Hitler's Berlin
Subtitle: abused city
By: Thomas Friedrich ; translated by Stewart Spencer
Contributors: Spencer, Stewart, translator
Edition: [Paperback edition].
Publisher: Yale University Press
Published: 2016
Language: eng
Number of pages: 482
ISBN-13: 9780300219739
Copyright date: 2012
Subjects: Politics and government; National socialism
Other titles: Abused city
Work titles: Missbrauchte Hauptstadt
Description: From his first visit to Berlin in 1916, Hitler was preoccupied and fascinated by Germany's great capital city. In this vivid and entirely new account of Hitler's relationship with Berlin, Thomas Friedrich explores how Hitler identified with the city, how his political aspirations were reflected in architectural aspirations for the capital, and how Berlin surprisingly influenced the development of Hitler's political ideas. A leading expert on the twentieth-century history of Berlin, Friedrich employs new and little-known German sources to track Hitler's attitudes and plans for the city. Even while he despised both the cosmopolitan culture of the Weimar Republic and the profound Jewish influence on the city, Hitler was drawn to the grandiosity of its architecture and its imperial spirit. He dreamed of transforming Berlin into a capital that would reflect his autocracy, and he used the city for such varied purposes as testing his anti-Semitic policies and demonstrating the might of the Third Reich. Illuminating Berlin's burdened years under Nazi subjection, Friedrich offers new understandings of Hitler and his politics, architectural views, and artistic opinions. -- Book jacket.

Includes primary source material.
Notes: Originally published in German as: Die Missbrauchte Hauptstadt. Ullstein Buchverlage GmbH, Berlin : Propyläen Verlag, 2007.

Includes bibliographical references (pages 441-455) and index.

Translated from the German.
Table of contents: title: "It's a wonderful city" : 1916-18 : Hitler's early visits to Berlin; title: "Not away from Berlin but towards Berlin" : 1919-25 : a social climber from Munich on his way north; title: "It is the Gau's tragedy that it never had a real leader" : 1922-6 : setbacks in building up the NSDAP in Berlin; title: "A second headquarters" : 1926 : Goebbels takes over the running of the party in Berlin; title: "The alternative Berlin is lying in wait, ready to pounce'" : 1927-28 : the successes of a dangerously misjudged splinter group; title: "The movement is now gaining ground in worrying ways" : 1928-30 : the breakthrough as the dominant party of the right; title: "Hitler is standing at the gates of Berlin" : 1930 : the NSDAP between legitimate tactics and open violence; title: "He hates Berlin and loves Munich" : 1931 : the capital as the butt of ridicule and vituperation; title: "The power struggle is just beginning" : 1932 : the start of a decisive year; title: "German Berlin is on the march" : 1932-3 : the road to power; title: "A real and genuine capital" : 1933 and later : Hitler's metropolis.