Putting on the Reich: Difference between revisions

{{trope}}

* ''[[Final Fantasy the Spirits Within (Anime)|Final Fantasy the Spirits Within]]'': The soldiers under the leadership of General Hein.

* Subverted by the uniforms of the Federation Navy in ''[[Starship Troopers (Film)|Starship Troopers]]''. These are the "heroes" of our story (though Paul Verhoeven would probably tell you otherwise.) For instance, [[Neil Patrick Harris]]' character's uniform looks ''exactly'' like a simpler version of a Gestapo officer's, hence his [[Fan Nickname]], "Doogie Howser, SS."

** Several sequences in the movies had a definite [[Triumph of the Will (Film)|Riefenstahl]] flair:

*** In ''[[The Phantom Menace]]'', there is a shot of Trade Federation droids marching through an arch on Naboo that was almost certainly inspired by actual footage of Nazis marching through the Arc de Triomphe in Paris.

*** The [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NKOJ5bEKPLY German dub of that scene] is. . . rather unnerving.

* ''[[Equilibrium]]'''s totalitarian government features a flag that is a direct copy-paste of the swastika, only with the crossbars centered on each radial. [http://flagspot.net/flags/fic-nazi.html This website] has a whole list of fictional flags of Nazi inspiration.

** Somewhat stupidly, the movie (which retains the original Shakespearean text, despite taking place in the '30s) continually refers to Richard as "King," even though the Nazis were notoriously anti-monarchist.

* The Octopus wears an SS uniform, ''and'' a samurai costume, ''and'' a Russian coat in ''[[The Spirit (Film)|The Spirit]]''. Why, you ask? Well, why not?

* In Sergei Eisenstein's ''[[Alexander Nevsky]]'', the common soldiers of [[The Teutonic Knights]] all wear identical [[Faceless Goons|face-masking]] Stahlhelms. (The Stahlhelm itself was, in turn, probably based on a medieval German style of helmet called a ''Schallern''.) And the archbishop wears a miter [http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/a/a8/Nevski5.jpg with swastikas!] Quite possibly the [[Older Than Television|earliest example of the trope]] (five years after [[Those Wacky Nazis]] took power).

* In the movie adaptation of ''[[Quo Vadis]]?'', the scene where the troops march before Nero, who watches from a balcony and salutes them, is directly choreographed from ''Triumph of the Will''.

* ''Damn near everyone'' in the low-budget movie ''[[Warrior of the Lost World]]''. The villains (from the "Omega" political party) dress in snappy black uniforms with [[Does This Remind You of Anything?|an inverted red triangle, with a white disc and a black omega]]. Prosser, their leader, dresses in a black leather trenchcoat. However, even the good guys, [[La Résistance|freedom fighters struggling against Omega]] have people dressed ''in actual Nazi uniforms.'' Including a black guy in SS uniform.

* Andy's torture outfit in ''[[The Final]]'' is an SS uniform.

* An unusual (and rather original) subversion occurs in [[Harry Turtledove]]'s ''Southern Victory/[[Fan Nickname|TL-191]]'' [[Alternate History]] series, where while the Confederates (who are supposed to be Nazi Germany in the series) pretty much copy almost everything the Nazis do and did--from trials, to their own Expy of Hitler, to even their own salute, party cry, and genocide. The one thing the Freedom Party (the CSA version of the Nazi Party) ''doesn't'' copy is the uniforms. The description in the books and some of the covers show them to resemble [[WW 2]] US uniforms. The US on the other hand does use German-styled uniforms and helmets because they have had a long-standing alliance with [[Imperial Germany]] (to the point of almost hero worship of the German Empire). As for the Germans themselves, Germany is still under the Kaiser. And, [[Playing With a Trope|ironically]], despite TL-191 Confederates eventually becoming an [[Alternate History]] Nazi equivalent, they mostly use equipment and uniforms clearly based off of those of their traditional allies, the British and French (tanks suspiciously similar to British ones in WWI and Spitfire-like fighter planes in WWII).

** What's even funnier about the Confederates in the Second Great War is, in spite of the uniforms and alliances with the traditional Allies, their military hardware ended up resembling German machinery. For examples, their Barrels (Tanks) were based on the Panther and Tiger tanks, their Hound Dog fighters were expies of Bf 109s, their Mule dive bombers were Stukas with Southern Crosses painted on the sides and they also fielded things like Barrel Busters (Tank Destroyers) and Stovepipes (Panzerschrecks). Despite this however, the US would be the one to field the first turbo (jet) fighters, specifically the Boeing-71 "Screaming Eagle", which was pretty much an expy of the Me 262.

* The Gale Force (the Wizard's army) in ''[[Wicked (Literature)|Wicked]]'', though of course in green.

* ''[[The Wheel of Time (Literature)|The Wheel of Time]]'' series depicts ex-False-Dragon Mazrim Taim, [[Heel Face Mole|now ostensibly working for the good guys]], building up an army of magic-users using a variety of titles blatantly stolen from the Germans and translated into the Old Tongue. Possibly [[Lampshade Hanging|lampshaded]] when General Bashere isn't sure this is the real Taim because he's shaved off his mustache.

* The uniforms of the Alliance Navy in ''[[Firefly (TV)|Firefly]]''. It doesn't help that many Alliance uniforms were left over from the Starship Troopers movie, which definitely ''did'' have ''slight'' fascistic overtones.

