Thomas Weber - Hitler's First War: Adolf Hitler, the Men of the List Regiment, and the First World War
„Hitler’s First
War“ is a unique study on Hitler’s life, the study that wasn’t here before.
Many of his biographers were telling the Hitler’s story, focusing on his rise
to power and the Nazi era.
The only Hitler's photo that appeared in the official history of the List Regiment, published in 1932.
The book
written by Thomas Weber is much different than the works we knew. First of all,
the book is a result of a hard work inside the archives, analyzing the
documents that no one has seen before. Secondly, Weber is trying to find the
answer on the one of the most important questions of the modern history – what did
„create“ Hitler as a politician and a leader?
It seems
this question was already answered many times, as most Hitler’s biographers
said that it was his military service during the Great War that turned him into
a politician and the leader. The result of Weber’s work shows us a different
picture.
The book is
divided into two parts; the first one is focused on the details of Hitler’s military
service and the history of his regiment. Thomas Weber painted a picture of List
Regiment and this picture was based on the deep study of the archive documents.
The average German regiment, consisted largely of conscripts, not enthusiastic
volunteers – on the contrary to the popular myth. What is worth to note, there
were many Jews in the List Regiment including the artist Albert Weisberger.
Hitler (x) and other runners from his regiment in Fournes, 1915.
Hitler’s military
career was much different from the widely known stories and rumors – as Weber
points in the book, many of them were created after the Great War by German
propaganda. Adolf Hitler started his career as the mere private and finally was
promoted to a corporal. That’s true, certainly. Not so known fact is that he
was promoted just after the very first battle of List Regiment (during the
first Ypres, 28-31 October 1914 – Hitler was promoted on 3rd November), and the
reason were the heavy casualties in the battle – almost all survived soldiers
were promoted. And this was the end of his service at the front line and the
end of his military career: he was not promoted again until the end of the war.
One of the reasons was that Hitler didn’t want to be promoted, as it could cost
him the loosing of relatively safe post of the regiment’s runner.
Weber is analyzing
his post as the runner, comparing it to the other posts among the regiment’s non-commissioned
officers. The conclusion is as expected – what Hitler considered as „the front
line“, was a safe post in the opinion of the soldiers from the real first line.
The second
part of Weber’s book is telling us the story of the post-war years. With Hitler’s
rise to the power in the background, Weber is showing us how Nazi propaganda
(and Hitler himself) worked on creating the image we know now – a heroic
soldier of the Great War who became a leader of powerful Third Reich. Weber
describes this as „Hitler’s second war“ – the war against his former brothers
in arms from the List Regiment, who could tell the world the real story of
corporal Adolf Hitler.
One of Hitler's paintings - The priory in Messines, December 1914.
Weber’s work
is really a masterpiece, as most of his conclusions are based on the documents
found in the archives. There is no point of re-writing his book here, this book
is a real „must-read“ for anyone interesting in the Great War. You can find
many interesting facts in there, including the story of Hitler’s Iron Cross,
his wounds, the ways he spent the time on leave, how the famous photo (taken in
the day the war was declared) was created and his relationship with other
soldiers in the regiment.
(JD)
