Weber's Book: Hitler's First War
duda-wsm • 26 May 2019
BOOK REVIEW d.d. 27 March 2011
Whoever follows me
here longer, knows that I have visited several
places where Hitler's List Regiment stayed
during his stay at the Western Front. I visited
not only the Belgian Bayernwald
-trenches and the French village, Fromelles
, but also locations of Hitler's Nazi
era, like the parade field of the Luitpold stadium, known from Leni Riefenstahl's
"Triumph of Will", part of the “Reichsparteitagsgelände” in Nuremberg, where I could not help to
stand for a while on his concrete speeching
platform.
Since I read during
my school years Allan Bullock's biography,
"Hitler: a Study in Tyranny", I've been
fascinated by the abject phenomenon of Hitler.
Since I went deeper into the Great War, my
fascination has only increased for the person,
who surely may be considered as the
exponent and the personification of the
continuum of the First and Second World War.
Reason
In the Netherlands
and in other countries in Europe a translation
of an already controversial, English book has
been recently published; Thomas Weber’s
"Hitler’s First War". (1) These critical reviews
in the printed media and even on the Dutch radio
not only aroused my curiosity, but above all
these reviews aroused my scepticism over the
claims, which I read about in these
pre-publications. These previews, in which
historical scholars are at the same time
critical as well as they praise the book, were
reason enough for me to read the book. The
arrival of Thomas Weber himself on 24
March this year at the Goethe Institut in
Amsterdam for a lecture, obliged me to read the
book a bit faster. Rather sceptical, I
started my reading experience, but I finished
excited.
"Etappenschwein"?
As the author
has
explained during his lecture in
Amsterdam, the core of his book turns to the
interesting question of whether Gefreiter Hitler
has developed his anti-Semitism during his
service in the List Regiment, or not. My
scepticism about Weber's conclusion that Hitler
would have been merely an "Etappenschwein"
with no particular merit, made me even more
curious about his book, because I am always,
although critical, open to new insights. I had
also other questions about Weber's book, for
which I was hoping for a satisfactory answer,
like: why earned the not very courageous "
Etappenschwein ", Hitler, his two Iron Crosses,
and why did Hitler never promote to a higher
rank than Gefreiter, rather a soldier first
class than a corporal?
Other
biographies
Indeed, since 1958
for at least 40 biographies of Hitler have
appeared, such as Allan Bullock’s in 1958 and
the more recent, commendable work of 1999 by Ian
Kershaw. (2) But concerning the period that
Hitler was part of the Bavarian Reserve Infantry
Regiment 16, all of these historians write
rather concise chapters. Bullock even tended to
follow the in the early Nazi time developed
mythology of Gefreiter Hitler. Kershaw's
masterpiece, the first volume of his Hitler
biography, "Hubris", is also, unfortunately,
relatively concise about Hitler's time on the
Western Front. Regarding the determination of
the proper locations, Kershaw is not entirely
correct, as I personally have noticed during my
travels along the Western Front.
Regimental History B.R.I.R. 16
Regimental History B.R.I.R. 16
Weber's easily
readable book is quite unique amongst these
series of biographies, because it focuses mainly
on the period '14-'18, which other historians
dealt with only briefly. (3) Another aspect that
makes Weber's book unique is the fact that he
approaches his subject from a thorough
investigation of all other members of the List
Regiment and how they have experienced Hitler as
a soldier. For this reason Weber's book became
not only a biography of Hitler, but his book is
simultaneously a regimental history of the
Bavarian Reserve Infantry Regiment 16! How you
will later think, after your reading experience
of Weber's conclusions about AH, agree or
disagree, if only from the perspective of the
regimental history of BRIR 16 the book is
undoubtedly impressive.
Anti-Semitism
Not only the
testimonies of Hitler's famous friends such as
Max Amann, Weber has figured out, but moreover
he studied the testimonies of fellow regiment
members, gone into oblivion, like the Jewish
officer, Leutnant Hugo Gutmann, who has
nominated Hitler for his second Iron Cross. As
Weber in his lecture has put forward, the in the
Nazi time concealed, Hugo Gutmann, formed the
focal point for his investigation into whether
Hitler’s anti-Semitism already developed at the
front. For the sake of brevity and for the fact
that you yourself should read Weber's cogent
arguments, let me just tell you that Weber
concludes that Hitler's anti-Semitism has
developed after the Great War. Weber dares not
to mention an exact time or an exact event in
1919. (4).
Creation of the myth of the brave soldier
Creation of the myth of the brave soldier
The image of a
fearless "“Meldeganger Hitler”, as the myth of
Nazi’s has created this image, and has
been taken over later by many renowned
historians, is according to Weber not
true. Even I, as a simple and humble reader,
always wrongly assumed that being a message
runner was a very dangerous task. But
concerning the risk of the distinct types
of messengers Weber makes an important
distinction between battalion messengers
and regimental messengers. Battalion
runners did have dangerous task to crawl until
the first lines to pass the messages. Regimental
runners, like Hitler, only went up and down from
the regimental headquarters to the battalion
headquarters. Compared to the circumstances of
ordinary soldiers in the trenches and battalion
messengers, Weber argues, that regimental
runners had a relatively easy life on a
relatively safe distance with much less risk and
less exposure to danger, and with better housing
and better nutrition. In short, Hitler was
indeed exposed to war, but compared to the men
in the trenches, Hitler had it a lot easier.
