April 20, 1889: Adolf Hitler, Letter-Writer to ‘The Nation’, Is Born

April 20, 1889: Adolf Hitler, Letter-Writer to ‘The Nation’, Is Born

April 20, 1889: Adolf Hitler, Letter-Writer to ‘The Nation’, Is Born

Notoriously prickly about his press, Hitler wrote in to complain about a minor factual discrepancy.

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Notoriously prickly about his press, in 1925 Hitler wrote to The Nation taking issue with a minor factual discrepancy in an article by Louis Fischer about political prisoners in Germany, suggesting that those on the left were treated much more harshly than those on the right. Count Arco, whom Hitler references in the letter, assassinated the Bavarian republican leader Kurt Eisner in 1919.

To the editor of The Nation:

Sir: In your issue of June 3 Mr. Louis Fischer says that “Hitler spent six months in a palace prison and was then released.” I was in prison at Sandberg, a.S. thirteen months in all. A special decree on April 1, 1924, deprived me of all previous privileges. All privileges therefore granted the prisoner were either abridged or wiped out. Count Arco was still benefited by these alleviations.

Uffing, June 28

Adolf Hitler

April 20, 1889

To mark The Nation’s 150th anniversary, every morning this year The Almanac will highlight something that happened that day in history and how The Nation covered it. Get The Almanac every day (or every week) by signing up to the e-mail newsletter.

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