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Adolf Hitler: Difference between revisions
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Some side notes:
* Hitler's famous rasping voice was the result of the injuries sustained in [[World War
* It is not clear whether he was [[Groin Attack|complete in the genitalia department]], as few people really got to check, and Eva Braun was silent on the issue. Given that enemies of England tend to suffer the same injury, (Napoleon was rumored to be monorchid as well) this was likely allied propaganda of an informal sort.
* He had no children.<ref>A popular legend asserts that his surviving relatives have vowed never to procreate, in order to seal the entire bloodline, but this is doubtful. William Patrick Hitler's oldest son Alexander attests that he knows of no such pact among himself and his siblings.</ref> Of course, no one's about to openly admit being directly related to Adolf Hitler, let alone be able to prove it. <ref>A certain Frenchman did admit late in his life, as he was apparently believing to be a result of Hitler's wartime romance with a certain cute Frenchgirl. However, the part about it being nigh-impossible to prove (and highly doubtful anyway, as Hitler would most likely disapprove of such a union) remains true.</ref>
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* [[Evil Cannot Comprehend Good]]: Shines through in his assessments of some other countries' motivations for getting involved in the war. He kept insisting that the Americans would annex Canada if Britain were to become weak, that the British would annex French Africa if France became weak, that the British and Americans would try to destroy each other to attain world hegemony, etc. He basically believed that every other country besides his was also operating as a backstabbing, expansionist empire, not seeing that Britain absorbing colonies from their defeated French ally for instance would have been inconceivable to them on moral grounds alone. This might have been brought by his backstabbing-filled past.
* [[Evil Chancellor]]: The [[Trope Codifier]]. So well known by now that every time a science fiction, fantasy or horror story contains the equivalent of a Chancellor maneuvering his way into becoming an [[Evil Overlord]], the audience will automatically assume it's yet another Hitler, unless [[Word of God|specifically denied by the author]]... and sometimes even then, regardless.
** Of course, unlike the stereotypical example, the man he replaced was [[General Ripper|Paul]] [[World War
* [[Evil Is Cool]]: Look at those [[Evil Costume Switch|sweet trenchcoats]] the SS were sporting! Is that styling or ''what''?
{{quote|'''[[Angel]]''': You're a Nazi?
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** His policies also made the Nazi nuclear program a complete joke. It split into at least nine different programs, each actively competing with and hindering the others. Hitler's insistence that the scientists follow proper "German Physics" also crippled any real progress since it often threw out ideologically unacceptable physics essential to the nuclear program. In hindsight, said program was more of a comedy of errors than any real threat. And, for added [[Nice Job Fixing It, Villain]] points, the program also sapped the already overtaxed Nazi logistics, weakening the Nazi resource base further.
* [[Fatal Flaw]]: [[Pride]]. The failed attack on Russia (and declaring war on the whole world at the same time) is just the tip of the iceberg.
* [[For Want of a Nail]]: Out of the six children of his parents, only he and his younger sister survived into adulthood. He narrowly survived several near-death experiences, and several failed and aborted assassination attempts after becoming ''Führer''. He also narrowly survived a shell explosion in [[World War
** He almost went into opera stage production, under the written recommendation of then-major Viennese organizer Alfred Roller, in February 1908...but backed out at the last minute after being intimidated by Roller's stature on the Vienna art scene. In 1942, he told his personal staff that if he had taken Roller up on his offer, things might have turned out differently.
** Not to mention that if he had managed to pass math in high school, he could have had a real shot getting into architectural school (he was specifically praised for his architectural drawings in his art school rejection letter).
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** Also if, Germany had a reasonably unbiased judiciary, Hitler would likely have been executed for high treason for his failed Beer Hall Putsch in 1923 instead of the ludicrously lenient five year sentence in a cushy prison cell instead, from which he was released after only a year.
* [[Flanderization]]: There is an unfortunate tendency among history enthusiasts to look at the magnitude of his crimes and paint Hitler as an inhuman monster, whereas the sad, sad truth is that he was a very human and easily repeatable creature. Banality of evil, anyone?
