Adolf Hitler

Introduction

Historically, Adolf Hitler is depicted as a madman in command. Primarily, he was a

human being with an incomprehensible evil that led to an unbelievable suffering and eventual

demise of millions of innocent men, women, and even children. For instance, the modern history

recognizes the numerous atrocities committed by Adolf in the Final Solution, the Third Reich, as

the most significant event and individual respectively. According to Liu et al. (2005), most

people believe that the World War II represents the most important historical event throughout

the globe over the last ten centuries. Individually, Adolf Hitler is depicted as the most influential

person in global history over the same duration (Liu et al. (2005). For this reason, many scholars

have and are continuing devoting enormous resources and efforts to analyzing the actions and

personality of Adolf Hitler. Therefore, our paper provides insight into the criminal profile of

Adolf Hitler.

Adolf Hitlers criminal offending patterns

The world knows Adolf Hitler for his limitless greed to usurp power, his cruelty,

ruthlessness, and more so for his lack of sympathy. Additionally, we remember Adolf Hitler for

his dislike for established institutions as well as his lack of ethical restraints. During the early

years, Adolf contrived to assume power through numerous veiled threats, insinuations, and

accusations that were enough to make the entire world fear him. He openly defied peace treaties

as he embarked on invading and occupying other territories where he conquered millions of

residents without the use of guns. With time, the world developed an opposition to counter his

wickedness after they became tired of hiding from him and his troops. However, Adolf countered
the opposition by initiating the most devastating and brutal war in the history of mankind.

According to Ellis (2015), the World War II is described as the most violent in the history of

human beings because it threatened to destroy civilization completely.

Early in the career of Adolf Hitler, the world had viewed him with pleasure as most

people declined to take his activities seriously. They claimed that Adolf would never last long to

conquer their governments. However, most were surprised to see his power as event after the

event became successful. The prior feelings of amusement that other world leaders had expressed

towards him were quickly transformed into disbelief. His crimes and attacks on others seemed

unthinkable to most people because they felt that no human being could carry them out in this

civilized era. For this reasons, most people regarded him as inhuman or as a madman. For

instance, the Nazi regime is said to have carried out euthanasia on all mentally-ill people in

special facilities throughout their country (McDonough, 2014). Additionally, other people were

supposed to have been relocated to the Middle East where their loved ones and friends lost them

upon leaving. These persons were killed by the regime and were never recovered. Of most

importance is the case of the Holocaust where approximately 6 million Jews lost their lives.

However, we must note that most of the atrocities that Adolf Hitler committed were done

during tenure as the Chancellor and later as the unified leader of the nation. He targeted the Jews

and exterminated them claiming that he was cleansing the genetic pools of Germanys future

generations. Throughout his tenure, most historians relate his actions to the troubled childhood

that Adolf faced. For instance, he lost four of his six siblings in quick successions in addition to

losing his cousin Geli. Additionally, Adolf was brought up by an authoritative father who could

never tolerate him asking any question. He demanded full compliance without questioning his

orders despite being alcoholic. Consequently, his regime is remembered for being ruthless and
dictatorial as he gave strict orders that he expected everyone to follow. For this reason, we may

term his offending trend as being impulsive, violent, and more so aggressive.

Potential causes of Hitlers behavior

1. Biological and genetic causes of Hitlers behavior

According to Vander Hook (2011), Adolf Hitler was born by Klara Polzl and Alois Hitler

in Braunau am Inn on the 20th of April 1889. He was born in a family with five other siblings.

He was the fourth children in the family. While still young, the Hitler family relocated to

Germany. Adolf became more introverted after the demise of his younger brother Edmund than

before. However, Hitler senior failed to approve of Adolfs sudden change in attitude because the

junior Hitler devoted his interests in German nationalism and fine art. His move was opposed to

his fathers choice of business, and thus this marked the beginning of their feud. Adolf Hitler lost

the connection with his father who could not listen to the plea to let his young son pursue his

dream. On the other hand, Adolf Hitler was a son who was entirely after pursuing his dream. He

resented his father while he viewed his mother as the perfect role model for others in the society.

