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Hitler: Ascent: 1889-1939

(Adolf Hitler #1)

Volker Ullrich

4.43 · Rating details · 1,763 ratings · 238 reviews

A New York Times bestseller, this major new biography of Hitler puts an emphasis on the man himself: his personality, his temperament, and his beliefs.
Volker Ullrich's Hitler, the first in a two-volume biography, has changed the way scholars and laypeople alike understand the man who has become the personification of evil. Drawing on previously unseen papers and new schol ...more

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Paperback, 998 pages

Published October 24th 2017 by Vintage (first published September 30th 2013)

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May 18, 2017 Michael Finocchiaro rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: history, german-21st-c, biography

I cannot find any fault with Volker Ullrich's Hitler: Ascent 1889-1939. It is articulate, heavily researched, fearless in challenging long-held assumptions with historical facts and overall just a terrifying pleasure to read. Note that in the last volume of Karl Ove Knausgaard's My Struggle, there is a fantastic aside of several hundred pages about Hitler which also makes for an interesting read! Anyway, back to Ullrich...the next volume is supposed to appear in June 2020 from Bodley Head with I I cannot find any fault with Volker Ullrich's Hitler: Ascent 1889-1939. It is articulate, heavily researched, fearless in challenging long-held assumptions with historical facts and overall just a terrifying pleasure to read. Note that in the last volume of Karl Ove Knausgaard's My Struggle, there is a fantastic aside of several hundred pages about Hitler which also makes for an interesting read! Anyway, back to Ullrich...the next volume is supposed to appear in June 2020 from Bodley Head with ISBN: 9781847922878.

The author covers the events in Hitler's life up to 1939 interspersed with occasional chapters to illuminate parts of Hilter's dark personality. There are two chapters that deal with Hitler's relationship with women (and purported by apparently false rumors of homosexuality). Unlike his other cronies, he did not drink (à la Trump) and did not whore (unlike Trump) and was a vegetarian, and was - at least until his brief imprisonment at Landsberg in 1923) - probably a virgin. This author does not play up sexuality as a primary motivation in the manic psychosis of Hitler. His explanation is more than Hitler was tortured by feelings of inadequacy and economic inferiority which he overcompensated for in his incredible speaking voice, his perfect photographic memory, and his expert political maneuvering.

As for Klara Hitler's influence on Hitler, the tragedy of her early, untimely death probably did damage him, but - as posited by the author - his relationships with women such as Winifred Wagner, the widow of Richard Wagner's son Siegfried, seemed to be adequate substitutes - in this case Winifred would play an older woman despite being younger than Hitler. Note that this relationship was platonic and not sexual in all likelihood. That being said, it is clear that he felt women were "inferior creatures" because he was careful to ensure that all the people in positions of power were men and that the pretty much well-known liaison between Eva Braun and himself remain hidden from public scrutiny.

Hitler's father Alois was a brutal disciplinarian who savagely treated his wife and kids - albeit not uncommon at that time (or even, sadly, today) - and Hitler's mother Klara did her best to protect her favorite child, Adolf from the violence. He was a mediocre student and sort of a loner. Two important events happen when he is 18 years old: his mother is diagnosed by the Jewish family doctor, Eduard Bloch (Hitler grudgingly looked up at Bloch's window during Anschluss in Linz in 1938 as Bloch said after he narrow escape to the United States in 1941) with breast cancer in 1907, she improves under his care, Hitler is rejected from the Academy of Fine Arts in Vienna, and his mother dies of cancer in 1908 at the age of 47. It is likely that this rejection by the "establishment" (which haunted him from then on and was at the root of his detest of intellectuals) and the death of his mother that started to destroy his soul. That being said, he quickly developed a talent for hiding his true feelings as he hid his rejection from the school from his parents. In 1909, he moves to Vienna and becomes embittered by his struggle (well documented of course in Mein Kampf) to survive on his meager art skills. It is also at this time in Vienna that he began to imbibe anti-Semitism. Due to the economic factors, there was an influx of Jews from eastern Europe into Vienna leading many to fear that Vienna was being "Jewified". It seems likely that Hitler wanted to place the blame of his own failure to succeed and advance personally on an external factor and like many Austrians of that epoch, he settled on the Jews as a convenient and popular scapegoat. But, for the moment, his changing views did not make him the outspoken demagogue that he would later become in Munich to which he emigrated in May 1913. Other than a squabble with Austrian authorities over military service, he was still a relatively quiet, friendless person.

After the assassination of Archduke Ferdinand and his wife in Sarajevo on 28 June 1914, all of Germany was caught up in a wave of nationalism leading up to Germany's declaration of war. In reality, this wave was political manipulation by Kaiser Wilhelm II and Chancellor Bethmann Hollweg who propagandized external threats from Russia as the bogeyman: by feeding this fear of invasion, they stoked up a cross-class, cross-party fire of nationalism resulting in massive public demonstrations such as those in Munich from July to October 1914 which Hitler witnessed and in which he was caught up emotionally. He immediately tried to get enlisted to fight for the Germans and was sent to Lechfield in the "List" Regiment (so named for its first commander Colonel Julien List).

