That the stage was set in his early youth I have little doubt of, but his Vienna-Munich-WWI period was THE major crises period in his life. It followed his being rejected to the Academy of Fine Arts, later his failure to succeed as an independent artist, the death of his mother, the loss of his middle class status when the family pension was reduced, and the shattering effects of trench warfare in Flanders. All these events occurred within the same decade of his life. He was in no way unique in his being attracted to extremist views. At the time the mayor of Vienna was a Pan German party member as well as a member of the Anti-Semitic League. What we call extremism, was mainstream.

These ideas, as irrational as they may seem to us today, were widely accepted by a certain segment of German and Austrian society. Millions of Austrians well before WWI longed for re-unification with Germany, the expulsion of Slavs and Jews, and the break-up of the multi-ethnic Habsburg Empire, that they saw as threat to their racial purity. Simultaneously, millions of other Austrians and Germans were toying with Communist ideology. The reality was that the Monarchies of Europe were doomed from within.

I disagree that the ideas were not persuasive, irrational as they may be. The ideas afford the ability to transfer personal failure onto indefinable scapegoats, they allow mediocre men to feel as if they are part of a greater whole, they allow men to reject the society of their parents, they allow men to have a sense of self-esteem; second-hand as it may be. And when those ideas become mainstream with a society; they are not even considered radical or reactionary by the majority.

Also, the irrational part was not as clear then as today. Authoritarian governments were the norm, not the exception. Eugenics was considered a legitimate science and taught at Universities, and Aryan-Paganism was all the rage among the upper classes that wanted to reject what they viewed as a far too 'Semitic' religion in Christianity. Aryan-Paganism was mixture of the Nordic myths, revisionist-Christianity, and Racism. The ideology of the 'warrior super-state' was the by-product of German philosophers such as Kant, Hegel, Fichte, and a purposefully misinterpreted Nietzsche.

The primary alternative to all this nonsense offered at the time was not 'democratic principles' but Marxism. In many ways it can be said that the entire populace of the era was in a state of historical crises. Adolf Hitler was the faceless man in the street, common -not uncommon. What set him apart later were his oratorical gifts, organizational skills, and fanatical determination. He was the culmination of the Atilla reaction to the Witch Doctor radicalism of the times. A failure as an artist, he would use an entire nation as his canvas.

 George

(Edited by George W. Cordero on 3/06, 9:10am)