- 91 -

IV. PAST H!STORY

Chronology~:-

1837 Ma rio Anna Schicklgruber has an illegitim~te

son, Alois, born in Strones, ne8r Spitel
Johann Georg Hiedler (Hitlcr) m. Mrrir Pnna
Schicklgruber
1830 Birth of Klare Poclzl in Spitel
1877, Jon. ~
Alois Sohicklgruber legitimized as Alois Hitler
Alois Hitler m. Anna Glasl-Horer (14 ye8rs
older)
1883 Deeth of Anna Glasl-Horer in Braunau
1883 Alois Hitler m. Franziska Metzclberger
oa1883 Birth of Alois Hitler Jr., 2 months after
marriage
1884 Birth of Angela Hitler
1884 Death of Franziska Matzelberger
1885, Jan. 7
Alois Hitlcr (47 ye0rs) m. Klare Poelzl
Birth of two children who die in infancy
1889, Apr. 20
Birth of Adolf Hitler in Braunau
Family move to Passau (Bavaria) on Austrian
border.
ca1893 Alois Hitler retires on a pension
Family move to Lambach (24 miles from Linz);
Catholic convent
ca1896 Birth of Paula Hitlor
ca1900 Family move to Leonding (suburb of Linz)j
Technicr 1 School
1903, Jen. 3
Death of Alois Pitler
Family movc to Linz
1904-5 Adolf Bitlcr attends school in stcyr
1907, Oct.Hitl er fails to pass Qxcminotion of Ac~demy
of Arts, Vienna
1907, Dec. 21
Klara Hitler dies (A. H. is 18 YC8rs old)
1908,Jan. A. H. movc s to Vienna
1908,Oct. A. H. fails a second timc to pass examinDtion
of Academy of Arts
1913 j,. H. movcs to Munich .

* Not all those datos are reliable; most of the

early ones are from Gunther's INSIDE BUROPE .
 Please note:
Page 92 was missing
from the volume
that was scanned
 - 93 -

.A. CHILDHOOD f,ND ADOLESCENCE

1889 - 1907

I. Family Relctions

1. Father
Some of the confusion that has arisen in regard
to Bitler 's forobeorc disappoars en soon DB we realizo
the neme Hitler has boen variously spoIled - Hidler,
Hiedler , Huettler - by different members of the some
illiterate peasvnt family. Adolf Hitlor 's parents
were both descended from one Hitler (father's grrnd-
father and mother's groat-~dfather), cn inhabitant
of tho culturally backward W~ldviertGl district,
Upper Austria .

l.farshal Hindenburg Alois Hitler --

Hitler 's fethor.
Noto rescmblence
to Hindenburg.
 - 94 -

Family History and Person8lity of Fother

The chief facts about Alois Hitler which have
bearing on our analysis are these:
(a) According to an inquiry ordered by the
hustrian Chancellor, Dollfuss, Maria Anna Schickl-
gruber becal'l1e pregnant during her employment as a
servant in a Jewish Viennese family. For this
reason she was sent back to her home in the country.
If this is true, i,lois Hitler may hf:ve been half-
Jewish. The fact that he selected a Jew, Herr Prinz
of Vienna, to be the godfather of his son Adolf , is
in line with this hypothesis.
(b) In any ev~nt , Alois Hitler was illegitimate
and as such W2S no doubt made to suffer the contempt
of the little community, Spital, in which he was reared.
Perhaps it wes for this reason that he left his home
at an early age to .soek his fortune in Vienna.
(c) i.lois Fitlcr started life 8S a simple
cobbler but finelly improved his status by becoming
a customs official. For a time he patrolled the
German-Austrian border, was known as a 'm::m-hunter'.
He was very proud of this position, believing th8t
it entitled him to lord it over those of the class
that had once scorned him.
 - 95 -

(d) In 8 ppe8 r['nce Alois Hi tle 1" re sombled ~~n rshal"

Hindenburg. He had a walrus moustnche, under which
protruded sullen nnd arrogant s lower lip. He wore
an uniform, his badge of status; and £8 a border
patrolman carried a revolver on his person. He smoked
and ren after women. It is said that he frcquented
the village pub and enjoycd nothing so much as recount-
ing his accomplishments to a receptive auditory. He
was a coarse man, with bOBsts and curses forever on
his tongue. He died of apoplexy.
(e) He was twenty-three ye2rs older than his
wife, a peesant girl who hed once served as a maid
in the house of his first wife. Thus, the father's
greater age, his higher social status, the traditional
prerogatives of the husband in the Germen family, the
man's over-weening pride -- ell supported him in
maintaining a master-servant rc18tionship with his
wife. Frau Hitlcr wes nervous, mild, devoted, and
submissive. In his own home, Alois Hitler Wps a
tyr8nt.
(f) In his treatment of his son Adolf, it is
said the t the fa ther was stern Bnd harsh. Physical
punishments ware frequent. He seems to have looked on
his son as a weakling, a good-for-nothing, moonstruck
 - 96 -

dreamer; at times perhaps his vcnity imagined a

1uCCGssful C8.reer for the boy, v,hich would still further
lift the fpmily stptus , and so when young f dolf announced
his intention to be on artist the father, perceiving
the frustration of his dream, put hiD foot down
"An artist , no, nev (; r 8.S long ra I live." O.: . K. 14).
(g) There is some doubt about the complexion of
Alois Hitler 's political sentiments. Hanisch reports
thE1t "Hitler heerd from his father only pr8.ise of
Germany end all the fvults of Austria; " but, accord-
ing to Heiden, more r e liable informants claim th8.t
the father, though full of complaints and criticiDms
of the government he served, was by no means 8. German
nationolist. They say he favored Aust ri a against
Germany.
(h) It is not unlikely thll t Hi tIer in \I: ri ting
his sketch of the typical lower ClASS home drew upon
his person8.1 experiences , and if this is true, the
following passages give us an interesting side-light
on the character of the father:
(i) But things end badly indeed when
the man from the v e ry start goes his own way
(Alois Eitler 'r8n after other women') ond
the vrife, for the sake of har children,
stands up 8.geinst him. Quarreling and
nagging set in, 8nd in the same measure in
which the husband becomes estranged from
his wife, he becomes familiar with
 .. 97 -

nlcohol ••• ' ~· hen he finelly comes home on

Sund£lY or Mond£lY night, drunk end brutQl,
but alv~ys without a lEst cent and panny,
then God have mercy on the scenos v.l hich
follow. J witnessed 011 of this EerSOnally
in hundreas of scenes nnd Dt tho o~inning
with both disgust end indignation •••
( ~I .K. 38-38).
The othGr things tho little fellow
hears at home do not tend to further his
respect for his surroundings. Not a
single shred is left for humanity, not
a single institution is left unattacked;
starting with the teacher, up to the
head of the state, be it religion, or
morality as such, be it the Stnte or
SOCiety, no matter which, everything
is abused, everything is pulled down
in the nastiost manner into the filth
of a depraved Montality, (M.K. 43).

