Type of bind: Hardcover
Dewey Decimal Number: 943.613051092
EAN num: 9780195125375
ISBN number: 0195125371
Label: Oxford University Press, USA
Manufacturer: Oxford University Press, USA
Quantity: 1
Page Count: 482
Printing Date: July 01, 1999
Publishing house: Oxford University Press, USA
Sale Popularity Level: 313664
Studio: Oxford University Press, USA
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Already a critically acclaimed bestseller in Germany and in Austria, Hitler's Vienna explores the critical, formative years which Hitler spent in Vienna, painting a fascinating portrait of the development of his ideas and career against the social, cultural, and political climate of the capitol of the Hapsburg Empire.
Hitler's Vienna was not the artistic and intellectual center normally associated with Sigmund Freud, Gustav Mahler, Arthur Schnitzler, and Ludwig Wittgenstein. Instead, it was a cauldron of fear and indignation, a city teeming with the 'little people' who rejected Viennese modernity as too international, too 'Jewish,' and too libertine. Indeed, Hitler's Vienna was a breeding ground for obscure political theories, usually propagated by disadvantaged men living together in hostels. To them, being 'better' in this multinational city meant belonging to the 'noble German people.' Brigitte Hamann compellingly depicts the undercurrent of disturbing social and political ideologies that permeated this city of civil unrest. Drawing on previously untapped resources, she gives us the fullest account ever rendered of the young fuhrer.
Hitler's Vienna reveals the vital connection between Hitler's indoctrination into the devastating racial politics that swept Germany's multinational state and the hotbed of nationalistic activity that was Vienna in the early 20th century. It is a profoundly important addition to present Hitler scholarship.
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Rated by buyers 
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All the nonsense concerning Hitler's early years can be laid to rest thanks to the invaluable service of Brigitte Hamann.
Charting Hitler's youth in the provinces and formative years in Vienna up until the age of 24, Hitler emerges as a product of his social group (men's hostel disenchantment, the need to feel superior in a sea of immigrants), but already displays his vitriolic strain in uncontrolled, irrational outbursts brought on by his anxiety for a dominant German culture; a German culture he would ultimately bring to ruin.
The exclusion of Austria from the Reich created by Bismarck in 1871 spread a sense of insecurity among Germans living in an ethnically diverse city such as Vienna. Throughout the Austro-Hungarian empire, the German Austrians, although still out in front in terms of numbers (in 1910, almost 10 million with Czech's at 6.5) were nevertheless swamped by Slavs in total (Slovaks, Poles, Ruthenians, Slovenians, Serbo-Croats) and were just another piece of the ethnic pie; interestingly, Hitler was anti-Slav before he was anti-Semitic.
Hamann explores the complex social texture to this environment in a comprehensive fashion, introduces us to many confused `theoreticians of race and explainers of the world' along with political role models such as Karl Lueger, anti-Semitic major of Vienna between 1897-1910; the reproduction of contemporary newspaper cartoons and illustrations are informative statements in themselves, particularly as these newspapers, in all likelihood, were read by Hitler. Many of the motifs to Nazi ideology that were superimposed on Germany after its collapse from the First World War and consequent economic shock waves, can largely be traced back to Vienna's pressure cooker mould out of which Hitler stepped.
Hamann successfully shows how late imperial Vienna, undermined by ethnic tensions, exerted a big influence on the formation of Hitler's outlook:
`The simultaneous search of various peoples for their own identity was particularly explosive in the Dual Monarchy's huge melting pot. The more a people nourished its own image as a people, the stranger the other peoples appeared to be.'
Highly recommended!
Rated by buyers -
Adolf Hitler remains one of the most despised of all dictators. His hatred and anti-Semitism and destruction of over six million European Jews as well as Poles, Slavics, Gypsies, Jehovah's Witnesses are well documented. But in order to see how monsters like Hitler and Stalin came to be, we must understand their backgrounds, environments, and upbringings. In this well-researched and detailed book by Brigitte Hamann, you will find it richingly informative and shocking at times as well. We get to know what life was life in Hitler's Vienna which he despised and his close, loving relationship with Klara Hitler, his beloved mother. We learn about his relatives, ancestry which he tried desperately to destroy or change to alter his own public image to his people. The racism between Aryans and non-Aryans were well documented before World War II in Austria. This book is an invaluable tool in understanding how Hitler came to be this monster.
