2 - Hitler’s Physical Health in Autumn 1941

Summary

Ever since Ellen Gibbels’ research proved that Hitler was suffering from Parkinson’s Disease, historians have been asking themselves the question whether the progress of the illness is likely to have affected his judgement by 1944/45. Far more relevant is the as yet unaddressed question whether he could have known of his condition in time to influence his decision to throw down the gauntlet to the USA. This should not be seen as a far-fetched notion, since the dictator is on record as repeatedly tying the rise and fall of Germany as a great power to his life span; hence, the realisation that he was afflicted with a mortal and debilitating disease might indeed have driven him into a strategy best described as suicidal (as many historians have indeed chosen to label this decision, without one of them, however tying it to a possible diagnosis of Parkinson’s). The surviving notes taken by his personal physician Theodor Morell, together with other sources, prove conclusively that while the first symptoms of Parkinson’s may have manifested themselves before December 11th, 1941 he did not receive a diagnosis to this end before April 1945. His decisionmaking in December 1941 was as yet unaffected by his medical condition.