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Hitler at Fifty
Translated from the National Zeitung, 
Basel Liberal German-Language Saily [sic]

Living Age, July 1939; pp. 451-453

 'What do you say when you greet the Soviet 
Ambassador at a diplomatic reception?" an 
admirer recently asked the Fuehrer.

'It's very simple,' he replied. 'I look him straight 
in the eyes until he looses his composure; then, 
well, I ask: "Does the Berlin climate agree with 
your Excellency?" And while he stammers an 
answer, I have already passed on to the next person.'

...Hitler's answer is more revealing than any long 
psychological explanation. The Fuehrer knows by 
experience that he can at will radiate a certain 
emanation that disarms the most hardboiled of 
men. He has come to despise people, retaining no 
respect for anything or anybody. He is no longer 
on time for his appointments - for what visitor 
is so improtant [sic]  that he cannot be left 
waiting? Even the Duke of Windsor had to cool 
his heels for an hour before the Fuehrer received him.

Hitler detests all diplomatic ceremony and flim-
flammery. In his intimate circle he knows no greater 
pleasure than to mimic the various Ministers and 
Ambassadors. He can give better than professional 
imitations of Goebbels and Goering, and every time 
he visits the Marshal, he is forced to put on his act. 
One of his favorite victims was for a long time 
'Phippsie',  the former British Ambassador to Berlin 
who now resides in Paris. He could not stand this 
stubborn liberal and delighted in aping the manner 
in which Phippsie inserted his monocle with one 
hand while giving a tabloid version of the Hitler 
salute with the other.

At the same time, Hitler is hypersensitive to all 
attempts at ridiculing him. He flies into a rage
at every caricature depicting him as a housepainter 
or as a little man gone mad. On the other hand, he is 
not at all disturbed when foreign cartoons show 
him as a God of War or a monster. He recently read 
in an American magazine that Germany owned lO,000 
airplanes and that she manufactured 1,000 per month. 
'What nonsense,' he exclaimed. 'But let them believe it!'

His high opinion of himself has increased considerably 
since the events of last September. When
Chamberlain came to Berchtesgaden , Heinrich 
Hoffmann   ....received orders to protray [sic] the 
reception on the flight of steps leading to Hitler's 
house in such a manner that the English Premier 
looked up to the Fuehrer. The whole Munich Conference 
vastly confirmed his Napoleon complex.

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Hitler at Fifty

Nevertheless, he has no true friends. It would be too dangerous for him 
because he is the constant center of palace intrigues. Since Roehm's 
death, he is no longer on 'thee and thou' terms with a single one of his 
associates. He is always surrounded by his bodyguards, members of the 
so-called 'Suicide Corps' who have taken an oath to kill themselves if 
Hitler is assassinated. They are all treated with great consideration. 
He never forgets a birthday and takes a deep interest in their private lives.

Since Dr. Schacht's retirement Hitler has become even more nervous and 
irritable than before. In the Wilhelmstrasse, the password always is: 'For 
heaven's sake, don't irritate the Fuehrer!' He is in a state of constant 
nervous tension and neglects himself physically. Sports are repulsive to 
him and he cannot even get himself to take a long walk. For some time he 
has tried to fight against a tendency to put on weight by daily massages 
and a rigid diet of nuts and raw fruit. When he marched into 
Czechoslovakia, he had all his pockets full of hazel nuts, and an officer 
in his entourage told a British reporter who remarked about this that the 
Fuehrer devoured tremendous quantities.

Apart from his diet, Hitler s habits are very irregular; sometimes he 
goes to bed between eleven and twelve o'clock, but often it is four o'clock 
in the morning. As a rule, all members of his household are required to 
stay up as late as he does, and to entertain him as best they can. Evenings 
at the Berghof usually begin with the showing of a motion picture and end 
with music. While everyone else takes wine and beer, he drinks only 
peppermint tea or a mixture of milk and chocolate, or, occasionally, a 
brand of beer brewed especially for him in Munich containing only one per 
cent of alcohol.
           
The only women in his household are his two sisters: Ida Raball and Paula 
Hitler. Everything that has been written about his allaged [sic] love 
affairs is true. He regards the sexual impulse as a human weakness and 
despises men who cannot master it. Nevertheless, he is lenient with his 
collaborators on this score of [sic] they are necessary to him or to 
the movement. Thus he has let Dr. Goebbels, who threatened to develop 
from a moving picture dictator to a formidable philanderer, stay in his 
post. His attitude does not prevent him from enjoying the company of 
pretty women. He likes young society girls, and he is particularly fond 
of the two blond grandchildren of Richard Wagner, who treat gim [sic] 
like an old uncle. He likes their animated chatter and if he sits next 
to one fo them, he pats her hand. Buth [sic] that is all.

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Hitler at Fifty'                                                  

In his work, Hitler is just as irregular as he is in his life. He declines 
to read reports of Ministers and Ambassadors. When, in March 1936, Marshal 
von Blomberg urged him to read a document, Hitler replied: 'I am not 
interested in that report. I already know what it says.' One day later, 
the German army entered the Rhineland. The report which he rejected so 
disdainfully had contained a formal warning against this action and had 
assured him that France would immediately mobilize if the Treaty of Locarno 
were infringed.

The only documents which interest the Fuehrer are blueprints of buildings 
and military maps. Recently, he has sought the company of younger officers 
in order to become more familiar with the secrets of strategy. As an 
architect, however, he has assumed the leading role. The Reich Chancellery, 
which was recently opened was largely is owm work.
         
Undoubtedly, he has sometimes has the gift of clairvoyance and the 
sensibility of a medium. But he is no spiritualist in spite of the 
premonitions which he has about his own fate. The main reason for the 
precipitate annexation of Czecho-Slovakia was that he believes he has 
only one or two more years to live. Each time a great decision has to be 
made, his intimates hear him say in a melancholy voice: 'We must hurry. 
My time is short.'

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