(i) Relations to Father

There aro reasons to believe thrt the boy AdoLf
vms very much afrnid of his father in hin early YOIJ.rs;
th8t he was timid and submissive in his presonce;
but when he was out of reach of his fether's immense
authority (when his father was out of the house or
when the boy wos at school under less severo dis-
ciplinarians) he wrs often unruly rnd defiant. He
hEld no respect for r lenient system of government.
Not until ho was cloven did Ldolf dare to oppose
his father. Here the issue vms the selection of his
vocation: Ho~Hitler w£lnted his son to follo~ in
his footstops Dnd become n Stcte officirl; but the
 - 98 -

boy decided he wanted to be 8n crtist. Of this

conflict between father and son, Hitler writes:
(i) His domineering nrturc, the
result of B life-long struggle for existence,
would have thought it unbenrrble to
leave the ultimate decision to a boy
who, in his opinion, wes inexperienced
and irrosponsible. (M.K. 11).
(ii) No matter how firm and de-
termined my father might be in carrying
out his plans and intentions once made,
his son was just as stubborn and
obstinate ••• (rr .K. 12).
(iii) ••• he opposed me with the
resoluteness of his entiro nature ••• Tho
old man became embittered, and, much as
I loved him, the samo was true of myself
••• and now the old man relentlessly bogan
to enforce his authority. U~.K. 13-14).

It is obvious from these and other passages,

as well as from locnl hoarsay, that the relations of
Adolf and his parent from 1900-1903 (when the father
died) WGre exceedingly stormy. It wps a classical
fother-son conflict.
(j) Note: Hitler's attitude to old men. In
many places, in !:lEIN KAMPF and in some of his recorded
conversations, Hitler speaks of old men in a derogatory and
contemptuous manner. It is often very' suggestive of what
might have been his sentiments towards his s1xty-
year-old father (twenty-threB years older than his
mother). The following quotetions might be cited
in illustration:
 - 99 -

(i) Rauschning: Everywhere, Hitler

complf'ined, there were nothing but sterilo
old men in their second childhood, who
bragged of their technical knowledge and
had lost their sound common sense.
(ii) Hitler, quoted by Heiden:
l~ y
grcc.t adversary, Reichsprasident von
Hindenburg, is today eighty-five yeers
of age. I rm forty-three end I feol in
perfect heelth. And nothing will hBppon
to me, for I am cle~rly conscious of the
groat task which Prdvidence has assigned
to me.

2. rt othor
- (e) Per~orirility of ~6thci~

The pertinent facts are these:

Klara Poelzl wes an exemplary housekeeper. Her
home wrs always spotlessly cleen, cverything had
its place, not a speck of dust on the furniture.
She had a gentle nature. Her relatively young
age, her docile character, her years of dOMestic
service -- all inclined hoI' to complirnce end
Christipn resignation. The trials and tribulations
of life with an irascible husband resulted in a
permanent attitude of abnegation. Townrd hoI' son
Adolf she WPS ever devoted, catering to his whims
to the point of spoiling him. She it wrs who
encouraged his artistic ambitions.
 The mother wrs operated on for c~ncer of the
broast in the summar of 1907 f1nd died 'Ni thin six months.
It is very likely thrt the disorso mns mprked by
ulcerations of the chest wall rnd motcstrscG in the
lungs.

Inrt'rllut''J'h'[ ~ tit .• I'llotos

HITLER'S ~10THER

(b) Relations to Mother.

Hitler has written very little ond GBid nothing
publicly about his mother, but the few scrDps obtained
suggest many youthful yerrs of loving dependence
upon her. Hitler spopks of:
(i) ••• the mother devoting herself to
the cores of the household looking nfte~ her
children with eternally the same loving
kindness. (H.K. 5).
 - 101 -

(ii) For three or four of the 5 years

bet~een his father's and his mother's death,
Adolf Hitler idled away B good deal of his
time as the indulged apple of his mother's
eye. She allo~ed him to drop his studies
at the Realschule; she encouraged him in his
ambitions to be a painter; she yielded to
his every wish. During these years, it is
reported, the relationship bet~een mother
and son was marked by reciprocal adoration.
Hitler's amazing self~assurance (at most
times) can be attributed in part to the
impression of these years wherl at the age
of thirteen his father died and he succeeded
to the power and became the little dictator
of the family. His older brother, Alois,
had left by this time, and he was the only
male in a household of four. "These were my
happiest days; they seemed like a dream to me,
and so they were." (:rv:.K.25).
(iii) Hitler wri tes : "My mother's
death ••• was a terrible shock to me ••• I loved
my mother."
(iv) Dr. Bloch reports that fdolf
cried when he heard of his mother's suffer-
ings at operation and later at her death
exhibited great grief. The doctor has never
seen anyone so prostrate with sorrow. After
the burial in the Catholic cemetery, Adolf
stayed by her grave long after the others
had departed.
(v) Hitler wore the - picture of his
mother over his breast in the field during
world War I.
(vi) That the mother-child relation-
ship was a compelling, though rejected, pattern
for Hitler may be surmised from (1) his
attachment to 'substitute mothers' during
his post-war years, (2) his frequent use of
'mother imagery' in speaking and writing,
and (3) his selection of pictures of ~~donna
and child to decorate his rooms.
 - 102 -

Corner of Big Room at Berchtesgaden.

Painting of Madonna & Child over mantel.

From these and other bits of evidence we can

conclude that Hitler loved his mother and hated his
father, that he hed an Oedipus Complex, in other words .
But, as we shall soon see, this can explain only one
phase of his relationship to his pe.rents.
 - 103 -

(c ) Siblings
It is certain that there were two older children
in the household during Adolf's early years. The
father had been married twice before; there was a
half-brother, Alois Hitler, Jr., and a half-sister,
Angela Hitler. We know nothing of Hitler's relation-
ship to the former (who much later turned up in Berlin
as proprietor of a restaurant). The half-sister,
Angela, married Herr Raubal, an official in the tax
bureau in Linz. Later she managed a restaurant for
Jewish students at the University of Vienna. For
some years she was Hitler's housekeeper at Berchtes-
gaden, until she married Professor l~artin Hammizsch
of Dresden, where she now lives.
(i) Several informants have stated that
there is a younger sister, Paula, born when Adolf
was about seven years old. Consequently, he must
have experienced the press Birth of Sibling during
his childhood. This younger sister, it seems, is a
very peculiar, soclusive person who now lives in
Vienna. It has been said that she had affairs with
several men in turn, one of whom was a Jew. It is
believed that she is mentally retarded •
•
 - 104 -

(ii) There are reports of two children

who died in infancy before Adolf was born. One of
these may have been Edmund, or Gustaf, mentioned by
some informants.

