OLLI0188 - Adolf Hitler And Nazism: Exploring the Enigmas

Course Description

Adolf Hitler is arguably the world’s most recognizable historical figure, and the one most people know very little about. He is certainly one of the great enigmas of world history. He was a man of obscure background, without a university education and with no trade or profession, but he became the undisputed leader of Germany. Adolf Hitler was “the first modern politician” pioneering the use of media manipulation (radio, press, and film) for political purposes, the first to use air travel as a campaign tool, and the first to use the elaborate staging of political rallies as propaganda spectacles. The Nazi Party was equally enigmatic. Using a hybrid political philosophy, it attracted adherents from the left-wing laboring class and right-wing industrialists and rallied middle class shop owners to a party that called themselves Socialists. While the party was seemingly anti-intellectual, university students were among its loudest members. In this course we will seek an understanding of how Adolf Hitler became the undisputed dictator of Germany and the Nazi party its ruling party. This course will be recorded.