Hitler's Forgotten Library

[pynchonoid]

<http://www.theatlantic.com/issues/2003/05/ryback.htm>

The Atlantic Monthly | May 2003 

[...]Hitler's habit of highlighting key concepts and
passages is consonant with his theory on the "art of
reading." In Chapter Two of Mein Kampf he observed, 

A man who possesses the art of correct reading will,
in studying any book, magazine, or pamphlet,
instinctively and immediately perceive everything
which in his opinion is worth permanently remembering,
either because it is suited to his purpose or
generally worth knowing ... Then, if life suddenly
sets some question before us for examination or
answer, the memory, if this method of reading is
observed ... will derive all the individual items
regarding these questions, assembled in the course of
decades, [and] submit them to the mind for examination
and reconsideration, until the question is clarified
or answered. [...] 

By his own admission, Hitler was not a big fan of
novels, though he once ranked Gulliver's Travels,
Robinson Crusoe, Uncle Tom's Cabin, and Don Quixote
(he had a special affection for the edition
illustrated by Gustave Doré) among the world's
greatest works of literature. The one novelist we know
Hitler loved and read was Karl May, a German writer of
cheap American-style westerns.[...] Hitler was wont to
say that he had always been deeply
impressed by the tactical finesse and circumspection
that Karl May conferred upon his character Winnetou
... And he would add that during his reading hours at
night, when faced by seemingly hopeless situations, he
would still reach for those stories, that they gave
him courage like works of philosophy for others or the
Bible for elderly people. [...] 

Among the piles of Nazi tripe (much of it printed on
high-acid paper that is rapidly deteriorating) are
more than 130 books on religious and spiritual
subjects, ranging from Occidental occultism to Eastern
mysticism to the teachings of Jesus Christ—books with
titles such as Sunday Meditations; On Prayer; A Primer
for Religious Questions, Large and Small; Large Truths
About Mankind, the World and God. Also included were a
German translation of E. Stanley Jones's 1931 best
seller, The Christ of the Mount; and a 500-page work
on the life and teachings of Jesus, published in 1935
under the title The Son: The Evangelical Sources and
Pronouncements of Jesus of Nazareth in Their Original
Form and With the Jewish Influences. Some volumes date
from the early 1920s, when Hitler was an obscure
rabble-rouser on the fringe of Munich political life;
others from his last years, when he dominated Europe.
One leather-bound tome—with WORTE CHRISTI, or "Words
of Christ," embossed in gold on the cover—was well
worn, the silky, supple leather peeling upward in
gentle curls along the edges. Human hands had
obviously spent a lot of time with this book. 
[...] In the spring of 1943, while the outcome of
World War II hung in the balance, the U.S. Office of
Strategic Services—forerunner to the CIA—commissioned
Walter Langer, a Boston-based psychoanalyst, to
develop a "psychological profile" of Adolf Hitler. As
Langer later recalled, this was the first time the
U.S. government had attempted to psychoanalyze a world
leader in order to determine "the things that make him
tick." 
Over the course of eight months, assisted by three
field researchers and advised by three other experts
in psychology, Langer compiled more than a thousand
typewritten, single-spaced pages of material on his
"patient": texts from speeches, excerpts from Mein
Kampf, interviews with former Hitler associates, and
virtually every printed source available. Langer
wrote, 

A survey of all the evidence forces us to conclude
that Hitler believes himself destined to become an
Immortal Hitler, chosen by God to be the New Deliverer
of Germany and the Founder of a new social order for
the world. He firmly believes this and is certain that
in spite of all the trials and tribulations through
which he must pass he will finally attain that goal.
The one condition is that he follow the dictates of
the inner voice that have guided and protected him in
the past.  [Bush, Slayer of Evildoers has that same
tendency ...]

One of the most heavily marked books is Magic:
History, Theory and Practice (1923), by Ernst
Schertel. [...] According to a Web site for Germany's
sadomasochistic community, Schertel wrote numerous
books on flagellation and eroticism, and was "a
central figure" in the German nudist movement of the
1920s and 1930s.

Hitler's copy of Magic bears a handwritten dedication
from Schertel, scrawled on the title page in pencil. A
170-page softcover in large format, the book has been
thoroughly read, and its margins scored repeatedly. I
found a particularly thick pencil line beside the
passage "He who does not carry demonic seeds within
him will never give birth to a new world."   [...did
somebody say Blicero...]

Among the numerous volumes dealing with the spiritual,
the mystical, and the occult I found a typewritten
manuscript that could well have served as a blueprint
for Hitler's theology. This bound 230-page treatise is
titled The Law of the World: The Coming Religion and
was written by a Munich resident named Maximilian
Riedel. [...] 

In this densely written treatise Riedel established
the groundwork for his "new religion," replacing the
Trinity of the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost with a new
tripartite unity, the "Körper, Geist und Seele"—"body,
mind, and soul." [...] 
Riedel's "trinity" seems to have attracted Hitler's
particular attention. A dense penciled line parallels
the following passage: "The problem with being
objective is that we use objective criteria as the
basis for human understanding in general, which means
that the objective criteria, that is, the rational
criteria, end up serving as the basis for all human
understanding, perception and decision-making." By
using the five traditional senses to achieve this
"objectivity," Riedel declared, human beings exclude
the possibility of perceiving—through the additional
seven senses he identified—the deeper forces of the
world, and are thus unable to achieve that unity of
body, mind, and soul. "The human mind never decides
things on its own, it is the result of a discourse
between the body and the soul," he claimed. 
The sentence not only caught Hitler's
attention—beneath it is a thick line, and beside it in
the margin are three parallel pencil marks—but was
echoed two years later in one of his monologues. "Mind
and soul ultimately return to the collective being of
the world," Hitler told some guests in December of
1941. "If there is a God, then he gives us not only
life but also consciousness and awareness. If I live
my life according to my God-given insights, then I
cannot go wrong, and even if I do, I know I have acted
in good faith." [...] 




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