"In Germany, the person in power at this time was Adolf Hitler. He was born in 1889 on the Austria-German border. He has been described to have been a hard working and popular student, until secondary school, where he lost his willingness to work and affection of other students. But he became very loyal to Germany from early on, as did many Austrian Germans, since they were taught extreme nationalism at school. At fifteen Hitler failed his exams, but rather than repeating the year he decided to drop out to pursue his dream of becoming an artist. This was also motivated by his fathers death, which gave him the freedom and money to live a bohemian life. At 18 he tried multiple times to get into an art school in Vienna, but was declined the place every time. At the outbreak of WWI, Adolf Hitler enlisted to the German army, but was wounded soon. After this he joined the German Workers' Party(DAP), where he proposed many extreme ideas to Germany's post-war problem, often blaming them on Jews and Bolsheviks. By 1921 he was the leader of National Socialist German Workers' Party or the Nazi party. After imprisonment, because of an unsuccessful armed uprising in Munich, Hitler used new techniques of mass communication and violence to grow the Nazi party bigger, and in the 1932 elections became the biggest party in the German parliament. Following being selected as the chancellor, Hitler soon declared dictatorship over German and started to reinforce anti-Jew laws, German militarization and plan for territorial expansion. "This is some the research I have done on Adolf Hitler so far. I have read about his life and how he rose to power in the Nazi party and in Germany, but in this post I wan't to analyze him as a person more and how I can use this all in my adaptation of Arturo Ui.
As Hitler had dropped out of school, and didn't have any formal qualifications, Hitler didn't actually first accept a leadership place in the NSDAP, because lack of confidence. Even though he did have good demagogic skills, meaning that he was able to appeal to large audiences by "appealing to popular desires and prejudices rather than using rational arguments", Hitler felt that his uneducated past and lack of social status made him hesitant to accept a leadership role. Part of the reason why he became so popular with the crowd were his speeches blaming the communists, Jews, capitalists and social democrats for the outcome and following depression of WWI. Even though obviously some of these were inspired by his political party and people like Goebbels who encouraged his rage about these groups of people, I feel that some of the hatred might have come from Hitlers failed career as an artist. Austria was a very multicultural country at the time, very much having Jews be the upper-middle class, something that many wanted to achieve. Failure in this country might have lit a fire of grudge in Hitler towards the ethnic group and fuel his future actions.
What perhaps made Hitler such a good speaker, was that deep down he was very charming man and was often described as extremely kind man by maids that worked for him before and during WWII. I am very interested about this juxtaposition in his persona and I want to include it in my characterization with Arturo Ui. On the other hand, Hitler is known because of being the main person creating Holocaust and making the decision to murder millions of innocent people, but he was also loved by many and seen as a kind man from people who have had first hand experience with him. He was even named the person of the year by the TIME magazine! There are some sources that talk about Hitler having uncontrollable fits of rage when things do not go his way, having him hit things and even chew on carpet. This wasn't only with major issues, but also the smallest details not going as he had visioned them, such as having his tea in the wrong cup, would trigger this extreme response. Yet, many of his close associates decline these rumors.
There is also a stark contrast with Hitler's military career and his background as an bohemian artist. He did originally try to get into art school and lived this life of a struggling artist for a few years, before joining the army and becoming a political figure. What drove him to this was probably the constant rejection, but also his unwillingness to serve the Austrian army, as he was grown to believe in German nationalism. He didn't completely abandon his artist soul when entering the military life, or even when he became the Führer, but often during his late night he would be watching movies, listening to music or reading. He also had a fascination with film stars and would often have them as guests and stay up conversing with them. Hitler's artist soul was also shown in his procrastination and unwillingness to stay in long meetings, but rather have personal conversations and then report back to the group about his decision.
