denominator of politics, the rule of the masses.
Fascism and Nazism also appealed to the elitists,
who saw themselves as leading the masses.
The educated and better-off followers feared
above everything ‘social revolution’; they pre-
ferred the Nazi promise of ‘national revolution’
which would, they thought, enhance their career
opportunities. What made the Nazis so successful
was precisely the combination of physical force
in the streets, which was welcomed by anti-
communists, and the support of the ‘professionals’
in the army, civil service, the churches and educa-
tion. They, the supposedly educated elite, had
helped to undermine Weimar democracy even
in the years of prosperity, and made Nazism
respectable. In the absence of strong positive
support, democracy – and with it the rule of law –
is dangerously exposed. It could not survive the
economic blizzard of 1929 to 1932, which was
not the root cause of its downfall but more the
final blow. Nevertheless, there were regions of
Germany that did not succumb to the tidal wave
of Nazism even in 1933; this is true of the strongly
Catholic Rhineland and Bavaria. In the big indus-
trial cities, too, such as Berlin and Hamburg, most
factory workers in the beginning continued to
support the Social Democrats and the Commu-
nists. The rise of the Nazis to power was not the
inevitable consequence of the lost war, of inflation
and depression. It was not automatic, the result of
the inexorable working out of the disadvantages
besetting Germany after 1918. Hitler succeeded
because a sufficient mass of German people,
including many in leading positions of society,
chose to support what he stood for. While he did
not reveal all his aims, he did reveal enough to be
rejected by anyone believing in democracy and
basic human rights. Among mainly young Nazi
thugs there were many political and warped ideal-
ists. Other supporters were opportunists joining a
bandwagon for reasons of personal gain. Many
saw in Hitler a saviour who would end Germany’s
‘humiliation’ and the ‘injustices’ of Versailles.
No preparation for power was stranger or more
unlikely than Adolf Hitler’s. He lived for fifty-six
years, from his birth in the small Austrian town
of Braunau on 20 April 1889 until his suicide on
30 April 1945 in his bunker under the Reich
chancellery in Berlin. During the last twelve years
of his life he dominated first Germany and then
most of continental Europe. His impact on the
lives of millions was immense, responsible as he
was for immeasurable human misery. He believed
mankind to be engaged in a colossal struggle
between good and evil and he made this hysteri-
cal fantasy come true more nearly than any single
man had done before. Yet nothing in the first
thirty years of his life pointed to the terrible
impact he would make on history.
Mein Kampf, ‘My Struggle’, which Hitler
wrote during his short spell of imprisonment in
1924, glamorised his past. Hitler suffered no hard-
ship other than the consequences of his own early
restless way of life. His father was a conscientious
customs official who died when he was fourteen
years old; his mother was devoted and did her
best for her son, whose attachment to her was
deep. But Hitler could not accustom himself to
regular work, even during his secondary school
days. Supported financially by his mother, he
drifted into a lonely way of life, avoiding all regular
work, aspiring to be an artist. He attempted to
gain entrance to the Academy of Fine Arts in
Vienna but was rejected, as were the majority of
applicants. Nevertheless, in his nineteenth year he
moved to the Habsburg capital. His mother had
recently died from cancer; Hitler had cared for her
during the final traumatic phase, aided by a Jewish
doctor to whom he expressed his gratitude and
presented one of his watercolours.
For the next two years the money left to him
by his parents and an orphan’s pension provided
him with an adequate income. He could indulge
his fancies; he read a great deal and impractically
designed grandiose buildings in the backroom of
his lodgings. He continued in this lonely and
irregular lifestyle; soon all the money he had
inherited was spent.
There is little reliable information about his
next two years. He disappeared from view, living in
poverty without attempting regular work, relying
on charity and boarding in cheap hostels. It would
seem probable that he still dreamt of becoming an
architect and, more importantly, imbibed the
crude anti-Semitic and racialist ideas current in