alternatehistory.com
Chapter VII
Many reasons have been given as to why Hitler left Vienna for Munich in 1913, the dictator’s own explanations have changed over time and have often come across as contradictory. As far as official suspicion was he was attempting to avoid being drafted into the Austrian army, perhaps an understandable motivation given Hitler’s lifelong disregard for the Hapsburgs, though perhaps not the most glamorous one. “Draft dodgers” were given very little sympathy post-war, even if the individual could qualify their motivations for avoiding the fight.
Hitler resided in Munich for some eight months, continuing to paint his vaguely futurist style alongside various watercolours for tourists and a handful of clients. This business was not especially lucrative and Hitler could not enjoy the contacts he had benefitted from in Vienna. Nonetheless, he was apparently noteworthy enough for his business in Munich to be questioned by the Bavarian police. Hitler ultimately avoided deportation, it seems that his antipathy towards Austria-Hungary may have been mutual.
Nonetheless it seems as if Hitler did want to fight, simply not for the Hapsburgs. Though there is little testimony on his reactions at the time it is appears to be evident that he was not particularly apprehensive to the impending crisis in regards to the news coming from Sarajevo. Even prior the outbreak of war he had already enlisted in the Bavarian army.
There has been some speculation as to why it was so easy for a foreigner to join up, given that he had already been deported in early 1914 over allegations of avoiding the Austrian draft. At such a time of heightened national hysteria it would not be impossible to imagine any able bodied man being rushed into the military, there are stories of boys as young as 13 being accepted into fighting for Germany, but it is likely a definitive reason will never be found. The German establishments mix of anticipation and resignation towards a European conflict was expressed on the streets by a groundswell of pan-German nationalist sentiment that even swept up many of those sceptical about the war. It would have been an easy time for a German who just happened to have spent almost all of his life in Austria to be granted the ability to serve his ‘true’ fatherland without what might have been seen as bureaucratic dithering.
After two months of training, eventually under the command of the 6th Bavarian Reserve Division, Adolf Hitler eventually set out towards the front with his new comrades. There is little knowledge of Hitler’s time at training other than one or two mentions of daydreaming as black marks on a fairly unproblematic record. Not much of a report card for what would soon become a budding revolutionary but it was unlikely we will know much more than what the Bavarian bureaucracy has already shed light upon.
Within the first day at the front, the vast majority of Hitler’s new unit had been wiped out.’
~ Steven James, The Making of the Man: Hitler in the First World War
---
‘It is perhaps tempting in writing this work to put a particularly German spin on events. I fought for the German nation for four years in the Great War but I can assure you that the fate of the Kaiser was always the least of my interests.
My interest was in the German nation and its people, and so it remains, nonetheless this work would not be complete without a frank understanding of the causes of the great imperialist slaughter. It is important to acknowledge the motivations of international capital, a crime which was not purely the burden of the exploitative Entente that now shackles German industry and emboldens the Weimar state to enslave the German worker.
In this way I am referring to what I have previously termed the Military-Industrial complex. The tragic merging of the military aristocrats to the industrial bourgeoisie in a marriage of convenience that spread as a mutually beneficial ideal throughout Europe until it inevitably broke out in mutual disaster, not for the perpetrators of the conflict but for the global proletariat forced into fighting their war for them.
In regards to Versailles to it is often dictated to the German population that the building of our previously vast navy was a needless provocation. A disgusting hypocrisy from those who flaunt their dominance of the high seas but an interesting statement nonetheless, for if German “provocation” needlessly antagonised the British why was it not considered such a blunder at the time?
The reason is simple, a giant naval campaign was sponsored by those who would benefit!
In this I refer of course to Admiral Von Tirpitz and the various business interests gathered to support the Navy League, the basis of supporting the Fleet Acts was to create profit for those who would build them and to do this an enthralling narrative was required, one of competition with the British Empire.
This alliance of industry and state was repeated throughout Europe in all major powers, the vitriol used not only to promote ever larger armies but also to cement this alliance’s dominance over any group that would have attempted to thwart them. The communists rallied against militarism throughout Europe and were accused of treachery, whilst those who lined their pockets continued to needlessly antagonise one another, blind to the risk as long as it provided greater profit.
