THE FUEHRER MYTH

By Stig Hornshøj-Møller

THE FUEHRER MYTH describes the both horryfying and complicated process that led to the systematical extermination of six million Jews by the Nazi system of power during World War II.

The book is a comprehensive analysis of the conceptions, factors and relations in the German society that made Holocaust possible and it is filled with a lot of new insights and provoking interpretations. But it is also the account of those people who decided, planned and carried out this the hitherto greatest, deliberately organized massmurder in History.

Because - as the author stresses again and again - it is human beings that decide to kill other human beings and let other human beings kill the victims, he lets the reader follow the man Adolf Hitler at closest range as well as is the case of the keypersons around the Fuehrer: Joseph Goebbels, Heinrich Himmler, Reinhard Heydrich and many others. They are described as human beings of flesh and blood: emotional, weak, gready, opportunistic, fanatic, lecherous, religious (in their belief in the Fuehrer) etc.

The Danish historian Stig Hornshøj-Møller (born 1949) has - based on more than 25 year's research into the topic - written a book on the creation and staging of the Fuehrer Myth which is both schocking and of alarming current interest. His analysis demonstrates how the careful use of medieproduced "reality" by the Nazis in film and other kinds of propaganda was able to make ordinary people kill others - just because they were stigmatized as being "different".

Chapters 1, 2, 3, 47, 48 and 59 are available in translated versions on this page.

THE FUEHRER MYTH
Table of contents

1. Foreword

 

I. Symbols and consciousness

2. Omens
The chapter describes essential symbols and rituals in Adolf Hitlers behaviour and thinking: the Iron Cross First Class, the Swastika, the commemoration of "martyrs" and the meaning of the FHQ "Wolfsschlucht" (Wolf's Gorge) in Belgium

3. Wolf
The chapter presents modern theories on Post Traumatic Stress Disorder and Mutiple Personality Decease and argues from the point of view of semiotical theory why this diagnostical frame-work can be seen as a relevant way of describing the well-known difference between Hitler's personality and behaviour as a politician and in private

 

II. A searching soul

4. An insecure child
The chapter outlines Hitler's childhood and his relations to his father and his mother

5. A young man detached from reality
The chapter describes his history from the death of his father till the outbreak of WW I.

 

III. The premises

6. The inheritance from Jesus Christ
The chapter outlines the long tradition of anti-Semitism with special reference to myths and their pictorial images

7. "God is dead"
The chapter focuses on social-darwinism and the change of basic myths legitimizing the political and social construction of society - especially mirroring the thinking of Nietzsche (and the alteration of it through his sister and the way it was understood by German society)

8. A chosen people and their Lebensraum
The chapter presents features of the German idea of Volkstum

 

IV. The trauma

9. Get thee hence, Satan!

The chapter describes Hitler during WW I and focuses on the significance of his twofold loss of eyesight at Wervicq and in Pasewalk. It ends with his membership of Drexler's small party in 1919

 

V. Herr Wolf

10. The first steps
The chapter outlines Hitler as a politician between 1919 and 1923 and focuses especially on his early anti-Semitic statements

11. Searching for a new identity
The chapter analyses the influence of the painter Franz von Stuck on Hitler's personality as politician out of the author's general notion that pictures and images are a deeper and more fundamental structure in man's mind than words

12. Dreams and reality
The chapter focuses on German films of the early 1920's which can seen both as a reflection of the identity problems of the German society in general as well as Adolf Hitler in particular. Here, too, the author points out how these films helped Hitler to put images and fundamental thinking to his inner emotions as a precondition to the later development of his political personality through reading and writing

13. Wolf becomes a face
The chapter describes the role of his photographer Heinrich Hoffmann in developing the Fuehrer Myth

14. "Mein Kampf" - the new bible
The chapter outlines the history of the Putsch in 1923 and charcterizes how and why "Mein Kampf" can be seen as Hitler's own description of the role of his traumatic ego

15. The power of the spoken word
The chapter describes how Hitler was able to make his audience into almost religious believers through his speeches

16. An incomplete man
The chapter focuses on the psychological consequences of Hitler's missing left testicle and his peculiar relationship with women up to Geli Raubal

17. Geli
The chapter gives an account of the strange relationship between Hitler and his niece whose death is seen as an accident. The key interest is, however, on the political consequence of her death and the dates of Hitler's visits to her grave. The last one was exactly on the 25th anniversary of the shot in Sarajevo 1914. A mere co-incident??

