Episode 1 The Dark Charisma of Adolf Hitler


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AUDIO OF ADOLF HITLER GIVING SPEECH

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Adolf Hitler,

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the leader of a country rich in culture at the heart of Europe.

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A man incapable of normal human relationships,

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lacking all compassion, filled with hatred and prejudice.

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Here, long before the Second World War,

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Hitler was speaking about his political opponents with brutality,

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"vernichtet", meaning destroyed.

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'Vernichtet!

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'Vernichtet!

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'Vernichtet!

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'Vernichtet!'

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Hitler's hatred would lead to the Holocaust.

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His desire for conquest would leave much of Europe in ruins.

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Yet this man, so full of anger, was once loved by millions.

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Here, in the mountains of southern Germany during the 1930s,

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lay a place of pilgrimage.

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On the slopes of the Obersalzberg was Adolf Hitler's home,

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the Berghof.

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And this is what many people thought of him.

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'I myself had the feeling that here was a man

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'who did not think about himself and his own advantage,

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'but solely about the good of the German people.'

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This film reveals why Hitler was so attractive to these people,

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with insights from those who lived through these times,

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many of whom were interviewed by the BBC over the last 20 years.

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'The man gave off such a charisma

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'that people believed whatever he said.'

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But the truth is that Hitler did not somehow hypnotise the German people,

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for this is a history that shows how charisma

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is created in a relationship.

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Hitler said that those Germans he considered racially pure

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were better than anyone else, and many German believed him.

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Hitler, always filled with hatred,

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managed to make a connection with millions of Germans,

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and in the process, this seemingly unlikely figure

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generated a level of charismatic attraction

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that is almost without parallel in history.

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Munich, in southern Germany.

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In 1913, the home to a strange 24-year-old Austrian,

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somebody nobody at the time considered remotely charismatic,

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Adolf Hitler.

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He rented a room from a tailor,

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and scraped a living painting pictures of Munich,

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similar to this, for tourists.

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He felt bitter and angry that his dreams

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of being a great artist had come to nothing.

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A previous flatmate,

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August Kubizek, described Hitler like this.

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'Unleashing a torrent of hatred, he would pour his fury over everything.'

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And Hitler would almost certainly have remained an unknown painter

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if it hadn't been for a momentous event in world history...

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..the First World War.

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Hitler, as an ordinary soldier, fought over these fields in France.

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'To the left and right, shrapnel abursting,

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'and in between, the English bullets whistle.

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'But we don't care.

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'Every one of us has only one wish,

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'to settle the score with that gang out there once and for all,

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'whatever the cost.'

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Though brave - he won the Iron Cross -

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his comrades still thought Hitler a bit weird.

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One of them, Balthasar Brandmayer, said...

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But what is extraordinary is that the very qualities

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that made Hitler appear so peculiar to his comrades

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would shortly help make him appear charismatic to thousands.

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For Hitler's character never really changed,

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but the situation did, when Germany lost the war.

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In November 1918, the war ended.

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More than two million Germans had died in this war,

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and all that their sacrifice seemed to have achieved

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was a humiliating defeat.

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In the aftermath of this lost war came riots

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on the streets of Germany and a socialist revolution in Berlin.

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Some of the leaders of the attempted revolution were Jewish,

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a fact which fed anti-Semitic prejudice,

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particularly amongst many of those on the right of German politics.

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GERMAN REVOLUTIONARY SONG PLAYS

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Thousands of ex-soldiers formed paramilitary groups

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called Freikorps in order to fight the revolution.

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And these Freikorps already held many of the ideas and beliefs

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that Hitler would later adopt as his own.

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Many Freikorps were hugely anti-Semitic,

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believing in the fantasy that Jews were responsible

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both for Communism and Germany's defeat in the war.

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And one of the most notorious Freikorps groups even adapted

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what they took to be a racist symbol, the Hakenkreuz...

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or Swastika.

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Members of the Freikorps called their leaders Fuehrer.

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And many of those who would later become infamous as Nazis joined Freikorps...

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..like Heinrich Himmler, who would become head of the SS,

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Gregor Strasser,

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one of the most important early leaders in the Nazi party...

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..and Rudolf Hoess, the future commandant of Auschwitz.

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But Hitler was not in a Freikorps. He was back in Munich.

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Devastated by the loss of the war and desperate to stay in the army,

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he seemed lost and directionless.

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Captain Karl Mayr knew Hitler in May 1919.

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'This time, Hitler was ready to throw in his lot with anyone

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'who would show him kindness.

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'When I first met him, he was like a tired, stray dog

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'looking for a master.'

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But Mayr detected in Hitler qualities he could use.

