discovered was that to listen to a Hitler speech was to

be taken on a journey, from an initial sense of

despair as Hitler outlined the terrible problems the
country faced, through a realisation that the
audience were not to blame for the current
troubles, to a visionof how all this could be
corrected in a better, classless world once one strong
leader, who had emerged from the German people,
was able to gain power at the head of a national
revolution. For people who were struggling underthe
impact of an economic crisis,this could be enthralling. Hitler
has often been accused of being an “actor,” but a
vital part of his early appeal was that his supporters in
the beer halls, like Emil Klein, thought he was “genuine”
through and through. “When I first saw him
address a meeting at the Hofbräuhaus [a large beer
hall in Munich],” says Emil Klein,“the man gave off such
a charisma that people believed whatever he said.
And when someone today says that he was an actor, then
I have to say that the German nation must have
been complete idiots to have granted a man like that
such belief, to the extent that the entire German
nation held out to the last day of the war …
I still believe to this day that Hitler believed that he
would be able to fulfil what he preached. That he
believed it in all honesty, believed it himself
… And ultimately all those I was together with, the
many people at the party conferences everywhere,
the people believed him, and they could only believe
him because it was evident that he did [believe
it] too, that he spoke with conviction, and that was
something lacking in those days.”13 The emotional
sincerity that many thought they detected in Hitler as an
orator was a necessary precondition of his
charismaticappeal. Hans Frank, who would later
become the ruler of much of Nazi-occupied Poland
during the Second World War, was hugely
 influenced by what he perceived as Hitler’s lack of
artifice when he heardhim speak in January 1920:
“The first [thing] that one felt was: the speaker is
somehow honest, he does not want to convince you
of something that he himself does not fully believe
in … And in the pauses of his speech his
blue eyes were shining passionately, while he brushed
back his hair with his right hand … Everything came from
the heart,and he struck a chordwith all of us …
He uttered what was in the consciousness of all
those present and linked general experiences to
clear understanding and the common wishes of those who
were suffering and wishing for a programme… But
not only that. He showed a way, the only way left to
all ruined peoples
in history, that of the grim new beginning from the most
profound depths through courage, faith, readiness for
action, hard work, and devotion, a great,shining,
common goal … From this evening onwards, though not
a party member, I was convinced that if one man
could do it, Hitler alone would be capable of
mastering Germany’s fate.”14 Hans Frankwas just nineteen
years old when he heardHitler speak, and perhaps it’s not
so surprising that a young, impressionable man like
him was so affected by Hitler’s words during these
desperate times for Germany. What’s less immediately
explicable is why Hermann Göring, a much-decorated
air force veteran, and commander of the famous
Richthofen squadron during the First World War, pledged
himself to Hitler, a former ordinary soldier, after
they met for the first time in the autumn of 1922.
Göring was nearly thirty years old when he encountered
Hitler, and was an individual used to impressing
others himself. His daring exploits as one of the
pioneering members of the German air force had
gained him not only an Iron Cross but many other
 decorations including the Pour Le Mérite, one of
the highest awards possible in the German Empire.
He had been outraged by the decision to end the
war on 11 November 1918,and had told the men in
his squadron just eight days after the armistice, “The new
fight for freedom, principles, morals and the Fatherland
has begun. We have a long and difficult way to
go, but the truth will be our light. We must be proud
of this truth and of what we have done.We must think
of this. Our time will come again.”15 By the autumn
of 1922 Göring had returned to Germany after
spending time working in Scandinavia, first as a stunt
pilot and then as a commercial pilot for the Swedish
airline, Svensk-Lufttrafik. He would shortly marrythe
soon-to-be divorced Baroness Carin von Kantzow. Now a
mature political science student at Munich
University, Göring was a worldly, hard-bitten man of
immense personal confidence.Yet he was immediately
impressed when he first saw Adolf Hitler. “One day, on
a Sunday in November or October of 1922,I went
to this protest demonstration as a spectator,” Göring
said during his war crimes trial at Nuremberg in
1946.“At the end Hitler too was called for. I had
heard his namebriefly mentioned once before and
wanted to hear what he had to say. He declined
to speak, and it was pure coincidence that I
stood nearby and heardthe reasons for his refusal
… He considered it