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Published online by Cambridge University Press: 05 August 2009
The best description of Adolf Hitler's character can be found in Jacob Burckhardt's Historical Fragments. In these lecture notes, published after his death, the great Swiss historian devotes a few pages to Mohammed as founder of Islam. I do not know whether these pages do justice to the Prophet of the Mohammedans, but I think that they are very important for the understanding of the mentality and the historical role of the Führer. “Mohammed is in his very personality fanatical, that is his fundamental force. His fanaticism is that of a radical simplifier, and so far he is completely genuine. His fanaticism is of a most tenacious kind, and his victory is one of the greatest victories of the doctrinaire attitude and of triviality.” “His paltry preaching alone would have obtained only moderate and transitory success, but he continually presented to his bands concrete aims … plunder of caravans, conquests in Arabia, with the accompanying booty. The Holy War against the outside world follows, as something self-evident. The World Empire is simply a conclusion.” Burckhardt points out that the Arabs, the henchmen of Mohammed, were not barbarians. They were an ingenious people, with many spiritual traditions; Mohammed's success among them was based upon a longing for unification, for an “extreme simplification.” Mohammed utilized parts of the most various traditions. Therefore, “everybody found something reminiscent of his previous beliefs in the preaching of Mohammed.”
1 Gesamtausgabe, Vol. 7, Herausgegeben von Albert Oeri und Emil Dürr, (1929), p. 266 ffGoogle Scholar. The hope may be expressed that Nichols, J. H. who wrote the introduction to the English translation of Burckhardt's, Reflections on World History (Pantheon Books, New York, 1944)Google Scholar would use his valuable dissertation Burckhardt, Philosopher and Historian (Yale University) as a basis for a book that would permit the American reader to understand the great quiet man of Basle. His importance cannot be judged exclusively by his well-known Renaissance.
2 As biographies of Hitler I quote: Olden, Hitler (1936) and Heiden's, K. well-known Der Fuehrer (1944)Google Scholar(Compare also his History of National Socialism (1934)). There are several translations of Mein Kampf. Useful excerpts from Hitler's speeches were edited by Prange, Gordon W., Hitler's Words, (American Council of Public Affairs, 1944)Google Scholar. The two-volume selection from the Speeches of Adolf Hitler, April 1922–August 1939 (issued under the auspices of the Royal Institute of International Affairs, 1942)Google Scholar has been meticulously edited by N. H. Baynes; but this specialist in Byzantine history is, despite his industry, not at home in German history between the two wars. He is unable, as his introductions to the various chapters show, to understand the real meaning of Hitler's verbose and consciously confusing statements.
Most enlightening for the charismatic authority ascribed to Hitler as leader by eminent German students of law are Schmitt, Carl, Staat, Bewegung, Volk (1934Google Scholar; the most sophisticated presentation of Hitler's leader principle) and Huber, E. R., Die Verfassung (1937)Google Scholar. It will be a decisive task for all students of German history to investigate the relation between the various forms of German Nationalism and Hitler's movement.
For the tragic extent of Hitler's influence upon the best representatives of the German mind, see Bekenntnis der Professoren an den Deutschen Universitäten und Hochschulen zu Adolf Hitler und dem nalionalsozialistischen Slaat. [Probably 1934]Google Scholar. This volume contains, among others, speeches delivered by the famous philosopher, Martin Heidegger, and by the great historian of art, Wilhelm Pinder. The reader of the speeches will realize that Adolf Hitler really succeeded in being accepted as Leader by many outside the National-Socialist party ranks, who were in no way forced into this acceptance or induced into it by opportunism.