3. Boyhood Reactions, Activities , end Interests

Very little reliable information exists as to
Hitler's childhood. Most informents, however, agree
on the follo.ing points:
(a) Physical eakness .- Adolf was a frail lad,
1,N

thin and pale. He did not participate in any athletics

or enjoy hard physical exercise. He was sensitive
and liked to be with his mother, look at books, sketch
landscapes; or take walks by himself. He liked to
daydream about Germany's wars , but he did nothing to
fit himself to be a soldier. When he tired of school
(ashamed of his inferiority in scholarship), he became
nervously sick (feigned lung trouble), and his mother
permitted him to drop out and stay at home.
(b) Low Tolerance of Frustration.- One can be
certain that, 8S a child~ Adolf reacted violently to
frustration. He undoubtedly had temper tantrums
which were rewarded by his mother's ready complianco
to his wishes. (This was his way of "courting the
soul of the comMon people".) He was 81so finnicky
about food, we can be sure.
 - 105 -

(c) Rebe lliousn e ss and Re peat ed Aggrossion.-

At homo discipline was capricious: His fathe r wa s
oft e n unusua lly s e ve re, his mother inordina t e ly
l eni ent. As a result, he developed no st ea dy and
consist e nt character; he alt e rnated b o t~ oe n subs e rvi enc e
(to placate his fathe r) and unruliness.
(i) Lansing: His first te a che r
r e call ed ••• that he was a quarre lsome,
stubborn lad who smoked cigarets and cigar
stubs collect ed from the gutt e r or begged
from roist e rers in tho public hous e s.
(ii) Hanish reports the.t Hitl e r
told him that the people of the Innvi ertel
wore great brawlers and that, a s a boy,
he used to love to watch their fights.
Also, that he us ed to enjoy visiting a
fine exhibition in Linz of deadly weapons.
What others abhorred appealed to him.
(N.B., He r e is fair evidence of repressed
aggression (sadism) during boyhood.)
(iii) Hitler, as a me re boy of ten,
became passionat e ly interested in reading
about the "amazingly victorious campaign
of the he roic Gorman armios during the
Franco-prussian War". Soon this had be-
come "my greatest spiritual experience".
( IVT .K. 8).

(iv) I raved more and more about

ev e rything conn e cted with war or militarism.
(N .K.8).

(v) A careful examination of the

first chapter of II1EIN K.I\MPF will convince
any psychologically trained reader that
Adolf's vigorous advocacy of tho cause of
Germany as opposed to thf't of l.ustria from
the age of elev en onward repre sent ed a
legitimate substitute for his repre ss ed
 - 106 -

rebellion against his father. Inspired by his

history teacher, Professor Poetsch (father-
surrogate), and a long line of German military
heroes, the boy could give vent to his pent-up
resentment by publicly proclaiming his devotion
to the German Reich of Bismark and vehemently
denouncing the authority of Austria (symbol of
his father). In MEIN KAMPF Hitler writes at
length of his possession of :
(vi) ••• an intense love for my native
German-Austrian country and a bitter hatred
against the ' Austrian ' state. (M.K. 22-23).
Speaking Of the youthful Nationalist movement
that he joined, he writes:
(vii) ••• it is rebellious; it wears the
forbidden emblem of its own nationality and
rejOices in being punished or even in being
beaten for wearing that emblew •• ~tnG greeting
was 'Heil'; and 'Deutschland uber nIles' was
preferred to the imperiel anthem , despite
warnings and punishments. (F.K.l'3).
It was during these days that he first began
to play the r~le of a young agitator.
(viii) I believe that even then my
ability for making speeches waS trained by
the more or less stirring discussions with
my comrades ••• For obvious reasons my father
could not appreciate the talent for oratory
of his quarrelsome son. (M.K. 7).
The boy's ideas of greatest glory revolved round
the victories of the Franco-Prussian War.
(ix) Why was it that Austria had not
taken part also in this war whl not my father
••• ? (M.K. 9). I had deci Aedly no sympathy
for the course my father's life hEld taken.
(~.K. 7). During the years of my unruly youth
nothing had grieved me more than having been born
 -107 -

at a time when temples of glory wore only

erected to merchants or state officicls
(his father's profession). (M.K. 204).
I, too, wanted to become 'something' --
but in no event an officinl. (M.K. 25).
These quotations supply further ovidence
of Adolf 's repressed hatred of his fether ond of the
fact th8t negativism end wilfulness had become es-
tablished patterns before puberty.
(d) Passivity, or Illness, as Means of
Resistance.- Hitler manifested a Significant aspect
of his nature when he determined to frustrate his
father's intention to make a civil servant out of
him. The policy he adopted was that of resistance
through indolence and passivity.
(i) I was certain that as soon as
my fathor saw my lack of progross in school
••• he would let me seek the happiness
of which I was dreaming. (M.K. 14).
Later, after his father's death, when he wanted
to leave school, he won his mother's consent by making
himself sick.
(i) Improssed by my illness my mother
agreed at long last to take me out of school •••
O '~ . K. 24).

After this he spont two years of shiftless

activity around the house, which sot tho pattern
for his passive drifting and dreaming days in Vienna.
 - 108 -

Co) Lack of Friends.- No friendships dating

from boyhood have ever been mentioned and it is not
likely that the boy was at all popular with his class-
mates. During adolescence he was said to be quiet,
seriOUS, dreamy and taciturn.
(f) Sexual Misbehavior. A Nazi who visited
Leonding much later and looked up the school records
there found evidence that at the age of eleven or
twelve Adolf had committed a serious sexual indiscre-
tion with a little girl. For this he was punished
but not expelled from school.

