Loved this book. Lots of interesting information to digest. This is a great read for anyone who loves to read about history. Very well written

This aims to give a detailed overview of Hitlers inner circle, but I feel is only partially successful in this aim. I struggled with the writers style and would have preferred more details of the evidence on which the author was basing her narrative.
Good but not great.

DNF at 38%

You don't usually think of Hitler as someone who had friends - but he did, and that inner circle played an important role in his daily life and ambitions.

I picked up this book because it was on a subject I had never thought about before, and I was interested in learning what kind of people Hitler surrounded himself with in his most private life and how it impacted him. However, I found the writing rather dry and clunky, and try as I might could not get invested. Matters weren't helped by the enormous cast revolving in and out of the story.

Overall, not a bad book at all - merely not one for me.

Author Heike B Görtemaker published the book “Hitler’s Court: The Inner Circle of The Third Reich and After” in 2021. She has published six books, with this book released within the past week.

I categorize this book as ‘G’. This book looks at those who Adolf Hitler gathered around himself over nearly 25 years. Hitler always seemed to have a group of followers around him. As he and the Nazi party were rising in power, they were mostly those that could benefit him. They provided funding, gifts, and the introduction to those in positions of power. Once Hitler had the helm of Germany, the group changed to mostly be those that owed their status to him. They became the adoring crowd that supported everything he did.

Many of those covered are well known. Like Eva Braun, the Bormans, and the Speers. Others like the Brandts and the Morells are less widely known. The book covers Hitler’s close followers from the early days through the end of the war. The closing saga of many who survived the war is also briefly told.

I enjoyed the 12 hours I spent reading this 359-page WWII history. The book gives a behind the scenes look at Hitler and his closest ‘friends’. The Nazi party was torn by constant infighting and power struggles. Little documentation survives and the autobiographies and memoirs cannot be relied on for honesty. The author has done a good job of piecing together the story of Hitler’s court. I like the chosen cover art. I rate this book as a 4.3 (rounded down to a 4) out of 5.

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The History of the NSDAP (AKA Nazi Party) has always fascinated me. This book (translated from German into English) gives a fascinating and extensively researched account of Hitler's rise to the top, and how he was ably helped and assisted by his entourage, advisors, financial supporters, and confidante's.

From Hitler's political beginnings in Munich (as a talented orator for the NSDAP) until his death in the Bunker of the Reich chancellor, Hitler surrounded himself with a like-minded group of Men and Women, and only a select few are known to the public. Aside from his well-known 'Court' such as Eva Braun, Josef Goebbels, and Himmler, it was surprising to learn of the British upper classes ( and a well-known member of the Royal Family) that were also behind his emphatic rise. Hitler was undoubtedly anti-Semitic but it appears a lot of his supporters denied, denounced, or even played dumb, once the war was over, and the Nuremburg trials began.

This is a very credible account, a very fascinating read, and is definitely relevant, as the far-right's prominence across a modern-day Europe, is ever-present. I would have loved to learn a bit more about the Nuremburg trials, and this book would have benefited from being longer, but the succinct and balanced narrative, made this a great read, anyway.

Many educated, wealthy, socially influential people convinced Hitler he should be the head of the government when he hadn’t believed he’d been chosen by providence. After he gained power, he surrounded himself with people to whom he owed nothing for his ascension, but were dependent on him and whom he could control. Elite party power members like Goring and Himmler were rarely invited.
After the putsch and reformation of the party, he intended to gain power legally and cultivated the image of a genial Bohemian. The ruthless Old Guard was replaced.
He never went out alone. He was uncomfortable in large gatherings. His personality didn’t fit image of infallible leader.
With all the rivalry and quarrels among his followers, it’s surprising he stayed in power.

This is a very interesting and detailed account of the lengths that Hitler's "Inner Circle" went to try and save themselves from the criminal trials after the war, from death, or simply how they saved themselves and maybe their family by leaving the country. This book is full of details and interesting facts that I never knew. If you are a history buff, then you should pick this up and read it!

Wow wow wow what a fascinating read and so well researched and presented. Hitler was not a lonely, aloof dictator. Throughout his rise in the NSDAP, he gathered a loyal circle around him, which later took on the features of a regular court, and was surrounded by people who celebrated, flattered and intrigued him.

Who belonged to this inner circle around Hitler? What function did this court fulfill? And how did it influence the perception of history after 1945? Using previously unknown sources, Heike Görtemaker explores Hitler's private environment and shows how this inner circle made him who he was.

Biographies of Hitler often concentrate on his obsession with self-image: "If you subtract what politics is about him, little or nothing remains," said Ian Kershaw, and Joachim Fest asserted: "He did not have a private life." For Alan Bullock the "Führer" was an "uprooted man without a home or family". Hitler's inner circle, the Berghof Society, was his private retreat. But the court was more than that. It provided him with the support he needed to be able to take on the role of "Führer" at all, while at the same time allowing him to use its members as political front men. Most of all, it represented a conspiratorial community whose lowest common denominator was anti-Semitism.

In this book, Heike Görtemaker asks new questions about the truth behind Hitler's inner circle and, for the first time, also examines the "circle without leaders"; the networking of the inner circle after 1945.
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

An extremely interesting book about Hitler’s closest advisers. I learned a lot of new information and found this book thought provoking. Any nonfiction fan will love.

I love nonfiction books that are interesting. This book qualifies. Hitler’s court describes the relationship between Hitler and his advisers, friends and supporters. I would highly recommend.