Hitler's Private Library: the Books that Shaped his Life by Timothy W. Ryback
London: Vintage Books, 2010 (first published 2009) ISBN 9780099532170
This is a fascinating book, although perhaps the title should be reversed, as this book is more about the books that shaped Hitler's life that were in his library, rather than a full discussion of Hitler's Library. Still, if you are a student of Nazi Germany, it is well worth reading.
Ryback focusses on a few key works, and uses them to dive into Hitler the man, Hitler the thinker, and Hitler the leader. From a book on the architecture of Berlin that he purchased while on the front in France in 1915, to the presentation copies of Mein Kampf that were scattered around his flat in Munich after the war, we get through Ryback's book an insight into how and what Hitler read from his library, which by some estimates contained over 16,000 volumes.
To firstly deal with the library itself. Ryback charts its growth from a couple of bookcases in Hitler's early digs in Munich, to a vast conglomeration that was held in Munich, Berlin and at the Obersalzberg. Many of the volumes were presented to Hitler, as it was well known that he enjoyed getting books as a gift. Ryback has a couple of fascinating stories about how Hitler acquired some of his collection, including an interview with Leni Reifenstahl, during which she describes how she gave Hitler a rare set of volumes of Fichte to smooth over quarrel they had over the Jewish question. Throughout the book, and partially via some appendices from other documents, Ryback describes how we have what we have of Hitler's library (approximately ten percent), through confiscation by the allies or pilfering by individuals.
The larger part of this book is to do with what and how Hitler read (and wrote). Many of the books that Ryback mentions Hitler had marked with underlining, marks in the margins, question marks or exclamation marks. From these it is possible sometimes to surmise Hitler's thinking about certain subjects. In an early chapter, Ryback goes into Hitler's relationship with Dietrich Eckart, a formative experience for the young man, and important in the sense that is seems to be during this time that Hitler formed and firmed most of his political views.
What is clear is that once Hitler formed his views, he mostly read to confirm them. Like many autodidacts, Hitler read voraciously, not really to expand his mind, but to gather material to confirm his pre-existing thoughts and biases. Many of the books gifted to him over the years fed precisely this need, especially those given to him as gifts from his inner circle. It seems he was prone to agree with anything that prophesied that Germany needed a saviour to gain its deserved glory in the parade of nations, for example. He also devoured statistical material, and we have many examples of people being astounded at his recall of obscure facts about military equipment, or statistical information about countries. While this feat might have dazzled some, it is not necessarily a sign of a deep thinker, or indeed of wisdom.
One part of the Hitler library Ryback doesn't really discuss is his large collection of books to do with the occult and astrology. It seems from some reports that this was one of the major parts of his collection - he seems to have had astrological charts drawn up for himself on at least one occasion, and for me it would have been interesting to explore this bizarre side of Hitler's character a little more.
This book is not really about Hitler's Library, it is a book about Hitler illuminated through the texts he chose to read. It's probably not a book to read if you don't know much about Hitler or Germany, as it does assume some prior knowledge. Not bad.
Cheers for now, from
A View Over the Bell
