October 29, 2007

The Architect of Destruction: Adolf Hitler

While I know that Hitler was a despicable human being (if he even was a human being) and that I’m pushing the limits on the discussion on enterprise architecture by looking back in history at the vile acts that were perpetrated through the lens of enterprise architecture—nevertheless I find it compelling to look at what happened through this lens. I also know that this is a very cursory exploration of this topic, but nevertheless I want to at least introduce it. Hitler used the finest German engineering and business process acumen, coupled with the latest technological advances of his time, to drive his malevolent ends.

Thus Hitler (“may his name and memory be erased”) was an enterprise architect, although maybe not in the modern sense of the way we think of one working for a Fortune 500 company or in the U.S. federal government (fulfilling the mandates of the Clinger-Cohen Act).

Hitler presided over Germany (1933-1945) and architected the German war machine and the obliteration of 1/3 of the world’s Jews (over 6 million men, women, and children!) and well as millions of other innocent victims whom he considered sub-human or just in the way of his plan for world domination.

In his book Mein Kampf, Hitler writes:

  • In a few days I myself knew that I should some day become an architect. To be sure, it was an incredibly hard road; for the studies I had neglected….the fulfillment of my artistic dream seemed physically impossible.”

While Hitler did not end up becoming an architect-architect, he did become a type of enterprise architect, in the sense that he developed a baseline for Germany (what they were, defeated and shamed after WWI), developed a target for Nazi totalitarianism, world domination, and the obliteration of the Jewish people, and he set out on a transition plan for achieving his objectives. Not only this, but he and his henchmen were masters of business process engineering, using the latest technologies of the time to kill and conquer.

  • BASELINE: Germany was defeated and degraded after WWI. “The Treaty of Versailles deprived Germany of various territories, demilitarized the Rhineland and imposed other economically damaging sanctions. The culpability of Germany was used as a basis to impose reparations on Germany. Germany in turn perceived the treaty and especially the paragraph on the German guilt as a humiliation.”
  • TARGET: Hitler documented his detailed plans for Germany’s conquest of the world and the extermination of the Jews in Mein Kampf. “The book was an autobiography and an exposition of his ideology. It was published in two volumes in 1925 and 1926…in Mein Kampf, Hitler announces his hatred toward what he believed to be the twin evils of the world: Communism and Judaism. The new territory that Germany needed to obtain would properly nurture the ‘historic destiny’ of the German people.”
  • TRANSITION PLAN:

  1. Hitler architected the rise of Germany. “Hitler oversaw one of the greatest expansions of industrial production and civil improvement Germany had ever seen. The unemployment rate was cut substantially, mostly through arms production. Hitler also oversaw one of the largest infrastructure-improvement campaigns in German history, with the construction of dozens of dams, autobahns (highways), railroads, and other civil works. Hitler's government sponsored architecture on an immense scale.”
  2. The extermination of Jews was a planned and systematic process. “The massacres that led to the coining of the word "genocide" (or "Final Solution of the Jewish Question") were planned and ordered. Moreover, Hitler had pored over the first blueprints of gas chambers. Hitler was recorded saying to his associates, ‘we shall regain our health only by eliminating the Jews.’ Extermination camps were the apex of Nazi engineering. Extermination camps were one type of facility that Nazi Germany built during World War II for the systematic killing of millions of people. The majority of prisoners brought to extermination camps were not expected to survive more than 24 hours beyond arrival.”

(Adapted from Wikipedia)

So we see that while enterprise architecture can be a tool for good (like improving organizational performance and mission execution), it can also be used for evil in the hands of a malevolent psychopath like Adolf Hitler.


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