Hitler

1367 Pages·2010·16.01 MB·English

by  Ian Kershaw

PENGUIN BOOKS
HITLER
IAN KERSHAW is Professor of Modern History at the University of Sheffield.
For services to history he was given the German award of the Federal
Cross of Merit in 1994. He was knighted in 2002 and awarded the
Norton Medlicott Medal by the Historical Association in 2004.
He was the historical adviser to three BBC series: The Nazis: A Warning
from History, War of the Century and Auschwitz.
His most recent books are Hitler 1889–1936: Hubris and Hitler 1936–
1945: Nemesis, which received the Wolfson Literary Award for History
and the Bruno Kreisky Prize in Austria for the Political Book of the Year,
and was joint winner of the inaugrual British Academy Book Prize;
Making Friends with Hitler: Lord Londonderry and Britain’s Road to War,
which won the Elizabeth Longford Prize for Historical Biography in
2005; and Fateful Choices: Ten Decisions that Changed the World, 1940–41.
IAN KERSHAW
Hitler
PENGUIN BOOKS
PENGUIN BOOKS
Published by the Penguin Group
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Ltd, Registered Offices: 80 Strand, London, WC2R 0RL, England www.penguin.com
Hitler, 1889–1936: Hubris first published 1998
Hitler, 1936–1945: Nemesis first published 2000
This one-volume abridgement with a new Preface first published by Allen Lane 2008
Published in Penguin Books 2009
Copyright © Ian Kershaw, 1998, 2000, 2008
All rights reserved
The moral right of the author has been asserted
Except in the United States of America, this book is sold subject to the condition that it shall not,
by way of trade or otherwise, be lent, re-sold, hired out, or otherwise circulated without the
publisher’s prior consent in any form of binding or cover other than that in which it is published
and without a similar condition including this condition being imposed on the subsequent
purchaser ISBN: 978-0-14-190959-2
Contents
List of Illustrations
Glossary of Abbreviations
Maps
Preface to the New Edition
Reflecting on Hitler
1 Fantasy and Failure
2 Drop-out
3 Elation and Embitterment
4 The Beerhall Agitator
5 The ‘Drummer’
6 Emergence of the Leader
7 Mastery over the Movement
8 Breakthrough
9 Levered into Power
10 The Making of the Dictator
11 Securing Total Power
12 Working Towards the Führer
13 Ceaseless Radicalization
14 The Drive for Expansion
15 Marks of a Genocidal Mentality
16 Going for Broke
17 Licensing Barbarism
18 Zenith of Power
19 Designing a ‘War of Annihilation’
20 Showdown
21 Fulfilling the ‘Prophecy’
22 Last Big Throw of the Dice
23 Beleaguered
24 Hoping for Miracles
25 Luck of the Devil
26 No Way Out
27 Into the Abyss
28 Extinction
Epilogue
Main Published Primary Sources on Hitler
Index
List of Illustrations
Every effort has been made to contact all copyright holders. The
publishers will be glad to make good in future editions any errors or
omissions brought to their attention. (Photographic acknowledgements
are given in brackets.) 1. Adolf Hitler in his Leonding school photo
(Bayerische Staatsbibliothek, Munich)
2. Klara Hitler (Ullstein Bilderdienst, Berlin)
3. Alois Hitler (Ullstein Bilderdienst, Berlin)
4. Karl Lueger (Hulton Getty, London)
5. August Kubizek (The Wiener Library, London)
6. The crowd in Odeonsplatz, Munich, 2 August 1914 (Bayerische
Staatsbibliothek, Munich)
7. Hitler with Ernst Schmidt and Anton Bachmann (Bildarchiv
Preußischer Kulturbesitz, Berlin)
8. German soldiers on the Western Front (Hulton Getty, London)
9. Armed members of the KPD Sektion Neuhausen (Bayerische
Staatsbibliothek, Munich)
10. Counter-revolutionary Freikorps troops entering Munich (Bayerische
Staatsbibliothek, Munich)
11. Anton Drexler (Hulton Getty, London)
12. Ernst Röhm (Bayerische Staatsbibliothek, Munich)
13. Hitler’s DAP membership card (Bayerische Staatsbibliothek,
Munich)
14. Hitler speaking on the Marsfeld (Bayerische Staatsbibliothek,
Munich)
15. NSDAP mass meeting, Munich, 1923 (Collection Rudolf Herz,
Munich)
16. Paramilitary organizations on ‘German Day’, 1923 (Collection
Rudolf Herz, Munich)
17. Alfred Rosenberg, Hitler, Friedrich Weber and Christian Weber
(Bildarchiv Preußischer Kulturbesitz, Berlin)
18. Armed SA men manning a barricade (Süddeutscher Verlag, Munich)
19. Armed putschists from the area around Munich (Stadtsmuseum,
Landeshaupstadt Munich)
20. Defendants at the trial of the putschists (Bayerische
Staatsbibliothek, Munich)
21. Hitler immediately after his release from imprisonment (Bayerische
