Vegetarianism of Adolf Hitler
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Martin Bormann's children are seen (around 1940) inside the greenhouse he built for Adolf Hitler at Berchtesgaden, from colour movie film shot by Eva Braun, now in the U.S. National Archives.Most of Adolf Hitler's biographers assert that he was a vegetarian from 1931 until his death in 1945. However, a few reports indicate that he occasionally ate meat during the 1930s.
The evidence
Biographers believe that Adolf Hitler's diet was influenced by essays of composer Richard Wagner which promoted vegetarianism.[1] Writing in 1881, Wagner argued that the original human diet had been vegetarian, but that humanity had become contaminated through racial mixing and the consumption of animal flesh. Hitler idolized Wagner as a young adult, saying: "I don't touch meat largely because of what Wagner says on the subject." [2]
Hitler was 22 years old and living in Vienna when he first experimented with a vegetarian diet in an attempt to cure a chronic stomach ailment. In a 1911 letter Hitler wrote: "I am pleased to be able to inform you that I already feel altogether well....It was nothing but a small stomach upset and I am trying to cure myself through a diet of fruits and vegetables." [3]
Biographers Robert Proctor and John Toland propose that Hitler may have interpreted his stomach cramps as an early sign of cancer, a disease that killed his mother Klara Hitler when he was 18. Proctor describes Hitler as "a vegetarian, of sorts" who ate meat on occasion: "Hitler was indeed, for the most part, a vegetarian — though he did occasionally allow himself a dish of meat."
Dione Lucas, who worked as a cook at a Hamburg hotel during the early 1930s and later became a celebrity chef, published the Gourmet Cooking School Cookbook in 1964, which included a recipe for squab (four week-old fledgling pigeon) with a short anecdote: "I do not mean to spoil your appetite for stuffed squab, but you might be interested to know that it was a great favorite with Mr. Hitler, who dined at the hotel often. Let us not hold that against a fine recipe though."
After the war Rudolf Diels (who headed the early Gestapo for a year before narrowly avoiding execution) wrote that Hitler sometimes ate Bavarian Leberknödel (liver dumplings) but only when they were prepared by his photographer friend Heinrich Hoffmann. [2]
Historian Thomas Fuchs reports that Hitler's experiments with vegetarianism as a young adult were "far from absolute in his adherence": "In the early, frantic days of Nazi organizing, he was often too busy to sit down to a full meal. He ate on the run, gnawing chunks of sausage...in September 1931, he manifested an active loathing for meat," which followed the suicide of Geli Raubal, "the niece with whom Hitler had been in love".[4]
American author and historian John Toland mentions that after Raubal's death Hitler became a vegetarian and "he meant it. From that moment on, she [Frau Hess] said, Hitler never ate another piece of meat except for liver dumplings. 'Suddenly! He ate meat before that. It is very difficult to understand or explain."' Biographies by the German journalist Joachim Fest and British historian Ian Kershaw also state that Hitler became a vegetarian after the 1931 death of Geli Raubal, an event which is said to have left Hitler in great distress.
In private conversations, Hitler often recited the benefits of eating raw vegetables, fruit, and grains, particularly for children and soldiers. In an attempt to disgust dinner guests and provoke them into shying away from meat, he reportedly told graphic stories of visits he had made to a slaughterhouse in the Ukraine. Food writer Bee Wilson writes that after Raubal's suicide Hitler's diet was "free of flesh," describes his strict vegetarian regime and notes, "It amused him to spoil carnivorous guests' appetites... As they put their forks down in disgust, he would harangue them for hypocrisy. 'That shows how cowardly people are,' he would say. 'They can't face doing certain horrible things themselves, but they enjoy the benefits without a pang of conscience.'" [5]
In a May 30, 1937 article in The New York Times entitled "Where Hitler Dreams and Plans", Otto D. Tolischus wrote: "It is well known that Hitler is a vegetarian and does not drink or smoke. His lunch and dinner consist, therefore, for the most part of soup, eggs, vegetables and mineral water, although he occasionally relishes a slice of ham and relieves the tediousness of his diet with such delicacies as caviar, luscious fruits, and similar titbits. He is outspoken about having a sweet tooth and loves confectionery, especially chocolates." [6]
In a November, 1938 article for the English magazine Homes & Gardens describing Hitler's mountain home, The Berghof, Ignatius Phayrethe wrote, "A life-long [sic] vegetarian at table, Hitler's kitchen plots are both varied and heavy in produce. Even in his meatless diet Hitler is something of a gourmet -- as Sir John Simon and Anthony Eden were surprised to note when they dined with him in the Presidial Palace at Berlin. His Bavarian chef, Herr Kannenberg, contrives an imposing array of vegetarian dishes, savoury and rich, pleasing to the eye as well as to the palate, and all conforming to the dietic standards which Hitler exacts."
Hitler feeding a deer.Martin Bormann, who as head of the Party Chancellery (and private secretary to Hitler) is considered by most historians to have been the second most powerful Nazi official in Germany, built Hitler a large greenhouse at Berchtesgaden in order to keep him supplied with fresh fruit and vegetables throughout the war. Personal photographs of Bormann's children tending the greenhouse survive (see above), and by 2005 its foundations were among the only ruins associated with the Nazi leadership still visible in the area.
According to stenographic transcripts translated by Hugh Trevor-Roper of conversations between Hitler and his inner circle which took place between July 1941 and November 1944 Hitler regarded himself as a vegetarian (British historian Alan Bullock notes Hitler would not allow the use of a tape recorder and that the written transcripts were edited by Bormann).[7] According to transcripts dated November 11, 1941 Hitler said, "One may regret living at a period when it's impossible to form an idea of the shape the world of the future will assume. But there's one thing I can predict to eaters of meat: the world of the future will be vegetarian." On January 12, 1942, he said, "The only thing of which I shall be incapable is to share the sheiks' mutton with them. I'm a vegetarian, and they must spare me from their meat."[8]
In a diary entry dated April 26, 1942, Joseph Goebbels described Hitler as a committed vegetarian, writing, "An extended chapter of our talk was devoted by the Führer to the vegetarian question. He believes more than ever that meat-eating is harmful to humanity. Of course he knows that during the war we cannot completely upset our food system. After the war, however, he intends to tackle this problem also. Maybe he is right. Certainly the arguments that he adduces in favor of his standpoint are very compelling." [9]
Traudl Junge, who became his secretary in 1942, reported that he "always avoided meat" but that his Austrian cook Kruemel sometimes added a little animal broth or fat to his meals. "Mostly the Fuehrer would notice the attempt at deception, would get very annoyed and then get tummy ache," Junge said. "At the end he would only let Kruemel cook him clear soup and mashed potato." [10] In 1943, Marlene von Exner became his dietitian and reportedly added bone marrow to his soups without his knowledge because she "despised" his vegetarian diet.
In his post-war reminiscence The Enigma of Hitler, Belgian SS General, and friend of Hitler's, Léon Degrelle wrote: "He could not bear to eat meat, because it meant the death of a living creature. He refused to have so much as a rabbit or a trout sacrificed to provide his food. He would allow only eggs on his table, because egg-laying meant that the hen had been spared rather than killed."
Esoteric Hitlerist Savitri Devi placed great significance on Hitler's advocacy of animal rights, and admired his aim of "a continent without slaughterhouses."
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