Adolf Hitler in popular culture

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Adolf Hitler (20 April 1889–30 April 1945) was the Führer of the National Socialist German Workers' Party and of Nazi Germany from 1933 to 1945.

How Hitler was represented during his lifetime

Numerous works in popular music and literature feature Adolf Hitler prominently. Before and during World War II, Hitler was often depicted inside of Germany as a God-like figure who was loved and respected by the German people (e.g. Triumph of the Will, which Hitler co-produced), but outside of Germany often treated as an object of derision. Later works continued the latter trend. Examples include:

  • The movie Das Testament des Dr. Mabuse (The Testament of Dr. Mabuse) (1933) was banned by the Nazi propaganda ministry. Many critics consider Fritz Lang's depiction of a homicidal maniac masterminding a criminal empire from within the walls of a criminal asylum to be an allegory of the Nazi ascent to power in Germany.
  • An early example of a cryptic depiction is in Bertolt Brecht's 1941 play, The Resistible Rise of Arturo Ui, in which Hitler, in the persona of the principal character Arturo Ui, a Chicago racketeer in the cauliflower trade, is ruthlessly satirised.
  • Several Three Stooges shorts, the first being You Nazty Spy (1940) in which the boys are made dictators of the fictional country Moronica. This short in particular implies that business interests were behind Hitler's rise to power. It was also the first Hollywood production to satirize the Nazis. In other Three Stooges shorts, Hitler is referred to as "Schicklgruber" in reference to his father Alois Hitler's birth name.
  • Charlie Chaplin made fun of Hitler as "Adenoid Hynkel," the dictator of Tomania in his 1940 movie The Great Dictator.
  • In Ernst Lubitsch's 1942 movie To Be or Not to Be (as well as in Mel Brooks' remake in 1983), an actor from a Polish stage group imitates Hitler to enable the escape of the troupe to England
  • Hitler was caricatured in numerous animated shorts during World War II, including Der Fuehrer's Face, a 1943 Disney wartime propaganda cartoon featuring Donald Duck, and Herr Meets Hare with Bugs Bunny (though Hitler's first appearance on a Warner Brothers cartoon was in Bosko's Picture Show in 1932 in a short gag where Hitler is shown chasing after Jimmy Durante with an ax), both of which are not shown on television today due to political correctness (though Herr Meets Hare was shown on a ToonHeads special about WWII-era cartoons and Der Fuerher's Face is a part of the Wartime Collection of cartoons on a Disney DVD release).
  • One of the more unusual late works of Salvador Dalí was Hitler Masturbating (1973), depicting just that in the center of a desolate landscape. Dali also painted The Enigma of Hitler (1939) and Metamorphosis of the Face of Hitler into a Moonlit Landscape (1958).
  • George Grosz painted Cain, or Hitler in Hell (1944) showing the dead attacking Hitler in Hell.
  • The photomontage artist John Heartfield made frequent use of Hitler's image as a target for his brand of barbed satire during Hitler's lifetime.
  • In the opening scenes of Citizen Kane (1941), Charles Foster Kane is described and shown as supporting, then denouncing Hitler.
  • Several comic book superheroes battled Hitler directly or indirectly in comics published during World War II. Superheroes that combated Hitler include Superman, Captain America, The Shield, and Namor the Sub-Mariner. Captain America's archenemy, Red Skull, was established as being an apprentice to Hitler himself.
  • Mocking satirical folk songs such as "Stalin Wasn't Stallin'", or new lyrics to old songs, such as "Hitler Has Only Got One Ball" (to the tune of the "Colonel Bogey March").
  • Hitler has been known by many nicknames, including Awful Adolf and The Beast of Berlin.
  • Whenever Hitler is portrayed in an old or modern piece of movie or other media, artists prefer to let the caricature speak in an odd and over-toned way, to parody Hitler's infamous style of speech, in a language that is somewhat similar to German in sound, but nevertheless a random mixture of rubbish. Of course, this is easier than to think of correct German sentences and gives Hitler's character the aggressive and ridiculously shouting speech that wasn't even normal to the German people during his lifetime (see Charlie Chaplin's The Great Dictator).

Representations of Hitler after his death

After his death, Hitler continued to be depicted as incompetent or foolish. However, while Hitler's anti-Semitic policies were well known during his lifetime, it was only after his death that the full horrors of the Holocaust became known. This, coupled with Hitler no longer being a current threat, has meant that the way he is depicted in popular culture has changed since 1945 as a sinister and diabolical figure.