4. Conclusions
(a) Hate for Father, Love for Mother, (Oedipus
Complexi~ This has been noted and stressed by numerous
psychologists; and some evidence for it has been listed
here. Rarely mentioned but equally important is:
(b) Respect for Power of Father, Contempt for
Weakness of Mother. Hitler is certainly not a typical
product of the Oedipus complex, and more can be learned
about the underlying forces of his chvrocter by
observing which parent he has emulated, rather than
which parent he has loved. In MEIN Kf.~~ PF, he writes,
"I had respected my father, but I loved my mother."
 - 109 -

He might bGtt c ~ h~ve said, "I loved my mother, but

I respected I'lY father", becauso rospect hos olwnys
moant more to him than love.
(c) Identification with Father. Although Hitler
has not the physique or teMperOMont of his old man,
being constitutionally of another type, it is evident
that he hos iMitated, consciously or unconsciously,
mony of his father's troits and nono of his mother's.
(d) Adolf Hitler's will to power, his pride,
aggressiveness and cult of brutality are 011 in
keeping with ~hat we know of the personality and
conduct of Alois Hitler. The son's declaration thot
he has demanded nothing but sacrifices from his ad-
herents is certainly reminiscent of the fother's
attitude toward wife and children.
(i) ••• his son has undoubtedly in-
herited, amongst other qualities, a stubborn-
ness similar to his own ••• (~.K. 14).
(e) The father's loud, boastful, and perhaps
drunken, talk, at home and at the pub (described by
some informants), may well have provided his young
son with an impressive model for emulation. The
notion of being a village pastor had appealed to
Alois Hitler and thot of being an abbot appealed
to his boy, no doubt for the same reason -- the
opportunity it afforded for oratory.
 - 110 -

(f) Fath6r and son each left home to seek his

fortune in Vienna. In MEIN KAMPF there are several
indic~tions that the image of his father's success
in Vienna acted as a spur.
(i) I, too, hoped to wrest from Fate
the success my father had met fifty years
earlier. •• 0.".K. 25).
(ii) And I would overcome these
obstacles, always bearing in mind my father's
example, who, from being a poor village boy
and a cobbler's apprentice, had made his way
up to the position of civil servant. (M.K. 28).
(g) Adolf Hitler sported a walrus moustache
like his father's for a number of years. He finally
trimmed it in imitation of a new exemplar, Fed er.
(h) Adolf Hitler's invariable uniform and
pistol may well have been suggested by Alois Hitler's
uniform and pistol (1 (d)).
(i) It is said that Alois Hitler hed a great
respect for the class system; was proud of his rise
in status; envied those above him and looked down
upon those below him. If this is true, the father
was instrumental in establishing a pattern of senti-
ments which was of determining importance in his son's
career. Adolf Hitler has always been envious of his
superiors and deferential; he has never showed any
affinity for the proletariat.
 - 111 -

(j) ~do1f Hitler has hung a portrait of his

father over the desk in his study at Berchtesgaden.
This is a signal honor, since the likeness of only
three other men -- Frederick the Great, Karl von
~roltke, nnd Hussolini -- have been selected for
inclusion in any of Hitler's rooms. There is no-
where any picture of his mother.

Hitler's study at Berghof.

Desk faces portrait of Alois Hitler.
 - 112 -

Alois, it is said, was a smoker, a drinker and

a lecher; and today his son is remarkable for his
abstemiousness. Thus, in these respects the two
are different. But we should not forget that Adolf
used to pick up cigar butts and smoke them as a boy;
he drank beer and wine in his early Hunich days; and
in the last fifteen years has shown a good deal of
interest in women.
There can be no doubt then that Hitler greatly
envied and admired the power and authority of his
father; and although he hated him as the tyrant who
opposed and frllstrated him personally, he looked on
him with awe, and admiration, desiring to be as he
was. Speaking of his old man, the son confessed in
his autobiography that "unconsciously he had sown
the seeds for a future which neither he nor I would
have grasped at that time." (W.K. 24). Henceforth
Adolf Hitler's attention and emulation was only to
be evoked by a dominating ruthless man, and if this
man happened to be in opposition to hi~, then he
would hate and respect him simultaneously. Hitler's
admiration for strongly enduring institutions was
very similar, it seems, to his admiration for his
sixty-year-old parent. He writes:

,
 - 113 -

(i) ••• incredibly vigorous power that

inhabits this age-old institution (Catholic
Church) •
(ii) ••• he (Lueger) was disposed ••• to
secure the favor of any existing powerful
institutions, in order that he might derive
from these old sources of strength the
greatest possible advantage •••
(k) Identification with Mother.- In Hitler's
i

constitution there is a large gynic (feminine)

component and he has many feminine traits, some
hidden. Consequently, in view of his avowed love
for his mother, we must suppose that there was a
dispositional kinship or biological identification,
between the two during the boy's earliest years.
Adolf naturally and spontaneously felt the way
his mother felt. This, however, was not of his
own making. There is some evidence that in Hitler's
mind "Germany" is a mystical conception which stands
for the ideal mother--a substitute for his own im-
perfect mother. But there are no indications, in
any event, that Hitler admired his mother or any
woman who resembled her, or that he adopted any
of her sentiments, or that he was even influenced
by her in any important way. Hence, the conclusion
is that Hitler had many traits in common with his
mother; but that he repudiated these traits as
evidences of weakness and femininity, and in so
doing repudiated her.
 - 114 -

(k) Rejection · of Mother.- To the extent that

Hitler respected and emulated his father, he dis-
respected and denied his mother. Some evidence to
demonstrate this point will be brought forward in a
later section. Hitler probably loved his mother very
much as a person; but his strong dependent attachment
to her was a humiliating sign of his incapacity to
take care of himself, and hence he was forced to be-
little the relationship. At eighteen years he was too
near to her weakness, not feminine enough and yet not
male enough, to respect her. He writes:
(i) lowe much to the time in which
I had learned to become hard (in Vienna) •••
I praise it even more for having rescued
me from the emptiness of an easy life (in
Linz with his mother), that it took the
milksop out of his downy nest and gave
him Dame Sorrow for a foster mother •••
(M.K. 29) •