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He decided to train Hitler as a propaganda agent.

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Who's that?

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Hitler was sent on a short course here at the University of Munich

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and then started giving right-wing speeches to his fellow soldiers,

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warning of the dangers of Communism.

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It's only at this point that Hitler's thinking

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seems to crystallize.

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How many of these ideas were already latent within him

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is still a matter of debate,

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but what's certain is that in the summer of 1919,

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he becomes sure of his beliefs.

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In a letter he wrote in September 1919,

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Hitler called for the removal of the Jews from Germany

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and a Government of National Strength.

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Now, at the age of 30, Hitler had found his mission in life.

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And this mission was the first part of his charismatic appeal.

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Hitler joined the German Workers' Party,

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one of a huge number of far-right groups in Munich at the time,

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and started speaking at meetings in beer halls.

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Harsh and theatrical as his speeches appear to us today,

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at the time, his performances soon got him noticed in Munich.

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He seemed to be able to express the anger many people felt,

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as well as their desire to blame someone else

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for the problems Germany faced - particularly the Jews.

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This speech, from 1933,

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shows how Hitler's own hatred connected with the audience.

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CHEERING AND APPLAUSE

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Many now shared Hitler's warped prejudices,

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and his intolerance was taken as strength of character.

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Hans Frank, who would go on to become a leading Nazi,

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first heard Hitler speak in 1920.

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'Everything came from the heart

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'and he struck a chord with all of us.

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'He uttered what was in the consciousness of all those present.'

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This is a key insight into charisma.

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Because charisma does not exist on its own in anyone.

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It exists only in an interaction

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between an individual and an audience.

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An individual like Hitler who was telling the audience

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what they wanted to hear.

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Many of them longed for a charismatic leader

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to lead them out of misery.

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German history was rich in stories of such heroes.

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Here, amongst the mountains around Hitler's house,

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the Emperor Frederick Barbarossa was, according to legend, sleeping -

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waiting to awaken and fight his final battles.

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And one of the most popular tourist attractions of the time

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was this monument, completed in 1875,

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to Hermann, a tribal leader who had led the Germans

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to victory over the Romans nearly 2,000 years before.

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This later engraving claims a direct link between Hitler and Hermann.

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Both portrayed as German heroes.

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And Hermann was so important to the Nazis that Heinrich Himmler

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took over Wewelsburg Castle nearby in the 1930s,

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intending this place to be a centre of SS power.

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In the crypt of the castle,

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Himmler wanted to hold pagan SS ceremonies

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by the light of an eternal flame.

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Above the crypt was a hall, for the leaders of the SS to meet,

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like the warrior knights of old.

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Always subordinate to their heroic master, Adolf Hitler.

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'He is a genuinely great man

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'and, above all, a true and pure one.'

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Himmler believed that, just as Hermann had once proved

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to be a superior kind of Germanic hero, 2,000 years ago,

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Adolf Hitler would prove to be just such a hero today.

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In 1923, the political atmosphere in Munich was tense and unstable.

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By now, Hitler had been leader of the National Socialist German Workers' Party,

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which some called the Nazis, for two years.

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And he'd built a large and growing paramilitary organisation -

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the Stormtroopers.

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In November 1923, he decided to act,

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and to try and spark an uprising in Munich.

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On 9th November, the Nazis marched through these streets,

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but were stopped by the police.

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Here, at the corner of the Feldherrnhalle.

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Shots were exchanged.

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Four police and 16 Nazis were killed that day.

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The uprising, or Putsch, had been an incompetent and violent attempt

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to overthrow a democratic state.

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But Hitler managed to turn it into a heroic myth.

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This annual re-enactment of the march,

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filmed after the Nazis came to power,

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shows just how Hitler tried to create that myth.

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Each of the Nazis killed in the Putsch was turned into a martyr.

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Their flag became a sacred relic.

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Where they were shot became a hallowed site.

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Those in attendance were blessed.

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Hitler wanted to show how his devoted disciples

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had died for a great cause,

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a cause symbolised by their single, heroic leader.

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Back in 1924,

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Hitler received the minimum sentence possible for his part in the Putsch

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from a sympathetic judge and was sent to Landsberg Prison.

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Here, he wrote a book - Mein Kampf, or my struggle.

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In it, he tried to demonstrate

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that he possessed the next important element

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needed by a charismatic leader -

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a vision of how the world is and how it ought to be.

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A brutal vision.

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'He who wants to live, should fight,

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'and he who does not want to fight

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'in this world of eternal struggle,

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'does not deserve to live.'

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Hitler believed that the fact that we are animals

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is the most important thing about us,

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and that so-called Aryan Germans were superior animals.

