K e y T e x t s

Mein Kampf -The Text, itsThemes and Hitler's VisionRobert Carr dissects a book frequently referred to but seldom read.

Mein Kampf is two volumes and 500-odd pages of repetitive, ranting, dulldiatribe. There is, however, someconsistency of thought. Ideas thatcame to serve as both electioneeringmessages and, once Hitler was inpower, as chilling reality were his anti-Versailles, anti-Weimar, anti-Communist and anti-Semitic agenda.This article will examine such anti-ideas as well as others presented inMein Kampf. including notions ofVotksgemeinschaft and racialsuperiority.

Autobiography and OutlookBesides presenting the essence ofNazism, Mein Kampf oiiers interestingasides and throws some light on themindset of the twentieth century'smost reviled dictator, including hisamazing confidence. In order to havebecome dictator of a neighbouringcountry, Adolf the Austrian clearly hadno shortage of self-belief.

Mein Kampf certainly exhibitsHitler's arrogance. At school, hewrote, he was doubly gifted, with 'aninborn talent for speaking ... |and]obvious talent for drawing'. Moreover,he had 'become a juvenile ringleaderwho learned well and easily at school.'The truth, however, is that Hitler leftschool at 16 with no qualifications. Yetperhaps he displays some modestywith the claim that 'every greatmovement on this earth owes itsgrowth to great speakers and not togreat writers.' Without doubt. Hitler isno great writer.

How, though, did the book cometo be written? Hitler's attempted coupin Munich, in November 1923, endedin failure and incarceration. Ironically,this Beer Hall Putsch considerablyadvantaged the Nazi leader. Hitlercame to be seen as a man of action;the event gave him a national profile

Hitler at a Nazi Party rally in Nuremberg, September 1923, shortly before hisattempted Putsch in Munich.

and brought him to the attention ofelites, who did little more than slaphim on the wrist, with a five-yearprison sentence, of which he servedonly 9 months. For his revolutionaryefforts he became something of anascent figurehead or spokespersonfor Germany's political right. CertainlyHitler tapped into conservative andnationalist hostility towardsGermany's postwar Weimar Republic.

The translator of a 1939 edition,James Murphy, indicates that Hitler'wrote under the emotional stresscaused by the historical happenings ofthe time'. Murphy alludes to thepeculiar circumstances afflictingGermany in 1923, with hypennflation,reparation difficulties, the Ruhroccupation and Bavana's intention toform a breakaway independentCatholic state.

Despite the failure of Hitler's coup.

imprisonment afforded him the timeand space to write - or dictate hisideas at least. His incarceration meantit was 'now possible to begin a workso many had asked for and which Imyself felt would be profitable to themovement'. It was fellow Nazi andinmate of Landsberg prison, RudolfHess, who wrote down Hitler'sutterances. How much assistance heprovided no one knows. Hitlerdedicated Mein Kampf to the 18martyrs or 'fallen heroes' of theuprising, while volume II (entitled 'TheNational Socialist Movement') waswritten in memory of his close friendDietrich Eckart.

Mein Kampf traces Hitler's youth inLambach, his coffee house days inVienna and his World Warexperiences. Between 1907 and 1913Hitler achieves nothing in Viennaexcept, perhaps, becoming a spiteful

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Not only could Adolf hold a tune, he could hold a grudge too.

political observer. During his six yearsthere he observed the proceedings ofthe Austrian Parliament, theReichsrath. and is critical of the use ofSlav dialects by deputies, critical of theapparent chaos and critical of all the'huckstering and bargaining'.

It is the war, however, that sets hisworld alight. Indeed, he informs hisreaders that on the outbreak of war: 'Iurgently requested to serve in aBavarian regiment.' Here Hitlerindicates he would rather serveGermany than the multi-ethnic,rickety Austrian empire he was borninto.

Amid the autobiography andapparent anger. Hitler presents someconsistent thoughts and themes. 'Aman must first acquire a fund ofgeneral ideas and fit them together soas to form an organic structure ofpersonal thought or outlook on life - aWeltanschauung.' It is this worldview,then, that Mein Kampf explores andpresents. Hitler's is a realist'sperspective: he draws on acquirednineteenth-century ideas such asSocial Darwinism, eugenics andantisemitisrr)us-ar\ expression for Jewhatred derived from Wilheim Marr.

