Nazi Nobleman: Difference between revisions
m
clean up
m (clean up) |
|||
Line 1:
{{trope}}
[[File:
{{quote|''During my wartime years in the United States, I heard not a single "morale-building" story about Central Europe that did not involve a "Nazi nobleman."''|'''Erik Maria Ritter von Kuehnelt-Leddihn''', ''Leftism Revisited''}}
Line 42:
** Though in König's case it wasn't so much Nazi ideology as it was his wish to avenge his son's death, his son having been killed in the earliest days of the battle.
** The Soviets [[Playing with a Trope|invoke the trope]] because their guy is a poor peasant who learned shooting hunting goats for food. The German guy learnt sniping on his family estate. They turn the sniper duel into class warfare.
* This trope possibly appears in the 1943 war movie ''Bomber's Moon''; the villain of the piece is a Luftwaffe Major named Von
* ''The Master Race'', made in 1944, depicts unrepentant Nazi "Colonel Friedrich Von Beck" deviously fomenting hatred and dissent in a liberated Belgian town.
* Averted in ''Cross of Iron''. Both Sergeant Steiner and his aristocratic nemesis Captain Stransky have a cynical and distasteful view of the Nazis, the former because he has seen enough of the war to know how insane it is and the latter because of his aristocratic Prussian background and distaste for the Nazi belief in social mobility among Germans.
Line 62:
* The short story ''Poison Victory'' uses a Nazi Nobleman, and [[Lampshade Hanging|lampshades]] the inaccuracy by having one character remark "Another Nazi nobleman... And to think how Hitler hated the aristocracy!"
* Norman Katov's novel ''The Judas Kiss'' depicts an Austrian Nazi Baron who collaborates with [[Adolf Hitler|Hitler]] in [[Torture Technician|torturing prisoners]].
* [[P. G. Wodehouse|PG Wodehouse]] included a British variant in his ''[[Jeeves and Wooster (novel)|Jeeves and Wooster]]'' stories. Roderick Spode, 7th Earl of Sidcup, is the founder of a Fascist organisation informally known as the "[[Black Shirt|Blackshorts]]" (so named because "by the time [he] founded his organisation, there were no shirts [as in shirt colours] left"). Fortunately, Wodehouse knew enough to depict Spode correctly as an ''exception'' to the general
** It should be pointed out that Spode abandons his attempts to become a dictator precisely when he succeeds to the title. Moreover, when "Joy in the Morning" was written, Wodehouse probably had not yet invented a title for Spode to inherit.
* Several members of the Vanger family in ''[[The Millennium Trilogy]]'' were enthusiastic supporters of Nazi ideology.
Line 89:
== Real Life ==
=== Straight examples
* Successful tank commander and nobleman Hyazinth Graf Strachwitz von Gross-Zauche und Camminetz nicknamed by his troops der Panzergraf (Tank count).[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hyazinth_Graf_Strachwitz_von_Gross-Zauche_und_Camminetz\]
* Hermann Göring started styling himself as one once in power, and by the end of the war he had made it the last [[The Pirates Who Don't Do Anything|"job"]] he actually did.
* At least one aristocratic German relative of Britain's Prince Philip attained a high position in the Nazi Party. Prince Christopher of Hesse-Cassel was an intimate of Hermann Gōring and became head of the wiretapping unit organized by Gōring that became the forerunner to the Gestapo.
* The Mitfords were perfect examples of British nobility who sympathised with the Nazis; though a distinct minority, their massive publicity over the years has caused many in the public to believe their position was reflective of opinion among the vast majority of British nobility. As among German nobility, ''it wasn't''.
** Perhaps it would be useful to illustrate through the example of the Mitfords themselves. The most strongly Nazi Mitfords were Unity (whose middle name was [[Prophetic Names|Valkyrie]], and attempted suicide when Britain declared war on Germany) and Diana (who married Sir Oswald
* Sir Oswald Mosley, 6th Baronet, was a real-life example of the British variant (though [[Knight Fever|technically not a true "Nobleman"]]), and was the inspiration for Roderick Spode, listed above.
* Josias, Hereditary Prince of Waldeck and Pyrmont became a senior SS officer and served as High Commissioner of Police in German-occupied France. He served three years in prison after the war. Himmler was godfather to his son.
Line 101:
*** In the previous war, Papen had been the head of Imperial Germany's intelligence effort in the US, where his recommendation that German submarines should start sinking American merchant ships [[Take That|did so much to keep America neutral and win the war for the Kaiser.]] He was appointed Hitler's deputy by [[General Failure|President Hindenburg]], who figured that a man with [[Some Anvils Need to Be Dropped|Papen's record of success]] would be just the fellow to keep this damned Bohemian corporal in line.
=== [[Averted Trope|Aversions]] and [[Subverted Trope|Subversions]]
* Joachim von Ribbentrop was a subversion, in that he acquired the aristocratic "von" when he was adopted by an aunt who had married a nobleman. At the age of 37, no less, and it's alleged that money changed hands in order to bring it about. Before taking his post in Hitler's cabinet he was a liquor salesman, and his pretensions did not endear him to the true German nobility in the least.
* Real-life Austrian aristocrat Erik Maria Ritter von Kuehnelt-Leddihn, author of the above quote, complained about this trope in his book ''Leftism Revisited'', where the full quote [http://www.lewrockwell.com/baltzersen/baltzersen10.html reads] ''"During my wartime years in the United States I heard not a single 'morale-building' story about Central Europe that did not involve a 'Nazi nobleman'. Some did of course exist -- as did Jews who paid conscience money to the NSDAP, and Catholic priests who held 'brown' sympathies. Exceptions confirm the rule. But National Socialism was a plebeian movement; significantly, at the big Nuremberg Trial, not a single nobleman was among those condemned to death."'' (It should be noted that Kuehnelt-Leddihn's [http://www.lewrockwell.com/north/north776.html own father] had served in the German army, but decidedly without any enthusiasm for the Nazi cause).
Line 109:
* German spy Princess Stephanie Julianne von Hohenlohe was close the Hitler and Göring. She was also Jewish.
* Colonel Claus Schenk Graf von Stauffenberg did get a bit of a [[Historical Hero Upgrade]] in the 2008 film ''[[Valkyrie]]'', but it is indisputably true that this Swabian Count was a mastermind behind one of the biggest plots to assassinate [[Adolf Hitler]]. While he didn't exactly have [http://www.ess.uwe.ac.uk/GENOCIDE/reviewstr12.htm the highest opinion] of non-Germans, and endorsed some planks of the Nazi political platform, he also didn't just go along quietly after the Nazis crossed the [[Moral Event Horizon]]. Many of the other real-life plotters were aristocrats of one stripe or another as well.
* The Duke of Windsor is only rumored to have been a Nazi
* The military proper (as opposed to the [[Praetorian Guard|SS]]) was more sympathetic to the old traditions and had a number of old-style nobility in it who were [[Just Following Orders]]. This was a great bother to [[Adolf Hitler]] who couldn't get along without them but absolutely hated officers; partly because he had once been an enlisted man, partly because they often had minds of their own within the confines of their profession, and partly because they deflected loyalty away from ''him''.
* The German tennis player Gottfried von Cramm, despite playing Davis Cup matches for the Nazis, was did not represent the "Aryan ideal" that the Germans sought from their athletes. Von Cramm, openly opposed the Nazis' dismissal of his Jewish doubles partner Daniel Prenn from the Davis Cup team. Furthermore, he lived his life as a closeted gay man and narrowly avoided being sent to a concentration camp because of his sexuality.
| |||