Checking the TOP 10 popular legends about Hitler

2024 Author: Seth Attwood | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-16 15:55

Is it true that Hitler did not even graduate from high school? Was he crazy and yelling "Heil Hitler!" All the time? In fact, he did not commit suicide, but faked death and disappeared? Which of this is true and which is not, we will tell in the new issue.

Immediately after the collapse of Nazi Germany, the Fuehrer became the personification of the regime for the Germans: a real demon, he hypnotically acted on a crowd of ordinary citizens - deceived, enchanted victims. It took more than one decade for the Germans not only to turn to a reassessment of the deeds of Hitler, Goebbels, Himmler, Goering and other Nazis, but to realize their own participation in crimes, even if it was expressed in silence and non-resistance to evil.

On the other hand, Hitler's appearance did not at all correspond to the superhuman qualities that were attributed to him: he seemed too caricatured. These ideas were combined in numerous myths, which after the war overgrown the image of one of the most terrible dictators in history.

Legend 1. Hitler did not graduate from high school

Verdict:this is true.

In 1899-1905, the Hitler family lived in their own house in Leonding, a suburb of the Austrian city of Linz. Adolf attended an elementary, or, as it was then called in Austria, public school and studied well. When he was 11 years old, he entered secondary school: there he studied very unevenly, getting good grades only in those subjects that were interesting to him. Apparently, he was not capable of long, orderly work and could spend whole days doing nothing. After the first grade of high school, the boy stayed for the second year. Then he perceived school as an unnecessary obligation, and after the death of his father he stopped studying altogether.

His mother tried to transfer 14-year-old Hitler to a boarding school, but this did not change anything: in the surviving certificate, he has good marks only in drawing and physical education, and in all other subjects - unsatisfactory. In the future, Hitler repeatedly expressed his contempt for the traditional education system in Germany, attacked the school, which clogs the minds of children with unnecessary information, not giving them the right guidelines for life, and said that all universities were replaced by self-education and the trenches of the First World War.

Legend 2. Became a dictator because he could not become an artist

Verdict: rather, it is not true.

Hitler really dreamed of becoming an artist, and nothing came of it, but one cannot say that he became a dictator for this reason. After graduating from the boarding school, Hitler did nothing for two years - only went to the theater and art museum in Linz, gaining the determination to go to Vienna to enter the Academy of Arts. In 1907, leaving his terminally ill mother in Linz, Hitler left for Vienna. He twice tried to enter the Academy of Arts. The first time, despite a huge competition, he managed to pass the qualifying stage, but the next time he failed: there were "too few heads" in his drawings - he did not like to draw people. The second time he was cut off already at the qualifying stage.

Nevertheless, Hitler did not leave his dream of becoming an artist: he painted watercolors from photographs and nature, which were sold by his friend Reinhold Hanisch (for Hitler himself, it was intolerable to endure refusals in art shops). Having spent the inheritance that he inherited from his mother, Hitler was interrupted by small earnings, but did not work anywhere permanently.

In 1913, in order not to serve in the multinational Austro-Hungarian army, Hitler moved to Munich and immediately after the outbreak of the First World War, volunteered for the German army. His true fatherland, for the sake of whose victory it is not a pity to give his life, he considered Germany. In November 1918, wounded, he ended up in a hospital, where he learned the news of the revolution in Germany and the shameful truce that declared Germany the instigator of the war. From that moment on, he became obsessed with the idea of becoming a politician in order to save Germany and restore her greatness.

In September 1919, Hitler will speak at a meeting of the German Workers' Party and defeat a speaker who called for the separation of Bavaria from Germany and unification with Austria. The success of this speech will lead to the fact that first he will enter the leadership of the WCT, and then a small cohort of like-minded people will recognize him as their leader. Hitler will broadcast his artistic views already as the head of state, ordering the creation of a museum of the greatest works of "Aryan" artists in Linz, spending hours on plans to rebuild the German capital, approving the burning of "hostile" books that do not correspond to the ideology of National Socialism.

