Adolf Hitler's First World War
How Hitler's war service was to mould his attitudes and outlook for the rest of his life.
Hitler in the Great War
“For me these hours came as a deliverance from the distress that had weighed down on me during the days of my youth. Overpowered by stormy enthusiasm, I fell down on my knees and thanked Heaven from an overflowing heart for granting me the good fortune of being permitted to live at this time... There now begun the greatest and most unforgettable time of my earthly existence."
Adolf Hitler. Mein Kampf.
Adolf Hitler's words on the outbreak of the Great War, written after the war, reveal the thoughts of a man who, despite multiple wounds, felt that he had a good war. As for many active participants, the First World War was a formative experience for Hitler and, in this article, I’ll be charting his military career from the outbreak of the war through to its bitter end.
Hitler’s pre-war experiences were not inspiring, and he had spent much of the decade before the war close, or actually in, poverty. Hitler was unfocused and, after the disappointment of his failure to get into art school, lived a marginal existence on a small inheritance and donations from his family. His only sustained effort to earn a living was as a freelance painter, specialising in architecture and picture postcard landscapes, which his friend sold around Munich. Quite frankly, his early career had been unspectacular and, without the war would probably have continued that way.
The descent of the continent into armed conflict was, for Hitler, no bad thing. Whilst he believed in the war, an agreeable consequence of the conflict was the way it represented a way out of a hand to mouth existence in which Hitler had been drifting. For the first time since childhood, Hitler recounted, he “had no worries”. Within the confines of his regiment he found a discipline and purpose that counteracted his natural inclination towards directionlessness and laziness. He also found a real comradeship that contrasted with his looser pre-war acquaintances. In short, at this stage of his life, war suited Hitler better than peacetime and, later, he was to refer to his years in the army as “the greatest and most unforgettable time of my earthly existence”.
The outbreak of the war in the summer of 1914 came after a period of international tension and, as the pressure-cooker atmosphere was released, many Germans were enthusiastic that war had come. During those febrile days on August, crowds of Germans gathered in public places and outside official buildings to follow international events and sing patriotic songs. In one famous picture, taken following the declaration of war on Russia, a young Adolf Hitler can be seen in the crowd outside the Feldhernhalle in Munich. In the enlarged image, Hitler’s face is alight with the excitement of the time.[1] Remembering the outbreak of war in Mein Kampf, Hitler recalled how he was “overpowered by stormy enthusiasm” and "fell down on my knees and thanked Heaven from an overflowing heart for granting me the good fortune of being permitted to live at this time".
For a man who had left Austria to avoid military service, he was pretty keen on the prospect of service in the German army. Hitler volunteered to join the army in early August 1914 and, as an Austrian citizen, should have been rejected and sent to serve in the Austro-Hungarian military. However, probably because of the chaos of the early days of the war, he was recruited into the Bavarian Army on the 16ᵗʰ of August. Initially allocated into the Second Reserve Battalion of the Second Infantry Regiment in the Bavarian Army, he was subsequently moved into the Bavarian Reserve Infantry Regiment. Sent for training for approximately six weeks beginning in September, firstly in and around Munich and then field exercises around Augsberg, Hitler and his fellow soldiers were turned from civilians into soldiers. Completing their training on the 20th October 1914, Hitler and his fellow recruits were sent to the west, heading to occupied Belgium.
Arriving at the front, Hitler’s battalion were thrown straight into action. In an early sign of the war’s incredible appetite for manpower, the battalion suffered losses of an incredible 70% as the original 3600 men were reduced to a mere 611 after just four days, including the loss of the regiment's commanding officer, Colonel List. On the 3rd of November, just a matter of days after the battalion’s baptism of fire, Adolf Hitler’s military career peaked when he was promoted to the rank of corporal.
It may be unfair to characterise his career like this, as it seems that Hitler was recommended for further promotions later in the war, but it seems that he refused further advancement, possibly because it would have meant leaving the regiment where he had found comradeship and fulfilment. Hitler became a dispatch runner, one of a group of 8-10 soldiers who carried messages from the regimental headquarters to front line units. While not always in the front lines, the role of a dispatch runner was by no means a “safe” job; of the eight runners attached to the regiment, three were killed and one wounded in a single day in November. Hitler, himself, narrowly avoided death when a shell destroyed the regimental command post, killing most of the officers. Luckily for Hitler, he had been away from the command post when the shell had struck.