As a Social Darwinist, Hitlerregarded life (and national existence)as an evolutionary struggle. Ratherthan focusing on struggle betweendasses, as his Marxist rivals did. Hitlerfocuses on conflict between races. Hebelieved that nations and races wereinevitably in competition and that onlythe fittest would survive. Interestingly,he summed up his work as 'Four and aHalf Years of Struggle against Lies,Stupidity and Cowardice'. It was hispublisher. Max Amann, who adoptedthe much simpler Mein Kampf - MyStruggle - title. Ultimately, Amannwas disappointed with the lack ofautobiographical detail provided.

The book promotes Hitler's ardentand muddled nationalism which seeksto reinvent Germanic myths: MeinKampf is the work of a convinced anti-Semite who managed to weave hisJew-hatred into his views on thepostwar peace treaty of 1919, the

Adolf Hitler poses for the camera, Landsberg Fortress. His cell, according to onevisitor, 'looked like a delicatessen'. Here he not only dictated Mein ACampf but decidedon new tactics for the Nazis: 'We must hold our noses and enter the Reichstag'.

Weimar Republic and Marxism. In thisway, it can be seen that Mein Kampffeeds, if not forms, the basis of theNazis' electoral messages. Besidessuch positions of reaction. Hitler offershis racial-nationalist perspective.

Hitler's brand of nationalism isevidenced by one of Mein Kampfs

more interesting revelations - his utterobsession with the Deutschland OberAlles anthem. He reveals how thesong was bellowed in the trenches byhimself and comrades, at every NSDAPmeeting and at any given opportunity,to produce high spirits. No doubt,Adolf excelled at such singing; after

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Hitler perceives Brest-Litovsk as 'imnnensely humane', and contrasts it withthe Treaty of Versailles, 'an act of highway robbery against our people.'

A portrait of Max Schmeling by George Grosz from 1926. The boxer, who was worldheavyweight champion in 1930-32, seemed to embody Hitler's views about Aryansuperiority, but he disassociated himself from the Nazis. During Kristallnacht heprotected two teenage Jewish boys in his Berlin hotel room, later helping to smugglethem out of Germany.

all, he had been a Benedictinechoirboy.

Not only could Adolf hold a tune,he could hold a grudge too. The ideathat Germany's striking workers(during the revolutionary unrest ofautumn 1918) and the surrenderinggovernment ensured Allied victorybecame entrenched among manyreturning soldiers and nationalists.

Mein Kampf presents this 'stab in theback' myth but, in doing so,unwittingly reveals Hitler's ignoranceof wartime shortages and conditionsback in influenza-ridden Germany.Not only was Germany's war effortunsustainable but, if the Weimargovernment had not surrendered,Germany would have been invadedand occupied.

Anti-VersaillesGermany's surrender and subsequentpeace terms are a focus of MeInKampf. In the very opening paragraphHitler advocates overcomingVersailles' constraints and asserts thatAnschluss with Austria (or a GreaterGermany) 'is a task to which weshould devote our lives'. Then he goesfurther:

When the territories of theReich embrace all the Germansand finds itself unable to assurethem a livelihood, only then canthe moral right arise, from theneed of the people, to acquireforeign territory. The plough isthen the sword; and the tearsof war will produce the dailybread for the generations tocome.

The book urges breakinginternational law, specificallyovercoming the terms and losses ofVersailles: to do this. Hitler advocatesusing 'the might of the sword'. YetHitler wanted more than restitution.First he wanted Anschluss but then'living space' or lebensraum: 'In orderto become a World Power it[Germany] needs that territorialmagnitude which gives it thenecessary importance today andensures the existence of its citizens.'Hitler believed such security had beenprovided by the peace terms achievedin March 1918 with the Treaty ofBrest-Litovsk. This treaty, concludedwith defeated Russia, stripped thelatter of its western territories - all theway from the Baltic down to thesoutherly Caucasus - comprising halfof Russia's industrial and arableproduction base.

Strangely, Hitier perceives Brest-Litovsk as 'immensely humane', andcontrasts it with the Treaty ofVersailles, 'an act of highway robberyagainst our people.' No doubt theterritorial losses, reparations and warguilt clause were harsh, but certainlyno more so than the German 'peace'imposed on defeated Russia.

Hitler goes on to compare

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Germany's territorial size unfavourablywith the 'British World Empire', withRussia, China and America. MeinKampf makes no secret of the Nazileader's quest for war and conquest.Indeed he puts his ambitions in thepublic domain. Arguably suchcandour should have underminedAllied appeasement in the 1930s.

