Adolf Hitler is without a doubt one of the most controversial and hated figures in world history, and for good reason. His beliefs, opinions and ideals led humanity to war, which caused widespread death and destruction. However, he is an integral part (albeit negative) of the history of this planet, so we should better understand what personality traits a person possessed, capable of such monstrous things as Hitler. Let's hope that by looking into the past and studying the terrible person that was Hitler, we can prevent a man like him from rising to power. So, we present to your attention twenty-five facts about Hitler that you might not know.
25. Hitler married Eva Braun and committed suicide the next day
For many years, Hitler refused to marry Braun for fear of how it would affect his image. However, he decided to do this when the Germans were promised defeat. Hitler and Braun married in a civil ceremony. Their bodies were discovered the next day. Hitler shot himself, and Brown died from a cyanide capsule.
24. Hitler had a contentious relationship with his niece
When Geli Raubal, Hitler's niece, was studying medicine, she lived in Hitler's apartment in Munich. Later, Hitler became very possessive and domineering towards her. Hitler even forbade her from doing anything without his knowledge after he heard rumors about her relationship with his personal driver. Upon his return from a short meeting in Nuremberg, Hitler found the body of his niece, who had apparently shot herself with his pistol.
23. Hitler and the Church
Hitler wanted the Vatican to recognize his authority, so in 1933 the Catholic Church and the German Reich signed an alliance under which the Reich was guaranteed the protection of the Church, but only if they remained committed to exclusively religious activities. This agreement, however, was violated, and the Nazis continued to engage in anti-Catholic activities.
22. Hitler's own version of the Nobel Prize
After the Nobel Prize was banned in Germany, Hitler developed his own version, the German National Prize for Art and Science. Ferdinand Porsche was one of the honorees for being the man who created the world's first hybrid car and the Volkswagen Beetle.
21. Hitler's collection of Jewish artifacts
Hitler originally intended to create a "Museum of an Extinct Race", in which he wanted to house his collection of Jewish artifacts.
20. Elevator cables at the Eiffel Tower
When Paris fell to German control in 1940, the French cut the Eiffel Tower's elevator cables. This was done deliberately to force Hitler to climb the ladder to the top. However, Hitler decided not to climb the tower, so as not to have to overcome more than a thousand steps.
19. Hitler and the women's cosmetics industry
Hitler's original plan was to simply shut down the cosmetics industry to free up funds for the war economy. However, in order not to disappoint Eva Braun, he decided to close it gradually.
18. American genocide of Native Americans
Hitler often praised the "effectiveness" of the American genocide of Native Americans.
17. Hitler and art
Hitler had artistic inclinations. When he moved to Vienna in the 1900s, Hitler initially thought of pursuing a career in the arts. He even applied to enter Vienna’s Academy of Art, but was rejected due to his “unsuitability for painting.”
16. Hitler's family circle
Hitler grew up in an authoritarian family environment. His father, who was an Austrian customs official, was famous for his severity and temper. It was also noted that Hitler adopted many of his father's personality traits.
15. Why Hitler was disappointed by Germany's surrender in World War I
While Hitler was recovering from a gas attack during World War I, he learned that an armistice had been reached, signaling the end of the war. This announcement angered Hitler and gave rise to his belief that the Germans had been betrayed by their own leaders.
14. The general who refused to commit suicide
When it became obvious that the Germans were about to be defeated at the Battle of Stalingrad, Hitler expected the leader of his army to commit suicide. However, the general noted: "I am not going to kill myself because of this bohemian corporal" and surrendered in 1943.
13. Why he didn't like football
Hitler later developed a dislike for football because Germany's victory over other nations could not be guaranteed, no matter how hard they tried to manipulate or adjust the results.
12. Hitler's real full name
Hitler's father changed his name in 1877. Otherwise people would have difficulty pronouncing Hitler's full name - Adolf Schicklgruber.
11. Hitler's Honorary Aryans
It was discovered that one of Hitler's close friends and personal drivers was of Jewish origin. For this reason, key officials in Hitler's party recommended his expulsion from the SS. However, Hitler made an exception for him and even his brothers, considering them "honorary Aryans".
10. Hitler's "Noble Jew"
Hitler had his own way of paying debts of gratitude. When he was still a child, his family could not afford the expensive services of a professional doctor. Fortunately, the Jewish-Austrian doctor never charged him or his family for medical services. When Hitler came to power, the doctor enjoyed the “eternal gratitude” of the Nazi leader. He was released from the concentration camp. He was also provided with adequate protection and received the title of “noble Jew.”
9The Lawyer Who Cross-Examined Hitler
Early in his political career, Hitler was called as a witness. He was questioned by a Jewish lawyer named Hans Litten, who cross-examined Hitler for three hours. During the Nazi rule, this Jewish lawyer was arrested. He was tortured for five years until he finally committed suicide.
