# Hitler's Childhood Question **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [March 12, 2014, 3:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hitlers-childhood-question/683508 "2014-03-12T03:18:19Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 10\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![wolfpup](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wolfpup/32/10618_2.png) [@wolfpup](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wolfpup)\ **Post date:** [March 12, 2014, 5:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hitlers-childhood-question/683508/21 "2014-03-12T17:35:21Z")
> [@Koxinga](#): > > In what respect was he insane, though? In the respect that he was a psychopath. At one point when one of his military campaigns suffered a reversal he threw himself on the floor of his office in front of his staff and started gnawing on the carpet like a deranged animal. His rages and irrationality were legendary, his cruelty in the occupied countries and systematic genocide is something that an entire nation is still trying to live down. Most of his principal officials were an assortment of thugs and degenerates. When the war was lost he blamed every one of his generals for betraying him, though he was still hallucinating non-existent imaginary campaigns that would save him. When that turned out not to be, he turned his pistol on himself and shot himself in the mouth. Not what I would consider a balanced individual. ---
**Author:** ![Malden\_Capell](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/malden_capell/32/5274_2.png) [@Malden\_Capell](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Malden_Capell)\ **Post date:** [March 12, 2014, 6:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hitlers-childhood-question/683508/22 "2014-03-12T18:25:58Z")
> [@wolfpup](#): > > In the respect that he was a psychopath. At one point when one of his military campaigns suffered a reversal he threw himself on the floor of his office in front of his staff and started gnawing on the carpet like a deranged animal. His rages and irrationality were legendary, his cruelty in the occupied countries and systematic genocide is something that an entire nation is still trying to live down. Most of his principal officials were an assortment of thugs and degenerates. When the war was lost he blamed every one of his generals for betraying him, though he was still hallucinating non-existent imaginary campaigns that would save him. When that turned out not to be, he turned his pistol on himself and shot himself in the mouth. Not what I would consider a balanced individual. That was at a very late period in his life, though. We might assign enormous stress (which he undoubtedly did suffer), as well as other health problems before jumping to the ‘insane’ explanation. For all his life before then he was, to outside appearances, calm, calculated and charming, and able to speak extremely well and get himself into an emotional frenzy. His Nazism, disgusting as it was, was sincerely held and the product of a sane mind. We have to be careful not to simply assign obnoxious views as insanity, as that belittles them without countering their views (as well as insulting the genuinely insane). ---
**Author:** ![Jackmannii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jackmannii/32/311_2.png) [@Jackmannii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jackmannii)\ **Post date:** [March 12, 2014, 6:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hitlers-childhood-question/683508/23 "2014-03-12T18:36:25Z")
Hitler’s anti-Semitism seems to have been a product of the prejudices of his time, as well as his own peculiar mental makeup. I’ve seen no evidence that it had any logical basis in his experiences. For one thing, he benefited from the kindness of a Jewish sidewalk seller in Vienna, who took pity on his ragged state and gave him a badly needed winter coat. Then there was [Hugo Gutmann](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hugo_Gutmann)\*, Hitler’s superior officer in WWI (and a Jew)), who recommended Hitler for the Iron Cross (not usually awarded to enlisted personnel). \*himself an Iron Cross recipient. ---
**Author:** ![Ranger\_Jeff](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ranger_jeff/32/2065_2.png) [@Ranger\_Jeff](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ranger_Jeff)\ **Post date:** [March 13, 2014, 12:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hitlers-childhood-question/683508/24 "2014-03-13T00:30:20Z")
Let’s not forget there were numerous assassination attempts against him that failed. Some he probably never heard about. But some, he did. And after a couple of failed assassination attempts, isn’t it normal for some people to begin to feel invulnerable? Personally, I’d get really paranoid. ---
**Author:** ![wolfpup](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wolfpup/32/10618_2.png) [@wolfpup](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wolfpup)\ **Post date:** [March 13, 2014, 1:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hitlers-childhood-question/683508/25 "2014-03-13T01:04:20Z")
> [@Malden\_Capell](#): > > That was at a very late period in his life, though. We might assign enormous stress (which he undoubtedly did suffer), as well as other health problems before jumping to the ‘insane’ explanation. For all his life before then he was, to outside appearances, calm, calculated and charming, and able to speak extremely well and get himself into an emotional frenzy. > > His Nazism, disgusting as it was, was sincerely held and the product of a sane mind. > > We have to be careful not to simply assign obnoxious views as insanity, as that belittles them without countering their views (as well as insulting the genuinely insane). The examples I gave are far from the only ones, though throwing himself on the floor and chewing the edge of the carpet seemed like a good one (this was reported, as were many other such incidents, in the diaries of his officials and staff that were captured after the war; much of this is documented in Shirer’s “Rise and Fall”). Diplomats who had to deal with him learned that his moods were unpredictable; one described an extremely cordial meeting one day but the next time something had set him off; he started gesticulating with his fist so wildly that one point it almost touched the floor. But these are mere eccentricities in the larger scheme of things; what really set him apart is that he was a mass murderer with not a shred of feeling or empathy for his millions of victims. And much of this ruthlessness was evident from the beginning, not a function of stress towards the end. He was a megalomaniac of an unprecedented degree of psychosis, one who insisted the people swear absolute loyalty to him personally, not to the nation, and formally put himself above the law to do as he wished without any legal constraints. Every time he conquered another nation it only drove him to conquer more; every time he was offered a treaty it was never enough. His undoing was in turning on the Soviet Union despite the fact that he had both an economic agreement and a non-aggression pact with Stalin. In the end, he believed that every battle must be fought to the death, and when it was pointed out to him that he was bringing apocalyptic destruction on the very German people that he had set out to champion, his attitude was that if they lost the war they didn’t deserve to live. To him, strength and victory was its own virtue and the only virtue there was; defeat was weakness and weakness deserved only death. There’s no question that Hitler was sincere in his beliefs, though he was not short of almost incredible hypocrisy and flagrant lying. There’s also no question that he was bright – indeed, was a genius in political matters with an instinct that often seemed downright uncanny – and capable of being charming. None of those things are inconsistent with the psychopathology that he had. ---