  • The film "The Bunker" starring Anthony Hopkins portrays Hitler's last days.
  • The 2002 film Max stars Noah Taylor as Hitler during his days as a failed artist in Vienna just after World War I. John Cusack plays the title character, Max Rothman, a Jewish art dealer who takes Hitler under his wing out of pity, only to find that the angry young loner is becoming dangerously popular as the rabidly anti-Semitic speaker for the emerging German Worker's Party (which later became the Nazi Party.)
  • Mexican comedian, Chespirito, played Hitler in the vein of Chaplin's The Great Dictator in an episode of El Chapulin Colorado.
  • In modern day popular culture Hitler is often mocked, especially in cartoon series such as "The Simpsons" and "Family Guy".

Fiction about Hitler's death

  • In the novel The Berkut, Hitler is revealed to have faked his own death after staging an elaborate deception making it appear as if he had Parkinson's disease and then having a double apparently commit suicide in his place. Hitler escapes from Berlin with the aid of an SS-colonel and is eventually tracked down by a Russian squad of secret agents. He is captured alive, taken to Moscow, and kept in a cage beneath the Kremlin for Stalin's amusement. Shortly after Stalin's death, Hitler is killed by the head of the squad which had captured him.
  • In the British science fiction show The Tomorrow People, Hitler is revealed to have been a shapeshifting alien who was frozen by cryonics at the end of World War II. He emerges in the 1970s and attempts to take control of the world through mind control of young people. An earlier episode of The Tomorrow People gave reference that Hitler was a time traveler, although this contradicted the information in the later episode which revealed him to be an alien.
  • The novel by Ira Levin, The Boys from Brazil, and the film of the same name, indicates that Hitler conspired with Josef Mengele to clone himself prior to his death. Using a liter of Hitler's blood, Mengele begins a project in the 1960s to clone several Hitlers and distribute the Hitler infants to families throughout the world. Mengele later attempts to recreate the sociological environment of Hitler's youth, beginning with killing the fathers of all the Hitler clones. Mengele's plan is to eventually create a second Hitler who will come of age in the 21st century and establish the Fourth Reich.

  • In Marvel Comics, Hitler didn't commit suicide. Rather, he was confronted by the Human Torch and his sidekick Toro after Eva Braun had committed suicide. The two heroes set Hitler ablaze as he attempted to set off a bomb. As he died, he commanded one of his loyal followers nearby to tell the world he had committed suicide. He would later reappear as the Hate-Monger (see below).

Hitler in fiction

Novels

  • The Doctor Who novel The Shadow in the Glass portrays a scenario where Eva Braun did not actually die in the bunker, but was smuggled out of the country due to her being pregnant with Hitler's child. Using alien technology that he believes to be a scrying glass powered by spirits, Hitler's son creates the Fourth Reich, intending to wage war on the world. However, he is confronted by the Sixth Doctor and Brigadier Lethbridge-Stewart, who uncovers the truth. He forces the Doctor to take him back in time to meet his father, but Hitler believes that his 'son' is simply a madman, and shoots him in the head.
  • In the Greg Isles novel Spandau Phoenix, Hitler's brain has been cryogenically preserved. His loyal followers, including Rudolf Hess (whose double may inhabit his cell in Spandau Prison), have plotted to implant the brain into a new host body.
  • In The Iron Dream, Hitler emigrates to America in 1919 and becomes a science fiction illustrator, editor and author.

Theatre

  • Japanese novelist Yukio Mishima wrote a play called My Friend Hitler (Tonari no Hitora), retelling the night of the long knives purge of Ernst Röhm and others in 1964.
  • The Hungarian writer George Tabori wrote a comedy called Mein Kampf which portrayed Hitler as a poor young man who enters Vienna, wanting to become an artist.
  • Hitler, The Struggling Artist as a stage play: First performed in Louisville, KY, USA. http://www.angelfire.com/planet/adolphplay. It depicts Adolf Hitler selling his wares and lecturing onlookers on the power of the arts. Portraying Hitler, actor Bill Breuer apparently created an astonishingly accurate look alike and vocal reproduction for this show.