Allegedly, Adolf referred to his father as having tantrums before he eventually became

physically violent towards his son. Psychologists have referred to this form of parental style as

an authoritarian style. According to psychologists, an authoritarian style of parenting is often

characterized by physical punishment, compliance without questioning, as well as rigidity. More

so, Blitstein, et al. (2005) proposes that antisocial behavior and aggressive personality are

characteristics that develop from subjection to authoritative parenting styles. All

these are characteristics that can be accredited to Hitlers case of parenting and early life.

Additionally, Hitler told Hans Frank, his lawyer, regarding his fathers alcoholism where he
claims to have taken him home from the bar even at the tender age of ten years. At this time,

Adolf Hitler viewed alcohol as a devil that happened to visit him during his youthful years in the

form of his father.

Contrariwise, Adolf is alleged to have claimed that his mother was always afraid of the

safety of his father as a result of the constant physical violence he was subjected to by his dad.

His mother is said to have compensated for the affection that Adolf and his siblings lacked in

their father (Rosenbaum, 2014). Edward Bloch, who worked as his mother's doctor, claimed that

Klara Hitler was a kind, modest, and simple woman. Additionally, this Jewish doctor asserts that

Klara was a retiring, submissive, and a devoted Catholic, who saw the family as the most

important thing in the world. After losing her first three young ones during their infancy in

subsequent weeks of the year 1878, Klaras misery was compounded by the irresponsible, hot-

tempered, and alcoholic husband. Such an occurrence compounded her misery more so after the

death of her fifth child, Edmund in 1900. Adolfs father usually arrived home late and could

punish them for a simple mistake when drunk.

All this time, the young Adolf Hitler was watching his father mistreat them. However,

Dr. Eduard Bloch claimed that Adolf Hitler adored her mother more than anyone else that he

knew. In the eyes of Dr. Bloch, the most striking feature of the miserable life of young Adolf

Hitler was his love for his mother. Hitler defied the common observation that individuals with

close attachments to their mothers are likely to have longer and stable relationships during

adulthood. In contrary, his anxious connection to his authoritative father took center stage as he

developed his personality in subsequent years. For instance, historians have always viewed his

personality traits as aggressive, tough-minded, cold, impulsive, and egocentric. For this reasons,

most people referred Adolf as a troubled teenager who mostly sought solace in the fantasy world.
The strict conditions set by his father are responsible for the development of antisocial

personality disorders because psychotic persons possess a small degree of cortical arousal

(Blitstein, et al., 2005).

2. Psychological causes of Hitlers behavior

According to Rosenbaum (2014), children become aware of death as a phenomenon at a

tender age. As such, young Adolf must have known about it earlier than his peers after the death

of his three older siblings. In his case, the issue must have become a living issue as the mother

feared for his life. Such fears must have been communicated to the young Hitler. Subsequently,

he must have tried pondering why some people died while others continued living. Eventually,

his childish thinking must have resolved that he was favored in a way or that he continued living

to serve a given purpose. Moreover, this thought must have intensified after the birth of his

brother Edmund and as far as her mother was concerned because the only other children in the

house were two step children. The birth and frequent illness that affected Edmund must have

deprived Adolf of his mothers affection to a considerable level. Hence, he must have developed

the feeling that he wanted to eliminate the competition in the same manner that he thought of his

father.

When on the front line of the war, Adolf Hitler must have continued contemplating why

his comrades kept dying while he was always saved. Afterward, it was while in hospital after

suffering from mutism and hysterical blindness that he claims to have had a vision. He claimed

to have seen a way of liberating Germany. We must remember that it was this vision that is

accredited with encouraging him to embark on a political career. He immediately entered politics

after leaving the hospital and thus his vision is also accredited with being a core influence on the

ensuing course of global events. Furthermore, Vander Hook (2011) asserts that this vision
was behind his belief that he was the chosen one by Providence. He believed that it was his duty

to lead the German nation to prominence. Therefore, it ranks as the most exceptional

characteristic of his mature personality.

Germanys surrender in the hands of the axis left Adolf Hitler bewildered and speechless.

Hitler let things run smoothly whenever he felt that he would have a happy ending. He refrained

from complaining about any obstacles in his way as his dealings and undertakings gave him

enough satisfaction. However, things took a twist whenever he felt that Germany was on the

edge of being degraded. At this time, he turned his attention to the Jews believing that they were

responsible for the surrender (Toland, 2014). Besides, we cannot ignore that Adolf had sought to

belittle the Austrian nation with every chance that he got. In this case, psychologists claim that

he likened the Austrian state to his father while the rise of the German nation was a symbolic

reference to her mother. Therefore, he felt good to see Austria crumble while Germany

developed to signify the decline of his father and the rise of his oppressed mother.

