Adolf Hitler - 1938
Adolf Hitler - 1938
As of 1938, “to millions of honest Germans, Hitler is sublime, a figure of adoration; he fills them with love, fear, and national ecstasy. To many other Germans he is meager and ridiculous - a charlatan, a lucky hysteric, and a lying demagogue.” It was a paradox.
The Nazi party that Hitler built had its roots in N.A.D.A.P. (National Sozialistische Deutche Arbeiter Partei). Translated, this is a National Socialistic Workers German Party.
Hitler built his private army, the SA, the Brown Shirts 2,500,000 men. Hitler himself was a brown shirt.
Personal qualities alone would not have brought Hitler to power. But they contributed to one of the main factors that did - his feat in identifying himself with a large percentage of the German nation. He became a demigod, a prophet, because with great mesmeric ability he persuaded so many Germans that he, and he alone, represented their renascent Germanism. People loved Hitler because they loved Germany. And Hitler and Germany - to Nazis - were One.
Germany lost the war (War I), but to Hitler, Germany did not lose the war at all, and certainly not HIS Germany and most Germans believed him. He was preparing Germany for a come-back victory.
Hitler, while building his party to help him rise to power, was not even a German citizen. He could not even run for the office in Germany. He had the power to star a civil war, but that was not what he wanted. His nickname was “Adolfe Legalite”. He wanted a dictatorship chosen voluntarily by the people to be voted into power.
Hitler managed to get appointed as Chancellor by Hindenburg who was Germany’s president. By the time Hindenburg died, Hitler controlled the army. Immediately Hitler combined the office of President and Chancellor into one and became Head of State.
The best reference book I found is Inside Europe by John Gunther, a time capsule, the 1938 edition. 