Anti-WeimarPostwar Germany was tied into aparliamentary constitution andelectoral system based onproportional representation. It markeda clean break from the ImperialGermany of the Kaiser. Hitler regardedsuch a system with disdain:'Democracy, as practised in WesternEurope today, is the forerunner ofMarxism.' More than this, he did notcredit the electorate with much sense:'The public is mostly stupid and has avery short memory.'

He is no less inclined to be criticalof the Weimar Republic, calling theReichstag a 'House of Puppets'.Without doubt Weimar democracyhad teething problems and its series ofshort-lived, fragile coalitions did littleto strengthen democracy. But Hitlerbegrudges the very system itself: 'Themajority [i.e. the electorate] representsnot only ignorance but alsocowardice'

Hitler favoured a firm,authoritarian leader - a NietzscheanSuperman perhaps - 'one man ofwisdom ... moral strength andfortitude'. Somehow Hitler sawhimself in such a light, even in 1924.

Anti-CommunismFears of the chaos and bloodshed of1917's Russian Revolution droveanother component of Hitler'sagenda, implacable anti-communismand anti-socialism. Hitler lamented theremoval of the Tsarist regime, whoseruling elite he regarded as 'Germanic'-The new Bolshevik regime, on theother hand, was simply amanifestation of, and platform for,Jewish aggression. He believed theCommunists 'overran a great State,

degraded and extirpated millions ofeducated people out of sheer blood-lust, and that now for nearly ten yearsthey have ruled with such a savagetyranny as was never known before.'Given the worker unrest which Hitlerblamed for Germany's surrender in1918, and the subsequent socialistunrest, he strongly believed 'Germanyis the next battlefield for RussianBolshevism'.

Hitler resented the shirkers,deserters and hooligans who avoidedthe 'battlefields of Flanders' and,instead, precipitated the GermanRevolution of late 1918. 'Out of suchMarxist machinations, the SocialDemocratic Party wedded themselvesto the new Republic, helped tosubjugate radicals (IndependentSocialists and Spartacists) andeffectively took over the new WeimarRepublic as their own.'

Hitler not only saw Russia as theseat of Communism, he perceived it asthe home of influential Jews and,crucially, of almost limitless resourcesand land. 'When we speak of newterritory in Europe today we mustprincipally think of Russia and theborder states subject to her' Hecontinued, writing that 'The Russia oftoday, deprived of its Germanic rulingclass, is not a possible ally ... Thestruggle against the JewishBolshevisation of the world demandsthat we should declare our positiontowards Soviet Russia.' That positionwas one of total hostility. For Hitler,nothing changed between the writingof Mein Kampf and the 1941 invasionof Soviet Russia. It was pragmatismalone which led to the short-term andcynical Nazi-Soviet Non-AggressionPact of 23 August 1939.

The VolksgemeinschaftIn contrast to working-class oriented,international Bolshevism, Hitleradvocated cross-sectional Germannationalism. The idea of a 'folk'-oriented community, orVolksgemeinschaft. was derived fromthe bonding of war-time, when themilitary experience of soldiers seemed

to represent a unified Germany for thefirst time. 'We soldiers who were atthe front and in the trenches did notask a wounded comrade, "Are you aBavarian or a Prussian? Catholic orProtestant?" We experienced theVolksgemeinschaft in the trenches.'

Just as returning Italian soldierswere ready to don black shirts asNationalists or Fascists in opposition tocorrupt post-war government, soGerman soldiers swelled the ranks ofthe Freikorps and, some, the SA.

Arguably envious of the historic,seemingly romantic, empires of Britainand France, German nationalists cameto rely on nineteenth-century German

writer-philosophers who re-mouldedheroic legends of the past. Germanywas somehow a community set apartfrom the rest of Europe with its ownSpecial Path (Sonderweg). CertainlyHitler was convinced of his nation'slink with the Holy Roman Empire, withFrederick the Great and Bismarck'sGermany. Ideas of Germandistinctness were evident, one way oranother, in the works of Goethe,Hegel and Nietzsche. German soul-searching and identity were even putto music by composer RichardWagner, whom Hitler idolised.

Ideas about a Volksgemeinschaftand German distinctness were notaltogether uncommon. Hitler,however, pushes nationalism intosomething more radical and racial -Aryanism. Hitler maintained thatGermany was an integral part of asuperior Aryan culture and race. Fromhis prison cell. Hitler's perspective was

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'Every manifestation of human culture, every product of art,science and technical skill, which we see before our eyestoday, is almost exclusively the product of the Aryan.'