Film

  • In the comedy movie The Fuhrer runs amok by Philippe Clair, Henri Tisot stars as Hitler who challenges other European countries in soccer matches.
  • In Hitler's Daughter (1990), it is revealed that the woman who is the runningmate for the man who is likely to be the next President of the United States, is in reality Hitler's illegitimate daughter. In one scene, she meets with her father (face never shown on screen) to discuss how the plan is progressing. This film is rooted in the theory that Hitler was not dead.
  • In Hitlar (1980) Hitler escaped Germany and settled in Pakistan where he had a son, Hitlar. [2]

Television

  • Heil Honey I'm Home! was a controversial 50s-styled sitcom about Hitler and Eva Braun living in suburbia. Eight episodes were produced, but only one, the pilot, was ever broadcast.
  • The Twilight Zone included Hitler on several occasions. Among the more prominent were:
    • In "He's Alive", Hitler tutors a neo-Nazi in rabble-rousing techniques.
    • In "The Man in the Bottle", a man who has been granted three wishes by a genie attempts to find a way to wish himself into a position of wealth and power a head of state who cannot be voted out of office, only to find he is Hitler and it is the end of World War II, with an SS officer handing him a bottle of cyanide "for you and Miss Braun". Shaking in horror, the man quickly withdraws the wish and restored to normal.
    • In a similar fashion, an episode of the 2002 Twilight Zone features a time traveler going back in time to kill Hitler as an infant. The time traveler kidnaps the Hitler baby and leaps from a bridge, killing herself and the baby. A horrified housekeeper, who had witnessed the murder of the baby Hitler, does not tell Hitler's parents but rather bribes a homeless Jewish woman to sell her baby. The baby is then returned to the Hitler household where he takes the place of the murdered infant, growing up to become the Hitler that the world knew.

Video games

  • The PC video game series Command & Conquer: Red Alert is based on an alternate reality in which world-renowned physicist Albert Einstein had traveled back in time and chronoshifted Hitler before his rise to power. The resulting power vacuum led to the Soviet Union invading Europe with Joseph Stalin assuming a role very similar to Hitler's. Ironically the General who gives the player's orders in the FMA is a German general.
  • In The NES version of Bionic Commando, the final boss is Hitler in the Japanese Famicom release as well as the US release. However in the US release, all references to Nazism were removed and Hitler's name was changed to Master-D, but still resembles Hitler.

Comics

Hitler in Music

  • The song "Crystal Night" by Masterplan tells the history of Crystal Night when the nazis destroyed many shops and commerce of Jews. The song calls Hitler a liar and a fool.
  • The song "Gotterdammerung" by Stratovarius tells the history of Hitler and his actions in Second World War. The song calls Hitler a monster that feed the guns.
  • The punk band the Angry Samoans have a song called "They Saved Hitler's Cock"
  • "Crack Hitler", a song from Faith No More's album Angel Dust.
  • "Quicksand" from the LP Hunky Dory by David Bowie is a song about a heat-broken Nazi after the death of Hitler. Bowie has also been quoted saying "Hitler was the first rock star" and, at one time, wanted to direct a film based on the life of Himmler.
  • "Hitler as Kalki" by apocalyptic folk band Current 93, which makes use of Savitri Devi's idea that Hitler was an avatar of the Hindu god Kalki.
  • "Heads We're Dancing" by Kate Bush tells the story of a woman who dances all night with a charming stranger, only to discover the following morning that he was Adolf Hitler.
  • "Two Little Hitlers" by Elvis Costello, a song about a loveless couple, on the album Armed Forces.
  • "Jesus Hitler" by thrash band Carnivore. The song tells of a nun who conceived and birthed a child as a product of a rape by a Nazi. The song poses the question, if the child were religiously important, would he be The Second Coming of Jesus, or The Anti-Christ?
  • American pop punk band The Mr. T Experience recorded a song called "Even Hitler Had A Girlfriend".
  • The Grindcore band Anal Cunt have a song titled "Hitler was a Sensitive Man".
  • The band GWAR has a character in one of their skits called "Jitler," a portmanteau of both Jesus and Hitler.
  • The song Defecate On My Face by the Australian band TISM is about Hitler's fictional excrement fetish. The video clip for this song features footage of Hitler and the German Army.
  • The band Atomic Raygun Attack have a song called "Wronger Than Hitler"
  • Punk band The Vandals have an album called Hitler Bad, Vandals Good
  • Colombian death thrash metal band, Neurosis Inc have a song called Third Reich, whose lyrics talk about Hitler's life.
  • in the Monty Python song "Henry Kissinger" sung by Eric Idle, he praises Henry Kissinger for having " nicer legs than Hitler, and bigger tits than Cher"
  • Neo-Nazi band Skrewdriver have various songs praising Adolf Hitler and what he fought for, most notably the song titled "Adolf Hitler"
  • The Boomtown Rats have song called "(I Never Loved) Eva Braun"

