Kevin Bryant

Prof. Wertz-Orbaugh
UWRT 1102-009

Who Was Adolf Hitler?: An Inquiry Review

In my English class this semester, we had to pick an inquiry topic
related to the Holocaust. I chose to research Adolf Hitler. I was very
curious of who he was as a person. I wanted to know what exactly
made him do the things he did. I was able to gather a lot of information
on Hitler, like the fact that when he was a child, he wanted to study the
world of Art, but his father, having other plans for his son, sent him off
to a private school. There was also the belief that when Hitlers
younger brother, Edmund, died, Hitler became a much more sullen
person. Things like this make me wonder, if they had happened
differently or not at all, would I be writing this paper right now? In this
research review essay I will discuss the works of two scholarly writings:
A Psycho - Historical Analysis of Adolf Hitler: The Role
of Personality, Psychopathology, and Development and Gerhard Weinbergs Hitlers
Private Testament of May 2, 1938. Through these articles, I gained quite a bit of insight
regarding who Hitler was and possibly why he was the way he was. Three different
college professors composed the first article, Philip Hyland, Daniel Boduszek and
Krzysztof Kielkiewicz. It is a view of Adolf Hitler from a psychological aspect. The
second article was written by Gerhard L. Weinberg and discusses Hitlers political
testament, Mein Kampf, as well as his private wills.

Upon reading the Historical Analysis of Adolf Hitler, I feel like I really got an indepth understanding of how certain things may have psychologically impacted Hitler. For
instance, the article begins with talking of Hitlers father and his alcoholic
tendencies(60). In the article, the professors recorded that Hitler once told his lawyer I
did not love my father, but I was all the more afraid of him. He had tantrums and
immediately became physically violent.(60) The article also accounts that his mother
was very loving and affectionate, unlike his father.(60) This lead the composers of the
article to believe that Hitler unconsciously placed the love of his mother on the lands of
Germany and his hate for his father upon the Jews.(61) The three college professors
believed that these two relationships in his childhood defined him and his relationships as
he got older. Another thing I found very interesting from the article was that a
psychologist at the time, Langer, noticed many psychotic behaviors from Hitler, such as
his masochistic tendencies where he gained sexual pleasure from those that were in pain.
He also noted that Hitler displayed schizophrenic symptoms and even predicted that he
would commit suicide(59), which as we know today, was what he resorted to after
World War II. The article then goes on to explain an event that was important in the
development of his political ideologies. In World War I, Hitler was exposed to a mustard
gas attack and became hospitalized. A pastor came to speak to Hitler while he was
recuperating and told he told him of Germanys capitulation and that it was sure to lead
to a dire oppression.(62) Hitler reacted to this news with the belief that Germanys
defeat must be blamed on the Jews.(62) He spoke of visions he had while he was
hospitalized and claimed they were sent to him from God. Psychoanalysts believe that
these hallucinations and delusional beliefs are characteristics of schizophrenia.

The second article, Hitlers Private Testament of May 2nd, 1938, by Gerhard
Weinberg, discusses Hitlers private documents that he signed the day before he and his
wife, Eva Braun, committed suicide. One general thing that surprised me upon reading
this particular article was the fact that Hitler actually wrote a will. Hitler did a lot of
horrific things in his life. Most of these things have made him inhuman to people in
todays society. He is a sort of monster, forever a dark and shady part of history. So with
that in mind, to me, its just really ironic that he has a will. I mean, this guy was
responsible for killing over six million Jews, but he had a freaking will! Something that
you and I will probably write up in our lifetime, he sat down one day and prepared it.
Regardless if you would like to say it or not, it really adds a piece of humanity to his
history, if you ask me.
Another thing the article talks about that goes to show that he had the slightest bit
of humanity in him, was that over the years he had collected works of art. From my
research I remember reading that Hitler really enjoyed art and even wished to go to
primary school and study the world of art. If it hadnt been for his fathers desire to force
him down the road of bureaucracy, he would have pursued this dream. In his will he
wrote that these works of art were not for himself, but he wished for them to be part of
the establishment of a museum in Linz.(415) Art was Hitlers passion and it is very
interesting, once again, to see that he had this desire for his inner passion to be fulfilled.
Despite all he had done over the past few years, he was still in touch with this old dream
and wished to somehow be a part of the art world even after he was gone.
Overall, I think that both of these articles have really helped me gain a further
understanding of who Hitler really might have been. I only know the surface of it all,

which may be all you need to know. He was a man that manipulated his way into power
and lead people to believe that eliminating an entire race was justifiable. For people like
me though, we have got to know more. Who really was this man and how on earth could
he commit this genocide?
Through my research, I have been able to somewhat humanize Hitler. He is no
longer just a dart on the board in which a bunch of other things trickle down from. He is a
person, a human, much like you and I. Although it sounds mad to even consider
comparing ourselves to Hitler, its true. We dont like to talk about him as a person, but
more as some sort of devil or demon, and though I understand why, I believe we should
still seek to understand him and his actions.

Hyland, Philip, and Daniel Boduszek and Kryzsztof Kielkiewics, A Psycho-Historical

Analysis of Adolf Hitler: The Role of Personality, Psychopathology, and Development,
psychologyandsociety.org, Vol. 4, Psychology and Society, 2011, 58-63

Weinberg, Gerhard, Hitlers Private Testament of May 2, 1938, jstor.org, Vol. 1 No. 1,
The University of Chicago Press, 1955, 415-419