The Young Hitler I Knew by August Kubizek Summary and Reviews
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Book Reviews of The Young Hitler I Knew
Book Review: "At that hour it all began!"
Summary: 5 Stars
A chronicle of the adolescent friendship between the author, August Kubizek, and Adolph Hitler before he was "Hitler", this is one of the most interesting and unique books you will ever read. Included in this amazing work are pictures of letters and postcards sent the author from Hitler during the period of their friendship, which adds a very personal dimension to what you are reading. This book was written almost 50 years after the events occurred, so it is no surprise the author probably got some details mixed up, especially as pertain to plays, operas, etc. that the two frequently attended.
There is a simple reason for Kubizek's exclusion of the Stephanie story from a propaganda pamphlet he wrote for the Nazis in the late 1930's: by showing that Hitler was a social misfit and extremely intimidated by women as a youth, the story could have drastically dimished his image as the "man with the iron will", not to mention the effect it could have had on his appeal to women (on which he heavily relied). There is a known portrait Hitler drew of Stephanie.
The underlying credibility of this book is not questioned by any serious Hitler scholar, and it is considered to be the best source of information on Hitler's early life. You will be glad you read it.
Book Review: Just another hoax: compare with Kubizek's actual own words
Summary: 1 Stars
This book is especially valued by Hitler apologists, for its rose-coloured portrait of the young F?hrer as an intelligent aesthete and visionary, a patriot who showed unusual leadership qualities from adolescence. But actually it's just another of the many Hitler hoaxes. As outlined in Frederic Spotts' _Hitler and the Power of Aesthetics_ (2002), available from Amazon.com, in 1938 the Nazis commissioned August Kubizek to write about his youth with Hitler. However Kubizek eventually reported to a party official that "writing is a horrible burden; it is not something I can do." In 1943 Hitler himself gave Kubizek a one-off payment and a monthly stipend to try to get him to produce at least something. By 1944 or 1945 Kubizek had managed to produce two short booklets, jointly called the "Reminiscences". But by then it was too late for the "Reminiscences" to be published by the Nazis; he hid them until after the war.
In 1948 Kubizek complained that his booklets should really be in the hands of a "real writer". Clearly he found his "real writer" because in 1953 this book was published. Though published under Kubizek's name it is clearly not by Kubizek, both on style grounds (this professionally written book of 350 pages is not by the Kubizek who took six-seven years to produce two crudely written booklets) and because of discrepancies between this book and Kubizek's "Reminiscences".
For example Kubizek's "Reminiscences" gave just two direct quotes from Hitler, both brief. But the published book is full of long Hitlerian speeches. The Hitler speeches had always struck me as literary creations: they are not the sort of thing that people, even crazed adolescents, actually say. However I had assumed that at least the speeches were invented by someone who really had known Hitler. Since it is now clear that the words put into Hitler's mouth were not written by Kubizek but by a ghostwriter, they don't even have that approximate kind of verisimilitude.
In Kubizek's "Reminiscences" Hitler was already viciously antisemitic in 1907. In this ghostwritten book Hitler was hardly antisemitic at all. Kubizek wrote while the Third Reich's racial policies were still in force, so it would flatter Hitler to say that he had already acquired his antisemitism as a youth. But the ghostwriter was presenting Hitler for a post-war audience, so Hitler's antisemitism had to be toned down to make him more palatable.
The ghostwriter gives Hitler a romance with a girl called "Stefanie", presumably to counter rumours about Hitler's sexuality. "Stefanie" isn't in Kubizek's "Reminiscences."
The ghostwriter's identity is unknown. The original publishers denied that they fabricated the book (after an accusation by historian Brigit Hamann). I suspect a Nazi loyalist who knew Kubizek from the old days, perhaps a writer from the old Reichspropaganda-Ministerium. Emery Reeves, who ghostwrote Rauschning's _Hitler Speaks_ hoax and at least one other such "memoir", was arguably a rascal but certainly an anti-Nazi, and would not have touched this book.
Moving to the arts, the ghostwriter (unlike Kubizek) has Hitler adore Mendelssohn's violin concerto. Hitler as Mendelssohn fan? And the ghostwriter has Kubizek and Hitler attending _Parsifal_ together at Vienna in 1907. Trevor Ravenscroft made the same mistake in his Hitler hoax _The Spear of Destiny_. Ravenscroft, like Kubizek's ghostwriter, forgot that Bayreuth still had exclusive rights to _Parsifal_, which was not actually performed in Vienna until 1914, by which time Kubizek had long since lost contact with Hitler.