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Hitler's vision from Mein Kampf was later expressed

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in this propaganda film of the 1930s,

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made after the Nazis came to power.

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Once in power, Hitler introduced compulsory sterilisation

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for selected disabled Germans.

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Later, he would authorise

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the killing of tens of thousands of them.

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On 20th December 1924, Hitler was released from Landsberg Prison

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and set about trying to rebuild the Nazi Party.

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Despite writing Mein Kampf,

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Hitler's charismatic credentials as a revolutionary

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were still largely based on his reputation as a speaker.

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This series of studio photos, taken later in the 1920s,

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shows how he attempted to demonstrate his dynamic image.

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But in the mid 1920s,

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support for the Nazis was dropping as the economy improved.

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And one of the most senior Nazis, Gregor Strasser,

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wanted the party to be led in a less dictatorial way.

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His challenge now was to convince Adolf Hitler to agree with him.

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On 14th February 1926, here, in the ancient city of Bamberg,

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Hitler held a special conference to deal with Strasser's proposals.

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But there was to be no debate.

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Hitler just spoke for several hours, repudiating Strasser's ideas

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and was then cheered by his supporters.

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Hitler did not approve of discussion nor of detailed policy.

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For a charismatic leader, vagueness is valuable.

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This is how he later explained the Nazi Party should operate.

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CHEERING

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Hitler worked hard to try and appear charismatic.

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One technique he used was his stare.

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He would hold the eyes of the person he was looking at

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longer than was usual.

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One Nazi supporter later claimed he felt this

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when he looked into Hitler's eyes.

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'That was one of the most curious moments of my life.

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'The gaze, which at first rested completely on me,

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'suddenly went straight through me and into an unknown distance.

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'It was so strange.'

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But being a Nazi could be difficult

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if you didn't accept Hitler's charisma.

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Here in Bamberg, one of Strasser's close associates was distraught

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when Hitler chose not to debate policy.

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He was a 28-year-old former journalist called Joseph Goebbels,

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and he wrote in his diary...

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"I no longer fully believe in Hitler. I am in despair."

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But Hitler recognised the potential value of Goebbels to the Nazi Party,

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so he now focused his attention directly on Goebbels.

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Asking him to Munich,

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passionately expounding his vision for the future of Germany,

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and flattering him.

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Goebbels was captivated.

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Two months after Bamberg, Goebbels wrote in his diary...

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Hitler now had the party he wanted,

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one built around his strange personality.

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Small as the Nazi Party was

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at the time this footage was shot in the 1920s,

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most of the elements that would come together

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to make Hitler be seen as a leader of charisma were already in place.

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His mission - to create a racist, Aryan, German state.

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The connection he made with his audience via his speeches.

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His claim that he possessed strength because he was a proven war hero.

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His Darwinian vision, developed in Mein Kampf,

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which also contained the fantasy

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that the Jews and Communists were to blame for everything.

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But still, if you weren't already inclined to accept Hitler's views,

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then, you felt he possessed no charisma at all.

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'I immediately disliked him because of his scratchy voice.

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'He shouted out really, really simple political ideas.

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'I thought he wasn't quite normal.'

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'He put forward certain claims that were in no way valid

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'and I said to my friend, "My impression after that speech

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'"is that this man Hitler will hopefully

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'"never come to political power."'

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And in 1928, it looked like he never would.

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The vast majority of people in Germany

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were completely immune to Hitler's charisma.

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At the election in May 1928, the Nazis gained just 2.6% of the vote.

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Hitler's appeal only began to be felt

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beyond a small group of fanatics because of an economic catastrophe.

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In the wake of the Wall Street Crash of 1929,

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the German economy all but collapsed.

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The Weimar government had borrowed money

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to pay the Allies war reparations

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and now the debt became too great to service.

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Banks crashed, and unemployment soared.

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The Nazis gained support, but so did the Communists.

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'It was a ray of hope that Socialism would be coming,

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'that unemployment would be vanquished,

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'that you would have a right to a job and you'd be paid more.'

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In the beer halls,

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fights between the Nazis and the Communists

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became almost commonplace.

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'Stormtroopers all had a big glass in front of them,

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'practically a missile.

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'The battle was pretty fierce,

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'several people were hospitalized, some Stormtroopers too,

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'they had face wounds.

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'I had a head wound, I was bleeding.'

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Hitler thrived in this atmosphere of violence and political crisis.

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At election rallies,

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he openly called for the destruction of democracy.

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And for a new Germany to be united under his leadership.

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MUSIC: "Deutschlandlied" by Joseph Haydn

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'It was our aim that a strong man should have the say,

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'and we had such a strong man.

