Was Hitler Insane?

[Brandenburg-Altmark]

Somebody else would have taken his place. Germany wasn't going to stay quiet about Versailles and the resentment toward jews was still waiting to be exploited.

Yes but the people who kept trying to kill him were more set on putting less radical people in his place. So it would of been an improvement.

He's talking about one of the many high risk situations he was in during WW1 resulting in his death, not one of the later assassination plots succeeding. Success of any of the assassination attempts would have a mixed result. Either Himmler or Heydrich or Frick or one of the other total nutters Hitler gave high up positions takes more power or all of them join forces to continue their fuhrers vision, or the military takes power under their Prussian old guard and the war may or may not go better for the Axis. At worst it could spark serious internal divides and cripple the nation's warmaking capacity, resulting in total soviet occupation.

[Fr33domland]

I say no.

As humans, we just seek comfort by establishing the largest moral gap between us and him. We seek to deshumanize him by thinking that no sane and rational individual would act in the same way he did. I believe that to think so, is to make a fatal mistake. He was one of our kind, and should serve as a reminder that each of us is capable of the best and worse.

Well said.

[Underium]

Insane? HELL NO!!!
Evil, and having goals most of us do not share that i know of, DEFINETLY!!!

[Von Clausewitz (Ancient)]

if you think hitler was insane you are a fool. he was not insane but only arrogant and mad

[Aurelica]

Was he mentally disturbed? Yes. Was he certifiably insane? No.

Definitely agree with this. In the beginning he was at least somewhat composed, he had to be to rally the German people. I think as the war dragged on, the use of drugs, and the stress of being the Fuhrer made him go into a tailspin. Paranoia of being assassinated made him kill his generals, including the famous Rommel. No matter what condition he was in, his actions speak louder: he was a madman, to put it lightly.

[New Korongo]

I thought Rommel killed himself?

[Aurelica]

I thought Rommel killed himself?

You are correct, he did kill himself by taking poison. The reason behind it though was definitely due to paranoia. After the failed assassination plot against Hitler, he accused many people, including Rommel. Instead of disgracing him with the brand of traitor, he was given a choice: public trial that was automatically going to find him guilty, or poison and a state funeral. Of course, he chose the latter.

[Ceannairceach]

I thought Rommel killed himself?

That he did. Suicide to save his family, I believe it was.

[The Class A Cows]

Do you think Hitler was insane?

Yes.

Well okay, I will post a bit more. He was paranoid and delusional. A lot of leaders have been, though, including some recent and current ones like MYMOOD ACHMYNINJADADS or even Thabo Mbeki. You could even argue that for people like Ronald Reagan really.

Perhaps being insane in some way or another is a prerequisite for being in power.

[Mosasauria]

I would say no...
Otherwise it would be the pot calling the kettle black...

[Threlizdun]

He obviously had some mental issues, and I do believe that he believed in a good deal of his cause, but I think power motivated him more than devotion to Naziism.

[South Norwega]

Hitler was very Irrational, repeating many of the mistakes made in WWI, like invading Russia when engaging in another front . I mean WTF?!

WW1 started on the Eastern Front. Russia declared war on Austria-Hungary who had declared war on Serbia. Germany declared war on Austria in response. Kaiser Wilhelm had no choice but to fight a war on two fronts.

Jesus Bloody Hell Christ.

Eventually people will get this right.

The order of DoWs was:

Austia->Serbia
Germany->Russia
""->France
""->Belgium
UK->Germany
Montenegro->AH
AH->Russia

It's on Wikipedia, not that hard to find.

I've managed to memorise it by now.

[Dypsomaniacs]

IF any of THIS is true (I will investigate tomorrow) then he definitely was NOT sane.

Still retardation did run in the family...

[Voltronica]

Well how would you feel if you got a nutjob?

[Imperial Catholicism]

I have read at least 15 seperate books that have placed Hitler at the center of Nazism and other that have said he was not essential. I have read some that said he was crazy and even more that said he was a genius politician and only went crazy at the very end of his days. I have to say, He was only trully "crazy" in that he was a horrible anti-semite, but he was a mastermind of politics and government organization. Anyone who wants to say he was a hands off ruler that just let stuff happen, see Star Wars and the Emperor and you will get a better picture of Hitler's organizational system. (Even had Goering as an apprentince lol).

[Pandora Key]

Well he was taking evolution to the end result in his practices by speeding up the process to eliminate an entire weak race as he saw fit; you tell me...

[Frank The Sock-Monkey]

I don't think he was insane. Was he mentally unstable? Maybe.

[Imperial Catholicism]

Well he was taking evolution to the end result in his practices by speeding up the process to eliminate an entire weak race as he saw fit; you tell me...

The problem with your assertion is that it does not take into account his perspective, only our modern view. To him he was doing a good think, despite the fact that it was evil. Did that make him insane or just horribly wrong? I say the later

[British Prussia]

WW1 started on the Eastern Front. Russia declared war on Austria-Hungary who had declared war on Serbia. Germany declared war on Austria in response. Kaiser Wilhelm had no choice but to fight a war on two fronts.

