Hitler's aim was to attract attention to himself. ...[H]e personally arranged all the lighting effects and spotlights, as well as his entry into a ha… - Emil Ludwig

He was living in the world of 120 years ago, more like a descendant of the Bourbons than the descendant of Voltaire’s friend; he regarded Jaurès in the Chamber of Deputies as Jaurès on the throne, and at the bottom of his heart considered all those people who desired to be something more than subjects as only fit to be shot down—except that hanging them would be more suitable.

His effect, in complete contrast to Mussolini's... he juggles with mystical notions such as Honor, Blood, and Soil, and thus wraps his audience in that cloud of mysticism which the Germans love far more than mere prosaic logic.

The Emperor, during the war, refused to face facts, and entrenched himself in optimism…. The contrast between the masterful personality which he tried to assume (and indeed was obliged to assume), and the absence of any real force of character, grew daily more glaring until the bitter end. It was his and Germany’s misfortune that it could not be said of him as of his grandfather but he was no mere War-Lord, but a true soldier (Freytag-Loringhoven, Menschen und Bilder, 276)
This verdict from an aristocratic General epitomizes the Emperor’s attitude throughout the War.