Often the words Hitler and insanity are inexorably linked. But was he really insane? i have my views, so i thought we could kick off a discussion with a poll.
Regards digger.
Interesting to see how to votes will pile up 
Personally I don’t think he was insane - he could lure down-to-earth strong minded generals of 40 years military experience, as well as secretaries or businessmen without emotions.
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Hitler wasn’t totally insane, and if he stopped the war by the time he took France and the lower countries (ie: Holland, Denmark, Belgium, etc.) he would have gone down in history as one of the greatest military stratigists. But he made the worst desicion and it would seal his fate. He declared war on the Soviet Union and the United States. After that, he pratically always made stupid commands, but some were good.
totaly agree with ‘‘Wolfgang Von Gottberg’’
To edit my previous post, I think that if he had taken Italy (Yes, Italy) and Afrika, after his previous Blitzkriegs, I think he would be ONE of the greatest military stratigists in history. Though, other countries would probably find out about his genocide, giving him a bad reputation. I don’t think any body would invade, though (Except maybe Israel, but it would be more like poor sabatoer tactics)
i personally think he was an extremely intelligent man, he had charisma, he won people over with the way he delieverd speechs and how enthusiastic he was. The only thing he did wrong was give the british enough time to evacuate otherwise he would have taken all of Britain and won the war, and Germany would continue to be the most powerfull country in the world unless they took a fall like the romans so to answer the question Hitler was sane his views were just not those that many other people would have agreed with.
Hitler could have won the war,but he messed up with his rasism,and he turned his generaks against himself,no general ever agreed with his theory they all were high educated people with moral rules,they were wery noble people
If you take a look at the historical numbers about german population and german natural resources you quickly learn one thing: there is not enough natural resources available for Germany. Given any war, it’s unbeliable easy to beat germany by blocking Germany getting imported natural resources it absolutely needs.
Hitler stated many times that he wanted to create strong independent Germany, only way doing that was of course securing enough natural resources for Germany. Only place within ground access for those natural resources was Soviet Union.
Had he stopped after capturing France, he would have left Germany even more in trouble in the future, because then there would have been even more population in Germany but not (noticeably) more natural resources.
So, looking history from the resources point of view: Hitler would have been biggest moron in the history had he stopped capturing new areas after France was captured.
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Why is it that getting rid of a book that hasn’t been opened for several decades always results in the need for it shortly afterwards?
I put Walter Langer’s “The Mind of Adolf Hitler”, which was based on a wartime analysis by psychs, and Alan Bullock’s “Hitler”, in a charity bin recently, along with other relevant texts.
If I had those books I might be able to offer some useful objective comments from people better informed than me.
As it is, I think Hitler was just your standard very successful and therefore quite ruthless politician, which means he had more in common with the average sociopath than with ordinary people. History is, and will be, littered with this type. They’re not insane in the sense of being delusional or otherwise out of touch with reality. Just wholly self-centred and incapable of feeling anything for anyone who isn’t them or who doesn’t support them and their ambitions and ideas.
As the war progressed he undoubtedly became somewhat distrustful and perhaps paronoid in a non-technical sense, which was not unreasonable as, for example, his trusted deputy Hess betrayed him early in the war and other trusted people tried to blow him up later in the war.
The stresses of running his various enterprises, military and otherwise, would have caused anyone severe mental burdens, especially when all his grand plans started unravelling. Overall, he seemed to remain reasonably capable and lucid under all these burdens, legendary stories about chewing carpet and so on nothwithstanding. Dreaming up and trying to execute bad plans isn’t necessarily a sign of insanity. If it was, many governments and CEO’s in the world would be in asylums, not that that would be a bad thing.
This all makes sense with me. Inteligence and sanity are not the same thing. I’m not very bright…but the voices tell me I’m sane. 
I think most ulta-famous and ulta-rich tend to lose touch with the reality that most of us know.
Yup, he was madder than a really mad thing that had just been bitten by the maddest rabid mad animal known to madness.
He was a bit mad…
[SIZE=“4”]I do not believe he was insane, very unstable perhaps, and most likely suffering from a neurological disorder. This may have contributed to his instability and paranoia.
Adolf Hitler was obsessed with the Jewish threat to the Aryan world and being mostly Communist in his mind, they had to be eradicated along with the handicapped, gypsies, and most Slavs be they Hebrew or not.
