I have forgotten to mention that as of Friday, May 1st, we have been living here for 8 months!! I just can't believe it. Time is flying by, I guess in part because we are really enjoying it here. Our remaining 14 months will in many ways just not be long enough, even though it will be really nice to get back to our families and friends in June 2010.
I also alluded to the fact that I had forgotten some other anniversaries - the one I'm discussing today is not nearly so pleasant. Although I have been at this blog for 8 months now, I have purposely avoided one very dark time in Germany's history, in part because of how the people here have reacted to it, and in part because there really are so many more wonderful or interesting things to know about Germany than this one period. This uncomfortable anniversary is the death date of Adolf Hitler: April 30th. I was surprised in some ways that not much more was said around here about it - actually, the reason why I missed this date was that NOTHING was said about it. But I am not entirely surprised. I have yet to find a German willing to talk to me about this very sobering time in their history. I can't figure out if it is because of embarrassment, a fear that by bringing it up and out in the open will focus too much attention on it or perhaps make it more real, or some other reason that I just can't know, but people here avoid it very pointedly.
Hitler's power had its roots in World War I. But before we look at his role in things, we need to know a little more about Hitler before war. Hitler was born in April of 1889 in a guest house (inn) in Austria. He was the 4th of 6 children. Hitler's father, who Adolf seemed to have little love or respect for and who often beat him, died when Hitler was 14 years old. His mother, whom he loved dearly, died just 4 years later after a terrible illness. Hitler did not excel at school, which left him limited options after his mother's death. He decided to study art, but he could not get into the art school. He had few friends and fewer outlets in life. He made a meager living painting advertisements and postcards while living in various hostels to survive. His experiences in this impressionable time of life and his own introverted personality began to change him into the figure that the world would soon wish it didn't know.
When he was 24, he moved to Munich. Shortly thereafter, he was rejected by the Austrian military as being too puny to serve, another blow to his self esteem. But just one year later in 1914, war broke out, and the German military was willing to take him on. It was in war, that he found some meaning to his life. He thrived with the structure of the military life and found goals that could give him a sense of value. Perhaps to prove himself, or perhaps for lack of nothing else to lose, he placed himself in significant dangers to achieve the victory. He had been awarded two prestigious awards during his service: the Iron Cross, 2nd class in 1914, and the Iron Cross, 1st class, in 1918. He suffered injuries in 1916 and the effects of mustard gassing near the end of the war (it has been alluded that this may have been where his preferred use of this method at the camps got its start). Through his awards and deeds, he finally felt accepted and valued by others. It was the beginning of the thirst that would drive him to the deeds still suffered by the people here today.
After World War I, Germany was left in such disarray and poverty, that the people were willing to follow almost anyone that could give them hope. The National Socialists German Workers' Party came into existence by this name in 1919 (it was prior known as only the German Workers' Party and was very small in size as a political party) in response to the significant conditions in which Germany was left as punishment after the war. Many disgruntled military members and those unable to go back to civilian life as well as young men who only saw poverty and war reparations as their future were drawn to the party. Hitler joined them in 1919. He began his goal of moving up the ranks politically in the propaganda department of this party. It was a tool he would use well on the people as he progressed through the ranks. With help from other party members, he utilized the thugs of the group to "protect" the meetings and to secure the loyalties of those who were wavering. The actions of this group of thugs grew to violence towards those they discriminated against, and a blind eye was turned by the Bavarian government. By 1921, Hitler was in charge of the party.
By now, the people had been living with reparations for 3 years. There was widespread resentment by the people. Hitler fed on this resentment. He began to build up a new military within the party. He persuaded a small group of these military men to help him try to take over the government by coup. It failed and landed him in jail. This time in jail for him actually served as a regrouping time for his aims and goals while letting his internal hatreds fester. There, he began to write his famous Mein Kampf (translated it means My Fight), a book on his political career, philosophies and ideals, including those about his feelings towards Jews. Although his punishment was for 5 years in jail, he only served 9 months of it - in light confinement at Landsberg Castle. Upon release, he had a new wave of propaganda to feed on the people's self worth, but it would be a few years before he could use it to its best advantage.
In 1929, he had a new opportunity with which to regain the people's devotion - the economic turmoils of the Great Depression. By telling the people that they, who were the most supreme example of humanity, should decide their own fate, that the current government was failing them miserably, he was then able to rise in power and popularity. During the next 4 years, he made great strides, became a German citizen in 1932, and in 1933, he gained the Chancellorship of Germany through his party's majority win, a legal takeover of the government. In 1934, the president of Germany, a separate position within the government, died. But Hitler had already begun to form his dictatorship and took further advantage of this situation calling the position dormant and transferred the powers of that office to the Chancellor. From 1934 to 1939, he removed all other restrictions to his power making him the supreme dictator of the country. In 1939, he took his rebuilt army to Poland and began the invasion that would start World War II. And the rest is history. By the end of the war, at the inevitable defeat of his grand plans, Hitler committed suicide on April 30th, 1945, with his wife of two days.
So much has been said about the details of World War II, that I really don't want to get into it much. There are movies that are very worth seeing on the subject, including (for older kids) Schindler's List and Tora! Tora! Tora! (for the Japanese influences on the war and our involvement in it) along with books such as The Diary of Ann Frank. I'd say for the kids who may be reading this blog, if you haven't already, you will study this war in school eventually. Pay attention to it. The things that happened there still affect us all today, even though it may seem so long ago as to not be important anymore. By the end of the war, Germany - it's beautiful towns, villages, churches, and all things that we are enjoying today while we live here - was in complete ruins, much worse than after World War I. The people were utterly and completely defeated, and I'm sure that some of that is behind the silence I find today on the subject.
I also have to wonder if some of the lessons of the events that led to that war are being forgotten today. And even for World War I, not all lessons had been learned from earlier conflicts. The resentments of punishment of the losers is still very evident in the south of the United States in relation to the civil war, and it was certainly more so in the times of World War I. It is still a great source of anger, resentment and prejudice that we struggle with every day - nearly 150 years later. The resentments of punishment of the losers of World War I led to this man being able to take his personal and warped ambitions to almost every surface of the earth. And now, we have issues that we are dealing with in the world in relation to Afghanistan, Pakistan, and Iraq. Are we opening the door for a new fanatic to take over with his or her own personal views impressed upon us all? Is there another Hitler waiting in these countries or nearby countries like Iran? Are we doing the same thing with Muslim relations that was done to Jews or African Americans of the past? It is indeed as they say: Those who forget the past are doomed to repeat it.
The word for the day is dictator: der Diktator (said as dik tah tor).
The question for the day is "How does this all make you feel and who in German history would have asked a similar question?"
Auf Wiedersehen,
Frau Spitzer
