" There has been - and remains - a discussion whether or not the war formed Hitler most, but there can be no doubt that without it, and the decorations he received in it and which gave him - the Austrian - as Joachim Fest remarked, a claim to front-line credibility, respect and authority in Bavaria, his political career, at least in Germany - a country whose citizenship he would not acquire until 1932 - was simply inconceivable. In this sense only the war made Hitler possible. "

― John Vincent Palatine , The Little Drummer Boy