of another Charlemagne
and a new Reich. How far Hitler believed in these astrological
forecasts and prophesies in those days I never could get out of Der
Fuhrer. He neither denied nor affirmed belief. He was not averse,
however, to making use of the forecasts to advance popular faith in
himself and his then young and struggling movement."

It is quite possible that from these beginnings the myth of his
associations with astrologers has grown.

Although Hitler has done considerable reading in a variety of fields of
study, he does not in any way attribute his infallibility or omniscience
to any intellectual endeavor on his part. On the contrary, he frowns on
such sources when it comes to guiding the destiny of nations. His opinion
of the intellect is, in fact, extremely low, for in various places he
makes such statements as the following:

"Of secondary importance is the training of mental abilities."

"Over-educated people, stuffed with knowledge and intellect, but bare
of any sound instincts."

"These impudent rascals (intellectuals) who always know everything
better than anybody else..."

"The intellect has grown autocratic, and has become a disease of
life."

Hitler's guide is something different entirely. It seems certain that
Hitler believes that he has been sent Germany by Providence and that he
has a particular mission to perform. He is probably not clear on the scope
of this mission beyond the fact that he has been chosen to redeem the
German people and reshape Europe. Just how this is to be accomplished is
also rather vague in his mind, but this does not concern him greatly
because an "inner voice" communicates to him the steps he is to take. This
is the guide which leads him on his course with the precision and security
of a sleep-walker.

"I carry out the commands that Providence has laid upon me." (490)

"No power on earth can shake the German Reich now, Divine Providence
has willed it that I carry through the fulfillment of the Germanic
task." (413)

"But if the voice speaks, then I know the time has come to act."
(714)

It is this firm conviction that he has a mission and is under the
guidance and protection of Providence which is responsible in large part
for the contagious effect he has had on the German people.

Many people believe that this feeling of Destiny and mission have come
to Hitler through his successes. This is probably false. Later in our
study (Part V) we will try to show that Hitler has had this feeling for a
great many years although it may not have become a conscious conviction
until much later. In auy case it was forcing its way into consciousness
during the war and has played a dominant role in his actions ever since.
Mend (one of his comrades), for example, reports:

"An eine eigenartige Propheseiung errinere ich mich noch in diesem
Zusammenhag: Kurs vor Weihnachten (1915) auesserte er sich, dass wir
noch vieles von ihm hoeren werden. Wir sollen nur abwarten, bis seine
Zeit gekommen ist." (208)

Then, too, Hitler has reported several incidents during the war which
proved to him that he was under Devine protection. The most startling of
these is the following:

"I was eating my dinner in a trench with several comrades. Suddenly a
voice seemed to be saying to me, 'Get up and go over there.' It was so
clear and insistent that I obeyed automatically, as if it had been a
military order. I rose at once to my feet and walked twenty yards along
the trench carrying my dinner in its tin can with me. Then I sat down to
go on eating, my mind being once more at rest. Hardly had I done so when
a flash and deafening report came from the part of the trench I had just
left. A stray shell had burst over the group in which I had been
sitting, and every member of it was killed." (Price, 241)

Then, also, there was the vision he had while in hospital at Pasewalk
suffering from blindness allegedly caused by gas:

"Als ich im Bett lag kam mir der Gedanke, dass ich Deutschland
befreien wuerde, dass ich es gross machen wuerde, und ich habe sofort
gewusst, dass das verwirklicht werden wuerde." (429)

These experiences must later have fit in beautifully with the views of
the Munich astrologers and it is possible that underneath Hitler felt that
if there was any truth in their predictions they probably referred to him.
But in those days he did not mention any connection between them or dwell
on the Divine guidance he believed he possessed. Perhaps he felt that such
claims at the beginning of the movement might hinder rather than help it.
However, as von Wiegand has pointed out, he was not averse to making use
of the forecasts to advance his own ends. At that time he was content with
the role of a "drummer" who was heralding the coming of the real savior.
Even then, however, the role of drummer was not as innocent or as
insignificant in Hitler's mind as might be supposed. This was brought out
in his testimony during the trial following the unsuccessful Beerhall
Putsch of 1923. At that time he said:

