Hitler: Ascent, 1889-1939

Hitler: Ascent, 1889-1939

Volker Ullrich

Knopf (2016)

Rating: ★★★★☆

Tags: Biography & Autobiography, Historical, Presidents & Heads of State, History, Europe, Germany

Biography & Autobiographyttt Historicalttt Presidents & Heads of Statettt Historyttt Europettt Germanyttt

A major new biography—an extraordinary, penetrating study of the man who has become the personification of evil.

“Ullrich reveals Hitler to have been an eminently practical politician—and frighteningly so. Timely… One of the best works on Hitler and the origins of the Third Reich to appear in recent years.”
—*Kirkus Reviews

“An outstanding study… All the huge, and terrible moments of the early Nazi era are dissected…but the real strength of this book is in disentangling the personal story of man and monster.”
—
The Guardian
(U.K.) 
*
For all the literature about Adolf Hitler there have been just four seminal biographies; this is the fifth, a landmark work that sheds important new light on Hitler himself. Drawing on previously unseen papers and a wealth of recent scholarly research, Volker Ullrich reveals the man behind the public persona, from Hitler's childhood to his failures as a young man in Vienna to his experiences during the First World War to his rise as a far-right party leader. Ullrich deftly captures Hitler's intelligence, instinctive grasp of politics, and gift for oratory as well as his megalomania, deep insecurity, and repulsive worldview.

Many previous biographies have focused on the larger social conditions that explain the rise of the Third Reich. Ullrich gives us a comprehensive portrait of a postwar Germany humiliated by defeat, wracked by political crisis, and starved by an economic depression, but his real gift is to show vividly how Hitler used his ruthlessness and political talent to shape the Nazi party and lead it to power. For decades the world has tried to grasp how Hitler was possible. By focusing on the man at the center of it all, on how he experienced his world, formed his political beliefs, and wielded power, this riveting biography brings us closer than ever to the answer.

Translated from the German by Jefferson Chase.

**

THIS IS A BORZOI BOOK

PUBLISHED BY ALFRED A. KNOPF

Copyright © 2016 Volker Ullrich

Translation © Jefferson Chase 2016

All rights reserved. Published in the United States by Alfred A. Knopf, a division of Penguin Random House LLC, New York, and distributed in Canada by Random House of Canada Limited, Toronto. Originally published in Germany by S. Fischer Verlag. Copyright © 2013 S. Fischer Verlag GmbH, Frankfurt am Main.

www.aaknopf.com

Knopf, Borzoi Books, and the colophon are registered trademarks of Penguin Random House LLC.

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Names: Ullrich, Volker, [date]

Title: Hitler : ascent, 1889–1939 / Volker Ullrich ; translated from the German by Jefferson Chase.

Other titles: Adolf Hitler. English

Description: First American edition. | New York : Alfred A. Knopf, 2016. | “A Borzoi book”—Title page verso. | “Originally published in Germany…copyright 2013, S. Fischer Verlag GmbH, Frankfurt am Main”—Title page verso.

Identifiers: LCCN 2015047202 | ISBN 9780385354387 (hardcover) | ISBN 9780385354394 (electronic)

Subjects: LCSH: Hitler, Adolf, 1889–1945. | Hitler, Adolf, 1889–1945—Political and social views. | Hitler, Adolf, 1889–1945—Psychology. | Personality—Case studies. | Heads of state—Germany—Biography. | Dictators—Germany—Biography. | Germany—History—1933–1945. | Germany—Politics and government—1933–1945. | National socialism.

Classification: LCC DD247.H5 U4513 2016 | DDC 943.086092—dc23 LC record available at
http://lccn.loc.gov/2015047202

Ebook ISBN 9780385354394

Front-of-Cover image: Hitler, c. 1935. Print Collector/Hulton Archive/Getty Images