Staatsbibliothek, Munich)
22. Hitler in Landsberg (Bibliothek für Zeitgeschichte, Stuttgart)
23. Hitler in Bavarian costume (Bayerische Staatsbibliothek, Munich)
24. Hitler in a raincoat (Bayerische Staatsbibliothek, Munich)
25. Hitler with his alsatian, Wolf (Collection Rudolf Herz, Munich)
26. The Party Rally, Weimar, July 1926 (Ullstein Bilderdienst, Berlin)
27. The Party Rally, Nuremberg, August 1927 (Bayerische
Staatsbibliothek, Munich)
28. Hitler in SA uniform (Bayerische Staatsbibliothek, Munich)
29. Hitler in rhetorical pose (Karl Stehle, Munich)
30. Hitler speaking to the NSDAP leadership (Bildarchiv Preußischer
Kulturbesitz, Berlin)
31. Geli Raubal and Hitler (David Gainsborough Roberts)
32. Eva Braun (Bayerische Staatsbibliothek, Munich)
33. Reich President Paul von Hindenburg (AKG London)
34. Reich Chancellor Heinrich Brüning with Benito Mussolini (AKG
London)
35. Reich Chancellor Franz von Papen with State Secretary Dr Otto
Meissner (Bundesarchiv, Koblenz)
36. Gregor Strasser and Joseph Goebbels (Bayerische Staatsbibliothek,
Munich)
37. Ernst Thälmann (Hulton Getty, London)
38. Nazi election poster, 1932 (AKG London)
39. Candidate placards for the presidential election (Bundesarchiv,
Koblenz)
40. Discussion at Neudeck (AKG London)
41. Reich Chancellor Kurt von Schleicher (AKG London)
42. Hitler in evening dress (Bayerische Staatsbibliothek, Munich)
43. Hitler bows to Reich President von Hindenburg (AKG London)
44. SA violence against Communists (AKG London)
45. The boycott of Jewish doctors (AKG London)
46. An elderly Jew being taken into custody (AKG London)
47. Hindenburg and Hitler on the ‘Day of National Labour’ (AKG
London)
48. Hitler with Ernst Röhm (Süddeutscher Verlag, Munich)
49. Postcard designed by Hans von Norden (Karl Stehle, Munich)
50. Postcard: ‘The Führer as animal-lover’ (Karl Stehle, Munich)
51. Hitler justifying the ‘Röhm purge’ (Bildarchiv Preußischer
Kulturbesitz, Berlin)
52. Hitler, Professor Leonhard Gall, and architect Albert Speer
(Bayerische Staatsbibliothek, Munich)
53. Hitler with young Bavarians (Bayerische Staatsbibliothek, Munich)
54. The Mercedes-Benz showroom at Lenbachplatz, Munich (Stadt-
archiv, Landeshauptstadt Munich)
55. Hitler with Karl Krause, Albert Vogler, Fritz Thyssen and Walter
Borbet (AKG London)
56. ‘Hitler in his Mountains’: Heinrich Hoffmann publication
(Bayerische Staatsbibliothek, Munich)
57. New recruits at the Feldherrnhalle, 1935 (Bayerische
Staatsbibliothek, Munich)
58. German troops entering the Rhineland (AKG London)
59. Adolf Hitler, September 1936 (Ullstein Bilderdienst, Berlin)
60. Hitler discussing plans for Weimar, 1936 (Corbis/Hulton-Deutsch
Collection)
61. The Berlin Olympics, 1936 (Ullstein Bilderdienst, Berlin)
62. Hitler meets the Duke and Duchess of Windsor, 1937 (Corbis/
Hulton-Deutsch Collection)
63. Werner von Blomberg (Corbis/Hulton-Deutsch Collection)
64. Werner von Fritsch (Bibliothek für Zeitgeschichte, Stuttgart)
65. Hitler addresses crowds in the Heldenplatz, Vienna, 1938 (AKG
London)
66. Hitler, Mussolini and Victor-Emmanuel III, 1938 (Bibliothek für
Zeitgeschichte, Stuttgart)
67. Hitler in Florence, 1938 (Bibliothek für Zeitgeschichte, Stuttgart)
68. ‘The Eternal Jew’ exhibition, Munich, 1937 (AKG London)
69. ‘Jews in Berlin’ poster, Berlin, 1938 (Corbis/Bettmann)
70. Synagogue on fire, Berlin, 1938 (Corbis/Hulton-Deutsch Collection)
71. Jewish Community building, Kassel, 1938 (Ullstein Bilderdienst,
Berlin)
72. Looted Jewish shop, Berlin, 1938 (AKG London)
73. Joseph Goebbels and his family, 1936 (Corbis/Hulton-Deutsch
Collection)
74. Goebbels broadcasting to the people, 1939 (Hulton Getty)
75. Eva Braun, c.1938 (Hulton Getty)
76. Wilhelm Keitel greets Neville Chamberlain (Bibliothek für
Zeitgeschichte, Stuttgart)
77. German troops, Prague, 1939 (Bibliothek fur Zeitgeschichte,
Stuttgart)
78. Hitler’s study in the Reich Chancellery (Bibliothek für
Zeitgeschichte, Stuttgart)
79. Göring addresses Hitler in the New Reich Chancellery, 1939
(Bayerisches Hauptstaatsarchiv, Munich)
80. Hitler presented with a model by Ferdinand Porsche, 1938 (Hulton
Getty)
81. Heinrich Himmler presents Hitler with a painting by Menzel, 1939
(Bundesarchiv, Koblenz)
82. Hitler with Winifred Wagner, Bayreuth, 1939 (Bayerisches
Hauptstaatsarchiv, Munich)
83. Molotov signs the Non-Aggression Pact between the Soviet Union
and Germany, 1939 (Corbis)
84. Hitler in Poland with his Wehrmacht adjutants (Bibliothek für
Zeitgeschichte, Stuttgart)