I realize that this question shows that I have far too much free time, but me and my pal Action Roberts are wondering about nicknames of despots and dictators. Did Hitler have a nickname? Like “Hits” or something that his pals called him during Tuesday night poker? Stalin got “Uncle Joe” from the English speakers, but did he have a name like “lefty” or “dutch” (ok, probably not “dutch”) among his own folk? Rather an odd question, but everyone I know has, at some point in his or her life, and no matter how temporarily, picked up a nickname, so what about the big fellas in, say, the Nazi game?
Apparently Hitler’s nickname was “Wolf”.
He was also refered to as The Fuhrer but that is more of a title than a nickname.
Field Marshal General Erwin Rommel was known as “The Desert Fox”.
A bit of googling “nazi nickname” turns up these gems:
SS Captain Klaus Barbie earned the nickname “Butcher of Lyon”.
Ante Pavelic was the original 'Butcher of the Balkans."
Christian Wirth, a notorious brute with the nickname ‘the savage Christian.’
Hans Frank earned the nickname the “Jew Butcher of Cracow.”
General Reinhard Heydrich was known as “The Hangman”.
I once heard that Hitler had the nickname of “Killjoy”. I wonder why…
“Aldi” was a childhod nickname.
It is mentioned someplace in (Chapter 10) of Smith’s The Dark Summer, not the most authoritative source, I know.
From “Top 59 Mistakes Made by Adolf Hitler” :
- Changed name from highly catchy ‘Schickelgruber’ to boring ‘Hitler’
so it looks like Hitler is a nickname
Well, “Stalin”. His real name was Josef Djugashvili, after all, Stalin being a nickname. He also had his earlier activist nick, Koba.
For some reason, Finns often (ironically) call Stalin “Isä Aurinkoinen” (“Father Sunny”).
No. Here’s what happened. Adolf Hitler’s grandmother had the last name Schickelgruber. She fell in love with this guy named Johann Heidler, who was this Czech German, and she had a baby out of wedlock with him (probably, anyway. The identity of the baby’s father is sort of in doubt), who she named Alois Schicklelgruber. Then, she and Heidler got married. When Alois Schickelgruber grew up, he changed his last name from Schickelgruber to Hitler, which is a variant of the name Heidler. Alois then would go on to father Adolf So, Adolf Hitler was always named Adolf Hitler. It was Alois who changed his name.
Wasnt it “Hiedler”, not “Heidler”?
The pronunciation would be much closer to “Hitler”.
I think in those days spelling wasnt quite so strict, anyway.
At least not like today! 
Wasnt it “Hiedler”, not “Heidler”?
The pronunciation would be much closer to “Hitler”.
Upon searching, it seems our esteemed leader concurs:
http://www.straightdope.com/classics/a3_325b.html
RK
I was reading in some old 1940 era magazines that Stalin’s acquaintences (I hesitate to say friends) called him “The Boss” or just “Boss”.
Back to the OP though (sort of) - It does make one wonder how history would have been different if while Hitler was a struggling artist someone would have given him the nickname of “Skippy”.
I think that Germans pronounce the second vowel of the “i and e” combination. So “Hiedler” would be “Heedlehr” and “Heidler” would be “Heyedlehr.” Take your pick.
“Skippy” Hitler? Well, it would have been a different world. Didn’t know Stalin was “the Boss”. Springsteen would be so proud. That’s why I started this thread, for info like that. But I meant nicknames among friends. I can’t picture Hans Frank’s friends saying “Hey, let’s have a party, we’ll invite Schultz, and Schmidt, and the Jew butcher of Cracow…”
What about Pol Pot?
It’s not exactly a nickname, but his staff took to referring to him privately as “Der Teppenfrescher”, or “the carpet chewer”. Apparently when he got really, really mad he would fall to the floor and gnaw on the rug.
I cannot recall where but I have heard Hitler called “the little corporal”
On Stalin
“Born Jospeh Djungashvilli, Aka Ryaboi or ‘Pockmark’, aka Koba, aka Zakhar Melinkyants, aka Nisharadze, aka Joseph Stalin.”*
If I remember correctly Stalin means “steel” in russian.
Oh and for a side note Lenin’s wife was nicknamed ‘the fish’
- found on page 55 THE RUSSIAN CENTURY copywright 1994 UK* found on page 55 THE RUSSIAN CENTURY copywright 1994 UK
I don’t even wanna know…
Spit-look up a picture of Nadezha Krupskaya (AKA Mrs. Lenin), and you’ll see why.
Don’t forget Mussolini was “Il Duce” . What was up with that?
Ach, dear old Dolfy! What a character he was! What times we had together in Vienna, him and I! The madcap schemes he would come up with over the strudels! For some reason, I know not why, he hated shoes, he would often insist that shoes were a menace to the world, that we must rid ourselves of the shoes. I forbore to point out that, despite his arguments, he himself always wore them! Still, what a card! I wonder what became of him?
I believe that’s a UL. I’ve read that what was actually reported was that Hitler was “carpet pacer” not “carpet chewer” (apparently the two terms are almost identical in the original German). For propaganda reasons, the mistranslated version was spread. Hitler may have been nuts but he was no rug-muncher.
Yes, and one of Stalin’s top henchmen was Molotov whose name means “Hammer”. So you had “Steel Man” and his trusty sidekick “The Hammer” - mild-mannered Bolsheviks by day, Proletariot Heroes of the Masses by Night.
Well, my Italian is almost non-existent, but I believe it’s Italian for “The Leader.” In other words, same meaning and fascist symbolism as “Der Fürher.”
It’s derived from the same Latin roots as “duke.” “Dux” and “ducis” originally meant a war-leader, from whence it became a feudal title of nobility.