The Great Simplifier
While reading chapter 5 in Hitler and Nazi Germany, I came a crossed something that really hit home with me. It was the idea that Hitler though of himself as a “great simplifier”. He prided himself on that fact that he could take very complicated ideas and put them into small enough words that everyone was able to understand. This skill allowed him to connect with the people more, making them want to follow him. This is because at the time when other politicians were making everything complicated, Hitler made it simple and easy to follow.
When Hitler was so successful in helping Germany get out of the great depression and almost completely eliminating unemployment. This only helped to drill it deeper into Hitlers mind that he must be this “great simplifier” and of a higher intelligence. Hitler always had a very bull headed way about him, his opinions were unchangeable. This could be seen when he would talk to his guests after dinner. He would always have set ideas on almost every topic, making him seem as if he was an expert in everything and anything.
This hit home because I too have always been proud of myself when I am able to take a very complicated subject and convert it into almost child like terms. It makes Hitler seem to be more of a human being, when most people are lead to believe that he was just a brute and not very intelligent. Which Hitler was not stupid by any means, For example he was able to remember almost everything. Even the smallest details from his childhood. This proved the fact that Hitler was able to manipulate the way that people saw him. He was able to transform from a drummer boy into the leader of the nation.
Adolf Hitler (1889-1945), German dictator, 1933. From Kampf Um’s Dritte Reich cigarette card album (Berlin, 1933). (Photo by The Print Collector/Print Collector/Getty Images)
Jackson Spielvogel, Hitler and Nazi Germany: A History (United States: Pearson Education, 2014)