It seems that his role as a dispatch runner suited Hitler’s independent spirit and as well as being lucky, Hitler was not lacking in bravery, and, on the 2nd of December 1914, was awarded the Iron Cross, Second Class, for his part in protecting his commander while under fire.
It seems that Hitler was a better soldier than he was comrade. He was well-thought of and competent in his role, but he was never one of the “lads”. During his service, he tended to stay aloof and, as far as the other men were concerned, seems to have come across as a bit odd. Certainly, unlike others in his regiment, it seems he didn’t participate in grumbling about the war. One man was to say, “there was a white crow among us who wouldn’t go along with us when we damned the war.”
He didn’t drink or smoke and didn't join in the talk about women, which, outside the chaplaincy, must make him one of the few private soldiers in the history of war who didn’t. He didn't visit the brothels available to the men of the army, nor did he have a girlfriend or sweetheart to correspond with. Notably, he didn't seem to get letters and parcels from home; he had been distant from his family before the war and a global conflict doesn’t seem to have changed this. He had a strong sense of personal morality, asking those who chased after local girls if they had “no German sense of honour at all?” All in all, he seems to have had rather a puritanical streak.
It seems that the war was for Hitler, a higher form of experience, almost a vocational activity and a rite of passage, later he would explain that “war is for a man what childbirth is for a woman.” He tended to refuse his allotted leave and his personal morale remained high until the very end of the conflict. Whilst he remained on cordial terms with his comrades, he seems to have reserved his greatest affection for a dog he had found in 1915 and adopted, naming it Fuchsl[2].
For those of us with knowledge of Hitler’s future career, it might seem unexpected that he generally kept his political views to himself during the beginning of the war. It seems that his attitude changed later in the war, as the effects of the war took hold, and he became more vocal and willing to rail against domestic unrest as time wore on.
Hitler’s war moved to Fromelles between March 1915 and July 1916, where his regiment was involved in classic Western Front static warfare along a length of just two kilometres. Then, in late September 1916, the regiment moved to the Somme, presumably, filling manpower shortages caused by the repeated British attempts to break through the German lines that had been ongoing since the 1st of July 1916.
It was on the Somme that Hitler's luck changed, or didn't change, depending on whether you’re a glass half full or empty type of person. A shell exploded in the dugout used by the dispatch runners, killing and wounding those sheltered there. Hitler was wounded in his left thigh and, after initial treatment in a field hospital, was transferred to a Red Cross hospital near Berlin.
Coming from the purposeful and intense world of the trenches to the heartland of Germany, Hitler was struck by the change in morale he observed during his two-month convalescence. The country’s morale was clearly in a very different place to the heady enthusiasm he’d been caught up in during 1914. Most depressingly, he heard some of his fellow patients boasting how they had given themselves minor wounds or were malingering to avoid going back to the front.
Following his period in Germany, Hitler returned to the combat zone once again on the 5ᵗʰ of March 1917. His regiment was stationed in positions north of Vimy until the summer of 1917, they were then shifted back to the familiar terrain around Ypres to help contain a British attack in the area[3]. After suffering during the opening stages of the British offensive, Hitler’s regiment was withdrawn from the line and were sent to the quieter lines around Alsace.
In September, Hitler was granted leave, which he spent in Berlin, staying at the home of a comrade’s parents. Hitler liked Berlin and enjoyed his eighteen days, exploring the city and its museums. Returning from Berlin to his regiment, now in the Champagne region, he continued to serve as a dispatch runner. The regiment were involved in heavy fighting through the first half of the year as the German high command launched their last great offensives against Entente lines. These offensives were intended as a way for Germany to win the war while, due to the collapse of Russia on the Eastern Front, they had a significant, but temporary, manpower advantage.
Hitler’s regiment was involved in the Second Battle of the Marne, Germany's last major, but unsuccessful, offensive of the war. From Hitler's perspective, this offensive was remarkable because, due to his efforts in delivering a vital message whilst under heavy fire, he was awarded the Iron Cross, First Class. While later stories claiming that Hitler single-handedly captured fifteen enemy soldiers seem to have been fabricated by over enthusiastic supporters, there is no doubting that he was capable of physical bravery and, by gaining the first class decoration he had shown that his bravery was no “one-off”[4]. Understandably, Hitler was proud of his decoration, often wearing it in later life as a standard part of his clothing, and often for political effect[5].
