# Did Hitler Do ANYTHING Beneficial? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [November 9, 2009, 5:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-hitler-do-anything-beneficial/516918 "2009-11-09T17:47:20Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Quasimodem](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/q/e274bd/32.png) [@Quasimodem](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Quasimodem)\ **Post date:** [November 9, 2009, 8:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-hitler-do-anything-beneficial/516918/21 "2009-11-09T20:38:12Z")
Especially the one about the Autobahn. I was always under the impression that it was built _solely_ for WWII military arms transport. Also the Von Braun reference: No doubt he helped us with the “Space Race”, but I was never completely convinced that he didn’t have a “shady” past. In regard to the atrocious medical experiments, I am glad many of the results were discounted. No human being should have to undergo this kind of torture for the sake of “medical research”. The kind of information presented in this thread makes me wonder about the accuracy of The History Channel. Thanks Q ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [November 9, 2009, 9:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-hitler-do-anything-beneficial/516918/22 "2009-11-09T21:22:11Z")
> [@](#): > > Also the Von Braun reference: No doubt he helped us with the “Space Race”, but I was never completely convinced that he didn’t have a “shady” past. I don’t think there’s actually any controversy about von Braun: He was willing to work with and for any government that would fund his research. He probably didn’t share the more reprehensible Nazi views, but he didn’t object to them, either. Sort of a mercenary scientist. ---
**Author:** ![pravnik](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/8edcca/32.png) [@pravnik](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pravnik)\ **Post date:** [November 9, 2009, 10:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-hitler-do-anything-beneficial/516918/23 "2009-11-09T22:27:29Z")
> [@Chronos](#): > > I don’t think there’s actually any controversy about von Braun: He was willing to work with and for any government that would fund his research. He probably didn’t share the more reprehensible Nazi views, but he didn’t object to them, either. Sort of a mercenary scientist. [Gather round while I sing you of Wernher von Braun!](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QEJ9HrZq7Ro) ---
**Author:** ![Beware\_of\_Doug](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/278dde/32.png) [@Beware\_of\_Doug](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Beware_of_Doug)\ **Post date:** [November 9, 2009, 10:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-hitler-do-anything-beneficial/516918/24 "2009-11-09T22:42:02Z")
> [@friedo](#): > > Yep. Although Nazi philosophy had this bizarre obsession with manual labor. Huge portions of the Autobahn were literally built by hand by thousands of laborers working in mobile camps, where they could have probably been done a lot faster if they bought a few backhoes and cement mixers. Those labor corps of the early-to-mid '30s - complete with snappy uniforms and mass appearances at the Party Congresses - were a crucial element in cementing the people’s loyalty. Hitler promised [Arbeit und Brot](http://beck.library.emory.edu/greatwar/postcard-images/realsize/drum_liste.jpg), and at first, anyway, people got work and bread who had had neither. ---
**Author:** ![Bosda\_Di\_Chi\_of\_Tricor](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bosda_di_chi_of_tricor/32/16845_2.png) [@Bosda\_Di\_Chi\_of\_Tricor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bosda_Di_Chi_of_Tricor)\ **Post date:** [November 9, 2009, 10:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-hitler-do-anything-beneficial/516918/25 "2009-11-09T22:45:13Z")
> [@](#): > > Did Hitler Do ANYTHING Beneficial? Sure. In the bunker. With a poison pill, & a pistol. Better late than never. ---
**Author:** ![Add99](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/977dab/32.png) [@Add99](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Add99)\ **Post date:** [November 9, 2009, 11:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-hitler-do-anything-beneficial/516918/26 "2009-11-09T23:12:45Z")
Mad STYLE. Perhaps not Hitler’s personal effort, but approved I’m sure. Those SS uniforms just scream death! When you add the skulls and runic symbols, not to mention those awesome boots and armbands I just want to run and hide lemme tellya. The best outfit mankind ever made. Plus Hitler ruined that stupid mustache for all time. Bonus points. ---
**Author:** ![Larry\_Borgia](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/larry_borgia/32/156_2.png) [@Larry\_Borgia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Larry_Borgia)\ **Post date:** [November 9, 2009, 11:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-hitler-do-anything-beneficial/516918/27 "2009-11-09T23:16:29Z")
There’s a book out by Robert Proctor called _The Nazi War on Cancer_. Apparently the Nazi’s were interested in public health, and were among the first people to link smoking with cancer, and campaigned to get parents to stop giving babies beer. ---
