Viewpoint: His dark charisma
Adolf Hitler was an
unlikely leader but he still formed a connection with millions of German
people, generating a level of charismatic attraction that was almost without
parallel. It is a stark warning for the modern day, says historian Laurence
Rees.
At the heart of the
story of Adolf Hitler is one gigantic,
mysterious question: how was it possible that a character as strange and
personally inadequate as Hitler ever gained power in a sophisticated country at
the heart of Europe, and was then loved by millions of people?
The answer to this
vital question is to be found not just in the historical circumstances of the
time - in particular the defeat of Germany in World War I and the depression of the early 1930s
- but in the nature of Hitler's leadership.
It's this aspect of
the story that makes this history particularly relevant to our lives today.
Hitler was the
archetypal "charismatic leader". He was not a "normal"
politician - someone who promises policies like lower taxes and better health
care - but a quasi-religious leader who offered almost spiritual goals of
redemption and salvation. He was driven forward by a sense of personal destiny
he called "providence".
Before WWI he was a
nobody, an oddball who could not form intimate relationships, was unable to
debate intellectually and was filled with hatred and prejudice.
But when Hitler spoke
in the Munich beer halls in the aftermath of Germany's defeat in WWI, suddenly
his weaknesses were perceived as strengths.
His hatred chimed with
the feelings of thousands of Germans who felt humiliated by the terms of the
Versailles treaty and sought a scapegoat for the loss of the war. His inability
to debate was taken as strength of character and his refusal to make small talk
was considered the mark of a "great man" who lived apart from the
crowd.
More than anything, it
was the fact that Hitler found that he could make a connection with his
audience that was the basis of all his future success. And many called this
connection "charisma".
"The man gave off
such a charisma that people believed whatever he said," says Emil Klein,
who heard Hitler speak in the 1920s.
But Hitler did not
"hypnotise" his audience. Not everyone felt this charismatic
connection, you had to be predisposed to believe what Hitler was saying to
experience it. Many people who heard Hitler speak at this time who thought he
was an idiot.
"I immediately
disliked him because of his scratchy voice," says Herbert Richter, a
German veteran of WWI who encountered Hitler in Munich in the early 1920s.
"He shouted out
really, really simple political ideas. I thought he wasn't quite normal."
In the good economic
times, during the mid-to-late twenties in Germany, Hitler was thought charismatic
by only a bunch of fanatics. So much so that in the 1928 election the Nazis polled only 2.6% of the vote.
Yet less than five
years later Hitler was chancellor of Germany and leader of the most popular
political party in the country.
What changed was the
economic situation. In the wake of the Wall Street Crash of 1929 there was mass
unemployment in Germany and banks crashed.
"The people were
really hungry," says Jutta Ruediger, who started to support the Nazis
around this time. "It was very, very hard. And in that context, Hitler
with his statements seemed to be the bringer of salvation."
She looked at Hitler
and suddenly felt a connection with him.
"I myself had the
feeling that here was a man who did not think about himself and his own
advantage, but solely about the good of the German people."
Hitler told millions
of Germans that they were Aryans and therefore "special" and racially
"better" people than everyone else, something that helped cement the
charismatic connection between leader and led.
He did not hide his
hatred, his contempt for democracy or his belief in the use of violence to
further political ends from the electorate. But, crucially, he spoke out only
against carefully defined enemies like Communists and Jews.
Since the majority of
ordinary Germans were not in these risk groups then, as long as they embraced
the new world of Nazism, they were relatively free from persecution - at least
until the war started to go badly for the Germans.
This history matters
to us today. Not because history offers "lessons" - how can it since
the past can never repeat itself exactly? But because history can contain
warnings.
In an economic crisis
millions of people suddenly decided to turn to an unconventional leader they
thought had "charisma" because he connected with their fears, hopes
and latent desire to blame others for their predicament. And the end result was
disastrous for tens of millions of people.
It's bleakly ironic
that German Chancellor Angela Merkel was greeted in Athens recently with
swastika banners carried by angry Greeks protesting at what they see as German
interference in their country.
Ironic because it is
in Greece itself - amid terrible economic crisis - that we see the sudden rise
of a political movement like the Golden Dawn that glories in its intolerance
and desire to persecute minorities.
And is led by a man
has claimed there were no gas chambers in Auschwitz. Can there be a bigger
warning than that?
Laurence Rees is
a former creative director of history programmes for the BBC and the author of
six books on World War II.
More in BBC News Magazine
Peter’s
Piece
Here are some of the triggers that can propel Hitler-type
half-wits to power:
· High levels of unemployment and business
failure.
· A belief that a simplistic new economic order
will solve all problems.
· Widespread racial and religious intolerance.
· General dissatisfaction with the courts and
the sentencing of criminals.
· A loss of faith in democratic government.
· Growing numbers of people who regard
themselves as victims.
· Loud-mouthed half-wits shouting simplistic
solutions to all the above.
That’s all it takes and wherever we live, we all need to
be vigilant.
