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Hitler: The Führer and the People
Professor Stern seeks to expose the roots of the Hitler myth. He performs thoroughly and brilliantly the examination that Kenneth Burke saw as a crying need on the brink of World War II. The questions Professor Stern asks are fundamental and still of the first importance in our own society. How could a predominantly sober, hardworking, and well-educated nation be persuaded to follow Hitler and his inhuman and destructuve program? What was the source of his immense popularity? Why were his public utterances so powerfully persuasive? What were the shared assumptions behind "The Final Solution," Operation Barbarossa, "The Night of the Long Knives"?
Professor Stern has done a pioneering study of the rhetoric of Nazism, a rhetoric that coupled words and action. He examines the speeches, writings, and conversations of Hitler and places them in the context of traditional beliefs of the society into which Hitler, the "ideal outsider," made his way. With terrifying logic his career emerges as the creation of a man who translated the private sphere of sentiment into the public sphere of political action, the will to power into a weapon of mass hypnosis.
Professor Stern has done a pioneering study of the rhetoric of Nazism, a rhetoric that coupled words and action. He examines the speeches, writings, and conversations of Hitler and places them in the context of traditional beliefs of the society into which Hitler, the "ideal outsider," made his way. With terrifying logic his career emerges as the creation of a man who translated the private sphere of sentiment into the public sphere of political action, the will to power into a weapon of mass hypnosis.
254 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1971
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April 1, 2024
So here’s a different take.
The author is a professor of German literature. And he analyzes Hitler - his portrayal to the public - very much as one would study a character in literature. Or perhaps a brand in a marketing class of an MBA program. Something of both.
In any event Stern gives us a new, thoughtful answer to the question “why was this guy so popular” that incorporates the most well know explanations and adds tremendous depth. ( I suppose the best know explanations are (1) revenge for the treaty of Versailles, (2) competent replacement for dysfunctional Weimar Republic; (3) figurehead that blamed an unpopular out group for Germanys woes).
The author argues that Hitlers appealed to Germans because he was a careful observer of German political culture. And his observations permitted him to pitch himself in a way that resonated deeply with the German people. How did he do that?
Well, he explained himself as an authentic German - a representative example of the people voting for him - as distinct from distant aristocrats that had always ruled Germany. Someone who served in and felt the pain of the German loss in World War One. And someone who suffered from the economic malaise that followed. Someone who understood the best interest of the public and could act in the best interest of the public because he was from the public. This had not been done before in Germany.
But despite its novelty, it resonated with a cherished German tradition of the romantic hero. Someone whose authentic expression transcends the boundaries of logic and reason and taps into the core of what it is to be human. And he did this on people’s behalf. He had folks attend rallies, an almost religious experience, where he would recite the same litany of grievances (for hours!) and use call and response to guide his audience toward obedience and commitment. He reminded the German people how he had been wronged. And in doing so he expressed to them how they had all been wronged. And the German people surrendered their critical reason to this man because this man understood them. They did not recoils when he expressed his rage. Rather the adopted it as their own.
And Hitler understood this. And he crafted a ritual to help the people achieve this needed release.
He then explained a way out - and what mattered here was not what he said but how he said it. He spoke with such conviction - with a conviction that presumed his absolute power to achieve any change he wanted. And this power contrasted sharply to the helplessness most Germans felt. And this power spoke to the Nietzchean ideal in German society of a will to power. And this all felt to the average German very promising. Like something that could work. And that feeling that it could work made it work. Not unlike FDR reminding the nation that they need only fear fear itself, Hitlers fanatical pronunciations made the Germans stop fearing. And when they stopped fearing, the economy improved. And when they stopped fearing, people got jobs. And this all reinforced the myth that Hitler was a uniquely powerful individual capable of extracting Germany from its predicament. Perhaps the only such individual.
And when this will go power demanded liberty be surrendered, well that felt like a small price. And when it antagonized minorities, well the public believed it. And when it turned on it’s own shock troops, murdering them in the thousands, well it only proved the individual to be even more powerful than the party.
And I’ll admit the explanation feels more personal, more vivid than any other I’ve read of Hitler. It feels as if the author has tried something quite painful: to ask how he himself, in the shoes of a German, might not only “go along” with Hitler but enthusiastically support a Hitler. Raise him to power and support him once there.
It’s a question that must defer denunciations longer than most I’ve read. One that requires empathy and patience. And ultimately one that is helpful to confront. Because it is helpful to recognize that the appeal of a Hitler cannot possibly be limited to Germany in the 1930s, though many aspects of the political situation of that moment made him possible. Rather there must be elements of his rise that are common to the human condition. And that this is not merely the stuff of delusion and tricks, but of genuine human needs and desires and even of sound economic policy.
Because when we confine an analysis of Hitler to mere denunciation, we deprive ourselves the chance to understand the positive program that might appeal to parts of other democracies. In doing so, we not only deprive ourselves the chance to recognize and combat a similar totalizing influence. I suspect we make the emergence of one much more likely.