. Hanisen: reports that in Vienna Hitler mani-

fested a "queer ides.lism about love"; but had very
little respect for the female sex. Every woman he
believed could be had. This remark falls in with
the evidence to be presented later which suggests that
for a time Adolf was indignant with his mother for
submitting to his father, and in the end scorned her
for so doing. Since he has always been
 - 115 -

contemptuous of physical weakness, one might expect

him to be contemptuous of women; and there are some
facts to show that this is true. It is even possible
that after Herr Hitler's death the adolescent Adolf,
adopting his father's r~le to some extent, sometimes
lashed his mother with insolent words and maybe struck
her. If this were true, it would help explain his
exceeding grief on the occasion of her death, guilt
contributing to his dejection, and it might explain a
striking passage in MEIN KAMPF in which Hitler des-
cribes the typical lower class family.
(i) ~hen, at the age of fourteen, the
young lad is dismissed from school (Adolf
dropped school when he was about sixteen
years), it is difficult to say which is
worse: his unbelievable ignorance as far
as knowledge and ability are concerned, or
the biting impudence of his behavior, com-
bined with an immorality which makes one's
hair stand on end, considering his age
(Adolf's immorality came to the notice of
his teachers at the age of twelve years) •••
The three-year-old child has now become a
youth of fifteen who despises all authority
(Recall Adolf's conflict with his father) •••
Now he loiters about, and God only knows when
he comes home (See p. 7, ••• "caused my mother
much grief, made me anything but a stay-at-
horne").; for a change he may even beat the
poor creature who was once his mother, curses
God and the world ••• (M.K.43 ... 44).
(1) Evidence will be advanced later to show
that one of the most potent impressions of Hitler's
early life was that of ~~!.a~ionship in which a .
 - 115 -

(ii) An unnatu~al separation from the

great common Motherland. (M.N.O. 459).
(n) Repudiation of Past Self and"Family Connection~.

Knowing Hitler's fanatical sentiments against mixed

marriages, impure blood, the lower classes, and the
Jewish race, it is important to note the following
facts:
(i) His forebears come from fl region in
which the blood of Bavarians, Bohemians, Moravians ,
Czechs, and Slovakians have mixed for generations.
Without doubt all of these strains are represented
in him.
(ii) His father was illegitimate; his grand-
father may have been a Viennese Jew.
(iii) His godfather, Herr prinz, was a
Viennese Jew.
(iv) His father had three wives , one a
waitress , one a domestic servant, and a number of
women on the side (hearsay).
(v) His father begot at least one child
out of marriage.
(vi) Klara Poelzl, his mother, was Alois
Hitler's second cousin once removed and also his ward
(twenty-three years younger). Special permission from
the Church had to be obtained before he could marry her.
 - 117 -

(vii) Angela Hitler, Adolf's older half-

sist er, ran a r e staurant for Jewish students in Vienna.
(viii) Paula Hitler, Adolf's younger sister,
was the mistress of a Viennese Jew for a while.
(ix) A cousin of Hitler's is feeble-minded,
I
most of the other members of his clan are ignorant,
illiterate, or mentally retarded. He himself had to
repeat the first year of Realschule (Technical High
School) and failed to graduate.
Thus, Hitler has spent a good part of his life
cursing and condemning people who belong to his layer
of society, who resemble members of his own clan, who
have characteristics si~ilar to his own. On the other
hand, the ideal he has set up, the person he pretends
to be, is the exact opposi te of all this. 1~re have a
fairly clear case, then, of Counteractio~ against
inferiority feelings and self-contempt. Be tween
1908, when he loft, and 1938, after the Anschluss,
Hitler nev e r visited his home, and never communicated
with his relatives (except in the case of his half-
sister Angela). Unlike Napoleon, he did not carry his
family along with him as he ascended to the heights
of power. In this we see a Rejection of his past self
and family connect i ons.
 - 118 -

(0) Identification with Gcrmany.- H~tler's

egocentrism has always been so marked; he has been

such a Bohemian, if not a lone wolf, in many phases of
his career that his undoubted devotion to Germany strikes
onc as most unusual. Since this devotion began at an
early age and was the factor, more than any other, which
decided that he would become a supreme success rather
than an utter failure, it is worth ~hile noting here
the forces so far mentioned which brought about this
intense insociation:
(i) Influence of Ludwig Poetsch, his
t eacher, who, serving as a substitute father,
glorificd the history of Germany and presented
Bismark's Reich as an ideal.
(ii) Influence of a strong nationalist
association among Hitl e r's classmat e s.
(iii) Cathexis of power. The figures of
Fred erick the Great,B1smarck and others offered better
foci of admiration than did Austrian heroes.
(iv) Insociation with a more powerful nation
satisfied his youthful pride, raised his status in his
own eyes, and allowed him to reject his inferior
Austrian self ..
 - 119 -

(v) Heightened cathexis of an objec,t behind

a barrier. This is a general principle: that an
individual will idealize an object that he can not
quite attain -- so near but yet so far. In this
connection it is interesting to note that the great
majority of dictators have not been natives of the
country that they came to dominate. Hitler's con-
tinued sympathy for Germans outside the Reich is evi-
dently a projection of his own self~pity as an Ost-
markian.
(v-l) (Memel returns to the
Reich) I thereby lead you back into that
home which you have not forgotten and which
has never forgotten you. (M.N.O. 614).
(vi) Displacement of defiance against
the father. By identifying himself with Germany, the
boy Adolf found an object even greater than his stern
father, which permitted him to give vent to his frus-
trated rebelliousness against his Austrian parent.
(vii) Germany as a substitute mother.
In view of the press rejection suffered in childhood,
it is likely -- and much evidence for this hypothesis
will be prffsented later -- that Germany represented
a kind of foster parent. It is even possible that
Hitler as a child entertained a foster parent fantasy.
 - 120 -

He speaks of being Bavarian by blo~d, a statemeht -for

which there is no known justification. T~is point will
be fully discussed later in describing his devotions
to Germany 's cause in 1918, the hour of her deepest
humiliation. In many places Hitler speaks of Germany
in words that one might use in speaking of a beloved
woman:
(vii - 1) ••• the longing grew
stronger to go there (Germany) ~hore
since my early youth I had been drawn
by secrat 1,.,ishes and secret love.
(M.K. lSI).
(vii - 2) What I first had
looked upon as an impassable ohesm
now spurred me on to a greater love
for my country than ever before.
Off . X . 55).
(vii - 3) Heiden, quoting
from Hitler: The hundreds of thou-
sands who love their country more
than anything else must also be
loved by their country more than
anything elso .
(vii - 4) l appeal to those
who , severed from the motherland,
have to fight for the holy treasure
of their language ••• and who noVi in
painful emotion long for the hour
that will allow them to return to
the arms .of the beloved mother •••
(M.K. 161).

The common expression for Germans is Fathe rland,

but Hitler ve~y often substitutes Mothe rl and, He
speaks of "the common motherland," "the great German
 - 121 -

mother18nd," "the German mother of all life".

