was hitler a great leader? bad leader?

[oppp7]

Oh yes, he was an awesome leader like how he genocided his country. But lets ignore that one for shits and giggles.

WTF did he do? Why do you people always chirp "he was an awesome leader but a horrible person?" For one, ONE OF THE MAIN PURPOSES OF GOVERNMENT IS PROTECTION OF THE CITIZENS. AND HE FAILED AT IT IN THE WORST POSSIBLE WAY. HE'S A FUCKING BAD LEADER. 2, what are his redeeming qualities? Does anyone here know anything he actually did right, or are you going to point out that since he was in office the country went from trashed to military power? Because that says nothing about him.

 

[Danny Ocean]

Fantastic leader, terrible at international relations.

 

[Vox Caster T2]

Say what you will about the mass-murdering bastard, he knew how to play peoples' minds. Towards the end of the war, though, he appeared to have become unstable and insane (If he wasn't beforehand). Who in their right mind would attack Russia? He might've stood a chance if it were only Russia, but half of Europe aswell?

Who in their right mind? That would be someone who truly believed in "Lebensraum" at the expense of the Soviets and a number of other factors which demanded it. Soviet living space was always the prize for NSDAP Germany's expansion. In the early phases of the war, Hitler and his crones thought that the Western powers would be either look the other way with the "justified" re-taking of lost regions *cough-Chamberlain-cough* or quickly fold against superior strategic placement, such as France's forces being out-manuevered.

Roosevelt, Churchill and Dowding tossed the proverbial wrench into the plans, and that's why the Western Front continued to exist. As the war progressed, the Germans were hard up for oil and capture of the soviet oil-fields became increasingly important. Once the Germans were committed, they couldn't strategically pull out, the Romanian oil fields were barely keeping them afloat.

 

[Wrists]

I'm not sure he was a good leader, a good figurehead certainly, but a leader? I would have said that for the most part it was his subordinates who came up with the policies that turned Germany around. He was able to reform the National Socialist Party to the point where they could act as good leaders but he wasn't a good leader as far as most people would judge.

Also, he was an abysmal military leader and you can blame a lot of went wrong with Barbarossa and the Ardennes Offensive to him, probably more but I'm not certain.

 

[Virus0015]

He was a very, very good leader during his early poltical career (i.e. before and during the early stages of WW2). However in a military tactician role he sucked. Had he listened to his advisers, it would have been possible for Nazi Germany to retain a sizeable portion of Europe. Probably the most obvious example is the attack on Russia, which lead to an EXACT repeat of what happened in world war one ( underestimated Russia, Russia holds their ground, Allies attack from the west, Germany forced to split military, the now insignificant numbers on each front get crushed).

 

[Trebort]

Hitler was one of the greatest leaders in human history, anybody teaching you management or leadership will use him as an example.

"Hitler was a great leader, you can't teach leadership, but I can teach you management" said my tutor once.

 

[Venatio]

Well lets see: he got a destute Germany and turned it into a military power that came very close to conquering the world. I mean really, it took how many nations to take it down?


On the other hand: He ignored his Generals and decided to go to war with Russia when he wasn't even done on the western front, putting Germany in a two way war. He practically lobotomized his military when he made it clear that all important measures where to go through him - the German tanks not being there to greet our troops on D-day? Ya, you can thank that dirtbag for said mercy.

So if we remember him for his mistakes, as we do all leaders, as well as add in the fact that he instituted the whole "kill all the Jews" policy - then we can assume that he was an idiot. All the charisma in the world wont save you if you dont let people do their job or size up a situation correctly.

 

[rokkolpo]

he was an awesome leader!

awesome in the sense ''of Awe my GOD!''
but yeah he did an impressive job.

he just had an issue of right and wrong.
issue might be a small way of putting it.

 

[Blind Sight]

I'm pretty sure most of you know of Erwin Rommel. The Desert Fox. Hero of North Africa. This guy gave the Allies a run for his money. He was a master at tanks, probably the greatest tank commander to ever live. He never had a chance to lead troops in France, because Hitler felt he was getting too popular and forced him to commit suicide. And I'm fairly sure Rommel wasn't the only German casualty caused by Hitler personally. Paranoia was ultimately his undoing, and unfortunately, Hitler took it out on his own people.