 

VI The disciples of the Fuehrer

18. Canaille Mensch
The chapter describes the early history of Joseph Goebbels, his personality, "conversion" and marriage with Magda Goebbels

19. A breeder of human beings
The chapter presents the early history of Heinrich Himmler, his personality, "conversion" and marriage

20. A blond beast
The chapter presents the background of Reinhard Heydrich, his personality, "conversion" and marriage

21. Göring and the others
The chapter presents briefly the other main characters, but focuses especially on the features they had in common in their relations with the Fuehrer

 

VII One people and one Fuehrer

22. Adolf Hitler comes to power
The chapter describes the mixture of terror and fascination that brought Hitler to power and discusses the symbolic meaning of the day in Potsdam 21.3. 1933

23. The screw is tightened
The chapter focuses on the Gleichschaltung and especially on the symbolic rituals and speeches of 9.11. and 10.11. 1933 - underlining the significance of the date: exactly 15 years after Hitler's decision of becoming a politician

24. If only the Fuehrer knew
The chapter describes the major events in 1934: The killing of Röhm, the death of Hindenburg and especially the filmic development of the Fuehrer-myth through Triumph of the Will. As everywhere in the book these events are more seen from a semiotic point of view and their influence of the mentality of German society than from a more traditional historical point of view

25. The Fuehrer in private
The chapter deals with the story of Eva Braun and other closer relations to women like Renate Müller and Unity Valkyrie Mitford. The marriage with Eva Braun is seen as Hitler's symbolic divorce from Germany

 

26. A pure race
The chapter outlines the ideology behind and the actual policy in breeding an Aryan race

27. A castle of the Grail
The chapter tells the story of Wewelsburg up till 1940

28. A life guard
The chapter describes the development of the SS until WW II - especially with reference to the rituals and their symbolic meanings. It also includes the description of how more and more tasks were transfered to the SS during the 1930's

 

IX. The Fuehrer sets the banner of war

29. The Fuehrer takes a decision
The chapter analyses the symbolic meaning of crucial events in 1935 and 1936: The Nuremberg Laws were promulgated on the same day as the Swastika was made the flag of the Reich and Hitler apparantly drew another conclusion of the Olympic Games than others. He ordered Göring to prepare for war before the next games

30. The image of Satan
The chapter discusses the importance of visualizing ideals and enemy pictures through exhibitions in 1937

31. Historical "coincidences"
The chapter looks into the secret role of Heydrich and his SD during the 1930's of making things "happen" the way Hitler wanted them to happen

32. The myth of death-sacrifice
The chapter presents different cases of the death and martyr cult in the Third Reich and the way these events were staged and used by the propaganda in order to prepare the Germans for war

 

X. A love-affair

33. Liduschka
The chapter tells the love story between Joseph Goebbels and Lida Baarova till 15.8. 1938 - the day when the big crisis with Magda Goebbels started

34. "Führer befiehl, wir folgen!"
The chapter continues the love story and mixes politics and personal life of Goebbels until the signing of the München-agreement

35. Controle of Hanke? (In Danish this is a play with words)
The chapter continues the story of Goebbels' personal problems and growing isolation until the beginning of November 1938

36. A macabre declaration of love
The chapter claims that the Reichskristallnacht on the night between November 9th and 10th 1938 was initiated as Goebbels' way of regaining Hitler's favour and that it sabotaged both Himmler's and Göring's plans for Jews

37. It is neccessary with violence
The chapter describes the consequences of the Reichskristallnacht, but focuses especially on a interpretation of Hitler's speech to the press in the evening of November 10th which is seen as his harsh criticism to the propagandists, because it had become clear to him that the German people had not yet grasped the significance of his anti-Semitism

38. "I would not like to be a Jew in Germany"
The chapter summarizes the meeting between Göring, Goebbels, Heydrich and others on November 12th, 1938

39. The Fuehrer acts as prophet
The chapter outlines the character of the anti-Jewish policy in 1939 until the outbreak of WW II, including an analysis of the content of Hitler's prophecy of January 30th, 1939, which is seen as a way of putting stress on the ongoing negotiation with George Rublee

 

XI. The Threshold to Genocide

40. Hell breaks out
The chapter describes Hitler's own, highly symbolic time-table of going to war as well as the Campaign in Poland with its different consequences. Once more the focus is on the importance of dates and visual perception of certain events for Hitler's view upon himself

41. Final rehearsal of genocide
The chapter outlines the decision-making that led to the Euthanasia-project and describes the way it was organized. The importance of documentary film as part of this process is underlined

42. Reality works
The chapter deals with the first phase of the production of Der ewige Jude and stresses the importance of an entry in Goebbels' diary on his first viewing of the slaughtering scenes on the evening of October 16th, 1939: "This Jewry must be annihilated"

43. The sword is forged

The chapter reconstructs meticulously the development of this socalled "documentary" which can be seen as an X-ray of the final decision-making process. It also focuses on the symbolic consequences of the bomb explosion in Munich of November 8th, 1939

44. A credo
The chapter continues the story of Der ewige Jude for the rest of 1939 and also deals with the growing religious character and function of the Fuehrer Myth after the bombexplosion

45. "A symphony of disgust"
The chapter continues the production story of Der ewige Jude, outlining the change of scope of the film from "just" legitimizing ideology to become a deliberate call for genocide. It also describes the reactions from the first test as well as the changes that were demanded by Hitler himself

46. "It is un-German to exterminate whole people"
The chapter outlines the Germanization policy of Himmler, including his proposal from May, 1940 (very much based on Richard Breitman's book on Himmler and the Final Solution)

XII. The Decision

47. The Day of Judgement
The chapter focuses on Hitler's movements and actions between his approval of Der ewige Jude on 20.5. 1940 until his return to Germany after the Armistice with France End June. It is claimed that Hitler took the final decision on 1.6. 1940 while visiting the Wervicq where he was blinded in WW I

48. The Guardian of Paradise
The chapter describes how Heinrich Himmler got an oral order to kill the European Jewry in the FHQ Wolfsschlucht on 22.6.

