Day 171 – 52 Books in 52 Weeks

The Hitler I Knew was written by Otto Dietrich, Hitler’s Reich Press Chief (1937-1945), is a very interesting read. Dietrich began writing the book five months after Hitler’s death in 1945, but the book didn’t get published until 1955, three years after Dietrich’s death.

The book is interesting in that Dietrich had first-hand access to the Führer, though he was not a part of the “inner circle.”

One thing I had to keep in mind as I read this, especially when coming across views that were different than what was laid out in Ian Kershaw’s thorough biography, was that one month before Hitler committed suicide, Dietrich was “fired.” So though he claims to be putting forth an objective history, it is clearly tarnished. Also, he was most likely trying to put himself in the best light considering he was being tried. He was trying to convince his audience that he had been seduced by Hitler just like everyone else.

Anyway, he, like Kershaw, talks about Hitler’s “dual” personality. To the public he was the caring, father-figure. In private, his rage exploded, sometimes at the tiniest matter (such as his dog not following a command). Dietrich’s first statement in the book about Hitler is, “Hitler was a demonic personality obsessed by racial delusions.” He goes on to say that Hitler wasn’t mentally ill, but was rather mentally abnormal – someone who stood on the threshold between genius and madness.

The book is divided into two parts. The first is entitled, “Hitler as Leader of ‘Party, State, and Armed Forces.'” The second is entitled, “Scenes from Hitler’s Life.”

Part one deals with Hitler’s character and talent; his gambling with destiny; his foreign policy; Hitler as a soldier; as a Leader; then Hitler’s will vs the will of the people.

Dietrich talks about Hitler’s ability to mesmerize the masses; how he grew more and more isolated; how he kept taking on more and more responsibility so that he could have absolute rule; and how the lack of any organizational hierarchy was both ingenious yet disastrous in ruling the Reich.

Part two gives insight into a “typical” day: Hitler not rising from bed until at least 10am, not retiring until 3 or 4am; his wanting to have people around him at all times; his eating habits; his various homes; his fear of planes and so on.

One thing I particularly liked about the book, which wasn’t described in Kershaw’s book, was the description of the Berghof, Hitler’s mountain home, and the tea house built on a mountain peak – and the sheer manpower it took to build these places.

Very little is mentioned about the holocaust, just a line or two and Dietrich doesn’t take responsibility for anything that happened. Instead he puts everything onto Hitler’s shoulders, which having read Kershaw’s biography, Hitler really just laid out the “big picture” and those under him used their own “talents” to see that it was done.

All in all, it is interesting, but one must remember that Dietrich is trying to avoid prison (he only served 18 months out of a 7 or 8 year sentence), he didn’t get along with Goebbels (the one person whose job was similar to his own), and he had been fired just one month before Hitler’s suicide.

As Roger Moorhouse says in his 2010 introduction to the book, “Though he (Dietrich) makes much of Hiter as the “seducer” of the German people, he is strangely silent on his own complicity in the seduction… he was highly educated and politically aware, yet also one who clearly suffered from a profound moral myopia. His book is as fascinating for its observations, as it is for its omissions.”