8. Hitler as a Disney fan
Hitler loved Disney. He even described Snow White as one of the best films in the world at that time. In fact, Hitler's sketches of the Timid Dwarf, Doc, and Pinocchio were discovered.
7. Hitler's funeral
His body was buried four times before it was finally cremated and his ashes scattered to the wind.
6. Hitler's Mustache Shape
Hitler originally had a long, curled mustache. During World War I, he trimmed his mustache, changing the shape to his famous toothbrush style. According to him, the bushier mustache prevented him from properly securing the gas mask.
5. Loan from Mercedes-Benz
While Hitler was imprisoned, he managed to write an application for a loan to buy a car to a local Mercedes-Benz dealer. Many years later, this letter was discovered at a flea market.
4. What did his mustache mean to Hitler?
It is believed that Hitler wore a mustache because he thought it made his nose look smaller.
3. A souvenir for a successful Olympian from Hitler
Jesse Owens, a successful Olympian, was surprised to receive a gift from Hitler after his successful performance at the 1936 Olympics. President Roosevelt did not even send a telegram to Owens to congratulate him on his achievement.
2. Hitler as a wounded infantryman
During World War I, Hitler was an infantryman who was wounded at the height of the war. Surprisingly, Hitler evoked mercy and sympathy from the British soldier.
1. Hugo Jaeger was Hitler's personal photographer
Throughout all the turmoil, Jaeger remained very loyal to Hitler. To avoid criminal liability for his association with Hitler, the photographer decided to hide his photographs of the Nazi leader. However, in 1955, he eventually sold the photographs to Life Magazine for a lot of money.
On July 1, 1751, the first volume of the world's first Encyclopedia was published. And although reference books and terminological dictionaries existed back in Ancient Egypt, it was the French “Encyclopedia, or explanatory dictionary of sciences, arts and crafts” that had the form of articles to which we are accustomed.
Until now, encyclopedias remain one of the main authorities to which both scientists and ordinary readers traditionally turn for a qualified definition, but not a single book is immune from inaccuracies. AiF.ru recalls the most famous blunders of authoritative publications.
"Grozny" Vasilievich
One of the funniest mistakes, which has already turned into a historical joke, happened with the famous encyclopedic dictionary published in France by the Larousse publishing house. The 1903 edition published an article about Ivan IV, in which his famous nickname “Terrible” was interpreted somewhat differently. It said: “Ivan the Fourth, Tsar of All Rus', nicknamed Vasilyevich for his cruelty.”
Alternative astronomy
In 2008, the Great Astronomical Encyclopedia, published by one of the country's largest publishing houses, was at the center of a scandal. The book consisted of 25 thousand dictionary entries and serious errors were made in several of them. For example, the constellation Lynx, which on all star maps is located near the north pole of the world, suddenly turned out to be in the southern hemisphere, Ursa Major and Ursa Minor turned their tails towards each other, and Neptune’s satellite Triton turned out to be a constellation, which did not even prevent it from having mass.
Hitler's "real" surname
In the third edition of the Great Soviet Encyclopedia, to the horror of many historians, an error was made in the article about Adolf Hitler. In it, the authors indicated that the “real” surname of the Fuhrer was Schicklgruber, although in fact only his father Alois bore this surname in his youth, while Adolf himself was Hitler all his life.
Strait instead of a revolutionary
A funny story happened with the fifth volume of the Great Soviet Encyclopedia, which published a laudatory article about Beria. After the Minister of Internal Affairs was arrested and shot, the editors of TSB sent out a special letter to all subscribers, which recommended using scissors or a razor blade to “remove pages 21, 22, 23 and 24 from the fifth volume of TSB, as well as the portrait pasted between 22 and 23 pages." In exchange for the article about Beria, readers were sent additional pages dedicated to the expanded article “Bering Strait”.
Non-existent frog
For a similar reason, an article appeared in the same TSB publication about a “green frog” that does not exist in biological taxonomy. The thing is that on the eve of the publication of the encyclopedia in the so-called “Doctors’ Case” he was arrested Academician Vladimir Zelenin and it was decided to replace his biography with an article about an ordinary pond frog, which was called “green”.
Lost bison
In 2005, an incident occurred related to the oldest and one of the most famous universal encyclopedias in the world, the Encyclopedia Britannica (Britannica). In the latest edition, an ordinary 12-year-old British schoolboy discovered five errors at once regarding information about Belarus, Poland and Ukraine. For example, the encyclopedia claimed that bison are found only in Poland, the city of Khotyn is not located on the territory of Ukraine, but in Moldova, and the Polish part of Belovezhskaya Pushcha is located in the districts of Bialystok, Suwalki and Lomza.