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'The people were really hungry.

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'It was very, very hard.

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'And, in that context,

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'Hitler, with his statements, seemed to be the bringer of salvation.'

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Hitler hadn't somehow mesmerised his new followers

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into acting against their own will.

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In this desperate situation,

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they chose to have faith in a leader they felt had charisma.

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But not everybody thought Hitler was the answer to Germany's problems.

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President Hindenburg certainly didn't.

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Even though in 1932 the Nazis became the biggest party in Germany,

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he refused to make Hitler Chancellor,

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calling him the "Bohemian corporal."

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Hitler was offered the job of Vice Chancellor,

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but he refused to take it.

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And some of his supporters saw his obstinacy as heroic.

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'Hitler holds his nerve, he is above the machinations.

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'I love him when he's like this.'

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But other leading Nazis were not so full of praise for Hitler.

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Gregor Strasser, still an important figure in the party,

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thought that Hitler was stupid to hold out for the Chancellorship.

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He had had enough.

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'He should realise that he has been

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'consistently refused this post by everybody.

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'I'm not prepared to wait for the Fuehrer

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'to be appointed Reich Chancellor

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'as, by then, our movement would have collapsed.

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'I'm at the end of my tether, I've resigned from the Party

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'and I'm now going to the mountains to recuperate.'

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But some in the German elite were beginning to think

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that appointing Hitler as Chancellor

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might be one way out of Germany's problems.

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The aristocratic Franz von Papen, a former Chancellor himself,

0:30:190:30:23

thought Hitler could be a useful figurehead.

0:30:230:30:26

Der Mann ist doch ein Ausbund von Kleinbuergertum...

0:30:260:30:29

He didn't find Hitler charismatic, but "curiously unimpressive."

0:30:290:30:33

What they were most frightened of was not Hitler, but the Communists.

0:30:370:30:41

Die Kommunisten. Der Kommunismus.

0:30:420:30:44

Das ist die Hauptbedrohung, die ich sehe. Es muss etwas geschehen...

0:30:440:30:47

And so, von Papen and his friends,

0:30:470:30:50

backed an idea to make Hitler Chancellor,

0:30:500:30:53

as long as there were only a few other Nazis in the cabinet.

0:30:530:30:57

..Staatsmaennisches Verhalten.

0:30:570:30:59

On 30th January 1933, after lobbying from von Papen and others,

0:31:050:31:10

Hitler was appointed Chancellor by President Hindenburg.

0:31:100:31:13

For Hitler's supporters, this was the strongest proof yet

0:31:220:31:26

of his power as a charismatic leader.

0:31:260:31:28

When it had looked impossible that he would become Chancellor,

0:31:280:31:31

and many had doubted him, he had asked them to have faith.

0:31:310:31:36

And now, he WAS Chancellor.

0:31:360:31:38

Von Papen, who was happy to see democracy disappear,

0:31:400:31:43

became Vice Chancellor.

0:31:430:31:46

He still thought he and his friends could control Hitler.

0:31:460:31:49

He would shortly discover

0:31:490:31:51

that he'd made one the most monumental misjudgements in history.

0:31:510:31:54

CHEERING

0:31:590:32:02

Hitler talked to the German nation as Chancellor on 10th February 1933.

0:32:030:32:09

Thousands were in the hall in front of him,

0:32:090:32:11

and millions were listening on radio.

0:32:110:32:15

But Hitler made them all wait.

0:32:150:32:17

When he did start, Hitler stuck to his old familiar script.

0:33:010:33:04

His speech was vague in detail

0:33:040:33:07

and called for Germans to fix their problems without outside help.

0:33:070:33:11

APPLAUSE

0:33:550:33:58

But if Hitler didn't consider you a "true" German,

0:34:010:34:04

then, suddenly, you were at risk.

0:34:040:34:05

Thousands of people the Nazis considered enemies of the new regime,

0:34:080:34:12

mostly their political opponents, but also some Jews,

0:34:120:34:15

were imprisoned in concentration camps.

0:34:150:34:18

This one at Dachau outside Munich

0:34:200:34:22

was opened just weeks after Hitler became Chancellor.

0:34:220:34:26

To begin with, the concentration camps

0:34:340:34:37

were under the control of the Nazi Stormtroopers.

0:34:370:34:40

Here they are parading in triumph through Berlin.

0:34:400:34:43

But their ordered marching hid a chaotic and violent reality.

0:34:460:34:52

'Everyone is arresting everyone else

0:34:540:34:56

'and avoiding the prescribed official channels.

0:34:560:34:58

'Everyone is threatening everyone else with protective custody.

