Hitler's Library

ISBN: 
978-963-9241- 59-6
cloth
$58.00 / €48.00 / £42.00
ISBN: 
978-963-386-707-5
paperback
$21.95 / €20.95 / £19.95
Paperback is forthcoming in September 2023
Part of series: 
Publication date: 
2003
184 pages

The first book to present the so-called Hitler Library. It sheds new light on the readings of Hitler and on his techniques how to read a book. Hitler presented himself as an ideal reader of Schopenhauer, nevertheless his remarks destroy that image, particularly if we see how he read Ernst Jünger, Richard Wagner, or Paul de Lagarde, and how he reread Mein Kampf.

The book describes the gnostic character of the phenomenon as an explication of the success of nazism and that of the Hitler myth and challenges the static views of traditional historiography.

Foreword
Hitler and I, You and He
“The Führer is Reading”

Chapter 1
Hitler’s Erudition and Reading Habits

Chapter 2
Books That Hitler Read: Penciled Notes Attest
Reflections on Ernst Jünger’s “Magic Realism”
Arndt’s “Catechism”
Lagarde’s Rages
Chamberlain and Wagner
Readings on Economic Politics and Military Science

Chapter 3
Books That Hitler Read Into
On Nazi Belles-Lettres
Bishop Hudal’s Attempt at Conciliation
Knickerbocker’s Diplomacy and War

Chapter 4
Books That Hitler Did Not Read (In Depth)
French Authors, Franco-German Relations
An Eastern and Central European Intermezzo
Nazi Lyric
War Nostalgia and the Conservative Revolution
Nazi Mythology I: Sexuality, Bluestockings and Go-Getters
Nazi Mythology II: Race Breeding, Occultism and Gnosticism

Chapter 5
Hitler’s Works
Hitler’s First Book
Mein Kampf: My Struggle, Sein Kampf: His Struggle: Hitlerian Gnosis

Chapter 6
On the Führer’s Taste: Artistic Albums and Catalogues

Epilogue
Farewell to the World of Hitler and His Library
Selected Bibliography
Name Index

"Especially exciting is the panorama of the national socialist methodology…we got a strong impression not just on Hitler, but on the intellectual background and 'sideground' of the nazi ideology."