This is not unnatural, since he, once a very de-
p~ndent adolescent, wes left penniless and unbe-
friendod after the death of his mothar . We are
not surprised, therefore, to find him speaking of
being removed "from the emptiness of an ea sy life,
that it took the milksop out of his downy nest and
gave him Dame Sorr01]ll for a foster mothor" and
speaking also of the time "when the Goddess of
Misery took me into her arms". It is r epo rted
that he was mothered by several old e r l cdias in
his early Munich d8Ys and seemed to find comfort
in such r e lationships. In 1920, for example, he
found a sort of home wi th Frau Hoffman. He a lv.rays
had to send her, according to Heiden, his latest
portrait, on which he would write, for example:
"To my dear, fai thful li ttle ~"other, Chri s tmns,
1925, from he r respectful Adolf Hitler."
 - 122 -

B. VIENNA DAYS
1908 - 1913

The chief f~cts pertinent to the present ' ana1ysis

are these:
10 K1ara Hitler was operated on for cancer of
the breast in the early summer of 1907. On December
21, 1907, she died. Two months before her death,
Adolf Hitler went to Vienna and was examined by the
Academy School of Art. He failed. He moved to .
Vienna in the winter of 1908, and the following
October presented himself again at the A~ademy. But
the drawings he brought as illustrations of his work
were considered so lacking in talent that he was not
allowed to take the examination. He was told he
would make a better architect than painter, though
he himself reports that he was a better colorist
than draftsman.
2. Some account of these years has been given
us by Hanisch, a "bumt! from Bohemia who befriended
him. They were fellow members of the same hostel,
or flophouse. The first thing Hitler said to Hanisch
sounds like a projection of (1) press Rejection and
(2) press Aggression. He said (1) his landlady had
dispossessed him and now he was without shelter, and
 - 123 -

(2) he had begged a drunken man for a few pennies

but the latter had raised his cane and insulted

him. Hitler was very bitter abbut this.
3. Hitler wore a beard during this period and
in his long overcoat looked very mu~h like a certain
type of Oriental Jew not uncommon in Vienna. Hitler
had a number of Jewish acquaintances and sold post-
cards that he painted to Jewish dealers. There was
no evidence during these first years of any hostility
to Jews. Only later, after he had listened excitedly
to the speeches of the anti-Semitic mayo:.:', Lueger,
did he become an avowed, and somewhat later a fanatical,
Anti-Semite himself.
4. Hitler was exceedingly lazy and procrastinating
in doing his little water ~olors during these days.
He was much more interested in haranguing the other
inmates of the hostel on the subject of politics.
A~ready he had vague notions of founding a party.
5. He devoted some time to thinking up little
devices for making money through trickery. According
to one informant, his name is in the Vienna police
records as having been accused of theft, and it is
suggested that his departure for r.~unich in 1913 was
prompted by a desire to avoid serving a term in jail.
 - 124 -

6. Hitl e r's friendship with Hanisch came to

an abrupt end when he accused the latter of stealing
money from him. This has the flavor of a typical
Hitlerian projection.
7. Hanisch reports that Hitle~'s love for
Germany and his hate for Austria were vociferously
expressed on all occasions during these years.
8. Hitler was shocked by what he saw of sexual
practices in Vienna. Hanisch speaks of his having
a purity complex.
9. According to one informant, Hitler is down in
the police records of Vienna as a sex pervert.
10. In 1913, Hitler left Vienna and entered the
country of which he had long yearned to be a citizen.
He became a resident of Munich.
11. The press of Rejection is perhaps the out-
standing feature of the Vienna period. There wes in
the first place the rejection by the Academy of Arts,
which Hitler felt ms based on his inadequate education.
This left a resentment against intellectuals generally
which was never stilled. The following excerpt sums
up his conclusions on this point.
 - 125 -

(i) Ge n e rally, it is tho children of

higher plac e , momentarily well-to-do parents
who in turn are deemed worthy of a higher
education. Hereby questions of talent play
a subordinate rBle.
Many other passages speak eloquently of insults
to his pride received at the hands of the privileged
world of the gay capital.
(i) ••• the graciously patronizing attitudes
of a certain part of the fashionable world
(both in skirt"D and trousers) \IIThose I sympathy
for the people' is at times as haughty as it
is obtrusive and tactless.
(ii) Vionna, the city that to so many
represents the idea of harmless gaiety, the
festive place for merrymaking, is to mG the
only living memory of the most miserable time
of my life.
12. Hitler spent five years in Vienna. Living
as he was , penniless among the penniless of the lower
class, he himself experienced, and he was in close
touch with others who experienced , the basic wants
and viewpoints of the depressed victims of civiliza-
tion. He re, certainly, !BS much food for thought.
He also attended sessions of parliament and numerous
political mass meetings, and observed the proceedings
crit1cally. From the start he was constantly pre-
occupied with the question: why does this political
movement fail and that one succeed? It was natural
for him to think reAlistically and strategically; not
 - 12? -

to make the common mistake of supposing man to bo

better than he is, and yet taking full account of
his heroic potentialities, having observed that
millions of simple untutored men will glndly fight and
sacr ifice their lives for an ideal ViVldly presented.
In addition, Hitler spent many hours in the public
library looking over histories and books dealing with
social questions. ~mIN KAMPF proves that the young
man from Linz who could not get through High School
was capable of profiting by what he saw and read, and
that these five years of drifting and irregular em-
ployment were by no means wasted. The flophouse and
the beer hall were his Heidelberg and University of
Vienna. He writes:
(i) So in a few years I built a foundation
of knowledge from which I still draw nourish-
ment today. OT.K. 29).
(ii) At that time I formed an image of
the world and a view of life which became the
granite foundation for my actions. (M.K. 30).
13. For the Vienna period the critical question
psychologically is this: why did Hitler, living among
the proletariat, find the developed ideology of communism
repellent and the embryonic ideology of fascism appealing?
The chief determinants of his choice, as they occur to
me arc these:
 - 127 -

(i) Eitlcr's father belonged to the lower

middlo class. Raving moved one rung up the l adder by
years of effort, his pride compelled him to draw a
sharp line bet Jeen himself and those below him. No
one has stated this principle of behavior better than
his E'on:
(i - 1) The reason for that
which one could almost call 'hostility '
is the f~ct that a social clas 8, which
has only recently worked its way up
from the level of manual labor, fears
to fall back into the old, but little
esteemed , class, or at least fears be-
ing countod in with that class. In
addition, many remember ~ith dis gust
the mis e ry existing in the lo",er class;
tho frequent brutality of their dail y
secial contacts; their own position in
society, however smal l it may be, makes
every contact with the state of lifo
and culture, which they in turn have
left behind, unbearable.
This explains why members of
the higher social class can frequently
lower themselves to the humblest of
their fellow beings with less embarrass-
ment than seems possible to the 'upstarts'.
For an upstart is anyone who ,
through his own energy, works his way
up from his previous social position to
a higher onc .
Finally~ this reientiess struggie
kills all pi€Z. Onets own painful
scramble for existence suffocates the
feeling of sympathy for the misery of
those left behind. (M.K. 31-32).
 - 128 -

Brought up by such a father, it was natural for

Adolf liitler to envy and admire his social superiors
and look with contempt upon those of a lower station.
As t~e American editors of MEIN KAMPF have put it,
(ii) liitler , conscious of belonging
to a higher social caste than his fellow-
workers ••• instinctively retreats from the
idea of accepting sol~darity with them.
(M. K . 5 6).

