The Meaning of Hitler

by Sebastian Haffner

Book Overview

This is a remarkable historical and psychological examination of the enigma of Adolf Hitler--who he was, how he wielded power, and why he was destined to fail.

Beginning with Hitler's early life, Sebastian Haffner probes the historical, political, and emotional forces that molded his character. In examining the inhumanity of a man for whom politics became a substitute for life, he discusses Hitler's bizarre relationships with women, his...

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0674557751
• ISBN13: 9780674557758
• Release Date: March 1983
• Publisher: Harvard University Press
• Length: 176 Pages
• Weight: 0.53 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.5" x 5.1" x 8.7"

Customer Reviews

Refreshing Perspective

Haffner offers a fresh perspective on Hitler, about whom most of us WWII buffs think we know a great deal. His major point--that Hitler was, in effect, a self-hating guy who turned his hatred in the end against the country he professed to love--is a very interesting viewpoint and one that can be argued and discussed forever. I'm encouraged to read more by this insightful writer!

Pretty brilliant

It's really odd how Haffner has managed to cram so many valuable and unique insights into such a small book. Others have done a good job of reviewing this book already, so I'll just mention that I was particularly impressed with how Haffner explained, without excusing anything, how *rationally* one could have come to support Hitler. His treatment is devastating precisely because he is able to recognize what appeared to be the (early) Nazi successes, and is able to highlight just where National Socialist ideology really did seem to many Germans, even those who loathed anti-semitism, to connect with reality, and ultimately, become synonymous with reality. I find discussions like this a lot more plausible, and therefore enlightening, than those which portray the whole thing as a full-tilt collective freak-out from day one which never did many any sense whatsoever. Another discussion I thought was particularly enlightening revolved around Haffner's suggestion that Hitler in effect declared war on Germany itself; that he came to regard it as unworthy of him and the ideals he claimed to embody, and thus was worthy only of death in the end. In other words, his decisions near the end of the war, so disastrous to Germany and the German people, weren't so much the result of incompetence as of deliberate intention. If Germany couldn't, or wouldn't, be what Hitler wanted it to be, then it itself had to be totally annihilated. Anyway, this book has a lot of bang for the buck. (By the way, Haffner apparently was an early anti-Nazi dissident and was expelled from Germany [moving to England] some years after they came to power). Good luck.

Remarkable.

This is the best book on Hitler I've read. Clearly written and articulated, and certainly not the sort of lumbering mess one comes to expect from a Hitler book, Haffner's volume is something that can be finished in an afternoon, but of course, will be thought about for much longer. Haffner is surprisingly even-handed to Hitler, he grants that the man managed a few surprises and triumphs; in fact, he had more-or-less an entire decade in which he went from success to success. Yet, Hitler was unambiguously a failure, and, as Haffner points out, no other major world leader has ever failed as totally as Hitler. Hitler's "miraculous" economic miracles were largely vaporous, his "brilliant" military victories came against much weaker opponents. Never once was Hitler able to leverage his military victories into diplomatic ones: indeed, Hitler saw war not as something that serves a peace, but rather, an eternal action, in which the strong subjugate and destroy the weak. Hitler's only real strength was in his uncanny ability to sense weakness in a system or an opponent, and push them over at the right time. The only thing that drove him was his ridiculous sense of his own indespensibility (Haffner ably demolishes the old idea that Hitler was the greatest statesman of the century before unleashing war onto the world--Hitler had no plans on a permanent state, or even a permanent ideology of Hitlerism, rather, the Greater German Reich existed through Hitler, not beyond him) and his raging, raving anti-semitism. When word leaked out of the crimes of the Nazi regime, a dignified peace was out of the question for Germany. Hitler, in his final days, decided, like the spoilt little brat he was, that his toy-Germany-had failed him, and he made sure that the entire nation would pay for that failure. Hitler essentially delivered the death blow to Western Civilization; he was the worst thing imaginable for Germany and Europe, and yet some people still idolize the man. They should all read this book, and give thanks that someone like Haffner existed to write it.

Wow! Detailed the life of Hitler to a T.

I recommend this book to anyone who is curious about the life of Hitler. This book humbles and humanizes the man who destroyed so many lives. The book is broken up into sections which helps categorize his accomplishments and failures. I chose this book because of the reviews and the reviews were right.

Sober analysis of the "WHY?"

Being a German born in the early 1970s, during my time in school and university I read far more than 100 books on the Nazi past, for little children, for bigger children, for youngsters, for adults. Plus tons of articles in newspapers and magazines, special editions of newspapers and magazines, endless TV programms, radio programs etc. In school, with our teacher we visited more than one concentration camp, exhibitions, had jewish eye witnesses in our school holding lectures with a subsequent discussion etc. All this was important and at the same time appeared a little bit weird to us youngsters: Because it seemed as if we had to be "denazified" in a way (although being born 30 years after the end of the nazi rule). And to be frank, someone who actually has to be "convinced" that the crimes againtst humanity and other atrocities were unspeakable horror and who is not abhorred by it right from the first time he or she hears about that - well, there must be something wrong with this person anyway. Either a villain or an insane person, he probably belongs behind bars (for psychiatric treatment). Furthermore, all this above-mentioned material did not answer one of the most important questions: WHY? What made german people elect these nazi devils? Little children are told that they must not draw conclusions from a persons outward appearence on his character - but in this case the evil even LOOKED live evil. Themselves, they weren't tall, blonde and blue-eyed at all (not that this is especially attractive to me). And Adolf Hitler did not look very attractive, in particular. If there had been Rodolfo Valentino, Errol Flynn, Cary Grant - THEY were attractive men of that time. But this barking demon? I did not understand that. Until I read this book. (And I DON'T mean I like this devil!) It is really important not only to stare at the horror like the rabbit stares at the snake, but we have to find out why it came so far in order to prevent any repetition. Sebastian Haffner, a very renowned german journalist (he fled from nazi Germany to Britain in the 1930s, just read the autobiography "Defying Hitler" by the same author ) as a different access. He cold-bloodedly analyses the dictator. The chapters are: Life Achievements Successes Misconceptions Mistakes Crimes Betrayal Mr. Haffner points out what kind of devil Hitler was. It is one of the most importat books on that era, and everyone should read it, not only if he is particularly interested in this era. A few years ago, a friend from America asked me how all this could happen. A had to answer that I had no idea. Today, having read this book, I gave it to him as a present to find out for himself. The book ends with: "...And it is even less good that since Hitler many Germans do not dare to be patriots. Because the german history does not end with Hitler. Those who believe in the opposite and who are maybe happy about that, have no idea how much they are fulfillin Hiter's last will."