Too complex hieroglyph
In 2006, a 56-year-old resident of Shanghai found even more errors in the latest edition of the most popular explanatory dictionary of the Chinese language, Xinhua Zidian. In the book, which is widely used both domestically and around the world, he found 4,000 typos and even went to court with a complaint against the publishers. By the way, errors are discovered from time to time in the best-selling Chinese dictionary, but most often the publishers manage to prove that these are not errors, but just a misunderstanding of the hieroglyphs by readers.
The official census indicates that Adolf was born in Austria in April 1889. There is a version that his father Alois Schicklgruber was illegitimate and until the age of 14 he bore his mother’s surname. Later his mother married a certain I.G. Hidler (over time this surname changed a little), and under this surname Alois had already begun his youthful life, i.e. Adolf himself was already born into a family of full-fledged Hitlers.
The stepfather belonged to a family of Jews of Czech origin. Naturally, he had nothing to do with Adolf’s family tree. In 1928, after a series of investigations, a theory emerged that Adolf's grandfather might have been Jewish. Most opponents of Hitler's political beliefs happily supported this version, trying to discredit his personality and raise the question of his membership in the SS. Gaps in the biography of the German Fuhrer contributed to the strengthening of this theory. However, having looked up secret archives, historians came to the conclusion that there are no Jewish roots in Hitler’s family. And today this version is recognized as official, completely refuting the Jewish origin of the Fuhrer. After a detailed study of declassified documents, it was established that Hitler’s family tree included only Austrians for several generations.
Historian and TV presenter Leonid Mlechin took on the challenge of solving Adolf Hitler's biggest mysteries
On the shelves of even a small bookstore there will probably be several books telling about Nazi Germany and Adolf Hitler. Another one was added to them - “The Fuhrer’s Biggest Secret,” written by the famous historian, writer and TV presenter Leonid MLECHIN. Why is interest in this historical figure (by the way, tomorrow is the birthday of Nazi boss number one) so persistent? “Isn’t everything known about Hitler yet?” - we asked the author.
There are individuals in world history whose scale of crimes are so incredible that they will always attract attention. I tried to give answers to many questions, but there are things that still cannot be fully understood. To some extent, this fascinates the researcher, although it often pushes him to a false perception of the scale of the individual.
Actually, as a person, Adolf Hitler was a complete nonentity, but the scope of his atrocities is such that they, like a powerful lens, turned his figure into a gigantic one. Under this optical effect, qualities were often attributed to Hitler that in fact he did not have.
- So, the final understanding of Hitler has not yet taken place?
All German archives relating to the 13-year period of Hitlerism were immediately opened after 1945. A huge number of books have been written, but imagine, to this day, more and more new works are being published in Germany. I just read a thick scientific work about the German economy during the Nazi era. For the first time in 60 years, it provides detailed explanations of how the Third Reich, with rather meager resources, managed to create a powerful military machine and threaten almost the entire world. This is an inexhaustible topic.
- And what is “Hitler’s biggest secret”? Have you opened it?
The Fuhrer has a lot of secrets. Starting with the mystery of his origin: who his grandfather was is still completely unclear. Most likely, incest occurred in his family: his father married his own niece. All his life he strenuously hid it and was terrified that the truth would come out. Another secret is Hitler's relationships with men and women, his repressed homosexuality, fear of intimacy with the opposite sex. As a result, there was a complete breakdown with myself and resentment towards the whole world around me. It seems that the only person for whom Hitler had feelings, including sexual ones, was his own niece Geli Raubal, who committed suicide in 1931.
All these particulars would not have had much significance if they had not formed into the character, into the fate of himself and his country. But the biggest mystery is how this man was able to completely subjugate an entire state, to master the mass consciousness of the people so much that these people themselves threw themselves into the furnace.
- Until recently, we were taught history differently: historical materialism, class struggle, movement from system to system. And now, it turns out, individuals and their intimate lives can radically affect world history?
Yes, I think the role of personality in history has turned out to be much more significant than we once imagined. She is simply colossal! I dare to say that if, for example, Adolf Hitler had died at the front in 17 or 18, there would be no National Socialism. There would be far-right parties and something else, but 50 million people would still be alive! If he had been born ten years earlier or later, everything would have turned out differently. Hitler coincided with the mood of the people at that very historical point and caught the wave.
- You portrayed young Hitler as an ordinary person, weak and complex. At what point did the metamorphosis happen and the Fuhrer appear?
A whole chain of accidents leads him to this. There is a version that the turning point was the episode at the front of the First World War, when after a gas attack Hitler ended up in the hospital. The doctor who treated him for blindness discovered that the damage to his eyes was not organic, but rather neurotic. And then, with the help of hypnosis, the front-line doctor instilled in Hitler a special faith in himself.
The second moment occurred when Hitler, finding himself at a meeting of a small Bavarian party - and such rallies took place in beer halls - began to speak. Surrounded by completely insignificant outcasts, he suddenly felt the gift of a demagogue in himself. They started clapping for him, and he became filled with self-confidence.