As I read the book, I digest the information slowly because there is so that I don't know. The author is really detailed in explaining and citing information. There are about 40 pages of citations at the end. There is a lot of information to know about like life in Vienna before World War I. The politics around Vienna is quite fascinating and disturbing as the small political groups. By reading this book, you will begin to understand the world of which a monster was raised in. We learn about his family relations, his time in hostels, his friendships, his art and love for architecture, his close relationship with his mother, the author pulls no punches or leaves anything out about Hitler's early life. He was somebody who rised from the shadows and became a monster in his own right. What fascinated me the most about this book was the separtist groups in Vienna, who would have thought that other ethnic groups like Czechs, Poles, Slavics, and even Germans posed a threat against Austrian way of life. Hitler's Austrian background and the feeling of his own inferiority and the class differences help the readers understand how he began to think including the prejudice and deep hatred that he felt for the non-Aryans and non-Germans. I didn't know anything about the prejudices and friction and problems amongst the groups in Vienna then. I have never been to Vienna but I still think of it as the ultimate classical place to spend New Year's Eve. The more I read, the more I understand the circumstances around Hitler's Vienna and you always wonder might have been if Hitler became a successful artist or if his mother had not died. Oh what might have been so different that millions of lives wouldn't have been lost that is what we can't lose sight of is that millions of innocent lives, children, women, and men died because of this one man's obsession.
Rated by buyers 
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Though this book is better in the original German (it loses something in the translation), Hamann is a diligent researcher who has unearthed some new facts about Hitler's period in Vienna. She uses primary sources and archive material without merely rehashing what other biographies have written in the past. The Franz Jetzinger book from the 50's is still the standard, definitive version of Hitler's Vienna years, but Hamann does a nice job and weaves in some new material. She also adroitly dismisses some claims from other German authors who have inaccurately written about Hitler's relationship with early roommate, August (Gustl) Kubizek. Thankfully, Hamann doesn't indulge in psychoanalyzing Hitler, which is sort of a deranged cottage industry amongst more recent Hitler biographers.
One small criticism is that Hamann veers away from Hitler too frequently. There is a plethora of material about Vienna's political climate in the 1910's, its mayor, the origin of anti-Semitism in the city and other ancillary details. Though all of this is relevant to Hitler, one wishes she would have stayed a bit more on topic. Still, the book is interesting, informative and devoid of errors. If you want to learn more about the young Hitler, this is an acceptable choice.
Rated by buyers -
Brigitte Hamann has done a remarkable thing with this book. By examining Vienna during Hitler's formative years, she has unlocked a lot of mystery surrounding the great man himself. While it is true that she uncovered discrepancies in Hitler's description of those years in Mein Kampf, her real contribution is in helping the reader to understand what Hitler was talking about, and why he said the things he said.
Particularly useful is Hamann's analysis of the prominent politicians of the day. She very first described these leaders and their political ups and downs. Then, with the testimony of the witnesses who knew Hitler during those years, she deftly draws a picture of the formative influences that helped shape the mature dictator. Hitler was obsessed with politics and he learned what worked and what did not work during those early years in Vienna. Many of his later policies very first saw the light of day in the Vienna of his youth. There is a chilling passage about the problem of gypsy pickpockets expected for the 60 Anniversary Parade in honor of Emperor Franz Joseph, in 1908. One solution, seriously presented in Parliament at the time, was to tattoo a number on the forearm of every gypsy.
Hamann also provides an in-depth analysis of the Austro-Hungarian endeavor at a multi-ethnic parliamentarism, the chaos and the inefficiency that it brought, and the consequent neglect for the common people. The Pan-German movement, which clearly influenced the young Hitler is clearly explained in considerable detail. At times while reading this book, I had to pause and remind myself that the period under review presaged the rise of Adolf Hitler to power by some 20 years!
Out of the murk emerges Hitler as a young man obsessed by politics, hot tempered, forceful in argument, with poor work habits, odd hours, and a penchant for talk. Hamann's decision to look at the politics that helped him to formulate his world view is brilliant history. This fascinating book is very worthy of your attention.
Rated by buyers -
I really liked this book as it offered some new facts as opposed to regurgitating the same points already in circulation about Hitler and his youth. Hamann is a great historian of our time, and those of you fluent in German would be well advised to get ahold of this book in the original.
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