(iii) P.~tler had already been identified

for some years with the German Nationalist movement
and so his unit of insociation (group identification
and belongingness) was greatly threatened by the com-
munists' unit of insociation, the manual workers of
the world. The former would lead logically to a
war between nations, the latter to a war between
classes. Communism was the greatest enemy of nation-
alism.
(iv) Parallel to his naturalistic senti-
ments was Hitler's enthusiasm for the military~ a
professional class whi ch is antipathetic to
co~~unists generally. The former finds its goal in
Power and Glo ry; the latter in Pea c e and Prosperity .
(v) Hitler had great reverence for the
strong and contempt for the weak and therefore
favored a stratified social system, a dictatorship
 - 129 -

of the elitG. ~~ere was no compassion in his make-

up ; he had littla sympathy fo~ t he under-doge His
ideology was founded on the rise to power of nature's
supermen involvi ng relationships of do~inance and
submi sa 5_ on among T;1(1 n. Communi&m was founded on the
notien of equality.
 - 130 -

C, WAR EXPERIENCES
1914 - 19:t8

The recor~ Gf these years is conflicting, but the

foP.o' 'ing points are probably +,r'ue and pertinent to
ou:.." tteme.
1. In enliRt lng in the Army, Hitler became incor-
porpted for the Ll7'st time. Never before had he been
an accepted me ~ta~ of a respected institution. This
was not only a great relief to him, enabling him to
forget the long series of past failures, but it pro-
vided a ground for pride and a sense of security. At
last he and the German nation were one.
2. There is no evidence that Hitler was ever
in a front line trench. It seems that he served as
a messenger and was required to tr8.verse ground
that v.as being shelled by the enemy. Hitler, it
appears, was quick to offer himself for dangerous
tasks of this kind and was said to be an adept at
running and then falling or seeking shelter behind
some obstacle when the fire became intense. In this
he showed courage. There is no record, however, in
the Wa r Department of any episode such as has been
described in connection with his winning the Iron
Cross, First Order. Apparently he was awarded this
 - 131 -

medal after he had left the Front, supposedly

gasGed in one of the last offensives of the Allies.
3. Inforrllan-cs have commented on Hi tIer I s marked
subRervience to th8 superior o.f'fi~ers, offering to
do ~t~ir washing a~d perform other menial tasks,
cou~~ing their goed graces to such an extent that
his comrades were disgusted .
4. Hitler · 'HS the only man in his company
never to receive gay mail or packages from home, and
at Christmas and other occasions when the others
were receiving gifts and messages he sulked moodily
by himself. Here is another instance of press re-
jection.
5. It is hard to explain the fact that in
four years of service he was not promoted above the
rank of corporal. The comment by one of his officers
that he was a neurotic fellow is the only explana-
tion that has been advanced.
6. It seems certain that Hitler was not gassed
to any serious extent in 1918, but that he suffered
from a war neurosis, hysterical blindness, which
also deprived him of his voice and perhaps his
hearing. This psychosomatic illness was concomitant
with the final defeat of his Mother Germany, and it
 - 132 -

was after heari~g the news o~ her capitulation that

he had his vi8jc~ or his ta~~ as savior. Suddenly
hi3 sight was reptored .

Hitler with fellow patients

at Pasewalk, 1918

7. In 1918 Hitler, the soldier, became very

disturbed at the surprising success of Allied propa-
ganda and then occurred a reaction that was typical
of his whole character, namely, to admire and then
to acquire the technique powerful opponent.
(i) V'e had a chance to become acquainted
with the incredible disciplines of our opponents'
propaganda, and still today it is my pride to
have found the means ••• for beating finally its
very makers. Two years later I was master in
this craft.
 - 133 -

D. po~vr- WAR I~I.sTORY

1919 .-

From 1919 ~~ the present Bitler's doings are

les3 obscure t}~n for the periods so far reviewed.
A g/l e~·d:; many o!' the facts are a rna tter of common
knowledge and we ~ill not review them in this sec-
tion here. A fc ~ points, however, are worthy of
being highligh:; c n .
1. For a YS 8r or two after his release from
the military hospital, Hitler was more or less foot-
loose, "a stray dog looking for a master," according
to one informant. Undoubtedly there were more
instances of press rejection to embitter him.
2. He was still a member of the Reichswehr
when his superior officer, discovering his ability
in public speaking, assigned him the task of indoctrinat-
ing the soldiers with the desired ideology. Later
he was asked to speak to a civilian group. This
success encouraged him to go further and enter politics
for life. Hitler's realization that he had the power
to sway large masses of people was the second crucial
factor, next to his revelation in the hospital while
blind, in determining his career. His phenomenal
success hinged on his mass-rousing talent.
 - 134 -

3. Aft ~r h~a~jr.g Fed8 r speak , Hitler was prompted

to ,j oin a small g:.'01:.p t he.t ,,)6.:.1I3d itself the National
Soci ali s t W or k6r~ Pa rty. Wi~ hi n a year he was its
movi ng Apirit a~d ~o le leader! aad it mi ght fsirly
b e E-\'..u that he if""}:::; its crea 'c::; l' a s it n ov.., exist s,
the difference ~9 ~ ~e en its status before he joined
and s oon afterwardA being so great.
No doubt Hi ;~"Lb r had been making spe eche s in
fantasy since hi s ~o yhood and had done a good deal
of informal hara ngl~ing throughout this whole period,
first as the ado le scent ringleader of the young
Nationalists at sc hool, second as a ham politician
• derelicts of the Vienna slums, and third
among the
as a corporal behind the lines, but his sudden emergence
as a spiritual force during the period 1921 - 1923
brought him into a much ma gnified sphere of activity
which was qualitatively different. A s e lection
from rr EIN KA11PF, which is unquestionably autobiographical
in reference, mi ght be quoted here as a hint of how
the transfo!'ma tion was app erceived by him:
In the monotony of everyday life even
important people often s e em unimportant and they
hardly stand out over the average of their
surroundings; but as soon as they are faced
by a situation in which others would despair
or go wrong, out of the plain ave ra ge child
the ingenious nature grows visibly, not in-
frequently to the astonishment of all those who
 .. 135 ..

