The man who knew Hitler

"Hitler and I" is an interesting but also somewhat confusing book. The author, Otto Strasser, was a member of the Nazi Party until 1930, when he left and set up a competing organization, the Black Front. Otto's brother Gregor Strasser was the leader of a purported "left wing" of the Nazi Party. In 1934, Gregor was murdered during the killing spree known as "the night of the long knives", when Hitler purged all dissident Nazis. Otto Strasser had already fled from Germany.

What makes the book confusing is the political program of Otto Strasser. It was either extremely eclectic and confused, or...the author is hiding something. On some issues, Strasser was more "left wing" than Hitler. He called for the nationalization of banks, large corporations and landed estates. While this was nominally also Hitler's program, it was clear from a relatively early point that Hitler had no intention of actually carrying it out, preferring instead to ally himself with the German industrialists. When still a member of the Nazi Party, Otto Strasser (together with his brother Gregor) wanted the Nazis to support strikes called by the labour unions, which at least temporarily would have allied them with the Social Democrats or even the Communists.

However, on many other issues, Otto Strasser sounds more "right wing". In this book, he calls for a federal Germany along the lines of Switzerland, a united Europe with free trade across borders, a small citizens' militia, and corporatism of the Italian fascist type. The author also condemns Hitler's "paganism" in favour of Christianity. Strasser also writes that the recruits to his Black Front came from right-wing conservative groups such as the Stahlhelm. He also attempts to portray General Ludendorff as something of an ally.

So what is it? Was Otto Strasser a "real" national socialist, who wanted to create a racially pure, Aryan socialist state in Germany? Or was he rather a more "benign" fascist of the Mussolini or Dolfuss stripe? No idea. I did note, however, that "Hitler and I" was written during World War Two, when Strasser supported the Western Allies! He even calls for a Western alliance against both Hitler and Stalin (the book was published when the non-agression pact between Germany and the Soviet Union was still in force). Perhaps he deliberately slants his program in a manner that could be more acceptable to Western circles?

"Hitler and I" deals with many other issues besides Strasser's differences with Hitler. The author attempts to give a personal portrait of Hitler the man. Naturally, it's negative. Hitler is portrayed as cowardly, robotic and easily broken by setbacks. He was a puritanical tee-totaller and vegetarian, something the bon vivant Strasser found suspicious. However, Hitler also had a perverted streak, although the exact details are never spelled out. Sado-masochism? As for "Mein Kampf", nobody took that book seriously, and for a long time not even the Nazi leadership read it.

Or so Strasser says. Frankly, this is somewhat difficult to take seriously. How on earth did Hitler manage to build a mass movement and take power in Germany? Other parts of the book sound more truthful, as when Strasser paints Hitler as a ruthless Machiavellian, charismatic speaker and man of action, quite uninterested in the intellectual theories of Strasser. As for "socialism" or "capitalism", Hitler couldn't care less either way, as long as there was strict hierarchy with the Nazis (and presumably himself) on top. Also, Hitler had an uncanny ability to build alliances with big capitalists and landlords already at an early stage, and managed to buy over several supporters of the Strasser brothers, including Joseph Goebbels. Even less surprising is Hitler's pathological anti-Semitism, which seems to have been the real axis of his worldview. Strasser also points out that Hitler wanted an Anglo-German alliance of some kind, and warns the British against taking the bait.

The book also contains interesting details about the activities of the Black Front and Otto Strasser's dramatic escape from Germany shortly after Hitler's Machtübernahme. He fled to Austria and then to Czechoslovakia, always with the Gestapo on his heels. A chapter on the "night of the long knives" is also quite interesting.

"Hitler and I" isn't a bad book, but it could have needed better editing, and I constantly feel that the author is hiding something, whatever that might be. Still, I give it four stars.