There is a fascinating and absolutely critical historical sidenote here (page 53), where the author explains that when the German army retreated in September 1914 to the Marne having failed to encircle and destroy the French army, that the war has already lost on paper and yet this fact was never released to the public. This is particularly critical because, in his later rhetoric, Hitler would always put Germany in the position as the victim of aggression whereas the truth was utterly different. And since the public was never told the truth, they believed Hitler and the NSDAP's "fake news" which justified in their minds the extreme measures that the Nazis began to take in the 20s and 30s to "revenge German honor" supposedly lost during WWI.

Hitler's baptism by fire (p55-57) was the near-complete annihilation of the "List" Regiment including its namesake and commander near Ulm in October 1914). In mid-November 1914, near the western front, Hitler left a tent where the new commandant of the List company, Philipp Engelhard just 5 minutes before the tent was shelled and its occupants seriously injured or killed - one of many lucky escapes that Hitler would play up in his "divine mission" in Mein Kampf in that he felt that "God" had saved him. Hitler became a courier between the regimental command and the front line and was present at the horrific Battle of the Somme. Here again, he luckily survives but on October 5, 1916, Hitler was hit by shrapnel when the staff bunker was hit by a shell. While he was recovering behind the lines, he learned of the accusations of profiteering leveled against the Jews (although, in truth, it was the corrupt government safely behind the battle lines was engaged in profiteering but conveniently fermenting these anti-Semitic lies to hide their tracks.) This was particularly disingenuous as thousands of Jews were fighting in the trenches for Germany. Hitler's List Regiment continued to participate in all the major skirmishes up to the end of the war with heavy casualties. Another great irony of history is that it was likely that Jewish lieutenant Hugo Gutmann was probably the person that put Hitler up for the Iron Cross. Hitler's thanks? "We had a Jew in our regiment, Gutmann, a coward beyond compare." (p. 70). In October 1918, his unit went back to the front where he was nearly blinded by mustard gas.

I will be less verbose about the rest of Hitler's career - I just learned so much about the formation of Hitler's psyche in the years leading up to the 20s that I wanted to spend some time on them.

It was horrifying to read about how Hitler decapitated and recuperated the DAP (German Worker's Party) and soon NSDAP (same with National Socialist) party which became his primary vehicle to taking power. I knew that a primary motivation for Hitler's rise was the unfairness of the Treaty of Versailles after WWI, but what I didn't know was that when Hitler was in Munich during later 1918, he witnessed first-hand the Bolshevik Republic of Bavaria - a short-lived Communist revolution that was mercilessly repressed by a mercenary group, the Freikorps (which gave Hitler ideas for the SA and later the SS) sent by the government in Berlin. From this moment on, Hitler becomes virulently anti-Semitic and anti-Communist - two subjects that became interchangeable in his invective. While his paranoia versus the Communists can be understood based on the Revolution of October 1917 and the small-scale revolution he witnessed in 1918 in Munich, the anti-Semitism that came to be such a core value for Hitler remains, for me at least, still somewhat mysterious. As Ullrich points out, Jews made up only 1,9% of the population of Germany, but there had always been pogroms against them - under the pretense of "Jesus killers" and the like. It was sad to learn that Dachau was opened as soon as Hitler was declared Chancellor in 1933. They wasted little time in unleashing their violence. I felt physically ill reading in particularly about Krystallnacht. Horrifying.

Suffice it to say that the entire book is incredibly informative and thought-provoking. It is HIGHLY recommended for those who wish to understand how monsters are created and how monstrous regimes are born out of ignorance and concessions to ignorance. In the present period, fascism is still a real and present risk and must be fought.

The world has not gotten beyond it's latent (and not so latent) racism and anti-Semitism and books like Volker Ullrich's Hitler Ascent make an irrefutable case for caution and the dangers of underestimating the capacity for evil and manipulation by populist rabble-rousers. Still weeks later, this book echoes in my mind. With the Fascists gaining 100 seats in the Bundestag on 24 Sept 2017, unfortunately, the nightmare is still a threat even 80 years later :( ...more

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Mar 09, 2017 Julie rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: non-fiction, 2017, history, e-book, ww2, politics

Hitler: The Ascent (1889-1939) by Volker Ullrich is a 2016 Knopf publication.

Obviously, this is not the type of book I typically read. My husband and son read books, watch documentaries, and movies about world war two all the time, and I always find something else to do.

While I do enjoy reading about history, this period of history and the topic of war is just not my thing. Hitler is a person I prefer not to think about and I certainly don’t like the images that war conjures up. So, why did I ...more

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Mar 27, 2016 Maru Kun rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: c-germany, biographical, the-past-20thc, the-past-ww2

When I see leading historians of 1930’s Germany being asked if the Nazis and the Trump administration have anything in common I used to expect them to chuckle politely, quote Godwin’s Law and tell us how different 21st century America is from pre-WW2 Europe. Sad to say, but this is not what they do.

Well before Trump expressed his sympathy for the “…good people…” attending the neo-Nazi rally in Charlottesville, Richard J. Evans was writing about how the Trump administration was ‘Too Close for Com ...more

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Feb 16, 2020 Michael Perkins rated it really liked it

Thanks to a NYT review of this book by Michiko Kakutani (that actually came out before Trump was elected) we have the following bullet points to sum up Hitler as presented in Volker Ullrich's biography..

