Adolf Hitler: Difference between revisions

Born in 1889 in Braunau am Inn in Austria, Hitler was a man [[Freudian Excuse|with an unhappy childhood]]. His father<ref>whose wife (Hitler's mother) was his niece, also making Adolf his grand-nephew, and who was possibly Jewish</ref> [[Abusive Parents|beat him frequently]], inculturating young Adolf into violence and domination, before having the courtesy to die around his son's eleventh birthday. Adolf spent the rest of his childhood in Vienna with his mother, who led a Bohemian lifestyle, and his younger siblings, whom he bullied and bossed around.

 

 

 

Hitler fabricated much of his war record, with the help of a few cronies who either were there with him or pretended to be, and the Nazis viciously sued anyone who remembered things differently for slander. He didn't join the Austrian army because when they caught up to him (he fled Austria to avoid conscription), he was rejected for being medically unfit; and he claimed rather audaciously that he had to get the personal approval of the King of Bavaria in order to serve in the German Forces (neither he, nor the hundreds of other Austrians in Bavaria who joined up, did or needed to do such a thing). Notably also, the famous picture of "war euphoria" (that was taken by Hitler's future personal photographer) where Hitler is seen cheering in the middle of a crowd was carefully edited to put him more centrally than he was, and most of the square was actually empty. War euphoria ''did'' happen and Hitler ''was'' just one of thousands who volunteered after it broke out, but it was also exaggerated, and the Nazis helped to do that for their own ends.

* [[Hitler Ate Sugar]] ([[Ruined FOREVER]]: [[Beyond the Impossible|The Trope]])

* [[Hitler Cam]]

* [[Piggybacking On Hitler]]

* [[Springtime for Hitler]]

* [[Final Solution]]

* [[Ghostapo]]

* [[Reichstropen]]

* [[Those Wacky Nazis]]

 

* [[Abusive Parents|Abusive Father]]: Hitler's father beat him when he was younger, becoming his [[Freudian Excuse]].

** Hitler himself had several: Jews, communists, Slavs, opposing political parties, the left wing of the Nazi Party, homosexuals, gypsies, blacks, "loose women", disabled people...

** Most of Hitler's written works do not target anyone in East Asia specifically, with the rest of above populations frequent targets. The fact that Nazis granted EVERY Japanese the title "Honorary Aryan" does say something. Also, people like Himmler and even Hitler himself, stating in ''[[Mein Kampf]]'', their actual admiration to East Asian cultures. So to some extent, Nazis are racists, but not straight line white supremacists.

* [[Banned in China|Banned In Germany]]: See [[Culture Police]]. Ironically, today ''Mein Kampf'' is banned in Germany ([http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mein_kampf#Current_availability sort of]). See [[No Swastikas]].

* [[Beyond the Impossible]]: Stands as one of the most influential people.<ref>[[I Thought It Meant|Not]] influential as in "inspiring", [[Nietzche Wannabe|maybe]], but in "''groundbreaking''". Look at the above [[Ruined FOREVER]] list, [[Hitler Ate Sugar]], [[Long List|etc.]] if you ''cannot see it''.</ref> Even ''Time'' considered him as a part of the cover.

* [[Big Damn Kiss]]: With Eva Braun when she [[Undying Loyalty|told him she wouldn't leave Berlin for Bavaria in 1945.]] According to eyewitnesses it was an incredibly awkward moment for all concerned except Adolf and Eva.

* [[Bishounen]]: The manga version of ''Mein Kampf'' portrays the younger Hitler as one. Yes, there actually exists a ''Mein Kampf'' manga.

* [[Enemy Mine]]: With [[Josef Stalin]]. [[Chronic Backstabbing Disorder|It didn't last long.]]

* [[Even Bad Men Love Their Mamas]]: He said that his mother Klara was his warmest memory.

* [[Eviler Than Thou]]: A telegram to Martin Bormann has him saying that all this racial supremacy stuff is rubbish; in reality, he's out to crush the Jews as an ethnic minority in the cultural sense, reasoning that notions like peace and love were introduced by and tied to them, and it was those notions that he was out to destroy. If that's true, then he was even more coldly rational and dangerous than previously thought. This was not [[For the Evulz]], but [[Utopia Justifies the Means|a form of social engineering]] -- he wanted to create a modern-day Sparta or Imperial Rome, and to that end he had to radically change Germany's cultural values. Getting rid of the Jews was his way. He actually admitted as much when he discussed the relation between Nazi racism and science with a common farmer: "I know perfectly well that in the scientific sense there is no such thing as race. But you, as a farmer and cattle breeder, cannot get your breeding successfully achieved without the conception of race. And I as a politician need a conception which enables the order which has hitherto existed on historic bases to be abolished and an entirely and new anti-historic order enforced and given an intellectual basis... and for this purpose the conception of race serves me well. With the conception of race, National Socialism will carry the revolution abroad and re-cast the world."

