Hitler's Oxygen

A strong German nationalist from his days as a troubled youth in his native Austria, Adolf Hitler put his senseless passion for the country of Germany before anything else in his life until the day he died. From Kershaw's detailed account of Hitler's upbringing in Linz, his teenage years in Vienna and his initial move to Munich, we get a very vivid sense that Hitler's only source of passion and meaning come from The Great War. After he engages in the battle it becomes clear that the young Austrian would have gladly given his life for his neighboring country, Germany. This strange sense of utter devotion only grows stronger as Hitler's allegiance to Germany grows rapidly faster and his need to strengthen the German race becomes increasingly dire.

Hitler's participation in the War was certainly a factor, which helped solidify his commitment to Germany. Hitler did everything in his power to remain in the military, as it was the first time in his life that he felt a purpose. His contribution to the battle, which resulted in injury and near death experiences, left Hitler feeling devastated and angered at the War's end.

The revolution in Germany following the war set the stage for the arrival and need for an absolute dictator like Hitler. Although Although Hitler was described by the upper class as being "weak but wanting to be hard, half-educated wishing to be an all-rounder, a Bohemian who had to be a soldier if he wanted to impress soldiers" (188), the darkness that fell upon the Deutsch people after the war made it nearly impossible for them to see anything but hope in the prospect of having a leader. A symbiotic set of circumstances occurred which allowed Hitler to rise to power.

The failure of the Putsch was another factor that greatly impacted Hitler's character and indirectly allowed him to become the leader he eventually was. The time Hitler spent in jail allowed him time to re-asses his failures as well as give in to his frustrations and anger at not having succeeded in overthrowing the government. It was this setback and the time he spent in Landsberg that allowed him to realize that "he was not the drummer after all, but the predestined Leader himself"(219).

Kershaw says, "Crisis was Hitler's oxygen. He needed it to survive" (200). Every instance in which we see Hitler's character growing or changing is in a direct response to a turbulent situation. While there were unarguably many factors that simultaneously contributed to the rise of Germany’s most lethal dictator in history, it is unavoidably evident that Hitler fed off the disaster of the War and the crisis of revolution that followed it. Without these two cataclysmic events in Germany's history, the rising Fürer and the dire needs of the German people may not have collided in such inopportune circumstances.