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Greatness or Product of Circumstance? Doll Hitler: a man whiffs name itself leaves a bad taste in the mouths of thousands to even utter Throughout the history of mankind few men have ever earned the reputation, the resentment, and the legacy that Hitler has earned for himself; a man who started from the bottom of society to rise to the top of one of the most powerful regimes in European history. He was even able to gaining fame and prestige while incarcerated from a poorly written book.
British historian Alan Bullock’s extensive biography, Hitler: A Study In Tyranny, gives a detailed description f Hitler”s youth, his service during World War l, and his rise to power with the German National Socialist Party. However, throughout the book Bullock will not give Hitler the title of “great. ” To this I would have to disagree with his claim. Do see where Bullock is drawing this conclusion from though. When you think of something that Is great, you want to associate It with goodness, Justice, and righteousness, and there are very few people that would associate Doll Hitler with those qualities.
But there are other ways you can define the term “great. ” If you were to say that omen Is great at something, you would be Indicating that they excel at that particular area. It Is with this definition of great that I would use to describe a man life Doll Hitler. Bullock’s reasoning for denying Hitler with the quality of greatness span from his failures ending his career to the “passions which ruled his mind” (Bullock, 487). Hitler was driven by Ignoble feelings of hatred, resentment, and an unquenchable desire to dominate and destroy all those in his path to glory and unification of the German people.
Bullock continues to say that, “His career did not exalt but debase the human notation, and his twelve years’ dictatorship was barren of all ideas save one – The further extension of his own power and that of the nation with which he had identified himself” (Bullock, 487). Hitter’s reign of terror was brought down by himself, this cannot be denied. His career ended in complete failure, because of his own careless mistakes and his belief that he was indestructible made him vulnerable.
While I do agree that Hitler was the cause of his own demise and that he In no way is deserving of any form of righteous or good qualities, it is undeniable that Hitler excelled at what he did. He brought an absolutely unknown political party to supreme power in a war torn country with an incredibly inflated economy. He exalted an extreme form of nationalism to a nation he was not even a native of and promoted the superiority of a race that we did not even fall Into. He brought to power an entire regime based off of discrimination and anti-Semitism.
And he accomplished all of this with the power of spoken voice. Hitler used his ability of speech to rally follower after follower to his party’s cause, creating a new, unified German under one banner hat actually works politically, militarily, and economically. If Hitler was anything, he was a great speaker. Another reason that I believe that Hitler can be given the title of “great” is I fully have taken the Nazi party from nothing and turned it into the political power house that it would become.
Hitler did experience a lot of “right here at the right time” styled opportunities during his rise to power, but I do not believe that anyone else could have capitalized on said opportunities the way that he did. Bullock said it himself that Hitler was driven by a lust for domination and an astonishing power of ill in pursuing his aims. He would have stopped at nothing for his quest for global domination, save for his own death. He neglected his health, was never open with anyone, and you could even say that he was hardly close with his own wife.
Hitler had one goal and one goal alone in his mind: the total domination of his Third Reich and the assertion of Aryan superiority of all races. Now, onto the real question of the paper, and the entire purpose behind this class: is Doll Hitler a figure of great evil? We’ve looked through a long list of terrible people throughout the course of this class, but we’ve come to the consensus that none of them have been deserving of the title of “Great Evil. ” I believe that we have finally come to one individual that most certainly is deserving of the title of Great Evil.
I believe that Doll Hitler is indeed deserving of the title of Great Evil. Based upon the guideline that we established at the beginning of the semester Hitler definitely qualifies. First and foremost, I think it is safe to say that Hitler fits the quality of “overall bad. ” Though they may not be actions caused by his own two hands, the political deals that Doll Hitler promoted started the bloodiest and most destructive war in human history, caused the mass genocide of the Jewish populace in Europe, and overall the deaths of millions and millions of people.
Secondly, Hitter’s movement has outlasted him. While the Third Reich itself crumbled shortly after Hitter’s death, the ideals of the Nazi German still live on in the hearts and minds of those affected by it as well as those who still hold true to Hitter’s ideals and dreams (if you haven’t seen the movie American History X, I would definitely recommend it. It’s a great portrayal of Neo-Nazi America). He even caused a popular style of mustache to go out-of-style.
Finally, though Hitter’s actions were inherently bad, he changed the world for the better in a way that few men could have. Because of him, the United Nations was founded after the obvious failures of the League of Nations to prevent World War II from happening. He literally has set the standard for what it is to carry out immoral and inhumane crimes against the world as a whole, and because of his actions, we now know what to look for to prevent such atrocities from ever happening again.