Efforts to understand how Adolf Hitler rose to power and led a highly civilized people to commit monstrous crimes against humanity continue apace, with modern historians concentrating on the political milieu in which the Nazis took hold in Weimar Germany and how Hitler exploited those conditions to achieve almost absolute control.
Oxford University Press ($40)
Peter Longerich’s new biography of Hitler follows that now-familiar approach, but it is nevertheless a work that warrants the attention of readers interested in 20th-century European history and the workings of fascism.
The German historian is one of the leading authorities on the Third Reich and the Holocaust. His books on SS leader Heinrich Himmler and Nazi propagandist Joseph Goebbels are often mentioned as among the best on their respective subjects, and it seems likely that “Hitler,” his latest biography, will receive similar consideration.
Central to Mr. Longerich’s book is a focus on Hitler, the politician and man, rather than Hitler, the messianic leader of a Germany eager to avenge the humiliations of World War I. Mr. Longerich employed the diaries of Goebbels and the draft versions of Hitler’s writings as the basis for his research into Hitler’s rise to power and his descent into madness.
It is widely held by contemporary historians that Hitler was not buoyed merely by discontent among the German people, but by intricately orchestrating the political and social machinery of Germany to vault himself into power and carry out his violent, hateful scheme of dominating Europe and exterminating the Jews.
While marketed as a controversial take, Mr. Longerich’s approach to the life of Hitler is much the same as the approach followed in widely acclaimed studies by Sir Ian Kershaw and Volker Ullrich. What is different about Mr. Longerich's biography is his focus on intimate, grounded anecdotes, from which the reader can glean information about the incidents that informed Hitler, his personality and his decision-making.
One such moment comes in a chapter on Hitler’s attitudes toward the Catholic Church. Mr. Longerich writes that Paul von Eltz-Rübenach, then the Reich Minister for Transport and Post, declined to join the Nazi Party and refused the “Golden Party Medal.” Eltz-Rübenach, a Catholic, was angered by Hitler’s persecution of priests and church leaders. Eltz-Rübenach was, as a result, forced to resign. But according to details gleaned from Goebbels’ diaries, Hitler launched a PR campaign to persuade the German people that culture was alive and well in Germany. The same month Eltz-Rübenach resigned, the Third Reich opened the House of German Art to much fanfare. Meanwhile, Hitler’s campaign to eradicate Catholic influence and eventually dechristianize Europe continued unabated.
Unlike other biographers, Mr. Longerich is not greatly concerned with the first 30 years of Hitler’s life, glossing over that period in a few dozen pages. Instead, the book deals mainly with his life following WWI, when Hitler began to find a political identity and an ideology. His nationalism and anti-Semitism were, Mr. Longerich argues, born of political opportunism and the realization he could command political attention by focusing on these issues.
He also surrounded himself with savvy political operators like Goebbels, who created the myth of Hitler’s invincible leadership, aided and abetted, of course, by the tepid responses of Europe’s democracies.
While Hitler claimed that his ascent was motivated by a desire to restore Germany to its former glory, he was, according to Mr. Longerich, genuinely interested only in his own power. Mr. Longerich details how the Führer worked in concert with Goebbels to craft propaganda that furthered the notion that Hitler was carrying out the will of the German people. It worked.
Frustrated by defeats in North Africa and on the Eastern front, Hitler became more controlling, paranoid and mad. His increasingly irrational behavior lead to critical errors that hastened the Nazis’ defeat in World War II. Mr. Longerich's analysis of Hitler's military strategy, particularly in the last two years of the war, brings this point home.
Some readers are suspicious of biographies that seek to "humanize" Hitler. But such portrayals are an important reminder of how one man can take advantage of discontent and hatred to fulfill his ambitions, causing incalculable harm and destruction in the process. Mr. Longerich's account, while not wholly original, is nonetheless compelling and informative. Plus, the author is a skillful storyteller.
Many of the recent books dealing with Hitler’s life strike similar notes — Hitler was a man, not a myth; savvy political operations got him into power, not cult of personality alone; hubris and paranoia derailed his violent and hateful ambitions. But Mr. Longerich brings distinctive perspectives to the subject, offering compelling insights through evidence he has extracted from underused primary sources.
Mr. Longerich's book is a worthwhile and thought-provoking assessment of Hitler’s life and times, in the process providing a stark reminder of the consequences of the politics of hate.
Will Tomer is the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette’s digital opinion editor: wtomer@post-gazette.com or 412-263-1932. Twitter: @WillTomer.
First Published: June 21, 2019, 2:00 p.m.