The Combat Experience of Adolf Hitler and the Men of First World War Regiment

This paper looks at the combat experience of Adolf Hitler and the men of the List Regiment. Challenging the conventional view according to which the combat experience 'made' Adolf Hitler politically and according to which Hitler's war experience was typical of his regiment as a whole, this paper argues that Adolf Hitler retroactively invented a war experience that suited his political ambitions. In reality, Hitler was seen by the frontline soldiers of his regiment as a rear area pig (Etappenschwein). It was thus for Hitler non-combat experience that is pivotal to the subsequent development of Adolf Hitler. The gulf that emerged between frontline combat soldiers and the support staff of regimental HQ was so wide that Hitler only once in his life was to attend a veterans' meeting of his regiment. The contention of this paper is that the overwhelming majority of the men of the List Regiment were not politicized and radicalized by the war. Even in the case of Hitler, there is good reason to believe that it was neither his experience at the front nor at Pasewalk that politicised Hitler in a proto-fascist manner.