“I ought to have seized the initiative in 1938 instead of allowing myself to be forced into war in 1939; for war was, in any case, unavoidable. However, you can hardly blame me if the British and the French accepted at Munich every demand I made of them!”

—  Adolf Hitler

14 February 1945.
Disputed, The Testament of Adolf Hitler (1945)

Adopted from Wikiquote. Last update Sept. 14, 2021. History

Help us to complete the source, original and additional information

Do you have more details about the quote "I ought to have seized the initiative in 1938 instead of allowing myself to be forced into war in 1939; for war was, in…" by Adolf Hitler?
Adolf Hitler photo
Adolf Hitler 265
Führer and Reich Chancellor of Germany, Leader of the Nazi … 1889–1945

Related quotes

Neville Chamberlain photo

“A lot of people seem to me to be losing their heads, and talking and thinking as though Munich had made war more, instead of less, imminent.”

Neville Chamberlain (1869–1940) Former Prime Minister of the United Kingdom

Statement (end of October 1938), quoted in Keith Feiling, Neville Chamberlain (1946; 1970), p. 386
Prime Minister

Allen C. Guelzo photo
Alastair Reynolds photo

““You can hardly blame them.”
“Assuming stupidity is an inherited trait, then no, I can’t.””

Source: Revelation Space (2000), Chapter 3 (p. 67).

William T. Sherman photo
Paul von Hindenburg photo

“Fundamentally, Britain is responsible for the war. She was jealous. British business men wanted this war. It is a British business war. … We have no dislike for France, nor Russia. We think highly of the French. But Britain! We hate Britain!”

Paul von Hindenburg (1847–1934) Prussian-German field marshal, statesman, and president of Germany

Interview with Senator Beveridge (March 1915), Paul Dehn, Hindenburg, als Erzieher (1918), p. 43, quoted in W. W. Coole (ed.), Thus Spake Germany (London: George Routledge & Sons, 1941), p. 174
Supreme Commander of All German Forces in the East

Ulysses S. Grant photo

“I took no part myself in any such view of the case at the time, but since the war is over, reviewing the whole question, I have come to the conclusion that the saying is quite true.”

Ulysses S. Grant (1822–1885) 18th President of the United States

Conclusion
1880s, Personal Memoirs of General U. S. Grant (1885)
Context: The cause of the great War of the Rebellion against the United States will have to be attributed to slavery. For some years before the war began it was a trite saying among some politicians that 'A state half slave and half free cannot exist.' All must become slave or all free, or the state will go down. I took no part myself in any such view of the case at the time, but since the war is over, reviewing the whole question, I have come to the conclusion that the saying is quite true.

Neville Chamberlain photo

“Never for one single moment have I doubted the rightness of what I did at Munich, nor can I believe that it was possible for me to do more than I did to prepare the country for war after Munich, given the violent & persistent opposition I had to fight against all the time.”

Neville Chamberlain (1869–1940) Former Prime Minister of the United Kingdom

Letter to Stanley Baldwin (17 October 1940), quoted in Keith Feiling, Neville Chamberlain (London: Macmillan, 1946), p. 456.
Post-Prime Ministerial

Hermann Rauschning photo

“I was born in 1939. The other big event of that year was the outbreak of the Second World War, but for the moment that did not affect me.”

Clive James (1939–2019) Australian author, critic, broadcaster, poet, translator and memoirist

Opening lines of the autobiography, p. 11
Memoirs, Unreliable Memoirs (1980)

Related topics