hitherto had an opportunity to observe him,

who had mea~while grown up in the smallness of
bourgeois life, and therefore, in consequence
of tEis process, the prophet has rarely any
honor in his own oountry . Never is there a
better opportunity to observe this than during
war. In the hours of distress, when others
despair, out of apparently harmless children,
there shoot suddenly heroes of death-defying
determination and icy coolness of reflection.
If this hour of trial had never come, then
hardly anyone would ever have been able to
guess that a young hero is hidden in the beard-
less boy. Nearly always such an impetus is
needed in order to call genius into action.
Fate's hammer stroke, which then throws the one
to the ground, suddenly strikes steel in
another, and while now the shell of everyday
life is broken ; the erstwhile nucleus lies
open to the eyes of the astonished world.
( ~r .K. 402.. 3).

4. It seems clear that it was (1) the defeat of

Germany and (2) the opposition against which he had
to strive that acted as instigators to his behavior
from then on, which became more and more aggressively
dominant. The idea of being a revolutionary was a
necessary impetus to action.
We National Socialists know that with
this opinion we stand as revolutionaries in
the world of today, and that we are branded as
such. But our thinking and acting must not
be dete~mined by the applause or the rejection
of our time. (H.K. 595-~).
5. Hitler was chiefly attracted during these
early years to a homosexual, Ernst Roehm, a superior
officer with an upperclass background. The physical
 - 1313 -

strength and social assurance of Roehm were much

envied and, to have the political backing of such a
figure~ gave Hitler a sense of security.
S. Up to the famous Munich Putsch, 1923, Hitler
was conspicuous in his worship of and flattering
subservience to ranking officers in the Army, especially
in these days in his relations with General Ludendorff,
but from 1924 on, although he never entirely lost a
certain embarrassment in the presence of his former
superiors, there was a change from abasement to
dominance and even arrogance in dealing with aristocrats
and war lords.
7. The chief pOints in his political program
were these:
(a) wiping the Versailles Treaty off the
books,
(b) denial of war guilt,
(c) resurrection of Germany as a military
power of the first order,
(d) militaristic expansion, dominated by
the motive of revenge against the
Allies, and
(e) Anti-Semitism. Soon afterwards
(f) the purification of the German people
by a variety of hygieniC measures was
added as an essential aim or policy.
 - 137 -

8. During the years from 1923 and 1933, Hitler's

emotional outbursts > his tantrums of rage and indigna-
tion, his spells of weeping and threats of self-
annlhilation increased in frequency and intensity.
This can be partly accounted for by tb"3 :fa~.d: that
they were effective in bringing his assooiates
around to his point of view. Instead of antagonizing
the group of revolutionists who with him were plotting
to usurp power, these frightful orgies of passion
served to intimidate them. Everyone sought to
avoid topics that would bring about the fits.
9. Among the reasons given in extenuation of
the cold-blooded purge of 1934 were (a) that the
victims were disgusting homosexuals and (b) that
they were plotting to snatch the power and supersede
him.
10. During the last twenty years, rumors have
periodically arisen and spread to the effect that
Hitler was enamoured of this or that young woman;
most of these were either fabricated for one reason
or another or premature, since the appeal that cer-
tain women, of the stage particularly, had for Hitler
was generally short-lived. The one affair that
stands out is that with a nineteen-year-old Angela
 - 138 -

(Geli) Raubal, his niece. Hitler was often in her

company and was pathologically jealous of any atten-
tions shown her by other men. Two informants have
stated positively that Hitler murdered the girl,
but the official report was suicide. Wh ia hever story
is correct, however, we gain the impression of a
peculiar and stormy relationship. Rumors have it
that Hitler's sexual life, such as it is, demands
a unique performance on the part of the women, the
exact nature of which is a state secret.
11. A great deal has been made in Germany of
Hitler's asceticism, but this, when you come down
to it, amounts to a vegetarian diet, served him by
the best chef in the Reich, and a great variety of
soft drinks in place of hard liquor. It is said
that he did not permanently give up meat until after
the death of his niece Geli.
 - 139 -

7. PERSONALITY STRUCTURE

A. EGO, SUPEREGO, AND ID

10

According to the criteria we are a'.:(.u.:' tomed

to use in measuring ego strength and structure,
Hitler's ego is surprisingly weak. Here we are
of course using the term ego to apply to an institu-
tion of the personality (not to narcissism, or self-
esteem). Hitler is conspicuously low in the following
powers:
(a) Deficient ability to organize and
coordinate his efforts.
(i) During his boyhood, especially
at the time he was living as an indulged youngster
in his mother's apartment, Hitler's activities were
markedly irregular and aimless. He was unable to
apply himself except when his impulse prompted him
to do so.
(ii) Hanisch reports that in Vienna
Hitler was never an ardent worker, was unable to
get up in the morning, had difficulty in getting
started, suffered from paralysiS of the will. He
always stopped work the moment he had earned a little
money, explaining that "he must have some liesure, he
was not a coolie".
 - 140 _

(iii) Accordiqg to Rauschning, II He

does not know how to work steadily. Indeed, he is
incapable of working. He gets ideas, impulses, the
realization of V'., hich must be feverishly achieved
and immeGiately got rid of. He does not l~ now what
it is to work continuously. Everything stout him
is 'spasm', to use a favorite word of his.
(iv) Although Hitler prescribes
disciplined order of work for those about him, he
hirLself lives like an artist or Bohemian. His habits
are as erratic and irregular as his temper. He may
go to bed at eleven P.H. or four A.M., getting up
at seven or at noon. He is rarely punctual.
(v) According to Rauschning again,
"Hitler seems a man of tremendous will power, but
the appearance is deceptive. He is languid and
apathetic by nature, and needs the stimulus of
nervous excitement to rouse him out of chronic lethargy
to spasmodic activity ••• "
(b) Defl-cien.!. abi}.ity to resolve conflicts. -
Hitler has always suffered from periods of indecisive-
ness and mental confusion that incapacitate hi~ to
the extent of being unable to make any decision or
come to any conclusion. Then quite suddenly his