**Author:** ![Dog80](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/6bbea6/32.png) [@Dog80](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dog80)\ **Post date:** [November 9, 2009, 11:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-hitler-do-anything-beneficial/516918/28 "2009-11-09T23:37:18Z")
About the Volkswagen Beetle: [Tatra 97 - Wikipedia](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tatra_T97) > [@](#): > > It is believed that Porsche used Tatra’s designs since he was under huge pressure to design the Volkswagen quickly and cheaply[citation needed]. According to the book Car Wars, Adolf Hitler called the Tatra ‘the kind of car I want for my highways’.[2] Ferdinand Porsche later admitted ‘to have looked over Ledwinka’s shoulders’ while designing the Volkswagen.[3] > Tatra sued Porsche for damages, and Porsche was willing to settle. However, Hitler canceled this, saying ‘he would settle the matter.’ [4] When Czechoslovakia was invaded by the Nazis, the production of the T97 was immediately halted, and the lawsuit dropped. After the war, Tatra reopened the lawsuit against Volkswagen. In 1961, the matter was settled when Volkswagen paid Tatra 3,000,000 Deutsche Mark in compensation. ---
**Author:** ![Tim\_T-Bonham.net](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/46a35a/32.png) [@Tim\_T-Bonham.net](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tim_T-Bonham.net)\ **Post date:** [November 10, 2009, 12:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-hitler-do-anything-beneficial/516918/29 "2009-11-10T00:11:52Z")
> [@Markxxx](#): > > The medical data the Nazis did was so poorly recorded and researched that it isn’t worth much. This has gone down as “people don’t want to use it 'cause of the unethical way it was done,” but it was simplistic and poor quality and outdated even by the 50s. There’s also the fact that the physical condition of the subjects of these experiments was pretty bad to start with. It’s hard to draw reliable scientific conditions about the results when they started with people who were already sick, half starved, short on sleep, etc. ---
**Author:** ![YogSothoth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/y/8edcca/32.png) [@YogSothoth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/YogSothoth)\ **Post date:** [November 10, 2009, 12:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-hitler-do-anything-beneficial/516918/30 "2009-11-10T00:14:30Z")
Semi-serious response: Hitler and Nazis are responsible for 60+ years of movie villains and probably inspired countless great literature and video games. The immortality of the Third Reich that they could not obtain in real life has been granted tenfold in fiction. It will be a long time before any one group or person approaches Hitler and the Nazi’s as examples of the epitome of pure evil ---
**Author:** ![Quasimodem](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/q/e274bd/32.png) [@Quasimodem](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Quasimodem)\ **Post date:** [November 10, 2009, 12:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-hitler-do-anything-beneficial/516918/31 "2009-11-10T00:23:17Z")
> [@Add99](#): > > Plus Hitler ruined that stupid mustache for all time. Bonus points. . :D:D:D Other than Chaplin and that guy in Sparks, I don’t remember anyone famous who’s ever sported it, and it’s completely wrong if your mouth looks like it is always in a frown. Q ---
**Author:** ![Loopus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/loopus/32/15343_2.png) [@Loopus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Loopus)\ **Post date:** [November 10, 2009, 12:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-hitler-do-anything-beneficial/516918/32 "2009-11-10T00:40:21Z")
The SDSTAFF’s [Was Hitler a Christian?](http://www.straightdope.com/columns/read/1699/was-hitler-a-christian) mentions as an aside that Hitler “recommended that parents give their children milk to drink instead of beer and started the first anti-smoking campaign.” ---
**Author:** ![Captain\_Amazing](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/6de8d8/32.png) [@Captain\_Amazing](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Captain_Amazing)\ **Post date:** [November 10, 2009, 12:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-hitler-do-anything-beneficial/516918/33 "2009-11-10T00:52:28Z")
> [@Quasimodem](#): > > . > Other than Chaplin and that guy in Sparks, I don’t remember anyone famous who’s ever sported it, and it’s completely wrong if your mouth looks like it is always in a frown. [Yitzhak Shamir](http://www.havelshouseofhistory.com/Shamir,%20Yitzhak.jpg), the Israeli prime minister. [Max Fleischer](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:MaxFleischerPDUS.JPG), the guy who did the Betty Boop and Popeye cartoons. [Oliver Hardy](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:OliverHardycheeks.gif), of Laurel and Hardy fame. [Sayyid Qutb](http://chromatism.net/current/images/qutb1.jpg), founder of the modern Islamicist movement. [Robert Mugabe](http://www.topnews.in/files/robert-mugabe-2.jpg), dictator of Zimbabwe, who takes a toothbrush mustache to a ridiculous extreme. [Prince Konoye,](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Fumimaro_Konoe_6.jpg) one of the Prime Ministers of Japan during World War II. [J. Jonah Jamison,](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/a/a7/Jjonahjameson.jpg) hot tempered Daily Bugle editor and Spiderman nemesis. ---
