Treitschke: Forerunner of Hitlerism

Abstract

Those unacquainted with German history might find it surprising that there should be a parallelism between the ideas of a famous academic historian and the leader of the Nazis. Yet both Treitschke and Hitler were rooted in the same culture and their ideology was the result of half a millenium of German history. Both men were the product of the German soul, to use a favorite word of Treitschke, which was chaotic, unsure of itself, and burdened with a sense of inferiority. For Germany, alone among the great people of Europe, never succeeded in creating a centralized, united, homogeneous state, but was split into several hundred principalities, differing in religion, institutions and race. Even Bismarck never really united Germany, except in a superficial political sense, and half a century later Hitler found it necessary to boast that his greatest achievement was the creation of a united totalitarian Reich.1 The key to the understanding of both Treitschke and Hitler lies in this sense of national inferiority among upper-class Germans. This explains their intense chauvinism, their worship of force, their virulent hatred of non-Germans, especially French, English, and Jews. For Treitschke, like Hitler, was the impassioned apostle of violence and race hatred, and his venom infected a whole generation of Germans. It is significant that Treitschke, like Hitler, was not a blond Nordic. He was largely Slav, being of Czech descent. A tall,