Seriously who does this remind us of in every detail?

• Hitler was often described as an egomaniac who “only loved himself” — a narcissist with a taste for self-dramatization and a “characteristic fondness for superlatives.” His manic speeches and penchant for taking all-or-nothing risks raised qu ...more

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Apr 28, 2016 Paul rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: history

Hitler – Demystified

Most people today think that they know a lot about Hitler, that any more books about him are a waste of time and add nothing. This book on Hitler is the Volker Ullrich’s first volume on Hitler, that demystifies some of the ‘legends’ that have grown around him, examines how this Austrian came to lead Germany, rebuild confidence in the country and build a cult around himself.

In my opinion this magisterial volume builds and compliments the work of Sir Ian Kershaw and Ullrich al Hitler – Demystified

Most people today think that they know a lot about Hitler, that any more books about him are a waste of time and add nothing. This book on Hitler is the Volker Ullrich’s first volume on Hitler, that demystifies some of the ‘legends’ that have grown around him, examines how this Austrian came to lead Germany, rebuild confidence in the country and build a cult around himself.

In my opinion this magisterial volume builds and compliments the work of Sir Ian Kershaw and Ullrich also admits as much in his introduction to this 760 paged volume. Ullrich has also been able to use the few sources that have become available since the publication of Kershaw’s two volumes, as well as re-reading all existing research sources.

My Great-grandfather was born in Lwow/Lemberg in 1889, part of Polish Galicia that was then under Austrian control, the same year Hitler was born in Austria itself. Both fought in the First World War technically on the same side, but like most Poles it was with no great love for Austrian it was because they were forced to defend Polish Galicia from the Russians. In 1918 my Great-Grandfather was celebrating the end of the war and the rebirth of Poland that had escaped the clutches of Austria. Whereas Hitler was in Germany licking his wounds like many Germans, blaming the leadership of Germany for selling them out. These events would affect both differently, but one went on to reap his revenge on Poland amongst others.

Ullrich as well as building on what Kershaw told the world about Hitler, he takes a look at Hitler the man and attempts to give us a forensic account of the person up to 1939. It has always been a mystery to many how Hitler was able to mesmerise the German people and take over the instruments of power with little to no resistance.

What we do learn is that Hitler was the ultimate salesman who could sell dreams to people who needed something they could hold on to. What is interesting is how lazy Hitler actually was, how after his walk at the Berghof with his entourage, he would be driven back while everyone else was made to walk. He could not drive, nor swim and with his love of the alps could not ski!

Most books on Hitler try to paint the man as having hidden depths, this book shatters that image completely. What Hitler did understand, the need to control the narrative, the overarching message you want to expand and make people believe. This is very much the concept of the modern politician and public relations consultant, he who owns the narrative controls the story the public will receive.

Something that Ullrich does discuss is the love life Hitler had, such as it was, and that he was attracted to teenagers, and that led to the suicide of his own 17-year-old niece. It does come across that it was quite complicated and not what the public perceived.

There are many interesting chapters in this volume that cover many topics from the early life of Hitler, through the War and Versailles, to the failed putsch and on to writing Mein Kampf. We are also told that Hitler’s antisemitism that developed was different to his actual interactions with Jews.

This is one of the most important books on Hitler that has ever been published especially as this starts to peel away the mask of Hitler the man rather than the Hitler the projected leader. This is an excellent volume that gets under Hitler’s skin, makes us see the man as a charlatan who happened to be lazy, shallow, attracted to teenage girls rather than women his age and very narrow minded.

This is an excellent volume that all students of German History should be required to read and absorb. Ullrich has been able to approach the subject with sensitivity as well as honesty and paints the picture that succeeds in breaking down the myths that have built up around Hitler the person.
...more

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Oct 02, 2020 Bryan Alkire rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Good biography. This is a reread for me. I’m not quite as impressed second time around, but still good. I preferred the chapters dealing with Hitler’s family, childhood, young adulthood and aspects of his personal life. I could have done without quite so detailed chapters on the history of the third Reich generally. Still, since the Reich was basically Hitler, I understand why the author did it that way. The writing is mostly readable though the book could have been shortened a bit. Still, I wou ...more

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Oct 12, 2016 Steven Z. rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

The public’s fascination with Adolf Hitler remains strong even sixty years after his suicide in the Fuhrer bunker in April, 1945. To date over 120,000 books have been written about Hitler and Volker Ullrich’s new biography, HITLER: ASCENT 1889-1939 is a welcome addition to this ever increasing bibliography. Up until now Ian Kershaw’s two volume work was the recognized standard in this genre replacing earlier volumes by Alan Bullock, and Joachim Fest as the most comprehensive works on Hitler. Ker The public’s fascination with Adolf Hitler remains strong even sixty years after his suicide in the Fuhrer bunker in April, 1945. To date over 120,000 books have been written about Hitler and Volker Ullrich’s new biography, HITLER: ASCENT 1889-1939 is a welcome addition to this ever increasing bibliography. Up until now Ian Kershaw’s two volume work was the recognized standard in this genre replacing earlier volumes by Alan Bullock, and Joachim Fest as the most comprehensive works on Hitler. Kershaw argued that Hitler was motivated by two obsessions as he pushed Germany toward war; the removal of the Jews, and German expansion to the east. Overall, Ullrich agrees with Kershaw’s thesis, but what makes his book so important is his ability to synthesize the vast material that has already exists, his access to a great deal of new primary materials, and it has been almost twenty years since Kershaw’s work was published. Ullrich should be commended for his voluminous research supported by his extensive endnotes. These endnotes contain a treasure-trove of information for scholars of the Nazi regime, their leaders, and their rise to power.

