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4.08 AVERAGE
4.08 AVERAGE
A wonderful book of reality and banality in our times of exaggeration.
This, along with "Mein Kampf" and the history of the world in the late 19th and early 20th century should be enough for any thinking human to understand the responsibility of the general public and the common, ordinary person, in the atrocities of the war. Mankind entire is marred with its crimes, but only 1 country so far has admitted its collective - that is - every man and woman's responsibility in bringing an aloof idealist to power and putting his "ideals" of personal heaven at work to create a collective hell.
The book is, by its nature very personal to Kubizek - that is, being a normal person - a civil servant with a strong and fulfulled dream of musical career, he was, as noted in the last chapters of the book concerned with describing the nature of his friendship with Hitler as it were - not as the official biographers, the Nazi party or indeed the Allies would have wanted him to describe it.
Through the narrative one can see that there are two distinct parts where society failed and produced the Hitler than we know, instead of the potential architect and artist Hitler that never came to be - the organization of hereditary monarchies and aristocracies led to the world of the "haves" totally disconnected in their lives and ideals from the world of the poor - thus the revolutions in the monarchies of Europe became inevitable.
Moreover - multinational and multiethnic empires, like the Habsburg empire, like the British Raj and subsequently Indonesia and the Soviet Union are unfortunately and always built upon the forced labour of their ethnic majorities, with a falsely egalitarian falsely meritocratic or any other ideology "du jour" to justify their existence.
Those empires, inevitably collapse economically and it inevitably leads to the genocide of the self-segregated self-contained ethnic minorities - if anything this is, along with Mein Kampf and the record of history itself - a testament, that Hitler and his likes of Suharto, Pol Pot and others merely led the preexisting tendency - of antisemitism in Europe, of antichinese sentiment in Indonesia, of antihmong movements in Cambodia - fuel to the fire which was already here, not only because those countries leaders ignored the basic needs of their own populations, but also because nothing was done - and indeed probably could not be done - to ensure assimilation and creation of a real "body of the nation" instead of the vapors which took its place.
Secondly - Hitler himself - in his Vienna years and even later - due to his character was an inflexible idealist, quite interestingly he reminded me of myself, aged 14 to about 18 - in his very "black and white" logic, diatribes, fear of pollution, exaltation of romantic relationships while shunning sex and many other character traits, indeed - I think that the radical idealism in some way it's a necessary stage of development in the life of every human, which growing up should abandon it, understanding the complexity of the world.
Herein lies the second part - the responsibility of the "everyday person", that is - the everyday person of that day was so base, uneducated and ignorant, that a person with a "mental model" of the 1980ies teenager was able to go all the way up into their heart, take place as the ultimate paragon of virtue and nation and party leader and lead them to commit atrocities on each other, then shyly deny their own hatred of their neighbor and their revelling in murder, dumping it all on "Nazi" ideology "imperialism" and whatnot.
See the heart of darkness in yourself.
This, along with "Mein Kampf" and the history of the world in the late 19th and early 20th century should be enough for any thinking human to understand the responsibility of the general public and the common, ordinary person, in the atrocities of the war. Mankind entire is marred with its crimes, but only 1 country so far has admitted its collective - that is - every man and woman's responsibility in bringing an aloof idealist to power and putting his "ideals" of personal heaven at work to create a collective hell.
The book is, by its nature very personal to Kubizek - that is, being a normal person - a civil servant with a strong and fulfulled dream of musical career, he was, as noted in the last chapters of the book concerned with describing the nature of his friendship with Hitler as it were - not as the official biographers, the Nazi party or indeed the Allies would have wanted him to describe it.
Through the narrative one can see that there are two distinct parts where society failed and produced the Hitler than we know, instead of the potential architect and artist Hitler that never came to be - the organization of hereditary monarchies and aristocracies led to the world of the "haves" totally disconnected in their lives and ideals from the world of the poor - thus the revolutions in the monarchies of Europe became inevitable.
Moreover - multinational and multiethnic empires, like the Habsburg empire, like the British Raj and subsequently Indonesia and the Soviet Union are unfortunately and always built upon the forced labour of their ethnic majorities, with a falsely egalitarian falsely meritocratic or any other ideology "du jour" to justify their existence.
Those empires, inevitably collapse economically and it inevitably leads to the genocide of the self-segregated self-contained ethnic minorities - if anything this is, along with Mein Kampf and the record of history itself - a testament, that Hitler and his likes of Suharto, Pol Pot and others merely led the preexisting tendency - of antisemitism in Europe, of antichinese sentiment in Indonesia, of antihmong movements in Cambodia - fuel to the fire which was already here, not only because those countries leaders ignored the basic needs of their own populations, but also because nothing was done - and indeed probably could not be done - to ensure assimilation and creation of a real "body of the nation" instead of the vapors which took its place.
Secondly - Hitler himself - in his Vienna years and even later - due to his character was an inflexible idealist, quite interestingly he reminded me of myself, aged 14 to about 18 - in his very "black and white" logic, diatribes, fear of pollution, exaltation of romantic relationships while shunning sex and many other character traits, indeed - I think that the radical idealism in some way it's a necessary stage of development in the life of every human, which growing up should abandon it, understanding the complexity of the world.
Herein lies the second part - the responsibility of the "everyday person", that is - the everyday person of that day was so base, uneducated and ignorant, that a person with a "mental model" of the 1980ies teenager was able to go all the way up into their heart, take place as the ultimate paragon of virtue and nation and party leader and lead them to commit atrocities on each other, then shyly deny their own hatred of their neighbor and their revelling in murder, dumping it all on "Nazi" ideology "imperialism" and whatnot.
