Why did Adolph Hitler do what he did?

Answer 1

Hitler did what he did for largely the same reasons you do what you do and everyone else does what they do. This is basic human behavior.

Let me try it this way:

People do what they do for two reasons, they want to, or they need to. Here's the thing, those two reasons boil down to one really, they need to. Desire, especially when repressed, can rise to the level of necessity.

So, with that in mind, the greatest necessity that most people recognize is the greater good over evil. Hitler saw a great evil being done to the German people at the end of WW1. He chose to combat this, and largely felt that whatever was visited upon those responsible for the evil being done was largely deserved.

This does not justify anything done by the Nazi party, but it goes a long way toward objectively explaining it.

The problem here is a presumption made by the question itself. That one would question the actions of anyone presupposes that something in that action is not right. This holds up the ruler of Right and Wrong, perhaps illustrated best by the Scales of Justice. Only, the ruler most use is not one of equity or fairness, rather it is is the Ruler of Morality.

The problem with measuring anything with the Ruler of Morality, and that no two moralities are the same. What one person finds moral, another will not.

So, let me paint a different picture:

Say you moved into a new home, sitting on a large piece of property. On the day you move in, you notice that your neighbor is pulling up the fence between your properties and is moving the posts closer to your house. You question him on this and he tells you that the previous owners unfairly took that portion of land from them and he is simply correcting that. You check into the story and find that it is not true, and that there is evidence that leads you to believe the opposite is true, and that your lot is larger than you previously believed. This goes back and forth for some time, eventually involving the authorities, who set the fence back to where your neighbor moved it on the day you moved in. Would you be happy about this? Now, let's say one of your children was sitting next to the fence when it was pulled up, and after it was moved, the neighbor decided the child was now his to do what as he pleased, and puts the child to work cutting his very large lawn with a pair of small scissors.

Yes, I know, getting a bit ridiculous, but play along.

Would you stand by and watch your child rendered a virtual slave and your land stolen from you while you watched? Well, let's throw into this an order from the courts forcing you to pay the neighbor 75% of your pay to reimburse him for suffering at the hands of the previous owner of the property.

Are you going to stand by and let that happen?

Obviously no.

That in very simple (and silly) terms is why Hitler did what he did.

Doesn't make it right. Doesn't make it the wisest response. But, Hitler and the Nazis did not believe they were doing evil, even while it was happening.