"Nehmem Sie die Ueberzeugung hin, dass ich die Erringung eines
Ministerpostens nicht als erstrebenswert ansehe. Ich halte es eine
grossen Mannes nicht fuer wuerdigeseinen Namen der Geschichte nur
dadurch ueberliefern zu wollen, dasser Minister wird. Was mir vor Augen
stand, das war vom ersten Tage tausendmal mehr: ich wollte der
Zerbrecher der Marxismus werden. Ich werde die Ausfgabe loesen, und wenn
ich sie loese, dann waere der Titel eines Ministers fuer mich eine
Laecherlichkeit. Als ihh zum ersten Mal vor Richard Wagners Grab stand,
da quoll mir des Herz ueber vor Stolz, dass hier ein Mann ruht, der es
sich verbeten hat, hinaufzuschreiben: Hier ruht Geheimrat Musikdirektor
Excellenz Baron Richard von Wagner. Ich war stolz darauf, dass dieser
Mann und so viele Maenner der deutschen Geschichte sich damit
begnuegten, ihren Namen der Nachwelt zu ueberliefern, nicht ihren Titel.
Nicht aus Bescheidenheit wollte ich 'Trommler' sein. Das ist des
Hoechste, das andere ist eine Kleinigkett."

After his stay in Landsberg Hitler no longer referred to himself as the
"drummer." Occasionally, he would describe himself in the words of St.
Matthew, "as a voice crying in the wilderness", or as St. John the Baptist
whose duty was to hew a path for him who was to come and lead the nation
to power and glory. More frequently, however, he referred to himself as
"the Fuehrer", a name chosen by Hess during their imprisonment. (901)

As time went on, it became clearer that he. was thinking of himself as
the Messiah and that it was he who was destined to lead Germany to glory.
His references to the Bible became more frequent and the movement began to
take on a religious atmosphere. Comparisons between Christ and himself
became more numerous and found their way into his conversation and
speeches. For example, he would say:

"When I came to Berlin a few weeks ago and looked at the traffic in
the Kurfuerstendamm, the luxury, the perversion, the iniquity, the
wanton display, and the Jewish materialism disgusted me so thoroughly,
that I was almost beside myself. I nearly imagined myself to be Jesus
Christ when He came to His Father's temple and found it taken by the
money-changers. I can well imagine how He felt when He seized a whip and
scourged them out." (905)

During his speech, according to Hanfstangl, he swung his whip around
violently as though to drive out the Jews and the forces of darkness, the
enemies of Germany and German honor. Dietrich Eckart, who discovered
Hitler as a possible leader and had witnessed this performance, said
later, "When a man gets to the point of identifying himself with Jesus
Christ, then he is ripe for an insane asylum." The identification in all
this was not with Jesus Christ, the Crucified, but with Jesus Christ, the
furious, lashing the crowds.

As a matter of fact, Hitler has very little admiration for Christ, the
Crucified. Although he was brought up a Catholic, and received Communion,
during the war, he severed his connection with the Church directly
afterwards. This kind of Christ he considers soft and weak and unsuitable
as a German Messiah.

The latter must be hard and brutal if he is to save Germany and lead it
to its destiny.

"My feeling as a Christian points me to my Lord and Saviour as a
fighter. It points me to the man who once in loneliness, surrounded by
only a few followers, recognized these Jews for what they were and
summoned me to fight against them and who, God's truth! was greatest not
as a sufferer but as a fighter. In boundless love, as a Christian and as
a man, I read through the passage which tells us how the Lord rose at
last in His might and seized the scourge to drive out of the Temple the
brood of vipers and adders. How terrific was the fight for the world
against the Jewish poison." (M.N.O. 26)

And to Rauschning he once referred to "the Jewish Christ-creed with its
effeminate, pity-ethics".

It is not clear from the evidence whether the new State religion was
part of Hitler's plan or whether developments were such that it became
feasible. It is true that Rosenberg had long advocated such a move, but
there is no evidence that Hitler was inclined to take such a drastic step
until after he had come to power. It is possible that he felt he needed
the power before he could initiate such a change, or it may be that his
series of successes were so startling that the people spontaneously
adopted a religious attitude towards him which made the move more or less
obvious. In any case, he has accepted this God-like role without any
hesitation or embarrassment.

White tells us that now when he is addressed with the salutation, "Heil
Hitler, our Savior", he bows slightly at the compliment in the phrase -
and believes it. (664) As time goes on, it becomes more and more certain
that Hitler believes that he is really the "Chosen One" and that in his
thinking he conceives of himself as a second Christ who has been sent to
institute in the world a new system of values based on brutality and
violence. He has fallen in love with the image of himself in this role and
has surrounded himself with his own portraits.

