In “The Rhetoric of Hitler’s Battle” by Kenneth Burke, he discusses the use of Hitler’s rhetoric, diction, and speeches in his rise to power.  In this article, he uses an interesting style in describing Hitler’s rise to power.  Burke uses metaphors and certain uses of irony and descriptive language to describe Hitler’s genius and the rise of Germany during the 1930s. Hitler rose to power while the German government was very weak.  They had just lost World War One, and the German economy, morale, and government was very weak.  This allowed Hitler to almost be given a seat in the government, and he began to publicly spread his ideas.  He went about speaking of a new, more powerful Germany in an effort to unify the country after World War One.  As the morale was low and Hitler was a powerful voice, the public began to take to his ideas and support him.  When analyzing this, Burke uses a very unique and interesting way to describe Hitler and the way he went about speaking, so in this paper I will review and analyze Burke’s description of Hitler and the way he went about spreading his ideas.

Prior to World War Two, Hitler spent his time trying to unify the German government and people and tried to get them to believe in his idea of a better Germany with a masterful Aryan race. He believed Germany had been tarnished by Jews and other non-Aryan races of people; believing that it was their fault Germany had lost World War One.   Hitler convinced the German people to boycott Jewish business and told everyone that they were evil, and the crazy thing is that people believed him. Burke describes this by saying “Hitler found a panacea, ‘a cure for what ails you,’ a ‘snakeoil,’ that made such sinister unifying possible in his own nation” (Burke 33).  When Burke is saying this, he means that Hitler in telling the German people and government that they are weak and they need him to make them stronger, needs to unite together as a superior people.  So basically, he is almost blaming the Jews and other non-Aryan Germans as the problems going on in Germany, described by Burke as “snakeoil” and “ailment”.  The use of these words by Burke helps him to describe what Hitler was trying to do and the madness of it.  Burke clearly recognizes what Hitler is trying to do because he describes it as a “sinister unification” which helps to make his readers aware of the evil that Hitler did.  Burke’s style of implementing his descriptions and feelings of Hitler’s unification is very interesting as he uses phrases like snakeoil to show the toxic of Hitler’s ideals on society.  The use of this word by Burke has a sort of double meaning in describing the life of Hitler, as it can refer to both the way Hitler got into power in Germany as well as the ideas he presented in power that started another war. Hitler’s intelligence is described by Burke in this article multiple times, and it really is the epitome of the term ‘evil genius’.  He used the weakness and corruption of the German government after World War One to his advantage as he thought of a way to get into power, and also his plans of taking all of Europe for Germany and killing off anyone that wasn’t a part of his ‘masterful’ Aryan race.  

Another unique way Burke describes Hitler’s power is “This book is the well of Nazi magic; crude magic, but effective” (Burke 33-34).  The book he is referring to is Mein Kampf, the book Hitler wrote before coming into power that basically describes his Nazi ideals and goals.  I think the thing that is very interesting about Burke’s description here is the magic aspect.  Magic is usually thought of in a positive connotation, something that is awe inspiring and helpful.  However in this instance, it is described by Burke in a negative connotation and refers to the way Hitler captivated the German people and unified them to a degree.  Burke describes how the way Hitler spoke captivated everyone and almost magically got people to agree with him and support his ideas, which he did with German officials and the German people. These ideals and ‘crude magic’ include Hitler’s rise to power and his master plan, mainly the genocide of the Jews and other races to cleanse Germany and Europe.  Perhaps this crude magic Burke is referring to describes how Hitler was able to get all the high ranking German officials and much of the German population to back him, even if they didn’t know precisely what his plans were.  This magic that Hitler displayed onto the German people was astonishingly effective, as Burke notes.  I believe Burke describes it this way in order to warn the current generation and the future about something like this happening again.  The way he describes it shows the ignorance of the people and how we need to recognize when something like this is happening or is about to happen, and someone should stand up to this.

Thirdly, another strong metaphor made by Burke to describe Hitler’s Germany is “If a movement must have its Rome, it must have its devil” (Burke 34).  This again is a very unique and strong way to describe Hitler’s Germany and Hitler himself.  Although we know Germany was bad at this time, the way Burke describes it shows its power.  In this instance, he is comparing Hitler’s Germany to Ancient Rome, which was very influential and powerful.  The way Germany was prior to Hitler’s takeover and during Hitler’s reign was completely different.  The decrepit state of the German government was comparable to the fall or Rome before Hitler took over, just about as far from the height of Rome as a government can become.  However, Hitler built the government up and made Germany a power again.  If one just looked on the outside, it would appear to be a great thing and the rejuvenation.  However, the person running it was the “devil” as Burke would say.  What looked like a great thing was hiding Hitler’s evil views on the rest of the world and other races, and his feeling that they must be destroyed.  Burke’s metaphor of each movement having its devil is true in many more things than just Hitler’s Germany.  When seemingly good, popular social or political movements are started, there are always the activists and radicalists that make the movement seem to be bad or dangerous.  This is a very unfortunate fact, because it can prevent a lot of stuff from being done.  Burke’s usage of this metaphor definitely applies to Hitler, but again, it can apply to a much broader spectrum than just an article analyzing Hitler’s rhetoric.

Through these different unique phrasings, Burke’s way of describing Hitler is very interesting.  He uses his way of descriptive language to show Hitler’s genius as well as his evilness, and how he turned a crippled Germany into a unified, world power capable of taking over much of Europe under an ‘devil’ Hitler.
