"Table Talk" Study Hour - Episode 55

NOTE: This Episode 55 brings us almost to the end of the conversations recorded in Table Talk. Next week will be our concluding program, when Ray and I will give our personal views of its authenticiy, meaning and value -- after which we will take phone calls from listeners. If you want to weigh in, be sure to listen to the live show next week, April 23 at 7pm Central (8pm Eastern, 5pm Pacific) here at Blogtalk. See you tonight and see you then.

Carolyn Yeager and Ray Goodwin read and comment on the June 17, 1943 - May 16, 1944 lunch and dinner table monologues by the German Leader, as taken down in shorthand by aide, attorney Heinrich Heim. Included in this episode:

• Fear of the unknown - Great battleships no longer useful;
• Long discussion of Berlin compared to Vienna, Munich and Linz - Interests of the Reich are paramount;
• Finding film actors among the Arbeitsdienst - Art critics can be disregarded for the most part;
• Hitler's first sight of the Rhine on way to Western Front in 1914 - Getting away from the crowds that always followed him - the beauties of Austria and Bohemia-Moravia;
• Falure of German state to found a German National Church independent of Rome - The power of the Church to extract obedience;
• Differences between research and instuction - Research should be completely unrestricted - German philosophers above British, French and American - Kant and Schopenhauer;
• Hitler argues with leading economist Zwiedineck - After taking power, Hitler's 'theories' became sound economy.

The edition of Hitler's Table Talk being used was translated by Norman Cameron and R.H. Stevens, published by Enigma Books, New York, and can be found as a pdf here.