Assessing Leadership Style: Trait Analysis

Leader Personality Assessments in Support of Government Policy

suggests that the affinity with Hess might have bordered on the sex-
ual, confirmed for the author when he learned that in 1934 Hess
attended homosexual balls dressed in women's attire. It was also dur-
ing Hitler's time in prison that he developed a great admiration for
the Italian leader Benito Mussolini.

Sexual Life

In this section, the author considers the Vienna period, which began

in 1909, when Hitler was twenty years old. The author develops two

significant issues in this section. First is the observation by the

author that, by reading between the lines of Mem Kampf, one can

speculate that Hitler became infected with a venereal disease after

spending time with a Jewish prostitute. Second, there is some dis-

cussion of Hitler's involvement in homosexual circles.

In analyzing this period, the author observes that Hitler's "sex life

is as dual as is his political outlook. He is both homosexual and het-

erosexual; both Socialist and fervent Nationalist; both man and

woman." Inferring that what Hitler sought was "half mother and

half sweetheart," the author suggests that the frustration Hitler

experienced as a result of not finding the woman he needed led him

to escape into "brooding isolation and artificially dramatized public

life." When asked by his physician why he did not marry, Hitler

responded: "Marriage is not for me and never will be. My only bride

is my Motherland."

In discussions with a beautiful blonde married woman with whom

he was temporarily infatuated, Hitler spoke of his reaction of disgust

to the "wanton display and the Jewish materialism" that he experi-

enced in Berlin, adding, "I nearly imagined myself to be Jesus Christ

when he came to his Father's Temple." The author sees this as the

first indication of the "Messiah complex" that is believed to have

increasingly consumed Hitler. Ridiculed by the German and Conti-

nental press that spoke of Hitler as the "vest-pocket Mussolini," his

failure to march on Berlin led Hitler to see himself "in the role of the

Messiah with a scourge marching on that Babel of sin [Berlin] at the

head of a small gang of desperados who would inevitably be followed

by more and more of the dissatisfied elements throughout the

Reich."