**Author:** ![nevadaexile](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/eb8c5e/32.png) [@nevadaexile](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/nevadaexile)\ **Post date:** [March 13, 2014, 1:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hitlers-childhood-question/683508/26 "2014-03-13T01:25:59Z")
Anti-semitism, while seen as being racist and vulgar in today’s world was quite common in 19th and early 20th century Europe. The reason that many Jews emigrated to the US, Canada and Palestine was how poorly that they were treated in their home countries. Hitler and the Nazi’s was simply much more virulent than the rest of Europe (Stalin being a notable) Hitler actually was conflicted about Jews. His mother was treated by a Jewish doctor, who Hitler wrote a letter thanking him for his care after she died. he also protected the man and his family until they were able to emigrate from Europe.he also served with German Jews during WWI and was never known to be any more anti-semetic than what was “normal” for the time. How and why he later became convinced of perceived Jewish inferiority and then approved the plans that lead to the deaths of most Europe’s Jews isn’t really well understood even today. He seems to have been an opportunist who found the “perfect” opportunity to enact his warped world view. ---
**Author:** ![aldiboronti](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/9fc348/32.png) [@aldiboronti](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/aldiboronti)\ **Post date:** [March 13, 2014, 7:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hitlers-childhood-question/683508/27 "2014-03-13T07:38:38Z")
> [@Simplicio](#): > > His anti-semitism seems to have come after WWI, when he (and many other Germans) felt Jewish conspirators were somehow responsible for Germany’s loss in that war. > > I don’t think there is any evidence he was insane. His antisemitism was there long before the First World War. He writes in Mein Kampf of the awakening of his antisemitism in Vienna in around 1907 and his admiration for Karl Lueger, the viciously antisemitic mayor of the city. From the chapter in MK dealing with his first years in Vienna: > [@](#): > > Nothing affected me in so short a time as the slowly mounting insight into the kind of activity carried on by Jews in specific areas. > > Was there any kind of filth or brazenness, particularly in cultural life, in which there was not at least one Jew participating? > > As soon as you cautiously cut into such an abscess, you would find, like a maggot in a rotting body, blinded by the sudden light, a little Yid! ---
**Author:** ![Mr.Kobayashi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/4af34b/32.png) [@Mr.Kobayashi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mr.Kobayashi)\ **Post date:** [March 13, 2014, 9:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hitlers-childhood-question/683508/28 "2014-03-13T09:57:53Z")
> [@aldiboronti](#): > > His antisemitism was there long before the First World War. He writes in Mein Kampf of the awakening of his antisemitism in Vienna in around 1907 and his admiration for Karl Lueger, the viciously antisemitic mayor of the city. > > From the chapter in MK dealing with his first years in Vienna: Taking MK at face value to discern facts about Hitler is of dubious value; it was written as a political screed and not a frank autobiography. Kershaw writes in _Hitler 1889 - 1936: Hubris_ that: > [@](#): > > Why might Hitler fabricate the claim that he had become an ideological antisemite in Vienna? …The answer lies in the image Hitler was establishing for himself in the early 1920s, and particularly following the failed putsch and his trial. > … > Perhaps by then Hitler had even convinced himself that all the pieces of the ideological jigsaw had indeed fallen into place during his Vienna years. …An admission that he had become an ideological antisemite only at the end of the war, as he lay blinded from mustard gas in a hospital in Pasewalk and heard of Germany’s defeat and the revolution, would certainly have sounded less heroic, and would also have smacked of hysteria. As mentioned he had business dealings with Jews in Vienna, among them Jacob Altenberg who spoke well of their relationship. He also had Jewish personal friends, a locksmith named Simon Robinson who lent him money in the poor years and copper cleaner Josef Neumann (not to mention sending postcards to his mother’s Jewish doctor). His friends at the time mention that his political ire was most often reserved for ‘Jesuits and Reds’. It is therefore reasonable to believe his business partner at the time Reinhold Hanisch when [he wrote](http://www.sources.li/buddy.pdf) “In those days Hitler was by no means a Jew hater. He became one afterward.” ---
**Author:** ![Quintas](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/q/48db29/32.png) [@Quintas](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Quintas)\ **Post date:** [March 13, 2014, 12:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hitlers-childhood-question/683508/29 "2014-03-13T12:13:45Z")
> [@Charlie\_Wayne](#): > > IMO, the most interesting thing about AH was that so many people in Germany could be so taken in and duped by him. He was very clearly insane. But perhaps his insanity was not evident until a few years after he got into power. > > It was very interesting that so many apparently reasonable Germans could have been taken in by this monster. Nevermind. ---
**Author:** ![jtur88](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/e9c0ed/32.png) [@jtur88](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jtur88)\ **Post date:** [March 13, 2014, 1:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hitlers-childhood-question/683508/30 "2014-03-13T13:12:03Z")
Umm – what is the connection between being anti-semitic and being a murderous dictator? There have been numerous murderous dictators in recent history, few of whom were particularly anti-semitic, either in their personal view or their administrative policy. And, probably half the world is, so some degree,anti-semitic, but that does not make the rank and file of the planet murderously dictatorial nor inclined to be so. In fact, Hitler might be the only historical example we have of a person who was both virulently anti-semitic and at the same time a murderous dictator. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hitlers-childhood-question/683508.md?page=1)