Carruthers - Visions of War: Private Hitlers War: 1914-1919

This edition published in 2014 by
Pen & Sword Military
An imprint of
Pen & Sword Books Ltd
47 Church Street
Barnsley
South Yorkshire
S70 2AS

Copyright Bob Carruthers 2014.
Published under licence by Pen & Sword Books Ltd.

The right of Bob Carruthers to be identified as the author of this work has been asserted by him in
accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.

ISBN: 9781473822764
EPUB ISBN: 9781473851122
PRC ISBN: 9781473851283

A CIP catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any
means, electronic or mechanical including photocopying, recording or by any information storage
and retrieval system, without permission from the Publisher in writing.

Printed and bound in England
By CPI Group (UK) Ltd, Croydon, CR0 4YY

Pen & Sword Books Ltd incorporates the imprints of Pen & Sword Aviation, Pen & Sword Family
History, Pen & Sword Maritime, Pen & Sword Military, Pen & Sword Discovery, Pen & Sword
Politics, Pen & Sword Atlas, Pen & Sword Archaeology, Wharncliffe Local History, Wharncliffe
True Crime, Wharncliffe Transport, Pen & Sword Select, Pen & Sword Military Classics, Leo
Cooper, The Praetorian Press, Claymore Press, Remember When, Seaforth Publishing and
Frontline Publishing

For a complete list of Pen & Sword titles please contact
PEN & SWORD BOOKS LIMITED
47 Church Street, Barnsley, South Yorkshire, S70 2AS, England
E-mail:
Website: www.pen-and-sword.co.uk

CONTENTS

THE SOLDIER HAS A BOUNDLESS AFFECTION FOR THE GROUND ON WHICH HE HAS SHED HIS BLOOD.

ADOLF HITLER, AUGUST 1942

INTRODUCTION

F OR THE LAST THIRTY YEARS THROUGH MY work as a film maker and writer I have often found myself immersed in the murky world of Adolf Hitler. He is one of the most public figures of the twentieth century yet much of his life remains in shadow. He had much to hide and certainly did a good job in obscuring the detail of much of his early life. For many years I have been of the opinion that the stimulus of German nationalism, his nihilistic willingness to take risks and an innate love of violence for the sake of violence, were the key factors which shaped Hitlers weltanschauung (or world view). I was also fascinated by the influence of the pan-German nationalist agenda on the decisions which shaped his personal life, and among those key decisions was his choice, in 1914, to enlist as a volunteer in the Imperial German Army.

Despite all of the millions of words written a comprehensive picture of the man behind the myth remains as elusive as ever. One source of frustration for me was that I was never able to find a single volume which dealt adequately with Hitlers service in the Great War without wandering off into a survey of the course of the whole war. For me the primary sources of history are the key to every question and I find it endlessly frustrating when a potentially illuminating primary source passage is cut short. Earlier this year I finally found the time to begin work on what I hoped would be a short and succinct work which kept the focus on the subject of Hitlers personal experience in the Great War and allowed the primary sources to speak for themselves. In order to advance the primary source theme I have relied extensively on quotations from Hitlers own version of events as published by him in the pages of Mein Kampf. In doing so I have relied entirely upon the 1936 translation by James Murphy, as published in the United Kingdom by Hutchinson and Co Ltd. This was the only officially sanctioned version during the Nazi era and as such it seems the most appropriate source for English readers. I am grateful to Pen and Sword, my publishers, who have made possible this edition and to Coda Publishing who make available the entire Murphy text for study and reference.

Hitler began work on his book sometime after November 1923 while imprisoned in the fortress of Landsberg. We know that Hitler received many visitors earlier on, but soon devoted himself entirely to writing Mein Kampf, the bulk of which must therefore have been written in 1924. The prison governor of Landsberg noted at the time that he (Hitler) hopes the book will run into many editions, thus enabling him to fulfil his financial obligations and to defray the expenses incurred at the time of his trial. Mein Kampf is routinely dismissed as unreadable and this was certainly the case in contemporary circles where many Nazi functionaries, including Gring, privately joked that they had never read the thing. Italian Fascist dictator and Nazi ally, Benito Mussolini, was famously critical, stating that the book was a boring tome that I have never been able to read. He also remarked that Hitlers beliefs, as expressed in the book, were little more than commonplace clichs. For students of history, politics and general readers with an interest in the Great War period that is certainly not the case. While it is true those large sections of political exposition are rambling and turgid, they do nonetheless repay the reader with an insight into the workings of the mind of Adolf Hitler. However, the book also contains highly accessible elements of autobiography which are intriguing as they afford us the ultimate primary source glimpse into the private world of Adolf Hitler during the Great War. On balance Im sure most readers would side with Winston Churchill who stated, shortly after Hitlers ascension to power, that no other book deserved more intensive scrutiny. I still believe that Churchill was right and when it comes to the study of Hitler in the Great War Mein Kampf should not be dismissed as readily as is so often the case. However, we should never lose sight of the fact that Hitler was a masterful politician writing for political purposes. We should obviously approach his words with extreme caution, but with regard to his account of his service in the Great War his words should nonetheless be studied and carefully considered, and where there is no reason to do otherwise, we should be prepared to give them weight. This is especially the case where Hitlers account can be cross referenced with other primary source accounts which you will find here. I have also relied heavily on the memoirs of those who fought alongside Hitler and where possible I have simply let them speak for themselves. Adolf Hitler was clearly not the raving lunatic of popular mythology. He was a cunning, devious and astute politician who kept his finger on the conservative pulse of Germany. Millions of ordinary Germans later fell under Hitlers spell and although anti-Semitism was rife, it was not something which was on the personal agenda of all conservatives in Germany, but the desire to re-build national prestige undoubtedly was. Increasingly historians have come to reassess the influence of ultra-nationalism on Hitler and in the process have come to accept the fundamental voracity of much of what you are about to read here. It is now widely accepted that the picture of Hitler as a dutiful and even brave soldier is essentially an accurate. Scholars and general readers seeking a primary insight into the early life of Adolf Hitler now have the recollections of his boyhood friend Kubizek, the recollections of his wartime comrades alongside a few recent pieces which have come to light such as Alexander Moritz Freys account of his war time experiences with Hitler and their subsequent encounters in Munich.

Hitlers crimes against humanity are now synonymous with the fate of the Jews in Germany and throughout occupied Europe. Accordingly Mein Kampf has today assumed a key place in identifying the roots of Hitlers anti-Semitism which is often depicted as his lifes work. My own view is that nationalism came first with anti-Semitism following behind.