3. Social and environmental factors behind Hitlers behavior

Upon his fathers death in 1903, Adolf Hitler assumed total control of his future. The

death of his father allowed him to make personal decisions because his mother was more lenient

compared to his authoritative father. She could listen to his views and subsequently support him.

He, therefore, applied for admission to the German Academy of Fine Arts. Nonetheless, his

application was unfruitful thus condemning the young Adolf to a homeless shelter in the

outskirts of Vienna (Toland, 2014). He suffered a lot because he even went without food and

shelter for some days. The experience hardened him further as he developed the feeling that it

was him against the world. Although he was still recognized as an Austrian national, Adolf opted

to apply to serve in the German army in 1914. His application was successful, and thus he joined
the army in the same year. He went on to impress the seniors in the military with his dedication

to details and planning.

Adolf Hitler wrote the Mein Kampf, his autobiography when he was 35 years old in

1924. In this autobiography, Hitler details his parents as being models of the indigenous German

values. For instance, he claims that his father was a responsible civil servant that dedicated his

time and energy to the development of the nation. Similarly, he describes his mother as being a

devoted woman that gave everything to her household. More so, he seems more impressed with

his mother when he says that she dedicated everything to the betterment of her children.

However, historians claim that Hitler was deeply in love with his mother while he feared his

father. For instance, Rosenbaum (2014) suggests that Hitler had talked to his secretary, Christi

Schroeder, about his feelings towards his parents. In this case, he is alleged to have said that he

did not love his father because he was always afraid to face him.

Afterward, Hitler was awarded the Black Wound Badge and the Iron Cross First Class

Badge for his service. However, it is imperative to note that the course of the war changed the

personality of the young Adolf Hitler. It is during this period that Hitlers nationalistic tendencies

were intensified. For instance, history shows that the surrender of Germany angered him during

World War I. Subsequently, Adolf returned to the city of Munich where he undertook the task of

being an intelligence officer. In this case, he was tasked with monitoring the actions of the

German Workers Party. Research shows that Adolf developed his notorious anti-Semitic beliefs

through his monitoring missions. Besides, it was Adolf Hitler that later assumed control of the

party and eventually changed its name to the National Socialist German Workers party

(McDonough, 2014). The party was also known as the Nazi party.
 Things took a wrong turn in 1923 after Hitler and Ernst Rohm spearheaded a paramilitary

operation to invade a public gathering. The invasion occurred at one of the largest beer halls in

the city of Munich as they aimed at informing the German public about the Nazi revolution.

Nonetheless, the invasion and subsequently attempt to overthrow the government was futile

leading to the arrest, trial, and eventual incarceration of Adolf Hitler for high treason. He would

go on to spend a whole year in prison. According to Vander Hook (2011), Hitler did not lose his

control despite being incarcerated. For example, he is accredited with dictating the initial volume

of the famous Mein Kampf to his friend Rudolf Hess. More so, history shows that his bravery

endeared him to his peers in the military and the National Socialist German Workers party. He

was consulted before they could undertake any significant task making him accumulate more

power with the passing of every day.

The coming of Germanys Great Depression was of paramount importance to the future

of Adolf Hitler. He was cleared to run for the German presidency in 1932 although he eventually

lost to Paul von Hindenberg. However, his position as the runners-up in the election enabled him

to be chosen as Germanys chancellor. It was through this post that Adolf manipulated his way to

accumulating power. He developed into a dictator as evidenced by his tendency to pass motions

and policies that were both illegal and unconstitutional. Such occurrences gave Adolf Hitler

immeasurable power that exceeded the power of the presidency by far. Hitler and his cohort

instilled fear in all other political rivals through numerous ways. Subsequently, all political

parties that were existing in Germany were left with no choice but to disband. Resultantly,

McDonough (2014) postulates that this left the National Socialist German Workers party as the

only political affiliation in the entire country because Hitler and his followers punished all

oppositions.
 Upon the death of Hindenberg, the German cabinet opted to consolidate the position of

President and Chancellor leaving Hitler with complete command of Germany. Hitlers selfish

personality continued as he used the power of his position for pursuing his ideals. For instance,

he promoted the anti-Jewish regime by exterminating Jews claiming that he was cleansing the

genetic pools of future generations. Consequently, Toland (2014) argues that the year 1939 saw

him initiate the Holocaust where more than 6 million Jews were exterminated. His hunger for

more power pushed him to invade other territories for more land. For example, his army of 3

million soldiers attacked Russia in the early 1940s. Unluckily, his actions had attracted the

attention of other nations including the Soviet Union, Britain, and the United States. The

combined efforts of this countries weakened the military and economic position of Germany as

Hitler lost his prior sound judgment. His demise occurred together with that of Eva Braun, his

girlfriend, on 30th April 1945 through suicide.