The establishment that calls us traitors now was the same one that started the war and the same one that lost it amidst their greed and corruption. It is important that every comrade emphasise this fact.
The German people have been betrayed, it is time to mark this treachery!’
~ Adolf Hitler, Our Struggle
---
“Why are we here?”
It was a question Adolf had asked himself many times beforehand in these last months. The nights had become dark again and as he sat crouched waiting for someone to take over his watch he became all the more wary, for the grand ideals that had brought him to this point did not echo as nearly as loudly as they had in that great rush to war several months beforehand.
In the Munich square he had joyously chanted “War” along with what seemed to be all of Germany. There he was, only recently arrived, freed from the overbearing Hapsburgs to live amongst the real Germans and suddenly he had the chance to participate in the great struggle that had been predicted by so many. He had partly left Vienna in fear that he would be forced to fight for a foreign aristocracy, in Munich he had been free to prove that he was not a coward but that in this great struggle he would fight for the nation of his heritage. Such sentiments rung in his mind as he had journeyed west, now they rang very hollow indeed.
Adolf dearly missed his friends in Vienna, for it was far more difficult to have companions at the front. His unit had already been all but wiped out twice. He was not a weak sort, but he missed the luxurious chairs in the cafes where he would sit and debate the issues of the day. Now he was part of a global conflict that used artillery and mortars rather than words, and his voice was unsurprisingly silenced. The early advances of August and September had declined into stalemate and with it the entire reality of the conflict became readily apparent.
Futurism had promised the world a birght future, one which men and technology would be seamlessly combined to create a better future. Now he had seen the implications, he was beginning to wonder whether Marinetti should have been warning people rather than encouraging them. He had seen men from torn limb from limb by hot metal as their dwellings blew up around. Sometimes it was hard to tell what the remains were. Did heads have a hinge? The real winners of this war didn't seem to care.
The rats were everywhere, they were eating the corpses and with plenty to feast upon the vermin had become as large as cats. Even in this giant size they could usually be beaten away easily enough when directly discovered, the same could not be said for the lice. Even as he sat stationary he could feel them all over him, most of his comrades in the damp trench had driven themselves had mad trying to beat them out, Adolf included. In the end all had realised the notion was futile. The lice and rats were here to stay for as long as the Germans were, and that amount of time seemed to be indeterminate.
Adolf had been swayed along with the triumphant proclamations of a short war despite his deeper feeling that the conflict would allow a national consciousness to emerge, a popular uprising that would sweep out the old institutions and replace them with a new Europe under German guidance. It wasn’t a dream that had died as much as one that had been replaced by mundanity. Keeping socks dry, boots repaired, your stomach vaguely filled on meagre rations. These trumped his greater nationalist concerns and he couldn’t help but feel resentment towards the men that put him there, not because the war wasn’t necessary, but why were the old orders still being allowed to stuff their faces whilst he and his comrades always seemed to be half-starved.
His comrades, the new comrades who might be dead tomorrow just as soon with new men coming to replace them, such was the reality of the trench. He pondered whether Franz would have approved of their conversations. He was popular for different reasons here. Adolf didn’t smoke, though he still received a tobacco ration and by default he was a popular man. There were endless reasons to smoke amongst the eternal hellfire of the British and French artillery.
For a fleeting moment he wondered whether it was worse that they were firing upon him, or that their commanders had put them there to be fired upon in the knowledge they were exposed. He tried to cancel out such a thought immediately.
Nothing good could come of such doubts.
---
The painting is a part of La Mitrailleuse by Christopher Nevinson, like many futurists he served in the First World War and lost all idealism during it. His technological utopias have now become apocalyptic scenes of men who've lost their humanity.
There is at least one recorded case of a thirteen year old joining the German army. Josef Zippes' body lies in Neuville-St. Vaast, near Arras, in the German war cemetery. His gravestone is written in Hebrew.
'The long one does seem simple enough. It ought to mean: “Who is this who is coming?” Well, the best way to find out is evidently to whistle for him.’