**Author:** ![Kozmik](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/8dc957/32.png) [@Kozmik](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kozmik)\ **Post date:** [November 10, 2009, 1:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-hitler-do-anything-beneficial/516918/34 "2009-11-10T01:18:12Z")
According to the 32 volumes of _Encyclopaedia Britannica_, no. Volume 20, Article “Hitler”: > [@](#): > > The power that he wielded was unprecedented, both in its scope and in the technical resources at its command; but he made no permanent contribution, moral or material, to mankind ---
**Author:** ![furryman](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/furryman/32/99_2.png) [@furryman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/furryman)\ **Post date:** [November 10, 2009, 1:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-hitler-do-anything-beneficial/516918/35 "2009-11-10T01:37:14Z")
I don’t have a cite but I read somewhere once that Hitler helped pass the first Anti-Vivisection law. ---
**Author:** ![CalMeacham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calmeacham/32/35_2.png) [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)\ **Post date:** [November 10, 2009, 2:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-hitler-do-anything-beneficial/516918/36 "2009-11-10T02:23:26Z")
Regarding the moustache: [quote] > [@](#): > > The one good thing Hitler did was to put the stink on the OCS “Toothbrush” > > – Milt Caniff (cartoonist of “Steve Canyon”, “Terry and the Pirates”, and “Male Call”, where this quote comes from) > [\quote] ---
**Author:** ![Lemur866](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lemur866/32/434_2.png) [@Lemur866](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lemur866)\ **Post date:** [November 10, 2009, 2:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-hitler-do-anything-beneficial/516918/37 "2009-11-10T02:36:16Z")
Hitler created some passable to pretty good watercolor paintings. So that was kind of nice. ---
**Author:** ![Tim\_T-Bonham.net](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/46a35a/32.png) [@Tim\_T-Bonham.net](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tim_T-Bonham.net)\ **Post date:** [November 10, 2009, 3:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-hitler-do-anything-beneficial/516918/38 "2009-11-10T03:44:03Z")
> [@Loopus](#): > > The SDSTAFF’s [Was Hitler a Christian?](http://www.straightdope.com/columns/read/1699/was-hitler-a-christian) mentions as an aside that Hitler “recommended that parents give their children milk to drink instead of beer and started the first anti-smoking campaign.” Hardly the first! James I of England in 1604 wrote _A Counter Blaste to Tobacco_, which surely earlier than Hitler. ---
**Author:** ![Beware\_of\_Doug](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/278dde/32.png) [@Beware\_of\_Doug](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Beware_of_Doug)\ **Post date:** [November 10, 2009, 4:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-hitler-do-anything-beneficial/516918/39 "2009-11-10T04:15:24Z")
Hitler’s rep as a teetotaler wasn’t total. He occasionally took a bit of lager with his meals, because it aided his (famously tetchy) digestion. ---
**Author:** ![yendis](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/y/ed8c4c/32.png) [@yendis](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/yendis)\ **Post date:** [November 10, 2009, 10:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-hitler-do-anything-beneficial/516918/40 "2009-11-10T10:50:08Z")
> [@Add99](#): > > Mad STYLE. > > Perhaps not Hitler’s personal effort, but approved I’m sure. > Those SS uniforms just scream death! When you add the skulls and runic symbols, not to mention those awesome boots and armbands I just want to run and hide lemme tellya. The best outfit mankind ever made. > > Plus Hitler ruined that stupid mustache for all time. Bonus points. The SS ruined the deaths head ([totenkopf](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Totenkopf)) as a unit insignia. Now it is seen as being a symbol of the Nazis and its Hussar heritage gets ignored. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-hitler-do-anything-beneficial/516918.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-hitler-do-anything-beneficial/516918.md?page=3)