Cover design by Carol Devine Carson

v4.1

a

Contents

Cover

Title Page

Copyright

List of Illustrations

Introduction

  1   
The Young Hitler

  2   
The Vienna Years

  3   
The Experience of War

  4   
The Leap into Politics

  5   
The King of Munich

  6   
Putsch and Prosecution

  7   
Landsberg Prison and
Mein Kampf

  8   
Führer on Standby

  9   
Dark Star Rising

10   
Hitler and Women

11   
Bids and Bluffs

12   
Month of Destiny: January 1933

13   
Hitler as Human Being

14   
Totalitarian Revolution

15   
Eviscerating Versailles

16   
Cult and Community

17   
Dictatorship by Division, Architecture of Intimidation

18   
The Berghof Society and the Führer’s Mistress

19   
Hitler and the Churches

20   
Prelude to Genocide

21   
The Way to War

Notes

Bibliography

Acknowledgements

Illustrations

Illustrations

1.1
 Hitler’s father Alois Hitler,
c
.1880 (
akg-images
).

1.2
 Hitler’s mother Klara Hitler,
c
.1885 (
akg-images
).

1.3
 Hitler as a small child, 1891 (
akg-images
).

1.4
 Class photo with the 10-year-old Adolf Hitler, Leonding, 1899 (
Bildarchiv Preussischer Kulturbesitz
).

1.5
 Hitler as a boy (
Bildarchiv Preussischer Kulturbesitz
).

1.6
 Hitler at a patriotic event on Munich’s Odeonsplatz, 2 August 1914 (
Bildarchiv Preussischer Kulturbesitz/Heinrich Hoffmann
).

1.7
 Hitler with his comrades in Bavarian RIR 16, 1915 (
Bundesarchiv Koblenz, 146-1974-082-44, Scherl/Presse Hoffmann
).

1.8
 Flyer announcing Hitler’s appearance in Zirkus Krone on 11 January 1922 (
Bundesarchiv Berlin-Lichterfelde, NS 26/1242
).

1.9
 One of the first portraits of Hitler by Heinrich Hoffmann, September 1923 (
Bildarchiv Preussischer Kulturbesitz/BSB/Heinrich Hoffmann
).

1.10
 Hitler speaking in Munich’s Zirkus Krone in 1923 (
Bildarchiv Preussischer Kulturbesitz/BSB/Heinrich Hoffmann
).

1.11
 Group photo of the defendants at Hitler’s trial, 1 April 1924 (
Bildarchiv Preussischer Kulturbesitz/BSB/Heinrich Hoffmann
).

1.12
 Hitler with fellow Landsberg inmates (
Bildarchiv Preussischer Kulturbesitz
).

1.13
 Advertising brochure for Hitler’s book, June 1924 (
Bildarchiv Preussischer Kulturbesitz/Freistaat Bayern/Heinrich Hoffmann
).

1.14
 Hitler after his release from prison, 20 December 1924 (
Bildarchiv Preussischer Kulturbesitz/BSB/Heinrich Hoffmann
).

1.15
 Hitler in an unpublished photograph by Heinrich Hoffmann, spring 1927 (
Bildarchiv Preussischer Kulturbesitz/BSB/Heinrich Hoffmann
).

1.16
 Hitler at a party rally in Weimar, 3–4 July 1926 (
ullstein bild/Heinrich Hoffmann
).

1.17
 The Berlin Sportpalast during a National Socialist campaign event in September 1930 (
Bundesarchiv Koblenz, 102-10391, Georg Pahl
).

1.18
 Hitler is celebrated by supporters after his testimony at the Reich Court in Leipzig, 25 September 1930 (
ullstein bild/Süddeutsche Zeitung/Photo Scherl
).

1.19
 Hugenberg and Hitler, 11 October 1931 (
Bildarchiv Preussischer Kulturbesitz
).

1.20
 Hitler’s office in Munich’s Brown House (
Bildarchiv Preussischer Kulturbesitz/BSB/Heinrich Hoffmann
).

1.21
 Maria Reiter at the age of 16 (
Bildarchiv Preussischer Kulturbesitz/BSB/Archiv Heinrich Hoffmann
).

1.22
 Hitler’s niece Geli Raubal (
Bildarchiv Preussischer Kulturbesitz/BSB/Heinrich Hoffmann
).

1.23
 Eva Braun posing on a desk in Heinrich Hoffmann’s atelier in 1930.

1.24
 Hitler poses for the cameras of Richard Wagner’s grandsons (
Bildarchiv Preussischer Kulturbesitz/BSB/Heinrich Hoffmann
).

1.25
 Official photo announcing the continuation of the marriage between Joseph and Magda Goebbels, October 1938.

1.26
 Publicity pamphlet advertising one of Hitler’s flying tours, 1932.

1.27
 Hitler and Hermann Göring at a meeting of the Düsseldorf Industrial Club, 26 January 1933 (
Bildarchiv Preussischer Kulturbesitz/BSB/Heinrich Hoffmann
).

1.28
 The “Cabinet of National Concentration” on 30 January 1933 (
Bildarchiv Preussischer Kulturbesitz/BSB/Heinrich Hoffmann
).

1.29
 “The Day of Potsdam”: Hitler bows before Hindenburg, 21 March 1933 (
Bundesarchiv Koblenz, 183-S38324
).

1.30
 Three typical Hitler poses during his 10 February 1933 speech in Berlin’s Sportpalast (
AKiP Freie Universität Berlin
).

1.31
 Hitler digging the first turf for the construction of the autobahn, 23 September 1933 (
ullstein bild/Süddeutsche Zeitung/Photo Scherl
).