~ M. R. James, 'Oh, Whistle, and I'll Come to You My Lad'
‘Hitler had been in Munich for little over a year when the news of Franz Ferdinand’s assassination in Sarajevo sent shockwaves across Europe. It had been a time of harassment for the man who would later make a great show of his German patriotism, and regardless of the popular enthusiasm for war in the 1914, he was likely happy to headed away from the police.~ M. R. James, 'Oh, Whistle, and I'll Come to You My Lad'
Many reasons have been given as to why Hitler left Vienna for Munich in 1913, the dictator’s own explanations have changed over time and have often come across as contradictory. As far as official suspicion was he was attempting to avoid being drafted into the Austrian army, perhaps an understandable motivation given Hitler’s lifelong disregard for the Hapsburgs, though perhaps not the most glamorous one. “Draft dodgers” were given very little sympathy post-war, even if the individual could qualify their motivations for avoiding the fight.
Hitler resided in Munich for some eight months, continuing to paint his vaguely futurist style alongside various watercolours for tourists and a handful of clients. This business was not especially lucrative and Hitler could not enjoy the contacts he had benefitted from in Vienna. Nonetheless, he was apparently noteworthy enough for his business in Munich to be questioned by the Bavarian police. Hitler ultimately avoided deportation, it seems that his antipathy towards Austria-Hungary may have been mutual.
Nonetheless it seems as if Hitler did want to fight, simply not for the Hapsburgs. Though there is little testimony on his reactions at the time it is appears to be evident that he was not particularly apprehensive to the impending crisis in regards to the news coming from Sarajevo. Even prior the outbreak of war he had already enlisted in the Bavarian army.
There has been some speculation as to why it was so easy for a foreigner to join up, given that he had already been deported in early 1914 over allegations of avoiding the Austrian draft. At such a time of heightened national hysteria it would not be impossible to imagine any able bodied man being rushed into the military, there are stories of boys as young as 13 being accepted into fighting for Germany, but it is likely a definitive reason will never be found. The German establishments mix of anticipation and resignation towards a European conflict was expressed on the streets by a groundswell of pan-German nationalist sentiment that even swept up many of those sceptical about the war. It would have been an easy time for a German who just happened to have spent almost all of his life in Austria to be granted the ability to serve his ‘true’ fatherland without what might have been seen as bureaucratic dithering.
After two months of training, eventually under the command of the 6th Bavarian Reserve Division, Adolf Hitler eventually set out towards the front with his new comrades. There is little knowledge of Hitler’s time at training other than one or two mentions of daydreaming as black marks on a fairly unproblematic record. Not much of a report card for what would soon become a budding revolutionary but it was unlikely we will know much more than what the Bavarian bureaucracy has already shed light upon.
Within the first day at the front, the vast majority of Hitler’s new unit had been wiped out.’
~ Steven James, The Making of the Man: Hitler in the First World War
---
‘It is perhaps tempting in writing this work to put a particularly German spin on events. I fought for the German nation for four years in the Great War but I can assure you that the fate of the Kaiser was always the least of my interests.
My interest was in the German nation and its people, and so it remains, nonetheless this work would not be complete without a frank understanding of the causes of the great imperialist slaughter. It is important to acknowledge the motivations of international capital, a crime which was not purely the burden of the exploitative Entente that now shackles German industry and emboldens the Weimar state to enslave the German worker.
In this way I am referring to what I have previously termed the Military-Industrial complex. The tragic merging of the military aristocrats to the industrial bourgeoisie in a marriage of convenience that spread as a mutually beneficial ideal throughout Europe until it inevitably broke out in mutual disaster, not for the perpetrators of the conflict but for the global proletariat forced into fighting their war for them.
In regards to Versailles to it is often dictated to the German population that the building of our previously vast navy was a needless provocation. A disgusting hypocrisy from those who flaunt their dominance of the high seas but an interesting statement nonetheless, for if German “provocation” needlessly antagonised the British why was it not considered such a blunder at the time?
The reason is simple, a giant naval campaign was sponsored by those who would benefit!
In this I refer of course to Admiral Von Tirpitz and the various business interests gathered to support the Navy League, the basis of supporting the Fleet Acts was to create profit for those who would build them and to do this an enthralling narrative was required, one of competition with the British Empire.