Type of Offender

Unique issues emanating from Adolfs personality

Typically, Rosenbaum (2014) posits that Hitler was an individual with a messiah

complex. Additionally, he had strong sexual perversions and masochistic tendencies that were

evident since the onset of his adolescent years. He had battled for power despite not being a

native German. In Dr. Walter Langers eyes, the criminal profile of Adolf Hitler shows that there

was a high likelihood that he might have engaged in homosexuality. He also claimed that Hitler

had numerous schizophrenic tendencies. For instance, Langer proposed that Hitler exhibited

various symptoms of schizophrenia such as irrational jealousy, megalomania, hypersensitivity,

paranoia, omnipotence. Lastly, Dr. Walter Langer suggested that Adolf regularly expressed

delusions of persecutions as evidenced by his routine paranoia and suffering from constant
hysterical dissociation. It is in his criminal profiling that Dr. Walter Langer suggested that the

most probable outcome would be a situation where Hitler committed suicide.

However, the central issue that arises from the criminal activities of Adolf Hitler comes

from his dangerous leader disorder (Rees, 2013). Hitler is said to have raised the political ladder

through charismatic appeals as well as by wielded immense power. In this case, Hitler is seen as

a leader that ruled using three fundamental approaches. Firstly, he ordered using indifference as

manifested by persecuting and murdering his rivals, citizens, members of rivals families, as well

as through genocides. Secondly, his regime used intolerance as demonstrated by the immense

censoring of the secret police, the press, as well as tolerating torture. Lastly, the use of

grandiosity was a standard tool as Adolf regarded himself as a unifying factor" of the masses.

Additionally, grandiosity manifested itself by the constant over-accumulation of military power

and increase of military personnel. He identified his actions with nationalism and religion while

promulgating a grand plan of attacking others.

Obstacles to rehabilitation for criminals such as Adolf Hitler

According to Anniss (2014), the main obstacles with rehabilitating people like Adolf

Hitler stems from the need to serve justice for the millions of innocent victims that die as a result

of their criminal activities. For instance, Adolf Hitler killed millions of Jews believing that the

Jews possessed a racial origin that made them routine criminals. Resultantly, Adolf Hitler

believed that efforts to rehabilitate the Jews were futile and a waste of time and resources. To his

eyes, the Jews were corrupt and inferior to the other races. Comparatively, most of the offenders

that may be classified in the same category may include people such as Osama Bin Laden, who

is remembered for masterminding the September 11 attack on the American Twin Towers. All
criminals and terrorists in this group have been the brains behind the deaths of many innocent

people, and thus they also do not deserve to live.

More so, we cannot forget that some of the victims of the criminals atrocities are

innocent children that have never harmed anyone in any way. Additionally, most criminals of

this caliber involve individuals that are well conversant with the laws. They engage in a

conscious will to ignore the rules either thinking that they will never be caught, or they can bear

the consequences of their actions. For instance, Adolf Hitler and others including Osama Bin

Laden, Saddam Hussein, Winston Churchill and Muammar Gaddafi had served in the army in

their respective times (Ellis, 2015). The human rights organizations, activists, and the general

public are bound to mount pressure on their governments as they seek justice for the victims. For

this reasons, such examples show that rehabilitating such people may not portray or denote

actions that serves the best public interest.

Application of criminal profiling

In the year 1943, Reece (2013) claims that Dr. Walter Langer was tasked with providing

a criminal profile of Adolf Hitler. Langer claimed that Hitler could not face a critical audience if

he lost the war and there would an assassination attempt on him owing to his self-confidence in

his military judgment. Additionally, Langer noted that Hitler would never surrender nor sign a

peace agreement and thus was more likely to commit suicide if he lost. As such, this report was

primarily supposed to provide a detailed view of Hitlers state of mind as well as the related

aspects of his life and towards the society as a whole. Resultantly, the report classified the

conflicting, unreliable, and contradictory materials regarding Hitler into clusters that were vital

for policymakers interested in framing a counter-propaganda.

