As if we beekeepers don't have enough problems already, there is a new book
out that positions beekeeping 
as one of the basic influences that turned a young German boy into Adolph
Hitler.

Yeah, Hitler.  The guy who brought you the Third Reich, the Holocaust, and
the Blitzkrieg.

"The Castle in the Forest" by Norman Mailer is fiction, but one need look no
further than "The DaVinci Code" 
to realize that at least the population of the USA tends to misconstrue
books clearly labeled "fiction" or 
"a novel" as a thinly-disguised factual accounts.  (I blame the "Faux
News"/"Fox Noise" Channel for this.)

In the completely fictional account, a minor demon is assigned by the Devil
himself to monitor and influence 
the household of Alois Hitler.  The young Adolph Hitler (affectionately
called "Adi") lives there too.
The demon is the narrator of the story.

Alois retires, and starts keeping bees.  Beekeeping is not a detail in this
book, it is one of the central 
themes of the book, clearly intended to be considered one of the major
influences that turned little "Adi" 
into the "Adolph Hitler" of infamy.  

For example, Alois teaches Adi some twisted form of dogmatic
pseudo-Darwinian "survival of the fittest" 
using the bees as the case in point:

"....because they obey one law. It is so clear to them. 
This law says: Our colony must survive. So, nobody can 
dare to be lazy. Not inside this hive of bees." 
He paused. 
"Nobody, except for the drones. They are there to serve 
their one good purpose. But then it is all over for them. 
They are gone. Goodbye."

"Are they killed?" The boy knew the answer.

"Of course. All of those drones. Once a year, right about 
now - just after summer, they are gotten rid of. No charity."

The novel even contains what might have passed for practical beekeeping
advice of the time:

"....The wise beekeeper does not wear dark clothing, lest it pick 
up light-colored pollen... Italian bees are gentler and more chic 
than  the Austrian variety... The mating box, capping fork and 
spur-wheel embedded are essential tools for apiculture... ...all 
power in the beehive rests with a treacherous but fragrant bitch."

At one point Alois gasses one of his hives, fearing it is diseased and
(drift? robbing?) will 
infect his other bee colony.  He tells Adi, "In nature, there is no mercy
for the weak." 

Being a beekeeper with a very German name, I expect that I will soon be told
with great authority that 
Hitler was a beekeeper as a child (fiction!) and his experience as a
beekeeper is part of what turned 
him into such a monster.

The good news here is that Mailer's book is nearly 500 pages long, and that
the majority of 
people who talk about Mailer's work have never read an entire Norman Mailer
book.

Another "good" thing is that one must slog through quite a bit of incest and
scatological
(look that word up, I can't use clearer terms in public) content before one
gets to the bee
related passages, so many readers are sure to stop reading before they get
to "the bees". 

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