Applying Max Weber's model of 'charismatic leadership' is helpful in understanding the way Hitler inspired people to this type of pseudo-religious following. The model itself is based on study of texts about influential religious leaders (i.e. Jesus, Mohammed, etc.) and so it is interesting to think about the way the model itself influences the application. Kershaw applies it to Hitler, and uses it to explain the way the 'Hitler Myth' influenced so many people so quickly. He often uses quotes to support Hitler's charismatic leadership which use religious language to describe him. "All doubt falls away when the Fuhrer speaks" or "Gospel for the people." Kershaw then states the people had a "naive, almost religious basis of belief in Hitler." I had to ask, are these the same thing? Or does one imply the other. I would love to know other people's opinions on this in class.
Something that greatly disturbed me when reading this week was the oath ten-year-old boys would say when joining the Deutsches Jungvolk: "You, Fuhrer, are for us our command. In your name we stand. The Reich is the goal of our struggle. It is beginning and end." I was disturbed by, one, the fact that young children were so strongly pledging their allegiance, and two, the the almost overt religious tone of the oath. Certainly, many leaders have generated personality cults around themselves but the word-for-word quotation of Revelations 22:13 "I am the beginning and end" is particularly disturbing in the strongly Christian nation.
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