I read this book a few years ago and a lot of it came back to me when I watched the T.V. movie on CBS recently. These "missing years" (i.e. the early years before Hitler came to power) aren't really "missing" (there is plenty of information out there on Hitler's ascent to power) but are told from an insider's perspective. As Hitler biographer John Toland states in the inside jacket of this book, "Ernst Hanfstaengl and his family were in my opinion closer to Hitler than any other family during those crucial [early] years." Hanfstaengl met Hitler in 1921 when he was drawn to the ambitious politician during a speech in a Munich beer hall. He befriended Hitler and became his foreign press secretary only to become disillusioned by Hitler's increasingly fanatic and anti-Semitic rhetoric accompanying and following the release of Mein Kampf.

In the Missing Years, the reader gets insight into the early organization of the NSDAP and the emergence of Hitler's mass appeal. Hanfstaengl explains the way Hitler could express the thoughts of his audience: "Many a time I have seen him face a hall plentifully sprinkled with opponents ready to heckle and interject, and in his search for the first body of support, make a remark about food shortages and domestic difficulties or the sound instinct of his women listeners which would produce the first bravos" (68). As to Hitler's political strategy, Hanfstaengl states, "He did not make a revolution to acquire power, but acquired power in order to make a revolution" (172)." As to the Jewish question, Hitler, at one point, told Hanfstaengl "I need the Jews as hostages" (211).

Hanfstaengl was close to Hitler, so much so that he received the jealous wrath of the other members of Hitler's inner circle. Hitler enjoyed listening to Hanfstaengl play the piano, so Hitler's other disciples played the radio full blast when he arrived or, as in the case of Goebbels, play recordings of Wagner or Hitler's own speeches for Hitler to prevent any influence Hanfstaengl might have (192).

The most intriguing part of the book is the gossip on Hitler's bizarre behavior around women, including Hanfstaengl's wife. This seedy information includes Geli Raubal and Hitler's pornographic drawings (163). Readers may be skeptical over some of the accounts (he admits to hearing some of the accounts third hand) but I, for one, would not be surprised if they were all true. This book does not have an index, which is a little irritating when one is trying to look up information, but the chapters are fairly short (16 chapters, 308 pages).

It is common to dismiss Hanfstaengl's account of his years with Hitler as a biased story written by a Nazi who had fallen out with his leader. However, almost all those who remained close to Hitler and survived (Strasser, Ludecke and various servants and so on) tell very similar stories. There is, in fact, an entire literature on Hitler which deals with his relationship, for instance, with Geli Raubal, the story of the pornographic pictures for which he was blackmailed. This material is almost always dismissed (by Kershaw, for instance, who has done an excellent biography) as being suspect or irrelevant whereas other material which has similar provenance is used quite happily. Why this should be, I don't really know. The picture drawn by Hanfstaengl in this book is far more 'human'. He promotes the notion that Hitler changed radically after Geli's violent death and this is intelligently countered by Ron Rosenbaum in Explaining Hitler -- however, Hitler's terror of the power that was suddenly to become reality (and therefore a responsibility) is more likely to have 'changed' him. Whatever the reasons for the change, books like this provide an insight where the political intersects with the personal and for me much of Hitler's 'mysterious' behaviour later (including his bad military decisions) can be explained through studying books like this. None of the others appear to be in print and the Ludecke, which I think is the best, is scarcely mentioned (not at all in Explaining Hitler). It certainly contradicts the more or less agreed story which Kershaw, in the tradition of other excellent biographies, repeats. It could be that novelists and writers like Primo Levi have more to tell us now than historians. If your idea of Hitler is of a powerful superman leading a great nation into a massive war, then you probably will be disappointed by this book and the others like it. If you see him as a lucky, psychopathic nerd, as I do, then this book will help you understand a bit more about the personality of the man whose carefully manufactured myth somehow touched the soul of Germany, debased the myth and stained the soul. Five stars for being unusual, but, of course, it must be taken with a certain scepticism, so four stars... Highly recommended, however, to anyone seriously interested in understanding how a civilised nation can find itself voting a monster into power. I think it could happen to any of us. To some of us it has already happened. It can happen in America. It can happen in Britain. Germany, Russia, Poland, Italy, Spain, Czechoslovakia, Yugoslavia, Hungary, Roumania and other European countries with a record of humane political progress until 'everything changed' into rule by a dictator and a police state. It comes upon us suddenly, if we aren't watchful democrats. The constitutions of many of those countries were not so different to those of America or Britain, say, and we should never congratulate ourselves that such things could not happen to us. The subtle ways in which such events occur is shown in this book. It is a lesson we all need to remember.

This book from Ernst Hanfstaengl was very insightful. He was in close contact with Hitler and his innercircle for sometime. He discusses Hitler's behavior and personality. Hanfstaengl has much to tell since he was in close proximity to Hitler during the early years of the Nazi Party. Anyone that's interested in Hitler should read this highly informative and readable account. I learned quite a bit from reading it. I recommend this book.

Adolf Hilter, a fascinating yet despised man of his times would be a hero to many, but a murderer to some. He has had the courage to lead thousands upon thousands of women, men, and children. He has changed my way of thinking and probably others who thing of Hitler as their hero.