History 1110

MWF 10-11
Alex Johnson

DOCUMENT ANALYSIS ESSAY

Written in 1925, Mein Kampf is propaganda written by Adolf Hitler. While most people
know the name of the book and who wrote it, it is imperative to understand the reasoning and
driving force behind it. To do so it will be necessary to briefly cover the basic, who, what,
when, where, and why method that analysts use. Beyond being simply written by the infamous
leader of the Nazi Party, it offers a small glimpse into the society that had been reconstructed in
post-war Germany.
Mein Kampf was written in 1925, 7 years after Germanys loss to the Allied Powers in
World War I (Wikipedia, 2015). Following Germanys surrender in 1918, the Allied Powers
sought to seek favorable terms to end the war. France, still bitter over the Franco-Prussian war of
1870, was relentless in her pursuit to absolutely strip Germany of any power she had left. The
Treaty of Versailles was signed in 1919 and forced Germany to drastically decrease her army,
required payment of reparations, and split up much of the German territories that had been
gained in the past century (History.comStaff, 2009). Germans almost universally despised the
terms that had been forced, through threat of invasion, by the Allied Powers. Not only this, but
many Germanic peoples were now separated from Germany herself. It was in one of these
regions that such radicals as Hitler would emerge. Hitler was born in Vienna, Austrian in 1889
(Editors, n/a). Though Austria was not technically German, many of its people held a deep love
for Germany within them. The prestige of the Prussian Empire was at its height in the late 19th
century, creating a nationalist fervor. Vienna itself was a hot bed of German nationalism, and was

History 1110
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Alex Johnson

filled with xenophobic sentiments. Much of central Europe festered a fear of eastern cultures,
including but not limited to the Jews and Gypsies.
After fighting, and being injured in World War I, Hitler was intent to right the wrongs
imposed by the Allies. He set about promoting anarchism and fanning flames of socialist
propagandas. After an attempted overthrow of the government in Munich, Hitler was imprisoned
at Landsberg Castle in 1923. The now infamous Beer Hall Putsch would give him the notoriety
that he so desired, and required to further his plans. While imprisoned, he wrote the book Mein
Kampf which translates, from German, to My Struggle. It was the first of two volumes, and
would eventually become a best-seller in Germany in 1930s (after Hitler became Chancellor of
Germany).
It was very difficult to analyze Mein Kampf because of how it is structured and the ideas
that it spews forth. On one hand it is a brief autobiography, and on another it is political antiSemitic rhetoric that accomplishes very little in its rational solutions. In fact, the book is widely
criticized and panned for being poorly written, and fantastically delusional. It is very clear that
he was influenced by other German writers of the time, echoing other more relevant authors such
as Friedrich Nietzsche and Karl Marx. However unlike these infamous, and relatively sane in
comparison, authors, Adolf Hitler simply cannot convey and educated argument. While Marx
argues in his tour de force novelette The Communist Manifesto the massive inequalities
created through capitalism, Hitler simply cannot. Hitler transparently attempts to create that same
war of the classes, and utterly fails. Instead of arguing the philosophical immorality of an
institution such as capitalism, he blames the majority of his societal woes on two factors. First he
blames the old German government for capitulating and surrendering to the Allied Powers in

History 1110
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Alex Johnson

World War I. It is very apparent that, though he is not German, he harbored a deep nationalist
love for Germany. It is almost as though a piece of him was lost when Germany agreed to sign
the Treaty of Versailles. To fix this he suggests the grandiose idea of Lebensraum, which
means Living Space. In order to accomplish this he intended to swallow up all Germanic peoples
and assimilate them into the German Reich. These countries would include Alsace-Loraine,
Poland, parts of Russian, and Austria. It must be noted that the Treaty of Versailles explicitly
forbids the union of Germany and Austria without the consent of the League of Nations. So this
idea was in itself an act of war, and he knew it.
The next, and most infamous, point that Hitler makes is his blatant and unrestrained antiSemitism. It is here that Hitler tries to channel his inner Nietzsche. But where Nietzsches
philosophies in The Anti-Christ, portray an expounded anti-Semitic figure, Hitler falls
drastically short. He is a poor writer, who relies almost solely on his charisma and opportunism
to sell books. In Nietzsches The Anti-Christ, religion as a whole is broken down and brutally
critiqued. Eventually all Christian and other religions are blamed on the Jews. However in
Nietzsches book it is done in a logical and pragmatic way. It is here that the when and
where of the subject matter is radically important. It was prior explained in this essay that the
Germanic people, and much of Europe, was anti-Semitic. The point was to help the reader
understand the attitude at the time and how it fueled Adolf Hitlers strong views. He legitimately
believed that the Germans were a superior race, and that the Jews were inferior in every way
possible. Though it is apparent now, it wasnt entirely clear how he intended to clear the Jews out
of Europe. Once they were removed, he believed that this clearing of the weaker race would
make room for the strong. Not only this, but he blames Jews for Germanys loss in WWI and

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Alex Johnson

for societal and economic woes in the 1920s. Any rational or reasonable human being can see
that this is blatantly not true, in fact its utter propaganda.
That is the only saving grace (if it may be called that) of the book Mein Kampf. If he was
good at one thing then it was how to twist and distort reality into what he wanted it to be. It is
clear that somewhere he believed that the Jews had committed some apocalyptic crime. However
it is unclear exactly where his irrational passion for anti-Semitism grew. On one hand it is
possible to believe that he indeed believed what he was saying, and that he legitimately blamed
the Jews for Germanys woes. On the other hand it is entirely possible that he knew how twisted
his own reality was. In fact its clear that he didnt truly lose touch with reality, and his own
restraints, until shortly after the outbreak of the Second World War. Mein Kampf belongs in the
incinerators in the Ministry of Truth from an Orwellian novel. Simply put, it is propaganda that is
a ridiculously difficult read. Anyone who can read a summary of it online that is all that is
necessary. The hatred and lack of a rational thought make this an overly drawn out and entirely
impassable piece of literature. While many like it were written before, and have been written
since, this was unfortunately cataloged into history by one of the most wicked and delusional
characters of all time.

By the skillful and sustained use of propaganda, one can make a people see even heaven as hell
or an extremely wretched life as paradise
-Adolf Hitler, Mein Kampf-

History 1110
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Alex Johnson

Bibliography
Editors, B. (n/a). Adolf Hitler Biography. Retrieved from The Biography.com website:
http://www.biography.com/people/adolf-hitler-9340144#related-videogallery&gid=ci01a33b7a086a860e&pid=4
History.comStaff. (2009). Treaty of Versailles. Retrieved from History.com:
http://www.history.com/topics/world-war-i/treaty-of-versailles
Wikipedia. (2015, October). Mein Kampf. Retrieved from www.wikipedia.org:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mein_Kampf
Hitler, Adolf. (1925). Mein Kampf.