* The black uniforms of the Psi Cops in ''[[Babylon 5]]''. And the brown shirts of the Nightwatch.

* In ''[[Tin Man (TV)|Tin Man]]'', the Wicked Witch has as a [[Secret Police]] the black-leather-wearing [[Badass Longcoat|"Long Coats"]].

* The Genii in ''[[Stargate Atlantis (TV)|Stargate Atlantis]]'' have uniforms that bear a fair resemblance to some German uniforms from ''[[World War One]]''. A downplayed version occurs in a season two episode that features a society which deports its prisoners to the vicinity of the planet's Stargate so the Wraith will feed only on them, where the Magistrate's uniform bears some fascistic overtones.

{{quote| '''Jack''': The way you guys are blending in with the local color- I mean [[Wearing a Flag On Your Head|Flag Girl]] is bad enough, but ''U-Boat captain''?}}

** Played straight with the Republic Security Forces in "Inferno", the organisation being an SS-like doppelganger of UNIT in a parallel world.

* In ''[[Rifts (Tabletop Game)|Rifts]]'', the Coalition soldiers are called Dead Boys because of their skull motif, ripped from the SS. Their dress uniforms are SS-based as well.

** For that matter, Emperor Prosek is (in addition to the above dress stylings) [[Justified Trope|consciously modeling]] much of his empire's political organization, propaganda tactics, and social engineering on the Third Reich itself -- he's a historical scholar with a specialty in Nazi Germany, and has explicitly taken Hitler as his role model.

** Older (metal) Cadian units, on the other hand, wear obvious Wehrmacht-inspired uniforms, right down to the bread-bags, Y-straps, jack boots, and cylindrical ribbed gas mask cans.

* Centrum from ''[[GURPS (Tabletop Game)|GURPS]]: Infinite Worlds'' is really closer to Communists with parachronics but they're drawn wearing snazzy Nazi-esque uniforms.

*** A bizarre sort of inversion: In the late 1990s, mullet hairstyles briefly became popular in Germany, so much so that some German police departments permitted officers to let their hair grow long. This led ''[[Saturday Night Live]]'' cast member Colin Quinn (who was fond of taking potshots at New Jersey) to joke that these precincts would probably be recruiting in the bars of New Jersey next.

* Subversion in [[Doctor Steel|Doctor Steel's]] "Toy Soldiers", who mimic fascist uniforms, flags and propaganda to satirize armies that seek to crush free will and freedom of expression... all in the name of fun.

* The National Revolutionary Army - officially, the Army of the factious Republic of China - from 1928 to c.1950. In the 30s and 40s, the Nationalist-Party-led [[The Other Chinese Army|Republic of China]] fought with German Rifles - the Karabiner 98k was the standard-issue weapon for the Nationalists' 'core army' of loyal, good-quality, German-trained troops - German Machine guns - the [[MG 34]] - German pistols - the Mauser C96, which had been China's most popular weapon for going on three decades - German grenades - the 'Potato Masher' was China's no.1 grenade - and the M1935 version of the German stahlhelm.

** On the other hand the Nationalists' Burma-based [[World War II|Chinese Expeditionary Force]], which fought alongside the Anglo-Indian Army, received American training equipment and weaponry such that they looked and acted the part of a U.S. Army formation. The Nationalists' main forces also received large quantities of American uniforms, helmets, and weapons such as the Thompson submachine gun - which was sorely needed, given their lack of automatic weaponry. For the most part, the NRA's various factions were outfitted with various locally-made copies of all of these, some of them (such as the Thompsons) being produced legally and under foreign supervision. What made things even ''more'' complicated was when the Japanese surrendered and their million-strong army and occupation force destroyed or left behind all of their equipment and weaponry. As if that wasn't bad enough, when the People's Liberation Army (the armed wing of the Chinese Communist Party) defeated the NRA in the Civil War, they then received Soviet-made weapons, equipment, and uniforms - again a mixture of imports and local products - as part of the Sino-Soviet Alliance, but continued to use their existing stuff too. Consequently, most Chinese forces in the early-to-mid '40s looked German with American bits, which came closer to Nazi-American hybrids as the war dragged on until, by the mid-to-late '40s, they became weird [[Ninja Pirate Zombie Robot|Nazi-American-Japanese-Soviet hodgepodges]]. Only in 1953 were the PLA's uniforms and equipment finally standardized along Soviet lines.

* The Ethnocacerists in Peru are nationalist, ally themselves with communists, and their banner/standard is the nazi black eagle replaced by a condor. Essentially, [[Commie Nazis]].

** Especially bizarre when Asian cosplayers dress up in Nazi regalia, [http://www.chinasmack.com/2011/pictures/nazi-chic-cosplay-chinese-netizen-reactions.html such as for a wedding]. The bride in these pictures even had blonde hair for the occasion!

* The [[Imperial Germany|German Empire]] itself did this with [[The Roman Empire|ancient Rome]], as did [[Imperial Russia|the Russian Empire]]. The titles of "kaiser" and "czar" are, respectively, German and Russian translations of "caesar", with the former being how it's actually pronounced in Latin.

[[Category:Costume Tropes]]

[[Category:Putting On The Reich]]