ABSTRACT
In the self-destructive proclamation of 18 February 1943, the granite foundation of 'scientific' racism reveals itself again, in indirect fashion. The Vienna years formed in Adolf Hitler 'an image of the world and a Weltanschauung that became the granite foundation of action', and to which he subsequently had 'little to add and nothing to change'. The event that Hitler describes as crucial was an 'apparition' that occurred while he was wandering around Leopoldstadt, the central Jewish quarter of Vienna. With a rapid rise, in January 1933 Hitler came to power in Germany. 'Hitler's impatience and determination to act manifested itself for the first time concretely in the secret meeting of 5 November 1937': these are the opening words of a chapter of Fest's biography of Hitler. On 22 August 1939, in Obersalzberg, Hitler prepared the military commanders for the two great events which were now imminent: agreement between Germany and the Soviet Union and war.