In a word, a mass of random circumstances formed a fatal sequence. He should not have come to power. If the Weimar Republic had held out for at least an extra couple of months, the Nazi wave would have died down. But it turned out that a number of politicians who played their own games, trying to drown each other, opened the way to the top for Hitler.
- Was it really all that accidental? After all, fascism was already in Italy by that time, and similar regimes took over in other European countries.
But in Germany there was a special situation. After the First World War, the Germans harbored a huge grudge against the whole world. And false grievances and the search for external enemies are extremely dangerous things for any country.
- By the way, in Russia, which suffered the most in the war against fascism, skinheads are walking around today, beating people of other nationalities. Where do we get this infection from?
There is no paradox in this. It took two decades and enormous strain on society, especially on the West German intelligentsia, to heal. She wrote new textbooks and created a new spiritual climate. The country has learned its lessons. Even the current German Chancellor Merkel, who was born after the war and seemingly free from responsibility for the crimes of Hitlerism, speaks of the historical guilt of the German people. It's worth a lot.
For Russia, no matter how strange it may sound, the Great Patriotic War was not anti-fascist, it was a war for the Motherland against the occupiers. Fascism and its ideological roots were not exposed: after all, Stalin’s regime was in many ways similar to it. This is clearly seen in the example of the GDR, where, like in the USSR, these “vaccinations” were not done. It is no coincidence that the ultra-right in today's Germany almost all come from its eastern lands. I hope that solving Hitler's biggest secrets will bring us all at least one step closer to learning historical lessons.
The surname Hitler comes from the affectionate form of Gitl or the Gitleyidish feminine name Gita, which means “good, kind.” The Yiddish ending "-er" denotes belonging. Thus, Hitler means "son of Gitli".
Until the age of thirty-nine, Hitler's father Alois bore the surname Schicklgruber, his mother's surname. In the thirties, this fact was discovered by Viennese journalists, and to this day it is discussed on the pages of monographs about Nazi Germany and Hitler. The talented American historian and publicist William Shirer, who wrote the book “The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich,” semi-ironically assures that if Alois had not changed his surname Schicklgruber to Hitler, his son Adolf would not have had to become the Fuhrer, because unlike the surname Hitler, which in its sound reminiscent of “ancient Germanic sagas and Wagner”, the surname Schicklgruber is difficult to pronounce and even sounds somewhat humorous to the German ear.
“It is known,” writes Shirer, “that the words “Heil Hitler!” became an official greeting in Germany. Moreover, the Germans said “Heil Hitler!” literally at every turn. It is impossible to believe that they would endlessly shout “Heil Schicklgruber!”, “Heil Schicklgruber!”
Alois Schicklgruber, Adolf Hitler's father, was adopted by Georg Hiedler, the husband of his mother Maria Anna Schicklgruber. However, between the marriage of Maria Anna and the adoption of Alois, no less than thirty-four years passed. When forty-seven-year-old Maria Anna married Georg, she already had a five-year-old illegitimate son, Alois, the father of the future Nazi dictator. And neither George nor his wife thought of legitimizing the child at that time. Four years later, Maria Anna died, and Georg Hiedler left his native place.
Everything further is known to us in two versions. According to one, Georg Gidler returned to his hometown and, in the presence of a notary and three witnesses, declared that Alois Schicklgruber, the son of his late wife Anna Maria, was in fact his, Gidler’s, son. According to another, three relatives of Georg Gidler went to the notary for the same purpose. According to this version, Georg Hiedler himself had long been dead by that time. It is believed that the over-aged Alois wished to become “legal” because he expected to receive a small inheritance.
The surname “Hidler” was mistakenly distorted when recording, and thus the surname “Hitler” was born, which in Russian pronunciation was fixed as “Hitler”.
Alois Schicklgruber, aka Hitler, was married three times: the first time to a woman who was fourteen years older than him. The marriage was unsuccessful. Alois left for another woman, whom he married after the death of his first wife. But soon she died of tuberculosis. For the third time he married a certain Clara Pelzl, who was twenty-three years younger than her husband. In order to formalize this marriage, it was necessary to seek permission from the church authorities, since Clara Pelzl was obviously closely related to Alois. Be that as it may, Clara Pelzl became the mother of Adolf Hitler.
Adolf's father, Alois, died in 1903, aged 65. In 2012, at the request of one of his descendants, the grave of Adolf’s parents in the suburbs of Linz was liquidated and given over to other burials, under the pretext that it served as a place of pilgrimage for right-wing extremist circles.
Thus, Adolf Hitler was born 13 years after his father changed his surname, and from birth bore his real surname. This is the origin story of the name Hitler, which belonged to one of the most terrible fiends of hell, Amalek of the twentieth century.
 |