The book has Hitler avidly reading Dante, Schopenhauer, Nietzsche, Goethe, etc, also Wagner's essays, something often cited by people claiming Hitler was interested in Wagner's ideas instead of just his music. But Kubizek's "Reminiscences" contradict this: Kubizek states that Hitler read _nothing_ serious or intellectual at this time (not that he'd have liked Wagner's essays if he'd read them, but that's another issue). Similarly, the book has an elaborate chapter about Hitler writing a Wagnerian opera: so do the _Reminiscences_, but in 1938 Kubizek told a party official that Hitler had attempted a _play_, not an _opera_.
The famous anecdote about Hitler seeing a performance of _Rienzi_ and being inspired to lead Germany, and 30 years later dramatically intoning, "In that hour it began" is a great story, which no-one has been able to resist. No-one except Kubizek himself, who oddly mentions no such thing in his "Reminiscences". (Kubizek referred to a memorable night after the 17-year old Hitler was deeply stirred by a performance of _Rienzi_; the ghostwriter contributed the rest. _Rienzi_ really did impress the adolescent Hitler: but discussion of the significance of this, if any, must be based on Speer's less melodramatic remarks on the topic. In reality Hitler's involvement in politics began more than a decade later, in the aftermath not of an opera performance but of World War I and an economic depression.)
Basically, Kubizek's real "Reminiscences" have some historical value, though even they must be treated with caution: Kubizek wanted to present a favourable picture of Hitler, also himself, and punched up his stories for publication (though not as much as his ghostwriter did). But this book does not follow the "Reminiscences" and was not written by Kubizek: therefore it has no value except as reasonably well-written fiction, thus earning the compulsory one star. It's true that Kubizek didn't disown the ghostwritten book, but why would he? It gave him fame and money, and helped re-polish his hero Hitler's reputation. It's clear, from the way that the book repeatedly contradicts Kubizek's own written account without protest from Kubizek, that Kubizek was not concerned with its "truth".
As with Rauschning/Reeves' _Hitler Speaks_ hoax, some things in the book attributed to Kubizek may be true, but the only things that can be accepted are those that are independently confirmed from other sources that appear to be reliable. It's like having a demagnetised compass that sometimes happens to point north, but you can only know when it is reading true if you compare it with another compass: ie, it's useless. File under crypto-Nazi fraud.
Cheers!
Laon
Book Review: I can't say enough good things about this book!
Summary: 5 Stars
So much of what is taken and accepted as "FACT" about Hitler is full of inconsistencies and assumption. It has been my experience that the public will readily swallow whatever they are fed about "The Great Dictator" without giving so much as a second thought as to whether or not it is correct. I wish I could be indifferent to this and take a neutral stance, but I cannot. I have dedicated six years of my life to studying that of Hitler, and it pains me to witness the widespread ignorance displayed by the majority whenever Hitler's name is mentioned. Which is why this book is so important to me. It is by far the best ever written about his young adulthood and, in short, who he really was as a person. For, in order to understand who Hitler was, one must look into his past.During the years the two spent together in Linz and later in Vienna, young Hitler was already developing into what he would later become. For getting a deeper perspective of the true nature of Adolf Hitler, August Kubizek is, in my humble opinion, the most reliable source for insight into this complicated human being. No one knew Hitler more intimately than he did. He was also reunited with his old friend three decades after their ways parted in Vienna, and thus gives valuable insight regarding "Adolf Hitler, the Fuehrer". And, as Kubizek remarked, "Hitler didn't change."
The words Kubizek uses to describe his young friend convey the image of a deep, passionate, gifted and serious young man who, due to his great obsession with changing the world around him, did not enjoy his youth in any traditional sense. Kubizek did his friend a great service by writing this book. It is required reading for all serious students of Hitler's incredible life, for it is an honest, first-hand account of the young starving artist, open and unbiased, (unlike any other book ever to tackle the subject.)
Kubizek was, I am convinced, a good man who had nothing to gain and everything to lose by publishing the truth about Adolf Hitler's character and showing the world his "human" side. The world after the war (and today still) was not interested in the truth. So many were then and still are content to make Hitler into the embodiment of all evil, to reject his humanity. But therein lies the danger.
Book Review: Extremely rare
Summary: 5 Stars
i sometimes have a copy availableBook Review: For a different angle on Hitler, this book is a "must" read.
Summary: 3 Stars
I never thought I would come across a Hitler book written from a perspective different from all other biographical analysis out there. For example, this book does not begin with the premise that Hitler was born evil and was so his entire life. Instead, it recounts the somewhat poignant experience of knowing Hitler as a teenager who had dreams and passion (as many young people do), yet was one that had unresolved issues to contend with... The reader may even conclude that evil people aren't always born that way, but become so because of life's experiences. The best part about the book is that it's also an intimate, bittersweet account of Central European lifestyles that have vanished. The author's detailed, articulate writing style makes it hard to put this book down.