Introduction / Hans Mommsen -- Violence and sacrifice : imagining the nation in Weimar Germany / Bernd Weisbrod -- Hitler and Vienna : the truth about his formative years / Brigitte Hamann -- Fatal attraction : the German right and Italian fascism / Wolfgang Schieder -- People's community and war : Hitler's popular support / Norbert Frei -- Nazi boom : an economic cul-de-sac / Christoph Buchheim -- Ideological legitimization and political practice of the leadership of the National Socialist secret police / Ulrich Herbert -- Indian summer and the collapse of the Third Reich : the last act / Hans Mommsen.