0:34:580:35:01

'Everyone is threatening everyone else with Dachau.'

0:35:010:35:05

These concentration camps were not yet places of mass killing,

0:35:060:35:09

but they were brutal in the extreme.

0:35:090:35:13

A number of prisoners were murdered,

0:35:130:35:14

and torture, often psychological torture, was commonplace.

0:35:140:35:19

'I was thrown into the bunker and kept in chains.

0:35:200:35:24

'We only got something to eat every fourth day.

0:35:240:35:27

'Other than that, there was just a jug of water and bread.

0:35:270:35:30

'After four days, he said, "You're getting out tomorrow,"

0:35:300:35:35

'but he was just messing around with me.

0:35:350:35:37

'They kept saying, "You'll be getting out..." Nothing.'

0:35:370:35:41

Throughout Germany, the reality was obvious -

0:36:010:36:05

Hitler led a movement of violent revolutionaries

0:36:050:36:08

and was brutally suppressing any opposition.

0:36:080:36:11

But now he was Chancellor,

0:36:130:36:15

Hitler also wanted the support of all of those who lived in this land

0:36:150:36:19

that he considered "true" Germans.

0:36:190:36:21

Nazi Stormtroopers were still as ready to spill the blood of their enemies as they'd always been.

0:36:260:36:32

So how could Hitler benefit from the brutality of his Stormtroopers

0:36:340:36:38

and yet not be blamed for it?

0:36:380:36:40

An early sign of how Hitler would attempt this deception

0:36:470:36:50

was shown just two months into his Chancellorship.

0:36:500:36:53

Hitler's anti-Semitic prejudice knew no bounds.

0:36:530:36:57

And on 1st April 1933, with Hitler's approval,

0:36:570:37:01

the Nazis held a boycott of Jewish shops and businesses

0:37:010:37:05

that lasted one day.

0:37:050:37:07

'I felt like I was falling into a deep hole.

0:37:070:37:10

'That was when I intuitively realised for the first time

0:37:100:37:14

'that the existing law did not apply to Jews.

0:37:140:37:18

'You could do with Jews whatever you liked.

0:37:180:37:20

'A Jew was an outlaw.'

0:37:200:37:22

But because Hitler didn't know what the reaction to all this would be,

0:37:230:37:27

particularly abroad, he didn't want his name associated with it.

0:37:270:37:30

The document calling for the boycott was signed only

0:37:320:37:35

"Leadership of the National Socialist German Workers' Party."

0:37:350:37:38

But Hitler was concerned

0:37:480:37:50

that the Stormtroopers might be getting out of his control,

0:37:500:37:54

that they were starting to become a threat to the regime itself.

0:37:540:37:57

Hitler told them the revolution was over.

0:38:030:38:06

But the Stormtroopers wanted to march the revolution ever onwards,

0:38:060:38:10

staying true to the words of the Nazi anthem,

0:38:100:38:13

written by Stormtrooper Horst Wessel.

0:38:130:38:15

Their leader, Ernst Roehm,

0:38:500:38:52

even wanted the Stormtroopers to take over the German Army.

0:38:520:38:56

But the army didn't want anything to do with this bunch of thugs.

0:38:560:39:01

'One rejected the Stormtroopers because of their behaviour.

0:39:010:39:05

'Well, at the end, one can almost say

0:39:050:39:06

'the Stormtroopers were hated by most soldiers.'

0:39:060:39:09

Von Papen, Hitler's Vice Chancellor,

0:39:230:39:26

had been gathering complaints about the Stormtroopers.

0:39:260:39:29

This was potentially dangerous for Hitler,

0:39:310:39:33

as von Papen was close to the aged President Hindenburg.

0:39:330:39:36

On 17th June 1934, von Papen made a speech openly criticising the Nazis.

0:39:390:39:45

'An endless dynamic creates nothing.

0:39:470:39:49

'Germany must not become a train into the unknown,

0:39:490:39:53

'with no-one knowing when it will stop.'

0:39:530:39:55

But Hitler realised he could turn all this to his advantage

0:40:020:40:06

and alter the way millions perceived him as a leader.

0:40:060:40:09

He just had to be cold-hearted and ruthless.

0:40:130:40:16

On 30th June 1934,

0:40:250:40:27

Hitler travelled to the shores of the Tegernsee in Bavaria

0:40:270:40:30

and the health resort of Bad Wiessee.

0:40:300:40:33

Roehm and the senior leadership of the Stormtroopers

0:40:370:40:39

were all on holiday here, at this hotel then called the Hanselbauer.

0:40:390:40:44

Hitler and his entourage arrived at 6.30 in the morning.

