Charismatic leadership – Adolf Hitler and the NS-state

A review of Ian Kershaw's Hitler biography

Literature Review , 2001 , 6 Pages , Grade: 1,3

History of Germany - National Socialism, World War II

Unter Rückgriff auf Max Weber und Mario Rainer Lepsius analysiert Ian Kershaw Adolf Hitlers "Führerstaat" als "charismatische Herrschaft". Die Rezension beleuchtet Stärken und Schwächen dieses Ansatzes.

Inhaltsverzeichnis (Table of Contents)

• The first question a reader of Ian Kershaw's Hitler biography might ask is in what way can such a book be original with regard to the huge amount of previous research in this field?
• Does it offer any new knowledge about Nazi- Germany and its dictator?
• The author's account of Hitler's private life and political career is detailed, but the innovative force of the book can be found elsewhere.
• More interesting (and useful for historians) than Kershaw's detailed outline of Hitler's life is the contribution that his biography makes to a prevailing controversy about national socialist Germany and Hitler's position within it.
• This historiographical controversy is the starting point of Kershw's biography.
• Previous biographies have always tended to prefer the intentionalist approach, which is in its nature closer to this literary genre, and investigated in Hitler's Machiavellism or "negative greatness".
• Kershaw is more interested in the nature of Hitler's power than in the dictator's personality.
• He intends to take a closer look at the "political structures and social forces which conditioned his (Hitler's) acquisition and exercise of power, and its extraordinary impact."
• Recognizing that a satisfying interpretation of the NS- stat and Hitler's role within it "must not only take full account of Hitler's ideological goals, his actions, and his personal input into the shaping of events; it must at the same time locate these within the social forces and political structures" which permitted, shaped, and promoted the development of Hitler and his state, it is Kershaw's aim to form a synthesis out of the intentionalist and the structuralist view.
• The author has chosen the theory of "charismatic leadership", developed by the German sociologist Max Weber (1864- 1920) in his typology of "legitimate domination", and its application to Hitler's dictatorship as the decisive analytical tools.
• This is not a new approach as Kershaw could fall back on other scholar's as well as his own previous publications.
• But obviously this analytical approach collided with the chronological structure and the generally more narrative genre of a biography.
• There is hardly another plausible explanation why the Weberian terminology seems to be restricted to the introduction.
• In regard to Kershaw's promise to demonstrate that the theory of "charismatic leadership" is the key to a correct understanding of Hitler's dictatorship and a possible way to form a synthesis out of the intentionalist and structuralist approach, it is astonishing that the fluent narration of Hitler's curriculum vitae is not interrupted by sociological terminology.
• This has led astray some critiques to assume that the concept of "charismatic leadership" in Kershaw's biography has no explanatory value, but it "a concession to certain historians' fondness of Weberian sociology" or a structuralist's attempt to avoid the admission of a single person's ability to "make history".
• It has to be admitted that the reference to the analytical frame is rather implicit than explicit, and that a reader who did not come across Weber's theory of "charismatic leadership" will hardly be able to see how Kershaw used it as a heuristic device.
• But a closer look at two other key concepts Kershaw made use of in his biography ("Hitler myth" and "working towards the Führer") will show that they are closely linked with main features of Weber's theory of „,charismatic leadership“ and Mario Rainer Lepsius' application of the theory to Hitler and the NS- state.
• The concept of the "Hitler myth" intends to explain how a political nobody without material and educational resources like Hitler was able to come to power in a culturally and economically highly developed European country and to win the support of the majority of Germany's population.
• According to Weber and Lepsius two preconditions have to be fulfilled in order to establish a "charismatic leadership": (1) A belief in transcendental forces which are revealed in the extraordinary ("ausseralltäglich") personality of "great men" and (2) an existential crises which makes people more likely to follow a leader to whom they ascribe unique and extraordinary qualities.
• "What is alone important is how the individual is actually regarded by those subject to charismatic authority, by his 'followers' or 'disciples'."
• Kershaw manages to demonstrate that both preconditions were given in the Germany of the early 1930s.
• He argues that there was on the one hand a tradition in Germany's political culture to idealize and mysticize the historic role and mission of "great individual leaders", while on the other hand there was a deep distrust of institutions.
• Hitler saw himself as the "great leader" of the future, in the continuity of Frederick the Great, Bismarck and Hindenburg.
• It was not his personality many people were fond of, but the mythical image he and his followers cultivated and the disastrous socio-economic circumstances in the early 1930s made it possible that his "hubristic" claim to leadership fell on fertile ground.
• The situation of political, economic and social crisis in the last years of the Weimar Republic furthered hopes for an authoritarian "charismatic leader", a "Servator Germaniae", who was expected to be able to overcome all domestic antagonisms, reunite the people, and lead Germany to new greatness.
• Many of these hopes were projected on Hitler.
• The concept of "working towards the Führer" tries to offer an answer to the question how a lazy and often indecisive person like Hitler could have such a strong impact on the history of the Third Reich.
• According to Weber and Lepsius the administrative stuff of a charismatic leader, which forms the charismatic community, consists of people who are chosen on the basis of their charismatic qualities rather than on the basis of their skills or privileges.
• "The prophet has his disciples; the warlord his bodyguard; the leader, generally, his agents."
• The task of the administrative stuff is to follow the prophecies of its leader, which are the exclusive sources of legitimacy for any action; formal rules, traditional or legal principles do not exist.
• The administrative stuff has to execute the leader's will, or what the individual member of the charismatic community holds his will for.
• The charismatic leader only "intervenes in general or in individual cases when he considers the members of his staff lacking in charismatic qualification for a given task."
• The existence of charismatic leadership is instable and is in permanent danger to lose its extraordinary character.
• The only chance of the charismatic leader to avoid reutilization ("Veralltäglichung") is to prove his extraordinary qualities and his indispensability by mastering existential crises.
• Kershaw shows that the main source of personal power within the Third Reich was the closeness to the Führer's will.
• Hitler was not always personally involved in political activities, especially concerning domestic policy.
• He did not even have to express his will on every single political issue, but "millions of Nazis all tried to fulfill the ideas of their Führer (respectively what they thought his ideas were) at their place in society."
• They were "working towards the Führer".
• Hitler could sanction or stop political activities, but he was often not involved in initiating them.
• Leaving many political actions and initiatives to the "administrative stuff" had the advantage that Hitler could not be identified with unpopular measures while popular ones could be presented as his achievement.
• But how could he prove his extraordinary qualities as a charismatic leader after his seizure of power without acting personally?
• Kershaw's answer to this question is that Hitler sought for possibilities to prove his charismatic mission in the field of foreign policy.
• Adding the aura of the invincible warlord to his charismatic qualities, he continued to provoke severe crisis by permanently acting against the Versailles Treaty and by the militarization of foreign policy leading into the outbreak of the Second World War.
• Although it helps to understand the organizational structure of the NS- state, at this point the applicability of the theory of "charismatic leadership" has certain limits.
• The anti-institutional nature of the charismatic community and the leader's administrative stuff was not really given in Nazi- Germany.
• Not only did many institutions based on tradition or bureaucracy (church, army, courts etc.) continue to exist in the Third Reich, but it is hardly possible to imagine how Hitler's political and military plans could have been carried out without their support.
• The limits of Weber's and Lepsius' theories become even more obvious in the second volume.
• During the Second World War Hitler concentrated on questions of warfare and retired from most other political fields.
• Now the "Hitler myth" rather depended on military success than on charisma, and because of Hitler's personal involvement it was impossible for him not to be identified with failures.
• "Working towards the Führer" explains why there was no "Führerbefehl" for the Holocaust but it does not explain the Holocaust itself.
• That's why recent research has turned to the motivations of those who executed the "Endlösung" (police, SS and "Einsatzgruppen") instead of looking at the political decision makers.
• The traces of the theory of "charismatic leadership" in Kershaw's biography are unmistakable, but within the chronological structure of his book and without the use of Weber's and Lepsius analytical language, they can only be found by those who constantly bear in mind the analytical tools provided by the two sociologists.
• The sociological approach promised in the introduction has not been consequently extended to the complete book.
• It is also a bit disappointing that Kershaw tried to make his own account of Hitler's "charismatic leadership" more innovative than it in fact is by not referring to previous works.
• Lepsius' essay on the applicability of the theory of "charismatic leadership" on Hitler and the NS- state does not even appear in the footnotes or in the bibliography, although it is very unlikely that Kershaw has not been inspired by it.
• There is also no reference to Nyomarkay's study of the structure of the NSDAP, although Kershaw's description of the NSDAP developing into a "factious charismatic movement" with Hitler as its indispensable "charismatic leader" comes suspiciously close to Nyomarkay's thesis.