* [[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 Is Hammy]]

** [[Milking the Giant Cow]]: Seen in speeches.

* [[Evil Overlord]]

* [[Evil Sounds Deep]]: Hitler had a very deep voice when speaking normally, as heard in his recording with Mannerheim. When ranting during his speeches, however, he took a high, barking tone.

* [[Fan Art]]: He drew quite a few reinterpretations of Disney characters, including [[Mickey Mouse]] and [[Snow White and The Seven Dwarfs (Disney)|the Seven Dwarfs]].

* [[Fascist but Inefficient]]: Prior to the war years, Hitler was apparently quite fond of waking up late, taking long walks, watching movies, and otherwise being a pretty lazy totalitarian dictator. He took the view that things tended to sort themselves out if one didn't interfere too much. After failing to knock out the Soviet Union in a single blow in 1941 he went over to the opposite side because he believed the Wehrmacht was [[Never My Fault|wholly responsible]] for failing to meet the invasion's intended goals, and resolved to micro-manage every single military operation from then on.

* [[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 One]]. His army buddies in the war used to think hanging around him was a decent way to live longer.

** 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.

* [[Fountain of Expies]]: Just look at the [[A Nazi By Any Other Name]] page.

* [[Freudian Excuse]]: He had a horrible childhood. However, he did ban Freud's work.

* [[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 One]], which looks funny in contrast to, say, Goering, who swanked it up with silks and furs and every medal and ornate bling he could lay his fat hands on.

* [[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''.

* [[Large Ham]]: As any video of his speeches shows, he screamed and gestured like there was no tomorrow in public appearances.

* [[Like You Would Really Do It]]: Many anti-Semites were actually shocked by the Final Solution, even if they had sometimes proposed things like that themselves. ''Himmler'' tried to talk Hitler out of it.

** Quite a lot of Jews said it -- that's why most of them didn't manage to jump ship before it was too late.

* [[Mad Artist]]: Aspired to be.

* [[Lucky Bastard]]: History's most infamous example, to the point where the term "Devil's Luck" was coined because of him.

* [[Magnificent Bastard]]: Played straight, then subverted. For about 10 years from 1933 until late '42 Hitler was on an absolute roll, eliminating his enemies, outplaying (not to mention out-charming) foreign politicians and men of influence, digging Germany out of the shithole that is the Great Depression and building up a seemingly unstoppable war machine and achieving in a matter of months a conquest of Europe that took Napoleon several years. Some military experts regard him as a gifted amateur -- his problem was he was too aggressive and [[Tactical Withdrawal|incapable of accepting losses]], for example refusing to [[Know When to Fold Em|yield conquered land even when it was tactically expedient to do so]]. His gigantic ego, failing mental health and his marriage to the [[Villain Ball]] came down on him later. ''Hard''.

** His policies for getting Germany out of the Great Depression were actually quite asinine. The Keynesian-style economics employed was actually the brainchild of Hjalmar Schacht, the Economics Minister, but he protested because Hitler focused too much on public works and especially military re-armament. Since both are run by the state, this meant that though unemployment was driven down the German economy wasn't actually gaining all that much capital and was set for another economic disaster a few years down the road. Conquering other countries and stealing their resources was the only way the army could pay for this. Of course, Hitler planned for war all along, so that wasn't a problem for him, but the economic imperative -- if he even understood it -- was not his reason for wanting war. In fact Hitler said on more than one occasion that he did not care about economics and considered that fact one of his strengths -- his economic policy was pretty much based around [[It Seemed Like a Good Idea At The Time]].

* [[Million Mook March]]

* [[Mis Blamed]]: He's often held up as an example of the inevitable moral bankruptcy of atheism...''and'' as an example of the inherently intolerant and oppressive nature of Christianity. This is actually sort of understandable, since both his public and private statements about religion are so contradictory that it's just about impossible to figure out what he believed. (The general scholarly consensus is that although he didn't mind using the Jews' supposed complicity in the Crucifixion to justify his antisemitism to others, his personal attitude toward Christianity was actually fairly contemptuous. He wasn't a strong atheist or anything, though, nor was he particularly opposed to religion in general.)

** 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''.

** But on the other hand, Hitler specifically ordered said doctor ''not'' to be killed. While the above sounds like a good [[Freudian Excuse]], he didn't actually seem to blame the doctor, although he was truly desperate when his mother died -- the doctor claimed he had never seen a young man so desperate in the same situation.

** After the Anschluss, the doctor, Eduard Bloch, actually wrote to Hitler and asked for help after his practice had been closed. He came under Gestapo protection and was allowed to live undisturbed until the paperwork for his and his wife's immigration to the US had been finished.

* [[Mook Promotion]]: Hitler was a [[Mook]] in [[World War I]]

* [[Murder Is the Best Solution]]: No pun intended.

* [[Mother Russia Makes You Strong]]: Rather creepily, Hitler became a firm believer in this by the end of the war. Because the Soviets had defeated the Germans in the Great Patriotic War, his racist and Social Darwinist attitudes led him to conclude that the "eastern races" were obviously more deserving of survival, and thought they would ultimately complete world conquest after destroying the "decadent democracies of the west". It's one of the reasons he came to denounce the entire German nation, and deemed them unfit to even survive as a people – trying to effect this by [[Taking You With Me|ordering the destruction of all German infrastructure and even the bare means of survival]].

