In the heady days of late June of 1940 the jubilant crowds that flocked the streets of Berlin and Munich to celebrate the fall of France hailed Adolf Hitler as a great German hero. They ecstatically proclaimed him the architect of the most stunning victory the world had ever seen and the febrile atmosphere was elevated further by Generaloberst Wilhelm Keitel who dubbed Hitler as ‘the greatest general of all time’.
The National Socialist propaganda machine soon added another layer to the triumphalist celebrations: under the masterful control of Doctor Goebbels, the Nazis relentlessly trumpeted the idea that Hitler was a fearless fighter who, for four long years from 1914 to 1918, had served in the face of omnipresent danger. One of Goebbels’ key target groups were the millions of new adherents to the Nazi party especially the legions of men who had served in the trenches, they formed the informal frontgemeinschaft, or brotherhood of frontline fighters. During the years of turmoil which had followed the Great War many of these men continued under arms and fought on as members of the Freikorps. Their support was vital to a party with paramilitary roots and they responded to the idea that Hitler was one of their number who enjoyed their kameradschaft – or fellowship.
Writing in the pages of his semi-autobiographical book Mein Kampf Hitler contributed his own highly selective account of his war-time service and the legend of the Führer as bold frontline fighter continued to grow. The Nazi propaganda master plan worked as intended and as a result of Goebbels’ efforts millions of Germans, including the former soldiers who formed the Nationalsocializter Deutscher Frontkämpferbund (National Socialist League of German Frontline Fighters) unhesitatingly accepted the party line that Hitler had been a valiant hero fighting in the line of fire at the very frontline of the trenches.
By late June 1940 Hitler’s position seemed unassailable, but even in his greatest hour of triumph, the debatable legacy of the Great War loomed over him. He was painfully aware that there were many who doubted his claims and accordingly he lived under the continual shadow of his opponents’ allegations that his war record was wildly exaggerated and he was in fact nothing more than an etapenschweine (a rear area hog), and worse still, he was reputed to be a cowardly draft-dodger from the Austro-Hungarian army who had spent the First World War safely out of harm’s way far behind the lines. For the man who was the figurehead of the Nationalsocializter Deutscher Frontkämpferbund this was an embarrassing weakness and it was to become a matter of huge personal importance to Adolf Hitler.
Throughout the twenties and into the thirties the Nazi propaganda machine had harnessed the support of former frontline soldiers by making an appeal to the spirit of frontgemeinschaft, the community of former frontline soldiers. It was vital therefore that in order to connect with this powerful and numerous group that Hitler was depicted as a bold hero of the battlefront. His own highly selective account in Mein Kampf shamelessly reinforced the legend of Hitler as a fearless warrior who was never far from the frontline trenches and worthy of kameradschaft or fellowship with the band of brothers who formed the frontgemeinschaft. Hitler has been fiercely criticised and has even been accused of hiding the fact that he was a meldegänger. This is certainly not the case: Hitler clearly refers to the fact that he was gassed in 1918 for the last time. It is fair to say however that this is the only reference to his actual role in the war.
Despite all of Goebbels’ efforts, throughout the twenties and thirties there were constant whispers that the myth of Hitler the bold frontline fighter was a lie; a false concoction created by the Nazi spin doctors. Regardless of all of the Nazi boasts however, Hitler lived under the continual shadow of his opponents’ allegations that he was not actually worthy of acceptance into the ranks of the frontgemeinschaft and had no real claim to be a part of the fellowship of his former colleagues. Furthermore he was targeted with the plausible claim that he was in fact nothing more than a cowardly draft-dodger from the Austro-Hungarian army who had spent the first world war out of harm’s way far behind the lines.
His enemies pointed to the fact that Hitler was not a trench fighter, but actually held a cushy post as a regimental meldegänger (or messenger) who saved his own skin by ensuring that he was never promoted beyond the rank of Private. He was an Etapenschweine (a rear area hog) through and through.
Hitler easily won his court case; but even after Hitler assumed power the underground gossip continued.
Despite his court victory there were still gaps in Hitler’s armour and his political opponents were able to continue their whispering campaign against him. However, in 1933 Hitler seized power and the Nazi machine was soon in full swing. Former colleagues such as Hans Mend and Korbinian Rutz, who did not toe the party line, soon found themselves in a concentration camp. Others like Alexander Moritz Frey, when the attentions of the SA grew too intimidating, were forced to flee into exile.
It was this continuing controversy which lurked on in the background during Hitler’s first visit to Flanders in June 1940. That initial visit to the battlefields, which took place on 1 and 2 June 1940, may well have been a spontaneous personal pilgrimage, but it also seems to have provoked a new idea in Hitler’s mind. France capitulated on 22 June 1940 and when he returned to France in triumph in late June 1940, Hitler seems to have been determined to finally lay an old ghost to rest. For Hitler, even 26 years, later the questions over his service in the Great War represented unfinished business; it seems he had a very public point to prove. It was for this reason that Hitler therefore resolved to spend so little time in Paris and so much time in Flanders. He had resolved that he would return to the battlefields of northern France and Flanders and would shamelessly use that second visit to cement his reputation as a member of, the frontgemeinschaft community of former front line fighters. In the light of this craving for acceptance we can now understand why Hitler brought with him two former colleagues from the 16th Reserve Infantry Regiment who had fought alongside him in the Great War.
On his second visit to Flanders that month Hitler, Amann and Schmidt visited Rijsel, Fournes, Fromelles, then drove through Armentiers to Ploegstreert then once more to Mesen and on Wytschaete and Kammel. The party then stopped in Ypres before driving to Dunkirk via Poperinge.
The stop over in Fournes allowed Hitler and his comrades to pose once more in the garden of the house in Fournes where the regimental messengers had once been based. The entourage then moved on to inspect the surviving bunkers at Fromelles before driving on through Ypres and on to Dunkirk returning through Poperinge, which had remained in British hands during the Great War. The Führer was serenaded by the music of a German military band.
As planned, the carefully photographed and choreographed visit had found its way into the pages of the propaganda press including cinema newsreels such as Deutsche Wochenschau and the cover of Illustrierter Beobachter, but the rumours concerning Hitler’s war service were never dispelled, and today, over one hundred years later, we at last know the truth concerning Private Hitler’s war. The second visit was a glorified photo opportunity: Hoffmann’s photographs would provide proof of Hitler’s return to the scenes of heroic deeds. The visit would then provide propaganda material which would reinforce the party line which depicted Hitler as the bold front line trench warrior and rightful leader of the Nationalsocializter Deutscher Frontkämpferbund which would also bring him closer to finally achieving acceptance into the ranks of the frontgemeinschaft.
Ultimately Hitler was to be disappointed, acceptance into the kameradschaft would never be his to enjoy. In just five years from his triumphal visit to France he would die a coward’s death by his own hand, leaving the frontline fighters of the Wehrmacht in 1945 to soldier on in the war he had brought about. The men of 1945 had no option but to face the long march into captivity in Russia where many were forced into slave labour for ten years or more. That was the true nature of comradeship as practised by Adolf Hitler. Ironically Field Marshall Keitel exhibited the genuine spirit of kameradschaft. His sense of honour and duty led him to face the music and that road would lead to Nuremberg where, in 1946, he would face the hangman’s noose.