According to Osho, Hitler was an utterly "dead" man—primitive, anti-life, and non-contemporary—who seduced a weary West by offering the comfort of obedience: “Don’t think; we’ll think for you.” In preserving a mythic Aryan past, he sought to destroy the living present (e.g., Jews). Osho contrasts himself: destroy the dead past for the new, living future.
Hitler, to Osho, was like a lifeless boss telling tired people to stop thinking and follow an old story, even if it hurt the living; real life means staying awake, thinking, and choosing the new.
From the Discourses
Passages where Osho speaks to this question — each links to the complete discourse.
If that is so, then what is your view of Hitler?
Adolf Hitler was an utterly dead man—no life at all. He was a dead man all the time, and that’s why he appealed in the West. At this moment the West is drawn to dead men. The West is tired of fighting. So... it just goes on. (The audio recording of the question is unclear.) Change. Thinking comes to a stop; one man after another makes people stop thinking. He gives you the chance: “You don’t think; I’ll think. We will tell you everything; we will do the thinking.” People agree: “All right, I’ve become frightened of thinking.” Any act—“we’ll do the work for you, we’ll hold your feet.” The West is tired of thinking; that’s why fascism and Stalin and Hitler, and these kinds of systems—the dead system of communism—are all arising. (The audio recording of the question is unclear.) He wanted to destroy—precisely so; in the name of…
Beloved Osho, during your recent interview with der spiegel, you made a statement about hitler, saying you love the man because he's crazy, and also that he lived a life of a discipline just as a saint lives in a monastery. You also compared him with mahatma gandhi and called him as moral as mahatma gandhi. This has caused a great deal of concern and confusion in germany, holland, and other european countries. My question is: is this an accurate reflection of your feelings about hitler?
And about small things Gandhi was really nasty. He wouldn't allow anybody to drink tea. In his ashram tea was prohibited, coffee was impossible to bring in. The question of alcohol did not arise. For forty years the people followed all kinds of ascetic disciplines, prayed morning and evening -- and the answer was millions of people either murdered or half-murdered; and Gandhi himself assassinated. If this is the result of practicing nonviolence, then I don't think there is any difference practicing violence. Adolf Hitler and Mahatma Gandhi both ended the same way. They both landed their countries in the same mess. I have said I have a certain love for Adolf Hitler, for the simple reason that at least he was straightforward; Gandhi was not. Adolf Hitler was not cunning. Whatever he wanted to do he did. He was a little crazy, but a crazy man managed to be…
Question: BELOVED OSHO, WHY ARE SO MANY OF YOUR SANNYASINS GERMAN? The whole credit goes to Adolf Hitler. Adolf Hitler led the strong German spirit -- particularly the youth -- into such a hell, into such suffering and misery, into such utter failure, that the German mind since then has been searching for somebody who is just the opposite of Adolf Hitler. They have found the anti-Adolf Hitler in me. It is not just a coincidence. Nature follows certain laws. If the second world war was a long nightmare, the reason was that the Germans followed a man who was giving them hope, the promise of a better world. And by the end of his life Adolf Hitler started proclaiming himself the reincarnation of the Old Testament prophet, Elijah.
[NOTE: This discourse is published in the book: The Last Testament, Volume 1, as Chapter 21.] Ma Anand Rose DIE RAJNEESH TIMES COLOGNE, WEST GERMANY QUESTION: BHAGWAN, NO COUNTRY, NOT EVEN AMERICA, IS AS UPSET AS THE GERMANS AT YOUR PRESENCE IN THE WORLD TODAY, AND AT YOUR INFLUENCE ON INTELLIGENT AND CREATIVE PEOPLE. THEY ARE TRYING HARD TO SEE YOU AS ANOTHER HITLER. WHAT DOES THAT TELL ABOUT THE GERMAN MIND, FORTY YEARS AFTER HITLER'S DEATH? Answer: The ghost of Adolf Hitler, his long shadow, is still present. And Adolf Hitler is not something that you can confine to one person. It is something deep down in the German mind itself. Adolf Hitler would not have existed if the German mind had not been supportive of him.
Osho, isn't the vision of the new man somehow similar to the idea of the superman?
Now he himself was not an athlete, he was not a soldier. I don't think he would have been able to hold a sword rightly, or know how to keep hold of it. He was a man who knew how to hold a fountain pen, not a sword. For his whole life he was simply writing; fighting he had never done. But he started projecting the idea of the superman. Nietzsche started condemning the old man without ever thinking that he belonged to the old. It happens... one can set oneself apart, and put the old man on this side and the superman on that side; and then you think you are not part of the old man. But because you are creating the idea of the superman, you start believing yourself that superman is your projection, your idea: you are giving birth to superman -- then of course you…