The Pre-1914 Origins of Hitler’s Antisemitism Revisited

Abstract

ABSTRACT This article revisits the origins of Adolf Hitler's antisemitism. It raises the question as to whether it is really credible to argue that Hitler did not harbor antisemitic sentiments prior to the post-revolutionary period following World War One. The article introduces readers to hitherto unknown testimony by Elisabeth Grünbauer, the daughter of the family with whom Hitler lodged in Munich prior to the First World War. According to her testimony, Hitler was already an antisemite six years earlier than previously believed. Crucially, she claims that Hitler's Jew-hatred predates the watershed of World War One. In her testimony, Grünbauer recorded antisemitic statements Hitler made to her father that link Hitler's decision to leave Austria to his antisemitism. The article provides a critical assessment of Grünbauer's testimony. Further, it attempts to explain the genesis of Hitler's antisemitism in the prewar world and its eventual mutation in postwar, post-revolutionary Munich.