His military smarts had nothing to do with his state of mind. The man was pure evil, i.e. evil incarnate. He was psychotic to a degree among world leaders perhaps only matched by Iosef Stalin. The same applied to his paranoia. Any paranoid psychotic I believe clinically fits the description of insane. SANE? NOT
he was insane ive seen the results of his madness at auchwitz not a nice place at all
hitler was probably a likable guy if you knew him personally…and forgot about the holocaust. If you were to take character traits of hitler (rarely drank, didnt smoke, early riser, afraid of heights) and some of the character traits of Winston Churchill (drank, woke up about noon, smoked) and showed them to an ordinary person (with a limited knowledge of ww2) without any names attached they would probably guess Churchill was the dictator
Don’t be confused with the hype on the Blitzkreig.
Hitler didn’t give the British enough time to evacuate the beaches of Dunkirk. The men of the British Expeditionary Force and the French Army, fought long and hard to make the time.
There are several Regiments such as the Glosters, Norfolks and Rifles not too mention the Royal Artilery who suffered terrible reprisals by the SS for their staunch refusal to retreat or surrender, French units were similarly slaughtered after capture. It was they who bought the time needed for hundreds of small craft (manned by civialian sailors (or by men of the Naval services)) to lift the French, Belgian, Dutch and British Armies with their lives.
Hitler never ordered a stall in the advance on Dunkirk, he merely deferred the Panzers to another target (Arras I think) and to give them time to re-org and consoldiate ready for a Southern push against the remainder of the French Army. Also the ground around Dunkirk was deemed (initially) as unsuitable for Panzers. The Infantry Divisions (many as yet unblooded in comparison to the Panzer Divisions) and Luftwaffe were to destroy and capture the men on the beaches. The men on the beaches had no respite.
The RAF and French Air forces suffered horrendous losses, protecting the beaches. The RAF alone lost nearly 500 planes, compared to the Luftwaffes near 150.
When it was decided to send the Panzers in, it was more of a desparate attempt to capture the British and allies before they could evacuate. The Dunkirk evacuation, and the “little ships” had not been envisaged by the Germans. They beleived that the men on the beaches would be easily captured, once the ports were destroyed (which was carried out with ruthless abandon).
The idea of picking men out of the water, well. It was prepostorus 
Only a 1/4 of the men saved were picked up by the “little ships” (some 70,000 men). The remainder were rescued by Destroyers, picking up from “the Mole”. WHich was a sea defence made up of sand and rocks in the main, that the Germans either couldn’t hit (it was long but quite thin) or was not overly affected by the bombs hitting. I think in places it was only four men wide.
The 51st (Highland) Brigade were left behind to cover the retreat, and assist the remaining French. Many men were killed by the vengeful SS, who incidentally didn’t do much of the fighting at this point.
No he was a Genius! He took a country on the verge of extinction and built it up to become one of the worlds strongest econominal countrys to date! in a few years! His military strategys were brilliant, the only reason why he lost the war was not because of bad strategys, it was because the world were beggining too adapt to the blitzkrieg tactic he and his generals had invented(which was another storke of genius, this is still a tactic was use today) the soviets were growing desperate so used all of their resources to create this vast and amazing army! the americans fighting along side the canadians, british, polish. 5 countrys against one squeezing your flanks! your not going to win are you?
also Hitler was a decent man, he loved children (in the right way not the micheal jackson way), he loved animals especially his dog, he adored his mother, and was, as far as i know a decent man.
he was not phsychotic, he had parkinsons disease (i can not quite remember what type)
which he got from exposure to mustard gas during the first world war. This disease started off by just affecting hi nervous system, causing him back problems and making his left arm twitch. This eventually along with the prospect of loosing th war, created a desparate man out of him, and eventually caused him to loose his conscience and irrational thought.
In my book Hitler was one of the greatest men to live and help the world to be where it is today.
just my opinion
Interesting post. How does this view marry up with his actions? He exterminated in no particular order, Gypsies, homosexuals, Jews, the mentally disabled and infirm, communists, democrats and even fellow Nazis. Hitlers world would have been a land where Germans ruled over subject serf peoples.
Doesnt sound that great to me…
yeh i know he slaughtered all thease people fair enough! but who thought up the final solution? Not hitler as most people believe! it was himmler! who was in charge of all the death squads and overall the evil SS? Himmler!
Himmler was the evil f*cker! if it wasn;'t for him Hitler would’ve lasted a bit longer! The final solution woudln’t of been dreamt up! Hitlers idea was to use them to mass produce things for the germans or deport them! Not kill them!
