Views of Adolf Hitler Adolf Hitler This paper will examine the views

This paper will examine the views of certain scholars concerning Adolf Hitler. It will compare the views and interpretations of each author, attempt to place their perceptions in different categories, and discuss the views of these scholars on the relationship between Hitler's actions and Hitler's own work, Mein Kampf. There are two major groups of analysis in the historiography of Hitler: the first follows traditional historical analysis, the second combines history with psychology. As will be seen below, there are further divisions within these groups and controversies have erupted not only between the two major groups, but also within the "sub-groups."

The first group of scholars followed traditional historical analysis, placing Hitler in the world of the 1930s and outlining a connection between that world and Hitler's actions. These scholars not only attempted to explain Hitler on the basis of his own background, but also on the basis of his place in Germany and the world. Consequently, much of the disagreement between these scholars concerned which had more influence upon Hitler's actions, hid personal ideology or the world events at that time.

Although numerous books were written about Hitler during and soon after the end of the Second World War, one of the most important, and still one of the best, biographies was written by Alan Bullock around 1960. Bullock detailed both Hitler the man and Hitler the leader, relating the character of one to the character of the ot

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e Nazi Dictatorship. Kershaw compared the various interpretations of Hitler and then produced his own. He first considered whether Hitler was a strong or a weak dictator. Kershaw took a critical view of the psycho-historical approach which became so popular by the 1970s, quoting one critic's question as to whether Nazi politics depended upon whether Hitler had one testicle or three. Kershaw took a higher view of those works which attempted to find some correlation between Hitler's ideological obsessions and his governing of Germany, for this is the central line of inquiry leading to the interpretation of Hitler as a strong or weak dictator. The argument for Hitler being a weak dictator was that the decision-making process in the Third Reich depended more upon the structure and functional nature of the Nazi government, rather than on the person of Adolf Hitler. This argument depended upon the "leadership chaos," or multidimensional power structure, of which Hitler was only one element. Less important, in this view, was Hitler's personal ideology, which ultimately had little to do with the day-to-day operation of, and decisions made by, the government. Thus, the notions of Lebensraum, anti-bolshevism, and anti-semitism served only

Category: Foreign - V