Why Hitler was a Good Transformational Leader

Adolf Hitler
Introduction
Adolf Hitler was born in Austria on April 20, 1889. From an early age he wanted to be an artist, though he also considered entering the clerical life and becoming a priest (Shirer). His father was a practical man and wanted to see his son enter into government service and eke out a decent living for himself. His father had not had much luck with work, having tried farming and various other activities, and had been required to keep moving his family from place to place. Hitler did not have a practical vision, however. He was moved by a romantic vision of life and, deciding against the applying to the clergy, he insisted on becoming an artist, much to his father’s displeasure. Hitler relied upon his mother for moral support and when his father died in 1903, Hitler’s mother permitted him to leave school and pursue training as an artist in Vienna. His mother’s death in 1907 devastated the young man. He now had no parents and at 18 was without income. He lived in homeless shelters, never giving up his dream to be an artist. He painted watercolors and sketched, and many of these works still survive and show genuine charm. In Vienna, Hitler grew into a great fan of Wagner, commonly seen as the musical soul of contemporary Germany. Wagner infused his operas with epic splendor and romantic grandeur, and this would ultimately inform Hitler in his later passion to lead and transform Germany from a beaten down state following WWI back into a self-sustainable, proud nation in the 1930s. Most of all, however, it was Hitler’s intense nationalism, his fervent love for his country and his hatred for those who, he perceived, were destroying it from within, that compelled him to take action and become the ardent leader that he became. If there is one style of leadership that best applies to Hitler it is the visionary/charismatic leadership style.
Why Hitler Emerged as a Leader: Background
Having no sense of place or purpose in his young adulthood, Hitler found meaning in the armed forces when WWI broke out and Germany found itself fighting for its life. Hitler’s career as an artist had failed to materialize as the young man hoped, but now serving in the war he found a new passion as a soldier. He was awarded the Iron Cross for bravery twice, once in 1914 and once in 1918. He also received the Black Wound Badge in 1918. He was wounded twice, once by an exploding shell at the Battle of the Somme in 1916, and once in 1918 when temporarily blinded by mustard gas. It was while recovering in a hospital for the latter that he learned the war had ended and that Germany had surrendered. This news devastated and angered him more than anything in his whole life. He was convinced that Germany had been on the verge of victory against her enemies. He looked back on his time as a soldier as the best time of his life. He was known for his discipline—he never smoked or drank alcohol—and he was always willing to take on dangerous missions that running messages through combat zones. The war shaped Hitler immensely and gave him the confidence in himself that he would draw upon later in his speeches that would animate Germans during the years of the Weimar Republic.
After the war, Germany was forced to sign the Treaty of Versailles, which basically crippled Germany and obliged the nation to pay exploitative war reparations to the Allies. It had to give up vast territories of land and its overseas colonies. Millions of Germans were out of work and the hyperinflation of its currency caused poverty unlike anything seen before in the nation. German women turned to prostitution. Families lived homeless and wretched. Berlin became vice capital of the world as Anita Berber became the poster girl of the New Woman of night life cabaret. Germany had gone from a nation with a grand, romantic vision of beauty and majesty as communicated by Wagner to the equivalent of a cheap Berlin whorehouse during the years of the Weimer Republic. Hitler resented the way he felt Germany’s leaders had sold out the people. He resented the fact that the Kaiser had abdicated. He was angry that so many Germans were out of work, penniless and without hope. He, like many other Germans, viewed international Jewry as being at the root of the matter. He viewed the attack by the Allies against Germany as part of an international conspiracy run by Jews. Indeed, just as the Bolshevik revolution in Russia had largely been a Jewish revolution against the Tsarist regime, the revolutions now surging across Eastern Europe and waging in Germany were of the same nature. Everyday Germans were fighting in their streets and cities against revolutionary organizations that sought to take control of Germany at its weakest and most vulnerable point (Paxton). Hitler gave voice to the outrage that many Germans felt. He spoke what they were all thinking and seeing. That is what first made him stand out as a leader and it happened in the following manner.
