The 'Mitler Hyth'

It is clear from this week's reading that the 'Hitler myth' only thrived in periods of peace and success. Hitler portrayed himself as multiple opposing entities seamlessly, and made certain that though he was technically the head of the NSDAP, that the public would not associate him with local, corrupt Nazi happenings. This bolstered him up far above the party, stewing his simmering "personality cult" brew. He painted his portrait as a grand statesman, fanatical leader and savior of Germany. Aided by propaganda during the early years of the Third Reich, Germans began to identify more with Hitler as the person they perceived him to be (perfect, charismatic, intelligent, etc), and projected themselves onto him. This is why they believed he could do no wrong and was such a great guy!

Aiming to right the injustices Germany had faced, Hitler assured to the public that he was only interested in peaceful actions and the prevention of war. Stirring his cult pot, Hitler only built upon closely monitored public opinion and made sure only to schedule speeches in times of victory, so he alone would be associated with party successes. He clearly had no intention of implementing peaceful foreign policy, though he advocated for nothing less. He built up his popularity and the public's confidence in himself as a Führer deity so he could in turn begin his conquest of European nations with majority support. Germans were still recovering from the nightmare of WWI and were absolutely dreading the prospect of another battle. As propaganda spread with a distinctive anti-Polish message, an invasion was deemed necessary by the the Führer. Their belief in Hitler was so great that "…they followed their Führer into a new war without enthusiasm, but also without protest or opposition". Kershaw also cites that there was a general willingness to fight if it came to the worst, that propaganda played on deeper Polish prejudice and justified the invasion as necessary in a conflict which had been brought upon Germany (143). After a series of seemingly simple, successful invasions and acquisitions of territory in the name of Germany, public opinion of Hitler soared tremendously more. As Germany continued on the offensive while pretending to be acting defensively, the public's confidence began to wane as food rations were set and more soldiers perished. Hitler remained invisible and unreachable during these times of failure and his popularity declined as well. The immense failure of Stalingrad tied Hitler directly to thousands of unjustifiable German deaths. As Hitler exhausted his "miracles", his mythic identity also extinguished.