He killed fellow nazis because they betrayed him in some form or another! And anyway Stalin murdered all of his high ranking generals in fear that they would try and kill him! that how much confidence Stalin had in him self! And the fact that hbe slaughtered milions of his own people for one bloody city! and some of the oders he sent out were worst than Hitler! If an officer would fail in an objective he was to kil himself! im sorry but noone ever slates that guy he was a f*cking lunatic!
–Hitlers world would have been a land where Germans ruled over subject serf peoples.–
Not england mate! he had the upmost respect for the english people! being able to hold out through te first world war! and being that at the time most of our goverment were nazis aswell! (did you know that half of the royal family once claimed they were also Nazis!) Lord Bath is a nazi! He didn’t hate everybody you know, he only hated those of a different religion, lol and Communists! and what a supprise! most of the worlds population hate different religions to the point where we go to war for it! and we all hate communist! especailly the wonderful Americans!
Hitlers ideal still lives today! everyone world wide belives in certain points oof what he said whether you hate the fact england is swarming with immigrants! lol (cant really say much there considering im half German!) or whether you hate unemployment!(usually because of the immagrants) or whether you hate the muslims! The fact we hae to follow the bully of the world around! or simply just like to moan alot!
And in all fairness quite alot of people still hate homosexuals! and the mentally ill…well.
rant over!
comradesinarms. What did you put on your cornflakes this morning? Crack? PCP? LSD? Hitler may or may not have been insane but you are clearly an imbecile.
Hitler did indeed bring a practically bankrupted country (the worst part of which was helped by Hitler, his crazy idea of just printing more money in response to the countries poverty) back up from its knees.
From the very off, this was managed by blaming and ostracising a small portion of the country (ie the Jews).
Many Jews left Germany at this time, because they saw the writing on the wall, Einstein was one of them. Hitler was FULLY aware of what was happening in the camps. It may shock you to realise, the man was a control freak. It was HIS signature on the FINAL SOLUTION. Others may have organised it, Hitler was the one who started it. He had a pathological hatred of Jews for years.
One of the reasons that Germany lost was because Hitler insisted on having his fingers in everything. Germany Generals came up with the scenarios (incidentally Blitzkreig’s operational concept was invented by the British, but perfected by the Germans) but Hitler always had the last word. His word was often the word that caused the defeat of the Germans.
For example, when the RAF was on its knees during the Battle of Britain who, in a fit of pique, gave the order to start bombing the cities? In retaliation for Goerings famous proclaimation that not one bomb would land on Berlin? Giving the RAF the chance to regroup and rebuild?
The Blitzkreig strategies were not copied by others, parts may have influenced the Allies, ie Aircraft working with ground troops, Panzers with Infantry. But the methods used by the Allies were different to the Blitzkreig. Not only that, but the Germans were lucky with Blitzkreig. Had they been bogged in, they would have suffered in the inital stages of the war. Blitzkreig only worked against underequipped forces. Luckily for the Nazi’s France, Holland, Belgium and the Brits were all ill equipped in relation to the technology of the day. After years of underspending by their governments.
Further to the war technology, Hitler often gave money and supplies to the ideas that appealled to him, then forgot about them when something else came along. Because he controlled everything, the original idea would be starved of resources, as noone would order in the help the project would need.
Not a bad thing, many of the weapons at the end of the war (V1, V2, America Bomber, jets, etc) would have been on the battlefront sooner had he made prper provisions for their R&D.
The Russians were indeed pushing all they had to the front, but then you have to realise that so had the Germans. There were more German soldiers on the front with Russia at hte start of the war than on the West against the French, Dutch, Belgian and British.
Hitler had won WW2. It was just his stupidity to push past the detente and carry on engaging Britian and then declare war on Amercia.
His respect for the British was not quite as you say. He respected us, and even copied some of our more treasured ways (Hitler Jugend was Scouts), however, he would have gutted our country like a fish, had he landed. His preliminary plans would have seen thousands executed, for being at OxBridge, being int he Masons… etc.
Hitler, probably slowed down the world we live in. After his little day in the sun, half of Europe was under a tyranical nut job (Stalin) who stiffled development in the USSR. Likewise, he would have been deposed soon enough had the war not made him a hero and allowed him to strengthen his strangle hold on Russia.
The western part of Europe was in debt,a nd had to rebuild after the war. Slowing down our development. That is why America is the power house it is today.
I am not even going to dignify the rest of your post with an answer. You appear to have an axe to wield against immigrants, homosexuals and the mentally ill.
However, the ways of Nazi Germany are not neccesarily the best ways to deal with todays problems. They had a tendancy (right from the off set) of involving the removal of rights from minorities of the community.