This alliance of industry and state was repeated throughout Europe in all major powers, the vitriol used not only to promote ever larger armies but also to cement this alliance’s dominance over any group that would have attempted to thwart them. The communists rallied against militarism throughout Europe and were accused of treachery, whilst those who lined their pockets continued to needlessly antagonise one another, blind to the risk as long as it provided greater profit.
The establishment that calls us traitors now was the same one that started the war and the same one that lost it amidst their greed and corruption. It is important that every comrade emphasise this fact.
The German people have been betrayed, it is time to mark this treachery!’
~ Adolf Hitler, Our Struggle
---
“Why are we here?”
It was a question Adolf had asked himself many times beforehand in these last months. The nights had become dark again and as he sat crouched waiting for someone to take over his watch he became all the more wary, for the grand ideals that had brought him to this point did not echo as nearly as loudly as they had in that great rush to war several months beforehand.
In the Munich square he had joyously chanted “War” along with what seemed to be all of Germany. There he was, only recently arrived, freed from the overbearing Hapsburgs to live amongst the real Germans and suddenly he had the chance to participate in the great struggle that had been predicted by so many. He had partly left Vienna in fear that he would be forced to fight for a foreign aristocracy, in Munich he had been free to prove that he was not a coward but that in this great struggle he would fight for the nation of his heritage. Such sentiments rung in his mind as he had journeyed west, now they rang very hollow indeed.
Adolf dearly missed his friends in Vienna, for it was far more difficult to have companions at the front. His unit had already been all but wiped out twice. He was not a weak sort, but he missed the luxurious chairs in the cafes where he would sit and debate the issues of the day. Now he was part of a global conflict that used artillery and mortars rather than words, and his voice was unsurprisingly silenced. The early advances of August and September had declined into stalemate and with it the entire reality of the conflict became readily apparent.
Futurism had promised the world a birght future, one which men and technology would be seamlessly combined to create a better future. Now he had seen the implications, he was beginning to wonder whether Marinetti should have been warning people rather than encouraging them. He had seen men from torn limb from limb by hot metal as their dwellings blew up around. Sometimes it was hard to tell what the remains were. Did heads have a hinge? The real winners of this war didn't seem to care.
The rats were everywhere, they were eating the corpses and with plenty to feast upon the vermin had become as large as cats. Even in this giant size they could usually be beaten away easily enough when directly discovered, the same could not be said for the lice. Even as he sat stationary he could feel them all over him, most of his comrades in the damp trench had driven themselves had mad trying to beat them out, Adolf included. In the end all had realised the notion was futile. The lice and rats were here to stay for as long as the Germans were, and that amount of time seemed to be indeterminate.
Adolf had been swayed along with the triumphant proclamations of a short war despite his deeper feeling that the conflict would allow a national consciousness to emerge, a popular uprising that would sweep out the old institutions and replace them with a new Europe under German guidance. It wasn’t a dream that had died as much as one that had been replaced by mundanity. Keeping socks dry, boots repaired, your stomach vaguely filled on meagre rations. These trumped his greater nationalist concerns and he couldn’t help but feel resentment towards the men that put him there, not because the war wasn’t necessary, but why were the old orders still being allowed to stuff their faces whilst he and his comrades always seemed to be half-starved.
His comrades, the new comrades who might be dead tomorrow just as soon with new men coming to replace them, such was the reality of the trench. He pondered whether Franz would have approved of their conversations. He was popular for different reasons here. Adolf didn’t smoke, though he still received a tobacco ration and by default he was a popular man. There were endless reasons to smoke amongst the eternal hellfire of the British and French artillery.
For a fleeting moment he wondered whether it was worse that they were firing upon him, or that their commanders had put them there to be fired upon in the knowledge they were exposed. He tried to cancel out such a thought immediately.
Nothing good could come of such doubts.
---
The painting is a part of La Mitrailleuse by Christopher Nevinson, like many futurists he served in the First World War and lost all idealism during it. His technological utopias have now become apocalyptic scenes of men who've lost their humanity.
There is at least one recorded case of a thirteen year old joining the German army. Josef Zippes' body lies in Neuville-St. Vaast, near Arras, in the German war cemetery. His gravestone is written in Hebrew.
- The Red
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