Kaiser and Führer : A Comparative Study of Personality and Politics

There are some remarkable parallels, and some equally interesting differences, between Adolf Hitler and Germany's earlier ruler, Kaiser Wilhelm II. The most obvious parallel is that both were cult figures who brought their country to ruin and the world to war, but when Robert G.L. Waite began to seriously compare the two men, the number of specific similarities was striking. Kaiser and Führer is the first in-depth examination of the similarities and differences between these two twentieth-century political leaders. Waite uses a psychological approach to throw light on the personal lives and politics of Wilhelm II and Adolf Hitler. He compares their intellectual worlds, their wartime strategies, and their tortured childhoods. Both men, we discover, had dual personalities – they could be cruel and kind, cowardly and brave, grandiose and vulnerable. Both exhibited homosexual tendencies yet were strongly attractive to women. We see how the personal pathologies of these two men heavily influenced the public policies that resulted in catastrophe. Thoroughly documented and engagingly written this is a classic work of scholarship that will fascinate historians, psychologists, and general readers alike. Annotation There are some remarkable parallels, and some equally interesting differences, between Adolf Hitler and Germany's earlier ruler, Kaiser Wilhelm II. The most obvious parallel is that both were cult figures who brought their country to ruin and the world to war, but when Robert G.L. Waite began to seriously compare the two men, the number of specific similarities was striking. Kaiser and Fhrer is the first in-depth examination of the similarities and differences between these two twentieth-century political leaders. Waite uses a psychological approach to throw light on the personal lives and politics of Wilhelm II and Adolf Hitler. He compares their intellectual worlds, their wartime strategies, and their tortured childhoods. Both men, we discover, had dual personalities - they could be cruel and kind, cowardly and brave, grandiose and vulnerable. Both exhibited homosexual tendencies yet were strongly attractive to women. We see how the personal pathologies of these two men heavily influenced the public policies that resulted in catastrophe. Thoroughly documented and engagingly written this is a classic work of scholarship that will fascinate historians, psychologists, and general readers alike Contents 7 PREFACE 9 ACKNOWLEDGMENTS 12 1. Two Profiles 21 2. Weltanschauungen: Their Intellectual, Aesthetic, Religious, and Racial Worlds 88 3. Kaiser and Fuhrer as Rulers in Peacetime: Theory and Practice 144 4. Kaiser and Fuhrer as Rulers in War 223 5. Psychological Dimensions 262 6. Kaiser and Fuhrer: The Childhood Experience 313 Reflections 366 Addendum 1: Scatology in German Life and Letters 372 Addendum 2: The Kriegsschuldfrage and Historical Evidence 376 Addendum 3: The Kaiser in Exile 379 Addendum 4: Historical Continuity versus Change 382 Addendum 5: Coprophilic Perversion? 385 Addendum 6: Hitler and Incest 392 Addendum 7: Dr Bloch and the Genesis of Hitler's Anti-Semitism 396 Addendum 8: Hitler and Psychiatrists 398 NOTES 400 INDEX 513