Hitler: A Biography

by Peter Longerich

The fragment shows very clearly how Kubizek doctored the book version of his memoirs, which appeared in the 1950s and is the most important source for Hitler’s youth. Whereas in the original text Kubizek tried to portray Hitler’s eccentricity, of which he left the reader in no doubt, as clear proof of his genius, in the book version he dealt with it as a purely private matter and from the perspective of a curious but distant observer. In particular, he significantly revised the passages concerning Hitler’s anti-Semitism. Whereas in the original manuscript hatred of the Jews was treated as something quite normal, in the book it appears as if it was a strange obsession of Hitler

According to Kubizek, Hitler had no other friends and did not allow Kubizek to make friends with anybody else.

Hitler showed no interest in members of the opposite sex – with one, admittedly very strange, exception. Kubizek mentions a girl named Stefanie, the daughter of a comfortably off widow of a civil servant, with whom Hitler was infatuated, without even once summoning up the courage to speak to her.

Hitler fell ill for a lengthy period and later, when he was living in Vienna, Kubizek was obliged to go in place of his friend and stand at a particular spot in the town in order to watch out for Stefanie and then report on his observations.

It is clear from Kubizek’s memoirs that Hitler spent most of his time immersed in a fantasy world.

Kubizek describes the young Hitler as almost entirely focused on himself and his fantasy projects, which he pursued with monomaniacal energy.

At Hitler’s request, the two of them bought a joint lottery ticket and Hitler, absolutely convinced that they would win the main prize, encouraged Kubizek to join him in planning their future lives.

Hitler was very grateful for the selfless efforts of the doctor (who, moreover, had charged only a small fee), as is indicated by two postcards Hitler sent Bloch from Vienna. When, thirty years later, after the Anschluss with Austria, he returned to Linz in triumph, he is said to have made friendly enquiries after Bloch.

His infatuation for Stefanie had only served as the key to a dream world in which the young woman merely functioned as an accessory to a career as a successful artist. Hitler only acquired an interest in other people when he could fit them into his fantasy world

Hitler’s grand ideas about his future invariably envisaged his playing roles in which he would be admired and celebrated. The almost manic efforts which Hitler put into his plans to reconstruct first Linz and then Vienna – his later places of residence, Munich and Berlin, would also be subjected to his mania for reconstruction – demonstrate an extreme determination completely to reshape his immediate surroundings in accordance with his ideas. But all this, the eccentric plans and roles, was not just playing around; it formed the actual content of his life.

According to Hanisch, Hitler’s anger was mainly directed at the Catholic Church and the Jesuits.

According to Hanisch’s memoirs, Hitler discussed the issue of anti-Semitism at length, generally criticizing anti-Semitic positions; indeed, apparently he made positive comments about the Jews. Hanisch reported that there were Jews among Hitler’s closest acquaintances at the hostel and with one of them Hitler had a close relationship.

Hitler’s two political models, Lueger and Schönerer, both used crude political rhetoric. It would, therefore, seem logical to describe them as his anti-Semitic mentors. However, in Mein Kampf he adopted another approach, portraying his development into a radical anti-Semite as the result of personal experiences and as his ‘most difficult transformation’, lasting more than two years and a phase of ‘bitter internal struggle

This putative ‘conversion’ to anti-Semitism as the result of his own observations, reading, and reflexion is, however, contradicted by the reports of the witnesses, quoted above, which show that Hitler was certainly not a keen anti-Semite and describe various personal relationships he had with Jews. How can this contradiction be resolved?

Notions such as that of a superior Nordic race, the racial inferiority of Jews, ‘Negroes’, and Asiatics, and ideas of racial breeding and of the need to maintain racial purity to prevent degeneracy were fairly widespread in Vienna, particularly during the pre-war years.

In 1909, at the age of twenty, Hitler should have registered with the army recruitment authorities and then a year later been called up. This he had failed to do, nor had he done so subsequently. To move abroad without having registered for military service was a serious offence.

From August 1913 onwards, Hitler was being sought by the Linz police for ‘avoiding call-up’, and in January 1914 he was located, thanks to the cooperation of the Munich police and brought before the Austrian Consulate-General in Munich. His excuse that he had registered as a potential conscript in 1910 in Vienna and had had no intention of avoiding military service was accepted, as it was impossible to disprove it in Munich. He was permitted to undergo his medical in Salzburg on 5 February 1914, where he was declared ‘unfit for military service’.140 Six months later, the First World War broke out.