Many wonder what the keys were to Hitler’s success. Ullrich correctly depicts a man who was able to conceal his real intentions from friends and foes alike as one of the keys to his success. He had the ability to instantly analyze political situations and exploit them, including his political opposition. His success rests on his improvisational style of leadership where he created numerous internal conflicts from which he emerged as the indispensable man. Ullrich breaks the myth that Hitler lacked personal relationships arguing that he was able to separate his political and private spheres which impacted his pursuit of power greatly. Another key that Ullrich stresses in understanding Hitler is examining the reciprocal nature of his relationship with the German people that contributed to his enormous popularity. It was not a forgone conclusion that Hitler would come to power, but domestic opposition leaders underestimated his abilities, as would foreign leaders after he consolidated power in 1934. Ullrich’s aim “is to deconstruct the myth of Hitler, the ‘fascination with monstrosity’ that has greatly influenced historical literature and public discussion of the Fuhrer after 1945. In a sense, Hitler will he ‘normalised’—although this will not make him seem more ‘normal.’ If anything, he will emerge as even more horrific.”

Ullrich’s study is extremely comprehensive. He does not spend a great deal of time concerning Hitler’s childhood and upbringing, just enough to explore a few myths associated with Hitler’s childhood which he debunks, i.e.; he did not grow up in poverty as his father Alois had a good pension; he did not blame the Jews for the death of his mother from cancer; and he did not blame the Jews for his inability to be admitted to the Academy of Fine Arts The biography becomes detailed as the Ullrich explores the effect Fin-de-Siècle Austria on Hitler and the author does an excellent job reviewing the historiography pertaining to Hitler’s intellectual development. Hitler is presented as an autodidact who was self-educated which explains how he acquired his anti-Semitic prejudices and German nationalist ideas. But it is Hitler’s experience in World War I that shaped the man, without which he would have remained “a nobody” with pretensions of being an artist.

Ullrich’s work successfully shifts the focus of his study on to Hitler the person as is evidenced by an excellent chapter, “Hitler the Human Being.” It is here that Ullrich delves into Hitler’s behavior and personality and tries to lift the mask that makes it difficult to penetrate Hitler’s shifting persona. Hitler’s personality is a compilation of dichotomies.* He was a dictator who kept people at a distance, but sought company to avoid being alone with himself. He could be caring and empathetic at times, but at the same time he could commit or order brutal acts. Ullrich is correct in pointing out that Hitler was an actor and chameleon who was able to manipulate others who did not see through him as he overcame his personal insecurities and was able to shift many of them on to the German people in order to seize power.

Other important chapters include “Month of Destiny: January 1933,” where Ullrich details Hitler’s path to the Chancellorship by taking the reader through the numerous elections, the strategies pursued by Hitler and his cohorts, the approach taken by the opposition, and the political infighting on all sides of the political spectrum. January 30, 1933 became the turning point in the history of the twentieth century, but at the time Ullrich correctly points out leaders and the German public were not totally aware of its significance because most power brokers believed that the Franz von Papen-Paul von Hindenburg-Alfred Hugenberg alliance would be able to control Hitler. As is repeatedly pointed out in the narrative it was just another example of people underestimating the new German Chancellor. When examining if there were opportunities to stop Hitler’s ascent, Ullrich recapitulates the ideas of Karl Dietrich Bracher’s THE GERMAN DICTATORSHIP published in 1972. Further, no one should have been surprised by Hitler’s actions after he rose to power, because his speeches, other public utterances, and his book MEIN KAMPF carefully delineated what he proposed to do.

In the realm of what he did do it is carefully reconstructed in the chapters, “Totalitarian Revolution,” and “Eviscerating Versailles.” After achieving power on January 30, 1933 over the next year we witness the Nazi consolidation of power through the creation of the first concentration camp at Dachau; the passage of the Enabling Act, or “The Law to Remedy the Distress of the People and the Reich,” which was used to create a dictatorship in the hands of the Chancellor as Hitler could now formulate laws without the approval of the Reichstag; and lastly, The Night of the Long Knives which destroyed the SA and the last vestige of political opposition. As far as Hitler’s foreign policy was concerned the enemy was the Bolshevik-Jewish conspiracy and the key to its destruction was the step by step dismantling of the Treaty of Versailles. Ullrich takes us through this process and the tactic Hitler employed throughout the period was to simultaneously appear as conciliatory and presenting his adversaries with a fait accompli, i.e., German military rearmament and the occupation of the Rhineland in March, 1936. The response of the west was one of appeasement and Hitler recreated a strategy that worked so effectively domestically – implementing policy that fostered foreign diplomats to underestimate him. Overall, there is little that is new in this part of the narrative, but Ullrich’s clear analysis and Jefferson Chase’s excellent translation make events and policies easy to understand, particularly the historical implications that would result in World War II.