 The modern world has seen religious and nationalistic leaders increase. They including

Osama Bin Laden, who has carried out numerous terrorist attacks against the United States.

Also, Kim Jong-Un has been an enigmatic dictator in North Korea for several years where he has

overseen several atrocities carried against the citizens. Lastly, Abu Bakr Al-Baghdadi represents

the messianic chief of the ISIS in Syria and other Middle East countries. These personalities are

talented with the ability to motivate and influence the public through messianic visions and

orations. As a result, it is more important for investigators to understand the underlying

psychology of these dangerous persons to deter future criminal activities (Stefoff, 2011). For this

reasons, it is harmless to say that criminal profiling can help apprehend such criminals earlier

than has been the case in the past.

How Hitlers case can be of use in apprehending future criminals

Nonetheless, criminal profiling is an essential policy that can be applied to arrest a

wanted criminal sooner than any other method. It allows the investigators and profilers to

elucidate the contributing personality and the causative factors that caused the development of

the underlying severe psychopathology. Here, profilers interested in apprehending future

criminals may use Hitlers criminal profile to determine the motives of his crimes. The motives

of a crime refer to the reasons as to why an offender opts to engage in crime (Anniss, 2014).

Subsequently, the investigators and profilers must engage in linkage analysis where they

examine the wound patterns, behavioral patterns, and crime scene elements of two or more crime

scenes. Their focus is to ascertain the likelihood of a sole criminal being behind both acts. In this

case, the policy is crucial because it would help in anticipating the behavior of offenders that

belong to the same category as Adolf Hitler and their subsequent actions.
 Policy implications from Hitlers case

Although criminal profiling is not guaranteed to work at all times, there are numerous

instances where it is bound to provide better results than other alternative methods. As such, it is

essential for policy implementers to have a considerable amount of information for analysis

because profiles can only provide minimal information. For example, Anniss (2014) proposes

that most profiles provide information regarding age, mental characteristics and gender. In

reality, law enforcement agents in countries such as the United States have been accused of using

profiling when only dealing with ethnic and racial minorities. Such practices have raised a

considerable debate throughout the world because it does not treat all human beings with

equality and fairness. For this reason, it is worth noting that there is a need to re-evaluate the

existing system to yield optimal outcomes by observing accuracy, timeliness, and validity.

Hence, it is essential to restore the legitimacy of the original intent associated with criminal

profiling.

How policy can be revamped in terms of prevention and rehabilitation

According to Stefoff (2011), modern profilers enjoy the availability of numerous

resources besides the usual evidence of the current crime. These include past cases, personal

experience, interaction with reformed and incarcerated criminals, as well as previous cases.

However, we must remember that criminal profiling is increasingly becoming more and more

psychological. The modern world is experiencing a situation where the criminal minds and

methods are changing at an alarming rate. Such an occurrence has affected the renowned

profiling methods thus making criminal profiling popular and essential to the criminal justice

system. As such, modern theorists must support investigators and profilers in interpreting the

mental defects, thought patterns, psychological traits, education levels, as well as the factors that
motivate criminals to behave in a given way. Hence, personal preferences, factors of a case, and

knowledge of the investigators shall continue determining the preferred method for profiling an

underlying offender.

Conclusion

Many analysts have made numerous attempts to understand the personality of Adolf

Hitler and the reasons as to why a human being could ever be tempted to commit atrocities of

such epic and grand proportions. Consequently, most of these attempts have sought clarifications

and explanations through the non-explanatory conclusions that he was entirely evil.

Alternatively, there are many people that have opted to ignore the underlying question by writing

off his actions as being beyond human understanding. However, it is worth noting that all this

assertions are unsatisfactory and deeply unscientific. For this reason, this paper has provided

insight into the potential causes of Adolfs behavior including the social, environmental,

biological, and psychological factors. More so, it provides the application of criminal profiling in

his case and for the future apprehension of such type of offenders. Therefore, it is innocuous to

say that Adolf Hitler was an evil man with a profoundly destructive background that led to the

development of his character.

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