The Mind of a Megalomaniac
What is he like with his associates?” The OSS chief wanted to understand Hitler’s “psychological make-up—the things that make him tick.” Donovan was especially keen to know how Hitler might respond to increasing adversity.
Key points
- “The world has come to know Adolph Hitler for his insatiable greed for power, his ruthlessness, cruelty and utter lack of feeling, his contempt for established institutions and his lack of moral restraints,” Langer wrote in framing the scope of his work.
- “In each and every field he believes himself to be an unquestioned authority.” One former Hitler associate described to Langer what had happened when he tried to correct the Nazi leader about something.
- From 1933 to 1943, the Nazi leader had marched from one stunning political and military triumph to the next, securing the chancellorship, crushing the German constitutional order, annexing Austria, dismembering Czechoslovakia, and then invading Poland, France, Belgium, the Netherlands, Denmark, countries across North Africa, and Russia.
Until 1943, Hitler had seemed to be an inexorable political and military force, smashing constitutional guardrails, shredding international treaties, breaking trade alliances, upending the international order, and ultimately plunging the entire world into war.
Additional details
- “What I do and say is historical.” Langer attributed this “infantile thinking” to an arrested emotional development that also resulted in frequent tantrums, both in private and public.
- Otto Strasser, an early Nazi Party member who had broken with Hitler over economic policy, told Langer that Hitler regularly browbeat members of his inner circle.
- “It makes little difference whether the field be economics, education, foreign affairs, propaganda, movies, music or women’s dress,” Langer reported.
- “Rage and abuse became the favorite weapons in his armory,” Langer wrote, along with public degradation, humiliation, and, occasionally, murder.
- But then came military reversals that stopped Hitler in his tracks: El Alamein, in November 1942, then Stalingrad, in January 1943.
How this summary was made: extractive summary — built from the sources' own reporting. It is drawn only from the reporting of the sources listed below — read the originals for full detail. How we summarize →
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