Neville Chamberlin

Hans Mommsen’s book, From Weimar to Auschwitz, presented an interesting look at Hitler within the Nazi Party. The overriding themes in the chapter “Hitler’s Position in the Nazi System” were the stubbornness and charisma of Hitler and the chaos within the Nazi Party. The weak leadership of Hitler along with the inability to concentrate power to one position helped lead the Third Reich to be a very frenzied and unorganized government.

There have been countless atrocities committed throughout history. Most of these atrocities are justified and developed from ideas and false realities. The most infamous atrocity of all history, the holocaust is no exception. Adolf Hitler, the leader of Germany from 1933 until his suicide at the end of WWII, was directly responsible for the deaths of over 12 million people. Alan Bullock in his book Hitler a Study in Tyranny dispels any notion that any of Hitler’s ideas were original. Bullock proposes that Hitler and his rise to power was a product of other political ideas and a knack for exploiting the timing of events to extend his influence. According to Bullock Hitler’s coming to power was the product the political ideals of the late 19th and early 20th centuries which he was exposed to, the world post-WWI, and a knack for exposition events to his favor. He used his gifts of using propaganda and his organizational skills to use politics as a means to achieving power.

The debate as to whether Hitler was a ‘weak dictator’ or ‘Master of the Third Reich’ is one that has been contested by historians of Nazi Germany for many years and lies at the centre of the Intentionalist – Structuralist debate. On the one hand, historians such as Bullock, Bracher, Jackel and Hildebrand regard Hitler’s personality, ideology and will as the central locomotive in the Third Reich. Others, such as Broszat, Mason and Mommsen argue that the regime evolved out from pressures and circumstances rather than from Hitler’s intentions. They emphasise the institutional anarchy of the regime as being the result of Hitler’s ‘weak’ leadership. The most convincing standpoint is the

Adolf Hitler, born on April 20th 1889, became the leader of Nazi Germany. He used his power to try to eliminate the Jews, known as the non-superior race. Thousands and thousands of people of all ages died under Hitler’s leadership. Mass murder, starvation, abuse in many different degrees, and an overall genocide took place through out Germany during this time period. Many wonder how Hitler could have been so unethical and caused such a tragic time in history to take place. Scientists and psychological experts dig deep in Hitler’s life and past experiences to come up with an explanation of his inhuman leadership during the holocaust. His childhood is where most experts believe his personality stemmed from.

In a letter to Bishop Mandell Creighton nineteenth century English historian, Lord Acton wrote “all power tends to corrupt and absolute power corrupts absolutely” (Martin). This essay analyzes the corruption of one of the world's most feared and powerful leaders Adolf Hitler. Adolf Hitler had once been the most feared man in all of the world when he became the dictator of Germany in 1933 and turned a country of poverty into a powerful war machine. Hitler's rise to power came after Germany's defeat in World War 1. After serving in the war as a messenger for the German Army and being in the hospital for mustard gas Hitler felt anger and defeat when Germany lost the war and when the country went into property. Later after recovering from the mustard

With Germans of all outlooks desperately seeking solutions for the nation's problems, Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party began their climb to power. 'Hitler was gifted with effective political talents. He offered an explanation for Germany's defeat, and a vision of Germany's future destiny, that played upon the fears, prejudices, and hopes of many Germans. He promised to rebuild Germany's power and restore its prosperity' (Isaacman, 16). This won the support of many Germans. Hitler was such an effective speaker that anything he said was believed even if it was not true.

As this primary source originated from an Australian it excludes what the speaker would foresee as ‘irrelevant’ information from the perspective of how Hitler saw his actions and believed he was doing a great good to the world rather than evil. Menzies biased views cloud this source from being completely accurate. For instance this source does not describe that happenings of what is occurring in Germany or the reason why Germany invaded Poland. Therefore this source could be classified as trustworthy only to an extent, because of the biased views of Prime Minister Gordon Menzies.

Karl Marx’s maxim that ‘men make their own history…under given and imposed conditions’ has been tainted by several revisionist historians as the catalyst for Hitler’s foreign policy. A.J.P. Taylor even goes on to argue that Hitler was not only continuing a policy of previous German governments but he also believes Hitler can not be directly implemented in the events which unleashed WW2. However, to attribute Hitler’s foreign policy purely to his opportunistic characteristics would be to ignore his personal motivations and both racist and expansionist ideology. This facile explanation also fails to look at Hitler’s intentions echoed fearlessly throughout his speeches, address, and party literature of reversing the Treaty of Versailles to

From the time Hitler and the Nazi’s took control of Germany in 1933 until the collapse of the Third Reich in 1945, the aim of the regime under the calculating guidance of Hitler himself sought no less than global conquest. This ambitious objective can be further dissected into short term and long term goals that provide insight into Hitler’s character, thoughts and actions.