After reading Ullrich’s narrative I am not certain he has met his goal of “humanizing” Hitler because no matter how the material is presented he remains the historical monster that his actions and belief system support. To Ullrich’s credit he has written a carefully constructed biography that should be seen as the most comprehensive biography of Hitler to date, and I look forward to the second volume that will carry us through the end of World War II.

*To explore Hitler from a psychological perspective you might consult:
Binion, Rudolph. HITLER AMONG THE GERMANS
Langer, Walter. THE MIND OF ADOLF HITLER
Waite, Robert. HITLER: THE PSYCHOPATHIC GOD
...more

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Jan 15, 2017 Spencer Quinn rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

This is a review of the hardcover, not the audio. This is the third of the 4 major Hitler bios that I've read. In some strange way, the appalling story never gets old. Ullrich is a very good writer with an instinct for the telling details and where to put them. Despite that, I could only read the book in twenty or thirty page chunks. It's just too depressing - how lucky Hitler was, how many times his way could have been blocked forever but was not, the disgusting character of the other top Nazis ...more

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Jan 09, 2017 Adrian Hon rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Highly readable yet excruciatingly detailed account of Hitler's rise to power. Volker Ullrich is both a historian and a journalist, and it shows, since he makes this one of the most accessible 'serious' biographies I've ever read.

Like everyone who's taken GCSE History, I know the bullet points of pre-WW2 Germany: how Hitler was a frustrated artist, the Beer Hall putsch, Night of the Long Knives, Kristallnacht, "peace in our time", etc. This book turns them into a story that makes sense.

What's u ...more

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Jun 28, 2017 Calzean rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: culture-germany, culture-austria, history, nonfiction, author-germany, biography-autobiography-memoir

Extremely detailed (maybe a tad too much detail at times). Nonetheless, this book covers Hitler's rise to power and provides analysis into his personal life, relationships with the German people, the churches and his ability to instil a messiah-like faith in his capabilities.
A 750 page tome, where Hitler's early life up to the end of WWI is covered in the first 70 pages. So little is known of his early life. Ullrich's book goes on to show how little is known about Hitler the man. While it is kno ...more

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Jan 06, 2019 Antonio Nunez rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Ullrich’s first volume of his Hitler biography is superb. Perhaps we are now far away from Hitler to be able to see him at least somewhat dispassionately. In this book Hitler the watercolor painter, the soldier, the rabble rouser, the politician, the lover, comes alive. He was a rather pedestrian man, of conventional tastes, but quite cultured and exceptionally smart and tough. He had no friends, only associates and these only inasmuch as they were useful. He was a gifted actor and a master mani ...more

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May 13, 2020 Bogdan rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: world-war-ii, germany, biography

Truly an excellent and detailed book about the life and ascension of Hitler until 1939 !

Highly recommended!

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Nov 28, 2020 Lynn rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Outstanding First of a Two Volume Biography

This is an excellent biography of Adolf Hitler in the ascent of his rise rise as Fuhrer. It covers his childhood, trouble in school, attempt at being a painter and his entrance as a soldier in WWI. Later he becomes involved in the government using repeated tropes, that Jews were the cause of the Treaty of Versailles, the problems with the government and working steadily to increase popularity and power. The book goes up to 1939 when he has invaded Czec ...more

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Nov 08, 2017 Eric rated it really liked it · review of another edition

I've been having one of those weeks when I finish several books that I've been working on for a long time, and I clear the decks!

Like the title says, this book covers Hitler's life up to the weeks before Germany invaded Poland and started World War II. By that time, Britain, France, and the United States had had enough of Hitler. He had shown himself to be utterly untrustworthy. As the author makes clear, by the time Hitler brought himself to the brink of global war, his fate was already sealed. ...more

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Sep 24, 2016 Steve rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

An interesting biography of Adolf Hitler. I have read many biographies of Adolf Hitler and besides Ian Kershaw's 2 volume biography, This one ranks as the best. Hitler Ascent, 1889-1939 goes into his early childhood and throughout his struggling years as a artist in Vienna until serving in the German Army during World War I where he recovered in a hospital from a gas attack. He was involved in 1923 in the Beer Hall Putsch and started a revolution to overthrow the government which was unsuccessfu ...more

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Oct 27, 2016 Marks54 rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

