| Zusammenfassung: | In 1933, the Norwegian psychiatrist Johan Scharffenberg wrote a long series of articles for the Oslo newspaper Arbeiderbladet, in which he made a psychiatric diagnosis of Hitler. Based on Hitler's own writings and German sources, Scharffenberg reconstructed a detailed life history, analyzed der Führer's thoughts and political actions, and concluded that Hitler was a paranoid psychopath of the prophetic type, bordering on the insane. Scharffenberg's articles embarrassed the German Embassy in Oslo, which blamed the Norwegian Government for allowing this characterization of their leader. The police department in Oslo was ordered by the Government to begin an investigation, but after an interrogation of Scharffenberg, the case was dismissed on technical grounds. During the Second World War, Scharffenberg became a prominent leader in the Norwegian Resistance. The relationship between his early recognition of the psychopathology of Nazism and his role during the German occupation is briefly discussed.
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