The Buddhist Swastika and Hitler's Cross by T. K. Nakagaki

Author:T. K. Nakagaki [Nakagaki, T. K.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Stone Bridge Press
Published: 0101-01-01T00:00:00+00:00

Anti-Semitism and Hitler’s Early Life

Hitler’s personal journey into anti-Semitism began when he arrived from Linz in Vienna, Austria, in 1907 to apply for art school and, as he described in Mein Kampf, “encountered the Jewish questions.” He recalled, “ There were few Jews in Linz. In the course of the centuries their outward appearance had become Europeanized and had taken on a human look; in fact, I even took them for Germans.”203

When Hitler saw Jews with “a black caftan and black hair locks” in Vienna for the first time, he asked himself, “Is this a Jew?” and then, “Is this a German?204 These questions led him to explore anti-Semitic viewpoints. Hitler said he occasionally picked up the Deutsches Volksblatta, a German American newspaper, when he was in Vienna. “I was not in agreement with the sharp anti-Semitic tone, but from time to time I read arguments which gave me some food for thought,” he wrote.205 Through these readings he became acquainted with Dr. Karl Lueger, leader of the Christian Social Party movement.

When Hitler initially arrived in Vienna, he was in opposition to Dr. Lueger and the Party, both of which he felt were reactionary. But as Hitler became more familiar with Dr. Lueger and the movement, he grew to admire them. Hitler wrote,

Today, more than ever, I regard this man [Dr. Lueger] as the greatest German mayor of all times. How many of my basic principles were upset by this change in my attitude toward the Christian Social movement! My views with regard to anti-Semitism thus succumbed to the passage of time, and this was my great transformation of all.206

According to Mein Kampf, Hitler evaluated two anti-Semitic movements in Vienna at that time: The Christian Socialists under Karl Lueger, and the Pan-Germans under Georg von Schonerer. Hitler described his feelings about Schonerer:

Nevertheless my personal sympathy lay at first on the side of the Pan-German Schonerer … Compared as to abilities, Schonerer seemed to me even then the better and more profound thinker in questions of principle. He foresaw the inevitable end of the Austrian state more clearly and correctly than anyone else.… But if Schonerer recognized the problems in their innermost essence, he erred when it came to men.207

Hitler was drawn to Schonerer’s ideology and Dr. Lueger’s Christian Socialist political attitude, which he would later combine to form the anti-Semitic ideology of Nazi Germany.

Hitler’s anti-Semitism did not arise suddenly and spontaneously from within himself, but was instead a gradual process of absorbing ideas through his surroundings, including the Christian Socialist movement. Individuals and the larger Christian society influenced Hitler in the formation and development of his ideas of a master race and anti-Semitism.

Hitler was a great admirer of Martin Luther, Richard Wagner, as well as Frederick the Great. The first two, Luther and Wagner, were both anti-Jewish, though Frederick was not. In Mein Kampf he praised them in a chapter titled “The Beginning of My Political Activities,” describing them as “great warriors in this world, who, though not understood by

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