Jesus Bloody Hell Christ.

Eventually people will get this right.

The order of DoWs was:

Austia->Serbia
Germany->Russia
""->France
""->Belgium
UK->Germany
Montenegro->AH
AH->Russia

It's on Wikipedia, not that hard to find.

I've managed to memorise it by now.

AH-Serbia
Russia-AH
Germany-France
Germany-Russia
Germany-Belgium
UK-Germany

I'm quite sure it was this order... Not sure bout Montenegro... Don't think that was significant... Ottomans/Bulgaria maybe...
EDIT: actually, now that I think about it, it seems that a lot of people in NS know about Montenegro... What did they actually do?

[St George of England]

WW1 started on the Eastern Front. Russia declared war on Austria-Hungary who had declared war on Serbia. Germany declared war on Austria in response. Kaiser Wilhelm had no choice but to fight a war on two fronts.

Jesus Bloody Hell Christ.

Eventually people will get this right.

The order of DoWs was:

Austia->Serbia
Germany->Russia
""->France
""->Belgium
UK->Germany
Montenegro->AH
AH->Russia

It's on Wikipedia, not that hard to find.

I've managed to memorise it by now.

Blaarg. Never did WW1 in school, and I'm not going to go rooting around on wiki when I'm busy (and on my phone, as I was when I wrote that). I also put Austria instead of Russia, which was pretty stupid of me, but meh.

[Killing is My Business]

The number of people calling Hitler insane is kind of insane. He was, for the most part, sane. His mental health may have deteriorated as the war continued, especially after the Battle of Kursk, but I do believe he was as sane as any other politician when he was hoisted to power. He may have become insane, but to call him insane from the get go (a total nut-job) is completely separate from reality. By saying he was clearly mentally unstable, it actually makes his crimes less evil in comparison. The fact of the matter was that Hitler make a conscious decision to exterminate undesirables, that decision was founded in his own twisted theories, but these were analyzed on a logical level. Gah, I wouldn't even say perverted logic. If you subscribe to the theory that races and ethnicities are competing for global power it isn't much of a stretch to see genocide as beneficial to one's own race...

[Belfras]

He was.. Different. I'd say he wasn't pants-on-head crazy, but he wasn't all there.

I've often lamented about Hitler. If he was all there and pointed his talents in a good direction (i.e. not one of warfare and holocaust) he could be remembered today as one of the best leaders in the world.

[GeneralHaNor]

I've heard he was a meth user. That doesn't exactly make him insane though.

One of the earliest uses of methamphetamine was during World War II, when it was used by Axis and Allied forces.[10] The German military dispensed it under the trademark name Pervitin. It was widely distributed across rank and division, from elite forces to tank crews and aircraft personnel, with many millions of tablets being distributed throughout the war.[11] From 1942 until his death in 1945, Adolf Hitler may have been given intravenous injections of methamphetamine by his personal physician Theodor Morell. It is possible that it was used to treat Hitler's speculated Parkinson's disease, or that his Parkinson-like symptoms that developed from 1940 onwards resulted from using methamphetamine.[12] In Japan, methamphetamine was sold under the registered trademark of Philopon (ヒロポン, hiropon?) by Dainippon Sumitomo Pharma for civilian and military use. As with the rest of the world at the time, the side effects of methamphetamine were not well studied, and regulation was not seen as necessary.

Speaking from personal expeirence, Meth is a Helluva drug

If Hitler was a chronic user of it. then it would of certainly drove him insane.
I've yet to meet a sane meth addict. Getting clean doesn't also solve that problem either, messes with your brain.

[Orthaethaczil]

Hitler was a sociopath, a person without empathy. That means he was able to hurt and kill people without any remorse.

He was also a master at deception. He always told people what they wanted to hear. He was so good at this "game", even close nazis stated they never really met the guy himself.

Another psychological issue of him was that he was delusional. He felt like a messias, believing he would lead people into a better age. With the more and more obvious failure of these plans, he turned into a drug addict and ultimately ended his life through suicide.

He knew damn well what he was doing.

Mad people might still know perfectly well what they're doing. Thats a question of intelligence, not sanity.

[Innsmothe]

Hitler was a sociopath, a person without empathy. That means he was able to hurt and kill people without any remorse.

He was also a master at deception. He always told people what they wanted to hear. He was so good at this "game", even close nazis stated they never really met the guy himself.

Another psychological issue of him was that he was delusional. He felt like a messias, believing he would lead people into a better age. With the more and more obvious failure of these plans, he turned into a drug addict and ultimately ended his life through suicide.

He knew damn well what he was doing.

Mad people might still know perfectly well what they're doing. Thats a question of intelligence, not sanity.

Without empathy, I would disagree. This is a guy that personally appeared at a minor aides daughters christening.