Zielsetzung und Themenschwerpunkte (Objectives and Key Themes)

The primary objective of this work is to explore Ian Kershaw's two-volume biography of Adolf Hitler and its contribution to the understanding of Hitler's rise to power and the nature of his dictatorship. The author critically examines Kershaw's use of the theory of "charismatic leadership" in analyzing Hitler's political strategy and the structure of the Nazi state.

• The historiographical controversy surrounding the structure of the Nazi state: Intentionalist vs. structuralist views.
• The role of "charismatic leadership" in Hitler's rise to power and the functioning of the Nazi state.
• The "Hitler myth" as a factor in his political success.
• The concept of "working towards the Führer" and its implications for the exercise of power within the Nazi regime.
• The limits of applying the theory of "charismatic leadership" to the specific context of Nazi Germany.

Zusammenfassung der Kapitel (Chapter Summaries)

The review delves into the key arguments presented by Kershaw in his two-volume biography. The author analyzes how Kershaw utilizes the theory of "charismatic leadership" to explain Hitler's rise to power, his political strategy, and the structure of the Nazi state. The review explores how this approach intersects with the ongoing debate between intentionalist and structuralist interpretations of the Nazi regime. Key themes examined include the role of the "Hitler myth" in mobilizing popular support, the concept of "working towards the Führer" as a mechanism for exercising power, and the limitations of applying "charismatic leadership" theory to the Nazi context.

Schlüsselwörter (Keywords)

The review explores the key concepts and themes related to the study of Adolf Hitler, the Nazi state, and the theory of "charismatic leadership." Key terms include "intentionalism," "structuralism," "charismatic leadership," "Hitler myth," "working towards the Führer," "Führerstaat," "polycracy," "Nazi Germany," "Third Reich," and "Max Weber." The analysis focuses on the interplay between these concepts in understanding the nature of Hitler's dictatorship and the structure of the Nazi regime.

• College: University of Sussex (School of European Studies)
• Course: Toleration and Persecution in Modern Europe
• Grade: 1,3
• Author: Thomas Gräfe (Author)
• Publication Year: 2001
• Pages: 6
• Catalog Number: V145096
• ISBN (eBook): 9783640545636
• Language: English
• Tags: Adolf Hitler, Nationalsozialismus, Charismatische Herrschaft, Max Weber, Mario Rainer Lepsius, Ian Kershaw, Drittes Reich, Hitler- Biographien