Typing Hitler

1. Full appreciation of the importance of the masses in the success of any movement.
2. Recognition of the inestimable value of winning the support of youth; realization of the immense momentum given a social movement by the wild fervor and enthusiasm of young men and women. Here we must also include the importance of early training and indoctrination.
3. An identification, through feeling, with the deepest needs and sentiments of the average German and the ability to give passionate expression to these longings.
4. Capacity to appeal to the most primitive, as well as the most ideal, inclinations in man, to arouse the basest instincts and yet cloak them with nobility, justifying all actions as means to the attainment of an ideal goal.
5. Appreciation of the fact that the masses are as hungry for a sustaining ideology in political action as they are for daily bread.
6. The ability to analyze complex social conditions into a few dominant human forces.
7. The ability to portray conflicting human forces in vivid, concrete imagery that is understandable and moving to the ordinary man.
8. The ability to draw on the traditions of the peoples and by reference to the great classical mythological themes evoke the deepest unconscious emotions in his audience.
9. Realization that enthusiastic political action does not take place if the emotions are not involved.
10. Realization of the importance of artistry and dramatic intensity in the conductance of large meetings, rallies, and festivals.
11. The ability to appeal to the sympathetic concern and protectiveness of his people, to represent himself as the bearer of their burdens and their future, with the result that many people, particularly the women, feel tenderly and compassionately about him, being always careful to avoid inflicting undue annoyance or suffering on their leader.
12. Dedication to his mission... It is the spectacle of his far-seeing dedicated vision and firm dedicated utterances which arouse the selfless energies of his followers.
13. Self-confidence and sense of infallibility.
14. Fanatical stubbornness in his adherence to a few principles and to one common goal.
15. Mastery of the art of political organization.
16. Ability to surround himself with devoted aides whose talents complement his own. In many respects Hitler is deficient, especially in the practices of orderly administration, but he was capable of finding sufficient skill among his adherents and make them work for him regardless of their failings in other respects.
17. Hitler is unusual in history in his conception of the leader as a creator of social forms. Holding this view, it is natural that he should conduct his life at certain seasons as an artist does, seeking rest and seclusion and waiting for the vision or plan to develop in his subconscious. What other politicians refer to as his bohemianism, his disorderly and romantic style of life is very comparable to the pattern which authors have found most effective in the production of their works. Temperamentally indeed, Hitler is the arch-romantic.
18. Most of the world will concede that Hitler has tactical genius. The particular feature that has impressed most observers has been his uncannily precise timing of decisions and actions. As Thyssen has put it, "Sometimes his intelligence is astonishing... miraculous political intuition, devoid of all moral sense, but extraordinarily precise. Even in a very complex situation he discerns what is possible, and what is not."
19. The fact that Hitler has repudiated the operations of conscience in arriving at political decisions has eliminated once and for all the force which checks and complicates the forward-going thoughts and resolutions of the most socially responsible statesmen.
20. Hitler has boasted that he learned the use of terror from the communists and employed it with more effectiveness than his instructors.
21. Mastery of the art of propaganda.

Hitler is a victim of temper tantrums which have increased in intensity and frequency during the last ten years. A typical seizure consists of (1) pacing, shouting, cursing, blaming, accusations of treachery and betrayal; (2) weeping and exhibitions of self-pity; and (3) falling on the floor, foaming at the mouth, biting the carpet. The man has some control over these epileptiform attacks, using them to get his own way with his close associates. (Murray, pg. 87-88)

Many of the specific abilities listed above are exercised as part and parcel of his quite unusual power as a public orator. So much has been written about Hitler's ability to galvanize an audience by his gestures, the cadence of his sentences, the resoluteness of his declarations, the passion of his appeals that any further description here would be superfluous. It is clear that Hitler becomes transported during a speech and exhibits a personality that is kept in the background at other times. When face to face with his public he becomes a clairvoyand, shaman in a trance, as he relinquishes normal controls and allows his emotions full sway.

(Hitler, quoted by Deuel)
"Only a storm of glowing passion can turn the destinies of nations, but this passion can only be roused by a man who carries it within himself."

(Murray)
Hitler has always insisted that he was bringing about a veritable conversion in the personalities of his adherents rather than a mere intellectual agreement with his views. (Murray, pg. 214-215)

In his reactions to the world, Hitler plays many parts. There is the expressionless Hitler, like a dummy standing with upraised hand in the front of a six-wheeled motorcar that moves at a slow pace down the great avenue between serried ranks of shouting worshipful adherents. There is the embarrassed Hitler, ill at ease, even subservient, in the presence of a stranger, an aristocrat, a great general, or a king (as on his visit to Italy). There is the gracious Hitler, the soft, good-natured Austrian, gentle, informal, and even modest, welcoming friendly admirers at his villa; as well as the sentimental Hitler, weeping over a dead canary. Then there is the tactical Hitler, who comes in at the critical moment with the daringly right decision; and the mystical Hitler, hinting of a thousand years of superiority for the German folk; the possessed Hitler, shrieking with fanatical fury as he exhorts the masses; the hysterical Hitler, rolling on the carpet or shaking with terror as he wakes from a nightmare; the apathetic Hitler, limp, indolent, and indecisive; and at all times, the soapbox Hitler, ready to go off half-cocked on a long tirade even though he is addressing a single individual. (Murray, pg. 90)