 

49. Go thee cursed to Hell on Earth
The chapter deals with the Madagaskar-project which is seen as a cover-up for the killing assignment

50. The private host of the Fuehrer
The chapter outlines the formation of the Waffen-SS in 1940 and presents how Himmler began to prepare his men for the killing assignment. It is argued that the 1.6. 1940 can be claimed as the date where Hitler in his own symbolic way formally founded the Waffen-SS as his private killing force

51. "Expell the Jews!"
The chapter focuses on the feature film Jud Süss and the intimate propaganda relation between this film and Der ewige Jude as well as the effects of Jud Süss on Hitler, Goebbels and others

52. The promulgation of the death sentence
The chapter describes how Der ewige Jude was presented to the public on 28.11. 1940 and underlines the significance of certain other events that took place in the beginning of December this year. It closes by stressing that Hitler started publicly recalling his prophecy just after the film had been shown all over Germany in his radio-transmitted speech to the Reichstag on January 30th, 1941

53. Paradise on Earth
The chapter interprets on the basis of its architectural ideals Wewelsburg as the intended burial place for Hitler which would make Himmler the Guardian Angel of the Fuehrer Myth after his death. This strange promise is seen as Himmler's reward for accepting the killing assignment

 

54. The last pieces
The chapter describes the preparations for the assault on Russia which is seen as an outer subspecimen of Hitler's war against the Jews. It also focuses on the formation and training of the killer squads

55. The crusade against the Jewish Bolchevism
The chapter outlines the development in the preparations for the extermination of the Jews within Europe from June 22nd, 1941 (where the killing of Soviet Jewry began) and the rest of the year

56. The extermination is systematized
The chapter focuses on the Wannsee-Conference as well on Heydrich's death

 

57. The doubter

The chapter describes the dichotonomy in Heinrich Himmler's attitude to the extermination of the Jews and sees his speeches - e.g. in Posen - as evidence for his inner struggle to convince himself that he was doing something "good" through the systematic killing programme

XV. Holocaust

58. Shoah
The chapter is totally different from the others because it consists of five pictures and five quotations to "illustrate" the unbelievable character of the atrocities

 

 

59. The normality of Evil
The chapter is enclosed in a very swift translation

60. The propaganda film Der ewige Jude
The chapter consists - after some initial comments - of a reprint of the text of Illustrierter Film-Kurier in order to give an impression of the contents of Der ewige Jude

XVIII. Biblio- and filmography

(* Footnote: The Allied Controlcommission prohibited the two films after 1945. The Federal Republic of Germany was in 1960's considered to have become so democratic that it was able to administer also this part of its Nazi inheritance. Der ewige Jude lies to-day at the Filmarchive of the Federal Archives in Berlin whereas Jud Süss is at the Friedrich-Wilhelm-Murnau-Stiftung in Wiesbaden. The Transit-Film in Munich (fully owned by the German state) administers the commercial rights to both films (and others from the Nazi periode) includings sales of excerpts of maximum three minutes to the TV-stations of the world. Danish TV2 asked for permission to use more in a series based on this book. With reference to the German Foreign Office such a permission was not granted.)

Note to the chapter on Heinrich Himmler as the DOUBTER
The American sociologist Daniel J. Goldhagen called his very commented - and disputed - book "Hitler's Willing Executioners". He demonstrates carefully the radicality of the anti-Semitism hold by most members of som police forces that participated in the extermination of Soviet Jews. As they were not members of the SS, but simply "ordinary Germans" who more or less accidentally landed in these death-patrols, he takes the very existence of their anti-Semitism as evidence of the depth of the anti-Semitic tradition in Germany and as evidence of a special German "character" (cf. the account in this book on the premises of the Third Reich, chapter III).
This conclusion has of course aroused a lot of discussion and has been critized by a long row of leading historians as being too far-reaching and too rigid. Another American historian Christopher R. Browning has made research into the same source material, but has reached another conclusion. He stresses instead the growing brutalization of the war and the psychological pressure of obedience and demands for solidarity, the individual police men were exposed to from their superiors and comrades.
There has also been put serious - and in my opinion also justified - questionmarks at the methodological apparatus of Goldhagen, although some of the critics derives from the sceptical attitude of traditional historical research regarding the theories and methods of social sciences.
In my view the main problem of his scientific approach and methods is to be found in his too superficial evaluation of the very differentiated debate on the decision making process that led to the Holocaust - and in the lacking of an analysis of the actual way, how the latent anti-Semitic image of the enemy was activated by the Nazi system.
In my opinion Goldhagen therefore lacks the decisive link between his more theoretical analysis of German anti-Semitism on the one hand and his empirical analysis of the attitude of the perpetrators to their killing job on the other. Or to put it down to the point: Exactly the process which is the very topic of this book.