** Hitler is often painted as a coward and a [[General Failure]], when in fact he was decorated for bravery in [[World War
** Historians now have access to Hitler's war record, whereas the previously had to rely heavily on ''Mein Kampf'' and the dubious testimony of Nazi sympathisers who were with him (and, sometimes, not). It turns out that yes, he really ''was'' a coward or at least nowhere near as brave as he made himself out to be, spending almost the entirety of the first war relatively safe behind the front lines in Regimental HQ, and turning down promotions probably to avoid more dangerous work (or work, period -- he spent days at a time not doing much). His Iron Crosses came more from sycophantic ass-kissing ([[Irony|of a Jewish officer]]) than bravery.
** Also, one good set of tactics does not Alexander make - Hitler was a shockingly bad strategist, and made several blunders, over the advice of more competent generals, that ultimately cost him the war. They are too many to list here - see [[General Failure]] below.
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** He delayed his attack on the USSR because a coup in Yugoslavia had brought about a government he did not like (and rioters had spat on his ambassador's car). Hitler invaded and crushed Yugoslavia, but in the process lost much of Russian weather window, with disastrous results.
** Rather than driving on Moscow, the centre of the USSR's armament industry, its rail nexus, and where fellow [[General Failure]] [[Fail O'Suckyname|Semen]] Buedyenny had the main Russian armies, he tried to score a propaganda victory by capturing Leningrad and Stalingrad. By the time he resumed the drive on Moscow, it was too late, and a combination of winter and Russian counterattacks caused a near collapse of Army Group Centre.
** He was incapable of understanding the concepts of tactical withdrawal or defense in depth - he even [[You Have Failed Me...|fired and executed generals for retreating]], such as the brilliant Erich Hoepner and Heinz Guderian.
** He ordered Army Group South to capture Stalingrad and the Caucasus ''at the same time'' with the result that it captured neither. He then, despite having already cut the Volga, insisted that Stalingrad be taken for political reasons.
** He ignored the massive potential for establishing friendly Slavic states by installing occupying regimes even more brutal and hated than those he had just overthrown.
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* [[Just Between You and Me]]: ''Mein Kampf'', published in 1925-1926, told the world exactly how he believed the Jews controlled everything and exactly how he planned to stop them. The word ''"vernichtung"'' -- annihilation -- was used over and over again in this context. Too bad no one paid attention or maybe just [[Like You Would Really Do It|refused to believe it]].
** Hitler specifically refused the publication of ''Mein Kampf'' in France, given it clearly sets up the goal of taking revenge upon it (and contains some racist opinions about French people, too). In 1934, a French editor tried and published it to warn his fellow citizens. Hitler sued him... and won ''[[Lawful Stupid|upon violation of copyright]]''. There was finally an approved translation published in 1938, which was of course ''heavily'' edited, to the point of falsification. Logically, ''Mein Kampf'' was also completely banned in France under German military occupation, for fear of feeding [[La Résistance]].
* [[Just the First Citizen]]: The title of "Führer", which Hitler adopted when he became leader of the Nazi Party and elevated to a government title when they took power in Germany can be simply translated to "guide", although it is generally translated as "leader", which is more in line with fascist philosophy. Note that it was styled as ''the'' leader (Der Führer) when referring to Hitler in the third person, not just "leader" by itself. Although not even nearly as ubiquitously used as Führer, Hitler also awarded himself a number of bombastic titles over the years designed specifically to invoke this trope, including "First Soldier of the German Reich", "First Worker of the New Germany", and "Supreme Judge of the German People". In something of an overlap with [[Modest Royalty]], Hitler's ceremonial uniform was also much more staid than you would expect from a man in the process of conquering the world. He wore a plain uniform with only the awards that he earned in [[World War
* [[Kneel Before Zod]]: Demanding that France sign their armistice to Germany in the same train car that the armistice of 1918 was signed in, at the exact same location. In a further show of disdain to the French he just stood up and left in the middle of negotiations, leaving [[Yes-Man|his military lackey Keitel]] to finish the discussions with the French delegates. All before taking the car back to Berlin and blowing up the entire site bar French Marshal Foch's statue, just so Foch would look over a wasteland. And then, at the end of the war, blowing up the train car in order to prevent it being done to ''them''.
* [[Know-Nothing Know-It-All]]: While he was quite knowledgeable on some topics (architecture and oratory, for instance), he feigned aptitude in numerous other fields of which he had only surface mastery, and had an arrogant opinion on virtually everything, which he usually insisted on lecturing his cohorts on. He seriously maintained for instance that the inhabitants of New Zealand were a tree-dwelling species of humanoid. [[Critical Research Failure|Without irony]].