A photograph of Dietrich Eckart, towhom Hitler dedicated the secondvolume of Mein Kampf. One of thefounder members of the GermanWorkers' Party, Eckart took part in theBeer Hall Putsch and was brieflyimprisoned with Hitler in Landsberg. Hedied of a heart-attack on 26 December1923. His last words are said to be:'Follow Hitler! He will dance but it is Iwho have called the tune'. He may wellhave recommended the Swastika as asymbol of the Nazi movement.

that: 'Every manifestation of humanculture, every product of art, scienceand technical skill, which we seebefore our eyes today, is almostexclusively the product of the Aryan.'Having thus identified such apparentAryan qualities, he urged theirpreservation: 'The State is only ameans to an end ... Above all, it mustpreserve the existence of the race.'

Hitler championed outdated andunscientific ideas about racial purity.He feared the diluting of Germany'sAryan qualities and drew a parallelwith the animal world: 'Each animalmates only with one of its ownspecies. The titmouse cohabits only

with the titmouse'! Hitler warned thatFrance was compromising its strengththrough its colonial and social policieswhich were 'likely to remove all tracesof French blood ... in the formation ofEuro-African Mulatto State.'

In Mein Kampf Hitler identifiedanother society's respect for apparentracial qualities: 'What has made theGreek ideal of beauty immortal is thewonderful union of a splendid physicalbeauty with nobility of mind andspirit.'

Hitler advocated two hours ofphysical activity for schoolchildren perday. 'There is one kind of sport whichshould be specially encouraged ... andthat is boxing ... There is no othersport which equals this in developingthe militant spirit.' Despite Hitler'sadmiration for boxing and itspractitioners, however, Germany'sworld heavyweight champion of theearly 1930s, Max Schmeling, carefullyavoided becoming either an Aryanicon or even a NSDAP member.Instead, Schmeling continued to betrained by a Jewish coach and, later,gave shelter to Jews.

What is clear is that Hitler'sracialised nationalism and hisaspiration for a yotksgemeinschaftoverlap with spurious Aryansuperiority. Germany was to be a purenational community based onidealised images of Aryanism. It is inthe interests of the nation, he wrote,that 'those who have a beautifulphysique should be brought into theforeground'.

Later, images of blond, healthychildren and families were widely usedto promote Nazi policies andinstitutions such as the Hitler Youthand KdF. Hitler's regime evenpromoted selective breeding:schoolchildren studied Eugenics andyoung women were to follow the 'TenCommandments for the Choice of aSpouse'. Healthy women who did nothave partners were encouraged to uselebensbom sex clinics in order toproduce the next Aryan generation.

Anti-SemitismMore than anything. Hitler's idealisednotions of Germanness or Aryanismcan best be defined as that which is inopposition to his caricature of Jewry.He returns to the 'Jewish Question'repeatedly throughout Mein Kampf. Itis almost an obsession with him.

On the one hand. Hitler identifiedthe Jews as slum dwellers of Viennawho were 'water-shy ... [with an]ignoble exterior.' On the other hand,he identified both Social Democratsand the press as Jews. Moreover theywere Marxists seeking to destroynational economies and trying to'establish a central organisation fortheir international swindling andcheating'.

Rather clumsily. Hitler portraysJews as leaders in politics andbanking, both groups seeking tostrengthen their cause, Zionism, toensure Jewish domination. From hisSocial Darwinist perspective. Hitlerperceived a racial war as inevitableand he sought to halt the 'Jewish drivetowards world conquest'. In this wayhe attributes Jews with his ownnefarious aims.

Ominously, and prophetically.Hitler suggests that 'If tweive orfifteen thousand of these Jews whowere corrupting the nation had beenforced to submit to poison gas... thenthe millions of sacrifices made at thefront would not have been in vain.' Inthis way Mein Kampf indicated apotential solution to the supposedJewish Question.

ConclusionIn contrast to the grand sweepingdesigns of conquest and superioritydelineated in Mein Kampf, Hitler alsoincluded mundane details, and insome ways these are the mostinteresting in the book. Hitlermentions the dates, attendancefigures and even the weather atNSDAP meetings. He cites his ability tocounter all opposing arguments atlarge-scale meetings or in coffeehouses. He also throws light on Nazi

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images: 'We chose red for our posters,our intention being to irritate the Leftso as to arouse their attention andtempt them to come to our meetings.'