0:40:520:40:55

Hitler walked through the lobby of the hotel

0:40:550:40:58

and up the stairs to the first floor,

0:40:580:41:01

where Roehm was asleep in this room.

0:41:010:41:04

Hitler, claiming that Roehm was plotting a coup against him,

0:41:040:41:07

arrested his old comrade along with the other leaders of the Stormtroopers.

0:41:070:41:11

Two days later, Roehm was shot.

0:41:110:41:14

Many others Hitler held grudges against

0:41:230:41:25

were killed at the same time.

0:41:250:41:27

Gregor Strasser, who had once been a leading Nazi

0:41:270:41:30

but had quarrelled with Hitler, was also shot.

0:41:300:41:33

As for von Papen, two of his aides were murdered,

0:41:420:41:45

but he was allowed to live,

0:41:450:41:47

eventually sent to Vienna as German ambassador.

0:41:470:41:50

Hitler benefited hugely as a result of the ruthless killing of Roehm and the others.

0:41:560:42:01

Now Hitler had seemingly destroyed disorderly elements

0:42:010:42:04

within his own party,

0:42:040:42:05

many Germans started to see him for the first time

0:42:050:42:08

as leader of the nation, not just leader of the Nazis.

0:42:080:42:12

On 2nd August 1934, just one month after the murder of Roehm,

0:42:190:42:24

every member of the German armed forces was ordered to swear an oath of loyalty to Hitler personally.

0:42:240:42:31

President Hindenburg had just died,

0:42:440:42:46

and now Hitler was head of state as well as Chancellor.

0:42:460:42:50

ALL: Adolf Hitler.

0:42:520:42:54

Just a few weeks later, in September 1934,

0:43:040:43:08

Hitler was here in Nuremberg for the Nazi Party rally.

0:43:080:43:11

The Nazis had first held a rally in Nuremberg in 1927.

0:43:130:43:16

But this rally would be remembered more than any other

0:43:160:43:20

and would play an important part in the creation of a Hitler myth.

0:43:200:43:24

Because this rally was filmed

0:43:240:43:26

for the feature length documentary Triumph Of The Will.

0:43:260:43:29

Hitler was portrayed as a flawless, almost God-like leader,

0:43:370:43:41

descending from the clouds to meet his adoring subjects.

0:43:410:43:44

Thanks to Triumph Of The Will,

0:43:520:43:54

it wasn't just the people who were physically present

0:43:540:43:56

who experienced the emotional impact of seeing their leader.

0:43:560:44:00

Now, millions more could see in cinemas

0:44:030:44:06

a carefully crafted vision of Hitler.

0:44:060:44:09

'For me, the Fuehrer was an inviolable personality -

0:44:200:44:24

'the Fuehrer of the German Reich.

0:44:240:44:26

'He, whom Providence had given so many gifts.

0:44:260:44:29

'He, who was so powerful that he could orchestrate millions.'

0:44:290:44:34

'There was the wish to place power in the hands of a man who says,

0:44:380:44:42

'"We will do it, and we will only succeed like this

0:44:420:44:44

'"if we all roll up our sleeves."'

0:44:440:44:46

'It made you sick, but it was fascinating at the same time.

0:44:500:44:55

'Hitler didn't promise anything.

0:44:550:44:57

'It was always "only for the German people"

0:44:570:45:00

'and "we have to free the people from Marxism."

0:45:000:45:03

'I only admired the technique.'

0:45:030:45:05

'The fact is that Hitler managed to get all of them,

0:45:120:45:16

'almost all of them, under the one roof, so to speak.

0:45:160:45:20

'To pull them together.

0:45:200:45:21

'People said that Hitler had the effect of a magnet

0:45:210:45:25

'that was being passed over the heads of the German people.'

0:45:250:45:28

But despite this level of adulation, Hitler had not changed -

0:45:490:45:53

he was just as hate-filled as ever

0:45:530:45:56

and so was the regime he led.

0:45:560:45:58

The same year Triumph Of The Will was made, 1934,

0:46:040:46:08

Alois Pfaller, a German Communist,

0:46:080:46:10

was taken for questioning by the Nazi secret police - the Gestapo.

0:46:100:46:15

'They hit me in the face.

0:46:150:46:17

'For three hours. Always at my face.

0:46:170:46:19

'In the meantime, my eardrum had split,

0:46:190:46:22

'so then, I heard an incredible racket.

0:46:220:46:25

'It was a roaring, an incredible roaring,

0:46:250:46:27

'so you couldn't understand anything properly any longer.'

0:46:270:46:30

When Alois suffered a massive haemorrhage,

0:46:320:46:35

the Gestapo made him clean his own blood off the floor

0:46:350:46:37

before sending him to a concentration camp.

