Hitler almost certainly had mental problems, but my belief is that Hitler was not simply some Lunatic who mesmerised a group of people into doing something against their will, but had his personality and politics formed by pre-existent forces in Germany and Europe. What do you think?

Yes, he was. People, while usually dumb, don't go along with extreme ideas unless they are already predisposed to them.

Isn't everyone?

Hitler almost certainly had mental problems, but my belief is that Hitler was not simply some Lunatic who mesmerised a group of people into doing something against their will, but had his personality and politics formed by pre-existent forces in Germany and Europe. What do you think?

I think that's a reasonable assumption.

Well, anti-semitism was rife in Europe at that time and the Weimar Republic is one of history's notable failures ... the surprise is not that a radical who understood this came to power, but what that radical did once he did.

In other words, let's not lose sight of who this man was. Hitler didn't have to invade Europe and try to exterminate a race after he came to power. The Europeans pretty much gave him what he wanted prior to his invasion of Poland.

Hitler was a disgrutled jew who had a major meth problem. Seriously, meth...

Look to the treaty of Versailles and the associated humiliation of Germany. Look at their hyperinflation. Think about the French who stripped the Ruhr of its machintre tools, leaving Germany no way of paying its way in the world.

Now, think of a ranter who promises to make the German people proud again !

What is the def. of "creation of his time"? In a way everyone is a creation of his/her time. If you mean that Hitler was unique, no, since WW2 we had several Hitlers. And before him we also had similar dictators.

He is a product of his surroundings and of germany's history. You find that this happends in history, when a country is being starved people rise, Hitler saved his people while killing the enemy because the jews and americans, pretty much every nation made germany pay them because Britan and France had to pay Germany for the patent cost of the guns they made. It was germany's self propeled war by the cause of the English buying guns that belonged to the germans. They wanted every euro back that they spent for every gun, every man, every tank, every parcil of food. They needed a hitler or the germans as we know them now would have never existed.

Yes, Hitler was a demagogue, but you almost make it sound as though it was rational for him to lash out at the rest of the continent. There's was no need to invade Poland.

He had what he needed. Germany was powerful again, the economy had revived and he was firmly in control. That he continued down the course he did is a product of pure mania and several dangerous — and untreated — pyschological disorders.

Yes, Hitler was a demagogue, but you almost make it sound as though it was rational for him to lash out at the rest of the continent. There's was no need to invade Poland.

He had what he needed. Germany was powerful again, the economy had revived and he was firmly in control. That he continued down the course he did is a product of pure mania and several dangerous — and untreated — pyschological disorders.

stalin probably pushed hitler to invading poland

Kind of hard to reach Russia without invading poland...

He is a product of his surroundings and of germany's history. You find that this happends in history, when a country is being starved people rise, Hitler saved his people while killing the enemy because the jews and americans, pretty much every nation made germany pay them because Britan and France had to pay Germany for the patent cost of the guns they made. It was germany's self propeled war by the cause of the English buying guns that belonged to the germans. They wanted every euro back that they spent for every gun, every man, every tank, every parcil of food. They needed a hitler or the germans as we know them now would have never existed.

Have you got any facts and figures which support this argument.
Most historians blame the French for the harshness of reparations.

After the Franco Prussian war, Germany had imposed similar reparations on the French in the Treaty of Frankfurt,
and this was seen as revenge.

The Germans had also devastated large swathes of France, and they wanted the money for rebuilding it.

There was no Poland before WW1. It was part of Russia/Germany/Austro-Hungaria

When Hitler invaded Poland there was already an agreement with Russia to divide it.

To them they were only taking back what was theirs.

Poland is now invading England!
100s of thousands of Poles came to the UK when Poland joined the EU.

Hitler almost certainly had mental problems, but my belief is that Hitler was not simply some Lunatic who mesmerised a group of people into doing something against their will, but had his personality and politics formed by pre-existent forces in Germany and Europe. What do you think?

I'd think that if we would stop talking about him and try to talk about others that are more helpful to humanity then we would be evoloving into a better society but by bringing this asshole into the conversation we only add to his memories and never lose his grip over us.:(

I couldn't disagree more.
Hitler was not some monster, who we can bury and forget about.
He was a normal, if very twisted, human being.

His upbringing and experiences formed him.

I couldn't disagree more.
Hitler was not some monster, who we can bury and forget about.
He was a normal, if very twisted, human being.

His upbringing and experiences formed him.

So were many others like Stalin and recently Pol Pot in Cambodia but I don't see everyone talking about his atrocities to society, why do you think that ?

So were many others like Stalin and recently Pol Pot in Cambodia but I don't see everyone talking about his atrocities to society, why do you think that ?
All are good subjects for history threads, but people know more about Hitler, just like they know more about Henry VIII than George II.

Both Pol Pot and Hitler were idealists, and both wanted a return to old values.

Hitler loved his country and he thought he had to do something to save it from people who he perceived as wanting to destroy his country and his fellow Germans.

Hitler loved his country and he thought he had to do something to save it from people who he perceived as wanting to destroy his country and his fellow Germans.

Oh, who was that...Poland, England, France????

Both Pol Pot and Hitler were idealists, and both wanted a return to old values.
Exactly - Hitler was a throwback.

For centuries the Church had a near monopoly on religion. The only nearby competing ideas were Judaism and sometimes other branches of Christianity. To preserve its monopoly the Church persuaded its followers to fight these religions and oppress their followers.

Then in the late 1600s, after an extra violent period of religious wars, people decided that killing and dying for religion was silly and that humans should share a society based on rational values. This was the beginning of Europe's Age of Enlightenment (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Age_of_Enlightenment). This movement led to equal rights for Catholics and Jews and Protestants. People from different religious minorities began integrating into their societies.

Hitler feared enlightenment as all dictators do, because dictatorship has no room for questions and arguments. So he drove back the clock - stripping away the equal rights, undoing the integration by killing anyone without 'pure' Christian ancestry, and attempting to set up a monopoly of power across Europe. The only difference was that the head of this monopoly would be him, and not the Church, since he didn't have any standing within the Church.

Hitler loved his country and he thought he had to do something to save it from people who he perceived as wanting to destroy his country and his fellow Germans.

A perceived common enemy is a uniting force, which makes people forget their differences. The Nazis blamed the Jews for losing WWI, saying that they had been stabbed in the back. They also blamed them for economic problems. They were a convenient political tool.

Hitler feared enlightenment as all dictators do, because dictatorship has no room for questions and arguments. So he drove back the clock - stripping away the equal rights,

Why do you associate equal rights with enlightenment?

Hitler loved his country and he thought he had to do something to save it from people who he perceived as wanting to destroy his country and his fellow Germans.

That's the justification that every madman uses. Bin Laden,Eric Rudolph just to name a few.

Why do you associate equal rights with enlightenment?
There is no rational reason for unequal rights based on skin colour or religious affiliation.

I'd think that if we would stop talking about him and try to talk about others that are more helpful to humanity then we would be evoloving into a better society but by bringing this asshole into the conversation we only add to his memories and never lose his grip over us.But we have to be careful. "Those who forget history are doomed to repeat it." Americans are a people with a very poor grasp of history. Most of us know almost nothing of events that occurred before our grandparents were alive, and many don't even go back that far. So it's unfortunately necessary to refresh America's memory of the highlights of history, both good and bad.