Hitler’s Escape Into Emotion

Manawatu Times, Volume 63, Issue 237, 7 October 1938, Page 3

Hitler’s Escape Into Emotion

HIS FREQUENT WEEPINGS. The undeniable fact that Herr Hitler is arbiter of the destiny of the -world, in the sense that the question of peace or war is largely a matter for his in dividual decision, implies that the vital factor of his personality and psycholog}' is of universal interest, says a writer in the Sydney Morning Herald. A disquieting feature of the Fuhrer’s speeches of late has been his frequent calling upon the Almighty and his tendency to associate his political ideas with the will of Providence. Not only did he claim, for example, that the result of the Austrian plebiscite was tantamount to an act of homage to God, but in his broadcast address, just before the vote was taken, he uttered these extraordinary words:: “I started as a nameless man 19 years ago, bu; those who vote ‘No’ will pass away nameless. I believe it was God’s will to send a boy into the Reich and let him become leader, in order to bring his home country into it. Otherwise, one must doubt the existence of Providence. ’ ’ In his illuminating book, “The House That Hitler Built,” Professor Roberts described the dictator as primarily a dreamer, a visionary, ready, like a medieval saint, to go through fire and water for his beliefs. “His life as I see it,” wrote the professor, “can be expressed as an attempt at escaping from reality and a more or less constant intoxication of his imagination by a free indulgence in fantasy. He has none of that ‘great measuring virtue’ without which Ruskin asserts true greatness is impossible. The psychoanalysts have a marvellous subject for discussion in Herr Hitler. -Some of them say that he snows tne salient features of schizophrenia—split personality because of his overwnelming am bition and conceit, his ravourite roie of himself as the saviour of mankind, and his habit of speaking as if he received personal revelations from the Deity Others hold that he is a maniac-depres-sive; others again a Paranoic ... It might have been expected that the man’s outlook would have expended by the responsibilities of office. But it is difficult to see how the years or power have added to his mentality.’’ He evinces to-day the same fanatical belief in himself; the conviction thai he alone can save Germany (and later the world) from its ills; the attitude that it is sufficient for him to state a policy without justifying it in any way, as if he received it as a result of communing with the Almighty; and, especially, the self-delusion mat leads him to justify any act, by cloaking it with a cover of high principles, a process ap parently more unconscious than deliber ate. His displays of emotionalism in public are proverbial, and his tears are as ia miliar to his intimates as his repetition of trite phrases. It is scarcely too much to say that he has been weeping, off and on, since 1924, whenever con fronted by a crisis. •«We can always get Adolf to weep,” General Goeriig is reported to have said when face to face with a difficult situation. Skill as Tactician. Yet this leader, who is regarded in his own eyes, and those of millions of Germans, as a demigod, who has often threatened to take his own. life 2 nnd

who lives iu a state of mystical exaltation, has demonstrated his consumat.* skill as a tactician and “man of action.” He has transformed Germany spiritually, territorially, and militarily; ho has made himself feared, if not respected, by the entire civilised world; he has several times been too clever for the diplomatic brains of Europe; anl he has proved that his dreams have sub stance. Above all, he stands forth a 3 the one dominant figure on the stage of a frightened world. It is not enough, therefore, to argue that oratory is the chief external explanation of his power and prestige. Rather it is due to his keen political sense, his transparent honesty, his capacity to seize upon opportunity, his ability to make up his mind and act instantly upon his decision, and his unrivalled intuition in matters relating to popular feeling and prejudice. Few careers in history have been more dramatic than his. He had but little schooling, and was the “neurotic child of a neurotic, repressed mother.” Lacking the discipline he now forces upon others, he was idle in his youth, and, being totally untrained, passed into manhood, unfit for any job. Once a ‘Down-and-out/’ Iu turn, a “down-and-out” in a night asylum in Vienna, he became a bricklayer’s helper, and a free-lance painter of picture post cards. During the war ho served mostly as an orderly, carrying messages between front-line and hinterland commands, though he certainly did some fighting, and was wounded. Only afterwards, when Germany was in a state of turmoil, did he join the mass who wished to save the Fatherland by medium of the soap bux. ilis rise began when the Munich iuilGary authorities authorised him to report to them the nature and aspirations of several mushroom political groups then in being; and he took his piaee in history in November, 1923, wden, at tho lead of 20G0 Nazis he attempted to organise a putsch which ended in a fi isco and in bloodshed. This effort, though it earned him a term of imprisonment, also confirmed him in his fanatical de termination to win Germany over to National Socialism on a programme which had an immense appeal to the people of a country crushed beneath the weight of unemployment, trade stagnation, foreign pressure and internal political disorder, by glorifying “race” through his anti-Semitic policy, leading the crusade against the Versail les Treaty, and adjusting both his principles and personal loyalties to changing circumstances, he succeeded, at length, as we know, in attaining a reputation for infallibility, which has been maintained for him ever since by matchless propaganda.