Kershaw explores the time in Hitler’s life during which he finally found his calling—speaking. He used his skills as a propagandist, and for the first time, truly found success. What struck me was Hitler’s style and manipulation of his audiences. As Kershaw says, “But ideas held no interest for Hitler as abstractions. They were important to him only as tools of mobilization,” (137).
This shows Hitler’s pragmatism, as he maneuvered in a political atmosphere. What gave him his passion perhaps lays not entirely with the ideas themselves, but the power that these ideas gave him. He was a skilled speaker and could earn the respect and admiration of his audience, and knew this very well. The feelings of shame, resentment, and anger that were prevalent in the society at large were easy for Hitler to capitalize on, and he did so quite skillfully to mobilize audiences. He didn’t spend time clarifying intricate ideological stances. Essentially, Hitler began to function as an efficient mechanic, learning how to go about building a political machine, picking and choosing tools as they would best suited his needs. If the ideas were of little or no use to him, he didn’t bother with them.
However, despite Hitler’s skills as an orator, he was hardly a skilled and rounded politician. He lacked organizational skills, and often embarrassed those in his party through childish behavior. Especially as the parties met to discuss a merger between the NSDAP and DSP, Hitler’s immaturity emerged. Because he, as Kershaw says, “only knew all-or-nothing arguments,” and had an uncompromising personality, it seems that as he became more and more involved in politics and gained more and more influence, his behavior and patterns would lend suggestion his eventual role as dictator.
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