Hitler's Vienna: A Dictator's Apprenticeship

Hitler's Vienna: A Dictator's Apprenticeship

by Brigitte Hamann (Author)

Synopsis

What turned Adolf Hitler, a relatively normal and apparently unexceptional young man, into the very personification of evil? To answer this question, acclaimed historian Brigitte Hamann has turned to the critical, formative, years that the young Hitler spent in Vienna. For it was here, behind the glittering curtain of artistic creativity, liberalism and prosperity, that the architect of the Holocaust was born. As a failing, bitter and desperately poor artist, Hitler experienced only the dark underbelly of Vienna, which was seething with fear, racial prejudice, anti-semitism and conservatism. Drawing on previously untapped sources - from personal reminiscences to the records of shelters where Hitler slept - Hamann vividly recreates the dark side of fin de siecle Vienna and paints the fullest and most disturbing portrait of the young Hitler to date - the genesis of the most terrifying dictator the world has ever known.

$18.00

Quantity

2 in stock

More Information

Format: Paperback
Pages: 496
Publisher: Tauris Parke
Published: 21 Jun 2010

ISBN 10: 1848852770
ISBN 13: 9781848852778

Media Reviews
'A fascinating and impressive book... Hitler's Vienna serves as a prologue to the inhuman.' - George Steiner, Times Literary Supplement; 'A virtuoso piece both of research and exposition...Brigitte Hamann is an author of great flair, as well as being thorough, scholarly, and thoughtful.' - Robert Evans, Oxford University; 'Hamann's deep knowledge of Vienna and her skeptical approach to previous sources results in a double-sided portrait that will help readers to understand both the Dual Monarchy and WWI and the Third Reich and WWII.' - Publishers Weekly
Author Bio
Brigitte Hamann is an award-winning German historian based in Vienna. The success of her first book, a biography of Crown Prince Rudolph of Austria, led to others, most notably biographies of Hitler, Winifred Wagner and Empress Elisabeth of Austria, which was named Historical Book of the Year in DAMALS history magazine in 2005. In the same year she won the Concordia Preis in recognition of her work.