Failures and disappointments are a major theme in Hitler’s young life, something that had a lasting impact. From the tense family life he experienced to rejection and struggle through schooling, it seemed that he was always on edge. The traditional routine his life ran on, the more straight and narrow path he preferred, contrasted any cultural modernity or growth into a modern society. Reading about his rejection letter from the Vienna Art school made me think back to the introduction to the book, which reminded us that Hitler’s reign is one time period in history we could say the world definitely would have been different without him. That one small change could have taken him in a completely different direction, as could many other things in his life. Clearly going back to Vienna after the death of his mother led him on a different path, one which opened his eyes to other parts of the social culture. Clearly his curiosity about exploring these things was pushed aside by his views already set in stone. His disgust with anything sexual or relationship related leads into the intensity he showed while reigning over Germany. These small details of Hitler’s life are definitely aiding in my understanding of his mentality as he entered the political world.
The time Hitler spent in Vienna was a huge influence on his future and development into the man he became. Although support for Schonerer was fading when Hitler came to Vienna, his negative attitude towards the Jews increased due to the environment he was put into. Interesting to me was not the fact that Schonerer believed that keeping his party within the royal elite would be the biggest help for him, as do many others, but Hitler’s criticism of this. Hitler called him out for his neglect of the masses, showing a different side to him. He was clearly intelligent, understanding someone like Lueger who appealed to the people who were “threatened”. This was where he got some of his ability to command a large group, furthering what he has been shown by his strict father. These two political figures, critical to Hitler’s growth as a ruler, taught him many things about how one can create and control a people wanting to make a change. Persuasion tactics were taken from this time in his life, seen through his few friendships and the dominance he exerted over the people around him.
I think the two paragraphs of your post sum up the development of Hitler's social behavior. Hitler was met with profound challenge early in life that continued into his adult life. Hitler tried little to overcome these challenges; Instead he lazily blamed others and hatched grand plans. However, you raise a good point that if a professor at the Vienna Art School sympathetic to the troubled boy and granted him admission, the course of history would be much different. I wish someone had given Hitler a break in the art world, even though he was completely undeserving.
ReplyDeleteHitler's troublesome adolescence, coupled with the influence of Schonerer and Lueger, undoubtedly had an affect on his social and political views. Kershaw proposed that Hitler was friendly with several Jews during his Vienna days and his term in the army. This paradoxical stance - that of liking individual jews, but hating 'the jewish people' - reminds me of Robert Moses, New York City's Parks Commissioner. Moses strove to improve the city to benefit "the people," an abstract idea. However, in his massive public works projects, such as the Cross Bronx Expressway, Moses knowingly destroyed neighborhoods and ruined lives. His love for "the people" led him to "hack away with (his) meat ax" at certain peoples to achieve is overarching goal.
Hitler's tumultuous early life must have made a profound impact on his conception of social behavior, and on his conception of society as a whole. Hitler's personal social troubles in part explain this disconnect between his relationship to jews on an individual level, and his relationship to jews on an abstract, conceptual level.