Legend 3. In fact, his name was not Hitler

Verdict: it is not true.

The myth that Hitler is not the real surname of the Fuhrer originated from his father Alois. He was born in 1837 in the village of Strones, 80 kilometers north-west of Vienna, and until the age of 40 bore the surname of his mother, Maria Anna Schicklgruber, since she gave birth to him without being married.

When Alois was five years old, Maria Anna married the miller Johann Georg Gidler, and gave her son to be raised by her husband's more wealthy brother, whose name was Johann Nepomuk Güttler (discrepancies in the spelling of the same surname were common in the villages). It is impossible to establish who was the boy's biological father: after the death of his brother, Güttler agreed to adopt Alois, but did not recognize paternity, insisting that the father was still his brother, who allegedly confessed this to mutual acquaintances.

In the birth register on birth registration, the entry “out of wedlock” will be replaced by “married”, and a note will appear in the margin: “Recorded by his father, Georg Hitler, well known to the undersigned witnesses, being named by the child’s mother Anna Schicklgruber, recognized himself as the father of Alois’s child and petitioned for entering his name into this register of births, which is confirmed by the undersigned. In January 1877, Alois Schicklgruber became Alois Hitler, although instead of the signatures of the witnesses there were three crosses each. His children bore this surname from birth.

Legend 4. Made a fashion for a mustache with a brush

Verdict: this is partly true.

In fact, this fashion appeared in Europe much earlier: at the end of the 19th century, a mustache of this shape was worn in Austria-Hungary, and in Germany, and in Russia. The brush was considered practical, did not require such care as a lush or even curled mustache, and at the same time emphasized masculinity. Rather, Hitler contributed to the next surge of this fashion in Germany in the early 1930s.

Legend 5. Actually was a Jew

Verdict: it is not true.

This legend is also associated with the obscure origin of Alois Schicklgruber-Hitler. According to one version, Maria Anna served in the house of the Frankenberger Jews (or Frankenreiters) in Graz: just at that time she became pregnant with Alois. This version surfaced at the Nuremberg trials: Hans Frank, a close associate of the Fuehrer, reported that in 1930 Hitler instructed him to investigate the origin of Alois - however, Frank did not have any evidence.

In his book, published in 1971, the historian Werner Mather tried to trace the Fuhrer's ancestry to the documents of the Waldviertel district, to which the village of Strones belonged. Mather was able to prove that in the 19th century there were no Jews or people with the surname Frankenberger among the inhabitants of Graz at all. Maria Anna herself came from an Austrian peasant family; the brothers Gidler-Güttler also did not have Jewish roots.

Legend 6. Shouted "Heil Hitler!" and generally screamed all the time, was crazy, satanist and occultist

Verdict: it is not true.

The appearance of the "possessed Fuhrer" is based on a newsreel, where Hitler shouts obscure phrases from the rostrum and throws up his hand. At the rallies, he did shout the word "heil" - the official greeting of the Nazis, but without his last name. In addition, Hitler appears in feature films as a shaking, screaming hysteric with crazy eyes. So, according to eyewitnesses, the Fuhrer really looked in the last months of the war, but before that he behaved completely differently.

As for insanity, by the end of the war, Hitler suffered from hypochondria, but doctors did not make psychiatric diagnoses to him. Rather, he was a fanatic with an insane belief in the ideology of national socialism, in the sacred power of the blood of the “Aryan race” and the need for its “purification”.

Finally, if we talk about the occult, then there is no evidence that Hitler belonged to such societies. Rather, his associates were related to them: Rudolf Hess and Hans Frank were members of the Munich Thule-Gesellschaft Society of Rudolf von Sebottendorf, Hess and Heinrich Himmler were fond of astrology, developed special rituals of members of the SS order and patronized the Ahnenerbe organization. Hitler himself did not tolerate competitors in the struggle for influence, and after 1933 such societies were banned. Hitler harshly cut off anyone who believed in something else besides National Socialism.

Legend 7. He was also a vegetarian

Verdict: this is not entirely true.

