Was Hitler a product of an unfortunate upbringing?


Leftist psychologists have long been sure that he was.  From the work of Marxist theoretician Theodor Adorno in 1950 onwards, Leftist psychologists have been strong in blaming a harsh upringing for later pathology in the son.  A domineering father was supposed to produce a son who was cringing to authority and punitive towards others.  He would be both authoritarian and submissive.

Information to test that has been sparse but some new information became available in 2021 It gave us an insight into the personality of Hitler's father Alois.  We read:

Adolf Hitler's father was authoritarian, strongly political, thought of himself as above others and had a lasting impact on his son, a German historian has claimed.

Roman Sandgruber, professor emeritus at the University of Linz, says he made the discoveries after studying a never-before-seen trove of 31 letters written by Alois Hitler to the man who sold him a farm in 1895 - around Adolf Hitler's sixth birthday.

Sandgruber argues that while many historians think of Alois 'as a simple peasant who only sat in the tavern and raised bees', he was in fact a much more complicated and sinister character who enjoyed being a 'know-it-all'.

Alois raised bees because he had ambitions of becoming a 'gentleman farmer' to elevate himself above others, and spent time in the tavern because that was where he could conduct politics, Sandgruber says.

He adds that, while Alois was domineering to his family, he was wary of authority and opposed the power and influence of the church, particularly in politics."

So there we have it:  A domineering father produced an authoritarian son.

There is no doubt that Alois did that but what were the means that brought that about?  Was Hitler a product of his harsh upbringing?  Probably not.  That is an unduly adventurous explanation.  A much simpler one and one that accounts well for the data is a genetic one. 

Hitler was born to be like his father. Each was ambitious, was obsessed with politics, enjoyed being a 'know-it-all' and thought of himself as above others. So he was simply his father's son. There is now plenty of evidence that political orientation is genetically inherited There is no need to invoke any pathological process.

2 comments:

  1. AF's speeches were highly emotional and that is another pointer to where he was on the left-right political spectrum and it is certainly obvious what part of human nature he was appealing to with his (drug fueled) gusto.

    His mother died when he was nine. That is an influence likely to be less obvious even with or without a number of letters to possibly shed new light into his upbringing.

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    Replies
    1. Well, not her death in particular, but I meant her influence as his mother in general.

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