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* [[May-December Romance]]: Eva Braun, who was 23 years his junior. Allegedly, as a 28 year old German soldier in World War I, with a 16 year old French girl, Charlotte Lobjoie, which produced a son, Jean-Marie Loret. Had a short relationship with Maria Reiter in 1931, whom he had met when he was 37 and she was 16.
* [[Million Mook March]]
* [[
* [[Modern Major-General]]: Hitler was many things, but a military genius was not one of them. His army's early victories came about due to the brilliant leadership of generals like Erich von Manstein and Heinz Guderian. Once Hitler started trying to personally direct the war effort out of fear that his stellar generals might overshadow him, he began replacing them with Nazi yes-men who had more loyalty than talent. That's about the time everything started to go downhill.
** However, this is often Flanderised. Hitler was described as a "gifted amateur" tactically (not strategically), certainly more than you'd expect for someone who never rose above corporal in the army. His reputation was in part made by an idea he had to deal with the Belgian border fortresses during the invasion of the Low Countries -- the Belgians had made the turrets so huge and impenetrable, ''the Nazis could just land gliders full of commandoes on top of them''.
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* [[Social Darwinist]]: Used to justify his Eugenics programs and invading of other countries. The Nazis' interpretation of evolution was [[Goal-Oriented Evolution]] taken to a genocidal extreme; [[Charles Darwin]] would not be amused.
* [[Soldiers At the Rear]]: As outlined above, he had a cushy messenger job that kept him out of danger.
* [[Start of Darkness]]: Probably his [[World War
* [[Stay in the Kitchen]]: His views on feminism were not favourable, to say the least.
* [[Supervillain Lair]]: Hitler had nearly a dozen Führer Headquarters littered throughout the Reich and Occupied Europe. Not all were used by him and instead by Wehrmacht generals. One of the most notable is ''Wolfsschanze'', his Eastern Front headquarters. It took the Soviets until the 1950s to clear all of the mines that had been laid in the area. He also had plans for a gigantic palace when the urban redevelopment of Berlin was completed, right next to the even larger ''Volkshalle''.
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* [[You Are What You Hate]]: Hitler might have had Jewish ancestry.
** While the above is controversial, it is well-documented that [[wikipedia:Emil Maurice|Emil Maurice]], a prominent Nazi, had a Jewish great-grandfather. Hitler insisted that he and his family be declared [[wikipedia:Honorary Aryan|Honorary Aryans]].
* [[You Have Failed Me...]]: Hitler believed ''Germany'' had failed him and tried to make sure Germany didn't survive him. Apparently losing all their young men in battle, having all their cities burnt and blasted to a pile of charred rubble, and having [[All Germans Are Nazis|their reputation ruined]] for generations wasn't loyal enough service for such a [[Fridge Logic|magnificent creature as him]].
* [[You Have Outlived Your Usefulness]]: Again, to Stalin (though it turned out to be ''Hitler'' who had outlived his usefulness to Stalin). And later on (just before his death) to the entire German people.
** He pulled a political version of this on the German National People's Party (''DNVP'' in German). At first, the Nazis and DNVP formed an alliance to give the Nazis a majority in the Reichstag. After the Nazis gained full legal power, Hitler quickly made it his goal to destroy all other parties, and so passed a decree banning the DNVP.
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* A dystopian [[Alternate History]] Europe where Hitler won the war is the premise of Brad Linaweaver's novel ''Moon Of Ice.''
* ''[[Assassin's Creed II]]'' posits that Hitler was {{spoiler|one of [[The Knights Templar]], and conspired with FDR, Stalin and Churchill to start World War II to establish a New World Order to [[Take Over the World]] for the Templars.}} And it would have worked, too, if it weren't for those meddling Assassins! {{spoiler|Hitler killed a body double inside the Führerbunker, only to be ambushed and killed by an Assassin who'd been waiting outside for him to make his escape attempt.}}
* Naturally appears a lot in the various works on [[
** In ''[[A Greater Britain]]'', after the Anschluss is contested by Austria and Hitler's bluff is called, war comes before Germany is ready and it does not go well. He gets assassinated in a military coup in 1938.
** In ''[[Weimar World]]'' he dies as an unknown during the Austrian Civil War.
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