ABSTRACT
This chapter deals with Adolph Hitler from two perspectives. Firstly, it examines how Hitler’s public image was built using the new media available in the 1920s and 1930s. His heroic self-presentation is contrasted with his negative representation by, among others, feminist novelist Katherine Burdekin and comedian Charles Chaplin. Hitler, it is argued, initially benefitted from the confusion caused by his looks and behaviour and was perceived to be a villain only after 1939. Secondly, following mainly English historian Ian Kershaw, the chapter studies Hitler’s extraordinary sense of entitlement and how his opportunistic ascent to power was facilitated by deep faults in the structure of German patriarchal society. The appeal of patriarchal power is also read as the main reason why Nazi collective villainy was supported by many German men and women.
