Hitler and his God

Blind Faith

Writing in Mein Kampf about his first contacts with the DAP in September 1919, Hitler says that, after long reflection, he came to the conclusion that “what had to be proclaimed here was a new ideology and not a new political slogan”. 304 That this reflection was not a solitary exercise has become evident in the first chapters of our story. May it be reminded that, amazingly, he entered the circle of Harrer and Drexler with an ideology apparently ready to be put into practice, that he “wanted to found a party” of his own, and that his plans were to use the insignificant DAP to this end.

In 1924, when writing the first part of Mein Kampf in the prison at Landsberg, his dreams and visions had already been concretized to a considerable extent. True, the beginnings of Hitler’s work seemed modest and the accomplishment of his ambitions questionable to most observers at the time, but not to Adolf Hitler himself. The effect the Landsberg retreat had on Hitler was that of a complete reassurance about his vocation and a total confidence in the execution of his mission. Discretion still prevented him from proclaiming himself Führer of the German nation, but in the pages of Mein Kampf he leaves no doubt as to who and what he was, without naming himself as such.

“Do you feel that Providence has called you to proclaim the Truth to the world? If so, then go and do it”, Hitler wrote. “But you ought to have the courage to do it directly and not use some political party as your mouthpiece, for in this way you shirk your vocation. [‘Using a political party’ here means using its programme without being able to proclaim an authentic, personal one.] In the place of something that now exists and is bad, put something else that is better and will last into the future.” “Out of the army of millions who feel the truth of these [völkisch, nationalist and anti-Semitic] ideas, and even may understand them to some extent, one man must arise. This man must have the gift of being able to expound general ideas in a clear and definite form and, from the world of vague ideas shimmering before the mind of the masses, he must formulate principles that will be as clear-cut and firm as granite. He must fight for these principles as the only true ones, until a solid rock of common faith and common will emerges above the troubled waves of vagrant ideas. The general justification of such action is to be sought in the necessity for it and the individual will be justified by his success.” There is no doubt which man the author had in mind. “Genius of an extraordinary stamp is not to be judged by normal standards whereby we judge other men.” 305

Hitler saw himself as a man of ideas and their practical executioner bundled into one: “When the abilities of theorist and organizer and leader are united in one person, then we have the rarest phenomenon on this earth. And it is that union which produces the great man.” “Within long spans of human progress it may occasionally happen that the practical politician and the political philosopher are one. The more intimate this union is, the greater will be the obstacles which the activity of the politician will have to encounter. Such a man does not labour for the purpose of satisfying demands that are obvious to every philistine, but he reaches out towards ends which can be understood only by the few. His life is torn asunder by hatred and love. The protest of the contemporaries, who do not understand the man, is in conflict with the recognition of posterity, for whom he also works … The great protagonists [of history] are those who fight for their ideas and ideals despite the fact that they receive no recognition at the hands of their contemporaries. They are the men whose memories will be enshrined in the hearts of the future generations.” 306 Hitler was already building a mausoleum for himself and reserving his place in the Walhalla of the great.

“One thing is certain”, he declared, “our world is facing a great revolution”. 307 According to Jäckel, “Hitler considered himself to be the prophet of a new world vision.” 308 This is true but perhaps stated too mildly. In any case, Hitler himself repeatedly wrote that he stood for “a new and great idea”, “a novel missionary idea”. “Political parties are prone to enter compromises, but an ideology never does this. A political party is inclined to adjust its teachings with a view of meeting the teachings of its opponents, but an ideology proclaims its own infallibility. While the programme of the ordinary political party is nothing but the recipe for cooking up favourable results out of the next general elections, the programme of an ideology represents a declaration of war against an existing order of things, against present conditions, in short, against the established ideology.” 309 In sum, Hitler had a new message for the world, a new ideology or Weltanschauung “pure and absolutely true”, a new creed or gospel, a new Faith.

To give his vision a concrete shape in the world he needed an organized body of men who would execute his commands. Religious world-reformers call this a Church; Hitler will later call it “an Order”, and even say “we too are a Church”. In the beginning of his political career, however, he could not but call it a political party. “It is the task of such an organization to transmit a certain idea which originated in the brain of an individual to a multitude of people and to supervise the manner in which this idea is being put into practice.” “From general ideas a political programme must be constructed and a general ideology must receive the stamp of a definite political faith.” “That is why the programme of the new movement [the NSDAP] was condensed into a few fundamental postulates, twenty-five in all. They are meant first of all to give the ordinary man a rough sketch of what the movement is aiming at. They are, so to say, a profession of faith which on the one hand is meant to win adherents to the movement and, on the other hand, to unite such adherents together in a covenant to which all have subscribed.” “For the majority of our followers the essence of the movement will consist not so much in the letter of our theses as in the meaning which we attribute to them.” 310 This last phrase should be read: “as in the meaning which I attribute to them”.

Once the twenty-five articles of his creed had been formulated, Hitler never allowed them to be changed, although some of them became irrelevant as the national-socialist movement marched on. Their literal meaning was not really important. The creed was like a shell, symbolical, dogmatic, to be learned by heart and professed by the mass of followers, while inside that shell or behind the dogma there lived and acted the spirit that knew – and which was Hitler’s spirit. This explains why he kept his NSDAP separated so trenchantly from the völkisch movement, which professed for the most part some vaguely romantic and even sentimental notions, and which was a mass of motley trends from Wotanism to nudism. To Hitler, being völkisch was a pose or a game, if not a flight from reality; being a Hitlerite, on the contrary, was a matter of imminent worldwide revolution.

Hitler did not hesitate to pour ridicule on the völkisch movement, in which the Nazi movement had its roots and with which it was closely associated in the eyes of its own followers and of the general public. “Not less dangerous are those who run about as semi-volkists formulating fantastic schemes which are mostly based on nothing else than a fixed idea which in itself might be right but which, because it is an isolated notion, is of no use whatsoever for the formation of a great homogeneous fighting association and could by no means serve as the basis of its organization … At best they are sterile theorists but more frequently they are mischievous agitators of the public mind.” One might ask where Hitler had come by his ideas and how mischievous he was. “They believe that they can mask their intellectual vanity, the futility of their efforts and their lack of ability, by sporting flowing beards and indulging in ancient German gestures.” 311 The last sentence was aimed at such organizations like the Germanenorden and the disciples of Guido von List and Lanz von Liebenfels to whom, after all, Hitler was indebted, but from whom he now wanted to dissociate himself.