Hitler's Table Talk

Hitler delivered most of the "Table Talk" monologues at the Wolfsschanze (above)[1] and at Werwolf.[2]

"Hitler's Table Talk" (German: Tischgespräche im Führerhauptquartier) is the title given to a series of World War II monologues delivered by Adolf Hitler, which were transcribed from 1941 to 1944. Hitler's remarks were recorded by Heinrich Heim, Henry Picker, Hans Müller and Martin Bormann and later published by different editors under different titles in four languages.[3][4][5][6][7][8]

Bormann, serving as Hitler's private secretary, persuaded Hitler to allow a team of specially picked officers to record in shorthand his private conversations for posterity.[1] The first notes were taken by lawyer Heinrich Heim, starting from 5 July 1941 to mid-March 1942.[1] Taking his place, Henry Picker took notes from 21 March 1942 until 2 August 1942, after which Heim and Bormann continued appending material off and on until 1944.[9]

The talks were recorded at the Führer Headquarters[1] in the company of Hitler's inner circle.[10] The talks dwell on war and foreign affairs but also Hitler's attitudes on religion, culture, philosophy, his aspirations, and feelings towards his enemies and friends.[2][5][11] Although the table talk monologues are generally considered authentic, contentious issues remain over aspects of the published works. Mikael Nilsson contends, based off evidence and statements, that the table talks are distorted by Bormann and the men he used to write them down and modify them, and deliberately used them to help him win fights within the Nazi state.[12]

  1. ^ a b c d Trevor-Roper, H.R. (2000). Hitler's Table Talk 1941–1944. New York: Enigma Books, p. vii.
  2. ^ a b Domarus, Max (2004). Speeches and proclamations, 1932–1945. Wauconda, IL: Bolchazy-Carducci Publishers, p. 2463.
  3. ^ Picker, Henry and Gerhard Ritter, eds. (1951). Tischgespräche im Führerhauptquartier 1941–1942. Bonn: Athenäum.
  4. ^ Genoud, François (1952). Adolf Hitler: Libres Propos sur la Guerre et la Paix. Paris: Flammarion.
  5. ^ a b Trevor-Roper, H.R. (1953). Hitler's Table Talk 1941–1944. Trans. Norman Cameron and R.H. Stevens. London: Weidenfeld and Nicolson. 2nd ed. 1972; 3rd ed. 2000; 4th ed. 2013.
  6. ^ An Italian translation by Emmerico Guiscardi, based on the German edition, was published by Longanesi (Milan) in 1970 under the title Conversazioni di Hitler a tavola: 1941-1942.
  7. ^ Mikael Nilson. Hitler Redux. Routledge. p. 49.
  8. ^ Picker, Henry (1976). Hitlers Tischgespräche im Führerhauptquartier (PDF) (in German). Deutsche Nationalbibliothek.
  9. ^ Carrier, R.C. (2003). "'Hitler's Table Talk': Troubling Finds"[permanent dead link] German Studies Review 26 (3): 561–576.
  10. ^ Kershaw, Ian (2001). Hitler 1936–1945: Nemesis. London: Penguin, pp. 32–33
  11. ^ Vollnhals, Clemens (2005). "Hitler's Table Talk" In Richard Levy, ed., Antisemitism. Santa Barbara: ABC-CLIO, pp. 308–309.
  12. ^ Nilsson, Mikael (15 September 2020). Hitler Redux: The Incredible History of Hitler's So-Called Table Talks. Chapter 1, Section: "Wolfram Pyta's analysis of the table talks: Routledge. ISBN 978-1-000-17329-1. Retrieved 4 October 2024.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location (link)