0:46:370:46:40

The reason that this kind of persecution did not,

0:46:480:46:51

for the most part, damage Hitler amongst the general population

0:46:510:46:54

was because the perception of many Germans

0:46:540:46:57

was that Hitler was using violence to bring order.

0:46:570:47:00

'Right at the beginning,

0:47:020:47:04

'the first Communists and social democrats were carted off,

0:47:040:47:06

'I even saw it myself, the lorries.

0:47:060:47:08

'It didn't make us think.

0:47:080:47:10

'They were only Communists after all, enemies of the people.'

0:47:100:47:13

Hitler was careful to act mostly against groups in German society

0:47:180:47:22

that many other Germans were already prejudiced against -

0:47:220:47:25

like Jews and Communists.

0:47:250:47:28

Hitler was aware that, as a charismatic leader,

0:47:280:47:31

the more he targeted carefully defined enemies, the better.

0:47:310:47:35

Less than 1% of Germans were Jewish,

0:47:450:47:48

and few dared to now claim they were Communists.

0:47:480:47:52

So the vast majority of Germans were not at risk from persecution...

0:47:530:47:58

..as long as they embraced the new world of Nazism.

0:48:000:48:03

And since unemployment was falling

0:48:030:48:05

and the economy seemed to be picking up,

0:48:050:48:08

many ordinary Germans now felt this was the beginning

0:48:080:48:11

of a new, more optimistic era.

0:48:110:48:14

'At first, you were carried along by a wave of hope,

0:48:170:48:20

'because we had it better.

0:48:200:48:22

'We had order in the country. We had, well, security.'

0:48:220:48:26

In particular, the young were taught the Nazi world view.

0:48:300:48:33

Most importantly, that Hitler was a flawless leader.

0:48:330:48:37

These members of the Hitler Youth were the future soldiers of Germany,

0:48:420:48:46

from whom Hitler would demand absolute loyalty.

0:48:460:48:50

'It was hammered into us even in the Hitler Youth -

0:48:510:48:54

'Germany must live, even if we have to die.

0:48:540:48:57

'Then, I realised that people in the Hitler Youth

0:48:570:49:00

'had a vulgar way of dealing with each other.

0:49:000:49:03

'A very unpleasant and violent manner was customary.

0:49:030:49:05

'The way, for example, we were told,

0:49:050:49:08

'"If your teachers haven't yet grasped this new era,

0:49:080:49:11

'"then, smack them in the mouth!"'

0:49:110:49:13

CHEERING

0:49:210:49:24

Now that they were in power, many of those close to Hitler

0:49:240:49:27

found their belief in him had intensified still further.

0:49:270:49:31

'We love Adolf Hitler because we believe, firmly and profoundly,

0:49:340:49:38

'that he was sent to us by God to save Germany.

0:49:380:49:41

'To those who follow him,

0:49:410:49:43

'there is no quality that he does not possess

0:49:430:49:46

'to the greatest perfection.'

0:49:460:49:48

No-one even thought it odd when Hitler told them

0:49:590:50:02

that what they were doing would last for millennia.

0:50:020:50:04

CHEERING AND APPLAUSE

0:50:220:50:25

One foreign correspondent who attended the 1934 rally,

0:50:280:50:31

wrote that some of those present looked on Hitler as a Messiah.

0:50:310:50:35

This wasn't an accident.

0:50:390:50:40

Hitler later talked of being guided

0:50:420:50:44

by a mystical force he called "Providence."

0:50:440:50:47

And this belief in himself as a kind of Messiah

0:50:480:50:51

was a key part of his charismatic appeal.

0:50:510:50:54

Not surprisingly, the established churches would, for the most part,

0:51:020:51:06

have an uneasy relationship with Nazism.

0:51:060:51:09

Some clerics even came to reject Hitler.

0:51:130:51:16

But there were Christian leaders who reacted to Nazism very differently.

0:51:180:51:22

They embraced the regime.

0:51:240:51:27

This is a church procession in Muenster in 1934,

0:51:340:51:37

and the flags displayed, with the swastika replaced by the crucifix,

0:51:370:51:42

are those of the Deutsche Christen movement,

0:51:420:51:44

the Nazi supporting branch of the Protestant church.

0:51:440:51:47

One leading member of the Deutsche Christen movement

0:51:520:51:55

referred to Adolf Hitler as the embodiment of the eternal will of God.

0:51:550:51:59

Millions of other Christians also supported Hitler.

0:52:040:52:07

At a conference of nurses attached to the Protestant church in 1933,

0:52:090:52:14

one sister called Hitler

0:52:140:52:16

"Germany's Saviour from Bolshevism and Marxism."