For German units on the Western front, the latter stages of the war were often marked by constant movement along the front as the German command tried to counter repeated blows by the French, British and Americans along the length of the line. It seems that Hitler’s regiment was no exception, seeing action at Cambrai in August, Wytschaete and Messines in September, and Comines towards end of September and into October. Hitler missed some of this fighting as, at the end of August, he was sent on a telephone communication course and then on leave to Berlin on the 10th of September.
Back in the front lines in early October, British attacks using mustard gas inflicted heavy casualties and, on the night of the 13ᵗʰ and 14ᵗʰ of October, Hitler was gassed whilst sheltering in a dugout and, along with several other men, was temporarily blinded. Forced to hold onto each other, and led by one less-affected man, they were able to make their way towards the rear.
Hitler received treatment for his injuries in Flanders and was then sent to a military hospital near Stettin, in Pomerania, on the 21st of October 1918. For Hitler, the war was over, and it was over for Germany as well. The German high command realised that their resources were effectively spent, and they urgently needed hostilities to stop as soon as possible if Germany was not to be defeated.
In fact, Germany was in severe danger of a complete collapse. Militarily, the situation was bad, and on the home front things were worse. Revolution was in the air and was only narrowly avoided. The speed with which the German high command’s will to, and ability to, fight collapsed came as a surprise to most of the population at home and at the front. For the army on the Western Front, which had until recently been able to mount major offensives that had seemed close to winning the war, the collapse seemed to have originated on the home front, and the generals were hardly going to disabuse them of this impression; after all, no one wants to confess that they have personally failed.
Hitler took the news of the armistice badly, "since the day when I had stood at my mother's grave, I had not wept... but now I could not help it... And so it had all been in vain... Did all this happen only so that a gang of wretched criminals could lay hands on the fatherland?" To be fair, he wasn’t alone, many people in Germany were shocked by the speed with which the war effort collapse and the turmoil that followed.
There is no doubt that Hitler was deeply affected by his experiences in the Great War. The army had given him purpose and, for the first time in his adult life, a regular job and a feeling of having a role in society. He had found a level of comradeship amongst the men of his regiment, he had felt a sense of belonging to the structures and organisations of the army, and he had been proud of the recognition of his skills and bravery from his superiors. In addition, he had been struck by the enthusiasm and unity at the beginning of the war amongst most Germans and had seen that unity follow through into his regimental experience; this formed a model on which he would base some of his views of national unity in the future. Contrasting against that unity were his experiences when recuperating from his wounds and when on leave and I speculate that these provided an image of all that was bad and rotten within the state.
The contrast between his experience at the front with the divisions, demoralisation and complications of the civilian world appear to have influenced his world view; particularly the feeling some malign force must be to blame. And this might have been the end of it if he hadn't stayed on in the army, realistically the only place he could call home, and had been thrust into circumstances where he was exposed to fringe political movements. Here he found he was not alone in attributing the collapse of Germany, and later troubles, to traitors and saboteurs, but now Hitler began to hone his views about where blame lay, fixating on a confused mixture of Bolsheviks and conniving Jews. At the same time, he found his own peculiar skill as a rabble-rousing orator, propagandist and was able to put his new skills and interests to practical use to carve out a new role for himself.
Bibliography
Hitler and Stalin – Alan Bullock
The Third Reich – Michael Burleigh
Hitler 1889-1936 – Hubris – Ian Kershaw
[1][1] The photographer, on hearing that Hitler, now a household name, had been in the crowd realised that he might be able to spot him in the crowd scenes he had taken.
[2] Little Fox
[3] Third Battle of Ypres, also known as Passchendaele.
[4] To be awarded the Iron Cross, first class, you had to already have been awarded the second class variant. However, you could be awarded both at once to skip the qualification step.
[5] During his trial for leading the failed attempt to overthrow the Bavarian government, he wore his Iron Cross to make the point that a war hero couldn’t really be too bad, could they?