Hitler: The Man and the Military Leader

Professor Percy Schramm had exceptional access to Adolf Hitler because from January 1943 to the end of the war he was the Führer's official war diarist, working in close proximity with him. This War Diary of the High Command of the Wehrmacht was published in several volumes between 1961 and 1965, and in 1965 Schramm edited a new edition of Hitler's Table Conversations , a collection of remarks recorded by a shorthand writer in 1941 and 1942.

This volume contains the introductions written by Schramm to these two works. In addition, there are two the first consisting of excerpts from a study composed by Schramm on relations between Hitler and the General Staff; the second a memorandum written by General Jodl in 1946 on Hitler's military leadership.

The result is a valuable contribution to Hitlerian studies. The personal portrait in the first essay is very detailed and contains fascinating material on Hitler's appearance, his prejudices, his reading, his personal relations and his health. The character analysis flows very easily into the consideration of Hitler as a military leader. The author shows how unsuited Hitler was to long-term strategic appreciation. An autodidact, two-faced and reactionary, Hitler had an exceptional memory, great skill in close argument and unusual intuitive understanding. But he was always intellectually insecure and had little ability to distinguish major issues from blind alleys. Schramm is emphatic that Hitler was never mad and that as early as 1942 he recognised that the war was lost, but insisted on adhering to the will to win, no matter how great the sacrifice. The portrait is the more engrossing in that it presents a man of extraordinary, undisciplined powers, capable of advancing headlong in deluded directions.