Other

  • Forged journals of Hitler, known as the Hitler Diaries, were published in Germany by the magazine Stern in 1983.
  • Alvin Rosenfeld - Imagining Hitler (Bloomington: Indiana UP, 1985)
  • In an episode of Hey Arnold, Grandpa Phil tells Arnold and his friends his experience in World War II. Known to be senile and embellish the truth, he said he fought Hitler and won. Oddly enough it turns out that at least part of his story is true as he has a memorial (albeit in terrible condition) in Washington D.C.
  • The Goodies episode "War Babies", set in World War II features Winston Churchill who it turns out actually resembles Adolf Hitler. Tim Brooke-Taylor is hired by the wartime Prime Minister to be a stand-in so nobody realises what he really looks like.
  • The 2004 German film Der Untergang (English title: Downfall) was severely criticized by many people (though the critics generally enjoyed it) for depicting Hitler as a frail and war-ravaged human being with very strong feelings, with many complaining that Hitler and the upper-echelon of the Nazi hierarchy were depicted in a slightly sympathetic light in many scenes.
  • "Adolph Hitler" was the name of Linda Lovelace's cat.
  • In the Justice League cartoon, he is removed from office as Führer and replaced with Vandal Savage. He is reappointed after Savage is defeated.
  • In Hellboy, he derives immortality and power from the legendary Spear of destiny.
  • Third Reich & Roll is a 1976 album by the U.S. avant-garde pop group The Residents.
  • A feline version of Hitler appears on posters in the comic strip Maus.
  • In the 2001 comedy Rat Race, a Jewish family (led by Jon Lovitz) visits a Klaus Barbie museum (believing it is about the the doll). After their car is sabotaged, the family escapes in Hitler's Mercedes-Benz, which is eventually damaged by an angry biker gang.
  • In Robot Chicken, a boy, who didn't believe in heaven dies and goes to heaven, sees Hitler who is surprised to be there.
  • In a satirical routine on one edition of The Daily Show, Stephen Colbert tells Jon Stewart his name is actually Ted Hitler, and that Adolf Hitler is his grandfather.
  • In an episode of Andy Richter Controls the Universe, Andy feared that the sandwich delivery guy was Hitler.
Jessica: "Remember that time you thought you figured out the identity of the sandwich guy?"
Andy: "HITLER!"
Jessica: "Andy, for God's sake, the man would be 106 yrs old!!"
Flashback to Andy accosting the sandwich guy.
  • Patrick Zala in Gundam Seed also shares a Hitler-like personality as he proclaims that coordinators are the new race. He had also planned to use genocide against his enemies.
  • In the science fiction comic Slot Barr from Ricardo Barreiro and Francisco Solano López, Slot the protagonist found an old space capsule, inside this capsule he finds a cyborg who has been traveling the universe for a few thousands of years, he discovers that this cyborg is really Hitler, who at the end of the World War II transplanted his brain into a robotic body, also Hitler has developed psychic powers, now being capable of reading thoughts, and inflict pain with only wishing, at the end Slot tricks Hitler and kills him.
  • The website CatsThatLookLikeHitler.com features pictures of cute felines that bear an uncanny resemblance to the German leader.
  • In the Harajuku section of Tokyo, Harajuku Girls and boys often dress in Nazi uniforms and use Hitler's hairstyle.
  • Warner Bros. produced wartime cartoons which constantly parodied Hitler and his personality traits and quirks. Most (if not all) cartoons with Hitler and the Nazis as the antagonists ended up with the American hero cartoon character (such as Bugs Bunny or Daffy Duck making a mockery out of Hitler and his people.
  • A parody of Loituma Girl having a short loop of Hitler dancing has circulated the internet, viewable here.
  • Godwin's Law states that "As an online discussion grows longer, the probability of a comparison involving Nazis or Hitler approaches one."
  • In the BBC comedy Bottom one of the main characters was named "Edward Elizabeth Hitler". When asked if he was any relation to Adolf Hitler, Eddie replied on one occasion that Adolf Hitler had been his mother. In another episode, a man jokingly asks, "Any relation?" and Eddie grins manically and replies, "Yes". He also remarks, while hitting himself over the head with a glass, that "If it's stupidity you're after, there's no-one stupider than the Hitlers".
  • Hitler's hair style similarities to the Emo stereotype have been used in many internet memes
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