The German Question, Part One Hundred Seven

"The Rise of Hitler and The Nazis" Part One/D
"Hitler in the Great War"

What later came to be called "World War One" was originally called "The Great War;" and that terminology may be somewhat unfamiliar to some.

Just a further note here, Hitler is a sensitive subject. He causes extreme emotional feelings in many people. For those who suffered under him, or those who are descendants of such, this is more than a little understandable, and the dwindling number of survivors of his crimes have been scarred by Hitler throughout their lives, some literally carrying physical scars, as well as the emotional. Unfortunately, there are those, hopefully few (one is too many), misguided individuals who are stirred by Hitler the other way, and who admire him. Some people try to paint everything he did in his life as nefarious, but I do not agree with that. In fact, I find it dangerous, because some of these extreme right wing groups, militias and haters who idolize Hitler, then can make claims that people "are making things up" to "smear" him (it's pretty tough to "smear" a son-of-a-bitch), and the "conspiracy theories" abound in the troubled minds of these people. While it makes most of us uncomfortable to think of this, Hitler was part of the "human race." Just because he showed some "good" characteristics at times (like his love of his mother and dogs), doesn't make him any less of a son-of-a-bitch overall. Hitler's rule and his actions and orders (many thoroughly documented) are quite sufficient to make him one of the most evil people in all of history, if not THE most evil, especially since it was done in modern times when people should have known better; obviously, at least in theory. Trust me, most people "get it." Just because he hugged his dog and carried his mother's picture throughout his life should not make anyone fear that others might believe he was a good person. Anyone who likes him for these reasons is simply looking for a reason to like him. I hope readers understand where I'm coming from.

Hitler served as a dispatch runner in a Bavarian infantry regiment during the war. In those times  communications between various units was frequently done by runners, who literally ran, or who used bicycles. Even in later decades there were "messengers" (motor cycles were then often used, but not exclusively) used to communicate between units to prevent interception of radio or telephone messages, or for when such communications were disrupted for some reason, like air or artillery strikes, for instance. During the course of the war, and Hitler served from early on in the war in 1914 until the end in 1918, and then remained in the army immediately after the war (more on that in the next article), Hitler was decorated with the Iron Cross, Second Class in 1914 and then the Iron Cross, First Class in 1918. While in the war for four years, and with heavy casualties among all ranks, Hitler strangely only rose to the rank of corporal (German: "Gefreiter"). He was wounded in the upper leg in 1916 and was out of action for several months. In what proved to be the final weeks of the war, Hitler was temporarily blinded during a gas attack (gas was much used during the war). He spent those final weeks of the war in a military hospital, and it was there that he learned of the armistice, which in reality meant that Germany had lost the war. He was despondent, but then, so were many Germans.

Next..."Hitler Finds a Political Party"

WORD HISTORY:
Film-This word, related to pelt and fell (the now little used noun meaning "pelt" and "membrane"^), goes back to the Indo European root "pello," meaning "skin," which gave Old Germanic "fellam," meaning "skin, or furry skin from an animal," but also a secondary meaning of "membrane on skin." From this, it seems Old Germanic then developed a separate word, "filminjan," to specifically designate "membrane." This then gave Old English (Anglo-Saxon) "filmen," "a membrane." This then later became "filme," and then the modern spelling. The basic meaning of "membrane" then began to be applied to "membrane-like, or thin skin-like coating on an object." When photography was "developing" (I couldn't resist that) in the mid 1800s, the term "film" came to be used for the thin coating of chemical spread on the plates. The word then added the additional meaning to the actual negative. When moving pictures came into being, the word came along from basic photography usage, eventually coming to mean the result of the whole process, "a film;" that is, "a movie." The verb was derived from the noun, but "to film" originally meant "to spread a thin coating on an object," and only later it came to mean "make a movie, take pictures."

^ I say "little used," but it could still be used in some local dialect(s) in England, where words not commonly used in every day English are more likely to still be in use, as opposed to such usage in North America.