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The story of the making of Adolf Hitler that we are all familiar with is the one Hitler himself wove in his 1924 trial, and then expanded upon in Mein Kampf. It tells of his rapid emergence as National Socialist leader in 1919, and of how he successfully rallied most of Munich and the majority of Bavaria's establishment to support the famous beer-hall putsch of 1923. It is an account which has largely been taken at face value for over ninety years. Yet, on closer examination, Hitler's account of his experiences in the years immediately following the First World War turns out to be every bit as unreliable as his account of his experiences as a soldier during the war itself.
In Becoming Hitler, Thomas Weber continues from where he left off in his previous book, Hitler's First War, stripping away the layers of myth and fabrication in Hitler's own tale to tell the real story of Hitler's politicization and radicalization in post-First World War Munich. It is the gripping account of how an awkward and unemployed loner with virtually no recognizable leadership qualities and fluctuating political ideas turned into the charismatic, self-assured, virulently anti-Semitic leader with an all-or-nothing approach to politics with whom the world was soon to become tragically familiar. As Weber clearly shows, far from the picture of a fully-formed political leader which Hitler wanted to portray in Mein Kampf, his ideas and priorities were still very uncertain and largely undefined in early 1919 -- and they continued to shift until 1923.
It was the failed Ludendorff putsch of November 1923 - and the subsequent Ludendorff trial -- which was to prove the making of Hitler. And he was not slow to spot the opportunity that it offered. As the movers and shakers of Munich's political scene tried to blame everything on him in the course of the trial, Hitler was presented with a golden opportunity to place himself at the centre of attention, turning what had been the 'Ludendorff trial' into the 'Hitler trial'. Henceforth, he would no longer be merely a local Bavarian political leader. From now on, he would present himself as a potential 'national saviour'. In the months after the trial, Hitler cemented this myth by writing Mein Kampf from his comfortable prison cell. His years of metamorphosis were now behind him. His years as Führer were soon to come.
List of contents
- Prelude
- PART I: STRAY DOG
- 1: Coup d'état (20 November - 5 December 1918)
- 2: A Good Soldier amongst Lazy Undisciplined Peers (6 December 1918 - February 1919)
- 3: A Cog in the Machine of Socialism (February - early April 1919)
- 4: Arrested (early April - 1 May 1919)
- PART II: ONE OF THE PACK
- 5: An Almost Aimless Dog (early May 1919)
- 6: Turncoat (mid-May to September 1919)
- 7: Hitler's Damascus Street Experience (mid-July to September 1919)
- 8: A New Home at Last (September to October 1919)
- 9: A Family Dispute (October 1919 - March 1920)
- 10: Hitler's Tool (March - August 1920)
- 11: Genius (August - December 1920)
- 12: Hitler's Pivot to the East (January - July 1921)
- PART III: LEADER OF THE PACK
- 13: The Bavarian Mussolini (July 1921 - spring 1923)
- 14: (summer 1923 - 1925)
- Epilogue
- Bibliography
About the author
Thomas Weber teaches European and international history at the University of Aberdeen. Since earning his DPhil from the University of Oxford, he has held fellowships or has taught at Harvard University, the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton, the University of Pennsylvania, the University of Chicago, and the University of Glasgow. His first book, The Lodz Ghetto Album, won a 2004 Golden Light Award and a 2005 Infinity Award. His second book, Our Friend "The Enemy" is the recipient of the 2008 Duc d'Arenberg History Prize for the best book of a general nature, intended for a wide public, on the history and culture of the European continent.
Summary
Becoming Hitler strips away the layers of self-serving myth in Hitler's own account to reveal for the first time the true story of how Adolf Hitler became a Nazi, tracing his rise from awkward, unemployed loner to evil political genius.
Foreword
Shortlisted for the 2018 Elizabeth Longford Prize
Additional text
This is the most important book on Hitler and National Socialism since Ian Kershaw's monumental biography. It is amazing how much new information and documentation Thomas Weber has used to show precisely when, how, and why Hitler's world view was shaped, and precisely where the intellectual, emotional, and social origins of genocide and of the Holocaust lay. He has precisely recreated the world of Munich in the early 1920s, to show how a burning hostility to internationalism - we would say today globalism - emerged.
Report
[In Becoming Hitler], Weber helps us to better understand the circumstances that can lead to the radicalization of otherwise ordinary human beings. Gavriel D. Rosenfeld, DAPIM: Studies on the Holocaust