The first volume (with a second volume to follow) of Volker Ullrich's new biography of Hitler is very good. There are lots of Hitler biographies out there and this one is comparable to the greats, such as Kershaw's two volume work. Why the need for a new Hitler bio? Ullrich addresses this himself in the introduction - he has some new sources to tap and there is such interest that new generations need to be reintroduced this is very strange man. In part, the topic is fascinating. Besides Jesus, t The first volume (with a second volume to follow) of Volker Ullrich's new biography of Hitler is very good. There are lots of Hitler biographies out there and this one is comparable to the greats, such as Kershaw's two volume work. Why the need for a new Hitler bio? Ullrich addresses this himself in the introduction - he has some new sources to tap and there is such interest that new generations need to be reintroduced this is very strange man. In part, the topic is fascinating. Besides Jesus, this is likely the most written about man ever, and his rule really did reshape the world. ... but this could lead to bad new biographies just as easily to good ones. The strength of the book comes from how Ullrich, an accomplished historian and journalist, has approached Hitler. On the one hand, the life is told as it unfolds, with Hitler moving through stages, during which he makes choices and acts, with consequences that shape what comes next. Along with this traditional way to construct a story, Ullrich also writes his book with an acknowledgement of his unique subject that looks back over the whole story to identify the origins of what Hitler became. So for example, when does the monstrous anti-semite Hitler first display himself? When did his speaking capabilities arise? When did his caution give rise to world threatening arrogance and brinksmanship? The result is a complex story, with lots of details, but a really compelling account. Ullrich also trades off between sequential story telling (typical in a bio) and a topical treatment of key issues, such as Hitler's personal life or his evolving strategy towards organized religion in Germany. The result is a view of Hitler has having arrived on the scene more or less developed by the mid-1920s. This is also a view that highlights Hitler as an exceptional actor/liar who could present many faces to the world and could jump in and out of different roles with relative ease.

In developing this complex view of Hitler the leader, Ullrich also emphasizes how the led were actually led - how Hitler managed his party and his regime. The disorder of Nazi rule has long been recognized by such historians as Bracher, and Ullrich makes Hitler's presentational multi-tasking and his "divide and conquer" management style as central to his success. This is a very enlightening book because of these perspectives and how Ullrich ties them together. I cannot wait until the second volume is written and translated. The first volume takes us up to the outbreak of World War II.

I can only touch on the book's richness here. For example, I just finished a new book on TE Lawrence (Lawrence in Arabia) followed by Lawrence's memoirs. The comparison between Hitler and Lawrence at different times is obvious. They were born within a year of each other (Lawrence was older.) Both were shaped by disenchantment following WW1, although in very different ways. Both thrived in combat but were more unsettled by peace. Both were cultural outsiders seeking new and somewhat adopted identities with somewhat mixed success - the Austrian who would be German and the British Oxford grad who identified more with the Arabs than with England. The legacy of both was shaped by their writings and both became very public constructed persons while individual behind the public persona remains a bit unclear for both to this day. I could go on.

That is only the first comparison that comes to mind. I am sure there are more.

This book gained some notoriety from a recent NYT review that seemed to tie Hitler to the current US election cycle and one of the candidates. A careful reading of the review, which I strongly recommend, shows a masterful piece of editorial choice in emphasizing aspects of Hitler that appeared to have parallels in a certain candidate. A careful reading of the book, however, will quickly raise some critical dimensions (military experience, relationships with women) where Hitler could hardly be more different than the candidate. That is OK. I never entertained a strict parallel with the candidate - there are fundamental differences. The comparison is a useful one to analyze, even with the significant differences. Ullrich has even written about it, although I suspect he does not mind it - since it might otherwise to sell large numbers of a 1000 page biography. If it gets people to read more history, that is fine with me. ...more

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May 30, 2020 Stephen rated it it was amazing

Shelves: favourites-non-fiction, my-top-5-books-read-in-2020

This must have been the most compulsive book that I have ever read. Normally with a biography of this size there is some part that you just want to get through to get to the more exciting sections but that never happened at all with this. The whole thing was fascinating and unbelievably thorough in covering subjects from all angles. There must have been a huge amount of research involved.

I knew the gist of the subject matter but this book was difference in that it really shows you Hitler as a pe ...more

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Nov 30, 2016 Robert Miller rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

So much has been written about Hitler that I confess that I was of the opinion that a book of this size would be mired down with boring expatiating writing and endless copious footnote references: Otherwise, I thought, how could the book contain 758 pages. How could such a book be interesting? But the book does contain much information that has not collectively appeared in other related books I have read about Hitler and it is a fascinating read (I cheated by buying the audible and hardcover ver ...more

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Feb 17, 2017 Mike rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: european-history, non-fiction, 20th-century-euro, world-war-2-era, 2017-read

This is a difficult book to rate. It is obviously an incredibly detailed look at the life of Hitler and his rise to power up to the German takeover of Czechoslovakia. The problem for me was the details. They were overwhelming. There were hundreds, if not thousands of names in this that I did not recognize and had a hard time following. At some points it felt as if this book was dealing with issues one day or one week at a time. It also focused almost exclusively on Hitler. Many history books wou ...more

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Nov 05, 2016 Joseph Raffetto rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: biography

Hitler: Ascent, 1889-1939 is a well-researched and well-written biography.

Ullrich's task of bringing this to life is challenging for one reason: Hitler is not interesting. There's almost nothing about Hitler the person that's compelling.

Orwell wrote that Hitler was a "criminal lunatic." That's the consistent theme of this book and Hitler never diverts from being a criminal lunatic. And not even an interesting lunatic.