Therefore I find it amusing that Weber, in a
note politely but firmly settles with renowned
historians, such as Kershaw and Keegan, who
blindly have continued the tradition of the
imprinted image of the dangerous task of
Meldeganger Hitler. (5) So, food for historians!
Iron Cross First
Class
According to Weber
"Etappenschwein" Hitler had owed his decorations
actually more to the collective edition on the
same day of dozens of these awards to men of the
List Regiment and to his good contacts with a
number of staff officers from the Regiment
Headquarters. Weber mercilessly punctures the
myth of the courageous merit of Hitler's
(second) Iron Cross First Class. A nice piece of
Nazi falsification of history: Hitler was indeed
on 31 May 1918 present as one of the many
B.R.I.R. 16 men near Vézaponin, but the role of
him ascribed as the hero in the capture of 12
French soldiers near the bridge was actually
played by the later concealed Jewish officer,
Leutnant Hugo Gutmann, as an including letter of
the former regimental commander, Anton von
Tubeuf, later confirmed!
No promotion
Though now I am
somewhat convinced of Weber’s relativity of
Hitler's soldiers courage, to my question why
Hitler never promoted to a higher rank, I can
unfortunately find no conclusive answer. Weber
says that his officers were always satisfied
with Hitler's execution of his tasks. But his
character features, like that he was an
"Einzelganger", who absolutely never did more
than he was told, and therefore did not no
further excel by supposed leadership qualities,
made him during promotions time to end down the
list, and he always dropped off for promotion.
The fact that Hitler was an Austrian, has,
according to Weber during his lecture, played no
significant role. Hitler was indeed born on the
Austrian-Bavarian border and for his Bavarian
comrades his origins formed absolutely no
objection.
Conclusions of
my reading experience
While reading, you
would have noticed that all my scepticism about
Weber's conclusions have vanished. For those who
are not interested in Weber's theses, but who
only wants to know the bare facts about Hitler's
presence, or only the presence of the List
Regiment on the Western Front, Weber's book is
simply in itself a recommendation. Those who
follow the debate among historical scholars may
not miss Weber's much-discussed vision. Whether
you will later agree with Weber's pioneering
vision of Gefreiter Hitler or not, Weber's
thorough research and his arguments for his
theses will open for you new angles of approach,
just by Weber's particular approach to expose
the myth from the perspective of Hitler's
companions and from the "circumstantial
evidence" of their witness reports.
I can therefore
wholeheartedly recommend this easy to read book
to anyone, who is interested in the true war
adventures of Gefreiter Hitler during the Great
War and the thereafter organized myths. My final
verdict: five stars!
Pierre
Notes
Notes
(1) ISBN.
9789046809198. For clarity, I have read the
Dutch translation! The original English title
was' Hitler's First War-Adolf Hitler, The Men Of
The List Regiment, And The First World War
".
(2) Allan Bullock,
"Hitler: a Study in Tyranny". Ian Kershaw:
“Hitler: 1889-1936 Hubris" and "Hitler:
1936-1945 Nemesis”.
(3) In the second
part of his book Weber treats exhaustively the
myth of Hitler's alleged heroism during the
period 1919-1945. The second part is certainly
very commendable, but because of the brevity of
my book review I kept this section of the book
out of my consideration.
(4) As a consumer /
reader, I have developed my own thoughts
about this,
but because I am not a professional historian
and because I cannot support my suspicion
with evidence, I will not go into this. I prefer
not to become involved in an unwanted
"Historikerstreit", instead of an informative
discussion.
(5) Footnotes 17
and 18, related to Chapter
5.
