The Error That Made Adolf Hitler
Small mistakes can have huge consequences
We all have the defining moments in our lives that forever change who we are as people. But in Adolf Hitler’s case, the First World War not only shaped him as an individual and the man he would become, but would indirectly play a role in the suffering, slaughter, and wholesale destruction that would follow. Therefore, Hitler’s personal development holds significant weight in history.
While in power, the memories of the previous conflict were still fresh for him. Hitler disapproved of a conventional attack on France modeled on the WW1-era Schlieffen plan, remembering the static and ineffective fighting of the trenches. He was frequently seen with two decorations pinned to his chest: the coveted Iron Cross First Class and a Wound Badge Third Class, both from the First World War.
“Later still, in the midst of a second war that he himself had done more than any single person to unleash on Germany, Europe and the world, he reminisced incessantly — and always in glowing terms — about his experiences in the First World War. The war and its aftermath made Hitler. After Vienna, it was the second formative period in shaping his personality.”
-Ian Kershaw, Hitler: 1889–1936 Hubris
Though it is ever the more shocking that Hitler’s participation in the German Army wasn’t supposed to happen at all.
Although Hitler’s presence in this photo is believed to have been doctored, it does capture the genuine patriotic sentiments which were sweeping Europe in July and August 1914. France wanted to avenge the loss of Alsace-Lorraine in the Franco-Prussian War of 1870–1871. Russia wanted to maintain its role as the protector of the Slavs by coming to Serbia’s aid. Britain joined to uphold Belgium’s neutrality and stop German expansion. Austria-Hungary wanted to punish Serbia for the death of Archduke Franz Ferdinand. Germany believed war was inevitable anyway and had territorial ambitions of its own. Every nation was fighting for a different reason but held similar degrees of nationalistic sentiment among their populations in response to the coming conflict. This led to a massive outpouring of young volunteers enlisting in Europe’s armies. Hitler too wanted to join, but his path to becoming a soldier was very different from other German men.
Hitler was born in Branau am Inn in the Austro-Hungarian Empire; he was not a German citizen. However, as his father was a civil servant in the customs service, he lived near and later across the border with Germany until the age of five. As a result, Hitler spoke lower Bavarian German and not the Austrian dialect of the language. This linguistic difference, along with his building hatred of the multilingual and multiethnic Austria-Hungary, led him to identify more as a German than an Austrian. However, even by the summer of 1914, Hitler was still not a German citizen and therefore could not enlist.
Indeed, by 1913, the Austrian authorities had been on his case as he had not yet registered for mandatory military service. Failing to register in general was often punished with fines, but Hitler had gone to live across the border in Munich to evade conscription, an infraction which could carry a prison sentence. It seemed to be the end of the line, but Hitler’s luck won out. Not only was he not punished, but his travel expenses were also paid and he was cleared from service altogether due to his physical weakness.
Hitler seized this new opportunity and on August 3rd, 1914, two days after Germany declared war on Russia, he petitioned King Ludwig III of Bavaria to join the Bavarian Army (part of the Imperial German Army). Much to Hitler’s elation, his request was granted by the cabinet office just the next day, and he soon went off to the front.
Not only was the speed of the petition’s approval bizarre, but only the Bavarian war ministry could handle requests from foreign citizens to serve in the army, not the cabinet office. In a report by the Bavarian authorities in 1924, they concluded that Hitler’s approval for service in the army was almost, without doubt, an error. He should have been deported back to Austria instead.
“It was presumed that he was among the flood of volunteers who rushed to their nearest place of recruitment in early August, leading, the report added, to note unnatural inconsistencies and breaches of the strict letter of the law. ‘In all probability,’ commented the report, ‘the question of Hitler’s nationality (Staatsangehörigkeit) was never even raised.’ Hiter, it was concluded, almost certainly entered the Bavarian army by error.”
-Ian Kershaw, Hitler: 1889–1936 Hubris
If Hitler’s request was handled as it should’ve been, he would have developed in a completely different manner. No error would mean a Hitler who didn’t serve in the German army for four grueling years to be deeply affected by the death of his comrades and the malicious vitriol of the stab-in-the-back myth which furthered his antisemitism to genocidal proportions. Hitler in this alternate world where the cabinet office turned him down would not be the same Hitler who wrote Mein Kampf and spearheaded the Munich Beer Hall Putsch.
Maybe he would have been conscripted into the Austro-Hungarian army and died in combat. Or maybe he wouldn’t have served at all and remained an insignificant vagrant for the rest of his life as was his earlier existence in Vienna. He may have become just another pauper on the street, living off of soup kitchens and out of poor houses, raging against Jews only for no like-minded individuals to hear him. People would neither know his name nor associate him with the same infamy and contempt as we do now. But for a tiny error in the response to an application of a man with almost nothing to his name at the time, the world we live in would be unrecognizable beyond comprehension.
References
- https://archive.org/details/hitlerhubris00kers/page/90/mode/2up
- https://www.thoughtco.com/causes-war-aims-world-war-one-1222048
- https://www.irishtimes.com/culture/heritage/the-poisonous-myth-democratic-germany-s-stab-in-the-back-legend-1.3751185