His mission seems to lure him to still greater heights. Not content
with the role of transitory savior it pushes him to higher goals - he must
set the pattern for generations to come. Von Wiegand says:

"In vital matters Hitler is far from unmindful of the name and record
of success and failure he will leave to posterity." (493)

Nor is he content to allow these patterns to evolve in a natural way.
In order to guarantee the future he feels that he alone can bind it to
these principles. He believes, therefore, that he must become an immortal
to the German people. Everything must be huge and befitting as a monument
to the honor of Hitler. His idea of a permanent building is one which will
endure at least a thousand years. His highways must be known as "Hitler
Highways", and they must endure for l onger periods of time than the
Napoleonic roads. He must always be doing the impossible and leaving his
mark on the country. This is one of the ways in which he hopes to stay
alive in the minds of the German people for generations to come.

It is alleged by many writers, among them Haffner (418), Huss (410) and
Wagner (489) thath he has already drawn extensive plans for his own
mausoleum. Our informants, who left Germany some time ago, are not in a
position to verify these reports. They consider them well within the realm
of possibility, however. This mausoleum is to be the mecca of Germany
after his death. It is to be a tremendous monument about 700 feet high,
with all the details worked out so that the greatest psychologicaI effect
might be attained. It is also alleged that his first errand in Paris after
the conquest in 1940 was a visit to the Dome des Invalides to study the
monument to Napoleon. He found this lacking in many respects. For example,
they had put him down in a hole which forced people to look down rather
than high up.

"I shall never make such a mistake," Hitler said suddenly. "I know
how to keep my hold on people after I have passed on. I shall be the
Fuehrer they look up at and go home to talk of and remember. My life
shall not end in the mere form of death. It will, on the contrary, begin
then." (410)

It was believed for a time that the Kehlstein had been originally built
as an eternal mausoleum by Hitler. It seems, however, that if that was his
original intention he has abandoned it in favor of something even more
grandiose. Perhaps the Kehlstein was too inaccessible to enable large
numbers of people to come and touch his tomb in order to become inspired.
In any case, it seems that far more extravagant plans have been developed.
His plan, if it is to be successful, needs constant emotional play on
hysteric mass minds, and the more he can arrange the ways and means of
achieving this, after he dies, the more assured he is of attaining his
final goal.

"He is firmly convinced that the furious pace and the epochal age in
which he lived and moved (he really is convinced that he is the
motivating force and the moulder of that age) will terminate soon after
his death, swinging the world by nature and inclination into a long span
of digestive process marked by a sort of quiet inactivity. People in his
`1000 year Reich' will build monuments to him and go around to touch and
look at the things he has built, he thought. He said as much on that
glorified visit of his to Rome in 1938, adding that a thousand years
hence the greatness and not the ruins of his own time must intrigue the
people of those far-away days. For, believe it or not, that is how the
mind of this man Hitler projects itself without a blush over the
centuries." (410)

There was also a time a few years ago when he spoke a good deal about
retiring when his work was done. It was assumed that he would then take up
his residence in Berchtesgaden and sit as God who guides the destinies of
the Reich until he dies. In July, 1933, while visiting the Wagner family,
he talked at length about getting old and complained bitterly that ten
years of valuable time had been lost between the Beerhall Putsch in 1923
and his accession to power. This was all very regrettable since he
predicted that it would take twenty-two years to get things in adequate
shape so that he could turn them over to his successor. (936) It is
supposed by some writers that during this period of retirement he would
also write a book which would stand for eternity as a great bible of
National Socialism. (3) This is all rather interesting in view of Roehm's
statement made many years ago:

"Am liebsten taet er Heute schon in den Bergen sitzen und den lieben
Gott spielen." (715)

A survey of all the evidence forces us to conclude that Hitler believes
himself destined to become an Immortal Hitler, chosen by God to be the New
Deliverer of Germany and the Founder of a new social order for the world.
He firmly believes this and is certain that in spite of all the trials and
tribulations through which he must pass he will finally attain that goal.
The one condition is that he follow the dictates of the inner voice which
have guided and protected him in the past. This conviction is not rooted
in the truth of the ideas he imparts but is based on the conviction of his
own personal greatness. (146) Howard K. Smith makes an interesting
observation:

"I was convinced that of all the millions on whom the Hitler Myth had
fastened itself, the most carried away was Adolph Hitler, himself."
(290)

We will have occasion in Part V to examine the origins of this
conviction and the role it plays in Hitler' s psychological economy.

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Document compiled by Dr S D Stein
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