David Lloyd George on Adolf Hitler
← Back to Adolf Hitler ProfileIn 1936, former British Prime Minister David Lloyd George, according to his private secretary's diary, lauded Hitler as a "born leader" and a true "Führer."
“He is a very great man. "Führer" is the proper name for him, for he is a born leader, yes, and statesman.”
“I have never met a happier people than the Germans and Hitler is one of the greatest men. The old trust him; the young idolise him. It is the worship of a national hero who has saved his country.”
“I have just returned from a visit to Germany. ... I have now seen the famous German leader and also something of the great change he has effected. Whatever one may think of his methods — and they are certainly not those of a Parliamentary country — there can be no doubt that he has achieved a marvellous transformation in the spirit of the people, in their attitude towards each other, and in their social and economic outlook. One man has accomplished this miracle. He is a born leader of men. A magnetic dynamic personality with a single-minded purpose, a resolute will, and a dauntless heart. He is the national Leader. He is also securing them against that constant dread of starvation which is one of the most poignant memories of the last years of the war and the first years of the Peace. The establishment of a German hegemony in Europe which was the aim and dream of the old prewar militarism, is not even on the horizon of Nazism.”
In his diary, A.J. Sylvester recorded David Lloyd George's surprising 1940 assessment of Hitler as "a prodigious genius," revealing a complex perspective amidst wartime tensions.
“Hitler is a prodigious genius.”