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Publicly Available Published by De Gruyter Oldenbourg April 19, 2010

Frühe biografische Texte zu Hitler. Zur Bewertung der autobiografischen Teile in Mein Kampf

  • Othmar Plöckinger

Vorspann

Dass es eine der Grundanstrengungen von Hitlers Leben gewesen sei, die eigene Person zu verhüllen wie zu verklären, schrieb schon Joachim Fest. Kaum eine Person der Weltgeschichte habe sich so konsequent stilisiert und im Persönlichen unauffindbar gemacht wie er. Wie aber verlief dieser Prozess, wann begann er? Welche Aspekte seiner Biografie wurden von Hitler in den Vordergrund geschoben, welche abgeschwächt und welche ganz verschwiegen? Und welche Rolle spielte schließlich Hitlers Umgebung bei der Ausbildung von Topoi, die seit 1933 zum Allgemeingut einer ganzen Gesellschaft werden sollten?

Abstract

The depiction of Hitler´s biography was and is substantially influenced by his book Mein Kampf [My Struggle]. However early biographical texts about Hitler show that all essential aspects of his life were already known in public before the publication of Mein Kampf and that their legendary embellishment sometimes exceeded Hitler´s later self-promotion by far. In fact Hitler presented little new about his background to his contemporaries in his book and thus did not create a biography in the usual sense, instead taking up already known information while shifting emphasis and subordinating it to an ideological goal by continuously embedding his life in political reflections; thus he presented his life as an archetype in the National Socialist sense. Even forgoing details already widely known in public and eliminating biographical breaks and contradictions was consistent in this context, as he was consciously aiming at the description not of an unknown, but rather of an ideal National Socialist fighter.

Keywords: Hitler; Mein Kampf
Published Online: 2010-04-19
Published in Print: 2010-01-15

© by Oldenbourg Wissenschaftsverlag, München, Germany

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