* [[Nazi Germany]]: [[Trope Maker]] and [[Trope Codifier]].

* [[Nice to The Waiter]]: His secretary, Traudl Junge (while admitting that he was evil) said that he was "a pleasant boss and a fatherly friend".

* [[Oedipus Complex]]: Well the rivalry against his father and the attachment to his mother (which was Hitler's warmest memory especially during his Vienna years, but unfortunately died) were what what led to his [[Freudian Excuse]].

* [[Oh Crap]]: The defeat at Stalingrad. Hitler's record of military victories began to fall apart from there. [[Never My Fault|Hitler blamed anyone but himself, and urged the German people to fight to the bitter end.]]

** Considering what the Communist regime did to Siberian Huskies simply because the dogs were considered a symbol of leadership and wealth, who can really blame him?

* [[Playing the Victim Card]]: And the "oppressors" are the Jews and those who participated in the Treaty Of Versailles.

* [[Propaganda Machine]]: With many of his methods being copied by a majority of the world's politicians.

* [[Psycho Supporter]]: Hitler had plenty of them, both in Germany and outside.

* [[The Ubermensch]]

* [[Undying Loyalty]]: Expected this from his subordinates, and in many cases got it. A notable example would be his paramour Eva Braun, who he eventually married and committed suicide with in 1945.

* [[Villain Ball]]/[[This Is Your Brain On Evil]]: Opening a new war front with the Soviet Union before being done in the west is usually seen as an example of this.

* [[Villain With Good Publicity]]: In Germany, before it all came crumbling down. Many people tend to forget he was legally appointed and enjoyed popular support (albeit backed up from the start with threats of violence toward those who didn't support him), which only makes him ''more'' scary in retrospect. Quite a few historians have said that if Hitler had kicked the bucket around 1935-1938, he would have been remembered as one of the greatest of all German Chancellors, on par with Bismarck. He would have lost some points over antisemitism, [[Values Dissonance|but at that time it was not really all that out of place]].

* [[We Can Rule Together]]: To [[Josef Stalin|Stalin]]. Although both were deeply suspicious of the other.

** The Nazi's original idea was of a grand alliance with Britain, and that the English and the Germans would "share" the world: the English holding supremacy on the seas with an overseas empire, while the Germans would hold supremacy on land with a continental empire. The Nazis had this view because the inhabitants of the United Kingdom are, after all, Anglo-Saxons and ''Germanic'' in origin (barring the Celtics of course), and so in Hitler's view they would of course be natural allies. In fact, Hitler saw the success of the British Empire as proof of the superiority of the Germanic race. Not only did this ''not'' happen (turns out the British were not at all interested in this arrangement) and the Nazis wound up going to war with their ideological ally, but Hitler found himself, at least at first, in an alliance with the Soviet Union, his ideological ''enemy''. Even so, Hitler never really gave up on the idea of an alliance with Britain, and thought that after he had won the war they could still become allies.

** Oh heck, at least that has ''some'' tidbits of rationality as Russia was a danger and Hitler wasn't going to conquer Britain anytime soon because [[You Should Know This Already|the Royal Navy might object]]. What about just declaring war upon America out of the blue for no other reason then that he was absurdly pleased with the Japanese for Pearl Harbor -- even though he couldn't possibly do any lasting damage beyond a few weeks of torpedoing merchantmen?

** "[[The Princess Bride (Film)|Never get involved in a land war in Asia!]]"

* In the alternate [[Magitek]] universe novel ''Operation Chaos'', the protagonists are in Hell and at a loss to understand the identity of a mustached man with a strange armband who speaks with a strong German accent, and why the most powerful demons tremble at sight of him, or why he uses the "ancient and honorable symbol of the fylfot (swastika)". Their alternate history never had a Nazi Germany.

* [[Invasion of the Neptune Men|"They took out the Hitler building!]] [[Mystery Science Theater 3000 (TV)|Where's everyone going to go to see Hitler memorabilia?"]]

* ''[[The Simpsons (Animation)|The Simpsons]]''. Bart wrecked Hitler's car. Cue Nelson's question "What did he ever do to you?"

** It was also implied (in the episode Bart makes a crank phone call to Australia) that Hitler is living in Argentina.

* In the short story "Southern Strategy" by Michael F. Flynn, in which Germany won [[WW 1]], Hitler has become a major political leader in Germany, and has gained massive support for his cause through his speaking skills and charismatic personality. His cause is the furthering of animal rights and the banning of tobacco.

* ''[[CSA Confederate States of America]]'': The Confederecy is an Axis power, but Hitler is unable to reach an agreement on whether or not to go through with the final solution or keep its victims alive as slave labor.

* 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 (Video Game)|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.}}

[[Category:Reichstropen]]

[[Category:Adolf Hitler]]