Inleiding: Franz Von Papen & Werner Horn; schaker en pion Onlangs stuitte ik in een oud boek (1) van 1919 op een opmerkelijk verhaal over een Duitse Luitenant, die in begin februari 1915 een half geslaagde bomaanslag pleegt op een spoorbrug over een grensrivier tussen de Verenigde Staten en Canada. Ook al staat de bekentenis van de dader, Werner Horn, deels in het boek te lezen, de naam van zijn opdrachtgever zal Horn blijven verzwijgen. Na wat verder zoeken vond ik ook de naam van Horn’s opdrachtgever, Franz von Papen, een van de aangeklaagden van het latere Neurenberg Proces in 1946. In een Grote Oorlog als de Eerste Wereldoorlog is Horn’s aanslag op de brug uiteraard slechts een bescheiden wapenfeit. Toch vermoed ik dat dit relatief onbekende verhaal, dat de geschiedenis is ingegaan als de “ Vanceboro International Bridge Bombing ”, nog interessante kanten kent. Het is onder andere een spionageverhaal over hoe in een groter plan een sluwe schaker zijn naïeve pion offert. Beknopte situatieschets Canada en de Verenigde Staten in 1915
This trip we start at the Léomont near Vitrimont and we will with some exceptions concentrate on the Battle of Lorraine of August-September 1914 in the area, called, the “Trouée de Charmes”, the Gap of Charmes. After the Léomont battlefield we continue our explorations to Friscati hill and its Nécropole Nationale. Next we pay a visit to the battlefield of la Tombe to go on to the Château de Lunéville. There we cross the Vezouze to move on southward to the Bayon Nécropole Nationale. At Bayon we cross the Moselle to pass Charmes for the panorama over the battlefield from the Haut du Mont. North-west of Charmes we will visit the British Military Cemetery containing 1918 war victims. From Charmes we go northward to the battlefield of the First French Victory of the Great War, the Battle of Rozelieures of 25 August 1914. North of Rozelieures we will visit the village of Gerbéviller. From there we make a jump northward to visit the ruins of Fort de Manonviller to finish with an interesting French Dressing Station bunker, west of Domjevin.
Though we depart from Badonviller in the Northern Vosges , we make a jump northward to the east of Lunéville and Manonviller . We start at Avricourt on the border of Alsace and Lorraine. From the Avricourt Deutscher Soldatenfriedhof we explore the southern Lorraine battlefields ; the mine craters of Leintrey , the Franco- German war cemetery and Côte 303 at Reillon , and some German bunkers near Gondrexon , Montreux , and Parux .
We depart from Raon-l’Etape to drive northward via Badonviller to Montreux to visit the " Circuit du Front Allemand 14-18", the Montreux German Front Walk 14-18, with its trenches , breastworks , and at least twenty bunkers.
North-east of Nancy, east of Pont-à-Mousson, and south-east of Metz we visit the battlefields of the Battle of Morhange of 14 until 20 August 1914. We follow mainly topographically the route of the French advance eastward over the Franco-German border of 1871-1918. During this visit, we try to focus on the day that the momentum of the battle switched from the French side to the advantage of the Bavarian side: the day of 20 August 1914, when the Bavarians rapidly re-conquered the territory around Morhange , being also the day of the start of their rather successful “Schlacht in Lothringen”. We will visit beautiful landscapes of the "Parc Naturel Régional de Lorraine", memorials, ossuaries, and cemeteries. Sometimes we will divert to other periods of the Great War, honouring Russian and Romanian soldiers, who died in this sector. We start our route at the border village of Manhoué, and via Frémery, Oron, Chicourt, Morhange, Riche, Conthil, Lidrezing, Dieuze, Vergaville, Bidestroff, Cutting, Bisping we will finish in Nomeny and Mailly-sur-Seille, where the Germans halted their advance on 20 August 1914, and where they constructed from 1915 some interesting bunkers.
South of Manhoué we start this trip at Lanfroicourt along the French side of the Franco-German 1871-1918 border, marked by the meandering Seille river. We visit some French bunkers in Lanfroicourt, near Array-et-Han and in Moivrons. From there we go northward to the outskirts of Nomeny and the hamlet of Brionne to visit the ( second ) memorial, commemorating the events in Nomeny of 20 August 1914. We continue westward to finish at the Monument du Grand Couronné at the Côte de Géneviève, a former French artillery base, which offers several panoramic views over the battlefield.
North of Pont-à-Mousson and south of Metz, we explore the relics of German bunkers and fortifications along the Franco-German 1871-1918 border. We start at Bouxières-sous-Froidmont to visit the nearby height of the Froidmont on the front line. This time we will show only a part of the Froidmont, focusing on its military significance. From the Froidmont we continue via Longeville-lès-Cheminot and Sillegny to the “Forêt Domaniale de Sillegny” to explore some artillery ammunition bunkers. Next we continue to Marieulles for its three interesting bunkers and to Vezon for its line of ammunition depot bunkers. From Vezon we continue to the “Deutscher Kriegsgräberstätte Fey – Buch”. From Fey we go eastward, passing 6 bunkers near Coin-lès-Cuvry to finish our trip at the top construction of the “Feste Wagner” or “Fort Verny”, north of Verny.
From Badonviller or the Col du Donon we continue north-eastward for a visit to an extraordinarily well restored sample of German fortifications: the Feste Kaiser Wilhelm II, or Fort de Mutzig, lying on a height, some 8 km. away from the 1871-1918 Franco-German Border.
We concentrate on the German side of the front around "Markirch", Sainte Marie-aux-Mines, the so-called "Leber" front sector . We first pay a visit to the Sainte-Marie-aux-Mines Deutscher Soldatenfriedhof, and next to the southern side of the Col de Ste. Marie for the many interesting bunkers of the German positions at the Bernhardstein, at the north-eastern slopes of the Tête du Violu. On the next photo page about the Haut de Faîte we will continue with a visit to the northern side of the pass and the "Leber" sector.