World War I
Main article: Military career of Adolf Hitler
Hitler (far right, seated) with Bavarian
Army comrades from the Bavarian Reserve Infantry Regiment 16 (c. 1914–18)
In August 1914, at the outbreak of World War I, Hitler was living in Munich and
voluntarily enlisted in the Bavarian Army.[69] According to a 1924 report by the
Bavarian authorities, allowing Hitler to serve was most likely an administrative error,
because as an Austrian citizen, he should have been returned to Austria.[69] Posted to
the Bavarian Reserve Infantry Regiment 16 (1st Company of the List Regiment),[69]
[70]
he served as a dispatch runner on the Western Front in France and Belgium,
[71]
spending nearly half his time at the regimental headquarters in Fournes-en-
Weppes, well behind the front lines.[72][73] In 1914, he was present at the First Battle of
Ypres[74] and in that year was decorated for bravery, receiving the Iron Cross, Second
Class.[74] During the war, he was saved by his commanding officer, Fritz Wiedemann,
who pulled Hitler out of the rubble of a collapsed building while under heavy fire.[75]
During his service at headquarters, Hitler pursued his artistic interests, drawing
cartoons and providing instructions for an army newspaper. During the Battle of the
Somme in October 1916, he was wounded in the left thigh when a shell exploded in
the dispatch runners' dugout.[74][76] Hitler spent almost two months recovering in
hospital at Beelitz, returning to his regiment on 5 March 1917.[77] He was present at
the Battle of Arras of 1917 and the Battle of Passchendaele.[74] He received the Black
Wound Badge on 18 May 1918.[78] Three months later, in August 1918, on a
recommendation by Lieutenant Hugo Gutmann, his Jewish superior, Hitler received
the Iron Cross, First Class, a decoration rarely awarded at Hitler's Gefreiter rank.[79]
[80]
On 15 October 1918, he was temporarily blinded in a mustard gas attack and was
hospitalised in Pasewalk.[81] While there, Hitler learned of Germany's defeat, and, by
his own account, suffered a second bout of blindness after receiving this news.[82]
Hitler described his role in World War I as "the greatest of all experiences", and was
praised by his commanding officers for his bravery.[83] His wartime experience
reinforced his German patriotism, and he was shocked by Germany's capitulation in
November 1918.[84] His displeasure with the collapse of the war effort began to shape
his ideology.[85] Like other German nationalists, he believed
the Dolchstoßlegende (stab-in-the-back myth), which claimed that the German army,
"undefeated in the field", had been "stabbed in the back" on the home front by
civilian leaders, Jews, Marxists, and those who signed the armistice that ended the
fighting—later dubbed the "November criminals".[86]
The Treaty of Versailles stipulated that Germany had to relinquish several of its
territories and demilitarise the Rhineland. The treaty imposed economic sanctions
and levied heavy reparations on the country. Many Germans saw the treaty as an
unjust humiliation. They especially objected to Article 231, which they interpreted as
declaring Germany responsible for the war.[87] The Versailles Treaty and the
economic, social, and political conditions in Germany after the war were later
exploited by Hitler for political gain.[88]