I also found something about Hitler's sleeping habits. He was a known insomniac, staying up as late as four or five o'clock in the morning before finally getting into bed. He would then wake up around noon to start his work. To aid his sleeping problems Hitler used medical enemas, even though, according to some sources, he was otherwise very much against 'poisoning his body' with alcohol, drugs or cigarettes. Hitler was even a vegetarian and believed that vegetarianism was the new future for Germany, as it was "bridging the spiritual divide". We have discussed this a little with everyone in the class and we want to bring this health enthusiastic element into Arturo Ui, him being one of the only people in the show that won't be seen drinking mischievously or smoking. I have also deeply thought about how to bring the insomnia into Ui's character. Ways that I could do it is by making my version of Ui physically fidgety and even jumpy, in the way that he doesn't always exactly know where to put his focus on, being a bit absent minded. There is parts in the play where Ui seems to see less than the other characters do, for example he doesn't notice Giri changing his hats until Givola tells Ui about it, nor does he always have the energy to come in to the conversation his henchmen are having. There are some articles about Hitler where he has been described as someone who would have just left the meeting room without a word because he was bored or get distracted extremely easy, which brings on this almost childlike quality to him. I have seen in some adaptation of The resistible rise of Arturo Ui, where at times Arturo Ui has been shown as a very childish character, especially in the beginning scenes. I want to do to an extent, having moments of rage or a childlike fit when he is misunderstood or when Ui feels like he has been challenged. This would also bring in Hitler uncontrollable rage fits into Arturo Ui. But I do not plan to only use it when Ui is in bad mood, but also in scene 6 I can use a childlike curiosity with the Actor, Ui admiring and following carefully the Actors movements and direction. As I started to look more into Hitler's health, I came over some very contrasting articles about his eating habits. Some told that he was perfect image of health, not drinking or smoking and being a vegetarian, where as some would describe Hitler having a sweet tooth, often eating chocolates and cakes, never practicing exercise other than walking. Pictures of him in his later life do show that he gained quite a lot of weight. He was also rarely seen showing his teeth when smiling, which might tell something about his dental health. It would be fun to bring this into Arturo Ui, for example by having him suck on a lollipop in some scenes, where the other's would be usually smoking. I will have to discuss this with others, since it might also give a wring idea about the character we want to show and the story we want to focus on. I could also be seen as a distraction to the Gest.
I want to show Arturo Ui's development as a person, since I am playing him in scene 6 and 13. IN both of these scenes he is a very different man. In scene 6, he still hasn't grown as popular as he wants, but people are very skeptical about him and cannot trust him because of his vanishing reputation as a gangster. People have rather made fun of him, but in the last seen, where Bowl is found dead, Ui is seen as the killer. In scene 6, he has realized that he needs to appeal to the vegetable dealers good side, rather than threaten them, if he wants any recognition. So he hires an actor to help seen more appealing and approachable for the dealers, but also to get more respect. In scene 13 A lot of things have happened; Dogsboroug has died as well as Dullfeet and we are at his funeral. This scene really shows what Ui has become; an evil man who only cares about his rise to success. I want to show him as calm but threatening, he has lost his past restlessness and is very confident that he will get what he wants from Mrs Dullfeet. Still, when the woman is not budging to his wishes, we can a glimpse of the past Ui who was quick tempered and childlike. He isn't trying to be charming anymore, but uses his power to bring fear on people, who cannot do anything anymore to change the course of action. In the next scene, scene 14, we see Roma come and tell ui's deepest fears of people turning against him and realizing what he has been doing to manipulate them all along. Instead leading him to correct his mistakes, Ui goes on to use more fear as a weapon to gain support in scene 15. Scene 15 Ui is almost this scarily happy and calm person; he knows he has won and he knows no one will rise against him anymore.
SOURCES:
- http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/worldwars/wwtwo/hitler_01.shtml
- http://www.haaretz.com/jewish-world/jewish-world-news/1.588082
- http://www.nizkor.org/hweb/people/h/hitler-adolf/oss-papers/text/oss-profile-03-03.html
- http://hitlershealth.greyfalcon.us/
- http://www.spiegel.de/international/germany/medicating-a-madman-a-sober-look-at-hitler-s-health-a-675991.html
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