As Kershaw traces the social developments that were established alongside the “Hitler Myth,” we find that at the onset of war, despite prominent material concerns within the state, Hitler’s individual identity remained the stronghold over a society whose structure had become fully sustained by what appears to be a highly delusional yet undying faith in the Fürher. At the start of chapter six, Kershaw explains the developed individual identity of Hitler as representing the ideal of national community and national greatness, that he was leading Germany to greater prosperity, and that, whatever the immediate sacrifices, a bonanza for all was only just over the horizon” (152).
On the surface this utmost support of Hitler’s reign at the start of war is both bewildering and paradoxical, since Hitler built up his image as an ideological leader with his main priority being to maintain innermost peace for Germany and its relations with other countries. However looking beyond the surface we can see how this contradictory rise of war and power reveals certain aspects of sociological patterns and the Nazi’s underhanded exploitation of the vulnerable German population.
Between his image shaped by relentless propaganda and his image as a sainted savoir for the German population Hitler’s individual appeal found prominence within both the literal structure of society and the German’s need for a “great man,” to take the reign into his own hands. The media continued to pervade society with the image of “the führer” as energetic, radical, and heroic as he intervened on national disturbances to liberate the country from “ a strongly felt oppression” (89) that was shared among Germans since the First World War. Hitler’s own individual identity as “a man of the people” grew alongside the public’s excitement for a new heroic leader. Identifying himself as a defender of Christianity, Hitler found another outlet in which he could relate to and gain the public’s trust. For the vulnerable state of Germany, “this secularized redemptionism and national salvation preached by Hitler was neither unattractive nor ineffective as substitute faith” (108). This religious distinction of Hitler’s individual development assists in explaining his vast support from Germany’s youth. Since these young supporters had not experienced Germany’s plight of the First World War, Hitler’s ideals struck them as enlightening truth and led them to become among his strongest disciples, especially when the time came to coerce the Germans into another war.
Cannot wait to discuss this reading further in class!!
Rebecca Hartke
The personality of the Fuhrer presented to Germany is not the personality of the young man Kershaw painstakingly chronicles in the early chapters. It was Hitler's talents of rhetoric and the NSDAP's ability for propaganda that shaped the Fuhrer that the German people idolized and followed. The calls for peace nationally was at the expense of the Jewish population; it was a call for conditional peace, or peace for the select.
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