Pulling the Wool Over People's Eyes

In the Kershaw reading, he quotes Carl von Ossietzky, a pacifist editor of a radical journal. He said, “The belief in the personality called to leadership is the only thing at all that has developed into a sort of theory of National Socialism. But that is mysticism, and with mysticism it’s possible to pull the wool over people’s eyes for a while, but you can’t fill their stomachs with it,” (351). But as we know, Ossietzky’s dismissal of Hitler’s National Socialism turned out to be misguided. So what was it that allowed Hitler to continue to “pull the wool over people’s eyes”?

One aspect of Hitler’s political strategy was a decided reluctance to act until he was forced to. While this trait often drove his close followers and organizers in the party to annoyance, it allowed political situations to play out to some extent without Hitler having to dirty his hands. Others could take the fall while Hitler managed to anger the least amount of people possible. He was a politician based on ideas, not actions. Even within the party, Hitler left most of the organizational work to Gregor Strasser, while he himself enjoyed a mountain atmosphere while working on a second volume of his book. The real growth that occurred in mid 1920s can be attributed to Strasser’s efforts.

Hitler was also uninterested in solidifying a concrete ideology. By building up essentially a super party which encompassed many diverse interests, it gave people a sense of hope that things could change. If they threw their support in with a united group, they would have enough sway so that some of their interests could be brought about, instead of allying themselves with very specific and smaller interest groups. This is especially important to realize and consider in the growth of the NSDAP, as it becomes clear that anti-Semitism was not the driving force behind Hitler’s rallying power. He was careful to appeal to diverse interests of particular audiences.

Much of Hitler’s political success can be chalked up to his opportunistic and manipulative strategy.