0:52:160:52:19

But Hitler was most certainly NOT a practising Christian.

0:52:250:52:29

And here, at the site of the Nazi Party rally in Nuremberg,

0:52:290:52:32

a different sort of spiritual belief was on show.

0:52:320:52:36

This incantation of a list of German battles in front of Hitler

0:52:440:52:48

was allied to the promise that there was a sort of life after death,

0:52:480:52:52

one in which the dead lived on as part of Germany.

0:52:520:52:57

And if this was a religion,

0:53:160:53:18

then Hitler was its prophet.

0:53:180:53:20

Hitler's birthday, celebrated here in Berlin,

0:53:330:53:36

became a day for national rejoicing.

0:53:360:53:39

He was praised for trying to restore Germany's greatness

0:53:490:53:54

and, in the process, spending enormous sums on the Germany military.

0:53:540:53:58

Hitler came to be seen as a leader

0:54:080:54:10

far above the squabbles of everyday life.

0:54:100:54:13

As a result, it became possible for Germans

0:54:130:54:16

to dislike particular Nazis they dealt with,

0:54:160:54:19

and yet still respect Hitler.

0:54:190:54:21

'There is great sympathy amongst the population for the Fuehrer

0:54:250:54:28

'and Reich Chancellor, Adolf Hitler.

0:54:280:54:30

'I have never heard any negative comment directed at his own person.

0:54:300:54:34

'Rather, one hears now and then,

0:54:340:54:36

'"Yes, if Hitler could do everything himself,

0:54:360:54:39

'"some things would be different.

0:54:390:54:42

'"But he can't keep a watch on everything."'

0:54:420:54:45

This myth that "If Hitler only knew

0:54:460:54:49

"about unpopular aspects of the Nazi regime, he would change them,"

0:54:490:54:52

was a safety valve in the system,

0:54:520:54:54

one that protected Hitler's image as a charismatic leader.

0:54:540:54:58

As Adolf Hitler looked out from his home above Berchtesgaden,

0:55:110:55:15

he knew he was the undisputed master of Germany.

0:55:150:55:19

It had been an incredible journey,

0:55:230:55:25

from the nobody who had arrived in Munich

0:55:250:55:27

just before the First World War

0:55:270:55:29

to Chancellor and Fuehrer of the German people.

0:55:290:55:32

But what is just as remarkable

0:55:340:55:36

is that he was essentially the same character as he had always been.

0:55:360:55:40

This home movie footage from the 1930s,

0:55:450:55:48

of Hitler with these young children,

0:55:480:55:50

gives a false impression.

0:55:500:55:52

He still had no normal emotional attachment

0:55:520:55:54

to any one individual.

0:55:540:55:57

Though he had a girlfriend now, Eva Braun,

0:55:570:56:00

the relationship was fraught.

0:56:000:56:02

He seldom saw her and she attempted suicide twice in the 1930s.

0:56:020:56:06

He was still as choking with hatred as he had been in pre-war Vienna.

0:56:080:56:12

But Hitler's character defects

0:56:160:56:18

were an advantage in the times he lived in.

0:56:180:56:21

For his lack of compassion and empathy

0:56:210:56:23

made him one of the least emotionally needy people alive.

0:56:230:56:27

As a result, his supporters basked

0:56:270:56:29

in his apparent strength and certainty.

0:56:290:56:32

His rise would prove to be a reminder

0:56:400:56:42

of what can happen in desperate times.

0:56:420:56:45

When you chose to have faith in a leader you think has charisma.

0:56:450:56:49

For now, secure in power,

0:56:540:56:57

Hitler sat high in the mountains of southern Bavaria

0:56:570:57:00

and dreamt dreams of brutal conquest.

0:57:000:57:03

Adolf Hitler believed

0:57:170:57:19

he should make all the big decisions entirely himself.

0:57:190:57:22

And in 1937, he told his generals

0:57:270:57:29

that he'd decided on a timetable for German expansion,

0:57:290:57:32

even if it meant war.

0:57:320:57:35

What's surprising about this is that there was no evidence

0:57:370:57:40

that the majority of Hitler's supporters actually wanted war.

0:57:400:57:45

But Hitler couldn't turn his epic vision

0:57:450:57:47

of a Nazi empire based on conquest into a reality

0:57:470:57:50

without the support of large numbers of those he led.

0:57:500:57:53

To try and convince these people to embrace conflict,

0:57:570:58:01

Hitler would use all of the techniques of persuasion he possessed.

0:58:010:58:05

Crucially, he would exploit his charismatic appeal.

0:58:050:58:09

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