The fact that Hitler was a vegetarian was recalled by some of his contemporaries who attended the Fuehrer's receptions. In fact, Hitler was forced to follow a diet for medical reasons.

The guests were always served fish and meat. It is also known that the Fuehrer introduced the Eintopf Sunday tradition: on one Sunday of every month, instead of meat dishes, housewives throughout Germany and even chefs in expensive restaurants prepared vegetable stews, and the money saved was sent to the poor "Aryans". Thus, it cannot be said that Hitler was a vegetarian for ideological reasons - rather, he was reticent in his diet.

Legend 8. He was a genius speaker

Verdict: this is true.

Hitler's oratorical talent began to manifest itself with his arrival in politics. In the DAP, Hitler was responsible for propaganda from the very beginning, speaking at several rallies every day. His oratorical ability manifested itself in this way - in a private setting, he gave the impression of not the most interesting interlocutor. Hitler had a completely ordinary voice, but he always spoke emotionally, observing the reaction of his listeners. Subsequently, he will speak in a very differentiated manner, changing the content and tone of his speeches depending on the audience: with the military and industrialists - calmly and judiciously, with the crowd - aggressively and assertively.

Hitler developed a special set of poses for the speaker. As one of his biographers Joachim Fest wrote, “he creatively combines the staging elements of the circus and the opera house with the solemn ceremony of the church-liturgical ritual.” Proof of Hitler's oratorical talent are his speeches in front of crowds of thousands, who interrupted his speeches with thunderous peals of "Heil!" His last speech was heard on the radio on January 30, 1945, when the front line was already passing through Germany.

Legend 9. They tried to kill him 40 times

Verdict: this is not entirely true.

In 1981, the famous German writer and publisher Will Berthold published the book Die 42 Attentate auf Adolf Hitler, which was reprinted more than a dozen times. In fact, judging by the Gestapo's declassified investigative cases after the war, there were much fewer such attempts.

The most famous of the assassination attempts was Operation Valkyrie on July 20, 1944. On that day, Colonel Klaus von Stauffenberg and his adjutant brought a briefcase with explosives to a meeting with Hitler. He was placed next to the Fuhrer - the detonator was supposed to go off only ten minutes later. The conspirators found an excuse to leave the meeting and did not know that the portfolio was rearranged - several officers died, Hitler himself was wounded, temporarily deaf, received burns and shrapnel wounds.

It was a conspiracy of Wehrmacht officers who wanted to eliminate the Fuhrer and save Germany from defeat in the war. After the death of the Fuhrer, the conspirators planned to seize power and create an interim government that would immediately appeal to the Western powers with a proposal for a truce.

This attempt was not the only one, but their exact number is unknown. The initiators of the assassination attempts themselves told about four more cases, but there is no other confirmation of these four cases.

Legend 10. In fact, he did not commit suicide, but faked his own death and lived for a long time

Verdict: it is not true.

Before committing suicide, Hitler ordered the destruction of his body and the body of Eva Braun, who had become his wife the day before. According to the testimony of the head of the SS guard Hans Rattenhuber and Hitler's personal adjutant Otto Günsche, the corpses were doused with gasoline and set on fire, but did not burn to the end. On May 2, 1945, the Soviet military entered Hitler's bunker.

The found remains were sent for a forensic medical examination, which showed that among them was "presumably the body of Hitler." The jaw, by which it would be possible to confirm Hitler's identity by comparing it with the protocols of dental treatment, and other remains were placed in the secret vaults of the State Archives, where they still lie. When Stalin was asked at the Potsdam conference whether Hitler's corpse was really found, he, not wanting to admit that the remains were taken out to the USSR, answered negatively, thereby initiating the myth that the Fuhrer is alive.

This version was overgrown with incredible speculation: he escaped, flew by plane, sailed in a submarine, lived on a remote ranch in South America, either with Eve, or with a mulatto, surrounded by children, and died quietly many years after the collapse of his regime. But these are all legends: reputable historians believe that Hitler actually committed suicide on April 30, 1945.