Adolf Hitler: A Life From Beginning to End (World War 2 Biographies Book 1) by Hourly History

Author:Hourly History [History, Hourly]
Language: eng
Format: azw3, pdf
Published: 2016-10-15T16:00:00+00:00

Chapter Five

Hitler’s Imprisonment and Subsequent Rise to Power

“By the skillful and sustained use of propaganda, one can make a people see even heaven as hell or an extremely wretched life as paradise.”

—Adolf Hitler

Despite what many people thought, Hitler’s trial for treason was not the end of his political career. It was, in fact, just the platform he needed to gain national attention, and he took full advantage of the situation. He didn’t deny the charges; rather, he embraced them, readily admitting that he had wanted to overthrow the government and outlining his reasons for the attempted coup. He took sole responsibility for the putsch, and claimed that there was no such thing as treason against the “traitors of 1918,” those politicians who had ended World War I—in his opinion prematurely—and stabbed the German army in the back. Therefore, he reasoned, he could not be considered a criminal. The newspapers quoted Hitler at length during the trial, thereby giving the German people a chance to get to know him and the way he thought. Given the depth of the economic, political, and cultural depression the country faced, many people liked what he had to say.

The trial lasted 24 days, over which time Hitler grew more daring in his comments. He began to realize the national impact he was having, and by the end of the trial, he felt confident in giving the following closing statement:

“The man who is born to be a dictator is not compelled. He wills it. He is not driven forward, but drives himself. There is nothing immodest about this. Is it immodest for a worker to drive himself toward heavy labor? Is it presumptuous of a man with the high forehead of a thinker to ponder through the nights till he gives the world an invention? The man who feels called upon to govern a people has no right to say, ‘If you want me or summon me, I will cooperate.’ No! It is his duty to step forward. The army which we have now formed is growing day to day. I nourish the proud hope that one day the hour will come when these rough companies will grow to battalions, the battalions to regiments, the regiments to divisions, that the old cockade will be taken from the mud, that the old flags will wave again, that there will be a reconciliation at the last great divine judgment which we are prepared to face. For it is not you, gentlemen, who pass judgment on us. That judgment is spoken by the eternal court of history . . . Pronounce us guilty a thousand times over—the goddess of the eternal court of history will smile and tear to pieces the state prosecutor’s submissions and the court’s verdict; for she acquits us.”

The three judges who presided over the trial had become so sympathetic to Hitler’s cause that they had difficulty convicting him, but convict him they did. However, while he could have received life in prison for the attempted

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