# German speakers..did hitler sound like Arnold Schwarzenegger?

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/german-speakers-did-hitler-sound-like-arnold-schwarzenegger/592612>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [August 13, 2011, 9:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/german-speakers-did-hitler-sound-like-arnold-schwarzenegger/592612 "2011-08-13T21:45:03Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 2\
**Page:** 2

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**Author:** ![Raguleader](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/258eb7/32.png) [@Raguleader](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Raguleader)\
**Post date:** [August 14, 2011, 2:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/german-speakers-did-hitler-sound-like-arnold-schwarzenegger/592612/21 "2011-08-14T14:02:57Z")

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If you know what to look for, a lot of the time there are little “tells” that give you a big clue to general accents, even if you otherwise can’t pick them apart (for Austrian, I guess there is the “Hillbilly twang” that others mentioned).

To me, Hitler in the Mannerheim recording just sounds like… well… Hitler. If you ever got him to calm down and have a polite conversation, as opposed to the cartoonish caricature we all know and love of Hitler having private conversations like he’s addressing all of Germany from a podium. For all I know though, this might have simply been the only time anybody ever got Hitler to calm down for a conversation. 😃

EDIT: Mind you, I don’t know German accents, or even much German aside from a few key useful words like “Panzerschwein.” I just have a general idea of what German sounds like to my ear For all I know, Hitler in this recording and Podium Madly Gesturing Hitler could be as close-sounding in German as Jeremy Clarkson and Slim Pickens in English.

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**Author:** ![LSLGuy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lslguy/32/5813_2.png) [@LSLGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LSLGuy)\
**Post date:** [August 14, 2011, 2:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/german-speakers-did-hitler-sound-like-arnold-schwarzenegger/592612/22 "2011-08-14T14:29:54Z")

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> [@Quintas](#):
>
> And yet another question in case a german speaker happens along… When a native english speaker is speaking german, can germans differentiate between a brit speaking german vs an american? Or are the the differences between british accents and american lost and just kind of blends into an ‘anglo speaking german’ accent?

We discussed this very topic at length in the last year or so.

A quick Google for [site:boards.straightdope.com english french german accent australian] turns up several intersting threads. This one  
[How American accents are viewed in other languages - Factual Questions - Straight Dope Message Board](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=565690) drives into your question.

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