I don't think it was really unwarranted paranoia, as Rommel was connected to the July 20th assassination attempt against him. Of course, Rommel actually wanted to arrest Hitler and try him for war crimes, but went along with the assassination idea anyway. Rommel committed suicide because the attempt failed and Hitler had several of the conspirators tortured to reveal information. Rommel's name came up, and he was offered the option to commit suicide in order to prevent his family's execution as well.

At the OP: Hitler was a pretty good leader in the Machiavellean sense. Morally, not so much, and his creation of a world war that crippled his entire country and several others doesn't help either. Not to mention the Holocaust, etc, etc.

 

[Jack and Calumon]

Well, he got Germany out of Depression (Good), then he decided to scapegoat people (Bad), and then he began to control and kill them (Evil). Then he just got worse from there.

Calumon: Didn't know him.

 

[Dyme]

He was a horrible leader. He was able to lead people, but he led them straight into suffering.

He was a good orator at least and a decent politician, but was a terrible author. He was a good leader in the way that he could make the people love him whilst still screwing them over (even if they weren't jewish. Like women, for example.) and managed to indoctrinate a large proportion of German youth.

However, aside from rebuilding the German economy he didn't do much good for his people. Aside from the obvious, he wreaked hell on German society and had awful views on almost everything.

His sales of "Mein Kampf" beg to differ that he was a terrible author.

Have you read it? The prose is deadful. I think the only reason it sold was due to his celebrity status after the Munich Putsch and going to jail for a bit.

Well, if you married, the registry office gave you "Mein Kampf" as present. Hitler forbid selling his book second hand, so the office could only buy new books from the publisher. Only very few people really read it. And it is really painful to read.

 

[Cherry Cola]

The amount of people calling him a great leader is a bit... confusing.

I mean, it's almost entirely Hitler's fault Germany lost the war. He wouldn't step aside and let his generals take command.

As has been stated, good politician, terrible leader.

 

[Buleet]

In the war?NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO.If he just let his generals do the battle strategie thing they could have won.

Of course for all other things yes he was a good leader.But remember that russia isnt all holy and saintlike.If germany won we would all be talking about how evil the russians and americans where.

To quote:history is written by the victors

 

[Assassin Xaero]

He was a great leader but a terrible person.

And that is pretty much exactly what I was going to say...

The amount of people calling him a great leader is a bit... confusing.

I mean, it's almost entirely Hitler's fault Germany lost the war. He wouldn't step aside and let his generals take command.

As has been stated, good politician, terrible leader.

He brought Germany out of the depression that was caused by... erm... whatever they called the UN type thing back then. They put all the blame and extreme debts on Germany when Germany didn't even start WWI.

 

[Zykon TheLich]

He was a brilliant leader in that he could get people to do things, just a terrible planner/strategist etc when it came to running a country in wartime. He excelled at one aspect of leadership but in order to be a great leader I'd say you needed to be good at all the rest of it. Thats my 2p.

 

[Blackality]

I think I read somewhere that the only fight Hitler directed was a complete disaster.

It was on a cracked.com article I think.

 

[acosn]

The one thing going for Hitler was that he was charismatic, and he knew how to run the political game. Of course, he ran the "game" like he was a bit of a mobster.

Otherwise? He was a train wreck. A lot of it is hard to separate between his talent and his madness (his personal doctor had him hopped up on Meth. Woops) but at the end of the day he was shooting his country in the foot.

 

[TheYellowCellPhone]

In my opinion, he was a good leader with bad intentions.

Eh, sort of IMO.

While he made bad military blunders and hardly listened to his advisors, he somehow became the closest person to world domination in the history of the world.

The problem seemed to be the political instability in the world after WWI. No one but Germany seemed to want to go to war, and avoided it at all costs, limiting the fighting.

 

[L-J-F]

Yeah I'd say he was one of the best....... let me rephrase that, "most effective" leaders. And if he hadn't have invaded Russia he wouldn'd have lost the vast majority of his army and thus the war. That my friends, was a REALLY bad idea.