Done!

It is finished, in all its 75 pages of glory....

All in all, I'm happy it's done.  This process proved to me how much I like writing, but how much writing academic things stresses me out.

I might be okay with leaving academia, at least for a while.

shock value?

I had this moment today where I realized how bizarre the thesis of my thesis is.

Boiled down, it amounts to this:

Hitler was a Christian.

an update and a call for editors!

Well, the thesis is coming along.  I have an intro, a first chapter, and a short second chapter that has yet to receive critique from my advisor.  I had somewhat of a breakthrough on the paper's argument a few nights ago that turned into a huge breakthrough last night.  Tonight I further clarified the breakthrough, to the point where I think it is time to begin work on the third chapter.  So far I have a chapter on the regime's relationship to religion, a chapter on the people's reception of Nazism in the early years of the regime, and now I am beginning a chapter on the symbols and rituals present at the rallies.  I have to decide fairly quickly where I want to take the paper - whether I want to continue with the comparison of 1934 and 1935 like originally planned or move toward strengthening my position that I feel I am somewhat pioneering with respect to political religion and Hitler's relationship to Christianity.  I will probably try to see if a comparison of 1934 and 1935 will more fully allow me to explore changes in the regime with respect to political religion and Nazi leaders' relationship to Christianity.

All of that to say this:

Once my rough draft is completed (by mid-March hopefully) I will be looking for people to read it (~80 pages) and give me feedback.  If you are curious as to what I have been working on and would like to have a part in its successful completion, this is for you. :)  I'm not looking for anything crazy - even if you just read for typos I'm happy.  Mostly, though, I need people with little or no exposure to this specific topic to read it and let me know if it makes sense.  So, if you're slightly crazy, would you mind commenting here or letting me know in some other way that you're interested?  I'm not quite willing to ask specific people, as I know 80 pages of dry history and theory could be somewhat annoying to read.  But, let me know if you're interested, and I will be sure to email you a copy once it is done.
Thanks so much!

Some more awesome sources:

Nuremberg Rally Posters


http://ia600405.us.archive.org/23/items/TheCompleteHitler-SpeechesAndProclamations-MaxDomarus/TheCompleteHitler-1932-1945-Vol1-4.pdf (although I kinda already have this in book form from the library...this may not hurt)

1927-33 films

1933 speeches

1933 film leni riefenstahl's first.

and, insanely important source for where all the guidebooks are and what they're called: http://www.worldfuturefund.org/wffmaster/Reading/Party%20Day/Nurembergdoc.htm


I'm having a really hard time w/ primary sources, particularly because I don't really read German very well at all yet.  I'm thinking about expanding my topic to all of the Rallies...just because it might be more fruitful than simply two.

trying to find hitler's speeches

Slowly and steadily the thesis is being composed.

links to some hitler speeches:
http://humanitas-international.org/showcase/chronography/speeches/speeches-hitler.html

and there are times when I really really really wish that wikipedia/wikiquote was a legitimate source:
http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Adolf_Hitler

progress!

Last week I wrote an intro for my thesis. 

Today I wrote about a page. 

That means 5 pages have been written!  Plus, I added about seven pages of stuff that I've written before to it that I need to do some serious rework/addition to next week.  But I'm probably almost halfway through the first chapter when all is said and done.

I'm sorta in the doldrums right now.  Halfhearted and stressed with other school stuff so thesis doesn't get to be my sole focus.  I think in many ways it'd be easier to enjoy my thesis if it was the only thing I was doing.

Plus, I decided to wait indefinitely to go on for my PhD.  So that doesn't exactly motivate me to finish well.  But finish well I must - I didn't come all this way for nothing. :)

Hitler's closing speech at the '34 Rally

I haven't really ever taken the time to listen to one of Hitler's speeches, especially since I've started to kind of understand at least the flow of the language if not the exact meaning yet (but the link at the end of this post has subtitles). Hitler was a REALLY powerful speaker. Crazy, but moving in a creepy sort of way.

Thoughts on this speech:
"For all time to come the Party will be the source of political leadership for the German people. It will in its teaching and was ultimately in its organization hard as steel, malleable in its tactics and adaptable in its entirety: yet it will be a training school like a holy order for political leaders. It must be shown, however, that all upstanding German become National Socialists. Only the best National Socialists, however, are Party Comrades!" (5:00)

language of religion - struggle, martyrdom, battle.
a type of religious fervor in his voice - like a revivalist preacher or something.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OUB_-kbR3Ks