The first source that will be evaluated is J. Noakes and G. Pridham’s documentary “Hitler’s War | 1939”, created in 2001. The origin of this source is valuable because Professor Adam Tooze is a British historian and was Reader in Modern European Economic History at the University of Cambridge and professor at Yale University. He also wrote a book that provides an interpretation of the dramatic period of statistical innovation between 1900 and the end of World War II. Sir Richard John Evans, FBA, FRSL, FRHistS is a British academic and historian, best known for his research on the history of Germany in the 19th and 20th centuries, particularly the Third Reich. He wrote several books about history of Germany and Hitler. Furthermore this source represents a clear point of view and evidence about Hitler’s dreams and beliefs for Germany because Professor Tooze and Sir Richard J. Evans are experts in European Economic and history of Germany. However this source is limited in that Professor Tooze argues that all Hitler wanted from war was to create a new master race to create a stronger Germany but Sir Evans argues that Hitler’s dream was to conquer eastern europe to create an

The article is written by Peter Ross Range, who's also the author of the book 1924: The year that made Hitler and his next book will examine Hitler's rise to power. So he is very well- known with the Dictator Adolf Hitler.

The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich was a summary of Adolf’s journey from his boyhood to his final decision to end his life. Shirer successfully made his case as he laid down many points that proved the foolishness of the German citizen in becoming aroused by Hitler’s power and not reacting to stop him from getting any more powerful. The point of view must be addressed. Based on the author’s choice of words and writing, it was clear that he had found Hitler distasteful as he uses the words restless, bitter, demonic, and ruthless to describe the Fuhrer throughout the book. Therefore the writings in the book could have been influenced by the fact that he lived and worked in the Third Reich and witnessed Adolf Hitler’s rise of power first hand. The audience of the book, based on the difficulty of reading and the content, should be for young adults and older, historians, and for anyone interested in this topic. The book could be used for further research into this subject or simply for the pleasure of new information that have never been seen before in other famous Holocaust stories such as The Diary of Anne Frank. This book will definitely stimulate further conversation among historians and history lovers and historiography on this subject as the author’s thesis is quite controversial. Overall, I have liked the thoroughness of this book and all the interesting insights in which I have never come upon with other books talking about the Third Reich, I don’t recommend taking this

In Masters of Death, Richard Rhodes examines what the Nazi Party of the 1930s and 1940s stemmed from, how they got to be in World War II, and why they had such an evil hatred for the Jews of Germany, Poland, and surrounding countries. When most people think of the Holocaust, they think of the more famous concentration camps like Auschwitz or Warsaw. But Richard Rhodes gives detailed accounts of more “non-famous” concentration camps. Hitler’s youth and upbringing is explained in the book and why some theorist believe that he convinced so many Germans to act upon the Jews. Richard Rhodes argues and describes in the book, “what made it possible for men, some of them ‘ordinary men,’ to kill so many people so ruthlessly?”

When considering historians accounts on whether Hitler was a “Weak dictator.” due to his erratic ineptitude as a leader or whether he was actually “The Master of the Third Reich.”, it’s essential to look upon the historians argument and whether it’s credible or not. With a look at the differing historian’s views it’s evident that there’s clear difference between the historians viewpoints; some portray Hitler to be a lazy and reluctant decision maker and was merely “One extreme element of the extensive malevolence that was the Nazi system.” Whereas others argue that Hitler had reached a state of absolutism as he controlled all areas of Nazi government and thus tailored a social Darwinist bureaucracy which was driven to implement his world view” . Both sides of the argument can be divided into two different aspects: Some historians argue from an ‘Intentionalist’ viewpoint where Hitler had total control whereas others would argue from a ‘Structualist’ viewpoint thus suggesting Hitler didn’t have full control due to his poly-cratic style of leadership and there was more than one element of rule within Nazi Germany.

“Hitler did not act alone in the conduct of foreign policy in the 1930’s neither did he dictate its course exclusively.” In the early years of Hitler’s reign Taylor was correct to identify him as an ordinary statesman because during this time there was a different formation of Government compared to the later years in the war. However, it is difficult in retrospect to dispute that Hitler was a normal statesman when looking at atrocities of his domestic policies such as; the extermination of Jews in concentration camps. The war was still in the public memory when ‘Origins’ was published and the myth created about Hitler that he was a madman with brutal policies was strongly embedded in society, therefore to argue against this would obviously create much controversy.