However, this is a detailed and fascinating portrait of Hitler's rise to powe ...more

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Sep 16, 2020 Tim Julian rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

I've read a few Hitler biographies over the years, most notably those by Alan Bullock and Ian Kershaw, but this one sounded like it broke new ground so I thought I'd give it a go. It's excellent, sober and detailed while still managing to be extremely readable.
Earlier biographies, understandably anxious to avoid burnishing the myth, have tended to underplay Hitler's talents, leading the reader to wonder how such a mediocre and repulsive nobody came to wield such power. Ullrich is scrupulous in s ...more

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Jan 13, 2017 John Collins rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Strange as it sounds, I'd been looking for a biography last year that covered the rise of Hitler–not the war years, but the years of his coming to power. In our current events climate in which authoritarianism took a higher profile, this historical context seemed worthwhile, even if there was not a direct correlation between Hitler and current events.

I researched a few titles and didn't feel they were quite what I was looking for, so the NY Times review of "Hitler: Ascent, 1889-1939" (https://ww ...more

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Oct 29, 2016 Mark rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Not a pleasant or enjoyable subject to read about, but I think it is absolutely critical to understand, right here and right now, exactly how a raving maniac was able to subvert an elected government and seize absolute power. I'm hoping the US will be lucky this time, but bear in mind, it took Hitler a couple tries before he was successful.

Absolutely stunning historical biography. Ullrich has digested all of the primary and secondary sources and produced not just a gripping narrative of Hitler' Not a pleasant or enjoyable subject to read about, but I think it is absolutely critical to understand, right here and right now, exactly how a raving maniac was able to subvert an elected government and seize absolute power. I'm hoping the US will be lucky this time, but bear in mind, it took Hitler a couple tries before he was successful.

Absolutely stunning historical biography. Ullrich has digested all of the primary and secondary sources and produced not just a gripping narrative of Hitler's rise to power, but a deep cultural analysis of the people, cities, environment, and social-governmental structures that led to the rise of Hitler and Nazism. There is so much detail in this book that it is difficult to isolate what is most striking about the book--it's all remarkable, and I learned something new on almost every page. There are two things, though, that stood out for me:

The author makes brilliant use of the primary sources to tell the story for him. There were a couple in particular that stood out for me. Viktor Klemperor's journals are quoted extensively, and I had read some excerpts from his diaries that were published in English several years ago. Ullrich also quoted extensively from the diaries of Count Harry Kessler, particularly from volume 9, which covers the events in the thirties when Hitler seized and subsequently completed his absolute grip on power. A few years ago a substantial selection of Kessler's diaries was published in English, but unfortunately, the selections only went up to 1918. I hope the publisher gets around to publishing more.

I was also struck by the chapter on Hitler's attempts to subvert both the Protestant and Catholic churches in Germany in the thirties. Because the churches were so firmly entrenched in German culture, he was not able to completely subvert them, at least in the thirties. This appears to be one of the very few areas where Hitler was not able to achieve complete and total control, and that was new and surprising to me.

The book is vast and extremely detailed, and I would recommend it highly to anyone interested in the era. The narrative is powerful, but more importantly, the careful and detailed use of the sources was deeply educational. One of my measures of the excellence of any book is how many further books I throw on to my reading list as a result of reading. I added no fewer than five books to my to-read pile as a result of reading Ullrich, and I'm sure I will find a few more as I review my notes on the book. Highly recommended. ...more

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Feb 11, 2017 Anaïs rated it really liked it · review of another edition

this book is great and wild and readable and tough and gruesome. hitler was just like everyone else while still being a monster. terrifying.

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Nov 15, 2017 Alex rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Ends with such a cliffhanger. Now I need to wait for the second book to find out what happens next!

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Jan 30, 2017 Dick Reynolds rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