Nevertheless, by presentingfundamental opposition to Versailles,Weimar and Communism and byanticipating struggle with the SovietUnion and Jewry, Mein Kampf sets outNazi electoral messages (evidenced inslogans such as 'Smash the Chains ofVersailles' and 'Away with feebleWeimar democracy') and anticipateshis domestic and foreign policyagenda in the 1930s. Admittedly, helater attempted to play down the

Hitler's idealised notionsof Germanness orAryanism can best bedefined as that which isin opposition to hiscaricature of Jewry.

ideas he had revealed. As Chancellor,he even insisted that Mein Kampfrepresented merely 'fantasies frombehind bars'. Similarly, for aninternational audience, he weaklyattempted to move away from hismore radical and aggressive ideas: thiscan be seen with the Polish Pact of1934 as well as the Nazi-Soviet Pact of1939.

In 1939, translator Murphyinformed English readers of MeinKampf that 'Hitler has declared thathis acts and public statementsconstitute a partial revision of his bookand are to be taken a such.'

The problem with such optimism isthat, by this time. Hitler had alreadyinstigated the widespread use ofconcentration camps, approved theblood-letting of Khstatlnacht.marched into the Rhineland, militarilysupported Franco's Fascists, invaded

Austria and acquired the Sudetenland.Without doubt. Hitler anticipated amajor war. As Alan Bullock maintains:'The aim of his foreign policy neverchanged, from its first definition inMein Kampf in the 1920s to the attackon Russia in 1941: German expansiontowards the East.'

With Mein Kampf Hitler's'blueprint' for the Third Reich was verymuch in the public domain. Shortlybefore his death, in his Last Will andTestament, Hitler stuck fast to thethemes presented in his text of 1924.As Berlin collapsed around him, Adolfasserted: 'Out of the ruins of ourtowns and monuments hatred willgrow against those finally responsiblefor everything. International Jewry.'

The true significance of MeinKampf did not end with the death ofHitler, for all too often the evil thatmen do lives on. Nowadays MeinKampf is largely banned in continentalEurope and, perhaps as aconsequence, it has become anunderground and illegal cult classicamongst Neo-Nazi groups incontemporary Germany and Austria.

Britain's own home-bred racist,John Tyndall, was reared on Hitler'sword. Tyndall was chairman of theNational Front before founding theBritish National Party: unashamedly hedeclared that 'Mein Kampf is mybible'. He advocated removingimmigrants from the UK and urgedNazi-style 'Racial Laws forbiddingmarriage between Britons and non-Aryans: medical measures will betaken to prevent procreation on thepart of all those who have hereditarydefects.' Only belatedly was Tyndallcharged with race hate offencesshortly before his death in July 2005.

The Arab world's anti-Israel agendahas sometimes strayed into anti-Semitism; hence the popularity ofHitler's text. At the turn of 2005, over100,000 copies of Mein Kampf weresold in a matter of weeks in Turkey,while in the Palestinian territoriesHitler's diatribe has long made thebestseller lists. Earlier, Egyptian

President Nasser had attempted tolead the Arab world against the Jewishstate of Israel, seeking to motivatearmy officers with a gift of a pocket-sized Arabic translation of MeinKampf. Whether such owners actuallyread Hitler's turgid prose is anothermatter entirely!

Further afield, in 1979, whenTanzanian armed forces succeeded inrepelling aggressive Ugandan forces,they found a copy of Mein Kampfsitting on dictator Idi Amin's officedesk. Besides being a notoriousAfrican trouble-maker, Uganda'sdictator was an arch-cntic of Britain'sempire. He even declared himself Kingof Scotland! That Mein Kampf mayhave influenced such a figure as IdiAmin speaks volumes for the bookand the nature of its post-Third Reichreadership.

Further ReadingAdolf Hitler, Mein Kampf (translatedby James Murphy, Hutchinson, 1939)K.D. Bracher, The GermanDictatorship (Penguin. 1970)Alan Bullock, Hitter: A Study in Tyranny(Penguin, 1990) and Hitler & Stalin:Parattet Lives (Montana. 1998)Nigel Jones, Hitter's Heralds: The Storyof the Freikorps 1918-23 (Barnes &Noble, 1995)

Dr Robert Carr lectures in Historyat Spetthorne College and, part-time, at St Mary's UniversityCollege in Twickenham.

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