See the heart of darkness in yourself.
I approached this book with the expectation of learning what exactly went wrong in Adolph Hitler's early childhood that could have been responsible for creating the monster he became. The fact that Hitler was a product of incest and a narcissistic, tyrannical, stubborn, and delusional young man with a "grim and sour" sense of humor and a lack of tolerance for those who disagreed with him, did not surprise me. What shocks me is that the author, who was Hitler's closest and only friend during his adolesence and young adulthood, also describes Hitler as being a sensitive person with a passion for music and the arts with exceptional empathy for the down trodden. If what Kubizek says is true, and I have no reason to disbelieve this credible account, Adolph Hitler cared for his dying mother in a very compassionate and selfless manner, provided for his younger sister after the death of their parents, was hopelessly in search of romance and the love of a beautiful woman, and was a caring and faithful friend to Kubizek, himself. Like many famous people, Adolph Hitler did not have an idyllic childhood. His father was described as a bit of a tyrant who gave young Adolph "a good hiding" when necessary and completely disreguarded his son's artistic and architectural aptitudes. Both of Hitler's parents feared that Adolph would never find a substantive career for himself. By his own admission, Adolph had been a poor student in school and as a result, he was self-taught in most disciplines. Later in life Hitler's designs for transportation systems and city planning were brilliant. He had a keen eye for urban development and would probably have been remembered for his genius had he not also orchestrated the most heinous attrocities ever to befall the western world. While reading this book I did not discover the negative influences in Hitler's life that could have created the flawed individual we remember. Perhaps that story lies in the early undocumented relationship that he had with his father. Despite the horror Kubizek felt for Hitler's actions as a political leader, Kubizek remembers Adolf Hitler with affection for the young man who befriended him.
Kubizek must have had the patience of a saint. Either that or a deep and abiding love.
informative
reflective
slow-paced
Not many people know about a man called August Kubizek, let alone know about this book's existence. Kubizek wasn't really a person of great historical significance, true, but that doesn't mean he didn't play a part in the upbringing of the dictator we all know and hate. In this memoir, Kubizek has documented his memories of his friendship with Hitler which spanned during the dawn of the 20th century.
This book is indeed, in my opinion, an important historical document, and is also endlessly intriguing. Kubizek is very generous when sharing his experiences with us; he tells us all that he knows about the matter and doesn't leave anything out. Trivial and intimate details like the ones written here can't be read on, for instance, Wikipedia: you will only find out about them through a "first-hand", original source.
What I especially appreciate about this book is that it is written in such an honest and "matter-of-fact" way. Kubizek doesn't try to romanticise or be dramatic when writing down his experiences in his written account. He simply tells you what happened, essentially, and what his reaction was to certain events and/or what thoughts went through his head. I found myself being reminded of Władysław Szpilman's "The Pianist", since that memoir is also written in the same down-to-earth manner. If a biographical book is written in a flowery and theatrical way, especially if it is written by a "professional biographer" and not by a person who was actually involved in the historical event, I end up finding the book silly and a little insensitive and exploitative.
With all of that said, I am glad that I finally got to read this. I had a nice ("nice" is probably not the right word) time reading this, and I naturally learned a lot too.
This book is indeed, in my opinion, an important historical document, and is also endlessly intriguing. Kubizek is very generous when sharing his experiences with us; he tells us all that he knows about the matter and doesn't leave anything out. Trivial and intimate details like the ones written here can't be read on, for instance, Wikipedia: you will only find out about them through a "first-hand", original source.
What I especially appreciate about this book is that it is written in such an honest and "matter-of-fact" way. Kubizek doesn't try to romanticise or be dramatic when writing down his experiences in his written account. He simply tells you what happened, essentially, and what his reaction was to certain events and/or what thoughts went through his head. I found myself being reminded of Władysław Szpilman's "The Pianist", since that memoir is also written in the same down-to-earth manner. If a biographical book is written in a flowery and theatrical way, especially if it is written by a "professional biographer" and not by a person who was actually involved in the historical event, I end up finding the book silly and a little insensitive and exploitative.
With all of that said, I am glad that I finally got to read this. I had a nice ("nice" is probably not the right word) time reading this, and I naturally learned a lot too.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Racism, Antisemitism, Toxic friendship
Moderate: Suicidal thoughts, Death of parent
informative
medium-paced
medium-paced
"You are a friend of Adolf Hitler's?"
"Yes."
"Since when?"
"Since 1904."
"What do you mean by that? At that time he was nobody."
"Nevertheless, I was his friend."
"How could you be his friend when he was still a nobody?"
An American officer of the Central Intelligence Corps asked: "So you are a friend of Adolf Hitler's. What did you get out of it?"
"Nothing."
"But you admit that you were his friend. Did he give you money?"
"No."
"Or food?"
"Neither."
"A car, a house?"
"Not that either."
"Did he introduce you to beautiful women?"
"Nor that."
"Did he receive you again, later on?"
"Yes."
"Did you see him often?"
"Occasionally."
"How did you manage to see him?" "I just went to him."
"So you were with him. Really? Quite close?" "Yes, quite close."
"Alone?"
"Alone."
"Without any guard?"
"Without any guard."
"So you could have killed him?" "Yes, I could have."
"And why didn't you kill him?"
"Because he was my friend."
Very interesting to see the development of Hitler. The author maintained his friendship but still saw things from a somewhat objective view.