One of the conditions of the Versailles Treaty was that Germany basically give up its military. While the military did not disband completely, it was dialed back substantially. Hitler remained in the military after the war and was part of a group sent to keep tabs on local organizations, given the radical and revolutionary influences coming into Germany at the time from the East (Degrelle). At one of these outings, Hitler dared to interject his opinions on what Germany needed. He completely routed the invited speaker and stole the show. His rhetoric was so enticing that he was invited back by the club to speak again, this time as the main guest speaker. Having nothing else to do, Hitler agreed. He immediately found his voice as a political rhetorician and Germans began coming to hear him and his vision for the country (Degrelle). He was very much a populist leader, but he also had a vision that inspired the Germany people at a time when they felt completely defeated and in need of a real leader, a general, someone fearless who had the nerve to challenge the status quo. Hitler had that and he would even take a bullet for his beliefs to prove it. It was the thirst for redemption that millions of Germans had that made Hitler the answer to their prayers. His ambition was to restore Germany to power, and he eventually led the National Socialists German Workers Party to achieve that ambition.
Leadership Activities That Crafted His Success
Hitler was not indulgent and lived an ascetic life (Degrelle). He did not eat meat, did not drink alcohol and did not smoke. He lived almost like a monk, with very few luxuries. His time as a pauper before the war and his time in the war had drilled into him the virtue of poverty. He saw luxuries and addiction to fine things as one of the main weaknesses of the bourgeoisie that had led Germany into the hands of the Allies and the much-hated enemy known as international Jewry. Hitler felt that if he was going to lead Germany to a new rebirth, he had to shun the finer things that corrupted others. Thus, the first leadership activity that Hitler engaged in was asceticism—self-denial. He wanted not only to talk the talk; he wanted to walk the walk, and he knew that he could not ask others to respect him if he did not respect himself and avoid the pitfalls that German leaders hitherto always fell into the moment they gained popularity and influence. Hitler was not interested in serving his own interests: his goal was to serve Germany and bring it out of the ashes. His Catholic upbringing likely had a major effect on this way of thinking and acting. He wanted to lead by his own example—not just by his words and speeches.
Another leadership activity that Hitler engaged in was communicating. As a transformational leader, Hitler aimed to communicate a vision. Germany was in a seriously economically and politically depressed condition. Governments were lasting mere months during the Weimar years and the state was fractured among city-kingdoms led by out of touch rulers from the bourgeoisie. Workers had no jobs and families had no food. The church was not much help as it was leaning towards the liberalism spreading all over the West and had lost sight of the values and principles that had made it popular and powerful for centuries in the past. Hitler’s vision was simple and he communicated it with passion and supported it with logic and reason, as a good transformational leader is supposed to do (De Vries). He laid out a populist vision in Mein Kampf that was gobbled up by Germans who wanted the restoration of their old lives. He even showed that he was willing to die or be locked up in prison for his beliefs. He was shot and sent to jail for daring to challenge the current regime. However, the German court was sympathetic with Hitler’s aims and was impressed by his rhetoric, which is why he was given a slight sentence (Degrelle). Hitler’s speeches were electrifying because he spoke like no one else in all of Germany. Most Germans were staid and controlled in their speeches. Hitler roared and spoke passionately, made jokes right and left, and made his audiences laugh with his pointed barbs. Working the crowd was like second nature to him because he believed everything he said and the German people were transformed by the display of authentic leadership that he demonstrated. Hitler showed in his entire person that what he was preaching was the most important thing to him. He had no other purpose in life than to get the German people back to work, to support German families, and to get the German economy back up and running. He opposed the Communism that was spreading all over the country and he opposed the debauchery that was spreading throughout the cities. Hitler desired for Germany something like the pastoral scenes that he painted in his youth in water colors (Degrelle). To achieve that goal, however, he had to be disciplined and he had to have an army that would march to the beat of his drum. He was able to get that army because he first captured the hearts and minds of his audiences through his authentic leadership. Then it was easy to get the rest.
