Foreword to Young Hitler
by Dr. Klaus A. Lankheit

Dr. Klaus A. Lankheit is deputy chief of the world's most extensive archive of documents relating to the Nazi dictatorship, the Institut für Zeitgeschichte in Munich. He is author, editor and co-editor of several publications on Hitler and the Third Reich, among them several editions of the series of books entitled Hitler. Reden, Schriften, Anordnungen (Hitler. Speeches, Scripts, Orders), Munich, 1994-2003. Dr. Lankheit regularly reviews books on Hitler and the Third Reich for the Frankfurter Allgemeine newspaper.

Historical novels serve to convey the atmosphere and the feelings of the past to a broader readership. The closer the historical events of the story are to our time and the more the story concerns an acting historical personality, the harder historical novels are to write. The rise and fall of Adolf Hitler is one of the most disturbing yet simultaneously fascinating developments of the last century and is the subject of intense popular interest. Facts and figures of Hitler's active political career are well known. But what happened before he stepped into the spotlight of the German, and later the international, political scene? In his semi-autobiographical pamphlet "Mein Kampf", Hitler painted a picture in which he arranged the facts in a manner which diverged from the truth in preparation for his own canonization. On the occasion of the "Party Rally of Honour" in 1936, Hitler, by then the "Fuehrer", announced to the cheering audience: "This is the miracle of our time, that you have found me, that you have found me amongst so many millions! And that I have found you, that is Germany's fortune!" Hitler's adolescence and early manhood apparently gave not the slightest indication that his actions would ever have any effect on the course of history. By the time he committed suicide, he was responsible for the death and eradication of millions of human beings, and left behind a ruined continent, including the nation whose saviour he pretended to be. It is really a "miracle" how this initially lazy and untalented, as well as demanding and megalomaniac character inspired millions of Germans a few years later. The attentive reader of this book will be able to follow this evolution and its turning points. The things we know about his youth and adolescence we know from his companions. Although these companions did not know one another, their evidence contains a lot of corresponding elements. Combined with the facts from reliable sources, their evidence is the material this novel is founded on. The first person narrator is not the leading character, which is of course Hitler; rather, the narrator accompanies Hitler in the traceable phases of his life.
Based on thorough reading and extensive research, this novel minimizes the prophylactic scepticism of the professional historian about fiction dealing with the protagonists of the Third Reich. The story fits the acknowledged historical facts as known to date, while at the same time leaving space for individual interpretation. Plenty of matter, with plenty of art.

Dr. Klaus A. Lankheit