Part IV, Youth and the Evolution of Identity, Chapter 9, The Legend of Hitler's Childhood Summary and Analysis

Adolf Hitler and his associates were the greatest exploiters of a nation's fight for safe identity in history. Unfortunately Germany was absorbed by martial spirit, and according to Erikson, will hopefully return to the pursuit of "Kultur", but Nazism was the German version of universal contemporary potential. Nations are defined not only by their highest point of civilization achievement but by the weakest point in the collective identity. Consequently, Erikson proposes to analyze German identity through the prism of the legend of Hitler's childhood.

Hitler was born in the Austrian town of Braunau, near the German border. His mother was twenty-three years younger than his father and was a good woman for her day; his...