This is a difficult book to read; you know what’s coming and there’s nothing you can do to save the lives of millions of innocent people. Nevertheless, it provides many insights into Hitler’s character, how he achieved power in Germany after WWI, and some cautionary lessons for Americans in the 21st century.
Adolph was Klara Hitler’s fourth child and the only one who survived childhood. Klara developed breast cancer when he was a youth and she was treated by Dr. Eduard Bloch. Bloch removed the This is a difficult book to read; you know what’s coming and there’s nothing you can do to save the lives of millions of innocent people. Nevertheless, it provides many insights into Hitler’s character, how he achieved power in Germany after WWI, and some cautionary lessons for Americans in the 21st century.
Adolph was Klara Hitler’s fourth child and the only one who survived childhood. Klara developed breast cancer when he was a youth and she was treated by Dr. Eduard Bloch. Bloch removed the tumor but the cancer came back several years later and Klara died. Though Bloch was a Jew, Hitler later took measures to protect him which allowed Bloch to escape Germany for Portugal and eventually reach America.
Hitler spent several years as a young man in Vienna and managed to live on a modest inheritance without having any kind of a job. During WWI, he served in the German army as a runner on his regiment’s staff. He was wounded by shrapnel in the leg, reached the rank of PFC, and received a minor decoration.
After the war, Hitler lived in Bavaria and became active in politics, a vocation which he grasped with cleverness and great ambition. He and such colleagues as Heinrich Himmler, attempted to overthrow the regime in November 1923 but their putsch failed. Hitler was interned in Landsberg prison for several years where he had a lot of free time to read, write, and make friends with other inmates such as Rudolf Hess, a man who would become his deputy Fuhrer many years later. Hitler’s only book, Mein Kampf, was a byproduct of his imprisonment, and a tome that provided a roadmap for his intended rise to power. When he eventually became Germany’s leader, he received considerable royalties thanks to rising book sales.
Hitler was a ruthless politician and chronic liar, plotting his campaigns to win elections and eliminate the competition. He was also a superb orator and electrified audiences at large political or sporting events. Beside Hermann Goering, Hess and Himmler, one of his closest advisors was Joseph Goebbels, a master of propaganda dissemination. Most government officials were reluctant to disagree with him and, in one infamous incident known as The Night of Long Knives, at least ninety men who opposed him were murdered by Hitler’s thugs. Goebbels announced on the radio that night, “We’re cleaning house.”
One of Hitler’s central themes was that Germany had been treated unfairly after WWI by the Treaty of Versailles and the true winners were Jews who profited greatly from the the war. Early in Hitler’s rule, Jews were hated and allowed to emigrate. As time went by, Hitler’s regime attacked the Jews and confiscated their property and money. In a tragic Catch-22, those unfortunate people who remained were doomed to eventual relocation to a concentration camp and certain death.
There’s an interesting chapter dealing with Hitler’s relationship with women. He had a friendship with (Valkyrie) Unity Mitford, one of the six famous Mitford sisters, but it was probably a gambit to learn more about England’s political intentions. Hitler also had a relationship with his half-niece, Geli Raubal. He controlled her personal life much too closely and forbid her to have a romantic relationship with a man her own age. She was found dead in her apartment at age twenty-three, an apparent suicide with a gunshot wound to her heart. Hitler’s real love was Eva Braun. He took special pains to keep this relationship private and only his immediate staff knew that she was his mistress. Hitler maintained that he should appear to have complete focus on Germany’s global position and the welfare of its citizens; he thought of himself as pure and prophet like Jesus.
The last part of the book deals with the Anschluss of Austria and the acquisition of the Sudetenland of Czechoslovakia, all under the premise that the German people needed Lebensraum or “breathing space.” Hitler had to walk a fine line with these actions because he was confronted with opposition by Mussolini, England, France and Czechoslovakian leaders. The German military was poised to act but war was averted at the last minute when everyone backed down.
This booked weighs in at a thousand pages of text and photos with the last one quarter devoted to footnotes, references and an index. The author plans a sequel which will cover Hitler’s activities from 1939 to his eventual death. ...more

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Jan 06, 2018 Chuck Slack rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

I wanted to understand how Hitler came to power and how his views became accepted, endorsed, and implemented by others. This book, translated from German, is very well written and researched. It is not an easy read, to be expected, but if you can commit the energy and time, it is well worth it. Very highly recommended.

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Feb 01, 2018 Bittersweet rated it really liked it · review of another edition

A well-studied and resourced book I wanted to read in part because many of my ancestors are of German heritage but also because I want to know WHY, HOW, did this happen? Who knew, would have or could have could have suspected how horrific the final outcome and the unfathomable number of innocent lives that would be lost. I have seen throughout the course of reading this book and another that it wasn't just the Germans who failed, the world at large who failed to stop a bully who would cause bloo ...more

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Apr 08, 2018 Thordur rated it liked it

Shelves: biographies, history

This is a book for people who love history and to know what really happened in Germany between the two world wars. If you thought you knew how Hitler really was, you might find yourself really wrong about him. This book shows you his character and behaviour. It brings you his politics and ideas, like for instance the idea of bringing all the German Jews to Madagascar 1937 or so. And it tells you about his love affairs. How one of his girlfriends killed herself, other one tried to and how Eva Bra ...more

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Mar 17, 2018 Matt rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: favorites

Gerhard Weinberg wrote of the "30 years European civil war" in reference to the first and second World Wars. It becomes apparent Gavrilo Princip's murder of Archduke Franz Ferdinand set in motion events unbound in their specter. Simply put, without the Great War and its ramifications the rise of Hitler is a near impossibility. The details of which are explored in this deeply sourced and well-written biography by Volker Ullrich. The only thing I can say for sure about this book is that while hist ...more

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About Volker Ullrich

Volker Ullrich

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Volker Ullrich was born in Celle. He studied history, literature, philosophy and education at the University of Hamburg. From 1966 to 1969 he was assistant to the Hamburg’s Egmont Zechlin Chair. He graduated in 1975 after a dissertation on the Hamburg labour movement of the early 20th Century, after which he worked as a Hamburg school teacher. He was, for a time, a lecturer in politics at the Lüne ...more

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“Hitler was “someone seduced by himself,” someone who was so inseparable from his words “that a measure of authenticity flowed over the audience even when he was telling obvious lies.” — 10 likes

“If there is one thing we admire about National Socialism it’s the fact that it has succeeded, for the first time in German politics, in the complete mobilisation of human stupidity.”30” — 6 likes

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