Analysis
Hitler was a populist leader who spoke to the needs of the people. He essentially incorporated into his approach Maslow’s needs hierarchy model. Maslow’s theory posited that in order for people to be self-actualizing they must have their basic lower level needs met first. These needs include food, shelter, security, friendship, love, and esteem. Hitler wanted Germany to be self-actualizing. Families in Germany were losing their homes; millions were out of work; hyper-inflation had decimated the currency; the morale of the nation was in the gutter; vice was rampant; revolution was literally happening in the big cities and blood was being shed as patriotic Germans sought to prevent a Bolshevik uprising in their own land (Paxton). The nation had fallen apart following WWI and the destructive Versailles Treaty was a noose around Germany’s neck. Hitler roused the hope and admiration of ordinary Germans with his zeal and genuine desire to see Germany restored. He had established himself as an honorable and brave soldier during the war and his ability to move people through his rhetoric was unlike anything Germans had seen before. He was passionate and his passion was for the German people. He spoke of their problems, identifying them one by one and explaining how he would help to address those problems. For that reason he was pushed to the top of the German hierarchy of leadership (Degrelle). He was successful as a leader because he incorporated aspects of transformational leadership, visionary leadership, charismatic leadership, authentic leadership and even servant leadership. The German people sensed that Hitler was there to serve their interests rather than his own. Too many leaders during the Weimar years had been interested in their own power. Hitler came to power because he was interested in bettering the lives of others (Degrelle). Once in power, Germany quickly transformed for the better. From 1933 when Hitler was elected to office to the start of WWII, Germany’s economy boomed. Investment poured into the country and millions of Germans found work. Even as FDR in America struggled to find a way out of the Great Depression, Hitler was able to lead Germany out of its abysmal state by using innovative ideas, implementing a meritocracy, and improving the morale of Germans by making sure their basic needs were met (Degrelle).
Hitler was above all a nationalist and his love for country motivated him through his whole life. In his youth, he wanted to express this love through art. In his adulthood he expressed his love for country through service in the military and then service in government. Even the whole world admired what he was able to accomplish in so short a time. Germany hosted the Olympic Games in 1936 and Hitler was recognized as the man of the hour, a marvel among men for the way he had transformed Germany from a beaten down dog to a proud, fully functioning independent nation once more.
Hitler was able to get others to follow him precisely because he showed himself as one who would look out for their needs. He implemented worker holidays, made it mandatory that all workers be given vacation time so that they are not overtaxed; he made certain that those who had good ideas were put into positions of authority in business and government; he also acted on the popular anger towards Jews, which most Germans saw as a problem in the country. Hitler closed the Masonic lodges and expelled the Rothschilds and embraced a populist, patriotic message not unlike what is commonly seen among various nationalistic leaders today from Trump in America to various leaders across Europe to Putin in Russia and Xi in China. People followed him because they believed in the message he communicated and the message he communicated was communicated with zeal, passion, and theatrics. Indeed, it may be Hitler’s gift for artistry and theatrics that made his ability to get others to follow so strong. The various symbols, colors and themes of the Third Reich were all his ideas, and they were meant to catch the eye, inspire patriotism, and rouse the spirit (Degrelle). For the most part, they worked to unify Germany. Of course not all Germans bought into what Hitler was selling, but there is always to be expected some resistance to change. Hitler engaged in change management effectively by identifying places of resistance (mainly among Jews, Communists, and liberals) and sought to remove them from positions of influence.
Conclusion
Hitler has gone down in history as one of the most evil men to have ever lived. Yet if one looks at him purely from a leadership standpoint one can see very many qualities of an effective leader: he communicated extraordinarily well, was able to express a vision that inspired people; met the needs of ordinary citizens, and supported a transformation that won favor among many.
Works Cited
De Vries, M.F.K. “Charisma in Action: The Transformational Abilities of Virgin's Richard Branson and ABB's Percy Barnevik.” Organizational Dynamics, 26.3 (1998): 7-21.
Degrelle, Leon. Hitler Democrat. DC: Barnes Review, 2012.
Paxton, Robert. Anatomy of Fascism. NY: Vintage, 2005.
Shirer, William. The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich. Simon & Schuster, 1960.