The book has flaws. The author writes in languid British academic prose. That is to say the author writes poorly. The author speaks in the language of Freudian psychoanalysis, casually peppering in death wishes and other such terms that have become esoteric. This all makes his core message harder to understand than it needs to be. And that’s a shame. Because it is an insightful, careful, and important character study of a man and his relationship to the people who gave him power.
Five stars. Unique and thought provoking.
The author is a professor of German literature. And he analyzes Hitler - his portrayal to the public - very much as one would study a character in literature. Or perhaps a brand in a marketing class of an MBA program. Something of both.
In any event Stern gives us a new, thoughtful answer to the question “why was this guy so popular” that incorporates the most well know explanations and adds tremendous depth. ( I suppose the best know explanations are (1) revenge for the treaty of Versailles, (2) competent replacement for dysfunctional Weimar Republic; (3) figurehead that blamed an unpopular out group for Germanys woes).
The author argues that Hitlers appealed to Germans because he was a careful observer of German political culture. And his observations permitted him to pitch himself in a way that resonated deeply with the German people. How did he do that?
Well, he explained himself as an authentic German - a representative example of the people voting for him - as distinct from distant aristocrats that had always ruled Germany. Someone who served in and felt the pain of the German loss in World War One. And someone who suffered from the economic malaise that followed. Someone who understood the best interest of the public and could act in the best interest of the public because he was from the public. This had not been done before in Germany.
But despite its novelty, it resonated with a cherished German tradition of the romantic hero. Someone whose authentic expression transcends the boundaries of logic and reason and taps into the core of what it is to be human. And he did this on people’s behalf. He had folks attend rallies, an almost religious experience, where he would recite the same litany of grievances (for hours!) and use call and response to guide his audience toward obedience and commitment. He reminded the German people how he had been wronged. And in doing so he expressed to them how they had all been wronged. And the German people surrendered their critical reason to this man because this man understood them. They did not recoils when he expressed his rage. Rather the adopted it as their own.
And Hitler understood this. And he crafted a ritual to help the people achieve this needed release.
He then explained a way out - and what mattered here was not what he said but how he said it. He spoke with such conviction - with a conviction that presumed his absolute power to achieve any change he wanted. And this power contrasted sharply to the helplessness most Germans felt. And this power spoke to the Nietzchean ideal in German society of a will to power. And this all felt to the average German very promising. Like something that could work. And that feeling that it could work made it work. Not unlike FDR reminding the nation that they need only fear fear itself, Hitlers fanatical pronunciations made the Germans stop fearing. And when they stopped fearing, the economy improved. And when they stopped fearing, people got jobs. And this all reinforced the myth that Hitler was a uniquely powerful individual capable of extracting Germany from its predicament. Perhaps the only such individual.
And when this will go power demanded liberty be surrendered, well that felt like a small price. And when it antagonized minorities, well the public believed it. And when it turned on it’s own shock troops, murdering them in the thousands, well it only proved the individual to be even more powerful than the party.
And I’ll admit the explanation feels more personal, more vivid than any other I’ve read of Hitler. It feels as if the author has tried something quite painful: to ask how he himself, in the shoes of a German, might not only “go along” with Hitler but enthusiastically support a Hitler. Raise him to power and support him once there.
It’s a question that must defer denunciations longer than most I’ve read. One that requires empathy and patience. And ultimately one that is helpful to confront. Because it is helpful to recognize that the appeal of a Hitler cannot possibly be limited to Germany in the 1930s, though many aspects of the political situation of that moment made him possible. Rather there must be elements of his rise that are common to the human condition. And that this is not merely the stuff of delusion and tricks, but of genuine human needs and desires and even of sound economic policy.
Because when we confine an analysis of Hitler to mere denunciation, we deprive ourselves the chance to understand the positive program that might appeal to parts of other democracies. In doing so, we not only deprive ourselves the chance to recognize and combat a similar totalizing influence. I suspect we make the emergence of one much more likely.
The book has flaws. The author writes in languid British academic prose. That is to say the author writes poorly. The author speaks in the language of Freudian psychoanalysis, casually peppering in death wishes and other such terms that have become esoteric. This all makes his core message harder to understand than it needs to be. And that’s a shame. Because it is an insightful, careful, and important character study of a man and his relationship to the people who gave him power.
Five stars. Unique and thought provoking.
September 29, 2025
I don't understand why some academics have to write so obscurely. The language is so dense that it is difficult to understand. I am not a genius but I do have a degree in history and a lot of casual study of WW2 in Europe. I understood his premise about Hitler, but I'm not sure what a lot of this had to do with his relationship either the people.
June 8, 2017
Absolutely brilliant scholarship. Intelligent, well written, a pleasure to read!
October 29, 2022
Interesting view on Nazi myths and Hitler
January 4, 2023
Interesting view on Hitler
Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews