Historians and biographers note some difficulty in identifying Adolf Hitler's political views. His writings and methods were often adapted to need and circumstance, although there were some steady themes, including anti-Semitism, anti-communism, anti-parliamentarianism, German expansionism, belief in the superiority of an "Aryan race" and an extreme form of German nationalism. Hitler personally claimed he was fighting against Jewish Marxism.
His views were more or less formed during three periods:
- His years as a poverty-stricken young man in Vienna and Munich prior to World War I, during which he turned to nationalist-oriented political pamphlets and anti-semitic newspapers out of distrust for mainstream newspapers and political parties.
- The closing months of World War I when Germany lost the war; Hitler is said to have developed his extreme nationalism during this time, desiring to "save" Germany from both external and internal "enemies" who, in his view, betrayed it.
- The 1920s, during which his early political career began and he wrote Mein Kampf. Hitler formally renounced his Austrian citizenship on April 7, 1925, but did not acquire German citizenship until almost seven years later; thereby allowing him to run for public office.
Read more about Adolf Hitler's Political Views: V-Mann For The Army, German Workers’ Party, The Beer Hall Putsch, Mein Kampf, Anti-communism, Racial Nationalism, Social Conservatism, Distrust of Democracy, Laying Blame On The November Criminals
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“It is even more grim and wild than you had anticipated, a damp and intricate wilderness, in the spring everywhere wet and miry. The aspect of the country, indeed, is universally stern and savage, excepting the distant views of the forest from hills, and the lake prospects, which are mild and civilizing in a degree.”
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